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You launched your idea on Kickstarter... but the crowds (and their wallets) never came. Here's what you did wrong.

Raising money is time-consuming and frustrating, particularly when you're not looking for millions upon millions to scale up your operations. Bankers often aren't inclined to lend. Investors may hold out for opportunities to put more money into a company, and might want too much equity in return for what they do provide.

This is where crowdfunding has opened a new frontier for business owners. This still relatively new form of raising capital leverages dedicated social networks of entrepreneurs with companies and investors looking for opportunities. It couldn't be easier to launch a crowdfunding campaign; launching a successful one is a different story.

Here are four reasons why campaigns fail:

1. You didn't nail the presentation.

Social networks may be generally informal, but don't make the mistake of thinking that investors are ever casual. Just ask Lloyd W. Armbrust, II, CEO of Austin-based OwnLocal, which runs websites and does SEO and social media management for small companies.

"We're a Y Combinator company from 2010, so we raised our first chunk of change out of YC," says Armbrust, a veteran entrepreneur. "We had connections, we had some great investors." In 2010, OwnLocal grossed $120,000, with half going to newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations that act as sales agents in their local markets. Partway through 2011, the company was on a million dollar run rate, but needed more cash. So, starting in April, OwnLocal listed itself on an investor site called AngelList.

You can believe that Armbrust had a solid presentation online to catch that interest. "I created a cut-down succinct version of our pitch deck, about four minutes," he says. Then the company posted a video. "The next day, we had 40 meetings set," he says. Eventually he had 10 investors who collectively put in $2 million. "We were talking about a traditional series A, but decided not to because of the number and quality of people we could bring in."

2. You didn't ask for enough.

Experts typically tell entrepreneurs there will be a minimum investment size that is realistic because the amount of work to qualify a $10,000 investment or $100,000 investment is about the same. Traditional investing looks to place larger amounts of money for the sake of efficiency.

In crowdfunding, smaller can often work well, depending on the network you use. Asking for less may seem like a safe approach, particularly on sites like Kickstarter.com, where you get nothing if you don't meet your funding goal. But it can be a mistake.

Many companies that look for smaller amounts of money find that they didn't look for enough to be successful in their ventures. "From the outside, it can seem like every project on Kickstarter is a success," says Joe Demin, founder of Yellow Leaf Hammocks, which had a Kickstarter goal to raise $10,000 and pulled in $11,400. "Until you start digging, you don't realize that a lot of the projects that meet their funding goal still don't necessarily make a profit."

3. You didn't put enough work into working the crowd.

Many also assume that the crowdfunding process is relatively easy compared to traditional ways. Not at all. "There is also a huge amount of time and hustle it takes to build momentum before your campaign opens to the public," Demin says. "There is [also] a lot of vagueness surrounding Kickstarter: their guidelines, the way they select campaigns to feature, etc. It feels a little like you're pledging a secret society when you take the leap."

Dennis Caraher, together with his wife Janet Street, started a side business called Easy Keepers, which sells non-toxic bendable toys. They raised only $4,863 of a $12,000 goal on Kickstarter. "We probably should have built up our fan base before we jumped in," he says. "We thought that… and this is probably a little bit of magical thinking… the video [we produced on the product] is so good that people will be looking for it. But there are thousands and thousands of Kickstarters, so the chance of you attracting attention is pretty remote."

4. You failed to put your eggs in different baskets.

Most important is to remember that crowdfunding may not become your path to capital. "Even if you make your Kickstarter goal, it doesn't mean you're going to make it in the business," Caraher says. "You still need a solid business plan and all the things you need to start a business."

But then, there's a lot more available from crowdfunding than just money. You can build support and the beginning of a loyal customer base. That ultimately can be worth far more than short-range funding.

Quitting your job may not be as risky as it seems. You should have done what you wanted a long time ago!

You've done what you were supposed to do. You graduated high school. You may have gone to a great college and even graduated with decent grades. You landed your first job and were then promoted. Maybe even multiple times!

You now are making decent money—more money than you ever thought you'd make. You're married and now have responsibilities – kids, a mortgage, parents who may outlive their savings.

But you're not living the life that you envisioned. The great job that you worked so hard for years and years to put yourself in the position to get is now your jail.

What you didn't realize then you realize now. You shouldn't have done what you were supposed to do. You should have done what you wanted to do, what made you happy, and what would have provided you the freedom to live the life you wanted.

And THAT is start your own business.

Don't worry. It's not too late to start a company, which is your only hope to live the life you want. But if you fail to act now or soon, it may be too late. And getting off your current path onto a more fruitful one may be less risky than continuing to cash the regular safe paycheck and building for the long term.

