Pop-up shops seem to be going mainstream this year. A Time.com story, Why Pop-Up Shops Are Hot, looks at this new retail business model.

While pop-ups have had a dubious reputation in the past, of being fly-by-night outfits, they have recently been gaining respectability. The main indoor retail mall here in Eugene, Oregon has had kiosks for several years, modeled after NYC push-carts, positioned down the center of the main walkways. Some of those businesses, such as mobile phone sales, earrings, and sunglasses shops, have been in business a long time, month in and month out. Others have been seasonal, e.g., holiday decorations, and calendars, sprouting in October or November, disappearing in January, and returning again a year later.

This year some big-name retailers are experimenting with pop-up locations. Toys “R” Us, American Eagle, The Gap, and J.C. Penney have been taking advantage of the numerous empty retail storefronts to test product lines, or new target markets, or to maximize exposure for seasonal selling. Shop owners are realizing that even a short-term rent is preferable to no rent at all.

So, perhaps, a pop-up shop might be just the ticket for you to start your new venture, requiring less startup capital, no long-term leases, in potentially high-traffic locations. However, don’t think that a short-term, quick start eliminates your need to plan. Planning your cash needs up front and watching your monthly cash flow is still important.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software

Tags: news, pop-up shop, retail, start up, startup, store front
Posted on November 12th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

“Unconsciously, everyone expects a startup to be like a job,” says Paul Graham, programming language designer, author, and venture firm partner. “It explains why people [in startups] are surprised…and why the surprises are so extreme.”

Graham’s recent post, What Startups Are Really Like, talks about the surprises in startups. He sent an email to all the business founders who had been funded by his venture firm Y Combinator, asking what things had surprised them in their startup.

Over 100 responded and their lists were summarized into frequently recurring patterns, including:

2. Startups take over your life — “I didn’t realize I would spend almost every waking moment either working or thinking about our startup.”
4. It can be fun — “The best way to put it might be that starting a startup is fun the way a survivalist training course would be fun…”
6. Think long-term — “For the vast majority of startups that become successful, it’s going to be a really long journey, at least 3 years and probably 5+.”
12. It’s hard to get users — “I had no idea how much time and effort needed to go into attaining users. ”
13. Expect the worst with deals — “Deals fall through. That’s a constant of the startup world.”
19. Things change as you grow — “Your job description … is completely rewritten every 6-12 months.”

Says Graham, “These are supposed to be the surprises, the things I didn’t tell people. What do they all have in common? They’re all things I do tell people.”

The answer to the puzzle is that our prior experience in business is our jobs — working for someone else. Being a founder of a startup is orders of magnitude beyond our experience and ability to imagine. Despite our preparation, we can’t believe it is as intense as others tell us, hence we are surprised.

So, go to Paul Graham’s site and read this essay, What Startups Are Really Like, and think about what surprised these other founders. Print it out, and stick it up near your desk where you can re-read it often. Take the advice to heart.

My thanks to my co-editor Sara Prentice Manela for sending this essay my way.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software

Tags: job, news, Paul Graham, startup, startups, surprises, work
Posted on October 28th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing is hosting a live panel webinar Wednesday, May 20th at 9am PDT/Noon EDT.

John will be joined by Ken Yancey, Jr, CEO of SCORE, Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software, and Rich Sloan author of StartUpNation to talk about starting a business.

Collectively, this group has poured over thousands of business plans, seen great successes and great failures and advises many a fledgling start-up on the strategies, resources and regulations involved in going out there on your own.

Don’t pass up this unique opportunity to get first hand information from this amazing panel of experts.

More information, including a link to register, can be found on the Duct Tape Marketing Blog

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager

Tags: information, startup, Tim Berry, webinar
Posted on May 19th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

To celebrate the new release of the book 3 Weeks to Startup by Tim Berry and Sabrina Parsons, the Business in General blog is giving away three copies of the book signed by the authors.

Eliminate the exhausting, time-consuming legwork involved in traditional startup plans, and instead fast track your business using a wealth of online tools and services. Berry and Parsons help you build your business step by step, including establishing your business plan, making your business legal, financing your venture, hiring your staff and more-using online tools and resources at every stage.

Discover how easy it is to reach your dream of opening your own business faster than you ever thought possible. Let the countdown begin-you’re just 3 weeks away from opening the doors to your new business!
If you’d like to enter to win a free book written by the founder of Palo Alto Software, Tim Berry, and the CEO of Palo Alto Software, Sabrina Parsons-  just email hello@paloalto.com with your name.

