Is your wort cool enough for happy yeast?

Yeast does not respond well to higher temperatures.  The metabolism of yeast changes as the
temperature changes.   If your wort is too hot, the yeast will be shocked and most likely will take a
long time to start fermenting.  You can kill your yeast en masse if your temperature is not low
enough.  If your temperature is not boiling but still well above the recommended temperature range,
you may not kill the yeast but you will unnecessarily stress your yeast.  Stressed or shocked yeast can
lead to bad flavors, and slowed or stalled fermentation.  Make sure your beer is within the
recommended temperature range for the yeast you are using.

Are you sending your yeast to a happy place?

Does your wort have enough oxygen?

Like most organisms, yeast needs oxygen.  The oxygen is needed for cell-membrane components
which are used in reproduction.  Unfortunately, hot wort contains little oxygen.  If you just cool your
wort and pitch, your yeast may struggle.  Poor aeration can also cause higher than normal ester
production in your beer.

Ale yeasts need about 5 parts oxygen per million in wort, while lagers can need 10 to 12 parts oxygen
per million.  To make matters worse, the maximum dissolved oxygen you can achieve in your wort
using air is around 8 parts oxygen per million.  Splashing your wort by rocking the carboy will help,
but it most likely will not come close to the theoretical maximum.  White Labs states shaking will
achieve about 10-30% of the needed oxygen levels.

You should aerate your wort for higher gravity brews.  The reason is higher gravity brews decrease the
solubility of oxygen.  You would need to shake very hard to get enough oxygen into your high gravity
wort

You can get an aeration stone from an aquarium shop or your local homebrew store.  There is some
debate among homebrewers if you really need to use oxygen, or if air will suffice.  Personally I use
air, and have had no problems.
Are you pitching the correct amount of yeast?
Long before pitching your yeast, you need to know how much yeast you need to pitch.  Homebrewers
notoriously under pitch their yeast.  Commercial brewers pitch at least 10 million yeast cells per
milliliter of wort.  

According to Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer, you need to pitch 0.75
million yeast cells per milliliter of wort per degrees Plato.  Wyeast and White Labs recommend 1 to 2
million yeast cells per milliliter of wort per degree Plato if you are reusing your yeast.  This yields the
following equation:

(0.75 million yeast cells) x (milliliters of wort) x (degrees Plato)

One degree Plato is about 1.004 of specific gravity, so to get degrees Plato divide the gravity of your
wort by 4.  If your wort is 1.060, your degrees Plato would be 15°P.

1 US gallon equals about 3785 ml, so a typical 5.5 gallon batch is about 20,817 ml.  If you enter these
values into the above equation yields 234,196,875,000 yeast cells.  Your typical smack pack is 100
billion cells.  For a 1.060 beer, you need three smack packs to properly pitch.  Your best bet is to
create a starter.

You can over pitch too, but that usually is a problem only when you pitch 400 billion cells in a typical
5 gallon batch.

Do you have enough nutrients for your wort?

Yeast needs three things to be happy: a happy temperature, oxygen, and nitrogen.  The nitrogen can be
a bit nebulous for the homebrewer.  The best advice is to look at your ratio of grain to adjuncts.  Most
of your nitrogen will come from your malt.  If you are using more than 25% non-barley adjuncts, you
need to consider adding yeast nutrient.

What temperature are you fermenting at?

As I mentioned before, higher fermentation temperatures can have a negative impact on the flavor of
your beer.  Higher temperatures can cause the yeast to produce a fruity flavor.  If your temperatures
are too low, the yeast will be sluggish and take longer to ferment.  The longer the fermentation, the
higher the possibility something else (like bacteria) can take hold in your beer.   Make sure that you
can ferment your beer within the recommended temperature range.

What’s your starting specific gravity?

You should measure your starting gravity before you pitch your yeast.  You still have some chance to
adjust your starting gravity before your yeast is pitched.  Ideally you want to know your starting
gravity before you boil, but checking at the end of your boil is important.  The initial gravity will let
you know how the boil affects your gravity (how much water is lost to evaporation).  This metric is
also important to determine the attenuation of your yeast, and help you estimate how much alcohol is
in your beer.