Blog
Periodic shots of practical advice.
Welcome! I’m Diane.
I give entrepreneurs the clarity and guidance they need to build businesses designed for long-term success. For 20-plus years I’ve been helping all kinds of clients in all kinds of industries — and I’d love to help you, too :-)
P.S. — If you prefer audio, you can listen to my posts on the podcast platform of your choice at pod.link/startupdistillery.
Stop Saying You Don’t Have Time to Start a Business
Once you’ve made the decision to start a business — or even if you’re still deciding — it’s all too easy to find yourself making excuses that now isn't the right time because you’re “too busy” or you have to do "this thing" or "that thing" first. Before you...
5 Reasons People Over 40 are More Likely to Succeed When Starting a Business
It’s never too late to start your own business. In fact, the data shows that older may indeed be better when it comes to launching a new venture. The average age of a successful founder is 45. While the media may put most of their focus on entrepreneurs in their...
How to Fund Your Business Without Selling Your Soul
A message from Diane... In this post, special guest — and Yale-educated securities lawyer — Jenny Kassan pulls back the curtain on ways to raise funds that other people don’t talk about. When Jenny first began practicing law more than 25 years ago, she knew...
How to Start a Business in a Crowded Market
When people consider starting a business, one of the common worries they have is a fear about being able to compete in a market that has a lot of competitors. It’s one thing to enter a new or underserved industry where simply being there is enough. But to start...
Want to Hook Investors? Do These 2 Things
When it comes to attracting investors, it takes more than painting a rosy financial picture. Investors need to be romanced. Investors are people like you and me. Contrary to what you might think, investors aren’t calculators that only care about the numbers —...
How to Interview Customers to Get the Critical Market Data You Need
Figuring out who your target customers are can be hard — that’s why I like creating customer personas that accurately reflect what your target customers want, need, struggle with and hope for. With a good set of personas in hand, your startup’s odds of success...
Customer Personas: What They Are (and Why They’re Indispensable)
Need help finding customers? Not sure who they are or where they hang out? Your first step is to focus on identifying your target customers, and part of that process involves creating something called a customer persona. If you’ve never heard of it, not to...
5 Steps to Finding Your Target Customers
There are a lot of people telling me to blast ads all over Facebook and Instagram, but that doesn’t resonate with me. How do I find where my target audience lives without running ads all over the internet?When I heard Max’s question, I immediately thought, “It...
The Secret to Getting It Right the First Time
So you’ve decided to launch a new business. You’re super excited and rarin’ to go — damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! One of the most basic human urges is to rush in and get things going without stopping to think, evaluate and consider all the “details.”...
Launching a Business? Don’t Skip This One Thing
When you’re launching a new business, talking to people is an essential part of putting together your business plan. If you write your plan in a vacuum, you’ll make critical errors that could sink your business just as it’s getting started — something...
3 Things That Can Sabotage Your Startup
Take a look at the survival statistics of new businesses and you’ll see that more of them fail than succeed. But the statistics don’t tell the whole story. Startups can fail for a lot of reasons. Sure, sometimes those reasons are external — the market suddenly...
Are Business Plans a Waste of Time?
There’s a common misconception that business plans are rigid documents that lock you into a roadmap you can’t deviate from. It’s not surprising that people who believe that resist writing one. Isn’t a startup supposed to be open and responsive to market forces...
How to Forecast Revenues and Expenses for Realistic Financial Projections
I think we can all agree that financial projections are a key tool for any startup. More often than not, though, founders view them as a “necessary evil.” Which is a shame, really, since they provide benefits that help ensure your startup not only survives, but...
The Sources & Uses of Funds Spreadsheet: What You Need to Know
If you’re not a numbers person, I recommend reading or listening to Financial Projections Explained (Even If You’re Not a Numbers Person) and The Difference Between P&L and Cash Flow Projections before reading this article.When entrepreneurs look at getting...
Why Cash is King… NOT Profit
Believe it or not, even the most profitable companies can fail — and when they do, they’re always caught by surprise. One month, they’re saying, “Profits are up! The numbers have never been better!” but the next month, they’re announcing that they’re closing...
Bootstrapping Before Investors: Why Many Businesses Choose Not to Raise Capital
I can’t tell you how many people come to me thinking they need investors in order to start a business. They’re ready to give away ownership (and potentially control of their business) before they’ve even begun! It’s not surprising, really. For every story about...
Your Business Needs an Annual Review
Imagine it’s been a year since you launched your startup — or another year has flown by since you did. Before opening your doors you had time to think about the big picture — which products and services to offer, the kind of company culture you want to develop,...
The Virtue of Limited Resources
Over the years, I’ve noticed an interesting connection between resources (i.e., money) and innovation. The more constrained or limited a startup’s budget, the more innovative they tend to be. In other words, necessity is the mother of invention. Some of the...