What's sizzling on diners' plates this year? The National Restaurant Association put together a list after surveying almost 1,800 of the country's best chefs. Here's are the trends they're cooking up.

The bad news is that consumer taste buds are fickle and are continuously evolving. The good news? No one said your menu must be a stagnant document. Starting a restaurant featuring the latest food craze can be lucrative (think Jamba Juice or Pinkberry) and might just have staying power. The National Restaurant Association put together the What's Hot in 2012 list, after surveying almost 1,800 chefs in the country. Check out these ideas for what you should cook up this year.

The top two slots of this survey go to locally sourced and produced foods: meats, seafood, and produce. "People are more interested in what's on their plate and where it comes from," says the National Restaurant Association's Annika Stensson. "So it's not just eating to satisfy hunger, it's also an interest in what you actually ingest." Manhattan's Bell Book & Candle takes this to an extreme: The restaurant uses a pulley to bring its produce from its rooftop garden to the kitchen.

Those with food allergies may find it easier to eat out now, as 75% of chefs have indicated catering to these needs as the No. 7 trend this year. "It's not just a preference," Stensson says. "It can be a medical condition, so being in the hospitality business, we want to make sure our guests are happy, and that they have a safe and enjoyable meal." Chicago's Vinci even offers an entire gluten-free menu, from appetizers to desserts.

Of course local foods are in style, but locally produced alcohol is also gaining traction—and restaurants that serve local wine and beer feeling the boost. This movement is gaining so much traction that there are even statewide events featuring the best local spirits. Virginia announced March as the Wine & Dine Month, encouraging visitors and residents alike to drink wine produce locally.

Sustainable seafood—which has to do with how the fish are caught—and less-traditional fish, such as Branzino and Arctic Char, are making waves on menus this year. Tataki, a sustainable sushi bar, opened up in 2008 in San Francisco, selling only responsibly sourced and environmentally friendly seafood. The restaurant also participates in the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch's Cooking for Solutions event, which invites restaurants and celebrity chefs to speak about how to protect the ocean.

Meals on wheels have been around for a while, but more and more chefs are now recognizing opening a food truck as a solid business venture. In fact, 61% of those surveyed by the National Restaurant Association said they would consider launching a food truck. Stensson says adopting this method is a good way to break into the industry because it's far less expensive than a full brick-and-mortar operation. It's not just for newbies, though: Consider Luke's Lobster, which has expanded to five locations in just three years. And now it's not just the lobster that's on a roll: Luke's latest location is a fully mobile truck.

The American palette has been exposed to ethnic food for several decades now—in fact, "certain cuisines have been around for so long, they're not considered ethnic anymore," Stensson says. This year, the survey identified Peruvian, Southeast Asian, and very specific regional flavors—think, Szechuan or Cantonese, for example—as hot items. Read more about the full-service restaurant industry as part of Inc.'s 2012 Best Industries for Starting a Business coverage. —Erin Kim

Do you Facebook during happy hour? Retweet without doing your research? You could cause a huge PR mess. Young entrepreneurs share their best tips for promoting your company with care.

The Young Entrepreneur Council asked 12 successful young entrepreneurs to note one way that their online activity can lead to unforgivable public relations mistakes. Here are their best answers.

1. What's the Update?

When you launched your website, you probably wrote a bunch of sections such as "About Us," "Contact," etc. Don't forget to check back on those later on and make updates as necessary. Reporters make mistakes as it is--the last thing you need is for them to be getting outdated information on your company from your own website and then putting that in an article.
--Stephanie Kaplan, Her Campus Media

2. Hands Off Our Social Media!

While delegating or outsourcing social media isn't entirely problematic, entrepreneurs should always be abreast of what's being said and done on behalf of the company. Google Alerts and social media tools make it easy to stay on top of the company's digital footprint. Entrepreneurs are responsible--no matter what.
--Lisa Nicole Bell, Inspired Life Media Group

3. Retweet With Care

While it's easy to retweet articles or messages, doing so without care can lead to PR gaffes. Retweets can be viewed as endorsements, so all entrepreneurs should make sure that they take a few moments to review anything they intend to share with their followers. Do fact-check and ensure that you identify with the message and messager before you click RT.
--Doreen Bloch, Poshly

4. Don't Overshare Anywhere

Your Twitter, your Facebook, your blog are all places where journalists might look to connect with you. Make sure that your privacy settings are up to date on Facebook and you're not oversharing information on your other public facing social networks that might turn off a journalist.
--Nathan Lustig, Entrustet

5. Mass Email Blasts Are Bad

Don't buy a list of journalists' email addresses and send out a mass email to everyone. Don't add journalists to mailing lists without their permission. Don't send the same email to every journalist. If you can't at least customize a template to each person you email, you're only going to get minimal coverage at best. At worst, your emails will get sent straight to spam.
--Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting

6. Alcohol and Social Media Don't Mix

The simple mistake that all entrepreneurs must avoid is alcohol influenced social media communication. It may be tempting, but avoid the 2 a.m. tweets about your evening experiences. They can come back to haunt you.
--John Hall, Digital Talent Agents

7. Cut the Crap!

Don't BS reporters. Any publication worth anything will do its research and poke holes in your story. Just be honest and transparent. Authenticity is an incredibly valuable trait these days.
--Brent Beshore, AdVentures

8. Mixing Business and Pleasure

If you run a digital company (or any company that has a strong online presence), everything you do online represents your company. Your personal life becomes subjected to the same scrutiny as your professional one. Act accordingly.
--Yael Cohen, Fuck Cancer

9. Always Take the High Road

Don't ever talk negatively about your competitors, especially on social media platforms. What you may think is private could get picked up by a reporter and become an embarrassment to both your company and yourself.
--Steven Le Vine, Grapevine PR

10. Do What You Say You're Going To Do

Plans change, timelines shift, but overall, I think the more you can stick to what you say you're going to do, the better. Whether that means following up with journalists, or publishing your blog/newsletter on a regular basis, or even releasing your next product on time. Being timely shows that you're committed.
--Nathalie Lussier, Nathalie Lussier Media

11. Know the Power You're Dealing With

You can pay a lot of money to have a PR company craft your messaging, but they're all operating with the same bit of knowledge--you have no control over your message once it sets sail. Be careful, calculated and aware of all risks when crafting your message. Otherwise, it might come back to bite you.
--Christopher Kelly, Sentry Centers

12. Be Constantly Authentic

Companies need to be as authentic as possible in their communications. People trust and build relationships with those who tell the truth. If you mislead or indulge too much and people find out, you'll become untrustworthy by definition. Don't hide the truth, because the Internet finds a way to make the real truth public--with or without your endorsement.
--Lucas Sommer, Audimated

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What's up with the superiority complex exhibited by both venture capitalists and entrepreneurs?

A shiver goes down my spine when I hear a venture capitalist refer to a portfolio company as "my" company, or a CEO who runs one of those portfolio companies as "my" CEO. The implicit suggestion is that VCs are kings and founders are lowly grunts who exist only to humbly serve the capital-holding masters. Ugh.

This condescension goes both ways. It's not uncommon for a founder to poo-poo the importance of investors suggesting financiers don't know how to oversee start-up operations day-to-day.

As both an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist, I deeply believe that these stereotypes are not only wrong, but also foolish.

As a VC, I understand why VCs might claim seniority. After all, VCs typically join the boards of the companies they invest in, and boards have the ability to fire CEOs. So, in that way, start-up CEOs work for VCs. In addition, VCs often have the contractual rights to control a company's destiny, especially if they hold preferred equity. VCs might be able to veto a company sale, or the issuance of any new security.

That said, entrepreneurs can easily point to another set of facts that suggest they are the rulers of start-up land:

• Founders typically own far more of a start-up's stock than any single investor.
• They often represent half or more of the board, meaning that they're the real bosses of their CEO-selves, and equal to investors in the board capacity.
• And, founders usually have the loyalty of the start-up's team.

Truth is, when you home in on the complex relationships between founders and investors, it's difficult to untangle who is actually the boss. Each party holds different types of power in different situations--to protect both from risks inherent to each role.

Perceptions of seniority or subordination by either party are just that, perceptions. They don't typically impact how a company is managed. The reality is that investors and operators are partners in a venture. They're each contributing different skills, with different rights in order to achieve a common objective: creation of shareholder value.

In the end, of course entrepreneurs don't want to be insulted or talked down to by their investors. And, investors look for entrepreneurs to respect their input and support their objectives.

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As the class of 2012 heads into the real world, here's a reminder: Never be satisfied with the status quo.

