The Venture Edge

Since 2008, I have been working behind the scenes on a book about a little company by the name of Network Solutions, Inc (NSI -- the book will be published in May 2013). For much of the 1990s, NSI was the only seller of domain names -- all those .com, .org, and .net and other website addresses that make the Internet run. One of the best things about working on this project is that I had the opportunity to interview some of the early movers and shakers of the Internet -- men and women who played significant roles in its development and growth. One of those people is Esther Dyson, who served as the founding chairman of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and was an early investor in dotcom businesses. Today she is an angel investor in a variety of start-ups, mostly in the areas of online services, health care/genetics, and space travel. 

 If we’ve learned anything from the recent bout of Web company implosions following IPOs, it’s that just because you’re a founder doesn’t mean you’ll make a great CEO and going public is not everything it’s cracked up to be.

Usually when I post a new contest geared to small businesses, the prizes aren't bad, but probably not enough to make a huge difference in the success of failure of your business. However, the Dell Innovators Credit Fund is a different animal altogether. And if you're in charge of a fast-growing company that is in need of additional funding to fuel that growth, then the Dell Innovators Credit Fund might be right for you.

I have good friends who may want to dispute the title of this blog because it certainly pops the bubble that is the accelerator craze that I’ve talked about before (see “Accelerators – do the math”), not to mention the research-based view that having VC money signals to others that your venture is likely destined for success. But in this case, my title is backed up by recent research coming out of Harvard Business School. Shikhar Ghosh, a senior lecturer, claims that three-quarters of U.S. venture-backed firms don’t return their investors’ capital.

 I have to say that Sarah Needleman at the Wall Street Journal is fantastic at picking up on trends in the startup world. Recently, in a September 12 article (“Start-Ups Get Snapped Up for Their Talent”), she talked about the latest frenzy in Silicon Valley: buying up talent from struggling start-ups for not very much money, at least in Silicon Valley terms.

I love how entrepreneurs tick. Case in point: Kevin Daum. Kevin is a serial entrepreneur who has found both great success and its not-so-great counterpart. Throughout it all, his radar is always scanning the horizon for the next opportunity. And here's a great example.

I love, love, love trendwatching.com and their ongoing efforts to stay on top of the latest-and-greatest consumer and business trends. So it was with great excitement that I looked in my email in-box a few days ago and found their latest list of 12 new mini-trends. If you own or run a business -- or if you have plans to start one up -- it will be worth your while to check out these trends as they may have a significant impact on the markets in which you do business, or plan to do business. Here are five of my favorite mini-trends from the list:

I just ran across the Love a Local Business grant competition sponsored by financial software maker Intuit. The competition -- which currently runs from August 1 through September 15, 2012 -- lets fans, including customers, vendors, employees, and the community, determine who deserves some love in the form of $5,000 small business grants. The more votes a business attracts, the better its chances of winning a grant. 

Your business may be well established where it is, but just maybe you're thinking of starting something new. Or maybe you're thinking of expanding your successful enterprise into some new locations. So where will you build your next business? If you believe a recent Thumbtack survey of more than 6,000 small businesses, you'll consider doing business in one of the following seven most business-friendly cities: 

I was recently crusing the Inc.com website when I ran across an interesting article that I thought was worth sharing. The article -- The $4 Million Complaint Call -- was written by Ron Burley, founder of Broadcast Software International, a technology startup. Ron's company specializes in the development of digital audio and automation software for broadcast radio stations. Four years after founding his company, he had grown it to 16 employees with a customer base spread across 40 countries around the globe. However, Broadcast Software was at a crossroads in its life -- Ron could no longer afford to fund the company's growth by himself, and it desperately needed an infusion of outside capital. Unfortunately, investment in technology companies had dried up, and there was no outside capital to be found anywhere. If something didn't change, and soon, the company would likely collapse. 

Need a quick $250,000 to help fuel your small business? If so, you'll need to act fast. Chase and Living Social are giving out grants of $250,000 each to 12 small businesses selected under their Mission: Small Business program. But hurry -- you've got to get your application in (and attract at least 250 votes from the web-surfing public) by June 30, 2012! Here's some additional information from the Mission: Small Business site:

 How many of you have that little unfolding box icon on all your devices?  Actually, well over 50 million of you who store more than a billion files on Dropbox servers every three days.  It’s a simple but powerful concept.  Founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, former MIT students, want to solve the digital storage and file sharing problem for you, no matter which operating system or device you happen to be using—the value proposition is that simple. But making it simple for the customer takes a lot of work on the back end.