And to make this interesting, include a paragraph, no less than 100 words, of the business you always dreamed of starting but never did.

I’ll keep this offer available until Thursday at 9am, Pacific Time Zone.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

Tags: business planning, free book giveaway, Marketing, sabrina parsons, startup, Tim Berry
Posted on October 7th, 2008 | No Comments »

Yesterday Cale Bruckner had his 13th anniversary with Palo Alto Software. Vie Radek had hers on April 15, Connie Muller this Thursday, and Jake Weatherly and Teri Epperly next year.

So I know that 13 years is nothing compared to Microsoft or IBM or General Motors, but what’s cool about these anniversaries is that there were only 10 or so employees back in 1995, and most of them are still with us.

That, in small business, is an achievement. Their achievement, putting up with the ups and downs of a small software company; and ours, in keeping the good people.

There are 45 of us now. When Vie and Cale and Connie started, Business Plan Pro was in its first version, and was just barely making it in retail. Today it’s in its eleventh version.

The picture here was taken just two months shy of 12 years ago, in November of 1996, at a roller skating rink. The people shown here were more than half of Palo Alto Software’s employees at that time. The key people missing who are still with us are my wife Vange, who (I think) took the picture; and Jake Weatherly, who had just joined.

From the left, you have me, Luke Walsh (now with Right Media, a Yahoo subsidiary), Cale Bruckner, Connie Muller, Cristin Berry, Vie Radek, and Teri Epperly.

If you add Vange and Jake back into the picture, who were very much a part of it but not pictured, then the only people from back then that we’ve lost were Luke, now at Right Media; and three others, also not pictured, one who retired in his late 50s, one who moved to the East Coast when she married, and one who, well, didn’t fit. And he’s doing well on his own, in sales. Cristin, also pictured, was 13 when that picture was taken, but she’s also been a full-time employee since she graduated from Whitman College four years ago.

And I might add that it’s been more than 18 months now since the new management team took over, and Vie, Cale, Connie, Teri, and Jake are still with us. That speaks a lot for continuity, and what’s good about them, and us. That makes me proud.

Tim Berry
Founder and President
Palo Alto Software

Tags: employees, family business, longevity, Small Business, startup, Success
Posted on September 25th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Business owners face risks and compromises when they sell stock in their companies or accept outside investment. Tim Berry has post on this topic several times on his Up and Running and Planning Startups Stories blogs.

Reading Tim’s blogs, and watching the Yahoo! vs. Carl Icahn brouhaha reminded me of the novel Crytomonicon by Neal Stephenson. The story jumps between World War II and the present, and includes the search for hidden treasure, cryptography, high-tech startups, international business, venture capital investors, and the rights and claims of minority shareholders.

The bad guys are bad to the extreme, and I was pleased that the good guys win in the end. Of course, this is a work of fiction and the actions of the characters shouldn’t be viewed as archetypal (truth is, after all, stranger than fiction).

Still, I would recommend this book as a good read, and as a cautionary tale for entrepreneurs who are weighing the advantages and disadvantages of giving up total ownership for venture capital or shareholders.

Steve Lange
Senior Editor
Palo Alto Software

Tags: investment, investors, ownership, shareholders, startup
Posted on September 12th, 2008 | No Comments »

Over the past 8.5 years that I have worked for Palo Alto Software in technical support, I have coached thousands of our customers on the importance of a business plan. Explaining how it can help create a road map for your business as well as assisting you with sustaining a positive cash flow, a basic of business planning.

Lately, I have been thinking of starting up a small home based business of my own. Something to do in my spare time for a little extra cash.  Even after eight plus years of encouraging others to start one, I didn’t even think of creating a business plan.

I was making the same mistake that a lot of the people I have talked with over the years had been making. I was trying to rush to the finished product before I had even gotten started with some of the fundamentals. Things like- what my start-up costs really were or who I was going to purchase my raw materials from to get the best price. I didn’t even have a simple mission statement (Something that defines what my company wants to do).  I was too busy worrying about things like turning my spare bedroom into a mini-warehouse and setting up my website. Things I would need to do, but not before I had a better idea if the idea was sustainable.

This isn’t really a plug for our software, Business Plan Pro (even though I will be using it), but rather a reminder.

Start by defining what your end goal is and put together a road map of how you plan to get there before you waste time and money going in endless circles.

Curt Barnes
Systems Administrator
Palo Alto Software

Tags: , business planning, getting started, startup
Posted on August 18th, 2008 | No Comments »