Blog
Leveraged Growth: Expanding Sales Without Sacrificing Profits
One of my maxims is to never invest in infrastructure that already exists in order to launch your business. The concept goes like this: got a great product idea? Good. Have someone else manufacture it for you, rather than build the plant yourself. This brief article extract •••
- July 23, 2008
The Distinctiveness of Christian Entrepreneurship
The typical entrepreneur is in it for the money and most entrepreneurial opportunities are focused on the potential value creation, but as Christians, we need to constantly fight against that worldly wisdom and stand on the Word of God. God is clear on what our priorities need to be and we •••
- July 23, 2008
College: Entrepreneurs Need Not Apply
Not only is college not necessary, but current college grads make less money than college grads from the class of 2001 - ouch! There's no law saying you have to go to college to start a business. There's also a carrot and a stick that might lead entrepreneurial-minded members of Generation Y to •••
- July 9, 2008
Tips on Raising Money for Your Startup
A successful entrepreneur that I invested in several years ago recently posted this very succinct list of tips on how to raise money for a startup: In as few words as possible, here are 20 ideas to help with the money-raising process: 1. Research the process. Others have done it. 2. Assuming •••
- July 9, 2008
Customer Segmentation: Find Your Sweet Spot
Every entrepreneur needs to know his customers and segment them to better understand their behavior, why they buy and how to get more customers like them. For a quick and easy definition on customer segmentation, look here. For more advanced marketers, the following article lays out •••
- July 9, 2008
Seven Tips for Managing Price Increases
A key part of any sales and marketing strategy is the decision about how to price your product or service. The more your product or service is a "commodity" and readily fungible or substituted by other products or services, the more you need to price at the prevailing market or at most at •••
- July 4, 2008
Worst IPO Market For Venture-Backed Companies in 30 Years
Early-stage companies that have raised venture capital to fund their operations -- known as venture-backed companies -- have just been handed some pretty bleak news. Not a single venture-backed company had an initial public offering (IPO) during the second quarter of 2008. According to •••
- July 2, 2008
Converting Intellectual Property Into Intellectual Profit: Lessons from India
It is one thing to be able to develop and secure Intellectual Property (IP) through iron-clad patents and the like, but it is quite another to profit from that IP. We can all learn from the lessons of fleet-footed Indian firms as pointed out in the examples highlighted in the article below. •••
- June 27, 2008
Re-Define the Market and Win the Battle: Serial Startup CEOs Do That To Win
There are many strategies for startups to carve out a niche when they enter a market, but all of them agree on the same thing: do not try to take on the large industry competitor in a face-to-face battle, because you will end up losing if you do. Some strategies describe the need to •••
- June 26, 2008
A Warning About Partnerships
Are you considering a business partnership with someone outside of your family? Any business lawyer will likely immediately speak up about the complexities and high failure rates of partnerships. In my experience, what usually goes sideways in business partnerships are the following: •••
- June 24, 2008
Naming Your Startup - Part II
I came across a blog that had another good take on naming a company (see Naming Your Startup - Part I): What’s in a company name? Plenty. It’s your first opportunity to brand yourself. Get it right and you’ll stand out as clever, useful, and memorable to potential users and investors •••
- June 22, 2008
Naming Your Startup - Part I
Fifteen years ago when I was getting ready to name my first company, I was really at a loss on how to go about the process. Back then there was no such thing as Google and startup blogs and I had nowhere to turn for help for being creative and since I am not nearly as gifted on the •••
- June 22, 2008
Investing with Virtue
Questions often come up about how to invest money from a Biblical viewpoint. I found the article below helpful, but invite NVL members to respond by commenting on this article: How to be in the world but not of it as we grow our money One of the issues I am most frequently asked to •••
- June 21, 2008
The Unique Context of a Startup
The context of a startup is quite different than the context of a large, established company. Once in a while I will interview a candidate from a large company/Fortune 500 background for a position at one of my startups and it always leaves me with a fresh reminder of what a poor fit it would •••
- June 19, 2008
Invention Agreements: A Potential Startup Killer
Looking to add an advisor to your startup's line up? Be very careful in terms of any previous agreements an advisor is subject to... “Get advisers” is a common recommendation given to a startup company entrepreneur. However, entrepreneurs should use caution when selecting advisers for •••
- June 18, 2008
Overcoming Customer Objections
Having a prospective customer say "no" or voice an objection is a walk in the park for the seasoned sales professionals, it feels like a slow pitch to be knocked out of the park. But that same objection to a sales novice will often cause the novice to pack up and scramble out of the •••
- June 18, 2008
Strategic Sourcing: From Periphery to the Core
When should you create a capability within your own company compared to when should you outsource? For family- and home-based businesses, I favor growth by outsourcing lower value-added processes or capabilities rather than growing by adding employees to the mix (see previous posts on •••
- June 13, 2008
Building Your Company's Vision
Starting a new company? Be sure to spend time developing your vision for your company. This brief abstract is a good summary of the power of a solid and compelling company vision: The Idea Hewlett-Packard. 3M. Sony. Companies with exceptionally durable visions that are •••
- June 10, 2008
How Big Sisters Can Bless Little Brothers
One NVL member family sent in this photo of one of their older daughters shepherding her little brother as they browsed the content of the New Venture Lab website. What a blessing to see a big sister that invests time in her little brother. It's also a beautiful picture of Biblical •••
- June 7, 2008
5 Perfect "Spare-Time" Online Businesses
As we've written before, we recommend that aspiring entrepreneurs start a simple, low-risk business just to learn, and to increase their risk tolerance. There are many such simple, low-cost and low-risk business models available for you to test on the internet. The article below •••
- June 6, 2008
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