I've been a big fan of the iPhone photo app Instagram for the past six months -- it's fun to take photos, make a quick comment, and then automatically upload (with GPS coordinates) to my favorite social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and the usual suspects. So it was with great interest that I heard the news this week that Instagram was acquired by Facebook for a cool $1 billion. Not bad for an iPhone app.

It's my favorite time of year. No -- not Christmas, though that rates right up there. It's the time of year when trendwatching.com names its 12 Crucial Consumer Trends for the upcoming year, in this case 2012. If you've got a business and you want to meet your customers where THEY are, then this list is worth a look. Here are the top-five trends -- click here for the complete list of 12, along with detailed explanations. 

I want to follow up on Peter’s great post about Google and its march toward brand dilution with its latest venture, a local/online delivery service.  You might scratch your head and ask why are they doing this, but remember this is the same company that is also developing autonomous, self-driving cars so that we can devote our full attention to its search engine while we’re on the road. 

While it has been obvious for some time that Google isn't happy just being the best Internet search website around (Exhibit 1: the Android phone), I was a bit surprised to read today that the company is getting ready to unveil a new venture: a delivery service that would let people order items from local stores on the Web and receive them at their homes or offices within a day. Okay, that sounds nice and all, but why oh why is Google straying so far from its core business of helping me find out how many students applied to Dartmouth early decision this year, or a good synonym for "lyrical," or a creativity video that I can use in the MGT453 class that I'm teaching at San Diego State University? 

Only two days left until Groupon begins trading on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol GRPN. Their highly anticipated (and often panned) IPO, scheduled for November 4, is important to investment banks that have another 14 ventures in the wings waiting to launch their IPOs.  If Groupon fares well, companies like Zynga and Angie’s List will head out with some confidence.  On the other hand, given all the negatives around Groupon in the past few months, there are no guarantees that this party will last beyond the initial bump.

Let me first say that I do not work for mobile payment startup Square, nor do I own any of their stock or have any other financial interest in the company. That said, I think Square is on the leading edge of a revolution in how small businesses accept credit card payments.

It seems like every time I turn on the news, some commentator or talking head is claiming that the U.S. economy won't get better until the government brings certainty into the financial or regulatory or tax or whatever [insert favorite excuse here] situation.

 Imagine you’re a VC who is finally seeing the light at the end of a long tunnel. The company you have put your heart and soul into, not to mention millions of investment dollars, is about to go public.Can you picture the excitement—after all, the press has called your company a long-awaited IPO—it’s going to be big!  Really big. But wait...the market doesn’t seem to be cooperating—betting on a great opening day is looking like trying to shoot a pheasant in the dark (without night vision goggles - I know I'm going to hear from one of my South Dakota friends that this is totally possible). You see your fellow IPOers Pandora Inc. and Linkedin being pummeled by stock sell-offs. And it’s not just Internet companies getting slammed. InvenSense, which makes motion sensors for consumer electronics, hit the pause button on its IPO, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

If you've been reading this blog for more than a month or two, you've probably noticed that I'm a big fan of contests for entrepreneurs. Not only do I think they're fun, but they can be a good source of cash -- and what entrepreneur can't use a little extra cash? Entrepreneur magazine recently ran a contest roundup, including a UPS Store Facebook contest (deadline = August 31, 2011), 2011 Avaya Small Business Innovators contest (deadline = August 30, 2011), Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur contest (deadline = September 9, 2011), and Cleantech Open Global Ideas competition ( deadline = September 30, 2011). 

A bit more than a year ago, I wrote a blog post about a relatively new way to raise money to start up or grow an enterprise: Kickstarter. As I mentioned in my post, Kickstarter is "...a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, and explorers." Kickstarter leverages the power of online crowdsourcing to gather together potential investors for new creative and business ventures. As it turns out, Kickstarter is still around, and an increasing number of companies are getting the funding they need from the organization. According to a recent article, design company Studio Neat used Kickstarter to successfully fund two projects. The first, a miniature iPhone tripod called the Glif, raised $10,000 in just 30 days while eventually landing the company almost $140,000 -- far exceeding its original request. Studio Neat was able to ship the Glif to customers just a month and a half after the funding period ended. The second product -- a pen stylus for the iPad -- also raised about $140,000 via Kickstarter. Says company cofounder Tom Gerhardt,  “If Kickstarter wasn’t around I don’t think the Glif, or projects like it, would have even gotten off the ground. It’s probably naive, but we had more fears and perceived more risk going the traditional [VC] route.” 

