(By Eric T. Wagner)
“Just like you, professional investors (and even those who are in the crowdfunding realm) have areas of core competency. If an investor has a core understanding of enterprise software applications and their associated business models, what do you think the chances are of them investing in your pizza parlor? Not saying they don’t like pizza, but you get the point. Do the research. Seek out investors who specialize in your area.“
Almighty cash.
It’s still king and I watch hundreds of entrepreneurs come through my virtual door (read: email) asking the same question:
“How do I find the money I need to start my business?”
Now if this is an area where you struggle, I can tell you one thing… no wait, make that 10 things… you might be doing wrong in your approach to raising funds.
It matters not whether you look to a bank, angel investor, venture capitalist or crowdfunding platform. Most every one of these 10 mistakes I see entrepreneurs stumble on applies.
Clean this up, and you boost your chances of raising funds a thousand fold.
Let’s start:
1.) Your Leadership Skills Are Lacking
Look in the mirror, because it starts with you. Trust me — you are more important than your idea. Every venture capitalist or angel (or bank) I know takes a hard look at the entrepreneur first. If your character, integrity or leadership is out of whack — you won’t get funded. So look hard and fix whatever is broken in that mirror.
2.) Your Team Falls Short
You’re only as strong as your weakest link — right? So your top level team gets the same scrutiny. Share the mirror with them and seriously address any weaknesses. Yes — it’s a hard conversation to have. But do it. I’ve seen smart founders fail to see the brokenness in their team and wonder why the check never does show up in their mailbox.
3.) No Traction With Customers
Investors with money want to see traction. Even if you pass the test of awesomeness as an entrepreneur, and you have a solid team to boot, they still want to see you have engaged customers with your ideas. Do you have proof your potential customers care about your solution? It’s called ‘product/market fit’.
4.) No Proven Business Model
Of course, it’s generally not enough to just have proof that the market actually cares about your idea, but they are also willing to pay you for it. Yes — I do remember the days of old in the late 90’s when you could raise millions of dollars with just a domain name and customer ‘eyeballs’ — but nary an idea of how you’d actually make any money. And some of that may still exist today with the hoards of cash sitting around. But in general, you must deliver some kind of ‘business model proof’. How do you plan to make money and do you have proof of that on a small scale? If you can’t answer the question, you won’t raise a nickel.
5.) Your Approach With Investors Is Wrong
Venture Capitalist Paul Jones, former Silicon Valley resident with Cooley Godward and current Chair of the Venture Best group for Michael Best and Friedrich, drove the point home about not ‘cold calling’ potential investors in my previous article. So why do I keep seeing it week after week? In fact, just the other day a total stranger reached out to me on LinkedIn with something like this:
“Hey, I am so and so and we have the greatest idea in the world. Please look at my 100 page business plan with 24 attachments and give me 30 minutes of your time so I can pitch you. Then you can invest in us.”
My response? No thanks. And by the way — you’re doing it wrong.
6.) Pitching The Wrong Investors
Just like you, professional investors (and even those who are in the crowdfunding realm) have areas of core competency. If an investor has a core understanding of enterprise software applications and their associated business models, what do you think the chances are of them investing in your pizza parlor? Not saying they don’t like pizza, but you get the point. Do the research. Seek out investors who specialize in your area.
7.) You’re Not Coachable
Somewhat like #1 above, but not exactly. I put this as its own reason because in my opinion, it’s one huge reason investors walk from potential investments. Listen — you can be strong. You can be passionate about your belief system. But if you’re so hard-headed to the point of being uncoachable and listening to input from a strong investor who also knows their stuff, then you won’t get funded. So be strong, but humble. Show ‘deep domain expertise’, but don’t come off as a ‘know it all’. I think you know the difference.
8.) Lack Deep Domain Expertise
Speaking of deep domain expertise, you better have it. Entrepreneurs who think they will raise money for their idea in an area or industry (or with a customer) they know virtually nothing about are in for a whack on the head. Those who raise serious money know what they’re talking about. They’re embedded deep in their niche or area of expertise. They know the industry. They know the players. So if you happen to lack this, I would either switch to an area you do know, or get some serious domain expertise quickly.
9.) Failure To Understand ‘Lean’
If you walk into an investor, ask for a million dollars and then show a propensity to want to blow the whole thing on some marketing scheme to ‘raise awareness’, you’re in trouble. Investors want their money back. That’s why they invest. To earn money. So if an entrepreneur does not understand the concept of ‘running lean’, investors will scatter. Yes — even if you get the full amount of money you seek, you still need to show the ability to invest it wisely on the strategies that will move the needle for your business. So if you don’t understand how to ‘do lean’, better get up to speed fast.
10.) Blindness To See You Need To Fix All Of This
Saved the most frustrating for last. Yes — the entrepreneurs who suffer from one or more of these mistakes, but are blind to it and think none of it applies to them. Ouch. Believe it or not, I run into these guys and gals every day. It’s sad because unless they awake from their blind stupor, you might as well stick a fork in them. They’re done. So do yourself a favor, run through the list again just to make sure. Hate to see you fall into this category.
Guess what? If you do fix all of this, then you’ve just multiplied the chance of getting the cash you need for your startup. Well done entrepreneur…


