I watched a very interesting video on Tech Crunch TV the other day where venture capitalists David Lee and Ron Conway discuss some of the key attributes of their most successful portfolio company investments. The video is definitely worth a watch if you have a spare 15 minutes or so. You can find the video here as well as my own take below.

Photo By SashaW

While the businesses that I encourage readers to start on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com are not crazy startups where you’re working 16 hour days, trying to hit a home run and earn millions and billions of dollars, there are many parallels between a lifestyle business and a venture backed startup.

In other words, many of the same traits that make a venture backed startup more likely to succeed apply to small businesses as well. Here’s my take on David and Ron’s findings.
Get A Partner
According to Ron …

This past month, I’ve been asked to critique several online store websites (click here to read some of my past online store writeups). These days, I rarely have time to take a look at random reader’s websites simply because I’m swamped with other things and taking care of little people aged 3 and below. Also, since I run an ecommerce course, I reserve most of my non-family time for my students.

Photo By KateMonkey

But I felt compelled to respond to these review requests because all of them had the same or similar mistakes.

And when 4 consecutive websites have the same problem, I feel compelled to write about it. Here were the problems that I found with the stores I looked at this past month.
No Value Proposition
Whenever I land on an unknown store while surfing the web, especially a site where I might be spending some …

My daughter is now 3 years old and as she continues to grow and mature, it’s becoming much easier for the two of us to communicate with one other. Finally, she can put together simple sentences and convey what she wants and needs using words instead of grunting or crying.

The problem is that she’s also getting smarter and harder to negotiate with. Once she wants something, she’s tends to have a one track mind.

Daughter: Daddy, can I play with your phone?
Me: Not right now my love
Daughter: Can I see your phone? Can I see your phone? Can I see your phone?
Me: I said not right now
Daughter: I picked up my toys off the floor…
Me: Mommy made you do that so that doesn’t count
Daughter: Can I see your phone? Can I see your phone? Can I see your phone? Please Daddy?
Me: AHHH!!! …

I don’t know what’s been going on lately, but I’ve been receiving an unusually large number of depressing emails this past month. People have been asking me questions like…

How do I know when to shut down my business?
It’s been over 8 months now and I’m not still not making that much with my website yet. Should I change my niche?
Why is my site not getting any traffic? Should I start over?

After taking a closer look at a few of these websites, I noticed one glaring commonality between all of these online businesses. They’ve all been around for less than a year!!!

While my wife and I were able to make a six figure salary in a short period of time, making significant money with your business can often take longer depending on your niche and your ability to adapt to the market. In …