Okay. I will have to admit that I have never tried Mirassou wine. So I don't anything about the quality or taste -- good or bad. But what I do know is that the Mirassou Winery has an interesting contest for entrepreneurs. According to the Mirassou Winery Facebook page, the company will award five $3,000 grants to individuals with bright ideas to help turn their ideas into reality. In addition, the five grant recipients will also be voted on at the Mirassou Winery’s Facebook page, with the highest vote earner being awarded an additional grant of $5,000. According to the company, the competition is inspired by the Mirassou Family’s winemaking legacy which "...is steeped in entrepreneurism, innovation and empowerment." 

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I participated in a very interesting seminar here in San Diego: The Art of Science Learning: Shaping the 21st-Century Workforce. As many of you may be aware, the United States faces an innovation gap that is growing wider with each passing year. According to John Lechleiter, chairman, president, and CEO of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company, "A recent study ranked the U.S. sixth among the top 40 industrialized nations in innovative competitiveness, but 40th out of 40 in 'the rate of change in innovation capacity' over the past decade. The ranking, published last year by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, measured what countries are doing -- in higher education, investment in research and development, corporate tax rates, and more -- to become more innovative in the future. The U.S. ranked dead last." The bottom line is that our nation is falling behind the rest of the world when it comes to innovation, and this problem is getting worse, not better. 

If your company has been in business for at least four years, and if it generated annual gross sales revenues of at least $3 million in 2010, then you just might be eligible to be named Entrepreneur magazine's Entrepreneur of 2011. According to Entrepreneur magazine, "If you're making an impact -- on your industry, for your employees and in your community -- this is your award to win. Past winners have rocked our world with radical headgear, taken us back to basics with healthy snack ideas, and made innovative contributions to the sustainability movement. Now it's your turn. Tell us how you're making a difference with your business and you could be the Entrepreneur of 2011." 

Unless you've been living in a cave deep within some distant mountainside, you probably know that yesterday -- May 21, 2011 -- was the predicted date of Judgement Day, with the end of the world scheduled for October 21, 2011. Although it appears that Judgement Day has not yet arrived (the jury is still out on the end of the world), entrepreneurs have wasted no time offering a variety of products and services for those who believe that the End Time is drawing near.  

Robert Jordan started up Online Access, the first Internet-coverage magazine, and his venture landed on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies in the U.S. Jordan recently wrote a book -- How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America (RedFlash Press, 2010) -- for which he interviewed 45 highly successful company founders, each of whom started, grew, and sold a company for approximately $100 million or more, or took their company public for $300 million or more. According to Jordan, each of these entrepreneurs faced at least one crisis that could have killed their businesses. However, each overcame their business crisis and went on to great success. Robert Jordan's interviews uncovered a trait that these 45 highly successful men and women shared in common: Resilience. 

I read my blogmate Kathy Allen's most recent post, "Should your business sell on Facebook?" with great interest. While I agree with Kathy that, in general, the answer to that question is an emphatic NO!, I would like to elaborate a bit on Kathy's post. Why? Because Facebook clearly can be a tremendous opportunity for most any business today -- an opportunity that cannot be ignored. But not as an ecommerce platform. Instead, Facebook's greatest opportunity for businesses today is as a hugely leveraged publicity and PR platform.

Patricia Sigmon is a successful entrepreneur, a sought-after speaker, and one of today's leading experts in the field of profit management. She is founder and president of David Advisory Group (www.DavidAdvisoryGroup.com), a boutique firm that specializes in helping CEOs and small and midsized businesses reengineer their business practices to generate more profit, cut inefficiency, and optimize their earning potential. Long story short, Patricia knows what she's talking about when it comes to how to squeeze profit out of a business. Here are six ways to boost your bottom line, adapted from Patricia's new book Six Steps to Creating Profit published by John Wiley & Sons. 

I first met Richard Rosenblatt, the co-founder and CEO of a now very public new media company, back in 2006, after he had successfully sold MySpace to News Corp’s Rupert Murdochand had just started a long-tail phenomenon called Demand Media.  I had asked him to participate in an Internet forum I was hosting at USC.  People at that event were clearly watching and listening carefully to this serial entrepreneur because he is that rare person who not only envisions a business, but an entire industry, and then makes it happen. If you're familiar with his history, he has done it multiple times, but that’s another story. He became a friend (and, of course, he's a fellow Trojan), and last week I had the good fortune and excitement of being an investor in the company’s highly successful IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.  In the short space of about 4.5 years, Demand Media (DMD) has grown to more than 600 employees with locations in North America and Europe and is now worth as much or more than the New York Times on the public market.