For more interesting and inspiring articles, visit www.risenetworks.org

(By Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman)

A very important meeting is held, and you’re not invited. At this meeting, a senior leader announces that since targets were not reached, 150 managers will be laid off, and the purpose of this meeting is to create a list identifying exactly who those people will be. The key question for you is, “How do you keep your name off that list?”

In the 1960s Melvin J. Lerner described a psychological phenomenon called the “just world hypothesis”: People want to believe that bad things happen to bad people. After downsizings, for instance, it’s common for the survivors to believe that only the poor performers were fired.

But is that so?

To begin to answer that question, we gathered a substantial amount of data from one U.S.-based Fortune 100 company after it had gone through an organizational downsizing to see if we could identify factors that might predict which people were most likely to be let go.

One factor that wasn’t very predictive, it turned out, was a history of good performance reviews. Only 23% of those who were laid off had been given a negative review the previous year. The implication is that the other 77% who were asked to leave had no clue this was coming.

But when we examined the 360-degree assessments for the previous two years of all those who’d been let go and surveyed their managers to ask why, we found a very consistent array of problems, all of which were apparent in advance. Specifically, we were able to identify six factors that should have raised red flags. Everyone who’d been laid off shared at least two of the following:

They were not viewed as strategic. Many of the unfortunate 150 had not been working in roles that provided them with opportunities to create new strategies, and as a result colleagues rated them very poorly on their strategic ability in the 360 assessments. As a group, those who were downsized rated, on average, only in the 32nd percentile on their strategic ability – that is, worse than two-thirds of their colleagues. This is a factor that they might have rectified before it was too late, since they all had received feedback about their strategic ability in the previous two years. What stopped them? The picture that emerges is of leaders who worked hard but were too heads-down and narrowly focused on immediate operational, technical, or functional issues. Many of these were people with valuable technical or functional expertise. But the sad fact is that when times are tough, what most organizations need most are leaders who can create a winning strategy that will ensure competitive advantage.

They failed to consistently deliver results. Here, too, 360 feedback predicted problems: Those who were terminated were rated, on average, in the 37th percentile on delivering results. These were the people who over that previous two years had had missed deadlines, had committed to projects they hadn’t delivered, or had set the bar too low for others. While they perceived themselves to be working very hard, they looked to everyone else in their 360 evaluations like they were running out of energy and losing effectiveness over time. Some had reputations for not working hard; the older ones in this group appeared to their colleagues to have started their retirements early.

Their ethics or integrity had been called into question. This was not a common problem, but whenever it existed people were let go. These ethical lapses covered a wide range, from failure to comply with company policies, to inappropriate comments to or relationships with co-workers, to financial improprieties like moving excess funds from one budget year to another by generating fictitious invoices. These were indications, for the most part not of outright dishonesty but of poor judgment.

They had (very) poor interpersonal skills. Many people with weak interpersonal skills had been promoted based on their technical ability and then were not able to improve their social skills enough to succeed in their new roles. As a group, those laid off averaged in only the 37th percentile in the 360 evaluations of their relationship-building and people skills. Many were viewed as weak leaders who were unable to influence others and foster necessary change. Some were difficult to deal with — or even hostile, volatile, angry, combative, and unable to manage their impulsive behavior. Some were described as creating a psychically toxic work environment. Why had the company waited for a downsizing to get rid of these obvious candidates? Keep in mind that many of these people were also described as brilliant.