If we can all agree on one thing (and it may be the only thing we can agree on), it is this: The "security" society is over. OVER! And it's never coming back.

Social security is bankrupt. We know that. The program, like many others in the US, is a GIANT PONZI SCHEME! The money I pay today for social security goes right out the door to pay for benefits of others.

Job security? Forget about it. Assume you will be laid off, no matter what industry you're in. Expect it to happen sooner than later.

Unemployment, COBRA, the EPA, FEMA, SEC, and most other government safety blankets and protectors are irrelevant. It's not that the good people (in most cases) who work there are all ignorant and don't mean well. We've seen over and over again that government protections don't work.

Government security is over. Job security is over. Financial security is over. Sit with it. Feel it. Be with it. And start acting.

Does your personal financial future look like China? Or are you Greece? The decisions you make today to build for your future will determine your fate.

Why does it make financial sense to start your own business? Even if you continue to get your paycheck, you're paying 40 percent to the local, state, and federal government. So the real opportunity cost is the after-tax money, the in-your-pocket money.

I'd argue that investing that money in your future is a better investment than investing 10 hours a day, and probably many weekends, trying to make someone else money, someone who may lay you off very soon.

Say you make $120,000 per year, a healthy salary for a college-educated professional. Of that, $48,000 goes right out the door. So your "in-your-pocket pay" is really $72,000, or $6,000/mo. That's the investment you'll be making in your future, it's your opportunity cost. It's a lot of money but definitely not enough to build any sort of real cushion or wealth, especially if you live in any city.

Now the old model was to slave away at a company earning enough to "survive" and support your family in hopes that you'd move up and make the big money in a decade (or two). Well, now that golden payday has been crushed and the only constant is change.

Entrepreneurs take advantage of change. Change is their muse, their catalyst, their lover and their protector.

Change chews up and spits out workers, employees, and the status quo of how things were done. Change looks at the above as inconvenient barriers to getting to a better place, temporary barriers that can be removed at any time.

So the question you need to ask is simple: Is your annual take-home pay, after taxes, really enough for you to justify the status albeit-potentially-fleeting quo? I'd argue for many of you that the answer is NO by a long shot. And you taking your paycheck and deluding yourself to think that this too will pass is dangerous and short-sighted.

Starting a company provides you two main benefits: flexibility and a prosperous future where you'll control your own destiny. You'll also have learned the financial survival skills necessary to thrive in any environment without sitting at your desk worrying about whether you're on the chopping block. What I love most about starting companies is being able to show up to see my kids at school whenever I want. I work harder than most people. But I do so more on my terms than anyone else's.

With this column, I want to take everything I have learned over the last 15 years starting four businesses and help you get yours off the ground. More importantly, I want to create a community of like-minded individuals here and provide a place for us to help each other out by saving each other time and energy by making better decisions. I want to share my many, many mistakes and get all of you talking about yours so we can all get to a better place.

I am a realist. I know that not everyone is capable of quitting their job and starting up. Bills need to be paid. Responsibilities don't go away. But for those of you who are in a position to invest in yourself and your future, let's make sure you're doing so in the most intelligent way so that you can reduce the time it takes you to start living the life you want to live.

Next post: How Do You Know When It's Time to Start a Company?

As your company grows, you can't plan for revenue growth alone. You need to plan for leadership and culture growth as well. Here's how Stella & Dot does it.

At Stella & Dot, we are in the midst of rolling out our annual strategy for our new fiscal year to our employees. As a management team, before rolling out our 2012 company goals, we did what every management book would tell you to do. We worked backwards from a three-year plan, we focused in on 2012, we broke it down by function and provided measurable objectives with great clarity. Textbook.

I could pat myself on the back and check the box next to "Roll out 2012 goals to company," but that would be like commending yourself for a good day's work right after you got out of bed. Goals on paper accomplish nothing. Motivated missionaries change the world. That may sound awfully crunchy-Northern-Californian to you, but really, is there any other way a great company has ever been built?

So, here are three steps I'm taking in 2012 to connect goals with passion for employees.

1. Hire people who are authentically connected with the mission.

We all want to only hire talented people who could easily be employed elsewhere. You should not hire people because you have an open position and they have the skills to fill the role, just like people should not stay at your company because of higher pay, shorter commute, or free lunch.

