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I'm a big fan of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. I've used it to get out of some tight spots, to meet and befriend new people, and to get involved in some really excellent opportunities. Each of the skills I have learned in studying NLP have helped me make use of a model I learned called KFC. No, not that chicken company either - KFC is a model that helps you reach your goals. Here's the lowdown:

K - Know What You Want

Easy, right? Not always! To really get what you want, you have to know exactly what it is you want. An example is that of a person who wants a million dollars. There are a slew of ways to get a million dollars. You can borrow it. You can steal it (I don't recommend this one). You can work really hard all your life for it. You can borrow two million dollars and lose a million somehow. If all you really wanted was a million dollars, you've reached your goal. If, however, your real goal was financial freedom, or a million dollars in liquid assets with no other debt, you'll definitely not be able to use a few of the above methods to get there. Knowing what you really want is the first step of the process.

F - Find Out What You're Getting

Contiuing on with the million dollars mentioned above - if you want a million dollars of your own with no other debt, and yet your income is rapidly declining, you're definitely not moving toward your goal. You need to know what it is you're getting, and compare it to what you want.

C - Change What You're Doing To Get What You Want

This is the toughest of all three, but it makes perfect sense. If you want something but are not getting it, something has to change - you. What changes can you make to put you on the path to getting what you're looking for? Change what you're doing, and assess the results. If it helps you in the right direction, good job! This is the perfect place for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. I like to study those who have reached the same goals that I set for myself. I like to figure out what behaviors they have, and what has been critical in them reaching their goals. Wherever it makes sense, I try to make those behaviors part of my being.

As you change, your goals change. As your goals change, make sure to reassess the situation and see if you're getting closer to your new goals. This process is circular, and each of the three parts need to be considered regularly. If you feel so compelled, give me an example of what KFC can help you with!

If you've found your business growing to the point that you no longer have a hand in the day to day grind, you might realize that there are several things concerning you about the way your employees handle business. These little annoyances can have a large impact on the company if not taken care of. I've seen excellent ways to set employees on the right track, such as incentive plans, meetings, and team development. Those work great for existing employees, but for new employees there's another way - New Hire Training!

Why Have New Hire Training?

New employees are excited from day one. They come to work eager to learn how everything comes together, meet new people, and make a good impression on their new place of business. If Day 1 confuses your employee with conflicting messages from different sources, they won't come back on Day 2 with the same attitude. If you channel their energy from the start to help create the results you're looking for, it's much easier to get consistently high quality work, and everyone is happier because of it.

What To Include In New Hire Training.

Ideally, New Hire Training will give your new employees the information they need to succeed in your company. This includes HR information such as time off, pay, the Org. Structure, specific legal requirements; it may also include any job specific information such as accounts, clients, ways to find information not covered in training. In my industry (Information Technology Consulting), new hires should learn how to quickly find almost any piece of technical information they are looking for. The old adage about teaching a man to fish is the sole purpose for New Hire Training.

What NOT To Include!

It's worth mentioning that there are a few things you don't want to include in your training:

• What happens on your last day
• What happened on somebody else's last day
• Information that is not relevant to those being trained
• Information your new hires already know

Your New Hire Training should be informative, interesting, involved, and a slew of other words beginning with i. Make sure you spend plenty of time developing your training plan, and ensure that it includes all of the information your new hires need to avoid the annoyances of the every day grind. After you train your employees, monitor their performance. See what information they retained. What information are they spreading to your existing employees? Are they able to help each other out? Once you've seen some areas of improvement, make note of them and include them in your next training class.

Used effectively, New Hire Training will help keep your company on track. It will help focus your new hires' energy towards the right things. It can create a culture of continuous improvement, and really set you apart from the competition.

I have an acquaintance with an excellent business idea, enough funding to be getting on with, and excited companies ready to buy his product, and yet is making $0 in sales. I have another acquaintance who hesitated submitting numbers that had too much speculation involved in them. Yet one more person I know doesn't like getting involved with anything until he knows everything about it. What do these three people have in common? I think the answer is that they are waiting for an event that can never happen.

