of the management “team” rather than you individually. And don’t forget to seek out a marketing person or firm to join your team.

This is called forming a mastermind group and it is critical to large success. Your organizational thinking capacity is far greater with the collective intellect of your board pondering the issues facing your business, rather than you alone. Your board of directors, if selected carefully, can be an unstoppable force toward success.

There is only one requirement for this process to work: Your business idea must be sound. You must have a written business plan backing that idea and that business plan must meet generally accepted standards. Without a sound idea and a plan, you will not recruit these associates. More important

As an entrepreneur you are faced with the daunting task of not only having to have a deep understanding of your product or service, you also must have a sound general knowledge of business management, record keeping, accounting, business finance, marketing, advertising, sales and law. There is also a host of other areas of business that can you must learn and many of these can only be learned by hands-on experience. This requires you to have at least above average intelligence and above average dedication to learning and personal growth. This is tough to do when you are juggling the details of setting up a business, studying and learning, trying, failing and starting all over again across a spectrum of activities. Daunting, very daunting.

As hard as you may try, there is simply not enough time in a day to be good at everything. In fact, it is impossible. You may excel administratively in 1-3 areas but not all. For example, you may be a great manager and know little or nothing about accounting and law or sales. And if you try and perform all these business tasks yourself, you will eventually crumble under the workload and you and your business will fail.

One way to overcome this problem is to surround your self with professionals and people with specialized knowledge you lack. For most start ups this means you need professional assistance with accounting, law and marketing.

Let’s assume your hands are tied financially (which they are most often for small start ups) and you don’t have the money to recruit these professionals. What do you do? The answer is simpler than you would think. The key to getting the pros to join your team is to offer them a piece of the business in exchange for their services. Now, you want the transfer of equity in your business to happen over time contingent upon the performance of the professionals rendering services on your behalf. In other words, you want to “pack the board of directors” with professionals that have a financial interest in the health and well being of your business and have them perform high quality service on behalf of the organization.

The most strategic first associate you should seek is an attorney. First, a lawyer can give you legal advice and produce legal documents you may need to run your business including legal compliance with state and federal authorities. Additionally, lawyers tend to be well networked with accountants and bankers.

The second most strategic associate is finding a good accountant. You attorney may suggest some possibilities or you may already have an accountant (who may be able to recommend an attorney to join your mastermind group). Besides handling your accounting, accountant's tend to be well networked with lawyers, bankers and potential investors.

Ideally you want to “pack the board” with a banker too. Your lawyer and accountant may be able to help draw a banker into your organization and this will be a real benefit if you plan on seeking investment capital for your business because investors will look at the credentials of the management “team” rather than you individually. And don’t forget to seek out a marketing person or firm to join your team.

This is called forming a mastermind group and it is critical to large success. Your organizational thinking capacity is far greater with the collective intellect of your board pondering the issues facing your business, rather than you alone. Your board of directors, if selected carefully, can be an unstoppable force toward success.

There is only one requirement for this process to work: Your business idea must be sound. You must have a written business plan backing that idea and that business plan must meet generally accepted standards. Without a sound idea and a plan, you will not recruit these associates. More important

y try, there is simply not enough time in a day to be good at everything. In fact, it is impossible. You may excel administratively in 1-3 areas but not all. For example, you may be a great manager and know little or nothing about accounting and law or sales. And if you try and perform all these business tasks yourself, you will eventually crumble under the workload and you and your business will fail.

One way to overcome this problem is to surround your self with professionals and people with specialized knowledge you lack. For most start ups this means you need professional assistance with accounting, law and marketing.

Let’s assume your hands are tied financially (which they are most often for small start ups) and you don’t have the money to recruit these professionals. What do you do? The answer is simpler than you would think. The key to getting the pros to join your team is to offer them a piece of the business in exchange for their services. Now, you want the transfer of equity in your business to happen over time contingent upon the performance of the professionals rendering services on your behalf. In other words, you want to “pack the board of directors” with professionals that have a financial interest in the health and well being of your business and have them perform high quality service on behalf of the organization.

The most strategic first associate you should seek is an attorney. First, a lawyer can give you legal advice and produce legal documents you may need to run your business including legal compliance with state and federal authorities. Additionally, lawyers tend to be well networked with accountants and bankers.

The second most strategic associate is finding a good accountant. You attorney may suggest some possibilities or you may already have an accountant (who may be able to recommend an attorney to join your mastermind group). Besides handling your accounting, accountant's tend to be well networked with lawyers, bankers and potential investors.

