Never Borrow Startup Funds from Friends and Family

In the beginning when the idea of some hot new startup idea is fresh in your mind, but may require considerable resources, you’ll be tempted to borrow money from friends and family. You’ll go on about how they’ll be rich and how the idea is sure to succeed because no one has ever…

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The Benefits of an Umbrella Company

I briefly mentioned using an umbrella company in 6 Tips to Picking a Great Company/Product Name, but I want to go a little further in explaining. An umbrella company is one company name that you run all of your startups under. You may have 5 startups, all with different product names and domain…

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The Self-Serve Startup

A solo or home-based startup is a wonderful thing when done right. My favorite startups are the ones which are self-sustainable without babysitting them. When I come up with another idea for a site, I’ll do a good bit of research to make sure it hasn’t been done already, will see how…

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6 Tips to Choosing a Great Company/Product Name

When naming your company you’re naming your baby. So give your baby a name that will still be a good name when she’s all grown up. Here are some tips to help you get it right. At this point you probably have a name in mind, or a number of names, and have been searching domain…

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Don't Let Them Know You're Alone

I’m not going to tell how you should run your business, or how much privacy you should give up. I’ve run both closed and open door businesses, and they both have advantages for your business. But since I have quite a bit of experience in keeping my identity hidden when running…

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The Privacy aspect of a Private Enterprise

When a brick-and-mortar business sets up shop, such as a restaurant or shoe store, they have a business space, employees, a published phone number, and other items that identify the business. As the proprietor on the internet, you expose only what you want to. Depending on the volume and demands of…

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The Startup Next Door Philosophy

Many times, startup founders have this plan: Come up with a winning idea Figure out how many people you’ll need to hire to make the idea come to life Figure out how many server and other datacenter resources you’ll need to support millions of users Hire or contract enough to get a…

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My Evil Plan

I’ll be adding articles that deal with: Bootstrap business philosophy Startup advice Tips for business privacy IT advice for the non-techies and experienced IT folks Free and cheap services to outsource your work so you can work more efficiently I also plan to feature bootstrapped startups…

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What are you, some kinda expert?

I guess so. I’ve started my own web-based business more than once. I’ve succeeded and I’ve failed, but the successes have made the failures worth it. I’m John Washam. I’m a web programmer, startup junkie, and lifelong friend of the coffee bean. My startups are…

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What is StartupNextDoor?

StartupNextDoor is a site for small business that thinks big. If you work at a startup that has VC or Angel funding in the millions of dollars, is featured on TechCrunch, has scaled for 500 million monthly page views and is hoping to be the next Facebook/EBay/Craigslist, your company will not be…

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