I advocate having a “kitchen cabinet” of business resources, including a CPA, a business attorney, a business banker, a commercial insurance agent and a financial planner. Your informal advisors also should include other entrepreneurs, in your industry, in other industries and at different stages of the business life cycle. They can share what worked for them and some of their hard knocks. Don’t let successful mentors discourage you. As I told an overwhelmed business owner

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In reading the obituaries for Eddie Van Halen, one quote has stuck with me. Van Halen was reflecting a few years ago on David Lee Roth, the band’s on-again off-again lead singer. The two men were as much adversaries as bandmates. Yet Van Halen continued to reunite with Roth. Despite the huge personality differences between the iconic guitarist and the lead singer, Van Halen knew what his fans wanted, and gave it them. “I think it’s now built into people’s DNA, that it just wo