Your startup should consider how to integrate giving back from the beginning. There are several impacts that will make this approach a hit for your venture. Giving back is key to letting the community know you are actively helping make the community a better place. Exposing your venture to the community by giving back will also help your company gain trust and some word-of-mouth buzz.

There are many noble causes that your venture could help, but I would recommend choosing local non-profits and events as much as possible. This will enable you to directly see the outcomes of your participation.

I believe there are 3 categories of giving back. They are time, talent and money (TTM). I strongly recommend giving back in the order I have listed those categories.

• Time - Before really making a great impact you should get to know your community and non-profits within your community. It is important that you are sure you understand the cause and that it potentially in some way aligns with your venture. Offering tim…

You've successfully launched your startup, congratulations! Now you are probably arriving at the growth phase where you may have realized you can no longer take on all the tasks yourself (or even split them between the co-founders). You will need to begin hiring talent into your venture.

This is a key decision that will not only affect your company's production, it can also impact the company culture. As a successful entrepreneur and/or startup you obviously were smart enough to form a great idea and launch it. You may have even left the daily grind because your ideas were not taken very seriously within the previous company. Keep these things in mind as you look to hire on talent. As founder, co-founder or CEO you may feel inclined to hold onto every aspect of the business. This may be a lasting mistake.

As a leader, it is your job to make your venture an ongoing success! This is done by hiring the best talent for your venture. Most ventures look for smart people to fill open positions. This is a first st…

You may just be starting your adventure into the starup world, but have you considered where you are truly going? Are you on a clear journey from A to B? Or is your journey more of A to Not Sure? Inc magazine online has a great article to get you thinking about this very topic, "What's Your End Game?" StartupNation also has an article along the same idea, "Business Exit Strategy: Got One?"

Overall I think these articles are well written but don't quite cover all the options. Keep these options in mind as you starting out and growing your company. I've provided a short list below from the article and added options the article does not include.

Exit Strategies included in the articles (Please read both articles Inc's and StartupNation's):

• Keep the company private - This option provides the most control and flexibility for founders. Usually keeping it private means that the founders are very passionate about being with the venture long term.
• Selling to a larger firm - This option is usually seen as a faster…

Have you ever encountered a company that had subpar customer service (you probably have)? Was the negative impact limited to yourself, or did you feel compelled to share your negative experience with others? Chances are, you shared your negative experience. It is also quite possible you are now avoiding that company as much as possible and trying to help others avoid it as well.

As a startup how do you ensure you provide great customer experience? You have to build your venture with an importance on customer service from the beginning.

Customer Service Considerations:

• Enable Feedback - You must have ways to connect with customers and clients. These means should be obvious and easy for the customers and clients to use. Specifically regarding phone lines, be sure to give an obvious option to connect with a live person as quickly as possible (no one likes feeling stuck in automated loop limbo).
• Gather Feedback - You should always be collecting feedback. This could be in person conversations with customers,…