Many young entrepreneurs get pretty wrapped up in their product or service. They insist that it must be just right before it is capable of making money. The truth is that it's better to have a mediocre something making a difference in people's lives than it is to have an excellent something making a difference in nobody's. For instance, I've developed a piece of software for websites that makes keeping your website up to date as easy as sending an email. I made it just for myself, and had no intention of selling it. I had a few people that found the same problems with their websites as I had with mine - they were time consuming to update. Having this program that I made, I was able to help them along with their sites. The software is nothing spectacular, it simply gets the job done. If I didn't release the software because I wanted it to be perfect, I don't think I would have ever completed it. It is more valuable being available to people in its simple form than it is not being available at all because it's not yet perfect.

If I can impress upon you any single piece of advice for your company or idea, it's this: DO IT. Don't wait for some idea of perfection. Make it good enough to have value, and get it out there. If you're capable of making it fantastic in the same time period, then do that too. Then, let your customers tell you what there is to improve, and improve!

In the military--

  Knowing the other and knowing oneself, in one hundred battles, no danger.

  Not knowing the other and knowing oneself, one victory for one loss.

  Not knowing the other and not knowing oneself, in every battle certain defeat.

  -- Sun Tzu

The Art of War is an interesting text about competition. Its advice is applicable to competition in every fashion, and especially helpful to the young entrepreneur. If you haven't read it, I recommend getting it as soon as possible. Sun Tzu's quote above has a few interesting ideas packed into it.

Not Knowing Your Competition or Yourself

It is pretty easy to see that if you don't know your competition or yourself, you're doomed for failure. If you don't know what decisions you are capable of making, what your "army" is capable of doing, or what you have going for you, you can't possibly know how to compete against others. If you find yourself in this category, start working now to understand you and your company, and how things are tied together. That'll at least take you away from certain defeat and towards an even playing field.

Knowing Yourself, Not Your Competition 

If you know yourself and not your competition, Sun Tzu says you'll win one for every loss. This is where most companies fit (else the odds would be different). Here, you know what you're capable of, what you can do and can't do, and how to act on that information. If this is where you are at, you definitely have some room for improvement. The best way to win in a competitive market is to know the market, its players, and the moves that each are making. You can see that knowing where things are headed gives you a great advantage, and knowing how you can use that information (that is, knowing yourself) gives you much much more.

Know Your Competition and Yourself

Knowing your competition and yourself is the ideal place to be. Here, you can see the market's moves, and act on them accordingly. You know what your company is capable of doing, and can find ways to use the market's movement to your benefit. This is a prerequisite for much of the advice in the book The Art of War. If you aren't at this point yet, take some time to learn as much as you can about your industry and the people in it. Learn about your competitors' decisions, and how/why they are made. See what openings there are in the market - where people aren't, where people are but don't want to be, and why. Armed with this knowledge, you can put your company in a positive position in the market, and have a good time getting there.

As a young entrepreneur, you may find yourself in a position where you begin accepting résumés. If you've ever spent time creating a résumé, you might remember how much time you spent on it. If you are anything like me, you may have ensured that you used high quality, watermarked paper. You probably spent a good 30 minutes making sure that no ink was smeared, the watermark was as close to the center of the page as possible, and that when held up to the light, it was readable from left to right. When you accept a résumé in person, remember your experiences creating one. Here's a list of what you should consider doing when given a résumé:

• Smile
• Sincerely thank the applicant for their interest
• Review the résumé for a few seconds while they are there to let them know that you will at least read it

Here's a list of what you should NOT do when given a résumé:

• Frown
• Fold or crease the résumé
• Set it upside down on a big stack of papers
• Give the applicant the impression that it will not be read
• Throw it away

What other items can you think of to add to the lists of "do" and "don't" above?

One common notion that young entrepreneurs have is that they need a partner in order for them to really have a business. I had partners in my first four endeavors, and I'm pretty sure that unless I can't get by without one, I won't have a partner in my next venture. My experience with partners is that you have to be 100% open about expectations, or there is too much room for "misunderstanding."