Hiring and staying should because there is an authentic personal fit with the employee and the company mission. A company is just a group of people, and it's not the product or the market opportunity that create company success, but rather the people and what they choose to do about it on a daily basis. The greatness in what they do creates the greatness in a company. And that choice is driven by their personal passion for why they do what they do. Are they mercenaries or missionaries? Are they there because of inertia, or are they there because their career at your company is a key part of their life's calling and they love it? That's not too high of a bar.

If the people at your company don't believe deeply in what you do and why you do it, you're destined for mediocrity. Without team members with personal passion for the company, goal setting is simply spending time putting percentage increases down on a soon-to-be-forgotten performance plan.

2. Motivation, recognition, and communication connect employees to the mission.

Open up the door for the honest conversation about how much does a team member care about reaching the company goals—and not because that is what determines their bonus, but because it matters to them on a deeper level. If the answer is not enough, not personally, or not right now, it's time to change that.

I'm not suggesting you fire everyone. I'm suggesting you improve the motivation in your company to connect people to the mission and achieve your goals. It could be that communication, motivation, and recognition need to become daily habit for your busy leadership team. As a growing company moving out of the phase where everyone knows everyone, that is one of our key needs in 2012. We can't just plan revenue and sales growth, we have to plan the leadership and culture growth.

3. Gracefully manage out people who are not soulfully connected to the mission.

In hiring, you can only be certain you won't be right 100 percent of the time. Don't be afraid to correct it for the good of your company and the individual in the wrong spot. Sometimes, separation should come not simply from underperformance, but rather under-caring. Come to a mutual understanding that its not the best fit or the best version of the employee's life if that is the case. Plan a transition, even if they are getting the job done. Great people who lack passion for your particular cause are not benign. Let them find a place where they are passionate.

And after a year of doing that every day, you get to check the box "Roll out 2012 goals to company" and know you had a company full of motivated employees who cared enough not to need bullet points to achieve those goals.

Think you're great at getting the word about your business out there to the world? Think again. Here's what you're getting wrong.

It seems whenever I explain to someone I've just met socially that I'm a public relations executive, I'm typically asked one of two questions:

"So, what did you think of the Super Bowl commercials?"

…or…

"So, how many politicians do you have in your pocket?"

When I respond by saying I have no more knowledge of advertising than the average Joe or that I detest politics and politicians, the interrogator always responds with a blank stare and asks, "Well, then, what's public relations?"

Trying to explain, I get about a sentence or two into my definition before I see the other person's eyes scan the horizon in hopes of an emergency rescue. Reading the non-verbals, I'll quickly change the subject and bring up the weather, a mutual friend's cancer diagnosis or Demi Moore's addiction to nitrous oxide.

In truth, though, the pervasive lack of knowledge about public relations, and how it differs from advertising, lobbying, and other "marketing disciplines" is troubling. In fact, I believe far too many chief executives officers of the country's fastest-growing companies have no real clue how truly multi-faceted and more powerful public relations is than its marketing counterparts.

So, here's a quick primer on the fundamental differences between advertising and public relations:

• When advertising, an organization selects the precise words it wants to communicate. It also determines the exact page, size and date of the advertisement, the specific media property in which the ad will appear and, critically, the words and visuals that will accompany the corporation's value proposition.
• Public relations, which is sometimes referred to as unearned media, is more of a dog's breakfast. It involves reaching out to an objective reporter, editor, or producer with the facts and figures about an organization, its products or services and hoping the journalist finds the information of interest to her readers, viewers, or listeners. But, and this is a huge but, it is entirely up to the journalist what is written and when it appears.

As a result of these two fundamental differences, advertising is used to create awareness, while PR is used to enhance credibility. In fact, with the advent of the citizen journalism and the simultaneous decline in trust in all of our major institutions, PR now far surpasses advertising as the most-trusted source of information for most consumer or business purchases. Countless studies report that, next to word-of-mouth advice from friends and family, editorial commentary (usually generated by your friendly, behind-the-scenes PR practitioner) carries far more weight than advertising.

It's not difficult to understand why. Advertising continues to embrace an antiquated, top-down, inside-out way of communicating. It reflects senior management's view on what a consumer or business-to-business buyer should think is important. PR, on the other hand, depends upon listening to the conversation and understanding the who, what, when, where, why and how of engaging in the discussion. Public relations executives excel in storytelling and, typically, present a perceived problem (i.e. childhood obesity) and their client's unique solution (i.e. a new type of fitness equipment designed by, and for, pre-teens).

There's a reason why the monolithic advertising agencies are withering on the vine while public relations, as an industry, grows annually at a double-digit clip. The latter concentrates on the conversation and depends upon a responsible journalist to convey a client's message. The former represents the thinking of an out-of-touch C-suite executive who believes the world should beat a path to her door.

