Barry H. Cohen - Start-Up Smarts: The Thinking Entrepreneurs Guide to Starting and Growing Your Business

The advice in the sections on fundraising strategies and options is worth the price of the book many times over. Its real-world advice that is based on fact, not theory.

BRYAN EMERSON,
President and CEO, Starlight Investments,
specialists in early-stage funding

What makes Start-Up Smarts different from any other start-up book out there are the real-world stories from successful entrepreneurs. Not only do these interviews provide guidance and advice; perhaps more importantly, they inspire and show that dreams can come true.

BOB WATSON,
Senior Vice President, the Ad Council;
former SVP, Newspaper Association of America

Start-Up Smarts is an entertaining read and a solid practical foundation for would-be entrepreneurs. Loaded with timely advice and valuable suggestions, I encourage anyone considering starting a business to read this book to get a head start!

MARIA CIRINO,
Co-Founder and Managing Director,
.406 Ventures; Co-Founder, Guardent Security;
former Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year

The Internet and new media are changing the barriers to startups everywhere, so the section on the new businesses you can start in todays economy is particularly valuable, timely, and unique. As someone who has seen the impact of major trends in both my dot.com start-up and my recent radio start-up, I know the advice here is particularly importantand just not available anywhere else.

DAVID GOW,
Founder, Chairman, and CEO,
Gow Communications; former CEO and
CFO of Ashford.com, a publicly traded
online retailer of luxury goods

This is the book for everyone who thinks they have that better idea but doesnt know how to turn it into a business. It is like having a good friendwho has been there beforewalk you through every step of the start-up process, calming you down, providing real-world insights, and creating a clear path to success.

SHIRREL RHOADES,
Editorial Director, Saturday Evening Post;
former Executive Vice President,
Marvel Entertainment; former Owner
and CEO, Opportunity magazine

START-UP
SMARTS

START-UP
SMARTS

THE THINKING ENTREPRENEURS
GUIDE TO STARTING AND
GROWING YOUR BUSINESS

BARRY H. COHEN AND MICHAEL RYBARSKI

Copyright 2010 by Barry H. Cohen and Michael Rybarski All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

Published by Adams Business, an imprint of Adams Media,
a division of F+W Media, Inc.
57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322. U.S.A.
www.adamsmedia.com

Networking on Steroids originally appeared in Radio & Records,
October 19, 2007. Copyright Radio & Records, Inc.
Reprinted by permission.

ISBN 10: 1-4405-0262-5
ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-0262-0
eISBN: 978-1-4405-1291-9

Printed in the United States of America.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available from the publisher.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a
Committee of theAmerican Bar Association and a
Committee of Publishers and Associations

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Adams Media was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters.

This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.
For information, call 1-800-289-0963.

To our wives, Deborah and Jan...

Who, with grace and style, provide us with the support
entrepreneurs needand who are entrepreneurial in their
own right. And to our parents, Aaron and Carol Cohen
and Walter and Dorothy Rybarski, for doing what it took
to provide us with our entrepreneurial DNA.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our editors and the staff at Adams Media for their support of this project. We would also like to thank the mentors and business partners weve had who helped shape our entrepreneurial perspective and who have been there when we needed them most. We would also like to thank the many highly qualified experts who have consented to interviews for this book. Their knowledge truly deepens the value you will receive by reading it. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: Without their combined experiences, abilities, and perspectives, we could not have generated this real-world guide.

It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause. Who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Man in the Arena
speech April 23, 1910

Table of Contents

Chapter 1:
Bulletproof Your Business Concept

Chapter 2:
Develop a Smart-Start Business Plan

Chapter 3:
New Ways to Attract Your Funding

Chapter 4:
Build a Smart-Start Company Structure

Chapter 5:
Create an Augmented Product Line

Chapter 6:
Generate Smart-Start Marketing

Chapter 7:
Accelerate Your Sales into High Gear

Chapter 8:
New Ways to Manage People, Systems, and
Support Systems

Chapter 9:
Execute a Winning Growth Strategy

Chapter 10:
Build on Other Peoples Success: Franchises,
Partnerships, and Purchases

Chapter 11:
10 Great Businesses You Can Start Right Now

Appendix A:
Real-World Start-Up Stories

Appendix B:
Sample Private Placement Memorandum

Appendix C:
Reference Guide for Start-Ups

Appendix D:
An Executive Summary Template

Introduction

EVERY YEAR MORE THAN 600,000 PEOPLE DARE TO START A BUSINESS. Most of those businesses are smallhair salons, restaurants, retail stores; some are mid-sized; and many are done through franchise arrangements. Some aim to create a better life for the entrepreneur and his family; others aim to change the world. About half of them will fail. Yet all of them share this one key characteristic: the entrepreneur is committing himself and taking a risk in a way most people never will. These entrepreneurs are pioneering heroes in many ways, doing things that no one else has done before. Many of them know their task will be difficult. For most of us, business has become a zero-sum gameone in which for someone to win someone else must lose. Competitors, technological innovation, the media, and consumers may all be taking aim at our business goals, armed with new and heavy weaponry. Yet, even in the face of new and more competent competitors, these entrepreneurs say, Im in. I want to play. And for many, Im betting it all. We applaud and admire you and hope the experiences we and our clients have had can help your chances of success.