Archive for June 2005
How to Locate and Evaluate a Good Franchised Business
Entrepreneur: One of the best ways to find out about the types of franchises available to you is to attend one of the franchise and business opportunity shows that appear regularly in most U.S. cities. The big ones can have up to 400 exhibitors. Attending one of these shows is well worth your time. You [...]
→ a1concrete.com As long as there is concrete, there will be a market for leveling concrete surfaces. Communities everywhere are plagued with jagged sidewalks, uneven steps, and sunken driveways. These are more than inconveniences, they represent dangerous and unsightly conditions. But they could spell opportunity for you. Traditional methods of concrete repair are expensive, time [...]
Joe Kraus on why it’s a great time to be an entrepreneur: There’s never been a better time to be an entrepreneur because it’s never been cheaper to be one. Here’s one example. Excite.com took $3,000,000 to get from idea to launch. JotSpot took $100,000. Why on earth is there a 30X difference? There’s probably [...]
The Entrepreneurial Mind: In addition to the shift to niche markets and start-ups I wrote about yesterday, Entrepreneur.com says that there is a definitive shift away from just high-tech toward more low-tech and even no-tech investments by many VC firms. “Behind the headlines, many VCs are investing in low-tech (or no-tech) companies that offer prospects [...]
Computer Owners More Likely to Start Businesses
Inc.: People with home computers are more likely to start companies in finance, insurance, real estate (F.I.R.E.), and other professional services, and less likely to initiate agriculture, mining, and construction businesses, reported a study released last Thursday by the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy. Such results were unexpected, according to Dr. Chad Moutray, chief [...]
Study Finds Free Agent Workers More Satisfied
PR Newswire: “A recent study of American workers points to a developing trend in which traditional employment — defined as being directly employed by a company or firm — appears to be increasingly sharing the workplace spotlight with the flexibility, personal convenience and personal satisfaction offered by “free agent” and entrepreneurial lifestyles.”
Kelo Decision Is Very Very Very Bad
I don’t normally make a big show of my politics on this blog — mostly because I’m anarcho-capitalist enough to recognizes that government is never the solution and often the problem — but like Dr. Cornwall says below, the Kelo decision is a direct attack on small business and our entrepreneurial economy! At the heart [...]
Rosa Say posted an excellent local marketing idea today: Set yourself up in a local Starbucks or other business friendly coffee shop and and buy everyone coffee for an hour. She witnessed this idea in action and reports: This morning Kerwin and I walked into a Prescott Starbucks and both ordered their strong-brew coffee of [...]
I see it time and again: too many people waste their lives trying to the create the perfect product or business. They hesitate to let their “baby” into the wild because they fear that its not quite ready. Just a few more tweaks, they always say. This analysis paralysis is deadly and will destroy even [...]
Are You Entrepreneur Material?
Micro ISV: Every week I see posts that say that being an entrepreneur is the greatest thing ever because you get to set your own hours, take vacation when you want, and make a lot more money. Then I’ll go to another site that says being an entrepreneur is extremely difficult because you work 24 [...]
Boutiques: More Malls Think Small
StartupJournal: “America’s megamalls, built in the 1970s to showcase big department stores and national specialty chains, have begun to embrace the little guys, a new crop of quirky independent fashion boutiques. As sales at their department-store anchors continue to sag, malls seeking to diversify and increase traffic have been courting these trendy start-ups, which offer [...]
Starting a Business with Your Spouse
Tom Evslin, shares his experiences starting a business with his wife: Mary and I are lucky that our skills are complementary. I invent stuff and implement it; Mary makes me describe sensibly and simply what I’ve invented and then markets it. During the early stage of a business, Mary makes cold calls and opens doors; [...]
This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up at BusinessBlogCast.
America’s Best Inns and Suites
→ bestinn.com America’s Best Inns & Suites® is a high quality mid-level limited service hotel brand with locations throughout the United States. With 93 hotels open and 5 under development as of June 1, 2005, America’s Best Inns & Suites continues to expand around the country. America’s Best Inns & Suites is primarily a conversion [...]
→ ourtownamerica.com For over 30 years, Our Town has been providing new movers with traditional hospitality by mailing warm gifts from neighborhood businesses in a premium gift package. Thousands of satisfied business owners throughout the United States attest to the success and effectiveness of the program, while dozens of locally owned Our Town offices validate [...]
Hiring an Employee for Your Homebased Biz
Entrepreneur: “Prior to an interview, you should let each candidate know about your home office base. In my case, one of the things I couldn’t help but wonder was whether the company was trying to hide something from me.”