Partnership #1 - The Equity Lesson

In my first partnership, I was the sole financial contributor. We both did quite a bit of work when it was time, but I felt like my work was equal to my partner's, while I had a financial contribution as well. Since we were both 50% owners, we felt that we had to talk about every single decision. Because of that, many decisions weren't made that needed to be. When it came time to make another investment, my partner was not in a position to do so. He is not really a risk-taking guy, so he wasn't prepared to toss a paycheck into the business not knowing what would become of it. I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of "dumping" more money into the business and still being just a 50% partner, either. I valued the friendship much more than the business, so slowly we let the company die.

Partnership #2 - Open Communication

In my second partnership (different partner this time), both of us invested equally. We both had the knowledge of the industry, and knew which decisions to make and when. Having learned from my first partnership, if one of us wasn't around to make a joint decision, the other would do their best to make the right decision. This type of trust is important, but uncommon. We both worked gruelling hours through the summer developing a foundation for the company, made a fair amount of money, and hired a contractor to help us out when we needed it. We were both college students at the time, and once the school year got busy, I let my grades suffer (no second thoughts there, I'd do it the same way again). My partner let the business suffer. He felt bad that he was not able to dedicate himself to the company, and he didn't really want to communicate that he wanted out. He decided that the best way to handle the situation was to avoid it. After cornering him a couple times, we talked about the company, its future, and each of our parts in it. We both decided that the best thing to do was to let it go, and pursue other paths.

Partnership #3 - Partners' Skill, Honesty

This partnership was started in order to participate in a business plan competition. We were a group of seven with an excellent idea, two well-respected scientists, an existing line of product (owned by one of the scientists), and a big geographic divide. We all took part in the creation of the plan, and had a good time raising over $35,000 for a feasibility study. Unfortunately, there were a few patterns that I was uncomfortable with.

Our financial guru turned out to not be such a guru. She had a hard time projecting numbers, and each time we came across a breakthrough, she wanted to take a step back and review the process. Entrepreneurs like myself find it hard to not just do something when the opportunity presents itself. The team had a discussion which went rather badly, and two of us (myself included) expressed that we were not proceeding if she insisted on remaining. She resigned, in a very bad mood.

Another pattern I found was in one of our partner's life experiences. He, being a typical college student, was still into partying hard - all play, and little work. He did not feel comfortable enough in himself to make a solid impression on those he worked with, and we weren't hoping to ride along with his self-development. We requested that he consider not being involved, and he left. He was in a much more pleasant mood than our financial "guru."

That's not to say that I was perfect the entire time - I had my downfalls. This partnership ended on a sad note after our two scientists' tests on the feasibility of the products didn't come back as expected. By this time, I was pretty used to terminating partnerships, and considered this to be a great learning experience!

My take-away from this is if you have a hard time working with one partner, DON'T TRY SEVEN.

Partnership #4 - The Good One

This partnership is still hanging in there. I partnered with the same person as in Partnership #1, only with expectations set up front. We also brought in a third partner, a promising entrepreneur who has vision and the desire to succeed. He's not scared of hard work. We aren't making progress as quickly as we had hoped, so the first partner gracefully backed out of the partnership. If we start making headway, we'll probably ask him to join us once more, since he is a very valuable part of the business concept. The other partner and I both maintain full time jobs, and focus much of our time on them. We are geographically separated, but will travel to meet when we need to. I have to say that he pulls more than his fair share of the weight, which is excellent, and he's pretty good at communication. I recognized his good work ethic and positive attitude, and took a chance on asking him to work with me on the project. I would gladly add him as a partner on any business that he can add value to.

The Take-Away

After four partnerships, I think I've got a grasp on the do's and don't's when it comes to picking a partner for me. What I look for is

• Good communication
• Ability to take financial risk
• Set expectations properly
• Hard working

Unfortunately, my biggest problem in choosing partners is that I tend to not think about each person from a neutral point of view. I lean towards looking at the best in people, which has gotten me in trouble a few times. If you absolutely have to have a partner, make sure you choose wisely. Think about the qualities that you value the most, and think about what benefit your partner will add to the business. If there's any doubt or hesitation, talk about it with the potential partner. If you can't do that openly, it's just not going to work. And if you decide to partner with a friend, do a little role-playing. Practice yelling at each other, and act like you mean it. You'll find yourself in a similar situation eventually, and you need to know that after the fights are over, the business will still be there.

