Management Resources for Internet Businesses

• What To Do If Your Startup Is About To Fail
  Here is yet another truly helpful article by entrepreneur Jason Calacanis on keeping your business going, or letting it go. He makes several great points about entrepreneurs gaining credibility …
• Monetization for Startups
  We are always interseted in other people's approach to a profitable revenue model. In this presentation from FBFund Incubator summer, Dan Greenberg offers his point of view on monetization. We …
• Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow
  Many of us have heard about Maslow's pyramid strategy from our days of studying psychology. But how does it apply to businesses trying to get to the top? Successful entrepreneur Chip Conley …
• Business Execution
  Getting to the goal is what good management is all about, and you either do it, or you don’t.
• Managing the Digital Enterprise
  Here’s a soup-to-nuts course on Internet businesses, put together by Professor Rappa of North Carolina. You can jump to topics that you need, or go through it systematically as a student …
• Management Basics
  What does it take to really run a business? Ethics is a good starting point,
• Mission Statements
  Mission statements can be seen as optional, but according to this blog entry, they are as critical as your business plan. Take a look at the main points about mission statements, and be inspired.
• Startup Advisory boards
  Our first recommendation to anyone starting a business is to seek a few advisors. We have gained invaluable experience and advice by have advisors who knew the busines we were in. This article …
• Monetize
  New models for monetizing your web business
• Ten Startup Lessons Worth Knowing
  Hats off to mark Goldenson, for taking the time to be honest and share his experience with a failed startup. Most people hide in the sand, and then no one benefits. Mark has created an outstanding …
• Advice for Winning Competition: Kayak
  Entrepreneur Sam Shank is no innocent by-stander as he analyzes Kayak's chances for taking market share from TravelPost. Why? Well, he founded the original company upon which Kayak is now built. …
• Analysis of a Business - TravelPost and Kayak
  Entrepreneur Sam Shank, founder of DealBase, has taken his extensive expertise and shared it with us in the form of this competitive analysis. Here he is looking at how Kayak might take on …
• Focus is the Key to a Successful Startup
  The clock is always ticking, and the money (if you even have any) is running out by the day. With so little to leverage, you need to make sure that the focus of your company’s product offer …
• Managing Your Internet Business During Recession Years
  Here are some key principles for taking care of business during a recession.
• Considering D and O Insurance
  In the Spartina network, we have seen policies range from $1,700-$5,000 for the first million in coverage.

  This article provides an overview and encourages you to seek a few quotes. Seek a …

