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John Warrillow, author of Built to Sell, answers questions from readers about building a sellable business.

Get inside your customer's head. For start-ups, making those first few sales can be the hardest part, writes Chris Savage ( savagethoughts.com ), co-founder of Wistia, a video hosting site. Truly understanding your customers will help

Dealing with a large competitor that intimidates your customers Dear Norm,Trade shows are notorious for the ridiculously high prices exhibitors are forced to pay for basic services. My business partner and I saw an opportunity to provide Internet access at trade shows for a fraction of what the in-house providers charge.

Companies and individuals are often at odds, concerned either with collecting information or with preserving privacy. Online stores and services are always eager to know more about their customers--income, age, tastes--whereas most of us are not eager to reveal much.

Oprah's exit from TV is a good reminder for entrepreneurs on how to build a brand, attract top talent, and exit when the time is right. After 4,560 shows, the queen of daytime television said goodbye to her legions of raving fans this week. Her last moments on television were marked by surprise appearances by throngs of celebrities, including Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx, Maria Shriver, and dozens mores

For such a large company, Thomas Mahoney, makes sure his staff is well rewarded for taking care of each other and their customers. It's all about loyalty at ITAGroup. Thomas Mahoney, president and CEO, says his company is both performance driven and family friendly

Once again, science is confirming what we have always suspected. This time, after years of referring to Apple's customer base as the "cult of Mac" or "cult of Apple", a group of UK neuroscientists have been able to demonstrate that when you compare the brain MRI's of Apple fans versus those taken of people who consider themselves "very religious", well guess what

So you're considering buying a business. But is it really the right move? Many experts are predicting that a huge wave of businesses will become available over the next decade or so as baby boomers look to sell

As a business owner, you have to work within a lot of confines—a small (or no) staff, a limited budget and only so many hours in the day. If you’ve made your business a success, you’re probably a master of saying “no” to tasks that aren’t important or should be handled by someone else, or some outside service. But saying “no” is about more than delegating and declining tasks

After New Yorker Alex Rein lost his job as a corporate lawyer in 2009, he decided to trade long hours reading contracts at his desk for... slushies. But not the neon, artificially flavored, convenience-store concoctions—he wanted to sell frozen treats that combined real pureed fruit with grown-up flavors like ginger and green tea.

This article is part 7 of an 8 part series. Read part 6 here . Geoffrey Moore’s latest book, Dealing with Darwin , addresses how to achieve innovation at each stage of a company’s development.

%excerpt% See the original post here: A Start-up Combines Slim Jims and Red Bull

My entrepreneurial journey has seen me start and exit four companies, one of which, my research business, was acquired by a public company.

There's pro-business and then there's pro-oligarchy. Our current Supreme Court, I believe, has crossed that line.

Six months ago when I started working at Parallels as CEO I knew that I would not be able to accomplish everything I wanted overnight. So I asked myself, "What are the key challenges I want to tackle first?" I worked with my leadership team to define our business priorities and establish clear, measurable goals so we could achieve them to profitably grow our business. I created scorecards for our company with our executives and their teams so everyone understands our goals, what success looks like and how each person is accountable to helping the company achieve its goals.