A sound strategic plan begins with a vision. This is the kind of big picture thinking that many of us never take time to consider. Why are you in business (yes, we know you want to make money, but why this business)? What do you hope to achieve? Where do you (and your colleagues) want to be in 3, 5, or 10 years?

A mission statement comes next – how do you see that “vision thing” coming to life in the real world? Are you solving a problem? Bringing a particular solution or benefit to your customers? What do you offer to your other stakeholders such as employees, suppliers or investors? There are hundreds of examples, but here is one particularly good mission statement:

     USO lifts the spirits of America’s troops and their families.

A vision without some concrete goals is just a dream. And a goal without a timetable, and an identified person responsible, is nothing more than a wish list. We all wish for a lot of things for the New Year, but how many of them do we commit to a 12 month calendar? To lose those extra pounds, what are we going to do in June, or July, or next fall?

Outline your specific goals – no more than 5 or 10, with a timetable and “chief goal executive” responsible for making each one happen. Under each goal can be a number of detailed tasks fitting the size of your organization and its resources.

Your board of directors or board of advisors should be closely involved with your vision setting. And if you don’t have directors, advisors or at least a kitchen cabinet (of informal advisors), you need to recruit some. Solicit their ideas on your mission and goals, and then circulate a written rough outline back to them. You do not need consensus, and you don’t have to take a vote. But, if you expect these advisors to work with you to achieve your goals they deserve to be involved in the planning.

Draw an organizational link from each of your goals up to your directors and advisors, and down to your colleagues and staff. Who is on the team for each goal? What is their primary role? Who provides support, and who provides feedback? This is sometimes called a “crosswalk” of authority and responsibility for each of your stated goals.

Finally, every organization should have at least one “BHAG” – a Big Hairy Audacious Goal for the coming year. This is a stretch goal that requires your team to think bigger and act more boldly than the routine. It should be just barely out of reach – but not so big as to be silly and thus dismissed by the team. You may not achieve your stretch goal, but the effort will improve both your organization and the individuals in it.

Here’s a good New Year’s resolution: Resolve to complete a written strategic plan early this year. You might find yourself achieving something audacious.

Yes, the election is behind us. But the 51.43% of us who were “winners” don’t seem to be celebrating much. Congress is stuck where it was. The White House belongs to the same party. The country is exhausted by two wars. And the national deficit continues to soar. Sequestration and tax caps are topics of water cooler conversation. Here in the Nation’s Capital, the fiscal cliff is not just a metaphor.

An average of 53% of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. There is genuine conversation – from calm, intelligent, educated folks – that our very republic is in some danger. Where is the glimmer of hope?

First, let’s draw a breath, close our eyes, and give thanks. We still have the strongest economy in the world. Not forever perhaps, but for real. We have an educated population, an incredibly mobile and connected society, and unmatched health care. Americans are not only not starving, we are not even thin. Yes, there is poverty. But there is plenty, and we have systems to share the plenty with those who are in need. There is drug addiction and alcoholism and the breakup of families. But again, there are educated people with good – if tough – answers.

Now for the hope.

We can in fact put all these resources to good work. We have innovators and inventors and educators. We have the most informed, most connected, most networked generation about to take the reins of an unbelievable system for sharing our challenges. And I believe we are about to start posting answers.

Fifty years from now, our children will look back at Intel and Microsoft and Apple as only the crudest of beginnings to the global village. Facebook and Google will seem mere toys. This is not yet the internet age.

Think of this as the age before the internet age.

Imagine a world where every college course – every class, in every subject – is free, online, and taught by the handful of best teachers in the world. All the recipes online today? Imagine a U.S. in which all the resumes – for all 200 million of us working by then – are posted and immediately sorted and matched to the millions of possible jobs. Think of automated financial planning, starting when you are about 16 years old, and updated daily with your earnings and spending, guaranteeing good habits (or at least good advice). Imagine a highway system where the last traffic death, thanks to onboard computers and radar, was 30 years in the past.

This future is real.

And for the poor, or the addicts, or those who fell off the network? Imagine the impact of entrepreneurs using the power of the free market to craft solutions to these challenges. Today’s social entrepreneurs, using the market applied to our toughest problems, will cook up some powerful answers.

Perfection? No, not as long as human beings are around. (The theology of original sin has a certain strength rooted in our humanity.)

But imagine the possibilities.