So, do yourself a favor the next time you tune in a football game or candidates' debate: don't ask the PR guy standing next to you what he thinks of either. He won't necessarily have an informed, professional opinion. But, if you are interested in understanding the smartest, fastest-evolving and most effective ways in which to engage your target audience in credible conversations, buy the poor PR dude a drink. He deserves one after all these years of being misunderstood.

Experts of all stripes offer tips on how to rethink the work-life juggle and escape stress. Here's why doing so is nearly impossible.

Work-life balance is one of those problems that is so hard to solve in terms of concrete actions that we often try to get rid of the tension by creatively re-conceptualizing it. Telling your client that their project will be late because you didn’t want to tick off your spouse is probably off the table, as is rescheduling your daughter’s hockey game or dentist’s appointment, so all that’s left, we often sense, is mental acrobatics.

Instead of stressing about this occasionally painful juggle, we should celebrate it, recommend some experts, for example. “We don't necessarily talk enough about why leadership is so fulfilling. You work really hard, you become an executive, why is that worth it? Instead, we're very focused on the sacrifices,” Jennifer Allyn, managing director in the office of diversity for PricewaterhouseCoopers has said, chiding high-achieving women in particular to stop beating themselves up and start counting their blessings.

Or another common, purely mental solution to work-life stress: Love your work enough that it loses its distinction with your life and becomes one happy mélange of responsibility. Examples of advocates of this approach abound, but here’s a Business Insider post suggesting that “instead of creating neat little boxes for each area of our life,” we try to “eliminate the distinctions as much as possible.” The WorkSnug blog has called this the “work-life blur,” and a writer on the American Express OPEN Forum blog for small business owners is pushing “integration,” which in practice means, “I consult with my wife on my projects, and I bring in my kids to work alongside me in our pick and pack department. My daughter even does data-entry at the shop.”

Now, in addition to willing away work-life issues through sheer positive thinking and removing the problem by removing the distinction, there’s another mental strategy for tackling your professional-personal conflicts. On Fast Company recently Craig Chappelow suggests we re-jigger our mental metaphor of the issue, chucking out the balanced scales model and focusing on “control” instead:

When it comes to work-life balance, we often adopt a victim mind-set. Our lives are out of balance not through our own fault but because of something someone else–a preoccupied spouse, nasty boss, or needy kid–is doing, or not doing. Second, we want to believe there’s a quick fix that we’re somehow overlooking.… control, in my view, is what we’re really trying to get to with all the chatter about balance.

Stop trying to attain some perfect equilibrium and blaming others, suggests Chappelow, and instead “assume actual leadership” of your life. Talk things through with your loved ones. Lay down the law when it comes to scheduling and workload when you start a new venture. Quit complaining.

No one would argue that there isn’t some wisdom to these ideas. Celebrating your achievements, trying to find work you enjoy and ways to integrate the different spheres of you life, and taking responsibility are all likely to help ease your anxieties. But will they really remove the pangs of work-life worry completely? Whatever way you frame the issue, the fundamental challenge of scarcity and values will always remain.

Work-life balance stress comes from the fear that there are not enough hours in our lives for all the things we need to and want to do. Not in the short-term and not in the long-term. So we have to make choices. What’s more important: an hour at the gym, an hour catching up with an old friend or a tick on your company’s to-do list? Does the excitement of starting a business beat the security of a cubicle? The only way to answer these questions is through fundamental values. What constitutes a good life? What makes our lives happy? What makes our lives satisfying? Are these always the same things?

If these sound like big philosophical quandaries at the heart of not just being an entrepreneur but also being a human then maybe that’s why most solutions to work-life balance issues seem a little inadequate. The problem isn’t work-life balance. It’s just life. That's why it's hard—and, guess what? It's going to be around for as long as you are.

Is there any definitive solution or is work-life balance a continual balancing-act?

Collectively, these talented start-up founders are leaving their mark on everything from healthcare and online video to Web security and e-Commerce. Based on what they've done so far, that's only the beginning.