• Venture 360 Report: An Objective Analysis of Your Business
  Getting an objective business analysis attracts investors and helps you steer your business.
• Inside Out
  If you are chained to your desk, you may be missing the most important ways to grow your business … connections.
• Big Payoffs from your Board of Directors
  If you are still uncertain as to why you need a board, even for a small start-up, read this personal experience article.
• Beware the Sirens Song
  Keeping your eye on the goal, and doing what you do best, is a sure way to grow your business, internet or otherwise.
• Finding A Great Co-Founder
  It's always a dilemma: go it yourself, or share the work. When you are starting a new business, the idea of a co-founder can be a tough decision, particularly if you are reluctant to share the …
• Companies Need to Love Customer Service
  Good customer service is a great marketing tool, and makes you feel great too.
• Great Customer Service
  David Hornik writes about the need for great customer service, and points out rightly, that SaaS products, which have Service in their name, really need to pay attention. The two companies he …
• Lean Internet Startup
  In another information article, Eric shows the technology side of creating a lean startup. We have long been proponents of lean startups, (see our article on staffing,
• Startups in a Recession Grow, but Slow
  Here's a great article to read if you are uncertain about going ahead with your startup during a downcycle. The answer is to go for it. As the article states, ""At this point, it would be hard for …
• Typical Startup Mistakes
  In this blog article, there are some typical mistakes an early stage start-up makes. Here are the ones we feel are most important: 1. Don't price your product too low 2. Don’t let nonbelievers …
• People Make or Break Your Business
  Many angel investors will evaluate your company equally on the idea and the people who will implement the idea. This blog article by Growthink lists seven qualities of your management team that …
• Blue Ocean Strategy
  A "Blue Ocean" represents a market that is not crowded with competitors. In this highly readable book by two men from one of the leading business schools, located in France, the authors point out …
• Tough Talk for Tough Times: What the CEO Should Be Saying Now
  Perhaps you are the CEO, or else, you are hearing the CEO, or, you are a Board Member and want the CEO to talk. In any …
• Effective Internet Business Models
  Create an effective Internet Business Model by asking yourself the right questions.
• Startup Strategies in a Recession
  Here’s how to steer your ship through shallow waters.
• VC Advice to a Portfolio Company
  When economic times are tough, you need good advice and strategy to stay the course.
• The First-Time CEO's Recession Survival Guide
  What do you do when you have just started your company, and boom, a recession hits? Here’s a great blog entry that Glenn Kelman, the CEO of Redfin, an online real …
• An interview with Google's CEO Eric Schmidt
  Google CEO Eric Schmidt is interviewed in this video about Strategy and Innovation. It’s always great to learn from those who have succeeded.
• Franklin Covey Store - Planners, Calendars, Daily Planners and Personal Organizers
  One of the essential keys to success is getting organized: setting goals and meeting them. Franklin Covey planners have worked for us, as a way of really watching where our time goes, and making …
• Follow Your Compass
  As you build your company, it’s helpful to know that you can build your team with help from coaching organizations such as this one.
• Build a Self-Managing Team
  A key to good leadership is to know how to involve everyone in the success you want to achieve.
• Decision maker or consensus builder?
  What leadership style do you have as the CEO, and, which one works best?
• The Keys to Effective Delegation
  If you have a hard time delegating, relax…so do most other entrepreneurs, but, it is a skill you can learn, if you are willing.
• Solve Problems, Not Symptoms
  A good entrepreneur doesn’t waste time on the symptoms, but digs to the root of problems, and makes the changes where they make the most difference.
• Begin With the End In Mind
  Creating a strategy to take you somewhere is not useful, unless it is taking you where you actually want to go.
• Planning to Plan?
  If you keep putting off the task of creating a strategic business plan, perhaps it’s time to just do it.
• Technology for Humans: Gloom and Doom... But We Will Persevere
  How do you manage your new business in a downturn economic environment? How does it affect your business strategy, and raising money?
• The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
  Recommended by entrepreneur and founder of WebVanta (the software which powers this site), Michael Slater.
• Big Profits
  Don’t forget…the name of the game is to make money in all this. How do you manage your business to make cash flow positive?
• The Psychology of Entrepreneurial Misjudgment, part 1: Biases 1-6
  A great post that all your executive management team should read, so keep yourselves out of the mistake arena.
• HBS Working Knowledge
  If you want one place to go for in-depth research on just about any business topic, try this site. They gather the research of the Harvard Faculty here, and categorize it according to topic and …
• Tips for the Entrepreneur
  Google co-founder Larry Page provides several tips for entrepreneurs. Take it from one who knows how to build a company that consistently ranks among the top places to work. Watch his video, and …
• Software Architect and Enterprise Architect Skills Bibliography
  An excellent list of reading materials regarding not only software architecture, but also the building of your business.
• Managing with Aloha
  We dream of living in Hawaii, surrounded by the Aloha spirit of welcome and friendliness. Imagine if you could create the same spirit in the midst of your hard-working company, and still get a …
• Why vision statements matter
  One of the great venture capital blogs, BeyondVC offers some insight from a VC point of view about why you want to take the time to create your vision statement. Don’t forget to include it …
• What’s the difference between Mission and Vision?
  The more you know about creating mission and vision, the more inspired your company will be about what you are all about. More than that, you will actually KNOW what you …
• 3 Statements That Can Change the World: Mission / Vision / Values
  Creating a mission and vision statement is more than putting words on a piece of paper. It is some that becomes a compelling beacon for the future of your company, and, in the case of non-profits, …
• Basics of Developing Mission, Vision and Values Statements
  Why reinvent the wheel when everyone has already struggled through the process of creating a vision? Here’s an article that gives you some pointers on how to go about clarifying what your …
• How to Work with the Board of Directors
  After selecting a great board, now learn how to get the most out of their talent.
• Articulate Your Vision
  One of Spartina’s principles for emerging technology businesses is: take a step back and articulate a vision before you launch into strategy and marketing.
• How to Change the World: The Art of the Board Meeting
  By far one of our favorite entrepreneur writers, Guy again points out where we need to be awake: in the board meetings. He uses his usual humor, and light-handed approach to make a potentially dry …
• Board of Directors 101: How to Run a Meeting
  Picking up on a great article by Guy Kawasaki, Chrstine adds her on take on some important points about running a good board meeting. In short, you can have a great board, but if you don’t …
• The Tipping Point
  A new look at the impact that small changes can have on business and the world.
• Engineering Your Start-Up
  Covers the fundamentals of launching and growing an on-line business.
• Perseverance Through Adversity Leads to Success
  This is our number one entrepreneur rule… can you stick it out when the going gets tough?
• Selecting a Board of Directors
  Working successfully with a board of directors begins by making the correct choice for board members.
• Management
  Even if you are new to managing a business, you can make smart decisions by following in the footsteps of others who have succeeded.
• Successful Board Meetings
  Here are a few principles from Spartina to create a successful board meeting, besides the obvious: hold them regularly.
• Business Plan Archive
  An interesting non-profit archive of business plans. As far as I can see, they are not available on-line and they are more geared to learning institutions. However, it does look like you can sign …
• SMART Goal Setting -Specific for Cubicle Warriors
  Not everyone agrees on the definition of SMART, the acronym for goals. In this interesting look, we find an updated way of understanding goal setting, especially on an …
• A Definition for Business Ethics
  No business can start on the right foot without that foot standing in Business Ethics. But what do we mean by that term? Is it something that can be pinned down. The author of this article does a …
• Memo Writing
  Writing a good memo is a key part of being a good executive. You set the style for the rest of the company. Here’s a simple look at the basics. By now you may already know how to write a …
• Setting Product Goals
  After you read the overview article on setting goals, you are ready to set the goals for your product. In this article we fine tune the goal-setting process by looking at the questions you need to …
• The Coaching Organization
  Here’s a different kind of business model: supporting people to grow by coaching them.
• The Imperfect Board Member: Discovering the Seven Disciplines of Governance Excellence
  
