Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Ask “can I defend this?” at the idea stage, not after competitors show up. Score your moat honestly on a one-to-five scale and pick one action to move up a point in the next 90 days. When entrepreneurs come up with an idea, they usually start with the exciting questions: How big is the market? How fast can we grow? How much money can we make? I ask those questions too, but years of starting, scaling and exiting companies have taught me to add another one very early: Can I…
Author: Staff Writer
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Every growing business reaches breakpoints — the moments when a business outgrows the systems, leadership and habits that made it successful during the previous stage. Founders must shift from making every decision themselves to delegating responsibility, developing leaders, documenting processes and empowering their teams. The businesses that continue growing don’t avoid breakpoints. They recognize them, adapt to them and build the leadership, processes and accountability the next stage requires. Do you remember what it felt like when the business started gaining momentum? New customers were coming in, revenue kept climbing,…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Incumbents don’t lose simply because startups use newer AI technology. They lose when they fail to adapt to customers’ evolving needs and leave opportunities for competitors to solve emerging problems. Regularly review customer feedback, renewal and churn calls, and unmet needs to uncover changing pain points. A strong product strategy focuses on solving the customer’s problems, not simply adding features. Companies need to build technology for adaptability and remain students of the customer’s evolving problem. I’ve sat through many conversations lately about which incumbent software categories AI-native startups are about…
QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, you have publicly warned the EU about this looming debt crisis. You have explained it as a trader on numerous podcasts. I find it incredible that the WSJ, Reuters, and Bloomberg do not interview you, which only confirms they have become fake news. Reuters quotes people who were not there from the beginning or even in 2010. They claim banks have diversified, suggesting the risk of a banking crisis today is minimal compared to 2010. They even concluded: “Proposals to strip government bonds of risk-free status or impose concentration limits have so far failed. But the EU…
Burger King is giving customers a shot at scoring a one-of-a-kind 14K gold-plated Hello Kitty figurine, but only if they can grab it with a claw. The chain’s “Golden Claw Machine” pops up at its Downey, California, location on Oct. 23 starting at 11 a.m., according to MediaPost. Players can also win a regular Hello Kitty toy. The stunt kicks off a nationwide collab with Sanrio, the Japanese company behind Hello Kitty. The new Hello Kitty and Friends King Jr. Kids’ Meal, available as of Oct. 20, comes with a collectible figurine hidden inside a mystery blind box. There are…
Americans are increasingly financing the basic necessities of life because their paychecks are no longer stretching far enough. Buy-now-pay-later financing has exploded into a $160 billion industry, according to research cited by the Associated Press, with the use of short-term pay-in-four loans increasing nearly 80% since 2023. What began as a convenient way to purchase electronics or clothing is now being used for groceries, transportation, household bills, and even rent. We have reached the point where people are borrowing against their next paycheck to purchase things they need to survive today. The Federal Reserve’s latest household survey found that 16%…
Key Takeaways Kelly Schultz, an antique seller by profession, operates The Great Pumpkin Farm for about seven weeks a year. Schultz had no farming experience when he bought the 85-acre property for about $650,000 in 1993. Today, the farm draws more than 100,000 visitors each fall with pumpkins, hayrides, live entertainment and other attractions. About 33 years ago, Kelly Schultz told his friends and family that he was going to open a pumpkin farm. “Everybody laughed at me,” he said in a new interview with CNBC Make It. The endeavor was outside Schultz’s area of expertise. He was a second-generation…
The United States has reached a point where the government is spending more than $1 trillion annually simply to pay interest on money it has already borrowed. The Treasury Department reported that the federal deficit reached $1.99 trillion for fiscal year 2026, an increase of $217 billion from the previous year. Total government spending climbed to $7.4 trillion while revenues amounted to only $5.4 trillion. Yet the most alarming figure is buried within that enormous spending bill. Net interest payments reached $1.05 trillion, while gross interest costs climbed to $1.36 trillion. Washington is now spending approximately $2.9 billion EVERY DAY…
Key Takeaways Young didn’t want to spend $6 on several cups of coffee or matcha throughout the work day. She teamed up with nutritional scientists to formulate her caffeinated gummy brand Rallee. After a February relaunch, Rallee landed in nearly 2,000 Walmart locations. This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Georgia Young, a 28-year-old entrepreneur based in New York. Last year, Young was working in consulting when she started her side hustle Rallee: a line of caffeinated gummies for energy on the go. Rallee landed in 1,940 Walmart stores in eight months and is projected to bring in about $1.8 million…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Building a great organization is a beautiful mess. It’s hard, humbling and full of lessons you would never have chosen. Make sure vision and culture come first, lead with customer experience, build resilience, don’t burn bridges, stay ahead of the curve and evolve with your organization, rather than stay stagnant. It’s a strange moment to write about what makes companies last, with global uncertainty at historically high levels and leaders being asked to make huge bets on AI, talent and where the world is going. At the same time, employees…