A Blog by Paul B. Silverman

Helping Entrepreneurs Understand Today's Emerging Opportunities and Plan, Finance, Launch, Manage and Grow New Ventures

Gemini Business Group Now Focusing Exclusively on New Venture Development

September 3 in Business, Business Models, Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Strategy by smartauthorsites | Comments Off on Gemini Business Group Now Focusing Exclusively on New Venture Development

3Starting September 15, 2015, Gemini Business Group, LLC will focus exclusively on addressing the needs of entrepreneurs and investors and offer a portfolio of new venture development and management support services that have been well received in the market.

The revised Gemini Business Group website provides an overview of the new directions we will be pursuing with clients in coming months.

Look for additional announcements in coming weeks on staff appointments , new developments, and updates on the Gemini Venture Partners Emerging Growth Fund.

I also encourage you to visit my blog www.paulbsilverman.com/blog and also sign up for the complimentary Entrepreneurship Today! e-mail updates which I am using to share new venture developments, management tips, insights on new venture financing trends such as equity crowdfunding, and other topics.

Your comments are always welcomed. Drop me a note anytime at paul@paulbsilverman.com.

Paul B. Silverman

Managing Partner

Tagged , , , , ,

Entrepreneurship-Interview-Aug 7th

August 19 in Business, Education, Entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, startup, Strategy, Venture capital by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on Entrepreneurship-Interview-Aug 7th

Untitled design(2)Interview and Book Review published in Ocean City Today – August 7th  issue:

Interview/Review- Ocean City Today Aug 7th

I shared why I wrote the new book- to help entrepreneurs create successful companies, moving beyond basic “start your own your business” guidelines to reach the critical five year survival milestone.

I also shared some key points, such as why clearly defining your business model and strategy up-front, is critical, and discussed what readers are saying.

I emphasized that statistics show entrepreneurs are a major force to spur job creation, and economic growth. New policies/programs to directly help entrepreneurs; proposed new university programs to more tightly link to the business community and leverage university assets and IP; and national entrepreneurship initiatives are my vision that I shared during the interview

I will be expanding on these points in upcoming interviews  and presentations. Stay tuned…comments always welcomed.

 

Paul B. Silverman writes about entrepreneurship, healthcare, analytics, and strategy management and serves as Advisor, Speaker, Educator, and Managing Partner of the Gemini Business Group, LLC, a new venture development firm, and author of “8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business.” He also serves as Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at George Mason University. See more at Paul B. Silverman Blog and sign up for Entrepreneurship Today! email updates to track latest new venture developments.

Tagged , , ,

TV Interview “Entrepreneurship, Jobs, Econ Growth” Now On YouTube

July 27 in Business, Business Models, Education, Entrepreneurship, International business, startup, Strategy by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on TV Interview “Entrepreneurship, Jobs, Econ Growth” Now On YouTube

Untitled design(2)I have received many requests for a copy of a one hour Inside Scoop Virginia syndicated public TV Interview I did on November 21, 2011 discussing entrepreneurship. I am pleased to advise the station posted the interview on YouTube over the weekend.

The interview focused on entrepreneurship and the recent publication of my entrepreneurial management book at that time Worm on a Chopstick : Understanding Today’s Entrepreneurial Age: Directions, Strategies, Management Perspectives

In the interview, I reviewed the challenges facing entrepreneurs,  recommended strategies, and entrepreneurial management perspectives. I also made the point, comparing the U.S.  to China and others, that we can be doing much more through creative policies leveraging entrepreneurship to create jobs and drive economic growth.

I also reviewed  the following two proposed entrepreneurship programs I developed and shared my plans for these:

Entrepreneur Empowerment Program (“EEP”) – structured regional economic development program driving economic growth and job creation. The program targeted metropolitan areas with a highly structured and targeted entrepreneurship training, mentoring, and management control methodology to help early stage companies succeed and grow. Founded on two core pillars, entrepreneurship and empowerment, the EEP provides the incentive framework at the local and regional level. Empowerment ensures these are locally driven programs, but pursued under the aegis of standards and guidelines set at the national level.

AEGIS  (Accelerated Entrepreneurial Global Investment System): A new program attracting overseas entrepreneurial firms to the United States to promote job creation, innovation, and economic growth. The program replaces today’s ad-hoc approach to identify, analyze, track and manage new ventures with a highly structured, well-defined program and builds a base of ‘showcase’ companies in targeted sectors (e.g., alternative energy, bio-tech, health care, others) that provides high upside, economic benefits. To support upcoming discussions, highlights of the AEGIS program are now posted on my blog at  AEGIS_Summary 072115

I am now again exploring interest in both of the above programs at both the national and regional levels. When you consider that in the past 15 years, about two-thirds (64 percent) of all new jobs have been created by companies with less than 500 employees, you realize that helping entrepreneurial companies succeed and grow makes good economic sense and creates value as I discussed in the interview.

