In yesterday’s feature article I mentioned how my husband and I failed to get venture capital for our first business idea… which left us with no jobs, no money, huge debt and no business…

Fortunately, we quickly rebounded by coming up with a business concept that was already proven. And apart from developing our products and services, we quickly did what ALL businesses should begin with: see if we had something our target market would be willing to buy.

For the next year, we focused most of our attention on two things: marketing and product development.

I actually believe we spent too much time on product development and too little on marketing. We also made plenty of mistakes. But here’s a mistake we made that in some ways I’m glad we made: we failed to properly manage our financial records.

In fact, when we finally engaged an accountant, we were told that we had a massive tax debt.

It was news we certainly did NOT want to hear. I also felt rather stupid as I had studied accounting and law – including tax law – at university. Nevertheless, we paid the debt and eventually got our books sorted out.

But the more I speak with, and observe other, entrepreneurs, it strikes me how common it is for successful companies to have neglected things like properly keeping financial records, choosing the best corporate structure, maintaining appropriate legal documentation, in fact, doing any kind of administration, in their first year or so.

In each case they were too busy getting and serving customers to worry about such things.

No question, it can be costly and painful when a financial or legal oversight finally catches up with you. But I wonder: is that really just a small price to pay - even a rite of passage - for getting a successful business up and running in the first place?

In other words, is it almost inevitable for a successful business to neglect “important” financial and legal stuff in their early years… simply because the business owners are focusing their entire attention on their business’s SURVIVAL and can’t afford to mess around with ensuring all their records are kept up to date?

After all if the business can’t sell its products… there won’t BE a business. Which means that putting a lot of effort into creating the right corporate structure and making sure all records are in order… is rather pointless.

Now, I will say that given my training and background, I have a natural interest in ensuring that we do things optimally from a legal perspective. But I realise that it’s not so easy (or inexpensive) for a typical startup to set up a certain corporate structure or use a set of water-tight legal agreements. Even so, there are still legal areas that I have specifically NOT focused on – such as various patents, which I have left to others to look after.

In any case, my view is that in many – if not most – cases, you are a FAR, FAR better off focusing your time, energy and resources on establishing that you HAVE a business – that you HAVE a product or service people want to buy – than ensuring you have the perfect corporate structure, accounting system, filing system, and the like.

When you are starting a business YOU are the profit center. As such, do what any other profit center would do – leave the admin to others… even if there are no others to begin with!

While spending on online video advertising is certainly growing - by 55.9 percent between 2007 and 2008 according to eMarketer - slowing economic growth lies behind slower growth over the next year or so.

eMarketer expects growth in online video advertising to slow slightly to 48.5 percent in 2009 and 53.5 percent in 2010, before peaking in 2012.

Make no mistake, if eMarketer is right, these are all exceptionally high growth rates. But as I like to say: there are lies, damned lies, statistics and interpretations of statistics.

Source: eMarketer, “How Many TV Ad Dollars Can Online Video Advertising Grab?” eMarketer, September 12, 2008

Today at 12 noon EST, Rich Schefren will release his latest report on the state of Internet marketing - ‘The Uncertainty Syndrome’ report.

If The Uncertainty Syndrome report lives up to the hype - and there’s been a LOT of hype (just check out the video on this page) - it should be a ripper of a read. And hopefully Rich Schefren will share a nugget or two… or three or four… or more… that we can directly apply in our Internet marketing businesses.

Make no mistake - The Uncertainty Syndrome is a precursor to another big product launch. Rich Schefren plans to introduce a brand new coaching program next week. But, unless I am sorely mistaken, the program will likely be cost-prohibitive for many people, so the free report may be the next best thing from Rich Schefren you can lay your hands on.

I think Rich knows his stuff - he is not only a ‘big picture’ thinker, but he is a keen strategist and tactician as well. I was mightily impressed with his previous reports and also had the pleasure of seeing him present at conference here in Australia last year.

As such, I’m an enthusiastic affiliate for the launch. So you’ve been warned! Having said that, I’ll be publishing an objective review - or as close to an objective review as is possible - of Rich’s report either tomorrow or Friday. Look out for it then.

In the meantime, sign up to get The Uncertainty Syndrome report as soon as it’s released by clicking here:

==> Click here to sign up for your free copy of The Uncertainty Syndrome