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Questions to Answer Before Investing in a Start-Up

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article | Questions to Answer Before Investing in a Start-Up

Investing in start-ups can be a fascinating endeavor. The idea of being an early investor in a new company and watching it grow into something extraordinary is inspiring.

However, before making any investment decision, it is essential to ask yourself some tough questions to make sure you are ready for the commitment. In this article, you will learn about questions that every potential start-up investor should answer before investing. Read on!

How Does This Affect Your Diversification Strategy?

Diversification is the process of spreading out assets among different investments, such that one lousy investment does not ruin your entire portfolio. Diversification also seeks to balance a portfolio by including other asset classes like stocks and bonds.

It is also a great strategy for continuous improvement in your firm. You can also learn other ways to continually improve your company by signing up in a lean learning center. Investing in a start-up company, for instance, is generally considered to be an illiquid asset because it takes time to realize any return on investment.

As a result, there may not be anything tangible to sell if you need or want out of your position (unless you have been given some venture capital with a liquidation clause).

What Level of Involvement is Required? 

Investing in start-ups can be a difficult decision. One of the primary considerations is what level of involvement you will need to have with the company? For example, are you expected to help decide how to allocate funds or provide feedback on new ideas for products and services?

If your goal is to invest and not be involved in the day-to-day decisions of the company, then you should consider a small investment. A more significant investment may require more involvement from your end and, if not careful, could lead to burnout or lack of interest over time.

What is the Time Frame?

Consider the length of time you plan on staying invested in an investment. Long-term investors may want to invest more heavily and pay less attention to risk, while short-term investors might be looking for quick gains but are unwilling to take as much risk.

Individual situations vary greatly, so carefully consider how long you are planning on investing before making a decision.

What Rate of Return is Expected? 

It is essential to understand your investment expectations. For example, do you want a guaranteed return, or do you need one that entails more risk?

There are different strategies for investing, and understanding the level of risk will help make an informed decision about what type of fund might be appropriate. Investment in start-ups can provide good returns, but it is crucial to understand the level of risk involved.

Investing in start-ups is a risky venture. You need to ask the right questions before investing in any company, and what better way than starting with the above examples. Make sure you don’t get caught off guard if something goes wrong because you might end up with nothing at all. Start-up companies do not always make it, and you have to know when to get out of a sinking ship.

A Quick Guide To Kanban

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Kanban|A Quick Guide To KanbanKanban is a popular workflow management framework, that will allow you to more effectively manage and improve the services that you offer. This method follows four simple principles.

Visualize Workflow

To improve your services with Kanban, you need to start by mapping out your current process. This will show you where you can start to make improvements.

Limit Work In Progress

Kanban aims to move work efficiently, with minimal waste and lag. This means you will have to limit the amount of work to keep things to a manageable level. This helps you to avoid bottlenecks and other delays.

Focus On Flow

Once you have the first two Kanban principles in place in your business, your workflow can flow a lot more freely. This makes everything easier. Once you’ve got the first two ticked off, you can concentrate on anything that interrupts the flow of work, so you can find some more places to improve your processes.

Continuous Improvement

Kanban involves ongoing work and improvement, the project is never truly finished. To get it right, you will need to constantly monitor and analyse your work and processes so you can continue to find ways to improve. Customer demand, resources, and the market are all always changing, so if you’re going to keep up, you need to keep on working on improving.

To learn about Kanban and see how it might be able to work for your business, whether you work in manufacturing, professional services, or just about anything else, check out the infographic below.


Infographic designed by: Kanban Principles

What To Expect From A Customized Executive Coaching Program?

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Executive Coaching |What To Expect From A Customized Executive Coaching Program?The number one goal of an executive coach is to prepare you for the challenges of today and tomorrow in leading roles. A good coach will train you to reach your goals and enhance your performance to face the obstacles in your path. Your coach will act as a sounding board, advisor, manager, strategist, and guide.

Moreover, a coach will also help you gain self-awareness and help you discover greater potential. To know more about customized coaching programs that you can opt for, visit moovone.eu/en/.

Activities to uncover capabilities and increase horizons

Executive coaching programs help you build confidence and enhance your performance to work better towards your goal. They achieve this by a combination of activities.

Some of the activities that will make you grow as a leader and are the high points of a customized learning program are:

  1. One-to-one meetings improve your apprehension and communication skills. They challenge your capacities to widen your limits.
  2. Learning assignments will help you gather knowledge that will assist you in getting through the challenges in your career area in the future.
  3. Assessments and feedback should test your skills and will tell you your strengths and weaknesses. These provide you the room for improvement.
  4. Developmental activities and progress reviews will enhance your confidence levels and thus make you a better leader.
    Executive coach meetings to create engagement

Although the training periods last somewhere between 3 to 12 months, typically, you only meet your coach once or twice a month. These meetings can be face-to-face or virtual, depending on what works best.

What are the roles of your manager?

The main role of your manager is to provide support and feedback throughout the training period. They share valuable data for assessment and evaluation of your growth during the months of training.

