Link:

I came across this excellent 3 minute video of Matt Greeley, CEO of Brightidea who was interviewed by Bambi Francisco of Vator.tv on the startup lessons he has learned.  It is a good video interview and he has some great guidance for startups (and frankly small businesses too) including one that probably every startup and small business should follow: hire and surround yourself with people on your team who will roll up their sleeves.  I will add one additional point to his recommendation.  Make sure your team is full of self-starters that every day are helping the startup show tangible progress that contributes to meeting (and exceeding) the company’s goals.  You can roll up your sleeves and get busy work done, but not show real progress.  On the other hand, self-starters that contribute every day to moving the company forward are invaluable.  The success of your startup is only on the line if you do not have a team made up of these types of people.  For more information on team building for your startup, here is an earlier post on this subject.

Please tell us your thoughts on the video and your approach to your team.

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Take the Leap, is a great blog that profiles entrepreneur’s and startup stories.  The blog is sponsored by the company Creative Hub.   We had the pleasure of being interviewed by Jennifer Spivak about KikScore and our growth.

To check out the interview, please visit the Take the Leap Blog and the interview is titled From Lawyers to Entrepreneurs.

Please let us know what you think.

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This is a great 5 minute video of Laurel Touby, founder of Mediabistro, on tips for startups and running your business:  In case you need some background on Laurel Touby here is a great Inc. Magazine article about her.  In this video, she covers:

1) Hiring and using a Lawyer;

2) The need for contracts;

3) Marketing;

4) Creating buzz;

5) Online and offline activities to sustain buzz about your startup; and

6) Dealing with investors.

Check it out.  It is a good, quick video.  Let us know what you think.

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Over the last few months, I have come across three really good blogs that consistently have excellent information and incredibly useful tips for small businesses and startups.  Since KikScore’s blog is focused on both of those areas – and pop culture with our recent posts about the Human Centipede, AC/DC and Lebron James – it is great to see the great content that these blogs are putting out.  So I thought I would pass these blogs along for the community in case you have not come across any of them.

The three blogs are:

1. The Small Company Blog – This is an excellent blog that covers all things small business.  But it goes beyond that and focuses on providing real practical tips for operating your small business. For example they have an excellent post on Developing a Comprehensive Marketing Plan for your small business as well as this post on 5 Ownership Mistakes that Will Kill Small Company Growth.  That and many of the other posts there are worth a read.  Also follow @TSCB on Twitter, Eric Rudolf the founder of this blog put out some great tweets.

2. Startup Marketing Blog - This blog goes way beyond its name and covers much more than marketing.  If you have a startup, this is a must read blog because of the breadth of topics that it covers related to building and growing a startup.  Beyond covering issues for marketing, this blog also has great tips on startup strategy, approaches to running your startup and tips on bringing your product to market.   The caveat is this is not an every day blog that you check since the content is generally updated about once or twice a month.  Nevertheless, when there is new content, it is excellent.  The blog is the brainchild of Sean Ellis who has run the marketing for two startups that have gone from launch to IPO so he has super street credibility.

3. Keys to Growth Blog – This blog is focused on giving guidance for software startups and especially their CEOs, but I have actually found that the content is just as applicable for small business owners.  The thread that weaves through most posts is positioning yourself and your company for growth through having the right people and right leaders in your startup.  There are also highly practical tips that are included such recent posts on strategies to cutting your company’s expenses.  Adam Ross runs this blog and he has two mantras: “Call your shot, then execute”. “Leadership is action, not position”.  That spirit is the basis for this blog and that is why it made this list of ours.

As we come across other good blogs, we will continue to tell the world like we did previously in our Go To Small Business Blogs Part 1 and Part 2.

Let us know if you have any good blogs that you have come across lately.