The future is a land where we send our children, that we ourselves can never visit.

Future, and children, and possibilities. That’s what I’m thankful for.

Some wag once said “Why would I want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member?”

Well, perhaps like you, I wish I was a member of the One Percent of richest Americans.  You see, I like the One Percent.  I like the One Percent of Americans with the highest incomes because we – all of us – need them.

Members of the One Percent club of our leading wealthiest citizens are also America’s leading investors.  Most importantly, they are the only people who can act as angel investors.

An angel investor (or just “angel”) is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business startup, usually in exchange for ownership equity. Typically cashed-out entrepreneurs or retired corporate executives, angels invest because they want to.  They invest because they like the new business idea, or they take a shine to the individual entrepreneur.

Angels are limited to the One Percenters because they must be prepared to lose all of their investment.  With a smile.  That’s not just me saying so – that is the law.  To be an accredited investor under the U.S. Securities laws, an investor must be “sophisticated.”  In layman’s language, these investors must be smart, and rich.

Angels also do more than just provide funding.

Angels get involved.  Unlike venture capitalists, bankers, and corporate lenders, angel investors take an active interest in the new business.  They often work to support their investments by finding new customers, helping plan for growth, or just looking over the shoulder of the founders with a watchful eye.

A small but increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share research and pool their investment capital.  Angels are the wind beneath the wings of America’s entrepreneurs.

According to the SBA’s Center for Venture Research, U.S. angel investors placed $20.1 billion into startups in 2010 (the most recent year for available statistics).  More than 61,000 companies received angel investments that year.  258,000 individual angels made active investments.

That’s a small club in the overall scheme of things.  (The University of Michigan alone has more than 500,000 living alumni.)  But the One Percent is a small club with a big impact.

Here’s hoping with the election behind us the One Percent gets a little – make that a lot – more understanding and respect for the important role they can play in the future of the Nation.

But the numbers of American companies that don’t do their homework is another thing.

Not finishing your homework in business is dangerous. It is irresponsible. And it can be fatal.

When we talk about doing your homework as an entrepreneur, we mean doing the research and doing the thinking about your business strategy to make it work.  Here’s an example from the history books:

In 1998 an entrepreneur named Greg McLemore started pets.com, an online store for pet supplies featuring a sock puppet in its famous (and famously expensive) TV ad campaign.  Pets.com raised more than $300 million in venture capital during the dot-com bubble, before collapsing spectacularly.

Pets.com seemed to have all the right stuff.  They had buzz – one Super Bowl television spot cost more than $1.2 million.  Leading VCs like Hummer Winblad, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos were big investors.  Julie Wainwright, a hot young CEO hired by the VCs, was put in charge.  The team at Pets.com was bold, brash and seemingly smart.

But somewhere along the line, they were ignorant.  Not necessarily stupid, but definitely ignorant.  Ask yourself a simple question: If Sparky is out of dog food, do you really want to go online and pay an $8 shipping fee to have a bag of food drop-kicked to your door?  When there is a 7-11 three blocks around the corner?   Think about that business model – or in that popular phrase (I can’t resist here) – will the dogs eat the dog food?

Business strategy does not always rest on the latest focus group (think Apple and Steve Jobs).  But it does rest on vision.  Market knowledge, intuition, and careful planning are required.  Market research is indispensable in the broad sense that you must understand your customer, know your competitors, and have a vision for the future.

Pet.com investors put in more than $300 million, and got nothing in return.  As I tell my MBA students, stop all this frenetic doing, and spend some time to just think.  Develop your vision.  Have a well-reasoned plan.  Finish your homework.

And then, don’t forget to turn it in.

Here is my whole list:

