Archive for 2005
Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Company
→ chocolatechocolate.com Imagine yourself in your youthful days as a kid in a candy store. Your eyes glazed over as you began to see every hand crafted confectioners delight right in front of your eyes. Now picture yourself today, on the other side of the candy case, bringing fresh chocolates out to the retail store [...]
Craig Howe writing on Amazon: “Using the model of a political campaign, the authors, illustrate the attitudes required for today’s business environment. On Election Day you either win or lose. That reality frames an organization’s objectives. It creates a bolder, aggressive sprit that focuses the organization on nothing less than total victory. Overpowering force may [...]
Though I haven’t seen it yet, I have high hopes for Blinksdale, the new online invoice generator from Firewheel Design: Quite simply, Blinksale is the easiest way to send invoices online. It’s perfect for small- and medium-size businesses, contractors, and freelancers. Actually, it’s great for large businesses too, but we figure they’ve already spent thousands [...]
→ loganfarms.com Logan Farms is a growing family of franchise stores specializing in the retail sale of spiral sliced, honey glazed, fully cooked hams and complemented by the sale of a variety of other specialty meat products including the Logan Farms own patented spiral-sliced, honey-glazed boneless turkey breast. The overwhelming popularity of the Logan Farms [...]
Google Is Not My Business Model
Rafe Needleman: In my latest Release 1.0 column (free registration required), I went a little deeper into the “Google is my business model” idea that surfaced when I talked with the CEO of Wondir. Based on chats with a few VCs and on some other blog posts, I have a new opinion: This is a [...]
→ hayeshandpiece.com Hayes Handpiece Company is family-owned business founded in 1989. They have successfully taught people how to repair dental handpieces longer than any other handpiece repair franchise in the country, Handpiece repair is and always will be in high demand due to the rigorous sterilization procedures (autoclaving) required by OSHA that substantially increases the [...]
Looking for a loan from the Small Business Administration? Read this from Entrepreneur: Type “SBA loan” into Google, and you’ll find hundreds of websites purporting to facilitate loans from the SBA. The fact is, the SBA doesn’t make loans. Visit the SBA’s website, and it clearly states that the organization is not in the business [...]
Can The Business Blogosphere Build and Run a Real Business?
BusinesPundit: Do you ever have an idea that drives you crazy? Ever since I read “Wisdom of Crowds” a while back I keep wondering if it’s true. I think about it all the time. A few months ago, I decided there was no reason not to test it. So I’ve built a new site called [...]
→ gncfranchising.com GNC is the world’s largest specialty retailer devoted solely to manufacturing and selling vitamins and nutritional supplements. They have nearly 5,000 company-owned and franchised retail stores located in all 50 states and more than 35 foreign markets. GNC’s exceptional growth and success rates can be traced back to one man’s dream. In 1935, [...]
Reveries: “It was something about spending $20 for a set of pearl jewelry in Beijing and finding out it was worth $600 in America that gave Jeremy Shepherd the idea to start PearlParadise.com, reports Tara Siegel Bernard in The Wall Street Journal. At the time, Jeremy was a flight attendant on a stopover, simply buying [...]
How Do I Raise Money for my Startup?
Dave Taylor: Please realize that any investment of less than a million or two pushes you out of the Venture Capital zone and into angel investors. While most angel investors fly solo, a lot of them are part of angel investor groups like the Silicon Valley-based Band of Angels. They’re the best of the angel [...]
Fast Company Now: The Open Business Guide is a Creative Commons project supported by George Soros’ Open Society Institute that aims to collect a wide range of case studies and business strategies. The organizers hope to “share, mix and facilitate the spread of innovative business ideas” in a wiki-like setting. One example already populating the [...]
Does Aid Hurt Africa’s Entrepreneurs?
Fresh Inc.: “In an intriguing Q&A in the German magazine Der Spiegel, a young Kenyan economist makes the case that the steady flow of Western aid to Africa actually hurts countries there by propping up inefficient bureaucracies and undermining markets for homegrown food and locally made textiles.”
One Is Not The Loneliest Number
Pelle Braendgaard: “You’ve all heard the common advice that to startups that you need a good team. I’m sure that is right, however some times and at certain stages that team should consist of just you.” via Ken Dyck.
SBA Announces Web Chat Series for Small Business Owners
About: The U.S. Small Business Administration is launching a live Web chat series on entrepreneurship beginning in July. The monthly chat sessions will feature successful entrepreneurs fielding questions from the participants. The first chat will feature J. Scott Plank, chief administrative officer of Under Armour Performance Apparel, on Thursday, July 21, 2005 at 1:00 p.m. [...]
The third fourth Carnival of Personal Finance is up at All Things Financial.
This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up at Multiple Mentality.
