FAQ

This site contains a large collection of articles that address issues that commonly occur in business of all sizes and entrepreneurs that are thinking about or who have recently started a business.

The site should be of interest to entrepreneurs who are just starting their businesses, and CEOs or managers of virtually any size business. Most of the articles are equally applicable private, public, and non-profit organizations. Of course, not all content is applicable or of interest to all potential readers.

As described below, the content is written in short, standalone articles. Articles average about 1.5 pages each. Almost 500 articles have been included in the initial release of the site. They total about 415,000 words and would occupy 1,016 pages if printed.

The information is organized in encyclopedia fashion that consists of nine volumes that contain a total of thirty-six chapters with each chapter consisting of multiple sections that, in turn, contain the individual articles.

Each of the nine volumes focuses on a particular business activity. For example, Volume 3 is titled “Starting a Company” and contains four chapters. In total, there are 88 articles in that volume.

Yes, all articles are also assigned to one or more business stages that startups or mature companies experience. Two stages, for example, are "Working Full Time in the Business" and "Ready to Expand". The articles in each stage are listed sequentially by their volume, chapter, and section numbers. Some stages include hundreds of articles. Many articles are assigned to more than one stage.

The content in the site is not intended to be read "from cover to cover". Instead, like an encyclopedia, the content should be read only as a specific need arises. Each article has been written as a standalone document. They can be read in any order with no need to start at the beginning of a volume, chapter, or even a section.

Each article includes a one-sentence summary that may help a user decide if they want to read further. An abstract of about 80 words is also included. In many cases, the abstract contains sufficient information about the subject that a user may not need to read the article itself, which averages 800 words.

There are three easy ways to access the content. A user could select a Volume or Business Stage of interest and then sequentially browse through the articles. They could speed up the process by selecting a specific chapter or section within the Volume or Stage. Alternatively, they could search the entire site by Key Word, Article Title, Article Name, Volume, Chapter, or Section. .

There is no charge for accessing and reading any of the content on the site. .

No, users do not have to register to use the site, but only registered users can download the content. .

The user needs to enter their name, email address, and company. Upon completion, the site will send a welcome message to the user's email account and ask them to create a password to enable the content downloading capability.

Registered users are given the opportunity to download any article.

The site tracks the number of times each article is viewed by anyone. It also tracks which registered users have downloaded which articles.

The number of views and downloads are tracked to determine what content is the most popular so that those areas can be expanded if/when it is applicable.

The content author began collecting observations about the difference between large, mature companies and startups in 1990. The list of observations grew to be 983 items long. In January 2015, the author began the task of writing the actual articles. A considerable amount of time between 2000 and 2015 was spent in reviewing and organizing the material. To date, well over 2,500 hours have been spent in the content creation effort.

The name atlas has two connotations. First, Atlas, the Greek Mythology figure, is often depicted as holding the weight of the world on his shoulders. Every entrepreneur and manager has felt that way when dealing with issues that seems to crop up unexpectedly, perhaps daily. The second connotation involves a road atlas. When one is trying to find a route to a destination, they select only the map or maps of interest and focus their attention on those details. Users should follow suit and select only the articles of interest to them to help them arrive at their desired destination or decision.

When first envisioning a new company or even a new product, it is easy to focus on "How great it is going to be". Once actual work begins, the reality sets in and operational challenges appear that seem to require immediate attention. It is, indeed, hard to run any organization.

Yes, Volume Eight contains a collection of tools and presentations that may be useful to users. Some of the tools are Excel™ workbooks and some of the presentations are in PowerPoint™. Other file formats, including PDF versions of speeches and presentations, are also included. Articles and user documentation associated with the downloadable files are available as well.

The content is owned and copyrighted by RDK Consulting, Inc. Users are free to read, download, and copy any of the content for their own use. If it is desired to distribute it, all copies need to credit CxO-Atlas and RDK Consulting, Inc. as the content creator and owner.

Tom Berger, the President of RDK Consulting, wrote all of the current articles. In the future, guest authors will be asked to contribute articles.

Except as specially noted, all of the content is believed to be original. However, much of the content is based on common sense and well-established business principles. It is highly likely that others have created very similar content.

The content author makes absolutely no claim to be a business expert. The author does, however, have over fifty years of business experience, including 22 years with larger companies and 20 years running venture-backed startups. For the past seven years, he has coached entrepreneurs and private companies, mostly on a pro bono basis. He readily acknowledges that he has made many, many mistakes and done a few things right. Additionally, he has observed others and taken good notes. All of the content should be thought of as operational guidance based on years of experience, but virtually zero research!

The content author, Tom Berger, and site administration can be reached at tom@cxo-atlas.com or call 404-248-7179.

Yes, there is currently a backlog of over seventy-five articles that will be created over the next several months. New ideas for material appear almost daily. Updating articles and creating new articles will be a continual process.

Yes, as articles are updated or new articles created, they will be added to the site. The What’s New tab at the bottom of the Home Page lists articles in descending date order. At some point in the future, the site may add an automatic update notification feature for register users.

Several enhancement and extensions are being considered. Further work depends on the user community's interest. Some items being considered are: adding videos to some of the articles or groups of articles, creating audio versions or podcasts, adding "war stores", case studies, and examples written by the author and others that describe situations, what worked, and what didn't, and finally, establishing a blog or forum for article and general business discussions.

Not at this time. Perhaps in the future, the articles will be grouped together into e-books and made available. User interest will drive this activity.

The site is free. However, there is a donation page to allow users to donate to the author/site administrator to offset the outsourced cost of the development of the site (which was substantial) and its ongoing operational costs..

That is a very good question often asked by relatives, friends, and business colleagues. My only answer is that at this point in my life, it is time to give back to others following the notion of "Remember Those Behind You". It is my way of “paying back” all those who helped and put up with me.