They were resistant to change, both personally and organizationally. In our global database of 360 feedback from 35,000 leaders, we’ve found a strong correlation between managers’ willingness to ask for and respond to feedback and their overall leadership effectiveness. What’s more, we’ve found that the willingness to ask for advice and respond to feedback declines over time (that is, older workers in our database tend to score lower than younger ones). In general, the worst leaders assume that they’re promoted because of their brilliance and all they need to do is keep on doing what they did in the past. But the best leaders continue to look for feedback and to find ways to improve. So it did not surprise us that many of the managers who were let go at this company were described as resistant to change and inflexible to new approaches in their 360 reviews.

They had lost sponsors or support. Over half the managers who were downsized indicated that they had recently lost the support of their sponsor. So in that fateful meeting where was no one to speak up for them. The lesson here is clear. Not only do you need to ask “Who will be your strong advocate?” but it’s important to have more than one.

That last factor is clearly political, and its pervasiveness suggests that everyone should be a little bit paranoid when layoffs are in the offing. But generally speaking, our research with this company offers up some strong evidence for the just world hypothesis, since none of the unfortunate 150 were laid off for that reason only. Everyone was let go for at least one, and generally more than one, justifiable reason.

What these results also suggest is that positive reviews, and even promotions, can bring a false sense of security. The disparities between the positive performance reviews and the negative comments on the 360s reinforce our longtime findings that it is your strengths that get you promoted – but also suggest that in uncertain times you should take a second look at your flaws, which may leave you vulnerable to being laid off.

If your organization were facing a cutback today, would you be prepared and certain your name wouldn’t appear on “the list”? We welcome your thoughts.

For more interesting articles, visit[b] www.risenetworks.org[/b]

Millennials, the current generation of 20-somethings perhaps best known for their tech-savvy ways, are growing up. The oldest members of the group are now turning 30, which means they increasingly have adult money issues on their minds. The need for long-term savings accounts, retirement funds, debt payments, mortgage payments, and family-related costs are among the responsibilities weighing them down.

The good news is that the financial services industry wants to help. Eager for younger customers’ business, they have been busy analyzing millennials’ financial challenges and trying to figure out how they can best reach out to them. As a result, a handful of financial services companies recently released money tips for millennials. Here are five of the best ones:

Save like it’s 2009. Savings rates tend to go up during recessions, which is why personal savings rates shot up in 2009. The fear of financial instability appears to motivate people to squirrel more money into the safety of bank accounts rather than squander it on new shoes or a new smartphone. Millennials could use some of that motivation, since many have yet to start padding their bank accounts or saving for retirement........

Continue reading here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/06/10/5-money-moves-everyone-should-make-by-age-30/

It was the president that requested for a marking scheme and the premise is for us to score his administrative performance as the president of Nigeria. The May 29th 2013 Democracy day which was tagged “Mid-Term report” was believed to be an opportunity for the president to prove his acclaimed achievements to convince the majority of doubting Thomas whose perceived negative assessment of the government has been termed “unfair”.

When the boys in government covering up for the president most time come up with such term demanding pity, it makes one pause a bit to think if government is now engraved with such emotions that the occupier of a political office is expected to be pampered while failing to deliver on promises made. Infact, some have made the emotion so worse that they have made God a politician. Such is the government of the present occupier of the highest political office in Nigeria.

The International Conference Centre was the venue for the usual show of fun fair. A mid-term report expected as details of performance, became avenue to boasts and rants from the president and his gladiators. President Goodluck Jonathan knows that his administration is not inspiring a nation in grief due to lack of abundant sufficiency to take him serious in delivering the much acclaimed “Transformation Agenda”.

Continue Reading Here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/06/04/transformation-agenda-marking-scheme-my-student-in-president-goodluck-jonathan/

Paul Graham is the co-founder of Y Combinator, an incubator for some of Silicon Valley’s most successful startups. “Like having a child, running a startup is the sort of experience that’s hard to imagine unless you’ve done it yourself. The best source of advice for new founders is not professors or investors but other founders. Those on this list know things only a handful of people know.”