What are the steps of an executive coaching program?

An executive coaching program transforms not only your employees but your whole organization, one step at a time.

Understanding and identifying the main challenges in the existing system is their first step. They also target the teams that need support to help you grow as an organization.

  1. Designing and implementing the best curriculum to reach your goals.
  2. Communication followed by rolling out projects in sync with client success partners.
  3. Supporting and following up with your employees to track their growth in real-time.
  4. Analyzing the need of the hour and improvising to create more impactful programs through standard and custom KPIs.

Transforming to improve the performance of the team

Moovone helps you unleash the potential of the team to reach greater goals. They provide executive coaching to support the transformation of your company. A wide diversity of coaching frameworks are at work to help you meet the challenges.

Whether you need long or short courses, diverse coaching programs, or individual training, they can provide relevant support to amplify your growth in the future. Customized executive coaching combines learning and training to offer a unique approach towards developmental skills. This helps you grow as a manager and uncover human potential.

Tips for Managing Temperature-Sensitive Goods During Shipping

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Temperature-Sensitive Goods|Tips for Managing Temperature-Sensitive Goods During ShippingEven large, insulated trucks are susceptible to temperature change and weather conditions that can impact the freight inside. Without additional temperature controls within the truck, products can spoil or be damaged by temperature variations.

Even if the temperature is fine at the loading and unloading point, a lot can happen in between. Depending on the route the truck travels, you may see significant variations in outside temperatures. Trips through desert climates can cause temperatures to rise quickly and items to thaw. Mountainous regions, or shipping during the winter, can cause items to freeze.

Overcoming Temperature Variations in Shipping

Shippers typically overcome temperature issues by using reefer trucks that have built-in technology to maintain specific temperature ranges within the truck. Refrigerated LTL trucks often include real-time monitoring and tracking, so operators can monitor internal temperatures and make adjustments if the temperature rises or lowers beyond acceptable measures.

However, many shippers want an independent assessment of temperatures beyond relying on the driver’s word that the temperature stayed within acceptable ranges. Shippers overcome this by attaching a temperature indicator to the freight so that they can be alerted to exposure to unacceptable temperature conditions at any time during transit.

These inexpensive monitors can be attached to freight or inside packing to indicate whether any temperature variation was brief, moderate, or prolonged.

Managing Containers

Making sure you have the right type of container for your goods will make a significant difference.

  • Wood is used most commonly for freight that is not impacted by force, such as poultry, seafood, and other meats. Wooden boxes can accommodate dry ice while allowing pressure to escape the packaging. Dry ice can rupture if pressure is not released.
  • Plastic boxes are good at eliminating moisture from penetrating the container and are stackable. Plastic works well for produce.
  • Cardboard can be used in some circumstances. More affordable and easy to stack, items needing temperature control are often sealed or wrapped and refrigerant gel packs are used to maintain temps. For this, many merchants often seek the help of international freight forwarders. It fastens up the process making it easier for you to settle for a reliable deal. If you wish to seek more details about it, feel free to click here and know about it all.
  • Styrofoam boxes act as an insulator to help maintain temperatures as well.

Using the Right Insulation

Inside your container, it’s also important to use the right kind of insulation to keep your temperatures at the right level. If you’re not using Styrofoam or a container that comes with a built-in liner, you will typically want to find a thermal liner, filler, or pad to put inside the container.

Once you have insulation in place, you may also need to add additional filler, such as bubble wrap or packing peanuts to prevent movement and keep your shipment secure while in transit to reduce potential damage.

Protect From Freeze Services

Some temperature-controlled shipments need additional protection to avoid freezing. Commodities, including chemicals, paint, glue, wine and alcohol, liquids, and some perishable foods need to be transported above freezing temperatures.

Most LTL carriers offer Protect from Freeze services, which include sheltering or segregating freight from outside temperatures and employing heated trailers or shelters to keep cargo from freezing.

Other products need to be kept frozen, within tight tolerances. Managing what logistics companies call the “cold chain” can be just as challenging as keeping items from freezing.

Loading and Unloading

Another area shippers run into trouble with maintaining temperatures is during the loading and unloading of goods. For example, temperatures might have been maintained during transit, but the long wait at the freight dock with the doors open can quickly compromise temperatures during unloading.

Drivers should keep trucks parked and the door closed until the loading dock is open and freight can be unpacked immediately. The same goes for loading. While stored in refrigerated containers in the warehouse, if items are sitting in the sun on the loading dock or in an open truck for too long, temps can rise quickly.

This is another reason many shippers have started using their temperature indicators. The built-in systems in the truck would show everything was fine during the transportation phase, but nobody is monitoring the temperatures specifically during the loading and unloading process.

Importance of Monitoring Temperatures

Besides wanting to protect the integrity of your goods and make sure they do not spoil during transit, maintaining temperatures may be important for regulatory compliance and to avoid recalls.

