Briefings

Here are the Startup Savvy Briefings. You are free to take and use what you need. The brief descriptions of each will give general guidance on what each contains. Click the link and you will go to the full texts and print them if you wish.

The list is growing all the time so if you don't find what you need now, try again later—or write and ask me if I am preparing something suitable. If not, I could probably do a briefing on your subject; chances are that if it's something you need, there will be others out there who will need it too.

Entrepreneurship

• Entrepreneurship—about what it takes to be an entrepreneur and ways you can confirm that you are one.
• Goal Setting Software—it is not easy keeping track of the goals you have set, but here is an intuitive and fun way to do it.
• Motivation and Goals—about getting clear on your own starting point and where you are headed.
• The Open Entrepreneur—about being able to stay awake to all the possibilities confronting you.
• Startups for Grownups—about entrepreneuring at 55+ and why startups are particularly suited to people with a lifetime of experience.
• Five wAys to more success—before you get started it is important to prepare your mind. These 5 "A"s will give you a leg up.
• Think Big, Start Small—all too often entrepreneurs try to figure out how much money they need. I always advise them how to figure out how little they need.

Finance

• Bootstrap Finance—how to finance your startup with minimal amounts of money and lots of ingenuity.
• Why Get Paid On Time, or Sooner?—about the cash flow consequences of late invoice settlements and how to prevent them.
• Virtual Seed Money—the first thought is often about going to the bank for money, but there are many alternative ways to finance the startup.

Planning

• Business Model Planner—a simple-to-understand planner that will help you get clear about the business model for your startup.
• Business Plan Outline—a possible set of contents from which you can build your own plan.
• Business Plan Competitions—it may be worth you entering an appropriate competition, or at least looking at the guidelines that may help you with your plan.
• Business Plan Software—you may prefer to build your plan using software that guides you through the process with all you need for your special circumstances.

Selling & Marketing

• Startup Storytelling—using stories, yours and others, to communicate in a very effective way.
• Incremental Marketing—doing a little every day will add up very quickly. Marketing is a way of business life, not something just done in campaigns.

Organizing & Managing

• Free Web-based and Open Source Business Tools—about hundreds of wonderful ways that free tools that are available on the Internet for almost every function of the business.
• Leadership Loitering—just hanging around may not seem like it's productive, but you will be really surprised at how beneficial it can be.
• Staffing Without Hiring—do not assume that you have to hire lots of people to get your startup off the ground. there are many ways to get the work done with adding to the payroll.