'Startup Playbook' tells what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur

Does this seem like a good time to start a business? Nearly half of Americans see opportunities for entrepreneurship in their area, and there's been an increase in those starting businesses, according to a report from Babson and Baruch Colleges.

Entrepreneurs David Kidder and Linda Rottenberg join The Daily Circuit to share their experiences and what they see as the steps to building a successful startup.

Kidder spoke to the leaders of many of the country's fastest-growing startups and wrote about what he learned in his book, "The Startup Playbook."

Here are a few of the lessons he took away from his conversations:

1) You need to know yourself. "Your skill and your alignment of your talent need to be in line with what you're building as a company. If those things are misaligned you shouldn't have started in the first place."

2) Focus. "It's seductive to want to focus in a lot of places. If you're not focused on prosecuting that one big idea, though, you can lose the whole thing...It's not an 'and' decision. It's an 'or' decision."

3) Build painkillers, not vitamins. "Your product has to be profoundly important, profoundly painkilling."

4) Build a monopoly. "Build something that has lock-in value that you know the customer can't leave."

5) Build something 10x better. "Build on your best idea ... not 50 ideas. You can't afford to be average."

READ MORE ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

• Entrepreneurial Personality Profile. Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Take this quiz from Psychology Today to find out.

• Entrepreneurship and the U.S. Economy. Facts and figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Nate Silver Predicts Your Startup Success. Fast Company looks at big data and entrepreneurship.

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