• Creating S.M.A.R.T. Goals
  Here’s another look at creating SMART Goals that will help your executive team.
• SMART Goals
  The standard for goal-setting is to make goals SMART. This article looks at what that means in practical terms.
• Goal Setting: The Big Picture
  As part of your management strategy, you want to set a vision, mission, and achievable goals. We start by understanding goals in general, with Spartina’s principles.
• Building a Great Board, Boards and Advisors
  Inc. is known for its quality content; here they put their skills to use in an essential area for start-ups: building the board.
• Building a Board of Directors
  Another good resource to help you understand the role of the board and how to work with them.
• Venture Law Lines: The Startup Board of Directors
  A great place to read about the ins and outs of getting a board of directors.
• Canadian Law for Start-ups
  Resource for our Canadian readers; here is a law firm that specialized in start-ups. They have a great article on boards.
• Leadership vs. Management
  If you don’t yet know the difference between leading and managing, take time to read this article. It will make your business run ever more smoothly.
• Business Conferences, Training, and Seminars from Harvard Business Publishing
  If you are looking for business training, go to the top. Harvard offers the same quality in its conferences as it does in its school.
• The Shambhala Institute Leadership Training
  Using principles drawn from thousands of years ago, and translated into the most modern terms, this training creates the platform to really change the world of business.
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
  This classic book on leadership will never be outdated, as Covey calls upon basic human principles to apply to leading business and life.
• Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box
  This will radically change your management style… for the better. Learn how to really stop the buck from passing elsewhere.
• Leadership Principles
  Can you define leadership? Do you know how to embody it and find others who do as well? This is critical in starting or growing a business.
• Getting Real: The Book by 37signals
  Getting Real is the business, design, programming, and marketing philosophies of 37signals — a developer of web-based software used by over 1 million people and businesses in 70 countries.
• Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
  The true test of a great company is one that out last its founder. This book offers great insight into building a winning company culture.
• Small Business Management: Advice and Guides
  Here’s a great article on some of the key management issues you face starting your new business.
• The Startup Pyramid
  In this presentation from the FBFund Incubator summer, Sean Ellis gives a picturial understanding about strategy, and points out the pit falls that early stage startups encounter. He goes into …
• Project management, collaboration, and task software: Basecamp
  
• True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (J-B Warren Bennis Series)
  One of the books that can change your entire approach to leading your company, and leading your life.
• Holding a Company Retreat
  At key points in the life cycle of a company, it is essential to build cohesion among team members.