Stop dumb, preventable mistakes before they derail your business.
Entrepreneurs don’t fail from lack of hustle. They fail because of blind spots they never saw coming.
I help founders, startups, and small business owners think smarter, stay aware, and goof-proof their ventures before it’s too late.
Welcome! I’m William Holsten
You’re building something bold. That takes guts, but also guidance.
After years working in marketing and innovation at a global Fortune 500 company, and launching my own venture from my garage, I learned the hard way: it’s not just the big strategic moves that can tank a business. It’s the tiny, unintentional blunders you don’t see coming.
That’s why I research and wrote uh-oh!, created tools to help entrepreneurs think more clearly, and now speak and teach around the country about how to goof-proof your business before it goes off the rails.
If you’re serious about making your business last – and avoding the kind of stories you’d rather not have to tell – you’re in the rights place.
What I Offer
Book
uh-oh! – How to avoid unintentional blunders that derail entrepreneurial success. Part war story, part workbook, this practical guide reveals how to spot and prevent costly missteps that sabotage startups and small success. It includes 10 do-it-yourself tools to sharpen your thinking, see blind spots, and make better decisions. The book includes a link to download a free printable PDF workbook for all 10 tools.
SPEAKING
Looking for a Speaker Who Can Wake Up a Room and Keep Them Laughing While They Learn? I deliver talks and interactive presentations that raise the alarm about preventable business mistakes—and leave entrepreneurs with real-world tools they can start using right away.
WORKSHOPS
Hands-On, Custom “Goof-Proofing” Workshops for Teams and Organizations. Perfect for incubators, accelerators, chambers of commerce, or innovative teams. Every session is built around real-world examples and tools that help teams learn from others’ mistakes – and help prevent their own.
William Holsten is a workshop leader, speaker, mentor and author of uh-oh!: How to avoid unintentional blunders that derail entrepreneurial success, and goof proof your business. He draws on a 38-year careeer in global marketing and innovation, plus personal experiences co-founding a bootstrapped venture that reached $2M in sales–and hit more than a few speed bumps along the way.
Let’s stay in touch!