I have lost count of how many entrepreneurs I have spoken with who have told me that the secret of their success was to throw out their carefully crafted business plan and to instead take advantage of the opportunities that came their way -- WHEN they came their way. Business plans serve a purpose: they help you determine what products and services your company might develop and deliver, who might buy them, and how much they will be willing to pay. And they can help you determine how much money you'll need to invest to achieve a particular outcome, and on what areas to spend it.  

I am sitting here in sunny, but very cold, Hilton Head, SC and thinking about small businesses.  Not just because I'm here to speak at a the USASBE conference on small business and entrepreneurship, but also because I just finished driving around the island with a colleague and had the opportunity to talk to some small business owners.  The primary economic driver in Hilton Head is tourism, so lots of retail and food services. Like many other small business people, these entrepreneurs have really taken advantage of the Internet to promote what they have to offer because it's where we all look for information and because relative to other forms of promotion, it's inexpensive.  Makes sense because with just an iPhone and a car, we were able to find the best that Hilton Head has to offer.  However, some people still believe that direct mail (what we all refer to affectionately as junk mail) is the most effective marketing channel--and Paul Vogel, the U.S. Postal Service's chief marketing person, is one of those people.

Almost a year ago I wrote a post titled "Free is the new black" about how savvy companies are giving away content on the Web -- and finding alternative ways to monetize their content. This model is now spreading to an industry near and dear to my heart: the publishing industry. And it's turning the old models of selling books upside down.

Every entrepreneur dreams about reaching the promised land, as they say, making it big by being acquired or successfully executing an IPO. But, not so fast--I can list on more than two hands the number of entrepreneurs who were dissatisfied with the result. If they weren’t singing “ Is That All There Is,” (an old Peggy Lee song from 1969, recently revived by Christina Aguilera) they were wondering when the precise moment was that they realized, “Hey, I don’t own this company anymore.”

NEVER underestimate the power of an audacious marketing campaign. In today's San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper, I noticed an article about a local hotel that has come up with just such an approach -- and it is getting the hotel noticed in a very big way.

Kathy and I were recently given the opportunity to review a copy of the Social Media Survival Guide : Everything You Need to Know to Grow Your Business Exponentially with Social Media  by Sherrie Madia and Paul Borgese (Full Court Press, 2010). It's no secret that social media has taken the online world by storm, but according to the authors, many top companies are dropping the ball. They site statistics that 73 of the Fortune 100 have registered a total of 540 different Twitter accounts, but that more than half of these accounts (52%) are rarely used, and fully 15% are inactive.

It’s a common phenomenon that even the savviest entrepreneurs can stumble trying to take their businesses to the next level. Marco Giannini wasn’t new to entrepreneurship and he wasn’t new to failure. While an MBA student at the University of Southern California (and one of my students I'm proud to say), he launched Clear Day, a natural beverage company designed to take advantage of consumers’ desire for functional beverages. That business failed in 2003 from a lack of customer validation and too much money spent on product development. Not one to dwell on failure, Giannini decided to take his experience in functional beverages into a new area. His childhood dog had suffered from arthritis and hip dysplasia, so he began to study how supplements in dog treats might help dogs live happier lives. After finding a manufacturer to produce his first product—Happy Hips—Giannini began driving all around California visiting pet store owners to get them to try his product. He also handed out samples at sporting events. When a customer wrote to him to tell him that her aging dog was now able to walk normally after two years of Dogswell treats, he knew he had a hit.

While I'm not a big fan of government rules that restrict opportunities to only certain kinds of companies, if Congress has decided to do so, then the smart thing to do is to play the game. Last week the Small Business Administration finalized  rules for its Women’s Procurement Program. Believe it or not, the legislation was passed in 2000, under the Clinton Administration, and the Feds have just now gotten around to implementing it. Anyway, the legislation  set a 5% contracting goal for the federal government to do business with women-owned companies. Currently, about 3.5% of government contracts go to women-owned businesses. The difference represents more than $6 billion in new contract opportunities for women-owned businesses each year. And that's a lot of opportunity.

While many retailers have determined that offering shoppers as wide a choice as possible is the best way to get consumers to part with their hard-earned money (a typical grocery store, for example, carries 50,000 different products), some highly successful businesspeople are doing these companies one better. They're doing this by giving customers the ability to customize products to their exact specifications.

I recently read an article on dailyfinance.com about the 10 biggest brand disasters of 2010. As I read through the article, I realized that entrepreneurs and small-business owners and execs can learn some important lessons from the missteps of these global giants.  

