Photo credit: ALDECAstudio / DPC Nothing more vital. As an entrepreneur, your existence revolves around the people you intend to serve. So when you start a new business, can you name the wisest first step? Should you build a product or service? Hire staff? Buy stock? No. First step: you talk to potential customers. To see if the pain you intend to cure runs deep enough. Period. The problem? Most entrepreneurs fail at this. They spread themselves thin, send a hundred cold emails, hoping to get...

Forget luck. Successful entrepreneurs do not rely on luck. They know ways to come up with great products, time and again. You can’t follow a recipe and end up with the next big thing, but if you learn from those who nailed it, you can make breakthroughs much more likely. I jumped on a Skype call with one such entrepreneur to share his insights with you. Clay Collins is the cofounder of LeadPages, a software company that serves over 40,000 customers and raised $38M in venture capital. Early...

Smooth sailing. Once your business thrives with real customers and solid revenue, what’s next? A straight line to success? Not quite. Just like on the Titanic, look out the window and you will spot icebergs, dead ahead. Tough problems which can deplete your time, energy and capital. To dig deep on this, I talked to nine small business owners and learned what they struggle with. You’re about to learn how they tackle some of their biggest problems. And guess what? Most of it boils down to three...

Like a broken record, entrepreneurs love to talk about their tangible achievements - their impressive tech-stack, well-known group of advisors and how much capital they've raised. But guess what? When you talk to companies that are in the process of purchasing a startup, expect to be surprised. Jim Hornthal, co-founder of LaunchPad Central, insists you need to have regular conversations with customers so you can figure out what matters to them. Same for acquirers. The better you understand...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. All for nothing. Many good entrepreneurs fail in their businesses, simply because they start in the wrong place. Wrong customers, wrong market, wrong motivation. Doomed from Day One. Sad part? Most could have spotted and steered away from the approaching train wreck. To start you on a wiser course to a successful business, you're about to learn three ways how successful entrepreneurs do it. And look -- you must start with your...