Taking care of your Governance team

Obviously you can offer some of your equity as an investment. If you have to negotiate details of exactly what any equity investors will get, there s time to do that later. Take them to lunch every two months. For example, a businessperson who once failed in pursuing a particular market or client might fear pursuing that market or client again; a decision tree can help show if such fears are reasonable.

Armchair research does not count

In these hard times customers not only do not expect ostentation, they do not want it. Adobe gives away its Reader software but charges for its Acrobat program that makes screen readable documents. They also make more money than their competitors. You currently try to let your people do their best, but you don't have a process in place to show them what you want, train them to do it properly, follow up, and make them accountable.

Be Humble

How do you and your company match up? Join organizations where your customers hang out and will see your involvement. Give them an incentive to refer you. Compounding the problem for the organization is that the department no longer has its best researcher making discoveries on the bench.

Is success a matter of buying low or selling high?

A rookie mistake is to make assumptions. Stock prices and stock market performance can fluctuate due to many factors, including macro-economic phenomena, interest rates, investor speculation, company performance, political events, and dividend payments. Try writing a personal essay on your business goals. There are only two times when you need to market and sell: when you need more business and when you don't!

Don?t spend money on Purchasing before you?ve made it

So you need to choose a product or service which people instantly 'get', otherwise it is going to be an uphill ' and expensive ' battle. When you don't have company standards and systems, you rely on each person to do things the way he or she thinks is best. Today, it is different. And many of them share certain objectives as well, such as raising money or persuading a partner to join the firm.