Kim and David Chauvin are no strangers to tough times.  Their shrimp-trawling business in Louisiana has survived four major hurricanes in five years, but the two had amassed enough savings to carry them through the floods that Katrina and Rita brought in 2005.  But 2008 brought Gustav and Ike (not to mention the financial crash)  and that meant that this family business had to apply for a disaster loan from the SBA. just to survive.  Now they're struggling with the losses brought on by the gulf oil spill, and the problem is, they already have a $170,000 loan from the SBA  they're paying back so they can't go after another emergency loan.  Instead, they've signed a contract with BP to work on the cleanup. 

As you may know, I am on the board of SPORTS for Exceptional Athletes, a San Diego-based sports program serving athletes with developmental disabilities ages 5 through adult. Tonight was the night of our big annual fundraiser -- A Taste 4 SPORTS. During the course of the event, I was reminded that it's good for businesses to give back to their communities. People want to work for companies that do good things, and people want to buy from companies that support causes that they themselves care deeply about. The resulting impact to the bottom line is direct and positive 

 How do you succeed in a tumultuous industry that can't seem to do anything right and that regularly sues its customers?  Meet the heroes of the retail music industry, Mike Boyder and Marc Weinstein, co-founders of Amoeba Music, a three-store California retailer that is the self-proclaimed "largest independent record store on the planet."

This past Thursday morning I had the good fortune to have breakfast with Troy Hazard, a self-confessed (but non-repentant) serial entrepreneur. I was fascinated to learn more about this entrepreneur who founded 10 different companies in the span of 20 years. 

I just read an article in the local newspaper about a pair of entrepreneurs who have tried just about everything they could think of to fund their young business: Fiji Yogurt, a frozen yogurt franchise with four company-owned stores and one new franchisee. While the traditional sources of capital were tried -- and offered limited results -- twin brothers Cory and Kyle Miholich stumbled on a non-traditional source of funding for their business that was actually pretty effective: The Wheel of Fortune television game show. While the business partners can't yet reveal exactly how much money they made for their business because the show hasn't yet aired, according to Kyle, "We had a chance to win a million dollars, which we blew. Actually, my brother blew it on the first puzzle. But we were able to walk away with a decent chunk of change.”

My friend and colleague Kellie McElhaney recently pointed me to a very interesting website, trendwatching.com. The site keeps track of consumer trends worldwide. I was particularly interested in a recent trend briefing on the role of status in consumer buying decisions, and the top-5 ways that consumers get their status buying fix.

If you happen to have an Apple iPhone, you probably very well know the power of the app -- those little software programs that allow you to do things with your phone that you never imagined you'd ever do with a phone. On my own iPhone, I have apps that let me check my bank accounts (BofA), view weather radars anywhere in the country (Accuweather), track all my airplane flights in real time when I'm traveling (FlightTrack), view and download (or email) any file I choose on my desktop computer -- from anywhere in the world (SugarSync) -- find a taxicab (Taxi Magic), get recommendations for local restaurants (Yelp), book reservations at local restaurants (OpenTable), and much, much more. It's truly amazing what iPhone apps allow you to do, and it's the reason why I'll never switch to another phone -- at least until something better comes along. However, with more than 185,000 different apps currently available -- and more being added each day to Apple's iPhone arsenal -- I personally believe it's going to be a very long time before something better does come along.

In a post last week about the potential effect of the new Healthcare bill on small business, I talked about the importance of assessing your business's cash flow position so you can weather the changes that will be coming. Insuring that your business is sufficiently cash flow positive is the first step.  The second step is to make sure that your business remains flexible and ready to change quickly.  That means not taking on non-essential capital expenditures such as a new building,  new equipment, or even extra people for that matter.

In 1985, brothers Arnie and Ron Koss started the country's first organic baby food manufacturer. The company they started -- Earth's Best Baby Food -- was eventually acquired by H.J. Heinz for $30 million, but not before Arnie was removed as president of the company by the same venture capitalists who provided the funds they needed to survive and grow. The brothers recently wrote a book about their experience: The Earth's Best Story: A Bittersweet Tale of Twin Brothers Who Sparked an Organic Revolution (Chelsea Green Publishing, March 2010). The following guest post -- 8 Tips for Finding Angel Investors -- was written by Arnie Koss, a man who knows a thing or two (or three) about angel investors.

More than one entrepreneur has looked forward to the day when his or her company might become the dominant player in the industry, the company that everyone wants to emulate.  In the search business that company is clearly Google.  But this week's headlines give you a different picture of what it's like to be number one--as number one you're also the biggest target of expensive, lengthy, and often damaging lawsuits. 