1. Manners Your Grandmother Taught – Good basic manners are the basis for all human interaction; especially important between strangers and across cultures.
2. Teamwork – Teamwork is one subject that does get serious attention, in and out of the classroom.  Almost every sport in public schools is a team sport.  But how many of us actually study what makes a winning team?
3. Theater – Public speaking and public presentation can be practiced a number of ways.  Theater classes may be one good approach.
4. Emotional intelligence – Understanding your own and others’ emotional reactions is a key to understanding motivations.  You can’t negotiate to win without this.
5.  The Gender Wars – As the battle of the sexes rolls on across the centuries, how many of us ever sit down to actually learn what is going on?  Why do we spend more time in school studying geometry than the basic rules that govern human arithmetic?
6. Personal Finance – Other than a simple math class on checkbooks, very few of us study personal finance at an age when we have time to do something about it.
7. Second Language = Second Soul – Americans will not be competitive in this century without better foreign language skills.
8. Living Outside your Comfort Zone – Foreign language fluency may not be for everyone, but at one time in their life each American should truly experience a different culture.
9. It’s Not Just an Economy; It’s a Country – Economics is at the root of most foreign policy and military strategies, as well as most of our domestic public debate.  Our level of basic economic ignorance is appalling – and especially among the media.
10. Aristotle Said it Best: Know Thyself – This is the last subject to master, and the most important.  You must study, and master, yourself.  Knowing your own personality, strengths and weaknesses might seem like it should be the first subject studied.

Self-awareness is usually the last thing we gain, because we must experience the ups and downs of life in order to truly understand ourselves. But working from a list like this just might help move us along.

So, what should we be teaching students – and learning ourselves – in order to live better in the real world?

I certainly applaud that father’s desire that his son take acting lessons.  Public speaking is repeatedly cited as the number one fear of Americans (just ahead of snakes).  An acting class can go a long way to overcome stage fright for the ordinary speaker.

My consulting partners focus on business strategy.  But developing and refining a business strategy is only one step in building your business.  Your business strategy must also be sold – peddled to insiders as well as sold to prospective investors, partners and customers.    Public speaking, and all the tools of public presentation and persuasion that go with it, are part of every strategy implementation.

In business today, sales and business development are often recognized as more important than more general management skills or even leadership of the enterprise.  After all, without sales to generate some revenues, there will be no enterprise to lead.  Commissioned sales staff at many large enterprises are the highest paid employees.  But business schools today do not teach this simple fundamental skill: sales.  Look to any leading MBA program in the country.  You will see courses on marketing, marketing strategy, internet marketing, and new product launch.  There are seminars on CRM, SEO and MLM.  But teaching the S-A-L-E is seen as old fashioned and, frankly, beneath most consultants, trainers and certainly most business school faculty.

One topic which has risen in popular literature in the past 20 years is “emotional intelligence.”  Daniel Goleman’s best-selling Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ recognized the need to pay attention to the emotional and psychological aspects of daily life, work in the office, and leadership.  While professional psychologists have long recognized the distinction of emotional intelligence from intelligence in the “hard skills,” it was Goleman’s book that made this a popular subject.

Emotional intelligence, as compared to intelligence in the “hard skills,” is defined as the ability to asses – and to manage – the emotions of oneself, others, and of groups.   The ability to gauge and respond to the emotional status of a team is and essential skill for leadership.

We don’t say much about emotional intelligence in colleges today.  But we should.  Emotional intelligence across a wider spectrum of work situations should be explored, in addition to the extensive work on teams and team dynamics found in most business school curriculums.

In my next piece, I will catalogue my “Top Ten” life skills that MBA programs don’t teach.  Sort of a “what your MBA never taught you” listing of areas of knowledge essential to increase your chance of success in business, and in life.

“We know that half of all your advertising dollars are wasted.  We just don’t know which half.”

That was never more true than today, in a down-market that is also rapidly changing.  The world of advertising is morphing into those of us who “get it” about changing viewer habits, and those of us who don’t.  There are a lot of senior executives out there who don’t get it.

Luckily, many of these same executives actually know they are missing “something” about the new media and the new ways of doing business.

A lot of the differences in the advertising world today are generational.  The twenty-something’s “get it” when it comes to new media.  They have jumped from emails to MySpace to Facebook to Twitter with the ease of an Olympic gymnast.  The thirty-something’s are catching up fast.  The forty- and fifty-something’s?  Well, not so much.

Traditional media (newspapers, magazines, broadcast television) are shrinking.  On May 1 the Poynter Institute reported that newspaper circulation figures were up.  But the fine print revealed that the Audit Bureau of Circulations had actually changed the method of counting in 2010. Yes, digital and online views were way up (and are now added to circulation statistics). But paper versions of the newspaper are just not selling. The Washington Post had circulation decline of 7.84%, including online, in 2010. The Philadelphia Inquirer was down 5.36%; the Chicago Tribune down 5.17%. Paper readership has been declining for decades.

