Define Your Business Model Archives

Ready to Choose Your Business Structure? Entity Formations and Which One is Right for You

Incorporating is generally one of the best things a business can do to set itself up for success. However, entrepreneurs new to the process might feel overwhelmed by the options when it comes to business...

byMyCorporation

February 20, 2019

Why You Should Make Your Startup Better Instead of Bigger

In their dogged pursuit of growth, some startups wind up growing too fast and burning out their employees or founders. Writer and designer Paul Jarvis takes a contrarian approach to business success in his new...

bySusan Johnston Taylor

January 21, 2019

4 Steps for Creating Lasting Entrepreneurial Success

In today’s technological day and age, as long as you have a device that can connect to the internet, theoretically, it’s fairly easy to start a business. However, approximately 50 percent of all businesses fail...

byMichael S Melfi

September 8, 2018

Being Boss: Defining Your Business Model to Create and Deliver Value

The following excerpt is reprinted with permission from "Being Boss" © 2018 by Kathleen Shannon and Emily Thompson, Running Press. If the business side of being a creative entrepreneur makes you feel out of your depth,...

byEmily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon

April 10, 2018

Why Business Design Matters for Startups

Articulating what a business stands for, and why it is unique, is the first step in the journey, though it’s also one of the biggest challenges facing entrepreneurs. Additionally, having no entrenched values or established practices...

byHanna Laikko

February 5, 2018

How to Write a Business Plan: Tips from the Experts

For even the most organized and motivated entrepreneur, writing a business plan can be a daunting task. After all, your business plan is your first opportunity to make critical evaluations of your idea, and to...

byInstant Offices

December 3, 2017

Expand Your Brand: Are You Ready to Franchise Your Business?

Franchising has been long proven to be an amazing way to grow a business. Look no further than down your street and you might see the latest version of franchising’s powerful effect on brands that...

byChris Conner

October 23, 2017

Starting Up Later in Life: Q&A with Leading Authority on Encore Entrepreneurship

With life spans increasing, the person who retires at 65 may have several decades of life ahead of them. Instead of spending that time on a golf course or an endless vacation, many older Americans...

bySusan Johnston Taylor

October 18, 2017

Business Registration 101 for Franchises, Startups and Amazon Sellers

So, you’ve got your small business idea — whether that takes on the form of a startup, franchise or Amazon seller — with a business plan drafted up. You’re ready to begin with the registration...

byDeborah Sweeney

October 10, 2017

Business Incorporation: Are These 3 States the New Corporate Darlings?

For years, Delaware and Nevada have been the “it” states for small business incorporation and with good reason. Both states offer up many benefits to doing business: Delaware enables the owners of a corporation to...

byDeborah Sweeney

April 28, 2017

To Incorporate or Not? The Many Small Business Structures

To incorporate, or not? It’s a perennial topic that has plenty of surrounding myths. As with so many things, there isn’t one right answer. Entrepreneurs, especially those who work solo, have choices. There are three...

byAnn Logue

March 30, 2017

Is Your Product or Service Revolutionary or Evolutionary?

When an entrepreneur brings an idea to an investor, sometimes they are referred to as the next Facebook, or “the Uber for (insert any industry).” Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that many ideas and businesses are...

byMichael S Melfi

November 16, 2016

Limitless Paper in a Paperless World: B2B Isn’t What It Used to Be

There are many reasons why the office of Dunder Mifflin made for such great television. While most people enjoyed it for the awkward and often ignorant antics of the supply manager, Michael Scott (played by...

byMichael Ting

August 16, 2016

3 Phase Gates to Move Your Product or Service to Market

At some point along the journey, most entrepreneurs are faced with what may seem like the final impossibility – the one roadblock that has the potential to prevent them from bringing their idea, product or...

bySteve Hershberger

August 12, 2016

Business Model Canvas: Escape the DIY Trap

With a piece of paper, a pen, sticky notes and 15 minutes, you can transform your business — and your life. This is all you need to make a Business Model Canvas, which reduces a traditional...

byJustin E. Crawford

July 13, 2016

Your Business Needs a (Nontraditional) Plan

The traditional business plan has created the wrong expectations of a CEO at a small business, and there’s a revolution afoot in the way elite MBA programs and Silicon Valley think about small business strategy...

byJustin E. Crawford

June 13, 2016

I Have a Startup Idea: What’s Next?

So you’ve got a startup idea – that’s great! But for many of us, it’s not coming up with an idea that’s the hard part, it’s figuring out what to do next. The following are some...

byNatalie Baker

June 10, 2016

The Art of Business: Meet Your New Canvas

Here's all you need to fundamentally change the way you think about your business, and yourself in relation to it: a piece of paper, a pen, sticky notes and 15 minutes. You might be saying,...

byJustin E. Crawford

May 13, 2016

Food Startups: Changing the way we think and eat

Food Startups that are Changing the Way We Think about Eating Every year, there are hundreds of new food startups, and they are not always the same old, same old. Of course, there are still...

byJane Hurst

July 20, 2015

From the Home Office to a Commercial Building

Family First Business Model: Choosing an Office Environment When I decided to start my own consulting business to promote my brand of green building and sustainable communities (i.e., with a motto be not the cause,...

byAnindita Mitra

June 15, 2015