Collectively, these talented start-up founders are leaving their mark on everything from healthcare and online video to Web security and e-Commerce. Based on what they've done so far, that's only the beginning. Here are the women I plan to keep my eye on in 2012and beyond. Think someone else should have made the list? Let me know @salubriousdish Christina DesMarais

Amy Baxter doesnt hail from Silicon Valley or New York but her start-up is making big waves in the medical industry. Baxter is a medical doctor and the creator of Buzzy, a medical device that blocks the pain of getting an injection by confusing the bodys nerves and distracting attention away from the poke. Baxter received a $1.1 million Small Business Innovations in Research grant from the National Institutes of Health, is invited to lecture nationally and internationally on pain and sedation issues, and still practices medicine. Buzzy won a 2011 Medical Design Excellence Award, competing against companies like Johnson and Johnson and Novartis. With zero advertising, the all-female company has sold 11,000 units since 2009 by word of mouth. And shes creating jobs: Baxter plans to move production from China to the U.S. in March.

With a background in engineering and art, 22-year-old Chung is passionate about making the world a better place. That passion led her to develop Jerry the Bear (co-designed with Aaron Horowitz), a cuddly robotic and interactive educational toy for children living with Type I diabetes. The next few months will be busy for the duo. Theyre taking Jerry the Bear to Betaspring Incubator in February in Providence, Rhode Island, and the toy will soon be used in clinical trials. Previously Chung co-founded Design for America, an award-winning national student-led initiative that uses design to solve social problems. DFA has expanded to eight universities, raised over $300,000 and landed on the cover of Fast Company magazine (Inc.s sister publication).

If you have a branded video you want people to see, British entrepreneur Sarah Wood knows how to make it go viral. Check out this fantastic YouTube video produced by T-Mobile in which look-alikes pull off an entertaining version of what Kate and Williams royal wedding might have been. Unruly Media made sure it got more than 25 million views. Remember Evians Roller Babies and the Old Spice Guy? Wood was behind those too. Since launching in 2006, Unruly has delivered, tracked, and audited 1.3 billion video views and executed more than 1,400 successful social video campaigns for global brands and agencies. Wood has helped take Unruly Media from a three-person operation to the worlds leading social video platform, occupying 40 percent market share. With a revenue run-rate approaching $50 million (2011 full year revenue was $25 million), 2012 looks like its going to be even better for Wood and her company.

Houzz, the wildly popular Web platform and app that connects home design professionals with consumers, is the brainchild of design fanatic Adi Tatarko, who also happens to be the business whiz behind the site and app. (Her husband and co-founder is the technologist.) Together, they have created a useful tool for anyone embarking on a remodeling or building project. You create an Ideabook for your project and load it with photosthere are more than 40,000 supplied by architects, contractors, and interior designersthat can serve as merely ideas, or you can contact the vendor who posted it. Houzz currently gets 3 million unique visitors a month and 50 million page views. And Houzz recently landed a strategic marketing relationship with Lowes. Tatarko says she expects the company to be profitable this year.

Frustrated with the lack of career resources for ambitious, professional women, these three ex-McKinsey consultants realized they were sitting on a huge market opportunity. So they founded the online career community The Daily Muse. They launched in September and went from zero to more than 70,000 monthly job-seekers in three months. They have women like Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington, Google VP of Location and Local Services Marissa Mayer, and New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly doling out career tips and syndication deals with Forbes, Inc., Huffington Post, and Business Insider. In the works: Revenue-generators like a job search platform to help women uncover interesting jobs at new companies, and professional development courses for a fee.

At 30, Clara Shih already has a long list of big successes under her belt, including developing the first business application on Facebook, writing a New York Times best-seller (The Facebook Era) and making her two-year-old start-up, Hearsay Social, cash-flow positive in its first year of operation. She likes to say that social media is a new business paradigm, possibly bigger than the Internet was a decade ago. And shes aiming to put her company in the best possible position to take advantage of itHearsay Social is a platform that helps retailers, financial services firms, and anyone else with a lot of employees in a lot of locations to manage their brands via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google . Oh, and her part-time gig isnt too shabby either: Starbucks recently tapped her to replace Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on its board of directors.

While working for The Kauffman Foundation, the worlds largest organization devoted to entrepreneurship, 29-year-old Desiree Vargas Wrigley saw first-hand what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Then she caught the start-up bug herself and launched GiveForward, a crowdfunding platform that helps individuals raise money to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses. In addition to getting help with medical bills, families get letters and messages of encouragement that donors send using the platform. When freestyle skiing pro Sarah Burke recently died from a training accident, a GiveForward fundraiser in her honor raised over $164,000 in the first 24 hours. To date, the company has helped raise more than $10 million and recently received recognition from the White House.