Franchises Use Personality Tests to Assess Potential Buyers
Startup Journal: If you’re shopping for a franchise, the odds are good that you, too, will be invited to take a personality survey. Thomas Bowman, director of franchise solutions for Wonderlic Inc., says his Libertyville, Ill.-based company has prepared customized personality surveys for “hundreds” of franchisers, which he declined to name. Accord uses a behavioral [...]
An Academic & A Social Worker Go Into Business — As Cleaners!
BizJournal: In their earlier professions, Jane and Ty Branam weren’t exactly cleaning up. Jane, a Ph.D. in foreign languages, taught at Johnson C. Smith University and had grown weary of watching students pursue careers more lucrative than hers. Meanwhile, her husband, Ty, had tired of the bureaucracy at the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services, [...]
Threatening eBay’s Dominance, More Online Sellers Go It Alone
Wall Street Journal: In 2002, John Wieber started worrying about his business, which sold refurbished computers through Internet auctioneer eBay Inc. Although he was earning $1 million a year in revenue, profits had started to slip as competitors flocked to the site. EBay also raised its fees, further cutting margins, and fraud was becoming a [...]
Starting an Errand Service Business
Business Tool Chest: If you are thinking of starting a home based business, one idea is to start an errand service. With this home based business you will be running errands for people who either do not have the time or would rather pay someone else to do them. Read more.
PC4Media: “Looks like wondir has started a Q/A section for VCs to answer questions. That’s needed. Jeff Clavier has more. Thanks Allen and Jeff! Sincerely. Any help to make this process a bit more transparent is nice. There are also a lot of VC bloggers that I read.”
→ lilangelsphoto.com Lil’ Angels Photography is a network of franchise owners that specialize in providing professional studio quality photography to children’s day cares, preschools and child organizations. It is a low investment, home based business, in which almost all of the business activity is conducted Monday through Friday. The scheduling of shoots, photography of children, [...]
→ rightathome.net There is a growing demand for safe, well-managed non-medical in-home care and assistance for seniors and others in their home, People who don’t need a nursing home, but need assistance with the everyday activities of living to remain where they want -in their own home. Right at Home is a national organization dedicated [...]
Jeff Cornwall: “StartupJournal has a story based on an NFIB survey showing that S-corp is still the most common form of small business organizational structure. Generally, it is still my choice of default, although there are situations where an LLC or C-corp makes more sense.” From the article: The most common form of legal organization [...]
Don’t Let Your Startup Kill You
Business Week: ” A recent British study confirms what entrepreneurs have long suspected — the stress of starting a business can take a heavy health toll.”
Getting Fired Can Help You Start A New Business
Getting fired may be the best opportunity you have to go to work for yourself, according to an article in
→ andyoncall.com Andy OnCall started when Tom Harris, a Chattanooga homebuilder, was constantly receiving calls from previous customers and friends asking him to do small jobs and repairs around their homes. Realizing the need for handyman services, Tom developed the concept for Andy OnCall in 1993, and his company has been happily helping homeowners ever [...]
Small Business Trends: Another study on entrepreneurship is out. This one, by Florida International University, reports that 18 million people in the United States are actively engaged in startups (versus 31 million engaged in startups and established small businesses.) Yet the report notes a 20% drop in the levels of entrepreneurship in one year, from [...]
Tips on Starting a Business from the IRS
Delaware Business Blog: The IRS has constructed a Starting a Business webpage that provides links to basic federal tax information for entrepreneurs. It also provides information to assist in making basic business decisions. Here’s some of the info you can expect to find at the site: Is it a Business or a Hobby? Selecting a [...]
Mark Fletcher, CEO of Bloglines, thinks that stealth mode can be the the kiss of death for a web start-up: Stealth mode is when a company is operating in secret for some length of time before launching their product or service. In many industries, creating a new product or service takes significant time and effort. [...]
How To Pick the Right Business
StartupJournal: There are many criteria for identifying a business opportunity. But expecting to start a business without any competition is hardly realistic. If that were your standard, you’d be limiting yourself to starting, perhaps, the only locally owned rocket-launch facility or the only circus-bear training camp in Delaware (and for all I know, someone has [...]
This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up at Blog Business World.
According to the Wall Street Journal Google Inc. this year plans to offer an electronic-payment service that could help the Internet-search company diversify its revenue and may heighten competition with eBay Inc.’s PayPal unit, according to people familiar with the matter. Exact details aren’t known yet — but this could be a great thing for [...]
Suggest Some Other Blogs, Please
I need your help. Although I’m subscribed to 719 feeds in Bloglines, I feel like I’m just keep reading the same bloggers over and over and again. Use the comments below and suggest some new sites for me to read, and please don’t be ashamed to promote your own blog, either. Thank you.