#1 Bill Gates, Cochair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Before Bill Gates was a philanthropist, before he was CEO of a big software company, he was an ambitious, nerdy, young founder. As much as anyone, he invented the software startup....

Continue reading here:

Once again, Nigeria has entered an awful, familiar season. The country’s air is rent with talk of power. Not electric power, no; we’re talking raw political power! And the general elections of 2015 seem to have concentrated the mind of every politician in Nigeria, incumbent and aspirant alike. Nigeria is gravely tense. The country’s political rope has become extremely taut, threatening to snap.
I’d suggest that Nigeria cancel the 2015 elections. The country should then be put in a controlled comatose state, ready for the commencement of urgent, critical care. First, let me offer a sketch of the country’s pathologies.

Nigeria is beset by myriad crises. Boko Haram continues to make life in parts of the country nasty, brutish and short. After a few years of relative quiet, the creeks of the Niger Delta are flaring with sporadic acts of violence, much of them directed at police officers. Other parts of the country are in the vice grip of kidnappers who, when it suits them, murder their quarry even after ransom is paid. Businesses and individuals face a bad – some argue, worsening – state of electric power supply. The streets of many (I suspect, most) Nigerian cities are rife with clogged, fetid gutters that are both eyesores and health scares in-waiting. Hundreds of thousands of university and polytechnic graduates, many of them with cash-acquired or sexually transmitted degrees, haunt the streets, unemployed – some unemployable – and hopeless. Hospitals are so ill-equipped, so scary, that a good percentage of sick Nigerians now fly to Europe or North America (if they can afford it), or flock to India or South Africa (if they don’t have the means for the top-tier destinations), or make do with Ghana (if all farther locations are too expensive), or head for some money-grubbing, “miracle”-minting pastor or imam. The road networks are a shambles....

Continue Reading Here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/28/a-case-for-canceling-the-2015-elections/

UNEMPLOYMENT is already so high, staring us in the face no matter where we turn. But as people are crying and praying for jobs, the few opportunities available are turning out to constitute a huge financial burden on job seekers. Whatever they have to feed themselves is drained to attend interviews.

I have observed for some time now how big organisations in Nigeria carry out their recruitment exercises. They conduct their job interviews in only three cities in Nigeria: Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, leaving out the rest of the states, cities and regions. This means that anyone who wants to attend an interview or do a test for job opportunities has to move to any of the three cities.

Recently, I participated in one of the exercises to ascertain our suitability for employment in a brewery. There was no centre in the whole of South East and I had to choose between Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt. I did not know anybody in Abuja or Port Harcourt, so I chose Lagos because I have a distant cousin living there. I left Enugu three days before the Ability Test and ended up spending two days on the road because of the Enugu-Onitsha and Benin-Lagos expressways.

Two weeks later, after I got home, a media house invited me for an interview....

Continue Reading here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/22/this-unfair-recruitment-pattern/

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has described Africa’s most well known novelist, Chinua Achebe, as a storyteller who earned global celebration, adding, however, that those describing Achebe as “the father of African literature” were ignorant.

In a wide-ranging interview with SaharaReporters, Soyinka paid tribute to the late novelist who died on March 21, 2013 at 82. Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for literature, also spoke on his personal relationship with Achebe and other Nigerian writers; his regrets about Achebe’s last book, There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra; and his attempt to talk the late Biafran leader, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, out of fighting a war. Soyinka also answered questions about Heinemann’s African Writers Series and scolded “clannish” and “opportunistic hagiographers” fixated on the fact that Achebe never won the Nobel Prize.

Below is the full text of the interview.

Question: Do you recall where or how you first learned about the death of Professor Chinua Achebe? And what was your first reaction?

Continue Reading Here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/18/achebe-a-celebrated-storyteller-but-no-father-of-african-literature-says-soyinka/

With each passing day, one finds reason to question whether or not Nigeria is on the brink of a civil war and in need of a declaration of a state of emergency in the whole country, not just a few states. The number of violent deaths recorded weekly is far in excess of what is expected in a peace situation with neither earth quakes nor other natural disasters. The tidal wave of uncertainty rises higher with every announcement of insurgency and there is an uneasy feeling of an impending implosion. As we approach the next election we are constantly reminded of the American prediction that Nigeria will not exist as a country by 2015 and we seem to be marching rapidly towards the fulfilment of that ominous prophecy.

