There is a great article in this week's BusinessWeek magazine entitled 'Fertile Ground for Startups' that illustrates the opportunities that are at hand for truly innovative ideas in today's economy.  The article outlines that investment by angel investors and venture capitalists is up significantly over the first half of this year, and that as many as 50,000 new businesses will obtain some form of angel or venture investment in 2009 in the US.

One of my pet peeves (and one of the main reasons I haven't spent a lot of time in larger more bureaucratic organizations) is process for the sake of process, and I truly believe that management controls used poorly constitute exactly this problem.  One of the most innovation stifling innovations is the standard operating procedure, specifically if it implemented before there is a specific need for control or before an organization has grown to a size that would justify requiring that level of control.

As small business owners, one of the key sources of new business will be your network.  That means that the more effective you are at the art of networking, the more likely you are to generate quality leads and increase your business and professional footprint.  For those seeking new employment, the principles are the same but the target audience might differ.  I offer these tips not as someone who considers themselves as an expert in the art of networking, but as someone who is constantly learning and evolving - someone who is reaching for the stars and developing his networking skills to get there.

In Canada, 94.6% of businesses by number are 'small' meaning that they have less than 50 employees.  The actual number startled me a bit when I read it so I felt I had to dig deeper.  Looking across the provinces and territories, the numbers are fairly uniform - all within one percent or so - something that really surprised me.  I would have expected to find higher percentages in the prairie provinces where there is a higher percentage of agriculture or in Ontario and Quebec, the hotbeds of economic activity.  The report really gets interesting when you look at employment and GDP however.  These same small businesses that make up almost 95% of the business environment employ only 40% of the population (26.7% in goods producing sectors and 73.3% of service producing sectors) and create only 24% of the Nation's GDP.

We all know the 80/20 Rule, also known as the Pareto Principle.  We've heard it over and over and seen the power of the rule in our own businesses.  80% of our business comes from 20% of our customers.  80% of our problems are solved by 20% of our efforts.  The richest 20% of the people in our world own 80% of the resources.  It's powerful because it's true.  Unfortunately we don't take the principle into consideration enough when we are looking at our markets and deciding where to spend our time.

If you are like me, you book a lot of meetings and traditionally you might offer up several days and times to a client for a potential meeting.  The problem was always that if you offered Tuesday at 10am, Thursday at 1pm, and Friday at 9am to one client then you essentially had to block off all three times in your calendar so you didn't wind up double booking yourself.  Tungle solves this problem in a very unique (and powerful) way.

Putting together the compelling story that will sell your product or services can feel like either finding a needle in a haystack (if you are unsure of who your target market is) or limiting your potential (if you are guilty of platform thinking).  I have always been sure that my target market is the Entrepreneurs who run new and small businesses in Halton and Hamilton so I didn't have the problem of the haystack, but I come from a generalist background so colour me guilty of platform thinking.  I could not find the right way to package and wrap the compelling value proposition of Key Consulting to my target market.

In a world where 'platform' thinking is becoming the norm and vertical solutions are more a function of a configured solution within a platform than a specific solution designed with the deep needs of a vertical in mind, technology professionals are having a harder and harder time communicating specific value when they step out of the role of employee and start talking with potential customers in their own business.  Developers build platforms and not industry solutions, consultants offer broad services rather than pointed value, and businesses serve markets rather than market segments.  Platform thinking is diluting our specific business value and making it difficult for decision makers to commit to our services.  It is time to bring solutions back to the fore if you are looking to communicate value to your clients and generate growth.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but hopefully it will introduce you to some new titles or authors that you might not have otherwise picked up that may be able to help you in some aspect of your small business.  This isn't about navigating the corporate heirarchy or mastering MBA level statistics or theories, it is a list designed to address the specific needs and challenges faced by small businesss and Entrepreneurs.  The list is in no particular order (I'm not big on rankings) so the last book on the list might be just as helpful for your specific needs as book number one.  I hope you enjoy!

Following up is a simple one time activity that anyone can do.  Leaving a meeting with an expected 'follow-up' date or meeting is easy (provided the meeting went well), but committing to something of real value during a meeting that would require you to 'follow through' is much less common.