Lights! Camera! Action!  "Oops, I didn't know you were actually going to film EVERYTHING."  That's what small business owners are learning as they let TV cameras into their businesses and their lives 24/7.  Most like Duff Goldman who owns Charm City Cakes LLC in Baltimore, which is now featured on the Food Network's "Ace of Cakes, would say that if they had read the fine print in their contracts, they would have probably said no.  "But we learned to deal with it all," claims Goldman in an interview with WSJ journalist Emily Maltby.  His business found that because of the intrusion of the film crew, they were making fewer of the unique cakes for which they're known, which meant less revenue. To make up the loss, Goldman had to develop licensing deals, write books, and do speaking gigs.  He did receive money for doing the show, but it wasn't enough to make you do the show for the money.

As I was flying to New England today to meet with a new client, I was reminded of the power of the personal touch. Email, text messages, and even phone calls all help make businesspeople more efficient and effective. However, business is all about relationships, and the best way to build strong and lasting relationships is through face-to-face meetings.

Small business owners are some of the brightest and hardest working people on the planet.  They have to be because they now find themselves competing in a global environment for customers, employees, suppliers, and distributors.  And their competitors are coming from places they had never even heard of.  It's not your grandma's small business anymore.  So are SB owners going to rush out to grab up the announced government subsized loans through the SBA?  I'm not so sure

As I mentioned in my January 27, 2010 post, it was looking increasingly likely that President Obama would soon announce help for America's small businesses. That day has finally come. According to a White House press release, Obama will today announce a new Small Business Lending Fund, funded to the tune of $30 billion redirected from TARP. Interested? Check out the press release, then drop by your banker's office and get in line. I suspect this will be a VERY popular program.

As Kathy pointed out in her post a couple of weeks ago, if you're involved in starting or running a business, then you'd better prepare for a bumpy ride in the new decade. In times like these, your business needs to stand out from the pack even more than when business is booming. If it doesn't, then you may have a tough time attracting the attention (and dollars) of your prospective -- and even your current -- clients and customers.

Have you been noticing that your customers have been delaying their payments to you?  Not surprising in these times that customers want to preserve their free cash--the cash that is available to operate and grow the business.  This practice may be great for your customers (you may be doing this yourself to your customers), but it can wreak havoc with your company if you're not careful. If you have a business that depends on active cash management (and what business doesn't), you need to monitor your daily cash flow

What if a large American business -- a VERY large American business -- decided to dump its $33-million advertising plan for the 2010 Superbowl, and instead put the money to work for a more useful purpose? And what if YOU -- could win a piece of this pie?

DARPA -- the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- is well known for its technology innovations. Founded in 1958 as America’s response to the Soviet Union’s launching of the Sputnik satellite, DARPA invented the Internet (no, it wasn't Al Gore), the stealth technology used in fighter aircraft, high-energy laser technology for space-based missile defense, and much, much more. DARPA’s mission is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security by sponsoring revolutionary, high-payoff research bridging the gap between fundamental discoveries and their military use.

A couple days ago, the coauthor of my upcoming book Writing Fiction For Dummies -- Randy Ingermanson -- and I had a conference call with the marketing folks at our publisher, John Wiley & Sons. It was clear to all of us that the old ways of marketing books are mostly broken -- it no longer makes sense to send out 1,000 copies of a press release or 100 review copies of your new book and hope that the media picks up on your message. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they won't. What does make sense today is connecting one-on-one with people using Facebook and other social networking websites.

If you've got a small-ish business and you're looking for financing, you know that there are plenty of challenges. One of these challenges is the fact that many banks are still holding back on making loans at all. Another challenge is that companies are bumping up against the SBA (Small Business Administration) loan limits. Fortunately, progress is being made in Congress to help in both these areas.

When a business is really starting to take off, there are any number of potential obstacles blocking the way to success. As employees are hired, the money begins to come in, and things really start humming, it's easy to think that everything you touch will turn to gold. This is, of course, rarely the case. In reality, it's at just this critical point in the growth of your company that you've got to remain disciplined in your goals, and not overreach. This a lesson that Ken Wolf learned the hard way.

Given the choice, most entrepreneurs would prefer their businesses to grow -- not get stuck on a plateau or, heaven forbid, shrink. But there are times when growth isn't good, and as an entrepreneur, you need to know when to grow -- and when to lay low.

