Tim Berry

Avoid these 5 Critical Mistakes in Startup Financials

What are the critical mistakes in startup financial projections? Here is my list of five critical mistakes. It comes from reviewing more than a hundred possible startups with either detailed projections or pitches and, of course, business plans. Good…

How to Handle Business Rejection by Investors in 10 Steps

Did investors reject your business? That’s completely normal. In an average year in the U.S., more than six million businesses are started. Close to 30,000 of them will land angel investments, and fewer than 5,000 get venture capital. In more than a…

Planning, Startups, Stories

Ah yes, the good old days. How quickly time passes. And I can’t help occasionally browsing through technology looking back. My youngest daughter is in her late twenties now. She can barely remember life before cellphones, and can’t remember life…

Planning, Startups, Stories

These are very common false assumptions in entrepreneurship. “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.” — Mark Twain I answered a Quora question about this. Here’s my list of seven: That…

Planning, Startups, Stories

The best class I took at the Stanford Business School during my MBA years (1979-81) was taught by Professor James March, co-author of the book An Introduction to Models in the Social Science. It was about the same subject. He... Read More » By Tim…

Planning, Startups, Stories

I was glad to see this one on Stanford women teaching high school girls to code. Everybody wins with efforts like these to balance the tech world and fight the long-term skew of tech and programming that has traditionally had more men than women. The…

Planning, Startups, Stories

My video this week is somewhat like a compliment to my post yesterday, 5 tips on raising children as entrepreneurs. This is a TED talk from last November, Julie Lythcott-Haims: How to raise successful kids — without over-parenting. Here’s how TED…

Planning, Startups, Stories

I’m shocked to note that it’s been seven years since I posted Note to MBAs: Drop the Comma MBA, please! The point was exactly what the title implies, that people with MBA degrees ought not to use that degree as a title like CPAs and MDs do. That one…

Planning, Startups, Stories

“The taboo against uttering the F-word grows stronger the closer you get to the top … But here’s where they’re wrong (aside from their egos, and simply being delusional): talking about failure is recognizing reality, and as long as you come to grips…

9 Steps to Handle Business Loan Rejection

What if your lender rejects your loan application? You’re not alone. Banks reject 73% of business loan applications. Here is what you do next. What to do if your lender rejects your business loan application Don’t be surprised if your business loan…

Profits vs. Growth, yes. Maximize Profits, No.

Understand the inherent tradeoff between profits vs. growth. I’m struck by how much business writing and thinking takes optimizing profits as the objective. Maximize your profits. I disagree. Usually the optimal is not maximizing profits, but rather…

Somebody Stole My Idea

How do you feel when somebody steals your idea? It’s a frequently asked question. Here’s my answer. That happened to me once. A business associate listened to my idea that I shouldn’t have shared in a cocktail party setting, and he went quietly off…

5 Components of a Successful Marketing Plan

A marketing plan can help keep your business focused on your goals. Here are five components of a successful marketing plan for enhanced business growth. What is a marketing plan? Do you know how to create a marketing plan? Good marketing fuels sales…

How to Calculate Salary to an Hourly Rate

How much does an employee cost per hour? Learn how to calculate from salary to an hourly rate for your employees, so you can make better use of their time, track actual costs and keep them in balance with benefits. The real employee cost per hour is…

What is CRM? Customer Relationship Management Explained

Many small businesses are turning to customer relationship management systems(CRM) to better understand customer wants and needs. CRM applications, often used in combination with data warehousing, eCommerce applications, and call centers, allow…

How Do I Start my Business With No Money?

(Note: consider this one a guest post from Paul O’Brien, CEO of MediaTech Ventures. It’s his answer to a Quora question “how much money do I need to start.” It’s adopted from his post What is the minimum capital required to start up a new tech…

How Investors Look at Startup Forecasts

Investors look at startup forecasts for concepts, not accuracy. When investors look at your projections, they are looking not for just the numbers, but essential insight into the knowledge, experience, and goals of the founders. Important: you need…

Entrepreneurs Without Salaries?

Question: How do entrepreneurs without salaries sustain their families and pay bills? My answer: As an entrepreneur without salary, I built a business and supported my family at the same time by continuing to consult in the same field I was…

Top 10 Entrepreneurship Skills

What entrepreneurship skills do you need before you start? Here is my top 10 list, revised for 2021. This isn’t the first such list I’ve prepared, but it is the latest. I don’t think it matches many of the millions of other such lists. That’s fine…

How to Pitch a Startup Idea by Email.

How to pitch a startup idea by email? I scoffed a bit when I saw the question, on Quora. Nobody invests in ideas, I mumbled to myself. And pitching by email? Fat chance. But then I read the answer here, written by Bret Fox, former CEO of Touchstone…