As General Buhari pointed out in his speech during the recent CPC convention, the country is sinking into a state of anarchy which I dare say he contributed to with his careless utterances. The hopelessness of the situation is highlighted by the inability of the policemen to protect themselves let alone anyone else. In Bama, Borno state, over twenty policemen were killed and as if that was not bad enough, two days later 27 policemen were murdered and another 13 captured by a cultist group, Ombatse in Nasarawa state, who they had been sent to arrest. A couple of weeks before that incident, 12 policemen had been killed in Bayelsa state and there had been a violent showdown in Baga between the security agencies and the Boko Haram which resulted in the death of hundreds of innocent citizens. All of this happened in the space of six weeks! If the policemen cannot even protect themselves, what hope do civilians have?

Continue Reading Here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/18/dancing-to-the-drums-of-war/

In years gone by, many workers could depend on receiving an annual or semi-annual raise – but unfortunately, for all but a few, this is no longer the case. In fact, many employers continue to cut back on staff or hours just to maintain in operation.

With that in mind, you might think that asking for a raise is an exercise in futility. After all, when money is tight, your company won’t be inclined to hand out extra cash like candy. However, management does want to do what’s required to keep an employee on the payroll if it helps their overall bottom line. After all, it costs money to hire and train new employees, and employee turnover is never profitable. So make a strong case for a raise and follow proper protocol, and your request is likely to be honored.

How to Ask for a Raise

Prepare

Prior to asking for a raise, it is imperative that you take substantial time to thoroughly prepare to make the request.

1. Know What You Are Worth
Before you ask for a raise, be sure that you are worth more money than you are already receiving. Your worth depends on such factors as how much others earn in your field, your level of experience, your special skills, and even your geographical location.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has a useful tool on its website to calculate salaries. Study it carefully, and make sure your request is reasonable – you could do more harm than good if you ask for a $5,000 raise when you’re already earning $5,000 more than you’re worth.

Continue Reading Here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/18/how-to-ask-your-boss-for-a-salary-increase-and-get-it/

TRANQUIL and picturesque, Friesland in northern Germany might seem an unlikely spot for an experiment in digital politics. Its population is ageing, its broadband patchy. Yet for five months local people have developed and submitted recommendations to their councillors using a website called LiquidFeedback, best known as the policy-setting platform favoured by the Pirate party, a tech-loving outfit that has won seats in four regional parliaments. Some citizens have voted for the council to stop publishing the location of speed cameras (on the ground that this helps drivers avoid them); others demand more say in how schools spend their money. Sönke Klug of the local council says he gets telephone calls every week, from big cities and small towns, asking for advice.

Digital politics carries high hopes. Many think it will help citizens govern themselves more effectively than via a professional caste of politicians. But just as putting cameras in parliaments did not usher in an era of teledemocracy, so digital politics has failed so far to displace the baby-kissers.

Continue Reading Here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/15/the-internet-helps-politicians-listen-better-to-their-electors-if-they-want-to/

Who will be the sole provider of all that you desire? Which company’s services will you “hire” to address your every internet-enabled whim? It sounds absurd, but this is the essence of the battle between the big four tech giants—oh and Microsoft too, but these days Microsoft is mostly an enterprise company.

Amazon is apparently working on two different smartphones, one of which has a 3D screen. The company is also supposedly developing an audio-only streaming device and a set-top box for your television, according to the latest Wall Street Journal report. That’s an awful lot for a company that only announced its first tablet fewer than two years ago.

Take a step back—in the flurry of recent announcements from all US tech giants, what is the one thing tying them together? Arguably, it’s a shared vision.

They all want to be the uber-company.

That is, a company which has a complete user experience with the following elements:

Continue reading here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/14/apple-google-facebook-and-amazon-are-all-trying-to-turn-into-the-same-uber-company/

From the perspective of our brains, personal goals define who we are. Our goals are our identity. And when we think and act based upon goals that reflect our core values as well as what we have to deal with due to life’s stresses, we create an identity for ourselves that can withstand any stress.

Without goals, we are simply our reptile and emotional brain reacting to our surroundings. Our core identity, or self, is based on our fundamental values that become goals, and it guides us in what we focus on every day.

