Added “Mobile Web” capability to the blog.

If you load up www.startupgeek.com on your mobile device, it will automatically format for easy mobile reading. Enjoy StartupGeek on the go!

What is the “Startup 101″ category in this blog?

The new “Startup 101″ category in this blog is a series of posts specifically aimed at the very early stage business and the new entrepreneur.

These posts are intended to help the novice to quickly grasp the basics and to answer many of the questions that I’ve received from new entrepreneurs over the years, particularly during my years of teaching university courses in entrepeneurship.

If you’re just getting started, these posts are for you!

Why set up a legal entity for my business and when?

This is one of the most frequent questions I receive as an advisor to very early-stage entrepreneurs.

Sometimes, when you ask a legal or accounting professional this question, you receive an answer that is complex or highly qualified. We’re going to try to provide you with a quick, dirty answer that provides 80% of the practical information with 20% of the verbage.

* This isn’t legal advice. When in doubt, consult your attorney or accountant! *

First, why set up a legal entity at all?

Many people operate small businesses exclusively on their own behalf – “sole proprietorships” - without any legal entity in place.

Sometimes they will file a “Doing Business As” certificate with their state in order to operate and advertize under a brand name other than their own name, i.e. “Superior Lawn Care”.

If a lot of people do that, why bother with a legal entity?

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A Very Cool Tool: RingCentral.com

Over the last several years, “telephony automation” (as we’ll call it) has come a long way. This has been a tremendous boon for the entrepreneur.

New services include low-cost, monthly interactive voice response (IVR) systems, voice over IP (VOIP) telephone lines at a very low cost, and finally, hosted PBX systems. With VOIP, for example, companies can turn lines on and off quickly, set up phone numbers in new cities without buying new, dedicated infrastructure, and can deliver and forward voice services to any phone or computer, anywhere there is broadband.

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Principle #1: “ITPS!”

I’m kicking off this blog with a list of my “Principles of Entrepreneurship.” This is a fluid list that will grow and evolve over time, but I can get the basics into a few posts.

 “ITPS.” (“Its the people, stupid!”)

You cannot build a first-rate business using second-rate people. Your idea, your money, and your organizational skills will all only take you so far. At some point, the people in the management suite and on the front line have to take over and execute.

If you haven’t chosen well – chosen people whose integrity, sense of duty, loyalty, and basic judgement is first-rate - you will end up with a second-rate outcome, no matter what else you may have done right. This is my first and most important principle. You can get a lot of other things wrong. You can’t get the people wrong and succeed.