This time of year is full of commencement ceremonies across the country. In honor of this year's crop of graduates, the class of 2012, I've been thinking about one pithy lesson that I might convey to them as they enter the adult world.

My inspiration comes from a book I read recently called This I Believe, a collection of essays from famous and not-so-famous people who summarize their life lessons in a brief vignette. It was inspired by a radio program by Edward R. Murrow in the 1950s. Recently, it was revived by PBS and compiled into a well-done book.

So in that vein, here is my simple lesson to this year's grads: Push the boundaries. Why? Because boundaries are there to be challenged.

And because conventional wisdom is just that, conventional. You don't want to settle for living a conventional life within a conventional world. This lesson was hammered into my mind by my father, a Holocaust survivor who never saw a line he didn't try to skip, an inefficiency he couldn't stamp out, or a unjustice he didn't try to undo.

Conventional wisdom is just that, conventional. Great entrepreneurs see boundaries as challenges. They take great pleasure in tweaking the status quo and rethinking decades of assumptions.

One of his favorite phrases is, "Don't assume anything." In other words, don't take for granted core assumptions--whether in tackling a math problem or a life problem. Instead, test them and try to stretch them to their limits, and beyond.

My father would rail against the injustice of those would seek to benefit from old rules in an unfair manner. I still bump into residents of my home town who remember his repeated crusades against the local cable monopoly as a town meeting member in the 1970s and 1980s.

My dad was inspired to become an entrepreneur because of this life philosophy. Great entrepreneurs see boundaries as challenges. They take great pleasure in tweaking the status quo and rethinking decades of assumptions. And they incorporate this philosophy into their personal and professional narrative as they pursue new products and services that disrupt existing markets.

My 12-year-old son lives this mantra to the hilt (I wonder if entrepreneurship has genetic roots?). He questions every rule, every boundary with a probing, "Why?" I love him for it, despite the fact that it makes parenting a challenge. And I know someday, like this year's crops of graduates who push the boundaries, it will put him in a position to change the world.

So, dear graduates of your various institutions, remember this lesson. A lesson that scores of entrepreneurs and world-changers have learned before you.

Ethically, morally, appropriately...push the boundaries. We'll all be better for it.

"Any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it." -Henry David Thoreau

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Tearing down hierarchies may be all the rage in business at the moment, but recent research suggests more traditional power dynamics can boost productivity.

The coolest bosses these days have all left their corner offices behind to work in a bullpen or cubicle where they can interact on an ad hoc basis with members of their teams. Status and respect may never go out of style, but naked power and traditional hierarchies are currently pretty unfashionable in some sectors of the business world. Collaboration and "flat teams" are the new office cool.

For some veterans of the Dilbert-style corporate realities of the past, that's a relief. Author Alexandra Levit, for instance, recently blogged about receiving an email from "a 45-year-old who was thrilled that after more than 20 years in corporate America, he was at last working in a so-called 'open environment.' No more offices, no more cubicles." But can this mania for tearing down walls and flattening business structures go too far?

Yes, suggests new research out of Columbia Business School. The series of studies tested the effects of power hierarchies on team productivity by creating teams with either a mixed propensity towards leadership--in one case some participants were primed to feel powerful by thinking of a time they wielded power over others while others subjects were asked to envision a time they were bossed around before joining the group--or teams made up entirely of hard charging leadership types or participants primed for a meeker, go along, get along approach. In another experiment, rather than prime participants for particular roles, testosterone levels were used as a marker of which study subjects were inclined towards dominating power structures and which less interested in leading.

So did traditional groups of both alpha types and more compliant members do better or worse than groups where everyone was hard charging or everyone was laid back when asked to complete cooperative tasks? The Wall Street Journal's Ideas Market blog sums up the findings:

Groups of participants with varied testosterone levels were better at the cooperative task than groups made up solely of high-testosterone or low-testosterone individuals. The high-testosterone group bickered more--no surprise--which provides a partial explanation for its inefficient work. But, more broadly, hierarchies create defined roles, the authors said, which is helpful in carrying out productivity-based tasks that demand "interdependence."

The importance of defined roles in effective collaboration isn't unique to this study. Well known business pundit Tammy Erickson has also looked into the importance of clearly defined roles in collaboration and concluded they are beneficial to getting stuff done. "Our research has shown that… collaboration improves when the roles of individual team members are clearly defined and well understood--in fact, when individuals feel their role is bounded in ways that allow them to do a significant portion of their work independently. Without such clarity, team members are likely to waste energy negotiating roles or protecting turf, rather than focusing on the task," she has written.

So in other words, if clear hierarchies keep teams from wasting time negotiating roles and battling for turf than they can actually help them get more done more quickly. Though this shouldn't be taken as an endorsement for overbearing alpha male chest beating or deference to authority over good sense, flat it seems, isn't always best. But be warned, traditional power structures aren't a panacea either--especially for creative tasks.

"Creative endeavors would be a different matter… in such cases hierarchies have been shown to prevent some people from speaking up," reports the WSJ, which quotes one of the researchers, Richard Ronay. "It's not a clean picture--that hierarchy is always good or bad. It depends on the type of task,” he says.

Flat teams: do you love them, hate them or have mixed feelings?

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There are certain hard knocks you just can't get in a classroom.

While many entrepreneurs boast college degrees and MBAs, most will readily admit that the hard knocks received from starting their own businesses were infinitely more valuable. Here are five lessons you won't learn in a classroom:

Businesses can go bankrupt and unsold products can pile up in the warehouse, but every venture is a potential learning experience. Investors get skittish and bail at the 11th hour? You'll know how to better choose strategic partners and negotiate deals going forward. Couldn't successfully expand into Europe? Use the insights gained into international distribution to craft a more viable strategy next time. Clients indifferent to your sales pitch? Maybe you're trying to solve the wrong problem.

Such learning may seem expensive, but ignorance is costlier still. Knowledge gained through failure is directly applicable to future ventures. So try, fail, and try again until you get it right. Just remember: Only a fool makes the same mistake twice.

When exploring new market opportunities or pitching potential clients, remember that situations change. Just because your approach or offer doesn't make sense to a potential customer or partner now doesn't mean that it won't later on. Markets and strategies evolve, internal stakeholders come and go, and enterprises' needs constantly change. Never be afraid to pick up the phone for a follow-up, especially if situations have shifted in your firm's favor.

Ask 50 people at the same business the exact same question and you're guaranteed to get just as many different answers. A single corporate division may include numerous executives, so it's important to find the one individual whose sphere of influence directly overlaps with your inquiry. Don't be afraid to go up the chain and call a high-level decision maker: At worst, they'll ignore the query or say no; at best, they'll direct you straight to the proper point of contact.

Customer conversion rates can be shockingly low for many new ventures. So plan conservatively. Be cautious with prices. Fight your naturally optimistic outlook.

Big contracts and high-profile deals look good on paper, but when push comes to shove, all that matters is leverage. To get and hold onto leverage, you need money in the bank to comfortably meet payroll and expenses while waging legal battles or self-funding new growth. Despite signing on the dotted line, clients and partners may choose to disrespect agreements or contracts out of need, malice, or simply as a negotiating tactic. Know that if your cash flow dries up, you won't have any room to negotiate.

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Trendy San Francisco restaurant flour + water has droves of foodies lining up for locally sourced and hyperlocal cuisine.

On any given night, the line of salivating customers waiting to get into flour + water, one of San Francisco's trendiest Mission District restaurants, can stretch out the door and around the corner. The queue hums with excitement and anticipation. The menu doesn't feature rare beluga caviar or bird's-nest soup; no, it's locally grown asparagus and hand-rolled strozzapretti that have everyone abuzz. And if you want in, neither having a big name—even Steve Jobs wasn't allowed to just walk in—nor a reservation may eliminate the typical two-hour wait to be seated.

Three years and several accolades since its launch, flour + water has touched on a trend that is taking the restaurant industry by storm: locally grown and produced foods. According to the National Restaurant Association, 72 percent of adults say they are more likely to visit a restaurant that offers locally produced food, while 83 percent of fine-dining restauranteurs and 71 percent of casual-dining operators report that their customers are more interested in locally sourced menu items now than they were just two years ago.

That explains why more than 50 percent of fine-dining restaurants feature locally sourced food and wine on their menus. Another market research firm, Mintel, reports that interest in where food comes from will drive the food industry this year.

When David Steele, David White, and chef Thomas McNaughton opened flour + water in May 2009, they agreed that a menu featuring only locally sourced food was imperative. That's because if the sustainable-is-chic, organic-everything, locavore movement has an epicenter, it's the San Francisco Bay Area, with its produce-friendly year-round warm climate, and culinary icons who have paved the way—including Thomas Keller and Alice Waters, who now grows gardens of organic vegetable in schoolyards.