Many of the points discussed in the  interview and the earlier book  are also  further developed in  my recent book 8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business.

If you are interested in seeing the interview, you can check it out at http://youtu.be/toV7VFNnFCs.  

Comments welcomed. I expect to be doing similar interviews in coming months – stay tuned

 
Paul B. Silverman writes about entrepreneurship, healthcare, analytics, and strategy management and serves as Advisor, Speaker, Educator, and Managing Partner of the Gemini Business Group, LLC, a new venture development firm, and author of “8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business.” He also serves as Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at George Mason University. See more at Paul B. Silverman Blog and sign up for Entrepreneurship Today! email updates to track latest new venture developments.

Tagged , , ,

How To Build The Perfect Sandcastle- Tips From Italian Architect

July 26 in Business, Education, Entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, startup, Strategy, Strategy by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on How To Build The Perfect Sandcastle- Tips From Italian Architect

Good tip for summer vacation time – check out famous Italian architect’s tips for building the perfect sandcastle … analysis, planning, design, execution, observe, evaluate, make adjustments- sounds like what #entrepreneurs do when launching a new #venture. And many do not have much more than sand to work with when they start

Check out   http://tinyurl.com/o6c6jge

Enjoy your summer vacation ..

Paul B. Silverman

Illustration of sandcastle building by Son of Alan

 
Paul B. Silverman writes about entrepreneurship, healthcare, analytics, and strategy management and serves as Advisor, Speaker, Educator, and Managing Partner of the Gemini Business Group, LLC, a new venture development firm, and author of “8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business.” He also serves as Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at George Mason University. See more at Paul B. Silverman Blog and sign up for Entrepreneurship Today! email updates to track latest new venture developments.

Tagged , ,

Quote for Entrepreneurs

July 24 in Business, Business Intelligence, Education, Entrepreneurship, startup, Uncategorized, Venture capital by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on Quote for Entrepreneurs

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that is your own self. So you have to begin there, not outside, not on other people. That comes afterwards, when you have worked on your own corner.

                                                                                                                         – Aldous Huxley

Tagged , , ,

Comments on Forbes Article – Millennials Want To Be Entrepreneurs, So Why Aren’t They Starting Businesses?

July 24 in Business, Business Models, Strategy, Uncategorized by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on Comments on Forbes Article – Millennials Want To Be Entrepreneurs, So Why Aren’t They Starting Businesses?

Posted comments today on Forbes article by Jared Meyer on why millenials are not pursuing their “entrepreneurial dreams” and reinforced the same points I am making in other forums:

— 50% of new ventures fail within five years- we need to educate entrepreneurs, provide tools and ‘best practices’ to create more ‘Survivor’ entrepreneurs

— We do a poor job of offering entrepreneurial education curriculum that really addresses the skills needed to develop winning entrepreneurial management strategies and improve the probability of success

You can see a copy of the Forbes article and comments at http://tinyurl.com/nb9qmzk– here is a copy of my posted comments:

Jared:

Thanks for insightful article- good discussion. Glad to share four perspectives on entrepreneurship based on my experience and publications.

First, serving as an Adjunct Professor at 3 leading universities since 2002 teaching mostly Capstone courses, at the first class I always ask for a show of hands on the question “How many of you would like to be an entrepreneur?” after graduation. My survey results shows 50 percent or less answer yes, and sometimes much less. While they see upside, most also understand the challenges here and life’s realities on the need for a steady income, and I am sure this drives these numbers much lower.

Sec1ondly, entrepreneurs must invest time, resources, maybe take a second mortgage on a home, max credit card debt, and if really fortunate, may attract some investors and capture customers. But statistics show half of these new ventures are doomed to fail within five years. Looking deeper, SBA statistics show what drives all business failures: Management Competence (46%), Lack of Managerial Experience (30%), and Lack of Market Sector Experience (11%). Summary- entrepreneur commitment and risks are high, the probability of success are modest.

Third, in my view we are failing in educating entrepreneurs to meet today’s new venture challenges.