Although I'm not yet sure how deep and strong its roots are, there is a move afoot in this country to transition to a new, more-sustainable model of business. Business experts Paul and Sarah Edwards have encapsulated this movement in something they call the Elm Street Economy. According to Paul and Sarah, the Elm Street Economy provides jobs that last, services one can depend on, and a secure future in a strong community and a healthy environment ... where people come first. I personally believe that this trend towards a local focus on doing business (and away from national chains, franchises, and big-box stores) is gaining in momentum. It is therefore something every entrepreneur needs to consider when making plans for the future.

I was browsing the business news earlier today and noticed an ominous headline: Walmart's Project Impact: A Move to Crush Competition. With my curiosity piqued, I decided I needed to learn more about Project Impact.

Peter reported on a very upbeat VC study in his his last post.  I'm not disagreeing with the study, but I'm not sure I'm ready to declare anything close to robust investment activity.  The reason I'm skeptical is that the most recent MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association (July 21, 2009) is claiming that although there's an "overall increase in investment levels...," the number of deals has remained flat at 1996/1997 levels. 

According to a recent article in the New York Times, a survey by the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University shows that venture capital firms are alive and well -- and investing in all sorts of enterprises. Last spring, researchers at the Graziado School surveyed 185 venture firms. Of these 185 firms, 46 percent said they planned to make at least two investments over the next 12 months within their current fund, and 54 percent said they planned to make three or more investments. As the pictured graph shows, the majority of VC investments are made in technology firms, with software, medical devices, and biotech leading the way. Financial services and consumer products companies are also-rans when it comes to attracting VC investments.

I was recently discussing with a friend the difference between creativity and innovation, and how people tend to confuse and conflate the two. In business, while creativity -- coming up with new ideas and new ways of looking at the world -- is a nice thing to have in any organization, unless you are creating ideas that can be put to use (innovations), then it is of little real use. Innovations flow directly to the bottom line, while creativity tends to float somewhere high above.

In any business, there are times when you'll hit a ceiling -- when growth slows and sales flatten. How do you get jumpstart your engine of growth and get your business moving again?

While many in our nation bemoan the loss of manufacturing plants and capacity to lower-cost countries -- the losses of jobs and tax base are understandably traumatic to the affected communities and the people who live within them -- the United States is increasingly depending on innovation to lead the way. We are becoming a nation of knowledge workers -- farming out or outsourcing or licensing cutting-edge technologies to manufacturers overseas. It is important that instead of throwing government money after the rapidly disappearing manufacturing base, and instead to invest it wisely in innovation -- the seeds of our future.

Yesterday my wife and I threw a party for my son's "graduation" from fifth grade. Next year he and the rest of his class -- most of whom showed up, with parents and siblings in tow -- will fragment as their paths take them to a variety of different middle schools in the area.After completing my duties on the grill, it was time for me to socialize with the guests. I was talking with one of the moms of one of my son's classmates about just how tough it is getting new business in a crowded field. I told her that I am absolutely convinced (and I am), that if you're really good at what you do -- and if you do what you promise, on time and on budget -- then you'll have more business than you'll know what to do with. And much of this business will come from referrals from happy customers and clients.

A while back I posted about the fact that many of today's top companies were started -- or significantly grown -- during some very difficult economic times.For example, Disney started during the post-war recession of 1923-24, Hewlett-Packard began during the Great Depression, and Microsoft was founded during the oil crisis in the mid-1970s. The point? That just because times are tough doesn't mean that you as a businessperson should run and hide from the multitude of opportunities that await you. A recent article in the New Yorker provides further support to this point of view.

Make no mistake about it -- the current economic downdraft is having serious consequences across our nation -- and around the globe -- and there is no end yet in sight. However, it's at times like these -- when everyone seems to be placing their bets on a continued downward slide -- that great companies are built, and that sigificance is found. This fact has been borne out time and time again by many of today’s greatest companies, which either began or grew substantially during recessions and/or depressions.

You might think with the economy on the skids, that consumers could care less about buying green products -- regressing to old habits of purchasing those less ecologically fit items that generally cost less (often significantly less) than their green counterparts. If that's what you thought, then you thought wrong.

We all know the news in the United States is nonstop doom and gloom, 24-7. But, despite rumors to the contrary, a significant portion of the rest of the world is not suffering from the same severe economic downdraft as we are. In fact, some parts of the world are prospering.

With the business environment as unsettled as it has been lately, you might think that taking time to undertake a planning process might not be the best use of your time right now. I would actually venture that you need to plan now more than ever. One good thing about planning is that it makes you sit down with your team and take some time to think about the priorities and direction of your business. While I agree that the end result should not be a 300-page five-year strategic plan (that might indeed be overkill at this point), a short bullet list of key priorities might just do the trick.