Entrepreneur: “Think you can stand the heat? Then get in that kitchen! We’ve got all the information you need to start your own restaurant, be it a fast-food joint, a coffeehouse, a deli or a full-service establishment. Start with our extensive how-to, read the profiles of successful restaurateurs and food franchisees, and be sure to [...]
jantize.com
→ comfortkeepers.com Just a few years ago, the only option available if you needed home care or home healthcare was to rely on family or friends for assistance. If this option was not available, assisted living facilities and nursing homes were the next choice. New trends in elder care and senior living recognize the wishes [...]
It Starts With An Idea, But It Doesn’t End There
The Punditpreneur: Now I know that many people comes up with great ideas as a matter-of-fact I’m sure everyone comes up with at least 10 ideas everyday. Some of them can make you money and some of them can land you in jail, but the way our brain works is to come up with solutions [...]
The Successful Business Plan: Secrets and Strategies
Amazon: “Named by Inc. and Forbes magazines as one of the top ten essential books for small business, this fully revised and updated fourth edition of The Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies is a complete, step-by-step guide to researching and writing a fool-proof, perfectly formatted, knock-’em-dead business plan. Required reading at America’s top business [...]
Work On Your Business, Not In It
The true entrepreneurial success works on his business, and not in it, as Jon Symons has come to realize: Financially the whole mess is actually doing fairly well, but what I’ve been experiencing is a growing discontent. The feeling is familiar; it’s the feeling of being lost: lost in details. Before becoming a computer programmer, [...]
Cristian Dorobantescu: “Considering that going on the entrepreneurship path might just be the riskiest thing I ever did, I’ve started to look for some not so problematic alternatives… So here I am, working from 9 to 5 in a huge bureaucratic organization and having my own company in the same time – at home. I [...]
Entrepreneurial Survival Rates
The Entrepreneurial Mind: Ask an average group of people what the survival rate is for entrepreneurial ventures and the figures you usually get are 10-20%. The truth is much rosier than common wisdom assumes. As reported by the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, a new study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics “examines the survival rates [...]
Congress passed the Junk Fax Prevention Act this week, exempting businesses from previous Federal Communications Commission regulations barring unsolicited fax messages. The amendment would allow businesses, to send unsolicited faxes to customers, with whom they already have an established relationship. This change makes me very happy because the the old rules were very harsh, and [...]
Entrepreneur: Entrepreneurs aren’t known for being lazy, but most entrepreneurs I know are notoriously lazy about doing legal paperwork. But there’s no place for laziness when it comes to getting licenses and permits for your business. It might seem like an insignificant detail or a waste of money, but it’s necessary. I don’t think its [...]
Startup Journal: Father-son partnerships are classic, but mother-daughter businesses are still somewhat novel. Certainly mothers and daughters have teamed up in commercial efforts going back generations, but not in any big numbers. Now, though, as it becomes the norm for multiple generations of women in a family to have professional expertise, the mother-daughter business is [...]
Warren Meyer: “The French smoking thing has been joked about so much it is almost a caricature, but it is still a shock the first time in a restaurant. We observed many American smokers reveling in their smoking freedom. I wonder if there is a business opportunity to sponsor smoking trips to Paris…”
About: Many entrepreneurs have built a successful business but been unable to really enjoy it because the business can’t run without them. They end up trapped by their own success. Financial freedom isn’t really freedom unless you also have the time to enjoy it. And you can forget about running multiple businesses if you can’t [...]
This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up at CaseySoftware.com.
Startup Blog: “Writing a business plan is one of the most important tasks in the process of doing a startup. While some might get away with explaining the business on a cocktail napkin, the others need to think through what investors will be asking. Download this 28-page template for business plan from Microsoft (so in [...]
→ candybouquet.com From it’s small beginnings in the garage of Margaret McEntire, to one of the fastest growing franchise opportunities of today, Candy Bouquet International, Inc. currently has over 700 stores in all 50 states and 31 countries. All of this in just 10 years, and according to their Dun & Bradstreet Rating, their growth [...]
Borvin Beverage Franchise Corporation
→ borvinbeverage.com The Borvin Beverage concept is to establish a very limited number of wine wholesale and distribution franchises in order to take advantage of the continued growth in the sale of quality beverages in the United States. Borvin is dedicated to the continued expansion of its international and domestic product lines. Corporate officials visit [...]
Eight Key Steps to Selling Your Business
Nolo: “This year, some 700,000 American businesses will be sold. Most will be small and mid-sized businesses like yours. If you, too, are thinking of selling, consider these practical steps for making the process go smoothly.” Determine a Realistic Price Range Understand the Tax Consequences Prepare for a Sale Seek Potential Buyers Negotiate Your Deal [...]
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 [...]