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Last week was a very busy week at KikScore. We had meetings all over the place on many different fronts. We had lunch meetings, phone calls, various team meetings, checkins with partners, drinks with some of our favorite corporate development friends and meetings with friends and colleagues that also double as advisors. On the way back from one of our last meetings, my partner Mike and I were debriefing on all of the meetings we had just completed. Then it dawned on us that nearly every one of these meetings came from a team member of KikScore, a friend of friend, colleagues from previous and current jobs and folks that KikScore team members have done business in the past.

Over time and especially at the inception of a startup (and small businesses too), a company’s contacts and rolodex can immensely help the strategic direction of a company. That is why we all hear from so many people that we should all on a regular basis network and get out and meet people. But I would say even more importantly, there are probably many people that lie dormant in an entrepreneur’s contacts that the entrepreneur met many moons ago. These “hidden rolodex gems” should not be forgotten.

Entrepreneurs and owners of small business should be proactive in maintaining and cultivating these forgotten contacts. I will be the first to admit that I have not been great at cultivating some of these gems. But one of my mentors once said the easiest way to engage these buried contacts, is just pick up the phone and call them or send them an email. What do you really have to lose? Now in your re-introduction call or email to these folks, make it clear to them that you are not looking for a job or something and instead are looking to chat and get some guidance. You will be amazed at the responsiveness that you may get.

Here are just some of the ways our contacts have helped KikScore and could help your startup (and small business):

1. Providing great feedback on our business model;

2. Ideas for new channels to pursue;

3. Ideas on potential new enhancements to our product;

4. Introduction to partners; and

5. Referrals to other advisors and thought leaders.

As you grow you company’s contact list, return the favor to people that contact you looking for guidance and counseling. Pay It Forward so you do not look like your company is only looking out for itself. And you never know when someone asks you for guidance, it may end up helping your company like it has with us at KikScore.

Please tell us how you develop your company’s rolodex.

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All of us small businesses and startup owners wonder how can we get more publicity and buzz about our product and business. Many of us also wonder what do we have to do to become a thought leader where the media actually comes to us for comment on industry matters.  Well I came across this excellent short video by one of the best small business evangelists that is out there, Anita Campbell, the owner of Small Business Trends and BizSugar.  Anita gives us some very common sense and practical tips for every small business and startup to use when they are pitching their business and product to the  media to try to get covered.  She also touches on how to build up your credibility with the media so you can be considered a thought leader.

Here is the video and its only a few minutes long, but it is packed with great tips from Anita Campbell.

Some of the tips Anita mentions in the video are:

1) To help get the attention of journalists and writers, blog about their stories.

2) When you blog about their stories, use the writer’s name and also link to their article. That will help get their attention.

3) When your product or company finally gets covered by a journalist, make sure you blog about the story and again include the name of the writer! We actually did this in a recent post when KikScore was covered by PressTV on issues of cybersecurity and safe online shopping.

4) When you are pitching journalists, give them useful information that will help them write a story.

5) During your pitch, give them other information besides about your business, including data about the industry, trends and even other influencers that the writer should interview.

6) Help the writer by giving them the names, contact information and as much information about those other people for their story.

7) Your pitching should not stop when you finally get some media coverage. Keep trying to build goodwill with the journalists and writers and that will increase the chances that they will come back to you for future stories.

These are excellent tips that we should all follow.  Anita really is a great source that we previously named one of her sites as one of our top small business blogs that we like.   I have met Anita on a couple of occasions including my day job out in Herndon, Virgina and at last year’s Grow Smart Business Conference in Washington DC.  If you own a small business or run a startup, we at KikScore highly recommend following Anita on Twitter and also checking out her sites.  Also she is from my hometown of Akron, Ohio – so I am sure she (and many others) may identify with my recent post about Lebron James and Small Business.

Please tell us how you pitch the media? Any tips would be appreciated!