Magazines are even weaker. Magazine circulation was down 1.4% in 2010, and 2.25% in 2009. In 2010 Reader’s Digest lost 22% of its circulation; Newsweek lost 31%. Of the top 25 magazines, only Game Informer Magazine had a double digit increase in sales in 2010. (A print magazine to help you go online.)

And during the same time – as you already guessed – U.S. Internet advertising hit another all-time high. The Interactive Advertising Bureau showed a third quarter 2010 jump of 17% in ad revenues over the same period in 2009. Even twitter – once the domain of tweens talking about boy bands – has become a serious tool of politics and business.

So, as you re-think your marketing during this new age of advertising, is there any firm ground left? Is there any strategy that can keep your advertising decisions from becoming a joke?

Actually, there is, and it follows that other old management maxim:

“Keep it simple, stupid.”

The “KISS” method of management says that every business decision should be boiled down to its simplest form. For advertising and communications, that means knowing who you are and what to say about yourself. Know your product (often, the technology) and know your ideal audience (the market). Put the two together, and you will know exactly what to say (your brand). Leverage your brand to maximize your profit (your business strategy).

With a clear message, the choice of the best tool for delivery – online or offline, new media or old – becomes simple. With the right business strategy, the choice of advertising media becomes much easier. But without the right strategic thinking, your ad dollars will be wasted.

Yes, it’s a strange world out there in new media. Technology is changing daily.  But if you craft the right business strategy, you can become that change in the market that others fear.

“Oh yea,” he said.  “You guys in the colleges teach all the hard skills – like management and finance and statistics.  That’s good.”

There was a pause.  I could see he was trying to put a good face on what he was about to say.

“But that’s not the really good stuff,” he continued with a sly grin.  “You know, the important stuff, the soft skills.  That’s what matters – the soft skills about how to really live.”

“The important stuff?  The stuff that matters?” I asked.

It took a while for what he said to sink in.  Yes, the soft stuff.  The good stuff.  He was talking about the lessons on how to live, not just how to work.

I began to think about what this father of several teenagers had said.  He had gone on to add that he was working with his son to take an acting class.  And to enroll him in some cooking lessons (which would be supplemented by camping with the Scouts).  And of course, this dad was planning to have his son travel overseas.

Now I’ve been fortunate enough to know a few actors – some good ones.  I know people who like the theater.  And I even like opera (after all, I’m a graduate of Indiana University, which has a great music school).  But I haven’t met a lot of dads who believe that acting classes will help junior find his way in the world and learn to “man up.”

So I thought about this some more.

I believe this father was right.  Not only right, he was brilliant.  It is the soft skills, the life skills, that give us a fighting chance to become successful.  This father was not so concerned about love of theater, or even having some outside activities for his son.  Dad was concerned about confidence.  Dad was thinking of poise.  Dad was wondering how best to teach his son the public speaking skills – and public presence – that would carry his son through the rest of his life.

How many of us know bright people – successful people – who simply go cold at the thought of having to speak to an audience?

How many of us really know how to cook for the boss, or to entertain, or to even hold the fork at that first job interview over lunch?

For that matter, how many of us know how to survive our first interview?  And more importantly, how to behave in that all important conversation outside the interview – the awkward real conversation, the one with our prospective boss’s secretary, his peers on the golf course, or (gulp) the boss’s wife?

And what else don’t we know, or haven’t been taught?

How many of us, in some serious way, were taught how to work with the team at the office?  Come to think of it, how often do our teams at work actually work at being a team?  Dilbert wouldn’t be so funny if it weren’t so true.  Business schools actually do a great job working on team theory and skills.  Biology majors?  Not so much.

How many of your friends have any interest in international business, foreign affairs, or a foreign language? I admit, especially here in Washington, there is some definite interest.  Outside the Beltway, it’s just not seen as relevant.  And yet it is precisely those “foreign” affairs that now determine the unemployment rates of places like Yuma City, Fort Wayne, and Decatur, Illinois.

Ask yourself:  How many of your fellow citizens truly understand the role of the American military?  Who among us, outside the uniformed military, has studied military history or the thinking of our military leaders today on the proper use, and the limitations, of force?  And yet, what was the single biggest contributor to our national debt during the past decade?

In my view, all that is the “soft” stuff.  How to speak in public.  How to interview for a job.  How to get promoted.  How to be successful in work.  How to have a successful marriage.  How to be a good citizen.  How to think about issues of war in peace in the coming election.  I contend that this is the important stuff that teaches us how to live in the world.  And this is the hardest stuff to learn.

