StartupNation Blogs

Labor Day weekend is coming, which means the in-laws are coming–or as I like to call them the out-laws.
My hubby’s parents are great people, but after I quit work to devote time to my business, I sensed they harbor a little bit of doubt in my project. (Little bit: as in, the Grand Canyon is a [...]

I’ve been appearing here and there on The Big Idea with Donny recently. Thought you might get a kick out of how the show comes together and the role of so-called experts (yours truly included) who are invited on the show.
Below are the emailed questions I received from the producers in advance of my most [...]

I hate to see summer go. Why?
The hot days? Nah. The ample sunshine? Uh-huh. The carefree days? Get real.
I miss the presence of my free (sorta free) labor source: my children. During the summer, you’ll find my kids stuffing envelopes, stacking boxes, and even helping me with their computer-savviness. As you’ll recall, I have none.
While [...]

I have a rule: the number of things you have to do will increase in an exponential proportion to the number of gadgets, whizmos, and whatchee-macallits you own. The corollary, no matter how many gadgets, whizmos, and whatchee-macallits you have, none of them will ever synch up together.
I used to keep mental notes. Then I [...]

Don’t get me wrong. I love to network. I love to go do the face-to-face with clients and customers. I love beatin’ the streets, hittin’ the pavement, knockin’ on doors, etc.
But, when it comes to all these social networks, I’m hopelessly, helplessly lost. Just about every day, I have a friend… or a customer… or [...]

It’s amazing where–and from whom–you pick up lessons about running your own business.
I found one today just by watching our dog, Beauregard. Since entrepreneurs normally love what they do, they may find it hard to charge other people for their abilities and services.
Our dog has no problem with that. Beau believes everything is a treatable [...]

I woke up this morning–and “woke” is a very relative term–to find a nice present from our dog on the living room floor, a leaking refrigerator, hungry children, and a husband who perpetually can’t find his socks.
My main urge was not to start working on my business, my intent was to crawl back in bed [...]

Kids pick up things–not, like, their clothes or anything useful. But they do pick up attitudes and conversations. And then they use them against you.
Take my kids, for example.
Since my foray into the entrepreneurial world, the excuses I get from my kids have totally morphed into start-up business speak and buzz words. Last week, I [...]

I remember very clearly my first trip to the principal’s office.   I was in the second grade and in trouble for “stealing other kid’s lunch money”.   As much as it sounds like the calling card of a bully, I can assure you it was nothing like that.   It was the early 80’s and jelly bracelets [...]

When you are a startup company you learn pretty quickly that your technology infrastructure is based on compromise. There are many aspects of your company that you simply will not consider accepting anything less than exemplary. Your customer service, attention to detail, daily planning, product performance - these all must be super great in order [...]