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I’m going to share something with you that I’m not proud of.

It’s something I did with my first company.  A company that did really well and changed my life for the better. But of course, what I’m about to tell you occurred before it was going well.

I’m talking about: “The List”.

It seems hard to believe right now but 20 years ago when I started this company, we were burning money. The term “burn rate “really resonates with me. We were losing

More than 80 people, including dozens of the Lowcountry’s heroes, gathered at Veterans Park in Bluffton on Thursday, May 20th to officially kick off the Don Ryan Center for Innovation’s new HEROES Initiative and learn how this program can help the region's heroes become active entrepreneurs. The event featured Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka declaring the day as the first-ever “Bluffton Heroes Day”, issuing a proclamation to mark the day in honor of the launch of this unique program to help the Lowcountry’s valued heroes transition to business ownership

Starting a business is inherently risky, but if there’s one thing you don’t want to take a chance on as a new entrepreneur, it’s your funding. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20% of new businesses fail within the first two years of being open, 45% within the first five years, and 65% within the first 10 years – usually due to financial reasons. Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, but developing smart financial strategies can help you mitigate or eliminate high-risk areas.

At the Don Ryan Center for Innovation we help businesses that are scattered along the spectrum - from concepts written on napkins or stored in a person’s head to companies that have been in business for decades.

It’s not uncommon, especially in a small company or a startup, to have one person that does a lot or most of the work. Sometimes this is by design. More often this is by necessity. If you are the only person in your company, there’s no one else to delegate to.

When you have too many things running through one person that person is the “chokepoint”

For as many perks as there are to being your own boss, there are just as many stressors that come with running a business: a lack of sales, that email you forgot to reply to, issues with employees, or backordered inventory are only a few examples. With an enormous amount of responsibility and an ever-growing to-do list, it’s no wonder that so many business owners struggle with work-related stress.