What Angel And Venture Capital Investors Want To Know

This past week I received a phone call from a long-time acquaintance who called to invite me to meet for a cup of coffee.  As a coffee lover I rarely turn down the opportunity to visit my favorite coffee spot here in California. After spending twenty minutes catching up on recent personal and professional adventures…

Small Business Marketing: How CRM & Email Marketing Can Help Grow Your Small Business

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and email marketing software are two of the most important tools that entrepreneurs and small business owners can use to boost sales, reach new and prospective customers, improve service, and increase profitability. CRM software comes in many shapes and sizes, from on-premise, to on-demand, and everything in between. Typically, on-demand software…

Do You Hire the Right People for Your Business?

Every business – big and small – succeeds or fails based upon the quality of its people. Have a great product but a clueless staff and you are headed for bankruptcy.  Have a mediocre product but a top notch team of experienced and hard working individuals and you may just be on your way to…

Business Planning: Write A Business Plan That Is Just Right For You

“Write a Business Plan”. If there is one phrase that can bring pause – or panic – to an entrepreneur it may be those four words. This phrase is uttered tens of thousands of times a days by entrepreneurs, managers, investors, board members, and other stakeholders across the globe. Whether you are operating a startup…

The 3 Most Important Things You Learn from the Business Planning Process

This is the first in an ongoing series of audio podcasts with Burke Franklin, founder and CEO of Jian Software, the publisher of business planning software, Biz Plan Builder, as well as many other business productivity software titles.  In each audio podcast, Burke tackles topics related to planning, starting, financing, and growing an entrepreneurial venture…