Today’s market, technology, and competition challenges are tougher than ever and savvy investors know that. New players emerge and are attacked by newer players using even newer technology. Teaching entrepreneurs how to start and manage a new venture really is the easy part – from business idea, business plan, resources, and launch – the skills needed here can be learned. In a recent book (8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business), I defined these “SYOB” (“Start Your Own Business”) skills as Entrepreneurial Management 1.0, and these skills are not sufficient to meet today’s challenges

Finally, simply put, yesterday’s skills do not meet today’s entrepreneur’s needs. Recognize that Fortune 500 companies develop new ventures using some SYOB techniques, but before committing resources to pursue new ventures, major firms do more- they look at strategic issues; identify value chain metrics; identify peer group competitors; assess market attractiveness using Five Forces Models; identify alliances and global strategies; assess how venture metrics impact overall ROI given 3 to 5,000 other products and services, and so on. And these new skills are the foundation for what I call Entrepreneurial Management 2.0, a new entrepreneurial management discipline I developed building on SYOB tools, drawing upon Fortune 500 firm techniques for launching and managing new ventures, and my experiences working with many early stage companies. Entrepreneurial Management 2.0 is a portfolio of new entrepreneurial management skills organized into 8 Building Blocks to meet today’s business challenges to help manage and grow new ventures. (see “Half of All New Ventures Fail Within 5 Years- What Is Driving This Sobering SBA Statistic?”) The objective here- help entrepreneurs launch, manage, and grow successful ventures and reduce new venture failure rates.

I share your view on the role entrepreneurship plays in driving economic growth and working on several proposed programs to meet this need (national and regional level), and also exploring a new venture development fund. In 2009, I developed and managed a new Step Up Program to bridge the academic and business community and help educate entrepreneurs- more info and press interview at George Mason University Step Up Program and Paul B. Silverman – Press Interview. This is a representative direction I foresee, coupled with creative new venture financing options.

Summarizing, we can be doing much more to educate and motivate entrepreneurs, jumpstart and grow our entrepreneurship sector- these actions will also drive positive economic growth

Paul B. Silverman

 

Paul B. Silverman writes about entrepreneurship, healthcare, analytics, and strategy management and serves as Advisor, Speaker, Educator, and Managing Partner of the Gemini Business Group, LLC, a new venture development firm, and author of “8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business.” He also serves as Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at George Mason University. See more at Paul B. Silverman Blog and sign up for Entrepreneurship Today! email updates to track latest new venture developments.

Tagged , , ,

Half of All New Ventures Fail Within 5 Years- What Is Driving This Sobering SBA Statistic?

July 15 in Business, Business Intelligence, Business Models, Health care, Predictive Analytics, Strategy, Uncategorized by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on Half of All New Ventures Fail Within 5 Years- What Is Driving This Sobering SBA Statistic?

A new press release was issued today announcing the publication of “8 Building Blocks to Launch, Manager and Grow a Successful Business”  and availability on Amazon (Print and Kindle).

8b3_copy(4)Here is a copy of the press release…

‘8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business’ Now Available On Amazon

Half of all new businesses fail within five years. SBA statistics show what drives all business failures: Management Competence (46%), Lack of Managerial Experience (30%), and Lack of Market Sector Experience (11%)-new book offers success solutions

July 15, 2015 – RESTON, Va. — “8 Building Blocks to Launch, Manage, and Grow a Successful Business” is now available on Amazon (US and global markets)- print and Kindle editions. Targeted to entrepreneurs, the book walks readers through the many steps needed to not only launch a business, but stay in business and succeed. The new book received positive pre-publication reviews from invited senior level reviewers

“SBA and other statistics confirm what I’ve seen so many times,” said author Paul B. Silverman. “You can have a great idea, market need, solid team, funding and maybe a customer or two, and then five years later you’re out of business. “Understanding the challenges, and helping you develop winning strategies and succeed in today’s explosive and exciting entrepreneurial arena is why this book is written,” said Silverman.

“8 Building Blocks to Launch, Manager and Grow a Successful Business” provides a step-by-step guide to all the key elements an entrepreneur needs to tackle to meet today’s challenges, understand and use Fortune 500 new venture ‘best practices’, profitably stay in business, and create value for shareholders. The book delves into the reasons why most businesses fail, how to prevent common pitfalls, and create winning strategies.“8 Building Blocks to Launch, Manage, and Grow a Successful Business” .…. READ PR AT PRESS RELEASE- 8 BUILDING BLOCKS

Here are some related links:

Reviews – I appreciated the support and comments of the pre-publication reviewers- reviews at What Readers are Saying

Link to new book page-  Book Page: * Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business

