In a tough market, where competition is stiff and resources are scarce, building a brand presence means the difference between doing five figures, and a business that crushes it with a seven or eight figure top line. For early to mid-stage entrepreneurs, establishing a strong brand presence (as soon as possible) is imperative.

Selling the Brand

Building a memorable brand can be just as important as building the business itself. Just look at some of the mega brands out there. For instance, everyone knows the presence of large golden arches indicate the location of a McDonalds restaurant. Need more evidence? Without questioning, we accept that the:

• Swoosh symbol only adorns Nike products
• Apple on a product means it is from Apple
• Badge on a BMW elicits an unmistakable driving experience

The reason we all know this is because the companies behind these brands have gone out of their way to make them universally recognizable – investing tens of millions of dollars per year to stay top of mind. There comes a time, too, when those companies stop selling their product(s) and leave a target market to be inundated with options. Why is this important? Because it is often brand loyalty that keeps consumers engaged and can be transcended vertically and horizontally, i.e. brand credibility is scalable.

Building the Brand

Having a brand and selling products/services based on that brand is important, but how does the average entrepreneur tap into that, and begin building their own brand? Simple.

Consider the yellow taxi cab. It is instantly recognizable, and somewhat of a symbol of New York City. No one needs to be told. Why? Because everyone knows that a big yellow car, driving through the city, is a cab.

In the quest to build a brand, entrepreneurs must do the same thing – create a recognizable symbol and train consumers to associate that symbol with a top quality product/service. This could be a logo, corporate colors, a tag line or any combination of the latter. Make it short, sweet and easy to remember, and most importantly, back it up with great service.

Branding Means Not Having to Compete On Price

Another big plus for branding, particularly entrepreneurs operating in a big city environment, if done correctly – you don’t have to compete on price alone.

Consider a company like Starbucks. No one would say their coffee is the cheapest out there, but they have built a global brand, with a loyal customer base, who knows that their coffee is consistently good. That means higher profit margins, and an easier business to build and maintain.

Because of the high cost of living, New York entrepreneurs and others like them ( in major centers around the world) have the double headache of making enough money to survive, and to grow their business. By starting with a recognizable brand from day one, and building an idea that clients buy into, an entrepreneur can pivot around that double headache and start making more money, sooner.

Move….NOW!

Whether you are an entrepreneur in New York or from anywhere else on the globe, if you want to start building a brand, you are going to need help asap. Of course, you probably don’t have the resources on hand that many of the companies aforementioned do, so here are a few ideas:

• Find a freelance graphic designer to help you design a logo for your business. Do not do this yourself – it can be tricky getting it right, and since your logo is one of the core elements of your brand, hire a professional.
• Trawl the internet for branding advice. There are plenty of free sites out there that will give you information about how build a successful brand. Also, look at how some of the most famous brands out there got started and leverage that as inspiration.

When you are just starting out it is easy to feel like a very small fish in a very big pond. Make sure branding is first and foremost in your consumer engagement plan as you build and scale your business. After all, the only reason Santa wears a red and white suit is because Coca-Cola decided to brand him.

Why does this matter? Because the type of entrepreneur you are dictates a plethora of different business variables, such as your management style. Personality characteristics and traits have a direct and impactful effect on the achievement potential of an entrepreneur over the course of their career.

What makes the difference? The overwhelming differentiator between those who catapult themselves forward and those who continue to drag their feet is simple: deciding to take some of the below into account when making fundamental business decisions (or not). Those who do will play toward their strengths and outsource their weaknesses to others much smarter than themselves in a particular area of expertise. Those who do not – good luck.

The below details several types of entrepreneurs, alongside the pros and cons associated with each particular personality style. Figure out which personality you are and learn how to leverage those characteristics to your advantage.

The Gung Ho Enthusiast

This entrepreneur has an enviably enthusiastic attitude about their company. The trouble is, they also have unrealistic expectations and believe their new business will become the best thing since sliced bread overnight. That very rarely happens.

Keep the enthusiasm – it is what keeps many entrepreneurs going when things get tough. However, be a little more realistic. It’s better to have lower expectations, and exceed them, than to aim too high, and miss your goals.

The Passionate One

These entrepreneurs are driven by one thing and one thing only – a passion for their business and/or industry. While they may be the best in the business at what they do, they usually lack business acumen, or even the inclination to prioritize and tackle imperative tasks (especially at scale) such as administration and finances.

