What follows is a random collection of tips, observations and ideas for those who are contemplating starting up their own business. If you can find one nugget in the list that helps you as you begin your journey, great. If you cannot find a single usable thing,–well, as Steve Martin used to say, ”Well, excuuuuuuse me.”

This list really started because no matter how much one studies entrepreneurship, a lot of it comes from the “learnings” that happen daily. Most of these learnings are counter-intuitive, meaning they are not all that obvious. All of them were expensive to learn.

this is the third installment of this list.  Click here for 26-50.

51. [tag]Learn how to brainstorm[/tag]. Every startup does plenty of brainstorming and you should be not only good at it yourself, but have an ability to make others good at it as well. We all have heard the usual [tag]brainstorming ‘rules’[/tag]: 1. Don’t allow criticism of ideas; 2. Quantity over quality; 3. Encourage wild, even dumb ideas; and 4. Hitchhike on others’ ideas.

Here are some more rules, er, ideas that will help: 5. Have fun, laugh a lot; 6. Stay on topic; 7. Realize that some people will not be comfortable speaking out; 8. Acknowledge people’s ideas verbally and by their name; 9. brainstorm alone, first; 10. Do not dominate the session yourself, talk less; 11. it’s a real skill to facilitate a good brainstorming session, learn by practicing; 12. not all brainstorming sessions are called that, most just happen; 13. think about the five senses constantly and how they impact the topic; 14. be one of the first to present a really terrible, stupid idea, then laugh about it; 15. Don’t give any rewards or bonuses for good ideas–it will stifle future sessions.

52. Be accessible and approachable. Things happen so fast in the startup, that you must simply be there. This means in your office and where people are working. If you have to get out of your office, do so.

53. Model the behavior you require. If you demand certain things, do those things yourself, better to a higher degree. This means getting to work on time, and so forth. I thought this one was too obvious to include, but alas….it is not…

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54. Try not to use your own personal sales as the model for your sales team. It is ok to sell, sure. But if you want to build others up to sell, be aware that you will own your customers forever, no one will want to jump in and serve the boss’s customers. Plus be aware that you bring different skills to the sales presentation than the rep can bring. You might be friendly with decision maker or owner, for example, a luxury your 25-year-old might not enjoy.

55. Can you recognize the [tag]top five problems in most sales departments[/tag]? This is generalizing and your own organization may have different issues, but here are five that I have seen over and over again. 1. Lack of energy, excitement. For something to be sold, someone had best be excited about it, and your people can control themselves. Get them excited about your company, product. 2. Product training is not sales training. Today, most sales training is really product training. If they are great at describing your product’s features and benefits, but are not closing deals, it is the training. 3. Too much talking, not enough listening. Most good sales people are great listeners. Do your sales people have lists of open ended questions to use? 4. Alignment issues. It is like going to the doctor with a sore throat and saying you have a sore throat and having him start writing a prescription, “because you are the tenth person today who has that symptom.” You still want to be examined, right? Same thing with a prospect, just because your sales person has seen the situation before, and believes your solution is best….he still needs to develop the process with prospect. 5. Ask for the order. By far the biggest one. Remember that there are four things that can happen: a sale (good), no sale (good), advance the sale (good), or continue the sale (bad).

56. Focus on the big picture but dont allow ANY type-os. This is a very touchy area, because you should be able to see the business from a 40,000 foot level, but if you are always there, small mistakes happen that will undermine your credibility and professionalism. For example, I am particularly picky on any materials in print about our company. The most common ‘catch’ is the comma or period and quotation marks. They go “here.” Not “here”. I know, I know…see you caught them, too.

57. No matter your budget, it is the gift-giving thought that counts. One time after a particularly good year, we announced a huge (for us) contribution into the company 401k plan, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Polite response from the crowd. But then, we gave each employee a watch with our logo on its face. People said it was the best gift they had ever gotten from a company. There are tons of books on this subject—[tag]Bob Nelson[/tag] has made a writing and speaking career out of this topic alone. His book[tag] “1001 Ways to Reward Employees”[/tag] is good, but you can think up ten of your own ideas as you drive in to work tomorow.

58. Talk to your competitors, don’t run from them. This may be a bit counter-intuitive and it might not work well in your industry, granted. Talk to them at trade shows, conferences, even on the phone…don’t talk strategy or tactics, talk about the industry in general. You can learn a lot by talking to someone who is confronting the same issues. One never knows what you might learn. Here at JobDig, we compete against the Fargo Forum in a very limited way. We both sell helpwanted advertisements to employers in the Fargo area. The Fargo Forum owns a bunch of local newspapers and we had an idea of how we could partner with these local papers. Obviously, we knew we had to offer some unique benefits, we understand that, shessh. Anyway, I called up the publisher and after several attempts finally got him on the phone. Introduced myself, yada yada yada. He told me they had no interest in meeting, even to hear our ideas. Keep in mind, JobDig has taken over a million dollars out of their pockets, easy…more actually. And I was calling, volunteering to meet. Here is another tip, if your competitor calls and wants to meet, for goodness sake, meet…if nothing else, to size up your competitor.

59. Communicate with your stakeholders often. I don’t care if your only stakeholders are family members, communicate with them frequently and regularly. If you have investor type stakeholders, this is a requirement. Far too often, we tend to forget our supporters. Let them know how you are doing, the good and the bad. They want to help you. There is nothing more fun than helping someone get started in a new business. By not communicating with them, you are robbing them of their biggest reason for supporting you and others like you. It does not have to be a big fancy shareholder letter, either. At JobDig, Toby writes a monthly one-page, tongue-in-cheek, funny yet accurate newsletter that we send out to our stakeholders. It appears we are,like, the only private company that does so.

60. Join clubs….or not. I know some advise new business owners to join the Chambers of Commerce and groups like Rotary and Lions. I know this works for a lot of people. I happen not to be a joiner…I know it would probably help me reach out, get to know more people, etc, but it is not ME. The point here is that you have to be true to yourself, no matter what the advice. If you cannot do it and feel good or comfortable doing it, don’t. The world is full of quiet, behind the scenes, unknown entrepreneurs building great businesses.