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As many in the sports world today are talking about, last night’s Boston Celtics victory over the Cleveland Cavs to eliminate the #1 seeded Cavs from the playoffs was a real shocker.  It was made worse by the fact that it accelerated the summer of Lebron James’ free agency.  For the city of Cleveland and Cavs fans (like me), this was as close to a sporting apocalypse as they have seen since Cleveland’s past sporting meltdowns that are so famous, they have one word names attached to them: the Drive, the Fumble, the Shot and  the Wedge.  So from this debacle…actually they are calling it LeBacle in some circles, there has to be a few lessons learned for us small businesses and startups.  Here are a few quick ones that come to mind:

1. One Star Teams Often Fail- the ongoing critique of the Cavs is that they only have one star on their team, Lebron James.  In the NBA its generally known, that you need to have a team made up of at least two stars and several excellent roll players to win in the playoffs. The Cavs have failed for years to get multiple stars on the team to play next to Lebron.  They have tried, but each time the players have massively underperformed like Mo Williams the last two years. So lesson learned for us businesses is to make sure your team has multiple stars and if you have roll players that may be your contractors/vendors, ensure you have folks that can deliver in the clutch.

2. One Person Should Not Hold A Team Hostage – the Cavs have let Lebron James hold the team, the city and frankly Cleveland sports to some extent hostage.  Everything he wants, he gets.  New players, new coaches, new lineups, even new travel plans like when the team is playing in Miami because Lebron wants to stay out and party instead of returning home, guess what the coach orders – the team to stay an extra night in Miami (well who would blame him for that one – I would take an extra day in Miami too!).  That need to make one person hapy has lead the Cavs to make continual changes to their team to find just the right fit of players to Lebron’s liking.  This has had the effect of destroying any team chemistry. That was so evident in the series against the Celtics.  Cavs players that had succeed for the entire regular season (7 months!) found themselves on the bench. Suddenly the team that dominated the regular season, looked absolutely lost.  Startups and small business can learn from this and aim to have a consistent team, where folks play key roles, keep each other accountable and management makes every effort to not take people in and out of the lineup to match one “star’s” whims.

3. Play Your Heart Out & Show it - the now famous Game 5 where it looked like Lebron James wanted to be anywhere but in a sold out arena of Cavs fans (who absolutely adore and support him to no end) in one of the biggest games of his playoff career.  He played scared, he looked timid and in such a big game the star played so small that the whole world saw it.  This should be an easy lesson for us small businesses and startups.  Go 100% and go with passion and enthusiasm.  Even when you may get down, get back up and fight.  In the biggest “games” for your business, step up and seize control of the game.  Dont wait like Lebron did in Game 5 and let the “game” come to you.  Success will come to those that seek it out.

4. Do Not Ignore Your Fans - No one looks at it this way, but they really should.  The Cavs fans are Lebron’s customers.  If no one showed up to see him play, would he get those multi-million dollar contracts?  No! The Cavs fans have enthusiastically supported the Cavs and Lebron since he first put on that jersey.   There is simply no fan base in the US that will support Lebron the way he has been supported for years – even without the championships.  These fans are Lebron’s customers.  Can he get other fans/customers in multiple other cities?  Yes, or course he can but will they be as rabid, as passionate and will they literally make him the face of the entire city like they would in Cleveland if Lebron delivers that long lost championship that has eluded the city for over 40 years? Never.  So lesson learned for small business and startups, when you succeed and you start growing, do not be so easy to turn away from your bread and butter – the customers that got you to your success. That means be very careful because the grass is not always greener on the other side and be very careful in not serving and supporting your core customers.

5. Life/Business Goes On After A Loss – Ok, this lesson should actually be taken from the Cavs fans and less from Lebron.  Its maybe also a little self-healing from me.  After the loss and likely departure for Lebron from Cleveland, life goes on.  DO NOT LAUGH, but I will move on to the other team that I swore off a few years ago for their ineptitude, the Cleveland Browns.  As we likely close the chapter on Lebron in Cleveland and the chance of winning that elusive major sports championship that Cleveland fans so want, we just adjust and say well now our hopes are that Mike Holmgren can take the Browns to the promise land and end the 40 year drought.  So for your business, always be flexible and if someone/something or a major project is let down, bounce up and move on because that success will come.  It will come one day and it will feel so good…..just like I know I will feel when the Browns finally win the Super Bowl! (as my wife, the Steelers fan and Pittsburgh native, mocks me from across the room).

