Quick Snapshot, A Business Tip

If I would have known then what I know now....

These words ring true for so many moments in owning a business, and I have a Quick Snapshot to share.

Last week during lunch with a business friend we were discussing tips on how to start a business with another colleague. We discussed suggestions about business formulation, legal ramifications, financial negotiations, and so on. But one very simple tip stuck out the most to me during our conversation that I wish someone would have told me during the initial start-up stages of our business - the simple suggestion of photo documenting your business and life during your business start-up stages.

During the start up of your business or entrepreneurial venture you are often caught with your head down in the papers and business formulation that you forget to take pictures and document those first moments of your business growth.

I realized this when I was asked last week to provide pictures from when we started for a CNN segment on which we were recently featured. I dug through boxes and boxes of old pictures (before the days that I stored EVERYTHING online) as well as dug through my online Shutterfly account trying to find a great picture that resembled us when we were getting started. I had hundreds of pictures of my children, family, dogs, vacations and so on, but no great pictures of the first days of our business growth. Days when David and I shared one home office and worked in our pajamas. Or pictures of our little ones napping in a nearby playpen while we quietly shuffled papers so as not to wake them. After weeks of digging I finally found three good shots for use, but none from those very first days.

So my one little piece of advice, if you are starting your business or developing your big idea - get out your digital camera and snap a picture....and be sure and print a copy too!