So the flour + water trio set out to make a statement by fostering close relationships with local farmers and livestock producers, who make several shipments to the establishment each day.

"We fancy ourselves a neighborhood restaurant over and above an internationally known restaurant," says Steele.

To take it a step further, flour + water boasts hyperlocal menu items. Hyperlocal refers to produce grown on site by a commercial establishment, either for use in a menu or to be sold directly to the consumer. The restaurant has a 450-square-foot rooftop garden that provides about 5 percent of the vegetables used in its dishes, including carrots, herbs, and spinach.

Another reason to have your own rooftop garden: bees. The Italian eatery keeps a hive of bees to shine a spotlight on the importance of the insects' role in the maintenance of agriculture. The bees don't just create, ahem, buzz; they also produce honey that is used by the restaurant's chefs.

The chefs, committed to the cause, also go foraging three or four times a week around the San Francisco Bay Area, looking for wild plants to incorporate into their dishes. "It's the ultimate local, right?" says Steele. "It's a way for the chefs to stay connected to the earth, and it makes the process of putting food in front of people a more three-dimensional experience."

Steele had designs on opening a restaurant for seven years—even drafting a business plan—before the opportunity presented itself. The key was finding the right partners. Working on Wall Street for 20 years, Steele was savvy enough to realize that he needed partners that had experience in running a restaurant and cooking. He found the rest of his trifecta in White, who handles operations, and McNaughton, the executive chef.

"My theory was, you put three people together from different perspectives to have a symbiotic partnership,” he explains. That formula worked; Steele says the restaurant has been profitable from Day 1.

Steele funded 50 percent of the $600,000 needed to start up, while nine other investors provided the rest. Last year, the restaurant earned $3.2 million in revenue and 7 percent profitability.

As local and organic is solidifying its place in the mainstream and is growing as a culinary movement, so is this business. The partners opened Central Kitchen—a full-service restaurant—on May 10, and they will open Salumeria (an Italian delicatessen) at the end of the month. Both are located in the same building, only one block away from flour + water. Central Kitchen seats 49 guests, has a rooftop garden, and also houses bees. Salumeria will sell a variety of homemade products, including pastas by the pound, olive oil, and pickles.

"The new restaurant, Central Kitchen, will not just be a continuation of our philosophy of the hyperlocal, sustainable, seasonal, and neighborhood ethos, but we’re actually going even further beyond that," Steele says.

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The restaurant industry will employ 12.9 million people this year, representing 10% of the total U.S. workforce, and making it one of the best industries for starting a business in this year.

Think about it: What's for dinner? Not takeout. Not fast food. And definitely not a homemade meal.

Instead, the subtle hand of the economic recovery is inspiring Americans to pull up a chair at a neighborhood sit-down restaurant. In 2009, revenue earned by full-service restaurants declined by 6.8%, reflective of consumers' having less disposable income (and therefore showing preference for fast-food restaurants or eating at home), says Nima Samadi, senior analyst at IBISWorld, a market research organization specializing in long-range forecasting of industries and business environments.

Restaurants in this segment of the industry "were the first to feel the pinch and the last to feel the recovery," Samadi says.

Although the full-service restaurant industry is ripe for growth, Samadi notes a saturated market as a big barrier to entry.

Another barrier: the significant day-to-day costs associated with running the business. According to Sageworks, a financial information company that provides industry data, the cost of sales, including inventory, direct labor, material, and other costs directly associated with the generation of revenue, will eat up nearly 41% of sales revenue.

Samadi says success can also be contingent on familiarity with the day-to-day operations. "Especially with full-service (restaurants), the failure rates are pretty high for people that start a restaurant without any prior restaurant experience, or if they don't hire someone that has the prior experience," he says. "I think expertise plays a pretty large role, and it's a pretty good indicator of success."

Need ideas for what kind of restaurant to start? Healthy eating continues to be popular, as well as offering locally sourced and locally grown foods, according to the National Restaurant Association's "What's Hot in 2012" survey. Technomic, a food-service research and consulting firm, says the biggest trend for 2012 will be meals with a twist—whether comfort food with an ethnic spin or surprising tweaks to sandwiches. So go ahead, dig in.

Industry sales-revenue has slowly recovered, growing 1.6% in 2010 and 2.8% in 2011, and it is projected to increase 4.5% this year and 5.5% in 2013. The National Restaurant Association expects the entire restaurant industry, not just full-service restaurants, in 2012 to book $632 billion in revenue and to employ 12.9 million. That would be a slight increase from 2011, and represent 10% of the U.S. work force. Plus, as the economy improves, Samadi says, restaurants should benefit from lower unemployment rates and higher levels of disposable income.

See more Business Opportunities by Industry in 2012.

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Employers should relax their grip on their talent every three years, giving employees a significant break to reset expectations, argues one human relations expert.

Your employees are your greatest asset. Plus, hiring is an expensive hassle, so of course you do everything in your power to make sure your team sticks around for as long as possible. That makes perfect sense on the surface, but one HR pro suggests your tight embrace of your employees may actually not be in your best interest, at least not if you keep it up indefinitely.

Better to give your team a little periodic breathing room, Andy Porter, VP of HR at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, recently opined on recruiting blog Fistful of Talent. What does that mean in practice? Giving your employees a "free agency period" every three years in which you allow or even encourage them to get out there and see what's available in the wider job market.

Are you insane, you might reply to Porter. But he's ready to reply to the skepticism of bosses. "Right about now some of you probably think this is a stupid idea--why in the world would a company want to encourage an employee to look elsewhere?" writes Porter. "Well, first off, I have a news flash for you--your employees are already looking for new jobs from time to time, just under the radar and with none of the potential benefits of an 'open' process," he answers.

It's not just simply that your employees will look anyway that motivates Porter's suggestion though. He also feels that having a thorough knowledge of what else is out there (or the relative lack thereof) makes for better employees. He offers three reasons, all from the perspective of the employee but which clearly show why business owners might want to get on board with the idea as well:

Your Current Job May Begin to Look Much Better. All of us have complained about our current jobs at different times--too much of this, not enough of that, or I'm ready for something more. But the funny thing is once you go out and interview with another company you’ll often view you current job in a whole new (often positive light). Turns out the grass isn’t always greener.

Your Skills Have Changed. Three years is enough time for an employee to have learned and mastered a new set of skills. In fact, depending on your industry, three years of experience can have a significant positive impact on your compensation. Marketable skills = more $. On the other hand, if an employee’s skills have declined or haven’t kept pace with new advances in the marketplace, a company should have the right to adjust compensation accordingly.

Motivation. If an employee knows that every three years they’ll have an opportunity to test the market value of their skills there’s a higher likelihood they’ll make the investment to learn something new. This goes both ways--if a company knows that it runs the risk of losing top talent every three years I’d be willing to bet they would make a greater investment in professional development.

The idea of a free agency period every three years might sound strange to the cool, controlled logic of business, but people aren't simply logical creatures. We're often ruled by our emotions, and given this reality, Porter's proposal makes some sense. We have a tendency to romanticize what we see from a distance. We get in ruts. We fail to see the value of those around us. Over time, we take situations and people for granted and our level of effort slips (just ask marriage counselors). By regularly injecting uncertainty in the relationship between employer and employee, aren't we more likely to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the connection with fresh eyes and try harder to maintain it?

Do you think Porter's proposal has merit?

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Can you handle long hours, low pay, and impossibly high expectations? The start-up life might be for you. Here's how to break in.

Dear college graduates,

Looking for work at large, established companies? Going that route means you'll start your career as a cog in a well-oiled machine. You will go through formal training, have relatively few real responsibilities at the outset, and, if you're lucky, maybe progress ever-so-slowly up the corporate ladder.

For most people, this is a safe and comfortable way to start their work lives.

On the other hand, if you have the stomach to work in an entrepreneurial environment—which may mean below-market wages, impossibly high expectations, and more than a few sleepless nights—you open the door to an exciting and wild ride, not to mention invaluable work experience. Most start-ups fail, but the ones that succeed can take off quickly and profoundly.

I've seen both sides of this equation. Three of the companies I worked for opened their doors in the 1800s and will probably be around another hundred years or more. I have worked at three start-ups, too, and know just how insane and fun that ride can be. If the latter sounds more like your kind of challenge, read on for tips on how to get a job at a start-up.

Working at a start-up will eat up virtually all of your waking hours (and reduce your sleeping hours). If you are going to be at a job like that, the only way to thrive is if you love what the company does and where it is going, and the company culture suits you. So do the research.