I want to toss this out there and see what sticks for you. Multi-tasking is something that is expected of almost everyone these days. Being able to do more than one thing at once (walk, chew bubble gum) seems to be the only way to do anything. But is it really all its cracked up to be, or is it simply shooting yourself in the foot in a more productive-looking way?

Why Multi-Tasking is Good

Multi-tasking is good because making progress on more than one front at a time ensures your project(s) will be completed faster. You will get the added benefits of experiencing two or more different pieces of progress, learning multiple things at once, and seeing finished projects more frequently. Imagine the benefits you can gain if you're able to increase your profit by 10% because you've finished several 2% increases at almost the same time. You will also be able to take what you've learned from one project, and put it to good use in another immediately. For example, you might learn a shortcut to an equation you frequently use while working on Project 1, and that same shortcut presents a breakthrough on Project 2. When considering the positive results that multi-tasking brings, it's easy to say that multi-tasking is good.

Why Multi-Tasking is Evil

Multi-tasking is evil because it guarantees that your focus is never on one problem at a time. It pulls you in several different directions, and the experiences you get aren't as powerful because they are being saturated by other potentially conflicting experiences. For instance, two projects that you are working on can each have an emergency arise. The first emergency requires your physical presence in the next nearest city, while the second emergency requires your physical presence in the office for 24 hours straight. Unfortunately you are not able to internalize the causes of each of the emergencies because you must go from one to the other immediately. Multi-tasking also adds stress to your life by setting unrealistic expectations. In the previous example, you may stress about not being able to be in both places at once. You might also stress about not being able to foresee and both emergencies. To put it simply, multi-tasking is a burden to a productive workflow, and an inhibitor to a healthy life.

Having reviewed some pros and cons of multi-tasking, I believe that doing more than one thing at a time is a good way to get a bad result (unless it's literally chewing bubble gum and walking). If your goal is to meet a quantity of work, it may be the way to go. If you have any duty for quality, you may want to reconsider.

When coming up with the concept, I want to pick a unique idea. I want there to be an aspect of reality in the plan that will help me face the same challenges that you would face in doing your own plan. At the same time, I'm not intending to follow through with this and create a business off of it. That means that I won't be hunting down a solid management team, I won't have a real-life board of advisors, etc. I will try my best to fill in the gaps with realistic information when needed. Now, down to work!

The Concept

My business will be a manufacturing and Internet business.

Industries: education and food.

My products will include (at this point):

1. Math Crackers - crackers shaped like small puzzle pieces. Printed on one piece is a number, printed on another piece is the other half of the equation. Only the ones that are mathematically correct will fit together. Examples --
   1. piece one: "3"
   2. piece two: "+ 4 = 7"
2. Shape Cookies - cookies with basic shapes such as triangle, square, circle, oval, and rectangle. Printed on both sides is the shape of the cookie.
3. Word Roll-ups - Similar to a fruit roll-up, this snack will have a word on it, as well as its definition.

Potential Customers: Pre-school through third grade teachers, new parents with kids in the pre-school through third grade age range. (I consulted with my wife on this, since she really likes child development, and knew at what ages kids should know these things.)

Basic Marketing & Sales Strategy: Market by word of mouth, superb customer care, publications, and distributors. Maybe try to get on The Big Idea? Sales include demonstrating at relevant stores, selling to consumers there. Show the stores the demo numbers, and try and get them to buy based off of consistent sales requests during the demos.

Companies I Consider Competiton: Current snack-makers. Educational toys, though they don't have to be considered competition.

Competitive Advantages

New Products/Services: I haven't seen anything like this before.

Added Value: Every kid has an after-school or during-school snack. This company's product line adds value because it's educational and tasty!

This is my basic concept, and it will guide the way for me to move forward on my business plan. It took me just over 40 minutes to complete, and I had to ask my wife for some input because I don't have much experience in the child development business, in education, or as she will tell you, in food. If you're following along with your own plan, how does your "Concept" portion of the plan look compared to mine?

