photo credit: woodleywonderworks

Entrepreneurs (most of them) see insurance as a ‘cost’ that you can get away with. Let me remind them – insurance is an investment, not a cost for a startup.

Future is uncertain, and so are the associated risks. Businesses can’t predict a ‘disaster’. May be these risks are small or even affordable, but there is a good chance you are underestimating them. The chances of your business catching fire or getting hit by a flood are low, but can you imagine the disruption that it may cause?

A criminal act, calamity or anything minor can cause major disruption. Entrepreneurs leave the insurance phase for later, but I would suggest getting your startup insured as soon as your business is launched.

Many clients also ask for insurance details before they are prepared to do business with you. Public liability is important for many clients. It also helps you build credibility.

For more information on this, please visit:
http://www.startups.co.uk/6678842907520208545/why-you-need-insurance.html

Despite not being able to trade, you will still have to pay your staff, rent and other costs. You could lose a very significant amount of business or incur heavy costs while attempting to maintain it.

photo credit: jmmcdgll

Forming a sales proposal is one of the most complicated tasks for startups. While they’re extremely important to a business, they’re not really the easiest thing to form and manage. An interesting service (startup) is launching today – Proposable, which aims at simplifying the process of making proposals (with some nice new web features)

Proposable is a web- based application that allows you to create and deliver sales proposals. It has a number of templates and tools that offer high customization and standardization. The most interesting part of the app is the analytics features such as instant notification when your proposal is being viewed, for how long viewers spend time on the proposal and what they’re exactly looking for.

Another fascinating feature is that updates can be made and viewed in realtime. Recipients can add comments and get feedback via SMS or email. All of this online – another brilliant cloud computing based web app for startups.

Talking about the cost, the most impressive feature is that it offers a 30 day free trial (of any package) .If you wish to continue using it you have 3 packages to choose from and all are quite reasonable.

This web app will save time, effort and is good value for money - recommended for startups. For further details we suggest you read this post in TechCrunch 

photo credit: billaday

The Wikipedia definition of a Term sheet – a bullet-point document outlining the material terms and conditions of a business agreement

It can be described as a non- binding document (like a Letter of Intent) which records two or more parties’ intentions to enter into a future agreement.

Venture Capitalists (VCs) backing out of a term sheet agreement for any reason can be very harmful to a company’s reputation.

If the VC has agreed on the conditions of a term sheet earlier, and then for some reason has backed out, then it’s not his fault. The term sheet by no means is legally binding upon any party involved in the contract.

VCs generally have valid reasons before they decide to back out from investing. Any void term sheet can be devastating for a startup company. If one VC backs out of an offer, then other ‘potential investors’ will look at a startup suspiciously and raising investment will become difficult.

Just remember – be diligent, don’t over promise and NEVER forget that a term sheet is not legally binding.

Read the following articles for a greater insight on the matter:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/02/how-your-term-sheet-affects-yo.php
http://cdixon.org/2010/02/03/backing-out-of-a-term-sheet/

It was at Bessemer that I learned you never back out on a term sheet except in cases of fraud etc. I never saw them back out on one nor have I heard of them doing so

photo credit: karindalziel

In the age of ‘information explosion’ it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage and organize data. And for a startup organizing and control at an early stage is really important. The following web apps will make sharing and collaboration much easier for a startup:

Basecamp: A great web-based project collaboration tool. It brings the people involved in a project together and makes communication easier. Assigning tasks, sharing files, tracking time and meeting deadlines – all becomes easier with basecamp. It has a 30-day free trial period and then you can choose from various reasonable plans available. A highly recommended web app to use – it doesn’t break your bank and provides first-class collaborating service (both internal and external).

Dropbox: It provides online storage space. There are so many files and documents that need to be stored and accessed frequently and dropbox makes this very easy. Not only storage but features like file sharing and offline backup of your files (which any member of your staff can access) are also provided by this tool. It is relatively inexpensive and easy to use.

Google Apps: This is a web-based collaboration and communication tool for businesses launched by Google. Calendars, e-mail, contacts, document sharing are a few features of this tool. Very useful and highly recommended for all startups.

Dimdim: It’s an outstanding tool to conduct web conferences online. The application works entirely from your web-browser – no need to download anything. Save on traveling expenses and conduct meetings, presentations and seminars online.

For more information on this, visit:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/readwritestart/2010/01/5-web-apps-to-keep-your-startu.php

photo credit: hughelectronic

A business plan, in its simplest form, defines where you want your startup to be within a certain period of time and how you plan on getting there. A business plan is as important for launching your startup as blueprints are for building your house.

Diligent research (online or libraries) can help you answer questions about pricing structure, sales, funding and other issues you might come across in the planning process. One interesting thing you’ll notice is that while writing a business plan you will confront important issues you might not otherwise think of.

One important suggestion we would like to give all startup owners is that “write your business plan” yourself and avoid outsourcing it to specialists. The process of writing a business plan is much more important than the final document. You can either use software such as Business Plan Pro or make a structured business plan with a proper format.

Various types of people may read your business plan – your bank manager, business advisory organizations, alternative providers of finance or even friends and work colleagues who will be running the business and using your plan on a daily basis. Therefore, make sure that your plan is exhaustive, clear and well structured for everyone to understand.

You can also have a look of the following articles:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_important_is_my_business_plan.html
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-inbox12-2010jan12,0,1591095.story