There are dozens of resources to find start-ups. Some of my favorites include Crunchbase, Mashable, and LinkedIn. Another great place to look: the job boards on venture capitalists' websites, like this one at Sequoia Capital. That way you know the start-up has received a VC's seal of approval as well as at least one round of funding.

Learn everything you can about the company. A company search on LinkedIn, for example, will show you who is working at the company and if they're hiring.

By googling the company (including "news" and "blog" searches), you can get an idea for what impact the company has made and where there are issues. See what is working. Figure out where the company needs help and what you have to offer.

Once you start applying for jobs, companies are going to Web-stalk you—so make sure they find something worthwhile.

• If you are not blogging already, blog. If you are not actively participating in groups relating to the industry you wish to work in, then dive in.
• If you are not up to speed in the industry, then read every blog and every publication you can find serving that industry.
• If you are not active on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, then get moving!
• Add a skill: Every start-up needs people who understand analytics, email marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and coding.

It should come as no surprise that for every great job at a start-up, there are hundreds of applications. To stand out from the crowd, you first need to be the right person for the job (education, experience, skills, etc.) and then you need to find a way to get the attention of the people who will make the hiring decisions.

This can take creativity, research, and a great deal of work. Some successful tactics I've seen have included slideshow/PowerPoint presentations, and attendance at seminars and classes with the people who are hiring. One of my personal favorites is a tactic Alec Brownstein tried: He invested a handful of dollars in Google advertising and targeted CEOs who google their own names. At a cost of $6, he advertised on the names of five CEOs, got four job interviews, and two job offers.

Of course, there's no substitute for offline networking. Look for start-up events on Eventbrite. Go to meet-ups such as Graham Lawlor's Ultra Light Startups in New York City, which attract entrepreneurs, investors, and wannabe start-up employees.

When you get that call or email telling you that you've got the interview, then go back to my advice on doing your research and do it again... on steroids. Learn everything you can about the company's people, culture, customers, and competitors.

Most importantly, be yourself. Don't be afraid to challenge your interviewer or point out things you'd do differently. When you work at a start-up, the people you work with are the people you'll be dealing with for most of your waking hours. You want to honestly assess whether or not you want to work with these people. Conversely, they need to see if you are the person they want to mentor, train, and oversee. Neither can happen unless you present yourself as the person your truly are.

Land a start-up job? Drop me a note in the comments and tell me what worked.

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The SBA brought together government contractors and entrepreneurs for nearly four hours of instruction in how small businesses can go to work for Uncle Sam. Here's what we learned.

Federal spending is up. No matter how you might feel about that politically, it means great opportunity for government contractors. And that in turn means unprecedented opportunity for small and emerging businesses.

Here at National Small Business Week, the SBA set up a total of nearly four hours of training on how to compete for federal government contracts—with panelists including top SBA officials, contractors, and those who recruit subcontractors for the country's largest companies—companies that do a lot of government business.

Granted, there's something a bit meta about the U.S. government running classes on how to sell stuff to the U.S. government. But setting that aside, whether you want to contract directly with the government or carve out a niche as a subcontractor, we learned six key things about getting on the government payroll.

1. Really, truly know your business.

There are currently at least 31,000 federal contacting opportunities listed on the government's clearinghouse website (more on that in a minute). But, in a way, 31,000 is worse than zero—at least if it's your role to comb through them all and figure out which ones you might actually want to compete for.

Well, the No. 1 bit of advice heard at the SBA training was to make sure you know your own company inside and out, and understand exactly what it is you have to offer. That can narrow scope of your search considerably.

"Own your own destiny," said Diane Marsden, manager of the small business office at Booz Allen Hamilton. "You have to get down to a level of granularity. You have to articulate what you do."

2. Be aware of your advantages before stepping into competition.

Small businesses can feel like they're at a disadvantage when competing against larger entities. Sure, you might be more nimble or customer-focused than a big organization with a matching bureaucracy, but playing with big boys can feel like a real fight.

In government contracting, however, that model can be turned on its head. For one thing, the government formally sets aside opportunities run by women, members of economically or socially disadvantaged groups, service-connected disabled veterans, and businesses located in certain underprivileged geographic areas. (Of course, there are a lot of restrictions; see each program for more details.)

Beyond that, the government tries to set aside about a quarter of its contracts for small businesses. That's a goal, not a reality—but it sets the tone.

3. Get comfy with all the paperwork.

If you want to do business directly with the U.S. Government, your company needs to be registered with the Central Contractor Registration database. CCR can also be a great tool for you, as well, because it lets you look at how many competitors in your industry are already doing business with the government. Maybe it will clue you in to what makes a business attractive to the feds, or even give you an idea about subcontractor opportunities.

4. And we mean all the paperwork.

For all the government contracts out there, landing them isn't easy. Another way to get federal is to work as a subcontractor for larger companies. These big contractors usually maintain their own databases of potential subcontractor partners, and you have to register with them separately from the government's site. Check out the big firms' websites of course, but also keep in mind Supplier Connection, a shared database that connects potential subcontractors to 16 major contractors. Included are AT&T, Bank of America, Facebook, IBM, John Deere, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Kelloggs, UPS, and others.

5. Check the government database.

In theory, every single government contract going out for bid is supposed to be listed on www.fbo.gov, known colloquially as "Fed Biz Opps." Again, besides bidding for contracts yourself, keep in mind that this might clue you in on contracts that larger entities might go after. That might mean opportunities to latch on as a subcontractor.

6. Build lasting human relationships.

Sure, government can seem impersonal, but relationships are very important. It's easy to lean too hard on cold calls and databases. So while filling out the forms is a prerequisite, get out of the office, network, and try to meet the decision makers both in the government and in the large contractors. And do it in person, if possible.

"Choose two or three agencies where you think you can do work," suggested Bill Polizos, director of the small business program at AT&T Government Solutions. "Go to the events they hold so you can learn as much as you can about opportunities. As you do that, you'll bump into us."

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Kevin Meehan had climbed the ladder of the culinary scene, but yearned to be his own boss. Now he's broken out and is pioneering a whole new movement in dining.

Chef Kevin Meehan, 35, did all the right things for success in the restaurant world: He studied at Johnson & Wales, apprenticed at a Michelin-starred establishment in Europe, and worked his way up at chic Los Angeles restaurants such as L'Orangerie, Bastide, and Patina before landing the executive chef job at Café Pinot. Why did he decide to give it up to launch a 10-seat pop-up called Kali Dining in February? To find success on his own terms. His roving "dinner party" concept (which has monthly runs in one residential location moving on to the next one) has been sold out since its inception and is now on its fourth installment. He seems to be well on his way.

So, roving dinner parties? What was your motivation for doing something no one has ever done before?
I was working at Café Pinot for a long time. The restaurant was going through some changes as was myself, and I wanted to take some time away. I went to Japan and Korea with my wife for three-and-a-half weeks and was inspired by the cuisine and the small restaurants. I wanted to fall back in love and rejuvenate my culinary arts.

Walk me through the logistics of starting-up.
I made an initial investment and bought a glasses, plateware, and things because I wanted to make it a fine-dining experience. I had friends help out as servers and design the website. A friend of mine, who I go hunting with, donates meats; farmers give me a discount because they know what I'm doing. As for locations, people come and they love the idea and they're like, "Hey, I’m leaving for Hawaii, why don't you use my space while I'm gone?" Right now I'm renting from twins and they said, "Just pay my rent for a month and we'll stay at our boyfriends' house." The first one was in my guest house and I had a little induction burner and a little minibar fridge. It was so Mickey Mouse, but I put out four-star meals.

Did you feel something was lacking in your previous experience?
I was in a corporate environment, and it was very busy. Its main focus wasn't presentation and food. It was a business, and it was a great business. It served its purpose and I had a great time in my last job. I really have nothing bad to say, I left on good terms. But for me to get my own restaurant and do the next thing, I needed to do this. And I don’t regret my actions so far. Kali Dining is a way for me to be the best I could be.

What's the inspiration for your dishes?
I read a lot of books, I look at a lot of websites, I dine out, I go to the market. Lately, I've been foraging in the wilderness. I have a big Ikea bag just full of things from the woods. Last week I discovered something new: You know when you go to a freshwater pond and you see something that looks like a hotdog on a long reed that looks like bamboo? On the base is what looks like a leek. And if you peel back the layers that are fibrous, the heart of it is really tender and juicy and tastes like a raw cucumber. Not only is it local and fresh, it's wild and it's something that people really can't get anywhere else.

