Instigator Blog

Check out the first Carnival of Entrepreneurs hosted at Startup Spark.

I received a ton of great submissions in a wide range of topics. I may have gone a bit overboard with my summaries of each post, but I’m really hoping to help people find something worthwhile; not just be a link farm. So if you’re looking for a bit of inspiration, stop on by! If you need help with your online business dreams, the Carnival of Entrepreneurs has something for you too. And there’s no shortage of straightforward, practical advice as well.

Please visit the Carnival of Entrepreneurs and let me know what you think.

Next week’s Carnival goes live on December 20th, and will be hosted at Startup Spark. (submissions are accepted until December 18th, 2pm EDT.)

Thank you to everyone who participated. If you find something worthwhile in the Carnival please let me know! And please link to it!

The Carnival of Entrepreneurs brings together a collection of some great entrepreneurial resources submitted by other bloggers. It’s a weekly event. For more information on blog carnivals visit the blog carnival site.

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Before hopping into the proverbial sack with a new business partner, you need to ask these questions:

1. What’s our exit strategy?
2. How will we handle/moderate conflict?
3. How much equity will we each own?
4. What are the roles each of us will play?
5. What are each other’s expectations for ourselves and for one another?

If you don’t ask these questions and discuss them thoroughly and honestly, you’re going to be surprised at some point in the future (and not in a good way.)

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Startup Spark is my new blog - hosted by the fine folks at b5media within their new Business Channel. As the name implies it’s all about startups.

The purpose of Startup Spark is as follows:

• Walk through the entire process of starting a new business
• Provide a community point for entrepreneurs to get together and chat (part of the reason I started the Carnival of Entrepreneurs)
• Bring attention to great people (through interviews) and worthwhile resources (through plenty of linking and references)
• Demonstrate my passion and the passion of so many others for entrepreneurship and business success.

Startup Spark won’t have a huge impact on the content here at Instigator Blog. I’ll still talk about entrepreneurship here, as well as business in general. But as my regular visitors know, I do jump around through a variety of topics: entrepreneurship, small business, marketing, blogging, etc. Startup Spark is hyper-focused on entrepreneurship.

I hope you’ll join me at Startup Spark, join the conversation, and let me know what you think!

Plus, to make it ultra-easy, here’s the link to subscribe to the Startup Spark feed.

[tags]b5media, b5 media, startup spark, entrepreneurship, weblog, blogging, entrepreneurs, startups, starting a business[/tags]

Most of us are one project away from total combustion.

The first entry in the Post-Thanksgiving Goal Writing Project comes from The Digerati Life with So Much Business, So Little Time.

First, thank you for writing your goals down for everyone to see!

What I found most interesting about the post was the recognition that as some projects evolve and grow other projects, hobbies, desires, ideas, etc. are left behind. It’s inevitable. In the case of The Digerati Life’s author, she’s stopped updating one of her other blogs as frequently while a new business she’s cooking up starts to move more quickly.

You can only juggle so many balls.

(Incidentally, for me that number is 3.)

Giving something up can be tough; it’s not always obvious what should go. When looking at it, ask yourself these questions:

• What am I most passionate about?
• What has the most potential to make me happy?
• What can’t I live with?
• Why am I doing this?
• What am I most passionate about?

(Yes, I repeated a question in there on purpose.)

I want to thank the author of The Digerati Life one more time and encourage others to write down their goals and share them with us!

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Photos by antitezo and lepista

You’ve started a business. Secured a few clients. Generated some cash flow.

You’ve paid the bills. You’ve got some visibility into the future. Business is growing steadily.

You’re investing more into the business. A few extra dollars go into marketing. You hire a sales person to help out. Or maybe you finally start a business blog with the help of a blog consultant.

You’re workload is increasing. But you’re happy about that because it means you’re heading in a good direction, right?

Question: Have you paid yourself yet?

Oops.

Too many entrepreneurs forget to pay themselves, even something small, when they’re getting their businesses off the ground.

I completely support re-investing in your business; that’s critical to its success. But you can’t live off future possibilities forever. Promise and opportunity don’t pay the bills. You can’t be chasing the proverbial carrot non-stop…every so often you need to take a wee nibble.

So take out some money from your business when you can. As soon as you can afford to pay yourself regularly, even if it’s $100/month, do it. It’ll make a big difference emotionally. It’ll help make your business feel tangible and valuable. That little bit of money isn’t the only value in your business - far from it - but it’s nice to see the money go into your bank account just the same.