You’re an entrepreneur with a big idea and you’re poised to disrupt your target industry. Intellectual property is key to your success. To get your company moving, you may bring in others such as co-founders, employees, consultants, advisors, developers and creative talent. Founders, employees, developers, suppliers, and other contractors should all be bound by a written agreement stating that all intellectual property created in connection with the services performed for the startup is assigned to the startup. Absent a written agreement, the individual or entity providing the services will generally have ownership rights in such intellectual property, which will cause problems for the startup when it is looking to raise capital or be acquired. You have to set yourself up for the future by making sure that all of the intellectual property developed along the journey belongs to the company.

Failure to understand your cash position and current and future cash needs can ruin a business, even a profitable one.The sad truth is that cash-flow surprises kill many startups. Overall, 90 percent of small-business failures are caused by poor-cash flow, according to Dunn & Bradstreet. To prevent becoming part of the 90 percent, you'€™ll need to maintain a focus on cash. When it comes to the financial management of a growing company, always remember that cash is king.

Many businesses struggle not because they can't generate sales, but because they don't manage cash. There is nothing more important to the success of your business than your system for managing cash due from sales through your process of billing and collections. You can have lots of customers, but if you don't collect money from them, you will go out of business.

The objectives of public relations - building credibility, shaping reputation and reaching an audience advertising cannot buy, and how to set PR goals.

In the early stages of a business, you often have two simultaneous problems that affect the efficiency of your sales process. First, it is often the founder or management team that are the only ones that understand the nuances of your market. Second, because you are arguably providing a unique product or service, your target market or the use of your product or service may be undefined. As a result of these two factors, you must create a set of standard sales materials that embodies the founder's knowledge and defines the market.

Many small-business owners mistakenly believe they cannot afford to offer benefits. But while going without benefits may boost your bottom line in the short run, than penny-wise philosophy could strangle your business's chances for long-term prosperity. Offer the right benefit, and your business may just jump-start its growth. Give employees the benefits they value, and they'll be more satisfied, miss fewer workdays, be less likely to quit, and have higher commitment to meeting the company's goals.

One of the most important aspects of marketing your company or product is its position in the market. This is often overlooked because positioning isn’t as sexy as getting Facebook Fans or Twitter Followers. However, it’s the best way to separate yourself from the competition, especially if you are in a crowded space. I have seen far too many companies build their product or service, and then leave the product’s positioning to the marketing department. People rarely pay attention to each of the features and functionalities, but strong positioning always stands out.

Many small-business owners mistakenly believe they cannot afford to offer benefits. But while going without benefits may boost your bottom line in the short run, than penny-wise philosophy could strangle your business's chances for long-term prosperity. Offer the right benefit, and your business may just jump-start its growth. Give employees the benefits they value, and they'll be more satisfied, miss fewer workdays, be less likely to quit, and have higher commitment to meeting the company's goals.

Whether you are marketing to consumers or marketing to businesses, understanding the landscape of digital marketing is a must. These trends impact how individuals digest informations and should be understood as you craft your marketing efforts.

When you get started, you will start to enter into contracts with customers. When you do so, it is important to have a standard form contract that puts you in a position to protect your company.

Your entrepreneurial wins and why we must celebrate them. You must appreciate being challenged because it means you are successful enough to be growing. Investors, customers and employees are attentive to your venture because you are bringing some- thing that is valuable to them.

The pros and cons of public relations - the credibility and reach it buys you, set against the cost, the lack of control, and how hard it is to measure.

Hiring is hard. Do you give candidates a test? Do you ask about their experience, or pose theoretical situations to see how they think them through? These questions are hard enough for recruiters to answer, but even more of a mystery for entrepreneurs. While there’s no perfect formula, when it comes to finding talent, interviewing has to tell you a lot. Enhancing your talent efforts is a combination of creating a process for interviewing and improving how you interview candidates through that process.

Advisory boards can be an invaluable source of insight. Think of an advisory board as a collection of mentors that can provide individual expertise, provide you a sounding board for ideas, give you advice, introduce you to valuable contacts, and tell you when you’re potentially making a mistake.

You've worked from inception to birth and now your company is evolving. You might be bringing on co-founders, senior level team members and employees. You want everyone to be aligned to and share in the success of the business, but how do you determine how much equity to give everyone? The objective of employee equity is to make the first employees sensitive to feel an emotional ownership with your/your company’s great idea, its gripping product and the organization you are asking them to help grow. The percentage equity a hire gets depends on factors such as domain expertise, how early he joins (if he joins earlier, there is more risk and less stock), how critical the person is to the company and its funding, experience with associated ventures, whether or not he is replaceable, and connections. An equity premium may be considered if the employee is irreplaceable.

When you are advancing your business and thinking about building your sales team, it is important to have the right mix of talent. Sales teams require n different types of sales representatives. In a technology sales environment, two different types, the “hunter” and the “farmer,” each play a distinct role.

A company's mission, vision and values set the direction of the company. These may sound like things that only large companies need (or have the time to do) but you will quickly find, without an overall North Star and guiding direction, you can get lost quickly. Especially in the constantly changing environment of a new venture, these are essential.

There are many factors that go into this determination: the nature of the industry, established players, competitive solutions, pricing models, market influences, nature of the disruption, and the list goes on. How do you understand when the market is ready for your product or service?

Until recently most public relations activity involved person-to-person contact between PR professionals and members of the media, such as journalists and television news reporters. However, several trends are developing that alter the tasks performed by PR people. In most cases these changes are the result of new Internet technologies that are quickly gaining widespread acceptance among Internet users and are becoming new media outlets in their own right.

As an entrepreneur, we think that the market needs our solution now and can’t understand why it is taking so long to get investors, win customers or attract employees. While this perspective can be exciting, it can also create misalignment of people, financial resources and expectations. Have you ever looked down the strip in Las Vegas and seen your hotel and decided it was not too far to walk? The backdrop of the strip creates an optical illusion. As you walk, you realize how far away it is. Had you known, you would have prepared differently.

You've worked from inception to birth and now your company is evolving. You might be bringing on co-founders, senior level team members and employees. You want everyone to be aligned to and share in the success of the business, but how do you determine how much equity to give everyone? One of the most difficult decisions you will have to take as a founder is how to distribute equity among your co-founder(s) and earliest employees. Equity negotiations can be a cause of disagreements and stress and yet, are absolutely necessary.

Getting out in front of employee issues as a startup can help you avoid some challenging issues down the line. Many of these issues can be avoided by putting in place some standard policies and documentation that deal with many employee issues. Below is a list of the top employment law issues startups face and what to consider when faced with these matters.’

No one likes to think about taxes. But as a startup you must consider them when you are making decisions about how to set up and run your company. When starting a business, there are some key tax issues to consider.

Many businesses struggle not because they can't generate sales, but because they don't manage cash. There is nothing more important to the success of your business than your system for managing cash due from sales through your process of billing and collections. You can have lots of customers, but if you don't collect money from them, you will go out of business. For your business to get paid efficiently, you need to establish several things, including payment methods and payment terms, billing and collections.

Founders must be able to put every dime they can into growing their startups. One main way to accomplish this is by saving as much money as possible on expenses. When founders must put a great deal of money into equipment, office space, and employees, there’s less money left over to spend on marketing and networking. That being said, there are often benefits to being with others and today there is a wide range of options of where to work.