Another thing about Kali Dining that really winds my clock is I get to create an environment that people really don't have an opportunity to do anywhere else. Tonight I have eight people coming in and they don't know each other and they're gonna sit down and get to know each other, network, have a couple glasses of wine. I have had 50, 60 installations by now and I haven't had one night where it didn't work out. It's fun for me. I'm a host—I don’t really see myself as a caterer by any means—and it's a great way for me to meet new people and explore the art of cooking at the same time.

What's next?
I've been talking to investors about possibly a permanent thing, which is what I'd really like to do. Until then, I have a great job and I'm my own boss. I never want to be an employee ever again.

We volunteer at soup kitchens. We tutor kids. We donate. Not only is helping your community the right thing to do--it's also good business.

I was urgently needed to attend a meeting downstairs. Something seemed odd—I didn't remember planning a meeting—but I went with it.

Seconds after I arrived downstairs, 10 people dressed in capes came marching into our office banging drums. One of them stood on a desk and unrolled a long scroll and read the message from Rick Shadyac, the CEO of ALSAC (the fundraising arm of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital). We had surpassed $1 million dollars raised for the children of St. Jude.

Our relationship with St. Jude has grown steadily over the last few years, as we've made visits to the hospital in Memphis and have built in partnerships to the research hospital from our various events. Our latest partnership with our Warrior Dash brand exploded in 2012, and we're on pace to raise several million dollars this year alone through the St. Jude Heroes, Music Gives, and St. Jude Warriors programs.

Why, you ask? Because not only is it good business, but it's also the right thing to do. And it just feels good.

Red Frog Events embraces giving back so much so that it's one of our 10 beliefs: We have big hearts and give back. It’s a part of who we are, and St. Jude is really just the beginning.

We've also given back to our local Chicago community in a big way. We sponsored a heart for the Hearts A Bluhm campaign on Michigan Avenue in Chicago to help spread awareness for cardiovascular disease, regularly serve meals at a local soup kitchen (my personal favorite), sort food at the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and are involved with SPARK Chicago by mentoring middle school students.

That's just the start.

There are plenty of reasons your business should give back by either building in a social mission to your business—or simply imploring your employees to choose causes and volunteer. Here's why:

For us at Red Frog Events, it all seems to come really naturally. That might be because we only hire people who are nice to the core. As it turns out, those people feel compelled to give back. It also happens to make me proud to be surrounded by some of the nicest, brightest people in the world every day!

Cheers to $1 million and counting.

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Run your internship program right and it won't just be an exercise in fetching coffee and making copies. Instead, it will be a great pipeline to the brightest young talent.

Sure, sometimes internships amount to little more than free grunt work for employers. But yours isn't like that. For one, you know that programs asking for free work in exchange for limited learning, while sadly common, are also probably illegal, strictly speaking. Two, you want to offer a quality experience to your interns, because—three—an inspiring internship program is a great way to get your hands on the brightest young talent after graduation.

With summer internship season upon us, how do you accomplish your aim of making your program not only beneficial in the short-term for participants, but also a great training ground for your next star entry-level employee?

Advice abounds this time of year, and Katie Morrell recently offered tips on the Open Forum blog, including pre-planning activities and structure for your intern to prevent you running around the office trying to find things for your intern to do once they arrive, as well as regular check-ins to ask about their experience and swap tasks they hate for to-dos they'll get more out of.

But beyond these basics, Morrell also offers less expected suggestions that won't simply insure your internship program doesn't suck, but just might elevate it to the sort of experience that turns eager young interns into exceptional new hires. These include:

Give Them Autonomy.
Interns at Digital Talent Agents, a public relations firm in Columbia, Missouri, are regularly given loose directions and then sent free. "We want them to figure out the best way to do things on their own," says Kelsey Meyer, co-founder. "It's interesting to watch what they come up with when we aren’t breathing over their shoulders."

Task Them With Idea Generation.
Every so often, Meyer will ask her interns for ideas that can help the business. And since chances are good that new interns will fall silent, she's made the process more fun. "We make it into a contest," she says. "If we are having a problem with a client, for example, I will task my interns with coming up with at least one solution by 2:00 p.m. The person whose idea we choose to use will receive a gift certificate for a smoothie at a nearby restaurant." Why does this practice groom interns into great candidates for permanent jobs? "When you are looking to hire someone full-time, you want to know how they will add value to your company," Meyer says. "This exercise teaches them how to think strategically; the more strategically an employee thinks, the less they will think about having to leave at 5:00 p.m. They will instead be thinking about how they can contribute to making your company better."

For more details on Morrell's ideas, check out the complete post. Morrell isn't the only one with suggestions, however. The National Association of Colleges and Employers, which helps bridge the gap between college and the workplace, regularly offers best practices to firms hoping to train up young talent to hire with their internship programs. These includie showcasing interns' work at an expo or presentation event, arranging opportunities for interns to interact with new hires, who are great ambassadors for your firm as being similar to interns in age and career position themselves they're easy to identify with, and bringing in top executives to address your interns.

Have you had notable successes growing new hires with your internship program? How did you manage them?

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There are big opportunities in residential housing development, where revenues are projected to rise an average 10.4% annually for the next five years.

Why It's Hot

After being hammered by the recession, homebuilders are back at work. New construction projects have been stalled for so long that there’s actually pent-up demand, says Andrea Alegria, industry analyst at IBISWorld, a market research firm. According to Plunkett Research, which also covers the industry, single-family housing starts are expected to reach 360,000 this year, an 18% increase from 2011.

Growth Potential

Industrywide revenue is expected to top $303 billion by 2017, a 63% increase from this year’s sales forecast. Alegria projects there will be 340,544 total firms this year and 556,090 by 2017. Driving this growth are Gen Y-ers who have started to leave the nest and buy their own homes. This growth will create a range of business opportunities, from bathroom remodelers to full-scale construction firms. Plus, as the market has picked back up, some overhead costs have decreased, helping to boost profit margins.

Barriers to Entry

Alegria cautions that, although significant, the growth will not "reach the peak levels that were recorded in 2005, at the peak of the boom."

She also notes that new construction firms face some fairly standard barriers to entry: getting enough capital/investment to start a firm, and developing relationships with subcontractors and suppliers, financial institutions, and property developers.

Still, she says, "I think the benefits of cashing in on the mounting demand in the housing market far outweigh these barriers. ... It's highly competitive, but that doesn't mean it’s not going to create opportunities for people that know how to cash in on it."

Hot Spots

According to the National Association of Home Builders, some areas of strength include New Orleans, Washington state, and parts of Texas.

See more Business Opportunities by Industry in 2012

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Mobile phones have become slimmer, lighter, and laden with features. But the basic phone call has hardly evolved. Sidecar aims to change that.

As mobile devices have evolved to become smaller, thinner, and increasingly feature-laden, the way you conduct a voice call has pretty much stayed the same since phones were plugged into walls. Mobile start-up Sidecar claims that's about to change. The company is pitching its new "smart call" app for iOs and Android devices as the best thing to come to calling since, well, cutting those cords.

Imagine being able to carry on a conversation while at the same time using real-time video to show the person on the other end of the line exactly what you're seeing. "See What I See" video is just one of the features that comes with the Sidecar app that launched Tuesday.

"There has been tremendous innovation in smartphones in every area except the basic phone call," says Sidecar co-founder Rob Glaser. "Over 800 million people around the world have smart phones, the time is right to re-imagine what a phone call can be. That's the mission of Sidecar."

Reinventing the phone call was not what co-founders Rob Williams and Glaser initially set out to do. They set out to build SocialEyes, an online social video service. But board member and chief investor Brad Silverberg of Ignition Ventures pushed the company to make a pivot–and not a small one. The team realized that it was better off ditching the video service and instead capitalizing on the growing mobile space. So, less than a year ago they began work on the Sidecar mobile app.

"We started from scratch at the pivot," Williams says, "It was incredibly scary, but Brad looked at us and said, 'Let's reinvent the phone call.'"

Silverberg, who worked at Microsoft in the 1990s on Windows and Internet Explorer, believed the Sidecar team was up for such a daunting task–Ignition Partners participated in the company's $5 million series A round.

In addition to "See What I See" video, Sidecar has focused on developing features that let users conduct a phone call and share content at the same time. So, instead of toggling between screens or ending a call so that you can take and send a photo, Sidecar's simple interface lets you do it all simultaneously.

Say you're trying to meet up with a friend in an unfamiliar place. Call your friend using the Sidecar app and it will locate both of you on a map so that you can easily find each other. Another cool feature: Text in mid-call using "Whisper Text," for those times when it's hard to talk.

