So, what exactly does an entrepreneur in residence do?

“I help clients with business strategies, how to grow their customers, how to put together a pitch, and how to raise money,” responds Gene Groys, an entrepreneur in residence at the Youngstown Business Incubator and JumpStart Inc. in Cleveland.

“Or, I show them how to shut down – really quickly,” Groys adds. “The worst thing for an entrepreneur to do is waste time. If you’re going to fail, fail fast.”

Groys is no stranger to the startup business world and is today working on launching his third company. Simultaneously, he counsels other early stage entrepreneurs about what to do – and equally important – what not to do, when it comes to getting their companies off the ground so they can thrive.

“I do everything from soup to nuts in helping an early-stage company get themselves from point A to point B,” he says.

It’s not as simplistic nor as easy as it sounds, Groys cautions, as he brings more than 10 years of entrepreneurial experience to the table. Indeed, it’s this experience that provides him with the kind of credibility that imparts valuable lessons from the wildly successful ventures he’s undertaken and the duds – both of which are important to the education of an entrepreneur.

“I’d love for entrepreneurs to learn from some of the mistakes I made,” he says, and then, most importantly, how to adjust and make their plan work.

Groys has a software background and was vice president for product management for a company in Boston before being recruited to head content management for American Greetings’ interactive division in Cleveland. After a year at that job, Groys was forced to close down his sector, leaving him at a crossroads.

“I had a job opportunity in San Diego, but I didn’t want to move,” he says. “I launched my first company purely out of necessity.”

Read the full story at Business Journal Daily.