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Embracing Delegation: How Letting Go Can Help Your Business Grow I did a short session with a founder that I advise at the end of last week. She was bemoaning the fact that her business was not growing as fast as she had hoped. Much of this was due to her leadership...

In today's society, there is a lot of pressure to be exceptional, to stand out from the crowd and achieve greatness. From a young age, we are taught to aim for the top, be the best in our class, and strive for excellence in everything we do. However, this narrative...

I went back over a number of the pitches for new businesses that had been presented to me over the last few years. I spoke to a lot of the founders. Many of them failed, some are in intensive care, one or two are truly starting to get traction. I looked at the reasons...

The Great Debate: To Business Plan or Not to Business Plan for Startup Businesses? As an experienced entrepreneur, I've often faced the question from founders of whether to develop a business plan for their startup. Over the years, I've realized that this question has...

As an experienced entrepreneur in the B2B space, I've seen my fair share of marketing strategies, both successful and unsuccessful. One common mistake I've observed among start-up B2B firms is their tendency to overspend on marketing, without considering the...

I had an interesting call with a 'frustrated founder' that I advise yesterday. I'm probably one of the least patient people I know, but they were ready to throw in the towel and go do something totally different and change the entire direction of their business. This...

The failure of Silicon Valley Bank is a stark reminder to all of us who invest of the potential risks of putting money into the tech sector. Long gone are the days when growth was everything and it appeared to make big gains all you had to do is invest in a recently...

Earlier this week a prospective founder of a new business was pitching their idea to me, and I asked them the question I often use.  “Tell me about some of your failures in the past”. It was like I had struck them with an iron bar, I truly got the feeling that they...

One of the reasons I wrote the book "Simplify to Succeed" is that lots of people in business harbour a dirty little secret, or two. That is that parts of their business 'education' are missing and they 'wing it' at times when this starts to become apparent. None of us...

As a founder you may just be happy that somebody wants to invest in your business, but you should also consider some other factors, especially if you are exchanging a significant part of your equity for their cash. Look for the following: - Alignment of interests:...