Passion is important– it will make going to work feel like anything but a job. However, business does require you to do the tasks you do not like to do from time to time. Aim for a healthy balance and you will be just fine.

The Business Veteran

Business veterans are older entrepreneurs (50+ yrs) who have been around the block a time or three. While they have the skills and knowledge to make a business work, they shy away from technology and other modern approaches to business. That can mean a significant up-tick in the amount of intensive labor needed versus integration of simple, new and innovative solutions.

Leveraging decades of business knowledge to build a company is what makes ‘gray hairs’ so prized in organizations at any stage. Just make sure to combine lessons learned with innovative and up-to-date time saving methods and technologies. If you’re not comfortable with doing so, hire a team that is, and while you take care of the business, let them take care of the tech integration.

The Lone Wolf

This entrepreneur tries to do everything, and be everything to everyone, all by themselves. While it’s great to know every aspect of your business inside and out, no man is an island, as they say. If you try to sustain the lone wolf approach for too long, you’re heading one way: burnout.

If you can’t afford to hire staff to help you full-time, find people or companies you can outsource some of your work load. This is especially true for mundane tasks – after all, time is money, isn’t it?

The Ideas Guy

Another type of entrepreneur is someone who is brilliant at developing new ideas, but not so great during integration. Either the idea never makes it off the drawing board, or it fizzles out along the way, because this personality lacks the appropriate skill set to both envision and implement.

Ideas are the lifeblood of entrepreneurship. If you are not too great at taking them from concept to product, enlist a partner who is able to do so. A well balanced team, made up of an idea person and a ‘doer’ is the entrepreneurial dream team.

The Philanthropist

This entrepreneur usually spots a need for a certain industry in their community or elsewhere, or they find a way to help communities by starting a small business of some kind.

While helping people is a worthwhile cause, the first goal of any entrepreneur is to have a profitable business. Do not let your need to help others cloud your business sense. Find a balance between helping others and growing your business – this way you can achieve all of your goals.

What Kind of Entrepreneur Are You?

I am sure there are plenty of folks out there who could add a few types of entrepreneurs to this list. Nevertheless, the fact remains that all entrepreneurs have strengths and weaknesses. How an entrepreneur decides to leverage those strengths and weaknesses (and keep them top of mind) will determine how successful they are over the course of their career.

If you haven’t seen a description that suits your entrepreneurial style on this list, then why not sit down with a piece of paper and list the areas where you are strong, alongside what needs work? Then, develop ideas to get around those weaknesses, and capitalize on strengths. Essentially, do a SWOT analysis on yourself – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.

Each and every one of us has the potential to succeed as an entrepreneur. Being honest about what you can and cannot do is the first step toward accomplishment. So figure out where you excel, where you may need a little help, and then go out there and crush it.

The first goal with any business, as it should be, is to bootstrap the company into profitability. Most of the profit in those initial years must be reinvested right back into operations to keep the company running, nurturing its ever-growing market share and ensuring the company grows from infancy into a substantial and viable product/service.

A savvy entrepreneur puts every single fiber of themselves into their start-up. But even in the face of such dedication, chances are the company will reach a plateau – the point at which there are only two choices – stay small, or lever the business up and grow. It may seem impossible when first embarking on the bootstrapping adventure, but that point actually comes a lot sooner than one would think. Below is a quick guide on how to transcend from a bootstrapped operation to profitability and the ultimate goal – scalability, without ripping your hair out in the process.

Set Realistic Short, Medium and Long-Term Goals

Too many entrepreneurs shy away from bootstrapping. They obsess over the big, expensive long-term goal stuck in their head. As a byproduct, many entrepreneurs unfortunately miss the short and medium-term opportunities right in front of their faces.

Want to own a boutique, a restaurant, or some other type of asset intensive upstart business? Great. But also realize, due to the immediate and high fixed asset costs necessary, it is unlikely (especially bootstrapping), those businesses can be scaled appropriately right away. So in the near term, a savvy entrepreneur would be well served to start off by designing and manufacturing clothing to sell at a local flea market. This begins their entrance into the market and serves as a significantly cheaper gateway toward establishing building brand credibility and relevance in the marketplace.

Start Small

The key to bootstrapping, as most successful entrepreneurs will advise, is to find a way to start working on that big dream right now. This means scaling down and finding a near term idea which can be launched with little or no capital and provides the flexibility needed for saving up a war chest of funds.

