The need to be creative is the natural motivation to get organized. The structure and constraints of preparation and organization demonstrate your commitment to the creative task at hand, and become an important part of the creative ritual itself.

Introducing the Stability of Organization on One Level Opens Up Creativity on Another

Organization and creativity are not mutually exclusive. They are two sides of the same coin.
– The Startup Daily

Leaders often forget that they are perpetually in a fishbowl, and that employees attempt to dissect meaning from everything the leader does, not just what they say.

A Leader Must Model the Behaviors They Want from Their Team

Adept leaders use this to their advantage. Even symbolic acts can be used to remind people what is expected of them.

Nothing is more corrosive to a leader’s credibility than when they say they want one behavior, but demonstrate another through their actions.
– The Startup Daily

Larger companies are able to use their scale to define the rules of their industry, and do so to their advantage. This works very well when the industry is stagnant, but leaves them unable to adapt quickly to fast-changing competition.

When You’re Small, Being Faster than Your Competitors is Your Biggest—and Sometimes Only—Advantage

Forget the pursuit of perfection, and just be the best at getting better fast. Use your speed and agility to run between the legs of the Goliaths in your industry.
– The Startup Daily

Repeated studies have shown that one of the best predictors of success is believing that you will succeed. However, this is not the same as believing you will succeed easily.

Don’t Just Visualize Your Success, Visualize the Steps You Will Take to Make Your Success Happen

Being a realistic optimist means understanding that success requires persistance and hard work. It is shortsighted and unrealistic to focus on what you want without considering what it takes to get it.
The Startup Daily

Artists have long understood that what is left out often has a greater impact than what is included. This is also true when giving a presentation.

Your audience is not going to remember most of what you say during a presentation. But they will remember what they thought about what you said.

If You Want Your Audience to Remember Your Message, You have to Give Them Space to Reach the Conclusions on Their Own

Provide them with just enough information, and allow them the time to reflect and fill in the blanks themselves.

A memorable presentation is a conversation, and the audience needs a chance to play their role.
– The Startup Daily

The 80/20 rule seems to appear everywhere we look. 80% of a company’s sales are typically made by 20% of the salesforce. 80% of sales are usually of 20% of the products. But perhaps the most interesting insight for business owners is that 80% of a business’s profits come from 20% of it’s customers.

Focus on Serving the 20% of Your Customers that Provide 80% of Your Profits

Meeting the needs of 20% of your customers is far easier than meeting the needs of 100%. Yet refocusing on serving these top revenue producers will ultimately be more profitable.

When you excel at meeting the needs of that segment, you will attract more customers that are similar to that profitable 20%, and fewer of the less profitable 80%.
– The Startup Daily

While some businesses are revolutionary, most are evolutionary. Someone has likely already been successful doing something similar with a different product or in a different market.

This is a good thing. It means your model is proven and it gives you a shortcut to explain what you are doing to others. When you say you are creating “The TOMS of Bottled Water”, anyone who is familiar with that company will instantly understand what you are trying to do.

Describing Your Company as “The (This) of (That)” Can Help Clarify Your Strategy to Others

When pitching to investors, using an analog gives the investor confidence that there is a proven roadmap for the business to follow. For the entrepreneur, researching these analogs can help uncover opportunities to pursue and pitfalls to avoid.
– The Startup Daily

The folks at Method have turned this 80′s role model for resourcefulness into a mascot for doing more with less.

When You Are Small and Scrappy, You Have to Find Creative Solutions with the Resources Available Right Now

The combination of creativity and a can-do attitude can help you tackle seemingly unsolvable problems and stand up to competitors with far deeper pockets. Find your inner MacGyver, and don’t let the lack of resources get in your way.
– The Startup Daily

The world is changing fast and technology even faster. Don’t get blinded to major changes happening in the marketplace because you are hyper-focused on developing your product—a product that is designed to compete in the market as it existed when development started.

When Undertaking a Major Development Project, Don’t Forget to Come up for Air

It’s better to cut your losses halfway through a project and start again than it is to develop to completion a product that is no longer relevant.
– The Startup Daily

The world is changing fast and technology even faster. Don’t get blinded to major changes happening in the marketplace because you are hyper-focused on developing your product—a product that is designed to compete in the market as it existed when development started.

When Undertaking a Major Development Project, Don’t Forget to Come up for Air

It’s better to cut your losses halfway through a project and start again than it is to develop to completion a product that is no longer relevant.
– The Startup Daily