If theres going to be disruptive innovation in the healthcare space, Halle Tecco may very well have something to do with it. In 2011 she founded Rock Health, the first seed accelerator exclusively for digital health-related start-ups. So far, 13 start-ups have gone through the program, which provides capital, mentorship, operational support and office space in San Francisco. Nearly half of them have received VC funding and oneSkimbleis profitable. To cover overhead and fund the start-ups grants, Tecco landed a number of high-profile backers like Nike, Proctor & Gamble, Genentech, and UnitedHealth and top VCs like Accel and NEA. Plus, she has built partnerships with hospitals including Mayo Clinic, UCSF, and Harvard Medical School.

Not only did she code the first version of TaskRabbit herself, Busque bootstrapped it for two years before receiving $25 million in angel and VC investment in 2011. The website is essentially an online marketplace for outsourcing errands and tasks. According to the company, since May it has tripled its monthly task volume and net revenue, increased its customer base seven fold, and grown to 45 employees, up from 9 a year ago. The website, which currently sees more than $4 million in economic activity each month, is available in seven major metros and is coming to five more soon. Busque, who serves as chief product officer, has also joined the TEDx speaking circuit.

The secret sauce behind Michelle Zatlyns fast-growing company? Test, test, and test some more. When she co-founded CloudFlare it was originally a Web security service only, but Zatlyn learned through customer research that IT managers desperately needed a security solution that didnt slow down their websites. So she did more research and ran tests, eventually figuring out a way to optimize the delivery of Web pages while blocking threats and limiting abusive bots and crawlers from wasting bandwidth and server resources. CloudFlare became two products in one: a spam-killer and performance-enhancer. As a result, in just over a year CloudFlare signed on more than 100,000 customers. It currently receives more traffic than Twitter, Wikipedia, and Amazon combined.

Rebecca Woodcock came up with the idea for a new health start-up after experiencing the inefficiencies of todays health care payment system first hand; a close friend of hers suddenly developed epilepsy, and blew through her insurance deductible in just a few months. Woodcock co-founded CakeHealth to help people better understand and manage their health costs by letting them track their deductibles and coverage, catch medical overbilling, and find ways to save. Woodcock is a graduate of the Founder Institute, a global start-up accelerator for entrepreneurs, where she was one of six women in a class of 80, and recently won "Most Disruptive" start-up of 2011 among all graduates. Catch her at SXSW on the panel, Anything you can do, I can do in heels.

For being a first-time start-up founder, it didnt take long for Caren Maio to master the art of the pivot. When she and her team pitched TechStars in 2011 they were originally accepted to take part in the reality TV show with a differentand fundamentally flawedconcept. Within a couple weeks they scrapped UrbanApt (which would have been sort of a Yelp for apartments) and created Nestio, a slick website and iOS app that makes hunting for an apartment easier because it lets you bookmark listings from any site, share them with roommates, and compare them side by side. They hit on the idea after doing loads of market research on New York City apartment hunters. Even today Maio will buy strangers coffee at Starbucks in return for real-time feedback on Nestio.

After 10 years of owning an Emmy-winning documentary production company, Erika Trautman started to wonder why online video wasnt more innovative and interactive like the Web itself. So she set out to do something about it herself. In 2011 she co-founded Flixmaster, an easy-to-use platform (currently in private beta) that lets you link videos to other clips, text, images, forms, or maps. So advertisers, for example, can create video spots in a choose-your-own-adventure-styleviewers decide what happens next by selecting one of several options. Trautman says these branching videos are 16 times more likely than a regular video to rack up 200,000 views, her benchmark for a successful viral video. Viewers spend twice as much time watching these sorts of clips and twice as many buy products advertised in them.

Money, time, connections -- you need more of everything, right? Stop whining and start using your contraints to your advantage.

Sometimes less really is more, especially when you’re starting a company.

If you have plenty of resources, it’s easy to convince yourself you’re doing well. Problems get overlooked, waste goes unnoticed, and revenue shortfalls are covered by cash reserves… often until it’s too late.

More—whether more money, more time, more automation, or a bigger network—can actually make long-term success more elusive. On the other hand a constraint can be a blessing in painful disguise, forcing you to pay attention to what really matters.

Here are four ways to turn less into a lot more:

1. Money. No startup has “enough” money. Many businesses are started with no money.

If capital is tight, make that an advantage. Instead of spending time—and the little capital you do have—on things that make your business seem like a “real” business, spend all your time finding ways to generate revenue as soon as possible.

Like Jason Fried says, starting a business is not the same thing as making money. A successful entrepreneur masters one skill that is more important than all others: Making money.

When you don’t have money you’re forced to focus on finding customers and generating revenue. Learn how to do that and then worry about running a business, because without customers you don’t have a business.