Essentia Health is the subject of a class-action suit after 50,000 patients received vaccinations that may have lost effectiveness due to improper storage temperatures. Having proof of temperature control throughout the entire shipping and storage process from start to finish could be vital information in case of legal action.

Common Business Laws And How A Business Lawyer Can Help

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Law|Common Business Laws And How A Business Lawyer Can HelpEvery business needs two professionals right from the very start. One is an accountant, for apparent reasons. And the other one is a business lawyer.

Now, you need an accountant for bookkeeping and filing taxes. But why an attorney?

Simply put, a business attorney handles no single task. Indeed, a business attorney will be responsible for providing advice at every step, from zoning compliance to hiring, recruiting, and even finalizing a deal.

Besides, a business attorney will also represent your business in case of any litigation or lawsuits.

In short, a business attorney is more like an advisor for your business, regardless of its size.

Are you still confused?

Read more about the standard laws that your attorney would help you navigate through.

Intellectual Property

Intellectual properties are exclusive entities that belong to a business or an individual. For instance, a trade name or trademark, a logo, or a patented product design, are all intellectual properties.

For businesses, these properties are crucial to mark their brand identity in the market.

And therefore, it is essential to protect these identities against theft or infringement.

To your surprise, there are numerous disputes about intellectual properties. And most of them involve litigation.

Now, a reasonable attorney would assist you in starting the lawsuit. They would also be helping you gather all the evidence and investigation needed against the party in breach.

In short, they’ll protect your business and brand identity. And would also help recover monetary or other losses.

Breach of Contract

There are usually several types of contracts that your business may be involved in. For example, there could be a vendor agreement or an employment contract, to name the least.

Typically, contracts are signed off to maintain a binding agreement between two parties. And they are crucial for protecting your business in a variety of situations.

To be precise, a contract would also entail specific dos and don’ts for both parties involved in the agreement. And any breach of the contract by any party can easily trigger a dispute.

Besides, several laws govern business contracts. So, having an attorney who understands business law and can help you stay clear of contractual disputes can help your business stay ahead of troubles. And not to mention, they would also help with the litigation process against the party at fault for breaching the contract.

Moreover, the lawyer would also play defence if the other party files a lawsuit for breach of contract.

So, it’s a two-way street, and your business will surely be on the safer side in both cases.

Mediation Outside the Courts

It is noteworthy that not all business or corporate litigations end with a courtroom trial. Instead, to your surprise, most business disputes are usually settled outside the court.

Now, you may think that there are not many legalities involved if the dispute is settled outside the court.

Allow us to correct you here.

Even in out-of-court settlements, the other party can breach the mutual agreement. And it may further escalate the issue into other disputes.

Having an experienced business attorney can prevent further escalation and also help with the mediation process.

Your business attorney would help with the agreement’s drafting and negotiate the compensations to be paid or received.

In short, a business attorney will also help your business stay healthy if any dispute does not reach the courts.

Disputes with Employees

As a business owner, you may use different contracts or establish a code of conduct for your employees. For example, you may oblige your employees to maintain an NDA to protect the company’s crucial data and information.

Likewise, you may also use a minimum work term contract with your employee.

And as such, there may arise situations when the contract may need to be terminated early. For instance, if an employee needs to quit the job for any valid reason.

In such situations, it would be beneficial for your business to establish a rule book—the dos and don’ts of terminating contracts before the term ends.

And that’s precisely what your business attorney would help you with.

Wait, did we mention NDAs? Any breach of an NDA would also implicate legal action against the employee. And you may very well need to file a litigation procedure against the employee.

Disputes with employees may arise because of other reasons too. For example, workplace discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination are also common reasons for disputes with employees.

Disputes between Partners

If you own a business in partnership with someone, then skipping on a business lawyer is not an option.

Consider this; partnership firms usually operate on shared ideas and profits for both partners. Likewise, both partners also share the workload and responsibilities.

And to your notice, all these shared profits and roles are documented.

Partners can quickly end up in disputes concerning any change in operations or standard procedures. It may even be because of differences in perception.

But, there’s one thing for sure: the business would bear the loss amidst all the internal disputes.

And you wouldn’t want that.

So, involving a business lawyer who can intervene and settle disputes can be an easy way out. And perhaps, it would also protect your business from potential losses.

Consumer Disputes

Another possible legal trouble for your business could be product liability lawsuits.

Suppose a customer or a consumer is injured while using your products. In that case, your business is at risk of losing its reputation. And not to forget the monetary expenses paid in compensation to the injured.

Nonetheless, consumer disputes are pretty standard, especially when you are a manufacturer or deal in products and not services.

A business lawyer would investigate and establish your defence’s facts to protect against both- monetary losses and reputation damage.

Or, the least they can do is cut the compensations that your business would need to pay if found guilty.

The Takeaway

A business lawyer may need to work on more than one aspect of your business. Depending upon the situation and the case at hand, they may also need to perform several tasks.

However, in all their goodness, they will only be assisting and protecting your business to clear through the legal troubles and disputes.