Many young entrepreneurs will come up with a superb business idea, a basic strategy, and several specific tactics. They will start their business, take on the challenge, and may even see a reward or two. One thing that I found out in my entrepreneurial endeavors is that the best ways to ensure your business goes according to plan is to document the plan.

Several entrepreneurs feel that they have the entire business plan in their mind, and will know where they're at and where they're going at each moment. That may be true for some, but for most of us the business plan is one of the most useful tools we can have. This article is the beginning of a series I will write showing you the process I go through when developing a business plan. Full Disclaimer: I did not come up with all of these bits of information by myself. I tend to follow what Rhonda Abrams outlines in her book The Successful Business Plan when I create a plan.

The First Step

Every time I have created a plan, my first thought is an overwhelming "Where do I start?!" A good friend and mentor of mine coached me in the process, and gave me a real solid piece of advice. Start by putting what you already have on paper. You'll be able to see where the gaps are, and fill them in as you research. Looking back on the process, that was an excellent first step. When you start your business research and planning, begin by putting what you already know down on paper.

How to Research

The business planning process is the best opportunity for you to reasearch your company, and other successful ones in your industry. You will be able to learn about finances, seasonality, economic influences, competitors, and a whole slew of other things. When you do your research, think outside the box and come up with unique ways to approach your data-gathering problems. You might call businesses in a different geographical region and ask for input. You should be visiting your local library during this process, and asking friends and colleagues for information if appropriate. Leave no stone unturned when you're hunting for information! The more you know before you get your business started, the better off you're likely to be.

What Should it Contain?

Your plan will be comprehensive, so it will contain several different sections. Here they are listed in the order that I will be doing them for this series:

1. Concept
2. Company Description
3. Industry Information
4. Market
5. Competition
6. Positioning and Risk Assessment
7. Marketing and Sales
8. Operations
9. Technology
10. Management
11. Social Responsibility
12. Development and Milestones
13. Exit
14. Financials
15. Executive Summary
16. Appendix

While the plan will contain a lot of research and require plenty of work, the good news is that it does have a start and finish. As I write articles for each of the sections above, I will link this page to them so that you can follow along.

When I worked for Dell, I had an opportunity to learn about how they make improvements to their business processes, resulting in better customer satisfaction and profit. They called it Business Process Improvement (BPI for short); it is similar to Six Sigma, and really helps to find where problems are in your business, giving you the opportunity to resolve the issues before they become out of hand.

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a process developed by Motorola with the goal of improving manufacturing processes to the point of only having 3 or 4 defective parts per million produced. Using multiple quality control methods and tools, those who practice Six Sigma can, in theory, analyze their processes and change what doesn't work well. I say "in theory" because Fortune magazine mentioned in 2006, "of 58 large companies that have announced Six Sigma programs, 91 percent have trailed the S&P 500 since." Don't let that deter you though - as an entrepreneur, you should be used to taking what works and integrating it into your own systems in some sort of "mixed martial arts" approach.

Business Process Improvement - Step One

In BPI, the first step is to pick a process that you intend to improve. At Dell, they stressed that to really be BPI, you couldn't have an idea of how to improve the process before starting your BPI. Bull! Just try not to let your idea for improvement get in your way of recognizing other ways to improve. After you have your process, you should detail every single step, from start to finish. An example might be:

1. Answer incoming phone call
2. Document prospect's request, name, number, etc.
3. Email the sales manager with this information
4. Distribute prospects to salesmen based off of workload
5. Determine feasibility of prospect's request.
   1. If feasible, pass to project management for a quote
   2. If not feasible, research alternate ways to accomplish same goal
      1. If found, call prospect back and propose looking into new approach
         1. If accepted, repeat step 5
         2. If declined, refer customer to company with better fit
      2. If not found, call prospect back and refer to company with better fit

You can see that documenting a process can get pretty detailed. Once you have the process documented, there are opportunities to see where time, money, or resources are wasted. For instance, the wait time between emailing the sales manager and having a salesman work on the request may be 1 day, with no good reason why. The goal is to only do the steps that add value to the customer/client.