2. Time. You have a great idea. You just need time to pull it off. If only you could quit your job and devote yourself full-time…

Don’t. Except in rare cases, the smart move is to keep your full-time job while you start a business on the side. Granted it's not easy: Sacrifice, discipline, and a lot of hard work are definitely required.

But that's okay—if you aren't willing to sacrifice and work hard, your start-up will fail whether you keep your full-time job or not.

If you’re truly committed to your idea, you will naturally maximize the time you are able to devote to your start-up; the three hours a day you are able to spend will be a lot more focused. And you’ll naturally strip out “nice to have” features and focus solely on what customers really need—and will pay for.

3. Automation. Most large companies improve processes and cut costs with automation. It’s tempting to copy the big boys, but in a start-up, adopting automation early on is often unnecessary and even counter-productive.

For example, I bought a product from a small company. A couple days later I received a recorded call thanking me for my purchase and encouraging me to contact them if I had questions or wanted to provide input. I’m sure it was intended to be a nice touch but it just felt tacky.

In the early stages of a business, avoid automation where it touches the customer. If you want to thank a customer for their purchase, email or call them personally. If a customer complains, respond personally. Automation can save time, but if you want to build a customer base—and get ideas for how you can improve your business from the people who matter most—communicate with customers the old fashioned way.

Less automation typically leads to more engagement. Stay personal for as long as you can.

4. Network. A huge network is a huge advantage, right? Not in a start-up. You don’t have time to nurture dozens or hundreds of connections.

Quality of connections, not quantity, is what matters most. And don't worry about the “status” of a connection; all that matters is whether you can help each other reach your goals.

Find someone you can help. Reach out. Give before you worry about receiving. That person may help you in return or may connect you with someone who can.

Spend 90 percent of your networking time building a few quality connections; devote the remainder to building a large group of social media connections. Remember, any tool that automates or makes the process of making connections easy will rarely establish the connections you really need.

Most of us aren’t visionaries. We can’t, even if given unlimited resources, sit down and map out a groundbreaking new product or service. But most of us are great at solving problems. Constraints are problems you can solve.

And every time you do, you build a better product or service—and a better business.

Hint: A new report predicts relaxation drinks will have the highest revenue growth over the next five years.

Starting a business? Try a drink to relax, suggests new research.

The category of business forecasted to have the largest five-year revenue growth–24.8 percent annually–is relaxation beverages, says industry research publisher IBISWorld. The Los Angeles-based publisher examined 700 market segments.

That's not hard alcohol, mind you, although wines also make the top 10 list of types businesses to start. Instead it's the flip side of energy drinks: those that promote sleep or relaxation, such as Dream Water. The category had a 2011 profit margin of 6.8 percent, according to IBISWorld's figures.

Relaxation drinks are also a good target for start-ups because the category has both low barriers to entry and low capital requirements.

Wineries, for the record, have a predicted five-year annual revenue growth of 4.9 percent. The category is considered hot because of the rising per-capita consumption of wine in the U.S. and the increased consumption of American wines abroad.

Online gaming development is also a good target for entrepreneurs—it's just behind relaxation drinks in terms of projected five-year revenue growth at 24.4 percent annually. "This same industry continues to foster opportunities for growth, particularly as games continue to shift to smartphone applications...and new firms with new ideas capable of capturing audiences may run into the same fortune as major company Zynga," observes the report.

You'll have competition and more than just from Zynga. IBISWorld predicts some 250 social network game development companies will enter the industry this year.

A distant third place on the predicted average annual revenue growth is an relatively old industry: Internet publishing and broadcasting. IBISWorld is forecasting an average annual revenue growth of 9.9 percent, thanks to smartphones and tablets, which will increase opportunities for start-ups and smaller publishers. One downside to this is that capital requirements are high, says the company. Profit margins in 2011 were 17 percent.

Other industries on IBISWorld's top 10 list for projected annual revenue growth: corporate wellness services (9.8 percent), online survey software (9.6 percent), ecommerce and online auctions (also 9.6 percent), wineries (4.9 percent), human resources and benefits administration (4.2 percent), scientific and economic consulting (3.8 percent), and street vendors (3.7 percent). The last one—food trucks—averaged a whopping 23 percent profit margin.

Sure, everything seems rosy now. But when you and your co-founder no longer see eye-to-eye, you'll be glad you did the paperwork early on.

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. Many of us, understandably, want a partner or co-founder at our side. But after 20 years, four companies, and six partners, I’ve learned that partnering doesn’t solve everything, and often introduces its own difficulties. Here are six rules that will help you set the groundwork for a great partnership – and a decent breakup, should you need one.

