Small Business Advice – Pick of the Week April 3rd, 2021 | How to Advice for your Side-Hustle or Small Business

This week’s top stories include small business advice covering the following four topics:

How to Attract Angel Investors in 2021
Follow the ’70-20-10 Rule’ to Produce Your Best Work
How to Make Selling Your Business a Fulfilling Experience
4 Decisions That Will Increase Your Revenue and Business Growth

Each week we scour all the top business-related magazines and newspapers for articles with the best advice for the small business owner, so you do not have to.

How to Attract Angel Investors in 2021

Inc
By: Heidi Zak

In addition to being the CEO of ThirdLove, I am an active angel investor–predominantly in consumer-focused women-led startups. As an angel investor, I am always receiving inbound pitches from founders looking to raise their pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds.

Despite what the pandemic has done to businesses, the economy, and society as a whole, there has been no slowdown in deal flow for early-stage investors. If anything, the general consensus in the entrepreneurship community is that now is a terrific time to start a company–because there are an abundance of problems still to be solved in the world.

That said, just because a lot of entrepreneurs want to start a business doesn’t mean they all receive funding.

As an angel investor and someone who has built and is still running a company that is scaling, there are a few things I look for in every founder and startup I invest in. So if you are starting a business, thinking about starting a business, or already well on your way and looking to raise your next round, here are a few things I encourage you to do to build excitement and successfully raise funding.

Follow the ’70-20-10 Rule’ to Produce Your Best Work

Inc
By: Jessica Stillman

Most of us want to produce the best work possible. How do you pursue that goal? One approach is to aim for excellence. You study everything you can about your area, read obsessively about top performers, and anxiously practice your craft with an eye toward perfection.

This is one common-sense way to pursue excellence, but there’s another option as well. You could just throw quality out the window and produce a lot of work without worrying if it’s much good. Which path will get you closer to your personal best?

How to Make Selling Your Business a Fulfilling Experience

HBR
By: K Srikrishna

In 2012, Barry Chandler felt his dream had finally come true: He’d sold his marketing company to a publicly listed firm. His peers and family celebrated with him. He relocated from the Midwest to sunny San Diego. He was now the chief marketing officer for the company that had acquired his startup. He felt he “was at the top of the world.” Yet, within months he found himself wondering: If this was what every entrepreneur hoped for, why wasn’t he happier?

Barry is by no means alone. Most first-time entrepreneurs are ill prepared when it comes to selling their business. And a sale doesn’t always result in unmitigated happiness, even for experienced entrepreneurs who plan well ahead. Meanwhile others may find themselves extremely happy despite being saddled with personal debt and obligations after selling a business.

So, what should an entrepreneur do to make the sale of their business a happy and fulfilling event? Over the last several years I’ve researched this question and interviewed entrepreneurs from several countries who have sold their businesses over a two-decade period. In this article, I share three lessons from what I’ve learned.

Related Free Course: Buying or Selling a Small Business – What you need to know before you buy or sell.

4 Decisions That Will Increase Your Revenue and Business Growth

Entrepreneur
By: Cindy Constable

The Internet and social media have been amazing for entrepreneurs but have also created a shortsighted view of what it means to build a business. The online spaces tend to scoff at a formal business education because of the availability of software, technology, and access entrepreneurs utilize to develop a business.

You can create a sales funnel around an offer, runs ads to that funnel, and start getting sales. But what happens when the revenue comes in? It’s not uncommon for that revenue to flow to an entrepreneur’s personal bank account to pay bills with no thought about taxes, savings, and investing back into the business.

Traditional business principles applied to an ever-growing digital world can be a powerful way to build a business. It allows entrepreneurs to build a solid foundation and all the elements that a business needs to scale growth.

Exponential growth would cripple a lot of business, and they are too many entrepreneurs that have no clue what to do next.

These four strategic business growth decisions increase revenue, help an entrepreneur scale beyond always being in the business, and create a company that can withstand the unexpected challenges of entrepreneurship.