Business Process Improvement - Step Two

After you have documented your process and analyzed it for waste, brainstorm different ways of eliminating the wasteful steps. After you have a list (and remember, no idea is too stupid to not brainstorm), determine what effect each method will have on the process. Consider its effect on resources used, time used, and cost. Using the above example, I might decide to implement a system which gives the receptionist basic information about which salesperson has the bandwidth to accept the next prospect. That might eliminate the 1 day of waiting because of the sales manager. It might also cost $10,000, which in my case could be worth it. You'll know whether your idea is or not.

Business Process Improvement - Step Three

You should have had at least one idea about improving your process, several more if it was an extremely wasteful one. Your goal now is to implement the process. Spread the word! If your company's culture supports it, you might even explain why you're changing the process. Keep an eye on the process and determine if there were any unforeseen changes. Is the process working? If so, take note of the savings: time saved, customer satisfaction, new sales, or pure profit. If your company has more than one branch or similar processes in other areas of the business, share your results with the people who can help make the same changes in those areas.

The best part about BPI is that it's something you can do right now, immediately. You can grab a process that's been bugging you, dissect it, and come up with a much better solution. If you want a little bit of practice, go buy a box of Legos and try and build something. Then after you have it built, analyze the process you took building it, and make it better!

If you read my post "Does Read Speeding Work," you've already seen that the key to stop subvocalizing is to not give yourself the time to. How do you do that? Simple: read faster! Let's say that the fastest you can talk in your head is 300-350 words per minute. You should have a tough time subvocalizing at 500wpm if you can't speak that fast. Let me equate this process to making you comfortable with driving at 120mph by starting you off at 300mph. Learning to take in 500 words per minute or faster will have a learning curve, but here's how it's done.

Take a book that you have available, and turn it upside down. Yes, upside down! Open it up to the beginning (well, the end) and set it flat on a table. Put your hand gently on the place where you would start reading (the words are, of course, upside down). Using your hand as a guide, move it across the lines of the page at a rapid rate, following the tips of your fingers as it goes. Do this for several minutes, and don't worry if your fingers don't glide across EVERY single line. The goal here is to let your eyes move across the page, picking up each word/line/paragraph. Try for speed and consistency. It should be fairly easy since we won't get caught up in the story line of an upside down book!

After doing this exercise, turn the book right side up. Try and read the book at a rate that seems natural to you. You will probably find that you're trying to read faster than you can subvocalize. This process can get frustrating, because you've conditioned yourself to always want to subvocalize when reading. All I can say is "keep at it," because it will work for you. As you begin picking up on words, phrases, and sentences, you should try the exercise again. Turn your book upside down and have at it.

You may notice that you're starting to read more than one word at once, and possibly more than one line at once. If so, good job! You're on the right track. I encourage you to look into speed reading courses and find one that is a good fit for you so that you can continue your growth in this area. This skill has saved me quite a bit of time, and kept me on top of the game in several ways.

Every young entrepreneur knows that in the information age, there is simply too much material that needs read, and not enough time to do it in. That's why I learned how to speed read. Most people that I've talked to about speed reading are under the impression that speed reading is the same as scanning. Even Woody Allen said:

"I took a speed reading course and read 'War and Peace' in twenty minutes. It involves Russia. "

For those that think speed reading jumbles things up and makes ledgible text look like the title of this article (did you notice the Spoonerism?), you should try this exercise:

1. Grab a couple index cards.
2. Have a friend write a few simple questions (that you'll know the answers to), one on each card.
3. Have him flash the question in front of you for half a second, and then take the card away.
4. See if you can answer the question.

Chances are, you can! This simple exercise is truly the foundation of the speed reading that I have learned. It removes the one crutch keeping you from reading at outstanding rates: Subvocalization. Since you were able to see the question, read it without subvocalizing, and then answer it, you have proven to yourself that you don't lose comprehension speed reading!

Just that exercise answers the question "Does speed reading really work?" It does! It is also valid for higher rates of reading, and more difficult subjects than fun trivia. I've used it to pass history exams with only 15 minutes of study (right before the exam, actually). Sadly, stopping the subvocalization process is a little more difficult than just doing this exercise. With enough dedication, however, you can make significant progress in a short amount of time. Here shortly, I'll be posting an article about how to stop subvocalizing. Check back, and put it to the test to see how long it takes you to get through your Inc. Magazine this month! 