For now, the application is free for download, but Williams says the company will introduce premium options in the future. The app also lets users make regular voice calls to non-Sidecar users for free over WiFi or 3G/4G networks. Sidecar-to-Sidecar calls can be made anywhere in the world. Williams insists that Sidecar is not competing with wireless carriers, but actually working to help make them better. Video calling services like Skype and FaceTime are perhaps closest to the space Sidecar is targeting but they're not direct competitors (at least for now).

And as for the business model, Glaser and Williams say for the moment they're focused on users, not revenue. It's a strategy that works for some tech start-ups (see: Instagram) but one not all VCs are willing to buy.

"Facebook and Twitter have proven that if you can deliver tremendous value to millions of users every day, monetization will follow," says Jules Maltz, general partner at IVP, a late-stage venture capital firm that has invested in Twitter, Zynga, Kayak, among other start-ups. "They are the exceptions to the rule though. Most companies should focus on building a sustainable, long-term business that ultimately generates cash from customers instead of relying solely on capital from investors."

Have you tried Sidecar? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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Ohio's Victoria Tifft was named the 2012 Small Business Person of the Year, but there were 51 other nominees. Here are 10 more stories of great entrepreneurs--and how they did it.

Some of the most impressive parts of National Small Business Week in Washington, D.C., are the awards ceremonies for some amazing entrepreneurs. And it's not just the ceremonies that impress: it's the attendees.

On Monday, Ohio's Victoria Tifft, who was inspirited by her battle with malaria while serving in the Peace Corps to start a research firm that helps fight infectious diseases, was named the 2012 Small Business Person of the Year.

That's a great honor. But there were 51 other nominees–state winners and those from the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. And when you peel back the curtain you'll see a heck of a lot of other great entrepreneurial stories.

No, they might not have won the whole thing. But here, in alphabetical order by state, are 10 of the best of the rest–the most interesting winners we found in the SBA's state-by-state list of Small Business People of the Year. They're great entrepreneurs with some great stories.

1. Jack White Jr., President, Home Brew Mart, San Diego, California.
White opened Home Brew Mart in San Diego in 1992 and teamed up with Yuseff Cherney to launch Ballast Point Brewing in 1996. One $1.2 million SBA-guaranteed loan later, Ballast Point now brews 50 million barrels each year and counts 1,000 customers including restaurants, bars, convenience stores and grocery chains.

2. Eliseo Valenzuela, Cheryl Valenzuela, and Joseph Wolfe, First State Manufacturing, Milford, Delaware.
The dream began in a garage in 1998. Now, First State Manufacturing, a Delaware upholstery manufacturer, is a certified in the Small Business Administration's 8(a) Business Development Program. The company employs 50 technicians and brought in $4.5 million in 2010 (up from $2.2 million in 2007).

3. Laura Darnall and Lois Judy, Candy Craft Creations, Garden City, Georgia.
Darnall and Judy formed Candy Craft Creations in a backyard shed in 2008, manufacturing and distributing "Fondarific," a new type of fondant (the impossibly smooth frosting layer used by chefs and bakers to create the icing on cake). In four years, Candy Craft Creations has gone from two owner/employees to 30 employees and from zero sales to over $2.5 million in 2011.

4. Timothy Whicker, Electric Plus, Danville, Indiana.
Whicker left his day job to start his own company, Electric Plus, in 2006. Back then, he had two electricians and an office staff of one; now he has 109 total employees and $15 million in annual revenue.

5. Janet Amirault, Software Consortium, Columbia, Maryland.
In 2005, Janet Amirault suffered a stroke that left her with a vocabulary of fewer than 100 words, and unable to read, write, or drive. Eventually she made a full recovery, and she led Software Consortium to long-term success, with more than 60 employees and annual revenues of more than $12 million.

6. Paula White, 600lb. Gorillas, Duxbury, Massachusetts.
White and her husband Chris sell all-natural, frozen, ready-to-bake desserts in supermarkets and club stores. Starting with four SBA loans totaling $578,700, revenues have grown from $75,000 in 1999 year to $7 million annually. While the company employs just two people directly, their contract relationships with their co-packer has resulted in increased shifts and additional work for more than 20 people.

7. Nancy Munoz, Leah Munoz and Rachel Drenk, SVI dba Specialty Vechicles, Henderson, Nevada.
A family owned, women-owned business, Specialty Vehicles makes specialty trolleys, trams, mini-trams and buses, along with options for alternative fuel sources and zero-emission battery powered vehicles with solar panels. Net worth and employment rolls have steadily increased, and Specialty Vehicles recently secured an SBA 504 loan to purchase an industrial building to expand Specialty Vehicles' manufacturing and distribution operations.

8. Marjorie Perry, MZM Construction, Newark, New Jersey.
Perry bought her company from its previous owners in 1992, and has thrived as a woman entrepreneur in an industry dominated by men. Her general contracting work includes clients like the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Delta Airlines, Port Authority of NY/NJ, and Verizon, Continental Airlines, and Marriott. Her company also helped build the new Meadowlands Stadium for the New York Giants.

9. Oscar Wong, Highland Brewing Company, Asheville, North Carolina.
After selling his engineering business and retiring to the mountains of western North Carolina, Oscar Wong opened Highland Brewing Company in 1994 with three employees in a 4,000 square-foot leased space in the basement of a tavern. With the help of two SBA-backed loans, his business grew to more than 20,000 barrels of beer annually, and employs 22 people.

10. Karen Woodbury, Woodbury Technologies, Clearfield, Utah.
Woodbury Technologies is a woman-owned, 8(a) certified, small disadvantaged business that provides medical services including nurses, doctors, and medical technicians, information technology and help desk support, aerospace engineering and program management services. The company is now the sixth largest woman-owned company in Utah, and it supports the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army and Defense Information Systems in 10 states. It has almost 200 employees and $16 million in annual revenues.

(Hey, small-business owners: I'll be at National Small Business Week in D.C. on Tuesday, so if you're here and have a great story to share, please feel free to contact me.)

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Behance CEO Scott Belsky recently addressed the 99% Conference, offering tips on bridging the gap between inspiration and execution.

Great ideas are, well, great, but sadly even the best inspiration doesn't guarantee something remarkable is actually produced.

Between that exhilarating "a-ha" moment when an idea hits and reaping the benefits of your creativity there's a huge gulf of hard work to cross. How can you make it to the other side with your sanity and your winning idea intact? Behance CEO Scott Belsky has a few suggestions.

Belsky recently addressed the 99% Conference in New York, offering a master class on executing your creative ideas, which offered advice to prevent your best inspirations from withering away before being realized drawn from experience and his new book Making Ideas Happen. Luckily for those unable to attend, Aimee Groth has rounded up the headline tips. They include:

Understand the life cycle of ideas. When a new idea strikes, energy and excitement are extremely high. But when the hard work really begins, excitement drops. This is called the "Project Plateau."

"It's the doldrums of project management," Belsky says. "We hate that place so we try to escape it. There are more half-written novels than there are novels." There's the gravitational force of operations—which pulls you away from what's important to what's urgent. The key is making time for both.

Workflow needs to be forward-thinking, not just reactionary. If you simply respond to what's urgent, that's a reactionary way of thinking and working. It may get you through the day, but it doesn't lay the groundwork for long-term innovation…. since there's often an endless stream of reactionary workflow, there's a lost "forced space for deep thinking." Good leaders will create space for this by "creating windows of non-stimulation." During this time, leaders will read reports, data, etc.—but not react to anything; just process it.

Accountability is key, and this begins with leadership. Effective teams hold each member accountable for their contributions. For this to happen, there must be a clear leader who knows each person's strengths.

Interested in more of Belsky's ideas? Groth offers many more of his tips and the 99% has published tons of takeaways from conference speakers, including this thought-provoking bit of advice from Belsky on dealing with creatives' personal demons: "Especially in the creative world, our demons are part of what distinguishes us. But we must be sure to face our demons before they face us. Get feedback from anyone who will share it, and candid self-appraisals. Do the personal work."

If you'd like to skip the reading, Belsky's website also has a selection of videos of his previous speaking engagements. Or if on the other hand, the more words the better, there's always the book.

What most often derails you when it comes to executing on a promising new idea?

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The biggest tech public offering in history is big news to the start-up world. Here's why its a win for innovation, user-experience, and the little guys.

While everyone is talking about Facebook's IPO and the future of the company as a newly introduced financial instrument, the world of start-ups is busy leveraging Facebook to build new companies--and hopefully create new value.

Facebook has done a better job than any company in history at collecting personal (and sometimes intimate) information about nearly a billion people. And while the prevailing conversation today revolves around their plans of how to best monetize this through an ad platform, the world of start-ups is much less interested in that than the fact that Facebook Connect and Open Graph have enabled us to tap into the incredible source of information that they've gathered.