While it is useful to start working on that big dream early on and honing out a niche to bootstrap toward, it is not essential. Simply start doing something that turns a profit and save a portion of those profits to utilize toward bankrolling your big dream. There is something out there everyone can do to make money – just make the effort to look hard enough. Find that something, and get started! What are you waiting for?

Start With Services

It is a known fact among entrepreneur communities around the world that there is an exponential decrease in barrier to entry (resulting from low startup costs) for service-oriented businesses. The reason is simple: service businesses require less overhead (storage space, equipment, etc). For example, if your entrepreneurial dream is to one day open a pet store, get started by walking dogs – there’s no outlay, you will be selling your time and establishing/building brand credibility in the marketplace.

Leverage Entrepreneur Resources

When most first-time entrepreneurs think about starting a business the only resource they pay attention to is obtaining funding – a very myopic focus. Rest assured there are plenty of other resources to leverage. For instance, throughout the country there are agencies that help entrepreneurs develop business plans, lend office space and lease equipment at very low rates.

Each cost saving option provides a bootstrapping entrepreneur that means to hold on to as much of their most precious resource as possible – cash. Right now, especially in this economy, cash is king.

Mingle With Peers

Bootstrapping can be a lonely business. I know because I have spent those countless hours trying to figure out how to make everything happen on a shoestring budget. The good news is that you are not alone.

Find out when entrepreneur meet-ups and networking sessions are happening in your area. These types of events place like-minded individuals together – those just like you – folks who are crazy enough to bootstrap their business dream into reality.

Entrepreneur meet-ups not only offer a chance to mingle with like-minded folks who understand the trials, tribulations and successes you are going through, but they can also offer valuable business leads. If just one person whom you meet knows someone that may be interested in your business, then it was a worthwhile investment in terms of time and effort.

Plan for Growth

Last but not least, once on the path from small-time bootstrapping entrepreneur to rockstar scalable business owner – make sure to plan for growth. For instance, it is easy to start a successful business baking muffins in your own kitchen. But there’s going to come a time when demand will outstrip the businesses ability to supply.  At that point you are going to be forced to invest additional resources (primarily cash) into the business.

Make sure a plan is in place that budgets for this investment in infrastructure. Doing so is the only way the business will scale, because at a finite point, it is imperative for the long-term viability of the business to invest in growth through increases in production, employees and/or larger office space.

Do not wait until the last minute, plan now and plan often while still in the early stages of bootstrapping, so that when the times comes, you are ready, willing and able to implement and execute immediately. After all, as they say ‘those who fail to plan, plan to fail.’

As far as entrepreneur blogs go, the flavor of the month appears to be the debate about whether the seed funding phenomenon is a bubble waiting to burst, or whether it’s a viable means of funding pre-revenue/start-up businesses. This is my take on the landscape.

First Off – What Are Seed Funds?

There was a time when if you wanted to fund your company you had four options, approach:

1. A bank
2. An angel investor
3. A venture capitalist

4. OR ………… have an asinine risk tolerance and fund the project yourself with your own money.

At a certain threshold of funding, there was a catch twenty-two because banks are notoriously risk averse, and don’t normally fund businesses that have yet to prove themselves. Meanwhile, traditional VC firms couldn’t justify investing less than $3M-$5M in a Series A round, mainly because ROI based on growth trajectory (when investing in small amounts) wasn’t worth their while, especially when holding $700M+ under management.

This left the entrepreneur with little choice but to either:

• Take a small angel round
• Settle for a crappy mid-size “hodgepodge” round that diluted the heck out of their equity
• Bootstrap their business and risk getting stuck behind better funded market entrants
• Come up with the collateral the banks demanded (usually a lien on their home)
• Give up their dream (NOT an option)

Enter the emergence of a fifth player, seed capital funds.

All of a sudden they are popping out of the woodwork. Most notably are Lowercase Capital ($5MM) by Chris Sacca, 500 Start-ups ($30M) by Dave McClure, and Floodgate ($73M) by Mike Maples.

These types of funds are set up specifically to provide funding to mostly “wet behind the ear” ideas and entrepreneurs. Based on deal flow that has recently been funded, aside from a great idea and a rockstar team, the requirements for an entrepreneur to get their hands on that crucial first funding injection are low in comparison to previous thresholds. However, it certainly is worth noting that there are folks who stick to their investment strategy no matter the deal size, such as Brad Feld of Foundry Group.

