Myth 7: Community, Community, Community
Think you need a chat room on your Web site to be successful? Here's how Paramount Services realized that not every Internet business begets a cult. Read more
Start-up
Recent Start-up Articles
What Business Is Amazon.com Really In?
With more than $550 million in losses over the past five years, how can Amazon.com seriously expect to become a viable retail business? Inc. offers ... Read more
Making Friends: The Name of the Angel Game
I am on the advisory board of a company that is creating a very interesting software product. As an Internet-based product, it's in a white-hot market spa... Read more
Do Sole Proprietors Need an Employee Identification Number?
Q: I'm starting a business as a sole proprietor. I don't plan to have any employees. Do I need an employee identification number, or can... Read more
Get a Local Look at Your Competition
The Internet has made information gathering simple and easy, but sometimes the best information is found much closer to home, with real people, in real ti... Read more
From My Kitchen Tabletop to Your Computer Laptop
When I founded Lillian Vernon Corp. on my yellow Formica kitchen table in 1951, I couldn't have imagined selling to customers linked by little boxes calle... Read more
Attract Angels of Support
A growing number of universities are willing to "preseed," or invest in companies in their most infant stages. Here's an example of someone who was touche... Read more
Planning for Customers by the Numbers
As an essential first step to writing a business plan, you should have a good idea of how many potential customers there are. Most business plans c... Read more
Perfect Run or Avalanche? An Ultimate Ski Dilemma
Ultimate Ski Expeditions provided just what the name implied: an opportunity for top-notch skiers to have the run of their lifetime. The company took grou... Read more
Work on Being "Just in time"
"Just-in-time management" is an industry phrase that means manufacturing products as you need them. In lieu of stocking huge inventories of raw materials,... Read more
Inspire People to Talk about You
Referrals from satisfied customers are fuel to your business's engine. Yet statistics show that the average satisfied customer tells only five other peopl... Read more
Getting It Right
It's easy to fall in love with a business idea. But the fact is, few successful companies end up with the same concept they began with. CEO Norm Brodsky disc... Read more
Learning Organizations Produce Leaders
While a company should some kind of succession planning process, "the bigger issue is whether thecompany is committed to being a learning organization," s... Read more
You Are Your URL
To do business on the Web, you'll want to choose a great domain name. Unfortunately, that may not be as easy as you think. Many entrepreneurs have run int... Read more
Upstarts: Convenience Cuisine
Not sure where your next meal is coming from? Try the Web. A look at why several Internet start-ups are hoping online shoppers will turn to the Web to satisf... Read more
The Start-Up Diaries: Mother Is the Necessity of Invention
To create his company, edu.com founder Adam Kanner needed to get the highest-powered talent he could get. And he knew just where to find it. Read more
The Start-Up Diaries: Plan B-Minus
Application Technologies' founder Johann Verheem is staking his future on a plan that didn't quite make the grade in business school. Read more
The Start-Up Diaries: Three Women and a Kiosk
The founders of 10 Minute Manicure dreamed up the business in just one hour by the pool. Their idea of offering fast manicures in airport kiosks is a simple ... Read more
The Start-Up Diaries: The Player
Why would Richie Powell, a college student and talented athlete, ditch the sport he's worked his whole life to master? For the dream of an Internet start-up ... Read more
The New-Boy Network
Inc. goes behind the scenes at Guru.com as it attempts to raise capital in the fast-paced world of Internet financing. Here's why whom you know is j... Read more
Milking Customer Loyalty
To establish contact with its customers, Stonyfield Farm stamps "Let us hear from you" on the back of its yogurt cartons. Stonyfield also communicates to ... Read more
10 Common Mistakes of Prospective Franchisees
1. Not reading, understanding or asking questions about the disclosure document. These documents are typically long, sometimes 80 pages, ... Read more
Keeping a Start-Up Simple
Once you're ready to launch, how can you make sure you start out on the right foot? In this excerpt from How to Really Start Your Own Business, e... Read more
Personnel and Business Plans: Making the Most of Your Management Team
Summarize Your Management Chapter Like the other chapters, the management chapter starts with a good summary. You may want to use ... Read more
Risky Business
A new way of thinking about the nature of compensation between businesses is promising to transform the relationship between service providers and their c... Read more
Develop a Smart Shopper's Mentality
Did you know that less is more? It's a smart shopper's cornerstone: The less money you waste, the more you haveto build your business, to make investments... Read more
The Fine Art of Writing a Business Plan
Bankers and investors are quick to complain that most business plans they get from hopeful entrepreneurs aren't worth the paper they're written on. Too ma... Read more
Copyrights in Cyberspace
While browsing through on an electronic bulletin board, you come across an interesting article on dog training. Thinking it might be of interest to the me... Read more
How to Write a Marketing Analysis
After you find out about your market for a business plan, you also want to communicate that knowledge to the readers of your plan. Keep your explanations ... Read more
Segment the Target Market in Your Business Plan
The market segmentation concept is crucial to market assessment and market strategy. Divide the market into workable market segments -- age, income, produ... Read more
Anatomy of a Start-Up, Part 1: The Climb Begins
In mid-October Richard L. Thompson, 44, and Lawrence G. Braitman, 40, co-founders of Flycast Communications, a Web-based advertising firm, flew from San F... Read more
" In the Old Days..." : Michael Bloomberg on E-Commerce
Anyone who has read Michael Bloomberg's autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg , will know that Bloomberg, founder and CEO of Read more