 Read Book Excerpts at https://paulbsilverman.com/books/excerpts/

Link to Amazon to order the book  Amazon Link; 8 Building Blocks to Launch, Manage, and Grow A Successful Business

Link to blog    paulbsilverman.com/blog/

Media Kit for Press at  Media Kit -8 Building Blocks-071515

Sign up for new Entrepreneurship Today! email updates on areas I am tracking such as crowdfunding, Reg A+, cybersecurity, healthcare, IOT, and analytics . The email updates will cover new venture developments, blog posts highlights, upcoming interviews with leading entrepreneurs, guest posts by investors and entrepreneurs, and new Entrepreneurial Management 2.0 techniques. More info and sign-up page at https://paulbsilverman.com/contact/ 

I am ramping up speaking engagements and plan on doing several interviews related to new venture development and entrepreneurship and glad to address any group where I can contribute and schedules work

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me anytime and I will be glad to help.

All the best,

Paul B. Silverman

Paul B. Silverman writes about entrepreneurship, healthcare, analytics, and strategy management and serves as Advisor, Speaker, Educator, and Managing Partner of the Gemini Business Group, LLC, a new venture development firm, and author of “8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business.” He also serves as Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at George Mason University. See more at Paul B. Silverman Blog and sign up for Entrepreneurship Today! email updates to track latest new venture developments.

 

Tagged , , , ,

$9 M Google Ventures Funding… And Shows Future of Digital Publishing

July 8 in Business, Business Models, Entrepreneurship, Predictive Analytics, startup, Strategy, Strategy, Venture capital by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on $9 M Google Ventures Funding… And Shows Future of Digital Publishing

Book Pile BlogRecommend reading the Fast Company article “The Picture Book That Parents Worldwide—And Google Ventures—Can’t Put Down” http://www.fastcocreate.com/3048158/the-picture-book-that-parents-worldwide-and-google-ventures-cant-put-down

Take a good look here and you see where digital publishing is heading as print-on- demand, analytics, creative software, graphics design, and content creation merge to create what looks like a new market sector.

When we here about personalized children’s books we think about a child’s name inserted into the same story and replicated for others. Here we have a new paradigm using algorithms to create customized stories printed with high quality illustrations.

Here is what #Google Ventures says: “We don’t look at them as a book publishing company,” says Avid Larizadeh Duggan, a London-based general partner at Google Ventures. “It’s a platform for the best personalized content for children’s entertainment on multiple platforms. They’re redefining a category.”

When you read this article, I suggest keep the following points in mind:

  • Automated content creation using algorithms and software is a new frontier- as noted “… there are tens of thousands lines of code for each book delivered”
  • This is a technology not a book publishing startup –when you review the article that is clear
  • The team identified a market opportunity, organized a talented team, and then pursued the business. Market opportunity defined first, then technology solution- that is the way it is done to avoid having a creative technology looking for a market, a problem we often see with early stage companies

So where is this heading? Here are may perspectives:

  • The content creation analytics and software will advance quickly- we can envision more powerful and multi-threaded content creation options emerging- I expect these will be driven by start-up firms
  • We will move beyond the children’s book market- what I call ‘adaptive’ content creation will also address other traditional book publishing markets
  • Adaptive, personalized content creation has other applications in education and training. Customizing content to adapt to readers’ learning styles and disabilities, personalizing training content based on readers’ skill level; developing personalized healthcare education materials which adapts based on staff background, experience, their optimum learning approach are some of the many possibilities here.

Bottom line – like 3D printing, this is another disruptive breakthrough that I believe will open many exciting opportunities to create value. Recommend all stay tuned as this develops.

Paul B. Silverman

Paul B. Silverman writes about entrepreneurship, healthcare, analytics, and strategy management and serves as Advisor, Speaker, Educator, and Managing Partner of the Gemini Business Group, LLC, a new venture development firm, and author of “8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business.” He also serves as Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at George Mason University. See more at Paul B. Silverman Blog and sign up for Entrepreneurship Today! email updates to track latest new venture developments.

Tagged , , , ,

New Book Release: “8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business”

July 7 in Business, Business Models, Entrepreneurship, startup, Strategy, Strategy, Uncategorized, Venture capital by smartauthorsites | Comments Off on New Book Release: “8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business”

I am pleased to advise publication of “8 Building Blocks to Launch, Manager and Grow a Successful Business”  – book is now available on Amazon (Print and Kindle).