Tell us what you learned from Lebron’s and the Cavs collapse.

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On a day that I am bewildered by my Cleveland Cavaliers and their absolutely horrendous performance last night, I am a little reflective.  After all, us Cleveland fans likely have just watched Lebron James‘ last home game in Cleveland as a Cavalier.  When he officially leaves (I truly hope he doesnt but I am a Cleveland fan and we are used to such let downs), maybe I will do a post on how startups and small business can learn from the Cavs/Lebron breakup.  Until then, here is another installment in our continued feature at KikScore called Diary of a Startup.

This one is a quick summary of a few lessons learned from our experience and from other folks I have talked to about their startup experiences:

1. Bandwidth Limitations. No I am not talking about your broadband cable access.  Instead, bandwidth as in you and your team’s ability to keep iterating and making improvements while also juggling all of the operational and marketing aspects of a startup.These types of bandwidth and resource constraints are especially present in nights and weekend startups.  One of the ways we have dealt with the bandwidth issue is continually working to prioritize items/tasks/enhancements/issues as a team.  But as you prioritize do not forget about that enhancement that you talked about doing three months ago that may have been de-prioritized along the way! Also as needed, it is key that contractors, freelancers and outsourced resources get used to increase overall bandwidth for the startup. But remember these tips and tools when using offshore resources.

2. Manage Expectations – As with anything in life, it is important to manage everyone’s expectations including yourself.  The reason why?  Nearly everything you do at a start-up from getting going, getting something developed, partnership discussions, getting funding, optimizing your product and your homepage, takes longer than you think.  That does not mean you should sit back, because you still need to push and push hard.  However, you just need to prepare yourself, your team, customers etc and appropriately manage timelines and understand that sometimes things beyond your control come in that may delay things.  The trick is not to get upset, but figure out how to keep things on track and moving forward.

3. Continually Get Feedback – This is an underestimated one, but has been incredibly valuable to us.  Talk to everyone about your product, your business model and especially have customers (and potential customers) give you feedback.  This is so helpful in giving you and your team a new perspective and has also, at least with us, given us some great new ideas for channels for KikScore.  Here is a an excellent post at the Untemplater Site by Jun Loayza on a feedback plan for startups. Another related note is take the negative feedback in stride.  Frankly, some of the negative or constructive feedback is more valuable than the other feedback.  And please be careful not to just dismiss someone’s feedback, especially customer feedback because you think you know better or you say, “What does that person know?”  That is a sure ticket to failure.

4. Put That Feedback in Perspective – So you first need to get feedback, but then what do you do with it?  The trick is not to act on every piece of your feedback that you receive.  That will set you off in 1,000 different directions and be counterproductive.  Also you do not want to just dismiss feedback.  This is where it is important for the team to approach the feedback from three very basic perspectives: a) common sense; b) what will make the customer experience better; and c) what is “doable” and actionable based on resources, priorities and strategy. Here is a recent post on how we acted on customer feedback.

5. Social Media is Not the Marketing  Savior  – Don’t get me wrong, using social media is a low cost way to build brand awareness for your startup, get leads, make connections to though leaders, get great introductions to partners, manage your startup’s reputation and respond to customer issues.  Frankly doing all of this via Twitter, Facebook, a blog and other social media channels is a must these days for most startups.  BUT, doing all that does not guarantee success.  Frankly, these days doing all of things and having a social media strategy allows you just to play in the game.  In order to win and really succeed as a startup (and be a repeat MVP like Lebron James), you need to give your customers a great customer experience, make your product easy to use and help your customers solve a problem that they have.  As my friend Shashi B has told me before, no amount of marketing, social media or marketing campaigns will protect your company from a sucky product! Make your product great, make sure your customers are happy and that they evangalize your product and the marketing then comes a lot easier.  That actually will make the social media marketing easier as Zappos has demonstrated. In fact, here is a good post on the story of Zappos with an excellent and informative powerpoint deck that is worth a read.