In my next blog I will look at some of the subjects that should be required lessons for this school of life.

Good writing, like good art and like the faces of friends, can be recognized. Good writing flows. It has rhythm. Seeming without effort, good writing conveys good thinking, and reveals the ideas behind the writer’s words.

To be “A” level material then, a written exam – whether it is an essay, a deposition on a question, or a case analysis – must reflect good writing. Good writing is a basic requirement of “A” level work. And after 30 years of reading student papers off and on, I think I know it when I see it.

It is often said that good writing makes for good thinking. The philosopher Heidegger was of this view. Heidegger (whose own works translated from the German are ponderous at best) argues that our being and the act of thinking are inextricable, and that words are essential for thought. Language is part of our being and our existence. Whether you admire this kind of high philosophy or call it mumbo jumbo, the fact is that your professor can’t know your ideas and your thinking, without seeing (or hearing) your words.

A well written case analysis has a few salient points:

-  An executive summary captures the main question or issue, and prepares readers for what they are about to experience in detail in the pages that follow.
-  The analysis pulls apart the facts (look up the definition of the root word “analyze”), and applies various rules and tools to the situation.
-  The conclusions (or recommendations, as appropriate) flow logically from the analysis.
-  The facts of the case are not restated endlessly. After just a brief review, the analysis begins.

The last point is a particular pet peeve of mine. Many student teams have presented 20, 12 or (even worse) 8 page case write-ups that begin with a 6 page recitation of the facts. After a page of introduction and 6 pages of facts (for a case that I likely wrote myself), I am left with maybe two pages of discussion. Not exactly room for deep thought or compelling arguments.

Some professors like a dramatic “reveal” of the big conclusions or recommendations at the end. I prefer knowing where I am going. Stating the problem and its solution upfront can prepare the reader. This will bolster your logic, and (I believe this may be a psychological trick in your favor) a reader will “fill in” small gaps or holes in your thinking, making his or her own connections between the facts and your recommendations. By telling me first where you are going I will “see” these connections as you move along the path. A beginning statement of the issues or problem should only be a few sentences, a half page at most. Save the supporting arguments for the heart of your work, the analysis.

Analysis is truly about pulling apart and dissecting the case. Obviously this requires knowing the facts, the history, the timeline and the various players. Save those factual details to support your analysis as needed – don’t repeat facts just in order to establish a timeline. And do not make the mistake that somehow repeating the facts, with an idea or two thrown in as a reaction here or there, counts for solid analysis.

The analysis should be logical – using the kind of syllogism you learned in high school geometry. Keep it simple, and fairly direct. “According to our projections Acme Corp. needs $500,000 to start. Professor Bloviate has shown angel investors are most likely to provide that level of funding (Source: Bloviate’s Book). Therefore, we recommend finding an angel.”

Cases are messy and complicated. So there are some natural decisions to be made on taxonomy and order. What do you label the issues you are discussing? How do you organize the issues? Do you react to the timeline in the case; organize by business discipline (finance, management, marketing, etc.); or list topics by some other priority (smallest minor issues, then major problem)? If you take the time to outline your analysis and your conclusions, you will likely see alternative ways to organize the case. And, a given case can be organized correctly in different ways. The “Nantucket Nectars” case can be about the elements of success in a startup, the financial valuation of an emerging firm, or the go vs. no- go decisions of an IPO. Does financial valuation go at the beginning, the end, or not at all in those respective write-ups? That’s where your thinking comes in.

Your ability to identify the problem is what is being tested. Lawyers call this “issue spotting.” Unlike a Scantron exam, life doesn’t present us with a neat series of questions. The business world is a stream of continuous, interlocking events that present murky challenges and fuzzy opportunities to those of us in it. So the diabolical (at least in the minds of students) case method used by business schools is a way to get you to come up with the questions. Picking the right rules and tools to apply to the case is your fundamental challenge.

A large part of the American MBA is a set of analytical tools, many in finance and in related numerical investigation, used to understand economics and commerce (read: business). Some of the tools are essential (time value of money; net present value; branding); some are shopworn (Porter’s Five Forces); others come and go (approaches to strategy such as MBWA and 6-Sigma). All have some value, when used in the appropriate setting and to think about a suitable problem. Not all tools are relevant for all problems. A start-up company with a new technology does not need Porter’s; there is no rivalry when there is no industry. NPV could be used when valuing a private home in real estate; comparable listings will do the trick in 1/10 the time (and will be more accurate). Picking among the technical tools is an important part of your analysis. Correct application of the tool, it should go without saying, is always necessary.

