The importance of short-term projected financial statements and cash management for entrepreneurial ventures is clear. Insufficient cash can hinder growth and even lead to bankruptcy despite accounting profits. Cash budgeting and projected financial statements are vital in helping entrepreneurs anticipate cash shortfalls. Furthermore, exploring financial markets and the process of acquiring and paying for financial capital is important. Understanding the costs of debt and equity is beneficial; while debt costs are associated with periodic interest payments, equity costs are related to investors' expectations for future increases in value ownership. Failing to increase a venture's value after selling part of its ownership can result in investor dissatisfaction and potential consequences.

Regardless of how you fund your business, accounting is the language of business, and cash is the currency. While accounting for the past is good, an investor seeks to quantify and value the future. To the extent that the quantity and quality of venture efforts have laid the foundation for a lucrative future, new investors will compensate an owner. Ineffective or irrelevant past efforts are the entrepreneur’s sunk costs. They are not the basis of investor willingness to pay. What matters in the valuation question is whether these past efforts resulted in a product, service, or brand that can be the basis for future profits to repay the investor.

Entrepreneurial finance is not just about applying financial tools and techniques to a venture's planning, funding, operations, and valuation. It's also about understanding the fundamental principles of finance, such as the time value of money, risk, and the need to provide a return on investment. One crucial aspect of entrepreneurial finance is the understanding that real, human, and financial capital must be rented from owners, and therefore, it comes with a cost. Ignoring this fundamental principle can lead to financial difficulties and even business failure. In a market economy, investors expect a return on their investment, and entrepreneurs must be prepared to provide it. This means that financial management is at the heart of entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurs must manage their finances effectively to build a sustainable and profitable business. By understanding the principles of finance and seeking guidance from experienced mentors and investors, entrepreneurs can increase their chances of success and achieve their goals.

Key partnerships and key activities are two critical components of a successful business model. By identifying and leveraging these components, businesses can access essential resources, gain a competitive advantage, and create value for their customers. Key partnerships enable firms to develop relationships with other companies, granting access to necessary resources or expertise. Similarly, key activities are the most important tasks a company must perform to make its business model successful. Prioritizing and executing these activities can streamline business operations and ultimately increase customer value.

Your customers do not exist to buy; you exist for them. So before moving forward with a business plan or launching a company, we must discover how customers experience the problem and why it matters to them. At first, we guess, then we test those guesses by talking to the customers. So who are the customer types, and what problems, needs, or passions do they have? What are the customer archetypes, and what does a day in their life look like? Once we know who they are, we will guess how we get them to our product or service offering, keep them coming back and grow additional revenue from them over time (customer relationships). Then we will test these theories as well. As we guess, test, and discern, the story of the business, through the business model canvas, is told.

The only strategy that creates a sustainable competitive advantage is an Entrepreneurial Strategy. Entrepreneurship is more than a course of action or a mindset. At an organizational level, it can provide a theme or direction to a company’s operations (Kuratko, 2009). It can be an integral component of a firm’s strategy and a core or defining element of its competitive advantage. Strategic Entrepreneurship integrates opportunity-seeking behavior (entrepreneurial) and advantage-seeking behavior (method) perspectives in developing and taking actions designed to create wealth (Hitt et al., p. 481). Will you adopt Strategic Entrepreneurship in your organization or venture?

I used to think of spoken or written language when I thought about communication. However, I learned words are only a tiny part of human communication. In my doctoral journey, I explored Social Exchange Theory and Leader-Member Exchange. It became clear that employees observe managers, so it’s important to remember that everything a manager does and says will communicate something. In addition, communication is a two-way street that includes asking questions, seeking feedback, paying attention to the nonverbal communication of others, and listening actively. Finally, communication is the process by which information is exchanged and understood by two or more people. Social exchange theory asserts that communication is intended to influence or motivate behavior.

One of Andy Stanley’s message series is “Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets.” And he starts off each message by saying, “Your decisions determine the direction and quality of your life.” So, I want to get good at decision making, especially as a leader, husband, and father. I used to assume that making a choice is the central part of decision-making, but it is only a part of it. Decision-making is a process, and it is vital to understand my role, power, and biases involved in the process. Then, I must be confident to engage in the process, including taking accountability and evaluating myself post-decision. These realities confine me to available alternatives and involve effort before and after the choice. Thankfully, the organizing process creates an organizational structure, which can help streamline decisions by defining how tasks are divided, and resources are deployed. Structures can help alleviate my decision-making responsibility and reduce errors. Yet, structures can also restrict my efforts and confidence to engage in the process. Therefore, structures must have systems that ensure coordination with formal tasks and reporting relationships to optimize decision-making for the best collective results.

Leaders inspire and motivate people to accomplish desired goals. But what does it mean to be a leader? To me, three aspects stand out—people, influence, and goals. Leadership occurs among people, involves influence, and is used to attain desired goals and outcomes. Influence means that the relationship among people is not passive. Likewise, influence is designed to achieve some end or goal. Not everyone should seek leadership roles, see "The Motive" by Patrick Lencioni, but we all can influence others. So what's your leadership style and objective?

Understanding why people behave the way they do is part of good leadership. And the first requirement is understanding and managing ourselves. Our characteristics and behavior can profoundly affect motivation, morale, and job performance. Once we become more self-aware, we can understand how people bring their differences to work. We can also learn how they interpret tasks, whether they like to be told what to do, how they handle challenges, and if they enjoy interacting with others. By increasing our understanding of individual differences, we can learn how to lead people through workplace and life challenges.