It’s NOT fair but with everyone wanting to be an entrepreneur these days, competition has raised the barre. As a mentor, I want to talk about what you’re doing (beyond branding and networking, please, it’s so over done) and making and how to improve that; not what you plan or want to do particularly if you haven’t followed the advice you’ve already been given. Clean your plate and then you can come back for seconds. This isn’t the Golden Trough (Corral).

They have the branding down, logo and the whole nine yards with nothing but “vision” to paste it onto. It’s like an “etch a sketch” business (nod to Keillor). Not to say logos aren’t nice and sometimes useful (maybe when I’m not so busy, I’ll consider getting one too).

A universal problem seems to be an over emphasis on business plans that consist of near perfect examples of confirmation bias conjecture and rely on investor funding to implement the very first step. Hours spent poring over a template business plan does not create value. Create a prototype I want to buy and THEN you can begin to write a plan that describes how you think you need to move to the next tier. That is what excites people and makes them want to become involved. As I said, with everyone starting a business these days, novelty has become increasingly rare. Build it first, then talk about it.