Second – Where Did They Come From?

Seed funds have arisen due to a perfect storm in the funding environment:

• Start-up costs continue to be driven lower = more efficiency = less investment needed = exponential decrease in barrier to entry
  • Ex. off shoring, open sourcing technologies, search engine marketing
  • Dissemination of high quality and value add content (blogs, videos, events)
  • Venture Hacks and their very worthwhile project AngelList
    • HUGE props to Nivi & Naval for making the process more fluid
• Venture capital funds have gotten HUGE = restricted to certain size investments
  • The downside to companies needing less money is that VC’s essentially become pigeon-holed. They’re stuck investing a certain amount or risk their LP’s having a heart attack
    • OR are they stuck? (see two sections down)
• IPO market remains virtually stagnant = must explore other options for exit = can’t drive up valuation (to make ROI) or there won’t be a buyer
• Valuations are lower = companies are more attractive through an outright acquisition
  • Especially if they’re a cash flow machine
    • Companies want a secure means to cash in this economy (called a “war chest”)
• Elasticity on the back-end is created when less money is poured into the company on the front-end. Why?
  • Founders keep more of the pie = they’re happy
  • Company hasn’t been overpriced. = investor is happy
    • Note: When companies raise a ton of money on the front-end everyone is forced to hit toward only a “homerun.”

What are the Strategies Seed Funds Employ?

Well, to be frank, it goes one of two ways:

• A “Fly by Night” Strategy = Quantity
  • Writing a check after a 20min presentation
  • Little to no communication with the entrepreneur (except when they’re raising money)
  • Primary goal: obtain an ROI on their investment
• A “Operator” Strategy = Quality
  • Performing meaningful due diligence
  • Acting as a mentor – tinkering but not with overruling brashness
  • Primary goal: investing time/energy into the growth of the co-founders and ultimately building a profitable and scalable company

I could provide examples of both investing strategies on both coasts (Silicon Valley and New York City) but I will leave that tree for someone else to bark up.

Which do you want? Based on my experience, I will take an “operator” any day – never the fly by night. What’s best for you? Well, weigh the cost/benefit of both and make an educated decision. You know your business better than anyone else on this planet.

But WAIT…. There’s More…… VC’s Enter the Market

The interesting thing is that we’re now seeing tons and tons of venture capital firms pushing down into the seed space as well. That is both a good and bad thing for entrepreneurs. Literally, this is a good thing for entrepreneurs if you’re informed, and a bad thing if you don’t take the time to read posts like this or others which try to educate you on what’s going on right now.

THE GOOD – Why have venture capital firms pushed into the seed market?

They’ve realized that since companies don’t need as much money as they used to, then they have to increase the frequency of investments. That’s not very scalable as you go up the funding hierarchy ($5MM+).

So instead, VC’s pivoted and decided to do two things:

• Keep investing in the $2M-$5M space as they always have (with follow-on rounds of course)
• Push down with an allocated amount of their fund, remain true to their investment strategy, and invest in 2x, 5x or even 10x more companies (with $50K-$2M) than what they would have through their normal strategy.

Before the seed funding phenomenon, most venture capitalists were putting all their marbles in 7-10 companies/yr. Although that seems like a “portfolio strategy,” I would argue this new Seed/VC model mitigates risk significantly more.

Additionally, since companies have less cash invested = less pressure to meet a high valuation = easier to exit. What does this translate to for the VC industry? A VERY BIG DEAL. The fact that VC’s can invest $125K into 30 companies (hoping for modest returns) versus investing a $4M chunk into one company (hoping they’ll hit a “homerun”) is HUGE for everyone. Just as pointed out above, it creates elasticity and everyone is happy.

THE BAD – Who are all these Venture Capitalists?

Mark Suster clearly delineates his investment strategy here. Most venture capital firms do not. Furthermore, as the seed investment line for angels, super angels and venture capitalists has blurred – so has reality for some investors that they’re qualified to enter additional funding spaces. That is not a good thing.

As outlined above – understand what your VC is looking for and the investment strategy they employ – are they in it as an “operator” or are they looking for “fly by night” opportunities? Trust me, it makes a big difference whether your investor is looking as their investment as a “true investment” (operator) or just simply as options on the next round (fly by night).