Let us know if you have any lessons learned from your startup or small business.

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Probably my favorite of the super hero movie characters, Iron Man, makes his much anticipated return today in Iron Man 2.  I remember when the first Iron Man came out – about at the same time when The Dark Knight was out – and thinking this movie and the character are just going to be another lame super hero movie.  But I was soooo wrong.  The movie, Iron Man, had an awesome story, great visuals, it was really funny and a great cast.  It truly was so different, at least in my eyes, than the typical comic magazine turned big budget movie.

So can small businesses (and even startups) learn a few things from the movie and Tony Stark who is Iron Man? Absolutely and it would be fitting that we do because after all Tony Stark is the entrepreneur and the head of the fictional Stark Industries.  So here are a few learnings we small businesses can all learn from Iron Man:

1. Be Innovative:  At the beginning of the first Iron Man, Stark was not only holed up in a cave-prison in Afghanistan, but also surrounded by a massively armed set of guards called the Ten Rings.  What did he do, he improvised and out of basically scrap Stark created the Iron Man suit (v1.0) in that cave to take on his guards.  Here is where small businesses may really identify with this parallel of being surrounded and having to break out in order to get customers to recognize that you exist.  By being innovative in a way that helps your customers and solves a problem for them, you can break your business out and get more exposure.  Lesson Learned: Continually look to innovate and improve not only your product, but also your business processes to make yourself more efficient, nimble and flexible in the marketplace.   That way you can break out of that cave and get your customers attention. By the way, here are 4 Tips to Spark Innovation in Your Small Business by Prasad Thammineni, the CEO of OfficeDrop.  It is an excellent post.

2. Avoid Distractions & Stay Focused:  The man underneath the Iron Man suit, Tony Stark, is a serious playboy who likes the wine, women and parties (kinda like that joker QB from Pittsburgh!).  What’s wrong with a few martinis before a big fight, Tony probably thinks?  So he has ample distractions to take him away from his efforts to protect the world against the “bad guys.”  But, Tony does ultimately succeed and actually innovates by building a new Iron Man suit and some seriously awesome weaponry. He does this by putting those distractions aside and staying focused on the tasks at hand.  Small businesses and startups suffer from the same issue of being bombarded by near constant distractions from achieving our goals.  We have to learn to channel our inner Tony Stark and put aside the distractions so we can always remember to focus on our core business goals.  Lesson Learned:  Know your weaknesses that can lead to your business being distracted and set up a method for steering clear of those distractions so you can remain focused on your goals. Here is a good post that has tips for small businesses on Staying Focused on the Tasks that Matter by Ali Hale.

3. Have a Great Advisors and Business Partners:  Pepper Potts is Stark’s assistant and James Rhodes is Stark’s military advisor.  Potts continually works to keep Stark on the straight and narrow away from his numerous vices.  Rhodes, on the other hand, bails out Starks and also gives him continual guidance on all things military and weapons capabilities.  Both Potts and Rhodes play a pivotal role in helping Stark live up to all of the Iron Man hype and deliver on his important promises.  Small businesses and especially startups are just like Tony Stark in need of that guidance.  With all of the distractions, endless choices that small businesses have to make and the pressures to stay ahead of the competition by being innovative, having strong business advisors and partners is critical for success.  Without their guidance and direction, being successful in your business is that much harder.  Lesson Learned:  It really is worthwhile to take the time to run ideas by mentors and seek out advisors that have been there before!  Getting guidance from others, especially successful entrepreneurs, on key business decisions and strategic goals may really pay off in the long run for your business. Here is a post about how we have found advisors to be helpful at KikScore called, Why Didn’t We Think of That.