The U.S. economic stimulus program promises to inject up to $2 trillion of new government spending into the economy during the period 2008-2010. While a portion of this cash has already been spent or earmarked for specific purposes -- such as propping up woozy banks and buying bad mortgages -- the majority is yet to be committed. With the new presidential administration's desire to make major investments in rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, there are numerous potential opportunities for American businesses -- your business -- to profit.

While I generally don't post information that will be stale in a few months -- much preferring timeless pearls of wisdom that will stand the test of time (*cough*) -- in this case I'm going to make an exception. I just found out about a competition that -- if you qualify -- you're going to be very interested in. It's called Pitch 2009: Women 2.0 Startup Competition, andthe prizes are nothing short of awesome.

Today one of my clients and I drove up to Riverside, California so I could do some research for a project we're working on. On the way through town, we passed numerous empty houses with uncut grass and empty rooms -- and For Sale signs posted out front. Some of the signs had an added note: Bank Owned. California's Inland Empire -- the inland area of Southern California surrounding the cities of Riverside and San Bernardino -- was booming just a few years ago. Today it's a bust. According to an article in today's New York Times, the area's unemployment rate is hovering at 9.5 percent and 350,000 homes have gone into foreclosure -- with a local population of about 4.3 million people, that translates into one out of every three homes.

However, among all these dark clouds silver linings are starting to appear.

Now is not the time to be frittering away your marketing time and money on prospects who offer you the least possible chance of paying off in the near term. Now is the time to focus your marketing efforts on the potential customers and clients who offer you the best chance of a return sooner rather than later. And who exactly might these best marketing prospects be? Well, your current customers and clients of course!

Everywhere you look today the pundits are making predictions about what’s going to happen in the coming year, in the next 4years of Obama’s presidency, and even as far out as 2020. With so much uncertainty out there, how do they think they can predict anything? After all, life is not a sterile, controlled laboratory.

Many company owners and execs no doubt believe that demonstrating to clients and customers that they have a social conscience is a good thing for their companies, particularly if doing so won't have a negative impact on the bottom line. Corporate social responsibilty --aligning a company's activities with the social, economic and environmental expectations of its "stakeholders" -- is the motherhood and apple pie of 21st century business. It's the kind of thing that most every company feels it's got to do -- or at least to give the appearance of doing -- in today's increasingly competitive business environment. Even Wal-Mart -- the 1,000-pound gorilla of the retailing marketplace -- has gotten into the act, declaring on its website that the company's "environmental goals are simple and straightforward: to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy; to create zero waste; and to sell products that sustain our natural resources and the environment."

Okay, so times are tough -- we all know that. You may not be bringing as many new customers in the door as you did a year ago, and some of your most reliable customers from past years may not be quite so reliable. In fact, some may have stopped calling altogether.

I have to thank Nassim Nicholas Taleb for writing one of the best business books I’ve read in a long time—The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. It has really changed the way I think about start-ups, success, failure, and the ubiquitous and annoying bell curve. Let me explain. Taleb’s core thesis is that the inventions, companies, and events that have the biggest impact on society, either positively or negatively, are not predictable. You can’t see them coming because there are no obvious signs announcing their arrival. In other words, you can’t plan for Black Swans (BS). You can’t, for example, come up with a business concept and an ingenious strategy to create the next Google (a Black Swan business). Even the founders of Google didn’t know when they started what impact their little search engine would have. After all, there were plenty of other search engines out there. Why did the funky, plain toast version offered by Google hit the mark? The truth is: BS technologies, inventions, and businesses—those that change the world—are rare events that hit us when we’re not looking and when we least expect them.

The other day I sat in on an angel investor screening where two entrepreneurs were pitching their businesses for capital.  If you ever get the opportunity to do that you should, because it’s a great learning experience.  As many times as I’ve heard people pitch their businesses and as many times as I’ve coached people in their preparation to pitch, I always either learned something new or reminded myself of something I had forgotten.  This session was an eye opener.

A couple of years ago, Frances Hesselbein at the Leader to Leader Institute asked me to take on a new project—an update of a book that Peter Drucker wrote for the Institute (then known as the Drucker Foundation) way back in 1993. Of course, it’s not every day that I get asked to create an updated version of a book by Peter Drucker, so I of course jumped at the chance. Long story short, the new book—The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization—was published by Jossey-Bass earlier this year. As it turns out, Drucker’s five questions are just as relevant for companies today as they were when he wrote about them more than a decade ago.