Incorporating Your Business for Dummies
Amazon: “If you’re a business owner, incorporation can help you protect your personal assets and cut down your tax bill. But all the paperwork and legalese can make incorporation seem like more trouble than it’s worth. Incorporating Your Business For Dummies offers all the savvy tips you need to get incorporated — starting today! Whether [...]
Buy an RV and Trim Office Expenses
The Business Review: The lease on Joanne DeVoe’s Glenville office was running out, and it seemed the right time to find smaller space for her marketing and public relations firm. At the same time, Joanne and her husband, Wes DeVoe, were looking toward retirement and considering the purchase of a recreational vehicle in which to [...]
Cost Of An Internet Startup Has Plunged, So Go On, Get Busy
Detroit News: This is the best time to start an Internet company since the dot-com boom. Well, except it’s a lot more difficult now to get filthy rich on a moronic idea, which may take some of the wind out of your sails. But other than that, something truly remarkable is going on. The cost [...]
The Business Plan Coach: “What good is a post-secondary business degree to a young person that has a need to express utilize their entrepreneurial genes? I am not suggesting that the education is not valuable but most of our so-called, higher education misses the mark.”
Starting Your First Business: Gain Independence and Love Your Work
Amazon: “Here’s a business start-up book that truly ‘tells it like it is.’ Even though it’s part of The American Dream Series, author ‘gets real right away, urging new business starter-uppers to do some heavy soul-searching and personality assessment. Following your dreams is one thing, but owning and operating your own business certainly can’t be [...]
Ebay Creates Site for Sourcing Products from China
Auction Bytes: eBay has formed a strategic alliance with Global Sources Ltd. to create inventory-sourcing opportunities for eBay PowerSellers in China and globally. Global Sources Ltd. will make possible for its clients to post merchandise on eBay’s Chinese marketplace eBay EachNet, and the service will be provided worldwide via eBay’s Reseller Marketplace, an off-eBay B2B [...]
Outside Experts for Entrepreneurial Companies
Entreworld: In 1992, when I co-founded Fairytale Brownies, Inc. with my kindergarten friend David Kravetz, we both realized that our expertise and perseverance would take us only so far and that we would need outside advice. David was a product design engineer at Procter & Gamble at the time, and I worked in sales for [...]
Government Grant For Small Business?
The Business Plan Coach: Is there any truth to the myth that there are government grants for small businesses? I get calls from people that have paid to attend a seminar. The then pay someone to prepare a grant proposal for them and submit the proposals and wait. No one I have spoken to has [...]
Rubbish Boy Turned Junk into his Career
USA Today: Brian Scudamore keeps proving that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. The 35-year-old businessman has gone from high school dropout to CEO of a fast-growing trash-removal empire that aims to become to the junk world what FedEx has become to package delivery. His company, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, operates franchises in large metropolitan areas in [...]
Retiring Baby Boomers Create Opportunity for Young Entrepreneurs
About.com: According to a study by Canadian Federation of Independent Business, 40% of small business owners plan to leave their companies within five years, and 70% within the next ten years. Three-quarters of those leaving are planning to retire. The potential impact on the economy is tremendous, with some two million Canadian jobs affected over [...]
I just downloaded and installed Skype. My username is dane_carlson. Feel free to ring me if you see me online.
$100 for the Best Business Idea
Spectralogue: I love the idea of having customers and the excitement of starting something from scratch. Many of the most successful business people talk about giving 10% of your money to charity. I think this is a great idea. I thought about it for a long time, and this seemed like the coolest charity I [...]
→ ooglesngoogles.com Oogles n Googles, the happiest new franchise, is helping children everywhere to celebrate happy birthdays. Oogles n Googles creates extraordinary birthday party experiences for children and their families. Oogles n Googles provides a magical service: turning ordinary children into fairytale princesses, swashbuckling pirates, magic-conjuring wizards, and pop rock divas. While the normal child’s [...]
Springwise: “Invented in Italy (where else), cone shaped pizzas — think pizza slice meets ice cream cone — are the latest fast food craze. Kono Pizza offers the convenience of eating on the move without making a mess. The EUR 1.50 cones are filled with the desired toppings, then cooked in a special oven in [...]
Want VC money? Hone your Podcast Pitch
SiliconBeat: Noteworthy post here by David Hornik of August Capital, soliciting funding pitches from entrepreneurs via podcasts. Its called the Postcast Elevator Pitch. As he notes, Feedburner’s Eric Lunt has already tried it with venture capitalist Fred Wilson.
Ebay Redesigns Small-Biz Portal
Entrepreneur Almost Daily: “eBay originally launched their Business Marketplace portal in January 2003, but as of this Wednesday, the site will have a new look. The redesign is focused on improving navigation, which should help entrepreneurs find everything from construction equipment to office furniture. The relaunch of this relatively unknown portal will also showcase it [...]