In the same way that Microsoft enabled thousands of companies to build software products for the PC, and that Google helped create a structure to discover new businesses and products online, Facebook has kicked the door wide open with respect to easily and quickly learning about people in a way that allows new products and services to be laser-targeted at solving real problems for them.

If start-ups get this right, it will mean less spam, richer experiences for users, more useful products, and an overall, a better Internet.

As impressive as what Facebook has done in the past few years is what it has chosen not to do. It has partnered with Oodle to deliver the Facebook Marketplace, with Spotify to help users find and discover music, and there's no doubt (at least in my mind) that it will be partnering with a financial institution or two in the future to enable new flows of money online. Facebook has committed to building a true platform, and every step it takes to improve it makes it more powerful to leverage.

So what's this mean practically?

At a company like Zaarly (the online marketplace I founded), we allow our users to sign in with Facebook Connect. When they do this, their profiles get automatically populated based on information they've already provided to Facebook. It's a login option that's not required, but it makes getting started on Zaarly a one-click affair.

In the next couple weeks we'll be launching a simple-but-useful Open Graph integration. This will enable Facebook users to see, non-intrusively, when their friends are using Zaarly. Hopefully this will lead to new, and better-engaged, Zaarly users. And a bit further down the road, we hope to leverage interests and experiences, as listed on Facebook, to serve up better and better recommendations to our users on how they can make the most of Zaarly. None of that is possible without Facebook and the tools it has created to enable innovation on top of their platform.

So ad platforms, privacy issues, and projected growth rates aside, the start-up world of new ideas and innovations has a huge leg up because of Facebook's dominance. And that's probably a good thing for Facebook too.

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You are at the helm of your business, but if you are there all alone you might just sink the ship.

You may be accustomed to being at the helm of your business; in charge of every aspect and operation, making all of the decisions and doing all of the work. But if you want to grow from micro to small or from small to mid-size, you must scale your capacity at some point--and that means letting go of some of the control. Are you ready?

Doug and Polly White of Whitestone Partners help principals transition their businesses into enterprises. They've witnessed all of the issues that separate the businesses that thrive from those that flounder.

"Getting the entrepreneur to believe that anyone can do the work of the business as well as he or she can is certainly a challenge," says Polly White.

Solopreneurs who are providing a service, like painters and repair persons, consultants, and even doctors, remain "stuck" at a certain level of income, hesitating to pull the trigger when it comes to bringing on other providers. Unless you are willing to bring someone else on board and teach them to do at least a part of the process, there is no way your business can grow.

"Whether you choose to hire people who can do the primary work of the business or find some other ancillary help, at least in the beginning, it's a critical move if you are going to scale," says Polly White.

Many small- and micro-business owners are reluctant to hand over even the smallest of tasks because they don't believe anyone else can do the job as well as they can. But what is the cost of doing business all alone? Are your personal and professional needs being met? Are you making top dollar and are you happy doing it?

Once you've made the decision that it's time to grow, you will cross through the doors of your virtual HR headquarters. As if letting go of control isn't enough to deal with, the business owners who haven't developed the skill of interviewing and hiring may struggle here as well. How do you know how to hire the right people for the right jobs? The Whites have developed a five-step process to greatly improve the odds of your hiring success.

Decide what you need. Take the time to understand the kinds of behavior, cognitive abilities, experience and physical requirements that you need your new employee to possess. People tend to hire skills, but the Whites suggest that you hire behaviors and train skills--especially at the entry level. Hire someone who is going to turn up on time, work hard, interface well with others and isn't likely to take home things that don't belong to them. Hire smart and honest people. Ask a lot of questions in the interview process, connect with your intuition and get to know your candidates well before you offer them the job.

Decide what you have to offer. You will be competing against much larger companies who can offer more in the way of compensation and benefits. But you have a lot to offer potential employees too. Many people appreciate the family feel of a smaller company, where their ideas will be heard and they get to wear a few different hats. Larger companies typically offer jobs that are very narrowly focused and stifle the creativity of the employees.

Cast a broad net with a narrow focus. Go outside of friends and family when you do your search. Don't be afraid of receiving fifty resumes because if you know exactly what you need and what you have to offer, you can go through that stack of resumes quickly and focus just on the promising few. Many smaller employers shy away from advertising for employees because they don't know how to quickly identify the best candidates. Thinking it through ahead of time will make this process much easier.

Leverage multiple methods and opinions. Small business owners tend to think they have to go through the hiring process alone, writing the job description and the ads, screening all of the resumes, doing all of the interviewing. But you really should have other people involved. If you are the only person in the business, you can hire a consultant or someone who can help you interview. Others see and hear things very differently and that input is valuable. Reach out to another business person to sit in on your interviews and do a review of the applicants with your coach or mentor. You don't have to do this alone.

Trust, but verify. Many, many resumes contain deliberate omissions and falsifications. Well over 50% of all resumes have misleading information. Make sure you verify the information and do background checks. About 30% of small biz failures are due to employee theft and fraud, according to the National Federation of Independent Business. You can avoid falling victim to this trend by doing in-depth reference checks and background checks.

This may feel like a big job, and it is. But the trick is to hire well so that you don't have to perform the hiring task for the same position over and over again. By following this process and understanding how to dig deep in the interview, as well as in your reference checks, you will be far more likely to hire the right person for the job.

"Most perspective employees will give you a reference list of people who will say only good things about them," says Doug White. "One of the things we suggest is to get to the next level in your reference checks."

During your discussion with a professional reference ask questions like, "Who else do you know who worked with John and would be aware of how he works?" Or, "who was John's supervisor?" Find your way to second and third levels to get a more candid opinion.

The Whites also recommend asking very specific questions during your reference checks. Rather than, "was John a good employee?" ask "can you describe how you believe John interacted with customers?"

Once you find your ideal employees you must know how to manage them. This is another sticking point to successful growth according to the Whites. "You must set appropriate goals for your employees," says Doug White. "And you must have a plan to achieve the goals. It's best to allow your employee to develop this plan and review it with them. " But your employees will need the right tools and training to achieve optimal performance. Make sure to review what these are and how you can successfully provide and implement your plan to support employees. And, of course, assessing and communicating your employee's performance on a regular basis will keep you both on top of things.

In their recent book, Let Go To GROW, the Doug and Polly White further explore this and other processes that help businesses transition from one stage to the next.

"Most small business people wear many hats and struggle to find time to accomplish all of their work," says Polly. "If you are spending a lot of time on one activity, trying to make it perfect, you can't be spending time on other tasks that may also be important to your business success."

For more from the Whites, tune into my recent interview with them.

New research out of Stanford reveals cool threats beat angry words when it comes to negotiating.

If you based your negotiating style on what you see in movies, you might think shouting while being a lawyer is the way to go, but luckily entrepreneurs have more solid information to go on than the imaginings of Hollywood screen writers. Recent research conducted by professors out of Stanford and INSEAD rigorously compared the effects of showing anger (whether real or feigned) in negotiations with the effects of cool but open threats.

To do this the team ran a series of four experiments, asking study participants to negotiate first with one another and then with a computer program, which the test subjects were led to believe was actually a human negotiating partner, testing how many concessions an angry negotiating style was able to wring out of opponents versus the number of concessions won through clear but collected threats. What were the findings?

"Our results say that anger isn’t as effective as a simple threat in getting people to concede,” Margaret Neale, a Stanford professor of organizations and dispute resolution who participated in the research told Stanford Knowledgebase, which goes on to explain the details of the later computer-simulated negotiation experiments:

When the computer made angry statements (and made them late in the negotiation, before rounds 5 and 6), it was able to elicit an average of a little more than 14 concessions; in the threat condition, on the other hand, the average number of concessions was higher — about 15.5 when the threats came late in the negotiation. The same pattern of threats trumping anger held with expressions of anger or threat in earlier rounds, although both types of statements proved less effective than when delivered closer to the end of the negotiation.

Remarkably, even though threatening negotiators got their counterparts to concede more, they created less ill will than did angry negotiators: In a follow-up study, the participants rated the threatening negotiators as more likable than angry negotiators.

Further questioning of participants revealed that threatening but collected negotiators come across as more poised and confident, which led those across the table to believe their threats were thought out and serious. Meanwhile, angry outbursts were often perceived as a passing storm of emotion – a hissy fit in everyday language -- that a savvy negotiator could simply wait out.

The takeaway from the research is clear. Forget the movie stereotypes and ditch the theatrics and emotional outbursts if you're trying to get the most out of a negotiation. Instead, calm but clear threats late in the game appear to be the most effective – and as an added bonus, this approach will probably mean you'll even be seen as more likeable at the end of the negotiation.