Imagine “The End”

Don’t agree to partner with anyone, or take on a partner, until you are clear in your own mind and on paper about how you would choose to end your business. The partnership agreement is going to be the equivalent of your business pre-nup, and now is the time to think about what happens in the event of a separation or divorce. Your buy-sell and partnership agreements should clearly spell out every potential scenario.

Just having this conversation will reveal more about your potential partner then you could ever imagine—or maybe more than you want to know. The best partnerships are built around clear and specific roles, operational guidelines and legal contracts.

Tough Talk, Not Love Talk

At the beginning, it’s great to be in love with your partner. They will undoubtedly be the person you spend the most time with, share secrets with and grow your business with -- unless you grow to hate them. Have tough conversations before committing, and explore every possible relationship and business outcome you can think of: What if you work harder? What if they work smarter? What if they bring in the money? What if it was your idea? What if he/she wants to leave? What if the investors want only one of you to stay? Good partnerships set the foundation for a better break-up with honest, open communication. No scenario is too uncomfortable to consider. Anything can happen, and it probably will.

Who’s The Boss?

Don’t gloss over your job descriptions. Think of the contingencies: you swap roles, one of you steps away, or a family matter takes all your attention. Can your buy-sell agreement handle all of these?

Review your job descriptions every six months, and keep them updated. Working on your partnership is part of your job. Make it part of your mission statement.

The Paper Trail

Every partnership should be built document at a time. Don’t skip over any details, even if they seem like a pain in the neck at the time. And put it all in writing, especially your concerns. Keep a paper trail. Print everything important and relevant to the pulse of your relationship and put these documents in a file. You might not like to think about it now, but when you most need this information, you may not have have access to your computer or company email.

My Attorney

If you and your partner get into a dispute, your company’s attorney can’t take sides and shouldn’t. So when things get tense, your partner’s attorney will be sitting across the table. You need your own personal attorney. You need someone who not only understands how to build businesses, but has experience closing them down.

When you meet with your attorney, skip the storytelling – you’re paying by the hour. Just get clear on your legal standing, and what you can and can’t do to get your partnership on track or end it.

The Partnership Advisory Board

While the ultimate decision about who to take on as a partner is yours alone, you still need a personal set of advisors. These can be your attorney, entrepreneurs who have been through partnerships themselves, or a life partner – who probably knows more about your partnership than anyone else. These are the folks who will watch your back and can help you decide whether to love, mediate, or leave your partnership.

Ultimately, you are accountable for everything about your business, even picking your partner. So choose wisely and prepare that pre-nup.

An experienced VC throws cold water on entrepreneurs hoping to move up in a crowded market. If youre not in the top tier, it's time to re-segment.

It makes sense that entrepreneurs are drawn to fast-growing markets. If, for example, every person you talk to is gushing about their new found love for their local daily deals site and every business media outlet in the land is writing about the trend, then an ambitious young business person could be forgiven for attempting to jump on what appears to be a very fast moving bandwagon headed towards success.

But be cautious when it comes to leaping into a frenzied space, warned Brad Feld, a VC with the Foundry Group, on his often insightful blog recently. Having invested in market leaders and distant followers, Feld asserts, being "company #17 in the market… generally sucks."

While Feld acknowledges that, "existing markets are wonderful places to go play in especially if they are expanding rapidly," he cautions that businesses which aren’t among the top three companies in a given field need to be realistic and change focus.

I’ve developed a viewpoint that if you aren’t in the top three in your market segment, you should “resegment.” Step back and redefine the market segment you are going after. Change the customer, change a product focus, change the distribution channel, or change the partner dynamic. Sometimes it’s a tweak, other times it’s more radical. But change something so that you are in the top three of the "new market."

Don't bullshit yourself about this. I've been the investor in many companies who weren’t in the top three that were going to get there with the next release, or a new sales VP, or something exogenous that would happen to the existing market leaders, or a magic trick that no one had thought of yet. This is almost always a losing strategy. Don’t count on luck. Resegment.

As the thoughtful comments following Feld’s post point out, the Foundry Group invests in the type of tech companies where being the fourth best search engine or social network is of little use to anyone. If you’re the fourth biggest dog groomer, baker, or logo designer in town and still making a profit you’re happy with, by all means keep going (though an honest assessment might reveal you’re actually in the top three of your subsegment, i.e. the king of carrot cake or the go-to guy for poodles). But still, being delusional about your company’s future prospects isn’t good for any entrepreneur. So for those with dreams of market domination (or VC funding) Feld’s advice holds—define your segment so you can hope to win it.