So for a case analysis to be “A” material, the student must use his or her tools, but sparingly and only as appropriate and applicable.

Outside sources of research will bolster your arguments. So, if you do cite Porter’s Five Forces, a quick reference to one of Michael Porter’s original works is valuable. Citations to articles, news reports, and even websites (with a caution on citation style) will all add to the credibility of your words. And a note on wikis, of any kind: don’t cite them. Use them, but don’t quote them. Wikipedia is, in some part, written by fifth graders. Not many youngsters and tricksters, but a few. The problem is that you don’t know if your subject was recently touched by such a young scholar. Use wikis to help guide you to sources that are either published by reputable authors (usually in print form), or peer reviewed (as in academic journals). Use common sense here, and use a simple test: Would your very demanding paying client be happy to see this? Telling the CFO of BB&T bank that you saw it on a twitter feed may not exactly win you kudos.

Students complain that the MBA culture seems to be highly numbers driven. I agree, but I do not complain. Numbers, including outside research, focus groups, statistical surveys and solid sources of data are objective ways of examining the world around us. I won’t quote the philosopher Karl Popper here, but take my word for some of his conclusions: fairly or unfairly, numerical analysis (when applied correctly) can bolster your conclusions about the world out there.

Details matter. Spelling and punctuation matter. Again, a simple rule: If I can hand the student’s work to a paying client of mine (I have a separate consulting business in the ‘real world’ with clients like MITRE, University of Miami, and the U.S. Census Bureau) and know that my client will be happy, then the student’s work product deserves an “A.”

Good writing is precise. It’s brief. It is entertaining, to a degree. All of this matters because good thinking is also precise, to the point, and entertaining in the sense that it is interesting.

Lastly, I encourage students to stop all this doing, and to just sit. Sit without the internet, the phone and the twitter feed, and think. Editing a written work is the best way to improve the product and improve your academic grade. The best approach (if there is time, and I know there is not always) is to finish up a day early, and then sit to think. Set your case aside for a day, and do nothing but think about it for a few minutes, or even an hour if you can. Only then go back to edit your answers one last time.

My students have complained over the years – sometimes bitterly – because I say there is typically no correct answer to a case. One student (after rating me the worst teacher he or she ever had) wrote on the course evaluation, “I don’t know what his answer is – I don’t know what the professor wants.” Well, it’s not my answer I’m looking for. There is no one right answer – and students with opposite conclusions will receive equally high marks if the paths to their answers are clear.

One of Heidegger’s better books I read in graduate school is titled What is Called Thinking?  Thirty years later I’m still not sure, but I would say that when my students do it, thinking is definitely an “A.”

This semester I am coordinating the MBA Entrepreneurship Laboratory. In this 1.5 credit class we have small teams of MBA students looking at area firms raising angel capital, or planning to raise capital. Students review business plans (if they exist yet), conduct independent market research, and generally critique the companies. Recommendations are given for improvements or additions to the companies’ plans. Students also help revise a firm’s “pitch” to prospective investors.

We are always looking for new companies to work with. These could be established companies seeking to raise their first outside funding, or even successful ventures seeking their second or third round. We also help startups that are little more than a plan on a napkin and a compelling story.

There are many issues to consider and hurdles to overcome in raising money. Business plans need to be complete. Financial projections must be reasonable. And proper legal representation is a must. For those who have never been through this process, just getting the checklist together can seem a big task.

Once these early steps are taken, there are several area groups who can assist in the fundraising. NVTC now runs an angel investor group that screens selected companies. The Mid Atlantic Venture Association (MAVA) has a regular investor breakfast to vet well organized companies. And TIE-DC has recently taken over the long-standing Grubstake Breakfast for matching investors with entrepreneurs.

But before approaching these groups, the rookie entrepreneur needs to do some homework. Who better to help than a Mason MBA student?

So if you know a budding entrepreneur starting to think about outside funding, give us a call. You may help someone (or yourself) become the next Steve Case or Ted Leonsis of Washington. Wouldn’t that be a nice way to start the New Year?