It is well past the point that companies get to decide on whether they will get a website or not. If you are thinking about starting a business, make sure to include the website in your planning process. If you have already started a business, your website should either be in development, or already be done.

Not having a website can severely impact your ability to reach customers. Google's VP for Online Sales and Operations says that "Small businesses are increasingly going online to better connect with both existing and prospective customers," and that "over 92 percent of adults regularly or occasionally research products online before buying them in a store." Having a website will not by itself guarantee customers, but not having one will mean that 92% of people will find several of your website-owning competitors before finding you offline (if they ever find you).

Since you know how important having a website is for a young entrepreneur's business, now it's time to think about which kind of website will you need. Will yours be informational, entertaining, or an online store? A hybrid, maybe? There are several types of websites, and each one is useful for different things. Determine what works best for your company at its current stage. At the minimum, have an informational site where future partners and investors can get to know about your business!

Buying a domain name and putting up a "This site under construction." page with your logo on it is not enough. That's simply a more expensive way of not having a website. Take the initiative to get your business on the Internet as soon as possible, and reap the benefits of being seen by those 92% - not to mention potential investors and partners.

In early 2007, I had the honor of participating in the Big 12 Business Plan Competition - a competition comprised of teams from different schools in the Big 12. My team placed third, and due to a fair bit of luck, all three winning teams were invited to the Moot Corp Business Plan Competition in Austin, TX. Each competition gave out cash prizes to top winners. I found out that another young entrepreneur there was financing his business by participating in (and winning) these types of competitions.

He had done the research to have a solid plan, and had a network that included a Senior Vice President at Microsoft (where he had interned). His idea was really unique, and was a benefit to everybody involved. His company was focused on a piece of software that was going to blow his industry away (and I'm sure it will). Since good programmers aren't really cheap, and he was going to follow through with his business anyway, he found that taking part in business plan competitions was a good way to pay the bills. He financed a full time business by doing this, up to the point that he was invested in by one of the founders of Microsoft (after a meeting with Bill, of course).

If you want to finance your startup by winning different business plan competitions, follow his example by having a superb plan, the resources to get the job done, and the guts to do it even if you lose the competition. You may have to front the bill for taking a plane to a $100,000 competition, but hey - why not? It's doable!

"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." - Benjamin Franklin

We've all heard it, and several of us have noticed the link between all of these things. It's not that waking up early turns your bath water into vitamins and your clothes into gold, but waking up early gives you the opportunity to be much more productive each day. It is said that Sam Walton woke up early in the morning to travel to other retail outlets in search of good deals. When he found one (and he often did), he would be able to get the merchandise back to his store before the day's rush. As easy as Ben's quote is to say, it certainly seemed difficult to wake up early - at least for me.

Then, I Googled one day for How to Become an Early Riser, and found an excellent post in Steve Pavlina's blog about the subject. He informed me that to get up early in the morning, you have to follow three simple guidelines:

Set your alarm for a specific time to wake up EVERY DAY.

For example, I set the alarm for 5:30 AM. This gives me time for a long shower, breakfast, and a good hour and a half to work on my projects before getting ready for work.

Condition yourself to automatically get out of bed once your alarm goes off.

OK, so this is a bit more difficult. I literally practiced getting out of bed when my alarm went off. I'd set it for 5 minutes from now, and lay down and get comfy. When it started blaring, I'd turn it off and go stand in the shower (not turn it on, for the practice sessions). It may sound silly, but it really works!

Go to bed when you're tired.

This is an easy one. Find a good measure of how tired you have to be in order to fall asleep within a few minutes of hitting the pillow. Go to bed at that point.

Those three things, when put together, really help you wake up early! If you mess up and sleep in, you'll stay up a little later, which means that the next day you'll just be a little more tired. Your body knows how much sleep it needs, so if it needs to adjust, it will. If you really want to wake up early, I suggest starting by conditioning yourself to have an automatic response to your alarm. Then, give the process a try for 30 days and see if it works for you!