An identity based on alarm goals will almost always lead to stress. Alarm goals don’t guide us toward whom we need to be in our lives, they push us toward what we feel we have to do in order to escape a problem or satisfy an addiction. Alarm goals lead us to define ourselves in terms of temporary satisfaction or chronic problems, both of which are a recipe for feeling not only stressed, but fundamentally incomplete and unfulfilled.

For example, say your life revolved around watching a particular television show, or following the events in a celebrity’s life.

Continue reading here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/15/how-to-set-goals-that-will-keep-you-fulfilled-and-focused/

(By Ajaero Tony Martins)

It’s never my intention to make this article controversial but I could help express my own view after witnessing a heated debate and the subject of the argument was “entrepreneurs vs. managers; which is more important to the process of building a business. Though I am an entrepreneur to the core, it is never my intention to place a kind of supremacy of one over the other; I just want to highlight some fundamental differences between an entrepreneur and a manager and there relevance to the entrepreneurial process.

”When entrepreneurs and investors come together to pool resources, they form a team. When employees and self employed specialists come together to network, they form a union.” – Robert Kiyosaki

Sometimes, both of them are mistaken as being the same but they are not. Before I proceed, I want stress the point that entrepreneurs and managers are both needed for the growth of any business. One cannot do without the other. Without much ado, below are 12 differences between entrepreneurs and managers.

Continue reading here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/16/entrepreneurs-vs-managers-whats-the-big-difference/

By Mary Gloria C. Njoku

ACCORDING to researchers, ethical leaders who exhibit empathy, trustworthiness, selfless attitude, and focus on collective mission tend to maintain optimal leader-follower relationships. One wonders whether these types of leaders exist in Nigeria and if they do, whether optimal leader-follower results will be obtained in this country, Nigeria. The attributes of an ethical leader suggest that the followers will be more likely to imbibe the vision of the organisation as interpreted by the leader and achieve the group goals as a result of intrinsic motivation.

Having worked in Nigerian for the past five years, I am challenged to believe that the cultural milieu or mindset of the average Nigerian in the workforce seems to be primarily centered on personal rather than group goals. It almost feels as though many followers perceive an empathetic, selfless and considerate attitude as weakness. Imagine working with a staffer who seeks permission for a three-day off-duty to take care of personal health. You grant the request and four hours or a day later, you get a report from other workers that the staff is busy selling goods, commuting people with motorbike, keke, taxi or bus. In the spirit of empathy, you call the staffer to order for engaging in such a dubious behaviour but the employee continues to seek and obtain extra work days off duty with fictitious or flimsy excuses. Health matters and death are very serious matters but many workers often do not reflect on the implication of misleading their leaders by lying about such matters in order to obtain some days off.

Continue reading here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/16/the-leader-for-nigeria/

By Barry Moltz.

“Stop working so hard!” may sound counterintuitive, but try it for a week and you’ll see how beneficial it can be.

For most small-business owners, these two numbers are meaningless. In a 24/7 Internet-connected world, working just eight hours a day is becoming increasingly difficult. Mobile devices and WiFi allow every entrepreneur to work wherever they are at any time of day. The problem is that while most people are working longer hours, they are not necessarily accomplishing more. According to Parkinson’s Law, work expands to the amount of time available to get it done. As a result, the “to-do” list never quite seems to end.

Here’s how working 9 to 5 (or another 40-hour-a-week schedule) can help your small business succeed:

Continue reading here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/16/why-working-9-to-5-is-better-for-business/

By Barry Moltz.

“Stop working so hard!” may sound counterintuitive, but try it for a week and you’ll see how beneficial it can be.

For most small-business owners, these two numbers are meaningless. In a 24/7 Internet-connected world, working just eight hours a day is becoming increasingly difficult. Mobile devices and WiFi allow every entrepreneur to work wherever they are at any time of day. The problem is that while most people are working longer hours, they are not necessarily accomplishing more. According to Parkinson’s Law, work expands to the amount of time available to get it done. As a result, the “to-do” list never quite seems to end.

Here’s how working 9 to 5 (or another 40-hour-a-week schedule) can help your small business succeed:

Continue reading here: http://risenetworks.org/2013/05/16/why-working-9-to-5-is-better-for-business/