Do these research results jive with your real-world experience of negotiations?

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Using data, Turn is revolutionizing the way marketers advertise. In the process, it has to head off Google.

Ask Bill Demas about the promise of big data, and he won't hesitate to recount a speech, now infamous in company lore, that he gave in 2009 when he took the reins as CEO of Turn, a digital advertising company. Deciding not to mince words, the new leader declared to his increasingly alarmed-looking staff that everything they'd known was over and that software-as-a-service was the future.

"I call it the 'burn the boat' speech," Demas recalls. "The notion was that there's no going back." In his tale, Demas headed Turn in another direction and totally ditched its business model.

Based in Redwood City, California, Turn was founded in 2004 by two executives from AltaVista, Yahoo's defunct search engine, as a digital advertising firm focused on search marketing and display ads. The start-up enjoyed moderate success. Three years later, however, sales were flat. According to Demas, this left the partners squabbling about how to fix the problem, which resulted in one founder's departure. (The other, Jim Barnett, is now chairman of the board.) "I think sometimes the misleading thing here in Silicon Valley is the start-up has started and everything has gone nice and smooth, and there's this big end-success story," Demas says. "That's very, very rarely the case."

Demas, who has extensive experience in data from managing parts of Microsoft's SQL Server and the search marketing company Overture, was brought on as a Turn board member in 2007; he became president and COO in 2008. By the time he was named CEO, he was convinced that the key to unlocking massive growth at Turn lay in a cloud platform that would allow clients to upload and analyze their consumer data and execute their own marketing campaigns.

Demas immediately stopped hiring traditional salespeople and cut off investment to the company's traditional ad network. Employees were told they had to learn new skills and become more tech-savvy than ever before. Though much of the staff was dragged along "kicking and screaming," Demas says Turn has doubled its revenue every year since its pivot into big data. Last year, Turn's earnings hit more than $100 million.

At the same time, "big data" industry growth has been soaring. From hospitals to retailers to phone carriers, companies are amassing hoards of data about their customers and verging on a near-frenzy trying to process and analyze it all themselves. Better data analysis means better business operations, which translates to better margins.

IDC, a market research firm, predicts the big data industry will reach close to $17 billion by 2015. IDC clocks the industry's annual growth rate at 40% over the last five years, which is seven times the growth of the overall IT market.

Demas recognized that chief marketing officers likewise need to learn new skills. After years of analyzing data to help marketers figure out who their key audience segments were, Turn's new offering, Demas decided, should help those marketers collect and store that data, in real time, and make better decisions based on the information.

The company does this in two ways. Its "audience platform" allows the customer to upload first-party data—CRM details, point-of-sale information, purchase history, catalog subscriptions—and then match it with demographic and psychographic data, such as income and hobbies, to create anonymous audience profiles. Think ranchers in Texas who exercise, say, for a sneaker brand.

Turn's "media platform" then helps the client create marketing campaigns based on the data and deploys ads across video, Web, and mobile apps. To handle all of the information—each profile contains 2,000 attributes and characteristics—Turn has built data centers around the globe; its fourth opened in April. The company has nine offices and has expanded into Europe and South America.

Demas claims Turn is winning as it goes head to head with Google. (Google sells its similar Big Query product somewhat under the radar.) "In many respects, this is the sequel," Demas says, referring to his experience as a senior vice president at Overture, a search engine that lost out to Google. "I've seen the original version of the movie before, and now, as the entrepreneur and CEO of this company, I've got a second chance at Google."

Today, Turn counts telecom giant AT&T among its largest clients, though he hesitates to name others since he says they consider the platform their "secret sauce." When asked if Turn is aiming to get scooped up by the likes of Oracle, IBM, or another large IT enterprise—in the vein of so many of its big data brethren in the past few years—Demas rejects the idea. He does, however, have his sights set on an IPO.

"We believe if we continue on this path, we could be an independent company that could one day go public," he says. "But when we’re ready."

Seems like burning the boat was not such a bad idea, after all.

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This burgeoning market crosses all industries and sectors and aims to organize, analyze, and strategize using the terabytes of data we create each day.

In an increasingly digitized world, everything you do creates an electronic record—every purchase, doctor's visit, or instance you "friend" someone on Facebook.

As organizations continue to amass hundreds of terabytes of that information, they are looking for more sophisticated software tools to mine and analyze it, to help businesses better understand their markets and customers, and even predict what's next.

According to the market research firm IDC, "big data" companies that address these needs had sales of $3.2 billion in 2010. Total industry revenue is expected to reach nearly $17 billion by 2015, growing about seven times faster than the overall IT market.

And while the business analytics and enterprise software sector of IT (which includes "big data") has remained steady over the past few years, growing 1.8% from 2007 to 2012, according to IBISWorld, the firm says improvements in profit margin--now at 36%, on average--have been fueled by the acquisition of companies that offer data services.

Large vendors have targeted smaller companies as a means to expand their own customer bases and product offerings. IBM recently purchased several big data firms, including Netezza, which makes data warehouse appliances, for $1.7 billion. Other major acquisitions include Oracle's reported $1.1 billion purchase of enterprise search company Endeca, as well as Hewlett-Packard's $350 million purchase of data analytics platform Vertica, last year.

Barriers to entry:

As consolidation continues, it might become more difficult to pry market share from these giant firms. But if a quick exit is top of mind, and you've got some pretty high-level degrees--in, say, computer science, software engineering, or market research--the burgeoning big data industry might be the place for you to start a business.

See more Business Opportunities by Industry in 2012

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To keep your start-up from dying of indecision, you have to give real authority to the members of your team. For many founders, that's not easy.

Launching a start-up, you need to get a lot done quickly. Every day is different. Everyone pitches in with everything. It’s easy for the founding team to say, “We’re flexible. We all help out with everything!” But when it comes to making decisions—that flexibility can spell inefficiency and disaster.

While launching The Daily Muse, my co-founders Melissa, Alex, and I face a lot of decisions to make every day: What’s the right UX for our job search landing page? Are we comfortable taking on a new content syndication partner? How do we allocate marketing dollars to an SEO firm—or should we be doing that at all?

Of course we’re all willing to help with everything. But we figured out pretty quickly that there’s a trade-off—if anyone can make any decision, or everyone tries to be a part of every decision, we’d end up going back and forth on each and every issue when we really just need to move forward. So we divided up the responsibilities, clearly defined the role of each founder, and got back to work. And I would highly encourage any founders to do the same. Here’s how to make it work.

Co-founding a company isn’t about doing what you most like to do. It’s about making sure that between all of you, the company meets its goals. Ideally, there’s a pretty good match between what needs to get done and what you want to do—but when it comes down to it, the work needs to be done by the person who’s in the best position to make that happen, right now. That might the person with the most skill in that area—the best writer, the best salesperson—or it might be the person with the most flexibility in her schedule right now. So talk it through, and divvy up the workload for maximum efficiency.

Each project and initiative we take on clearly “belongs” to one of the founders, and we count on each other to handle those responsibilities without the rest of us having to worry about it. When one of us needs to make a decision that obviously falls under our role—Should we reallocate our marketing budget this month? Do we want to a new partner to sponsor a contest?—it’s clear who’s responsible for making the choice, and she can run with it.

The split is also helpful externally. As we’ve grown The Daily Muse and met contacts who want to collaborate with us, knowing who does what has helped us be clear on who we want our partners to connect with—and makes us look buttoned up, too. SEO firm? Talk to our COO. An editor from the Huffington Post? Meet our Editor-in-Chief.

Of course, we bring the big decisions before the whole group and make sure no one gets left out of the loop—we are, after all, in this together. If a choice we face could significantly change the company’s direction, we plan time to talk about it and make sure we’re all comfortable.

With clearly defined roles and a focus on communication, it’s much easier to make your company come across as well-organized and on top of things—because it actually is.

I know. I told you flexibility was inefficient—and it is, if that’s your only plan. But your role will probably change as the company makes progress, and you need to be able to roll with it. When we launched our Company Muse profiles project, Alex needed to focus on product management, so I picked up user acquisition, which had formerly been one of her responsibilities. And as I’ve started fundraising, she’s taking it over again. Over time, it’s not unreasonable for the exact division of labor to change.

Finally, the good sort of flexibility also means knowing when to ask for help and when to jump in to assist your co-founders when they need it. And there are times, like launches, when it really is all hands on deck. Having clear roles doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for pitching in with everything else.

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Co-founder Neil Blumenthal talks about his disruptive eyewear company's roots and mission.