4. Take risks:  Stark’s original Iron Man suit was not only innovative, but it was a huge risk.  But with the help of his cellmate, he measured his risks and builds that suit of armor.  Stark was surrounded by risks before he created his new invention – having limited time to build it, creating it in hiding while being watched by his guards and all of the while being severely injured and getting no treatment.  But Stark believed in his invention and had laser-like focus to quickly build the suit with the help of his cellmate partner, Dr. Yinsen.  His risk paid off in that he was able to escape from the Ten Rings.  Being risk-adverse, is simply not an option for small businesses especially in our hyper-competitive marketplace.  Therefore small businesses need to be prepared to take acceptable levels of risk after understanding and appreciating the consequences of the risk and taking steps to mitigate those risks.  Lesson Learned:  Instead of running away from risk, sometimes small businesses need to accept and take the risks in implementing (or even changing) your business strategy and tactics to create major success.

5. Be Resilient:  In the movie, Stark’s spirit and will are continually tested either by himself or by the villains.  During his slugfest with the Ten Rings and later in the movie with Obadiah Stane’s much bigger suit, Spark in his own Iron Man suit keeps taking vicious hit after hit.  But Stark  continually gets back up time and time again after these multiple and brutal hits.  Then at the very end, in the heat of battle Stark enlists Potts to help him out.  After all of the hits Iron Man has taken, he and Potts creatively lure Stane to his doom and Iron Man finally prevails.  Small businesses and startups should remember that need for resiliency and the ability to get back on your feet again after falling or even taking a hit from a competitor.  That ability to repeatedly get back up, learn from your mistakes and take those hits, can really pay off in the long run by making your business stronger.   Lesson Learned: Your small business may make mistake or take hits, the key is to keep fighting.  If you adjust, stay flexible and keep fighting back, your business can eventually prevail. Remember, as the management and business guru Jim Collins and author of Good to Great has said, “Resiliency (not perfection) is the signature of greatness, be it in a person, an organization, or a nation!”

Small business and Iron Man really do have a lot in common.  So try to keep your small business  focused, resilient and take those risks while being innovative and seeking out guidance from partners and key advisors.

How do you think a small business can be like Iron Man?

Enjoy Iron Man 2!

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This is the second in a two part series on leadership traits and skills that can help increase the chances of startup and small business success.  We discussed the first 5 leadership traits in a recent post. This post covers the next 5 skills.

There are literally thousands of books and probably many more blog posts on how to succeed in a start up or small business.  There are some great sites solely devoted to these topics like the Small Company Blog and StartupNation. Books on leadership in business are also everywhere including ones by like Jack Welch’s Straight from the Gut and Jim Collins who wrote Good to Great and Built to Last. This posts, however, actually tries to bridge these two areas and discuss leadership traits and skills that can help a startup or small business succeed.

In my time at Kikscore and also in conversations with friends, contacts and folks I have met at conferences like SXSW, there seems to be a consensus that the following traits really can help bolster your company:

6. Always Think about Costs:  Spending too much money too fast can kill your startup or small business. Paul Graham, a partner at well-known incubator Y-Combinator lists the failure to control costs as one of the main mistakes that can destroy your business. So it is critical that a startup or small business constantly be thinking about the costs of running their business.  This may sound like it is obvious, but I have found myself at times just saying with our startup – “We can afford that, lets go for it!”  That is dangerous thinking because if that thinking takes over your business, before you know it the business is bleeding money. So instead, for every expenditure a leader needs to ask: 1) Do I really need to spend this money?;  2) Is there a cheaper way for me to accomplish the same goal? and 3) What do expect to get out of this investment?  Then its also important to follow up and assess whether the money was in fact well spent after the fact.  Check out this post on 16 Strategies for Cash Stapped Businesses by Marissa Levin at the Women Grow Business Blog for help in this area. Also check out these 10 Money Saving Tools for Small Business.