8b3_copy(4)Here is press release…

HALF OF ALL BUSINESSES FAIL WITHIN FIVE YEARS

New book offers solutions for success

Reston, VA, July 3, 2015 – “8 Building Blocks to Launch, Manage, and Grow a Successful Business” is available today on Amazon (US and global markets) and Kindle (July 8th). Targeted to entrepreneurs, the book walks readers through the many steps needed to not only launch a business, but stay in business and succeed.

“SBA and other statistics confirm what I’ve seen so many times,” said author Paul B. Silverman. “You can have a great idea, market need, solid team, funding and maybe a customer or two, and then five years later you’re out of business.”

“8 Building Blocks to Launch, Manager and Grow a Successful Business” provides a step-by-step guide to all the key elements an entrepreneur needs to tackle to meet today’s challenges, profitably stay in business, and create value for shareholders. The book delves into the reasons why most businesses fail, how to prevent common pitfalls, and winning strategies…. READ PR AT PRESS RELEASE- 8 BUILDING BLOCKS

Here are some related links:

Reviews – I appreciated the support and comments of the pre-publication reviewers- reviews at https://paulbsilverman.com/books/reviews/

Link to new book page-  Book Page: * Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business  

 Read Book Excerpts at https://paulbsilverman.com/books/excerpts/

Link to Amazon to order the book  Amazon Link; 8 Building Blocks to Launch, Manage, and Grow A Successful Business

Link to blog a paulbsillverman.com/blog/

Sign up for new Entrepreneurship Today! email updates on areas I am tracking such as crowdfunding, Reg A+, cybersecurity, healthcare, IOT, and analytics . The email updates will cover new venture developments, blog posts highlights, upcoming interviews with leading entrepreneurs, guest posts by investors and entrepreneurs, and new Entrepreneurial Management 2.0 techniques. More info and sign-up page at https://paulbsilverman.com/contact/ 

I am ramping up speaking engagements and plan on doing several interviews related to new venture development and entrepreneurship and glad to address any group where I can contribute and schedules work

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me anytime and I will be glad to help.

All the best,

Paul B. Silverman

Paul B. Silverman writes about entrepreneurship, healthcare, analytics, and strategy management and serves as Advisor, Speaker, Educator, and Managing Partner of the Gemini Business Group, LLC, a new venture development firm, and author of “8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business.” He also serves as Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at George Mason University. See more at Paul B. Silverman Blog and sign up for Entrepreneurship Today! email updates to track latest new venture developments.

 

Tagged , , ,

Comments on Forbes Article – “Don’t Rube Goldberg Your IOT”

July 7 in Business, Business Intelligence, Business Models, Predictive Analytics, Uncategorized by Paul Silverman | Comments Off on Comments on Forbes Article – “Don’t Rube Goldberg Your IOT”

12Commented on Forbes Article – “Don’t Rube Goldberg Your IoT”

To successfully develop IOT solutions, we need to recognize IoT is a technology and learn from lessons from past revolutions such as e-commerce, EDI, and others. We need to also understand the role analytics will play in the IoT revolution which I also emphasized in my comments.

Here is a copy of my comments:

Thanks for the insightful IOT article and how you can avoid a ‘Rube Goldberg’ technology solution.

I have concerns about today’s IOT revolution based on my experience, working through other ‘revolutions’ such as e-commerce, EDI, cloud computing, analytics, and others. We are making progress on technology, security, interworking and similar challenges but I see lessons learned from other revolutions we must address.

Here are the 3 top critical success factors needed to create a mass market IOT:

1. Standards must move from ‘corporate’ internetworking to ‘market’ internetworking
We learned in the e-commerce/EDI revolution that spending the time and effort to develop standards for internetworking between suppliers, distributors, and customers provided the measurable benefits needed to ensure success. My experience addressing this challenge in the pharmaceutical/global distributor sectors confirmed this point. We need IOT standards for key sectors to provide the framework for growth.

2. Business strategy and process optimization must drive IOT, not technology

IOT is a technology – developing optimum, sustainable IOT solutions demand an experienced, multi-dimensional staff with strategy, financial, analytics, process analysis, and technology skills. The CIO will play a key role but … READ MORE AT Forbes Article- Dont Rube Goldberg Your IoT July 6

—————————————————————————————————————–

Paul B. Silverman writes about entrepreneurship, healthcare, analytics, and strategy management and serves as Advisor, Speaker, Educator, and Managing Partner of the Gemini Business Group, LLC, a new venture development firm, and author of “8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business.” He also serves as Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at George Mason University. See more at Paul B. Silverman Blog and sign up for Entrepreneurship Today! email updates to track latest new venture developments.

Tagged , , ,
Verified by MonsterInsights