The Interesting Byproduct – Regardless of Who Funds You

Another byproduct of the fact that start-ups are significantly more efficient in getting off the ground and scaling is that their timeline to revenue has become much shorter.

Many companies become revenue wheel-houses in just a few short months now –a-days (although varying industry dynamics play a role) because the s-curve of innovation for companies has drastically sped up within the past few years. Thus, the time in which it takes companies to reach a real (and sustainable) business model has drastically decreased. That is a good thing for all stakeholders.

Seed Fund Opinions Numero Uno – The Nay Sayers

In a recent blog post, Paul Kredowsky voiced his disapproval of the seed funding phenomenon. However, his post is less about the entrepreneur, than the seed funding companies themselves.

His argument boils down to the fact that he believes many of the seed investors out there are running on very tight budgets themselves. They’re investing small amounts in lots of new ventures, in hopes that one or two of those ventures will become “homeruns.” That of course is not a good idea.

His point of view has validity. The challenge with seed funding investors spreading their own resources too thin is that if something goes erroneous in one of their portfolio investments, and capital must be deployed unexpectedly, the investor’s hands become tied. The funder also won’t have the necessary capital to allocate toward companies that actually do succeed, and who seek a follow-on second round of funding. This dynamic will force entrepreneurs to then search out their funding from traditional venture capital firms – which is the most expensive money they could take.

Seed Fund Opinions Numero Dos – The Fans

In response to Paul Kredowsky’s post, warning of a seed funding bubble burst, Chris Dixon made a post of his own, which tempered enthusiasm with caution.

As Chris points out in his post, we’ve come a long way from the dotcom bubble of the nineties. Both entrepreneurs and seed fund investors are savvier, and more skilled in business than their forerunners.

Chris rightly points out that as long as:

• Seed fund investors are exercising a little caution choosing their investment vehicles
• Entrepreneurs have both business acumen and a good idea

….. then the seed funding model can work, and is a valuable asset to a market where company founders struggled for years to obtain funding.

Of course, Chris’s post also mentions a huge wild card that traditional banks, VC’s and seed funds must watch out for – the economy in general. Then again, business is all about risk.

Time Will Tell

Of course, not everyone has a definitive negative or positive outlook on the seed funding phenomenon. Both Fred Wilson and John Boyd chimed in on the discussion and agree that the seed funding model is necessary, but that it will need a lot of tweaking to become a long-term viable option for start-ups.

A few years ago, entrepreneurs who sought to secure small amounts of funding to launch their start-up would have struggled to find any options that matched their needs. With the proliferation of seed funds, that’s no longer the case.

In the end, there are only two real questions:

• Have the seed funders have backed the right horses?
• Will the funders be able to deploy capital when the next round of funding is needed?

I certainly hope so on both fronts.

What It All Means For You – The Idea & Early-Stage Entrepreneur

Of course, you may be wondering how this all relates to you. Well, if you’ve been hoping to build a start-up but have been stumped about where to turn to find the seed capital you need, now just might be the right time for you.

If you have a great idea and your funding options are limited or nonexistent, then seed funding might just be the alternative to bootstrapping that you’ve been looking for.

However, BE AWARE – as the industry matures, there will be may be interesting consequences:

Skyrocketing valuations – What is your Justification?

There are two reasons I believe valuations could skyrocket literally overnight:

• The year 2008 sets a perfect prescient for this point – as was the case with the private equity buyout craze – seeing that more professional seed funds are entering the market, supply and demand (number of potential companies and their valuations) will begin to shift.

As a result, bidding wars will begin and valuations will skyrocket. This will inevitably drive out certain investors – whether individuals, seed funds, or VC’s playing the seed game and most likely bring the horse right back to the water – true venture capital funding terms ($2M-5M).

• Funders and entrepreneurs actually become too savvy at the process – because of too many entrants.

I know I am going to get some push back here because many folks will refute that there are a ton of great companies out there to fund (lots of supply). Let me be clear: I do agree with that statement. However, my point is if the seed funding game gets too big, meaning too many angels and VC’s magically think they can run a seed fund, then there’s going to be a lot more white noise in the marketplace. This becomes a forcing function for why funders and entrepreneurs will get more savvy in the process and why valuations will go up – because those who don’t know what they’re doing will make noise, create fragmentation and the result are valuations rocketing upward.

A simple solution to the above though would to build another simple platform such as TheFunded. Instead, lets call it “TheSeeding.com” (domain is open at the time I wrote this) so that everyone has an open source way of knowing who’s full of b*llshit and who is not.

