Most entrepreneurs are bedrock. While the chances of success are greater and their upside potential is not constrained by going bedrock, funding options are more constrained.

In this sprint, Derek and Ben describe the frugal and risk minimizing mindset required to be the successful bedrock entrepreneur. The sprint also outlines and describes the different funding mechanisms available to bedrock entrepreneurs, including non-profits.

The accompanying article concludes with how to adapt if your idea does not or cannot receive enough funding to be viable.

Funding decisions can make or break you as an aspiring entrepreneur, even before you launch. Funding decisions need to be made thoughtfully by every aspiring and practicing entrepreneur.

In this sprint we go over the fundamental strategic decisions that prescribes which of two different paths you will likely be taking in funding your startup, whether it is for-profit or not-for-profit. We lay out how to think through whether you will want to use bedrock or high-risk funding methods to get the funds you will need.

While data shows that 97% of all entrepreneurs go bedrock, many bedrock and high-risk entrepreneurs inadvertently use techniques suited for the alternate strategy, causing unnecessary rejections, wasted time, and sometimes unnecessary failures.

This sprint helps you understand the choice – including for entrepreneurs interested in non-profits.

The two following sprints go into details of how you prepare for one or the other type of funding.

Every entrepreneur needs to be acutely aware of what other brands their customers invite into their lives, why and how to set themselves apart from other brands.

In this sprint, Ben and Derek walk you through how you get this deeper understanding and can then intentionally make decisions to differentiate your brand in the market.

First, we teach you how to create a visual brand map that will help you developed the detailed knowledge of other brands you’re competing with. Then we walk you through how to pick a great name for your brand.

Find all our free sprints for founders at https://www.theentrepreneurs.io/sprint-library

Join our membership for 1:1 mentorship and coaching: https://www.theentrepreneurs.io/membership

Founders need to understand what a brand is and how it is developed and formed. A brand takes time to develop and cannot be fully formed until your core team is in place and you have introduced your product or service broadly.

In this sprint, Ben and Derek challenge you to start thinking about the branding process so that you do not make any naïve missteps along the way.

This is not a one and done exercise, as a brand will develop and evolve as your enterprise forms and its products or services are introduced and evolve.

Listen to more sprints like this on www.theentrepreneurs.io

Mentors are often life changing for entrepreneurs and founders. But reaching out to someone who you see as a role model but don’t know can be scary.

In this week’s episode, Ben and Derek discuss how you successfully create a relationship with a potential mentor.

This episode prompts to you also listen to Sprint 8, 9 and 10 to learn the basics skills of relationship building.

Almost all entrepreneurs either over plan or do not plan at all.

In this sprint, Derek and Ben describe specifically what level of planning and anticipation of the future makes most sense for an entrepreneur once they feel their idea has potential.

As the entrepreneur now wants to invest some time and money in working out how to turn the idea into an actual product or service a customer is gladly willing to pay for, they need to make sure the needed money, time and people will be there when needed.

Founding a company and leading it from being just an idea to actually serving customers and prospering for many years is extremely challenging.

In this episode, Ben and Derek will help you reflect on the learnings and coachings from Sprints 7-16. Doing so, will help you set your personal priorities, which can be difficult under the pressure of a startup.

You will learn to create a Personal Leadership Strategy (PLS) which enables you to formulate an objective list of strengths and weaknesses relative to your entrepreneurial ambitions, and, even more importantly, develop and implement strategies to leverage your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses, further improving your chances of entrepreneurial success. This also helps keeping a balance with friends and family.

In this episode, Ben and Derek cover one of the leading causes for startups and businesses to fail.

In the US, over half of all startups have more than one founder. On a global basis, over 75% of all startups involve a family member. Once a startup finds traction for their product, co-founder conflict is the biggest cause of failure.

Only 1 in 4 founding teams stay together for more than four years. Co-founder relationship building skills we discussed in sprints 8, 9 and 10 are essential for maximizing a startup’s chances for survival, let alone success.

When family members, friends and love interests are involved, these skills are even more important.

We describe how do use these skills to carefully structure and document the shared objectives and payoffs you agree to pursue before working together on a startup.

Find this and all our free sprints here: https://www.theentrepreneurs.io/sprint-library