Plan Your Life Archives

7 Sure-Fire Signs You’ve Discovered a Strong Business Idea

At this point, you might have invested years into researching and exploring your business idea. On the other hand, your venture’s topic could have come to you overnight. Regardless of how your idea came to...

byLucas Miller

July 7, 2018

Why You Should Pursue Business Grants and How to Find Them

When you’re starting a new business, finding funding can be tricky. There’s the need to balance funding requirements with not wanting to give too much of your business away in the beginning or take on...

byDave Rathmanner

July 6, 2018

5 Qualities You Need to Become a Successful Entrepreneur Later in Life

No matter what age you are, pursuing an entrepreneurial path is always a risky endeavor. The good news is, the odds are increasingly in the favor of baby boomers. Starting a business is increasingly becoming...

byMyCorporation

July 5, 2018

Straight Talk for Startups: Mastering the Fundamentals

The following is excerpted from "Straight Talk for Startups: 100 Insider Rules for Beating the Odds—From Mastering the Fundamentals to Selecting Investors, Fundraising, Managing Boards, and Achieving Liquidity" by Randy Komisar and Jantoon Reigersman. Copyright...

byRandy Komisar and Jantoon Reigersman

June 26, 2018

5 Pieces of Startup Advice That Every Entrepreneur Should Avoid

Entrepreneurs are always hungry for advice and guidance from veterans who have already grown their businesses. There is no shortage of perceived wisdom regularly handed out that all entrepreneurs should take heed of. There are...

byHenry Cazalet

June 20, 2018

Living the Dream: Pursuing Passion and Entrepreneurship [Radio]

On this episode of StartupNation Radio, your host, Jeff Sloan, is joined by Pappas Financial president and founder, Norm Pappas, in the co-host seat. This week, the two talk to entrepreneurs who are living their...

byStartupNation

June 9, 2018

4 Steps to Go From Freelancer to Full-Time Entrepreneur

You’ve been working as a freelancer for a while and you’re ready to fully commit to entrepreneurship. Maybe you’ve continued to work your 9-to-5 while you freelance on the side as a means to test...

bySusan Guillory

May 30, 2018

Former Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation President and CEO on 5 Things Every Aspiring Entrepreneur Should Know

The following is excerpted from "Burn the Business Plan: What Great Entrepreneurs Really Do" by Carl Schramm. Copyright © 2018 by Carl Schramm. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Good...

byCarl Schramm

May 22, 2018

Think You’re Too Busy to Start a Side Hustle? Why You Might Be Wrong and 10 Ideas to Get Started

The term “side hustle” is a relatively new one, but the idea has been around for decades. Your full-time job likely supplies you with the income you need to stay afloat, but if you had...

byAnna Johansson

May 19, 2018

Study Explores the Current State of American Small Business Owners

The early bird gets the worm. Nice guys finish last. You snooze, you lose. Sound familiar? As entrepreneurs, we’ve all been hardwired, to some extent, to believe that the more hours we put in and...

byKim Harris

May 18, 2018

Top 5 Survival Tips for Acquiring a Business Successfully

After 13 years of owning a more traditional, boutique PR and marketing agency, I looked into buying a digital agency to round out what we can offer our clients. We wanted to be more in...

byHolly Rollins

April 29, 2018

5 Preconceptions That May Be Preventing Your Side Hustle From Becoming Your Full-Time Gig

Entrepreneurship has always been the soul of the American economy. A recent survey revealed that 21 million people in the U.S. already have a side hustle, another 7.5 million plan to start a new one...

byDottie Chong

April 10, 2018

Why It’s Important to Keep Your Business Plan Flexible

Having a business plan was once thought to be the roadmap to entrepreneurial success. Its purpose; to lay everything out on the table, including what your company does, its objective and goals, how to market...

byBen Walker

April 4, 2018

Demotivated Employee to Inspired Entrepreneur: The 3 Best Books to Change Your Mindset and Your Life

For the fifth time that morning, I leaned over and hit snooze on my seemingly incessant alarm. It was 7:30 a.m., and I had neither the energy nor inclination to get out of bed and...

byJim Hughes

April 2, 2018

How to Tackle the Financial Portion of a Business Plan

If you’ve ever drafted a traditional business plan or a lean startup plan, you know that it’s highly important to outline your startup’s finances. Traditional business plans require financial projections (what the cash flow looks...

byMyCorporation

March 22, 2018

Creating a Generation of Female Role Models in Entrepreneurship

Do you often feel that there aren’t enough role models to help you see what you can be? If you answered yes to this question, I’m guessing you may be an entrepreneur, and most likely,...

byStephanie Breedlove

March 19, 2018

Tips and Tools for Writing a Stronger Business Plan

A common issue that many entrepreneurs find themselves facing is that they may have a successful business, but they’re not attracting any outside help to bring them to the next level. In this case, they’re...

byReuben Yonatan

March 17, 2018

How to Generate and Execute Your Next Business Idea

Millions of ideas float around every day but are never realized. What separates entrepreneurs isn’t the ability to generate a good business idea, but the passion and discipline to execute. If you are struggling to come...

byDavid Pike

March 14, 2018

Why I Quit My Job to Launch a Startup, Failed and Would Do it All Again

This isn’t an overnight success story, this is a real story. It was a mid-September afternoon in 2016. There I was, on the top floor of some swanky office, peering through floor to ceiling windows...

byLiam Smith

March 5, 2018

Distill Your Business Plan Into the Perfect Elevator Pitch

You’ve spent plenty of time polishing your business plan, and you know that the only thing separating that plan from reality is that one golden opportunity to present it to the right person. Lucky for you,...

byNav

February 25, 2018