On the flip side, I also believe there are a few variables that may keep the valuation war from happening regardless:

• Investors won’t tolerate ridiculous valuations because they know the IPO market is stagnant. High or overly optimistic valuations are not a good thing today.
• Another shift in technology that exponentially decreases the barrier to entry once again

My advice is to do your homework before searching for seed funding, and make sure that you have a backup plan for your second round of funding – just in case things go pear shaped.

Opportunity Knocks When You Least Expect It

Most of the conventional wisdom about entrepreneurship would have you believe that entrepreneurs should plan, plot their progress, and plan some more. Planning is great, but sometimes, things will come at you out of left field, and you have to be ready to recognize the opportunity, and make the most of it, almost immediately.

For all the careful planning entrepreneurs do, ask anyone who has enjoyed success (from small business owner to VC-backed company), and they’re likely to tell you that there was a definite turning point. A suggestion, request, or contract that came along, that presented an opportunity that they just couldn’t refuse. It was probably unexpected, and might even have been something entirely new. Learning to seize those opportunities is what makes all the difference.

Good Sales People Are Fast on Their Feet

Maybe no one told you this yet, but when you get started in entrepreneurship, you also begin a career in sales. Except when you are an entrepreneur, you’re not hoping to make your sales target so that you can make a good commission; you’re selling so that your business will succeed.

Good salespeople think on their feet. If they notice a client pulling away from the product or service they’re pushing, they mentally change gears, and offer a different option. They keep that up until they find the item that the client is most interested in buying, and then they close the deal.

As a business owner and entrepreneur, you will need to be able to do exactly the same thing. With clients, suppliers, financiers and everyone else you meet. You’ll have to adjust your pitch almost instantaneously until you find the one that they want to hear. That takes some mighty fancy mental footwork.

What You Do Now Affects Your Entrepreneurial Future

There are many people out there who would like to make entrepreneurship their livelihood, but don’t have any big ideas. Some are stuck in jobs they can’t leave, and they think that being an entrepreneur is something other people do. Not so.

Even if you don’t have any ideas of your own, or you can’t afford to leave your job and dive right into entrepreneurship, there are business ideas you can use.

Take franchises for example. When new franchises become available, they’re often a lot cheaper than they will be five or ten years down the line. If you want to become an entrepreneur, then learning to choose a great franchise opportunity can be as important as coming up with a fantastic new idea of your own. Then again, you could take an old idea, and put your own spin on it.

The light bulb moment for most people comes when they realize that there’s plenty of money out there in the world. All entrepreneurship really is, is finding a way to get it from out there, into your pocket. Making split second decisions, and following your gut, is one way to make sure that happens.

How to Take Advantage of Opportunity

It’s all very well saying that you need to learn to pivot on a dime, and take advantage of opportunity, but it’s a lot harder to put into practice. Here are a few tips you can use to learn to recognize opportunity, and capitalize on it:

• Good entrepreneurs are tuned into opportunities. They listen to everything people say, even in passing. That way, they’re always ready to take advantage.
• If they have an idea, but they lack the business resources to pull it off, they figure out how to go about it. Great entrepreneurs never waste an idea – they work on it until they can take action.
• Just because you’re sure that your business idea is the answer to a specific problem; don’t discount other uses for it. Many great inventions were intended for something completely different to the use they eventually became famous for.
• Never pass up an opportunity. Whether its new franchises, or a business partnership offer, consider everything carefully. You never know when your big break will arrive.

So, if you’re dreaming of entrepreneurial success, start by learning to change course as new opportunities arise. Remember, business is fluid. Nothing is written in stone. Don’t be afraid of change. Embrace it!

Furthermore, luck is a sum of many disparate, usually not thought of as connected, parts. This would include not just how smart you are, but also your capacity to plan efficiently and effectively, Taking it a step even further, understand how to leverage to create exponential value and the importance of viewing the world through an 80/20 lens.

The future of competitive advantage is aggregation. Having one or two competitive advantages has become the commoditized standard on a local, regional, national and global scale. Thus, survival and scalability means incorporating four, five, or even six disparate products/services synergistically and effectively to gain meaningful and sustainable marketshare. Furthermore, in addition to aggregation, businesses must continue a strong R&D Program, seeking new innovations that leapfrog the competition.