This is part two in a two-part series. Part one is featured on Biz Chicks Rule today.
My twin two-year old daughters reminded me, without words, about business and success. When you are starting a business, you need to think of it as raising a child. You start by crawling, then walking, then running.
So take heart in the following tips – they may come from very cute, very small people but they have the power to help you achieve success.

Mirror and Mimic – We forget this, but little ones learn by following what we do. …read more

Surviving isn’t a reason to exist.
It’s not good enough to want to survive, your goal should be to excel. This is something I’ve dealt with personally – a company that survived but could never get beyond that.
Most of the time, surviving is better than dying, and if your business survived through the dot com crash or a recession or some similarly difficult time that’s something to be proud of – many, many companies didn’t make it. But the problem comes when you remain in survival mode even when the danger of dying is behind you.
Staying in survival mode – …read more

Tackling big markets is great. Nobody wants to start a company in a market worth $5. Creating new markets is great too, but most startups are built in existing markets – and often they tout the enormity of those markets as a great reason to get into them.
“The mobile industry will be worth $50 billion in 5 years!”
“Advertising online is going to be worth $100 trillion by 2010!”
You can get this sort of data all over the place. Analysts put out reports all the time expounding the growing size of various markets.
The result is that many startups take this approach:
“If …read more

Everything else is…

How you market is important. Are you being authentic? Are you targeting the right prospects? Are you following up?
How you treat customers is important. Are you providing the best level of service possible? Do you genuinely care about them?
How you manage your money is important. Are you watching every penny? Are you questioning every purchase? Are you making sure your accounting and bookkeeping are up-to-date?
How you treat employees is important. Are you treating them with respect? Are you encouraging them to buzz market?

The best businesses aren’t necessarily those selling the best stuff. The best businesses are those that …read more

It’s time for another Carnival! As the Carnival rolls into town I want to thank every participate and promoter of the Carnival. It means a lot to me and to others who get a bit more awareness, buzz and traffic to their blogs.
For the past few weeks I’ve been running the Carnival here. Starting in February we’ll send it out into the wild entrepreneurial blogosphere and let others have fun with the hosting duties!
You can check out past Carnivals with the links provided in the sidebar to the far right.
Enjoy!
My Personal Highlights

GP, a new innkeeper in Montana, gives us his …read more

The Carnival of Entrepreneurs is back with a slew of great content to start 2007.
Please check the links on the sidebar to read the past Carnivals. There’s a lot of content, but hopefully my summaries help you pinpoint what’s of particular interest to you; and then you can go beyond that, broaden your horizons and check out some other posts too.
Every post submitted (barring those that were really not a fit) is included, but I have highlighted some of my favorites. Also, I only accept 1 post per submitter, so if you submitted more than one I took the …read more

Entrepreneurs are nothing if they’re not failures. Yup, we fail. And it’s more common than you might realize.
Truth is, failure is part of being an entrepreneur. Trial by fire and all that nasty stuff. Although it’s not necessarily that entrepreneurs are huge risk takers, we are doers. And doers make mistakes.
When you do fail, it’s important to learn from your mistakes. It’s the best way to avoid them and improve things in the future.
Chris Pearson has made some mistakes and openly discusses them in his blog post. Dumb Move #3 for Chris is a tough lesson and one that requires …read more

It’s time for Round 3 of the Carnival of Entrepreneurs, with a whackload of great, entrepreneurial content. This round, like the first and second rounds did not disappoint.
I’ve highlighted some of my favorites, but I encourage you to check out everything and anything that interests you.
As well, please help promote the Carnival by linking to it! It’s easy to do and your readers will appreciate it. In the New Year I’ll be asking others to host it for me, perhaps in a few weeks once we have a couple more under our belts. If you’re interested, please get in touch.
My …read more

The first Carnival of Entrepreneurs was a huge success. I received an overwhelming number of great submissions and I hope it generated some traffic and awareness for the bloggers that contributed.
Round 2 of the Carnival of Entrepreneurs is no different. Lots of great submissions. Lots of inspiration. Lots of practical guidance.
I encourage you to check out these posts, dig through these people’s blogs and expand your horizons.
And I’d also ask that you do what you can to support the Carnival. Link to this post. Tell your friends. Helping is easy, and I hope you’ll see the value in doing so.
Alright! …read more

The naysayers have gotten to me.
Ideas are worthless.
But, they actually miss the entire reason why that’s the case.
Mark Cuban on the other hand, gets it. He recently wrote a blog post titled Success and Motivation: Drowning in Opportunity / Winning the Battles You Are In.
He’s listed 3 rules he uses when starting a new business or looking to expand an existing one. Rule #3 is the critical discussion point: You Can Drown in Opportunity.
Every entrepreneur’s mind goes crazy with the new and exciting things they can do beyond the new and exciting things they are already doing. The risk is …read more