7. Be Accountable and Demand Accountability: For startups and small businesses, it is easy to avoid accountability because teams are small and if something does not get done someone else steps in to pick up the slack.  But this lack of accountability can decrease morale, create tension between partners and lead to the business not achieving its full potential. Therefore members of startups and small businesses need to create a culture of accountability for both themselves and the team.  Amber Riviere writes at WebWorker Daily that an Accountability Partner is a good way to make sure you stay on track for your own goals.  Startups and small businesses need to make sure that each teammate serves as an Accountability Partner to each other.  Therefore you can demand accountability for yourself and also across the team.  This skill is also intertwined with Trait #2, Take & Give Feedback! Accountability goes hand in hand with accepting feedback.

8. Have Clear Milestones & Objectives for the Business: The accountability that we just discussed has to be based on something.  It based on clear goals, milestones and objectives for the startup or small business.  As we have covered before, these items are key to keeping a company focused.  The milestones and the objectives, if clearly defined, also allow the various members of a startup or the small business to stay on the same page.  As the Small Company Blog discussed in a recent post, all of this is critical in order to maintain a shared vision of the company.  It is the role of the members of a startup or a small business to measure everything that they are doing for the company against these milestones and objectives.  Even more importantly, it is critical that company goals are reviewed and appropriately updated to take into account new business opportunities or changes in market conditions.  A static set of milestones and goals can be just as deadly as none at all!

9. Over Communicate: In large companies, its almost a staple for managers to be trained to over-communicate to their staff, especially in times of change.  On the flip side, startups and small businesses can slip into the path of having information remain tightly held by founders and owners.  This is one area where startups and small businesses should strive to do exactly what management gurus recommend.  Communicate.  Communicate. And keep Communicating!!! To who you may ask?  To everyone.  Communicate with fellow partners and employees in the company.  Communicate with vendors, partners and outsourced contractors.  And finally, go well beyond so you over-communicate with your customers.  When in doubt, pick up the phone and call or email and check in with your customers. The ability to communicate is critical to a success of a leader at a startup or small business.

10. Always Seek out Guidance:  As a startup or small business owner you should come to grips with the fact that many people have been in very similar shoes as you are.  So why not seek out guidance from those other people about the challenges you face?  Chances are they may have faced the same challenges that you are dealing with right now. Paul Mullan at Bloggertone uses the great saying in a post ““To know the road ahead, ask those coming back” when imploring people to Ask For Directions! The lesson from this is tap into your network and your friends of friends.  At KikScore, we found out first hand that not only does our network help us out with guidance but through a simple 15 minute conversation with a close friend, we discovered a whole new channel opportunity for us.   Startup and small business leaders should not be shy to talk to their contacts in order to get feedback on any assortment of items including strategic goals, marketing, partnership opportunities, management challenges, expansion of operations, hiring and a whole host of other items.  All you have to do is be motivated enough to ask for the guidance!  You will be surprised with how many people will Pay it Forward!

11.  Lose the Ego: This is a quick bonus trait.  As startups and small businesses grow, the dynamics of a team change.  The dynamics of the leadership and management also change.  Often the change can be traced back to growing egos, needs to claim credit and demanding recognition.  Leaders should do everything to lose that ego.  In the end, if they are selfless in their acts and are focusing on making sure they are doing what is truly right for the business and putting aside their ego, that will help the management and the company ease that transition to a more successful and growing startup or small business.  Also it will save the business from the perils of dealing with egos and all of the baggage that is typically created from dueling egos or a super ego in the company.

So these traits and the skills we covered in the first part of this series are some of the key characteristics I have seen in my experience.  Of course, these traits and skills are not the only traits you need for success.  So please tell us what you think about the traits and skills you have seen in successful startups and small business.

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