Ideally you want to “pack the board” with a banker too. Your lawyer and accountant may be able to help draw a banker into your organization and this will be a real benefit if you plan on seeking investment capital for your business because investors will look at the credentials of the management “team” rather than you individually. And don’t forget to seek out a marketing person or firm to join your team.

This is called forming a mastermind group and it is critical to large success. Your organizational thinking capacity is far greater with the collective intellect of your board pondering the issues facing your business, rather than you alone. Your board of directors, if selected carefully, can be an unstoppable force toward success.

There is only one requirement for this process to work: Your business idea must be sound. You must have a written business plan backing that idea and that business plan must meet generally accepted standards. Without a sound idea and a plan, you will not recruit these associates. More important

it these professionals. What do you do? The answer is simpler than you would think. The key to getting the pros to join your team is to offer them a piece of the business in exchange for their services. Now, you want the transfer of equity in your business to happen over time contingent upon the performance of the professionals rendering services on your behalf. In other words, you want to “pack the board of directors” with professionals that have a financial interest in the health and well being of your business and have them perform high quality service on behalf of the organization.

The most strategic first associate you should seek is an attorney. First, a lawyer can give you legal advice and produce legal documents you may need to run your business including legal compliance with state and federal authorities. Additionally, lawyers tend to be well networked with accountants and bankers.

The second most strategic associate is finding a good accountant. You attorney may suggest some possibilities or you may already have an accountant (who may be able to recommend an attorney to join your mastermind group). Besides handling your accounting, accountant's tend to be well networked with lawyers, bankers and potential investors.

Ideally you want to “pack the board” with a banker too. Your lawyer and accountant may be able to help draw a banker into your organization and this will be a real benefit if you plan on seeking investment capital for your business because investors will look at the credentials of the management “team” rather than you individually. And don’t forget to seek out a marketing person or firm to join your team.

This is called forming a mastermind group and it is critical to large success. Your organizational thinking capacity is far greater with the collective intellect of your board pondering the issues facing your business, rather than you alone. Your board of directors, if selected carefully, can be an unstoppable force toward success.

There is only one requirement for this process to work: Your business idea must be sound. You must have a written business plan backing that idea and that business plan must meet generally accepted standards. Without a sound idea and a plan, you will not recruit these associates. More important

including legal compliance with state and federal authorities. Additionally, lawyers tend to be well networked with accountants and bankers.

The second most strategic associate is finding a good accountant. You attorney may suggest some possibilities or you may already have an accountant (who may be able to recommend an attorney to join your mastermind group). Besides handling your accounting, accountant's tend to be well networked with lawyers, bankers and potential investors.

Ideally you want to “pack the board” with a banker too. Your lawyer and accountant may be able to help draw a banker into your organization and this will be a real benefit if you plan on seeking investment capital for your business because investors will look at the credentials of the management “team” rather than you individually. And don’t forget to seek out a marketing person or firm to join your team.

This is called forming a mastermind group and it is critical to large success. Your organizational thinking capacity is far greater with the collective intellect of your board pondering the issues facing your business, rather than you alone. Your board of directors, if selected carefully, can be an unstoppable force toward success.

There is only one requirement for this process to work: Your business idea must be sound. You must have a written business plan backing that idea and that business plan must meet generally accepted standards. Without a sound idea and a plan, you will not recruit these associates. More important

of the management “team” rather than you individually. And don’t forget to seek out a marketing person or firm to join your team.

This is called forming a mastermind group and it is critical to large success. Your organizational thinking capacity is far greater with the collective intellect of your board pondering the issues facing your business, rather than you alone. Your board of directors, if selected carefully, can be an unstoppable force toward success.

There is only one requirement for this process to work: Your business idea must be sound. You must have a written business plan backing that idea and that business plan must meet generally accepted standards. Without a sound idea and a plan, you will not recruit these associates. More important then the business plan is the soundness of your idea. The lawyer or accountant can write the plan if you can convey the idea well. Make sure you have a non-disclosure, non-competition agreement before you start telling everyone your idea. Another good reason to get an attorney first!

The key to success is knowledge. You need your knowledge base and you need to understand how to get other people to use their specialized knowledge to help you achieve your goals and objectives. And if you have no money, then all you have is your idea and the power to give away fractional amounts on interest in the business to people in exchange for their services. Remember that 100% of nothing is nothing and it is often better to have a controlling 51% of a business and dole out 49% of stock or equity in exchange for the people with which you can pack your board.

Can you do it? Yes, if your idea is sound.

Do you like this tip? You haven’t seen anything yet! Check out our Smart Books Business products by clicking the link below. We have business kits, books and ebooks to help you get smart-fast. Check us out…. We’ll save you a TON of time and money.

Copyright © 2006 James W. Hart, IV All Rights reserved