Starting a business requires some level of skill. Whatever your reason for starting a business, and whatever type of business you are starting-there are some universal best practices for budding entrepreneurs. These tips, steps and advice are gathered from the minds of successful startup icons who have succeeded in their various fields of endeavors and web businesses.

1. Address a Real Problem
2. Don’t Just Mimic, Get Help
3. Stand out from the crowd
4. Take that a step further: get a mentor.
5. User experience is everything- Evan Williams
6. Great products almost always come from someone scratching their own itch.
7. Be a user of your own product.
8. Think about how fast you could possibly get to the market and then get there faster.
9. Stop Focusing On the Business Plan, Get Moving
10. You make your product, your community designs it.
11. Cultivate an agile culture
12. Do not re-invent the wheel
13. Get PR people who understand your space
14. Launch your product at a conference
15. Create demos, videos, pictures, and slides
16. You need to distill your product and the message into something easily digestible
17. Understand that major media coverage will not happen overnight
18. Focus on Solving One Puzzle at a Time- Scott Heiferman

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