Archive for 2005
Top 10 Most Practical Blogs for Entrepreneurs
About.com’s list of the Top 10 Most Practical Blogs for Entrepreneurs is out: Small Business Trends Just for Small Business WorkHappy.net Duct Tape Marketing Home Office Voice Sacred Cow Dung The Entrepreneurial Mind Escape Velocity BizzBangBuzz Business Opportunities Weblog Congratulations to everyone who made the list!
A reader sent me this story: An unemployed man is desperate to support his family. His wife watches TV all day and his three teenage kids have dropped out of high school to hang around with the local toughs. He applies for a janitor’s job at a large firm and easily passes an aptitude test. [...]
Getting To Done: Roll Your Own Business
Keith Robinson: As an entrepreneur that’s right in the middle of bootstrapping my own business together, I’ve got a bit of experience and I’m learning more and more every day. I thought it might be interesting to share some tips and some of the lessons I’ve learned so far. Make sure it’s right. Have some [...]
Can A Home Wind Turbine Make Money?
BBC News: Domestic wind turbines have been described as “the new handbags” – the latest luxury items craved by those who want to be first to try new technology. But this description overlooks their green credentials, because any electricity powered by the elements is reducing CO2 emissions, which are blamed for global warming. And there [...]
I’m planning to start a Brazilian version of this blog and am looking for someone to do the translation from English into Portugese. Please send me an email if you’re interested.
Genuine VC: Seven Questions Employees Should Ask Before Joining a Startup
Seven Questions Employees Should Ask Before Joining a Startup
AP: Susan Sobbott, president of OPEN from American Express, left; Sir Richard Branson, CEO of the Virgin Group, center; and veteran TV journalist Jane Pauley, right, pose at the start of “Adventures in Entrepreneurship: an OPEN Forum on innovation, inspiration and beyond” an OPEN from American Express Event at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami [...]
You Need to Be a Little Crazy : The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business
Sarah Bosch continues her reviews this week, with a look at Barry Moltz’s You Need to be a Little Crazy: The Truth About Starting and Growing Your Business. A lunatic is defined in the dictionary as someone who is insane or eccentric. Additionally, a lunatic is often described as wildly and giddily foolish. That’s right. [...]
Rob on What Business He’d Launch
Rob has posted his answer to the final question If you weren’t doing what you are doing, what business would you launch tomorrow? from OPEN Adventures in Entrepreneurship: The field that I think will drive future change more than people give it credit for – artificial intelligence. Yeah I know it’s been making huge promises [...]
This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up at Blawg Review.
My DIY Audio and Video Production Center
Today question from OPEN Adventures in Entrepreneurship is: If you weren’t doing what you are doing, what business would you launch tomorrow? Surprisingly, this is an incredibly difficult question for me. Not because I’m not full of ideas for potential businesses and adventures, but because it requires that I stop, and take a step back [...]
Today question from OPEN Adventures in Entrepreneurship is: How do you manage change? This is my second answer today. My first is here. Being in business has always required the ability to adapt. Capitalism thrives because it allows the market to route around obstacles. Today, though, the pace of change confronting small business entrepreneurs is [...]
Today question from OPEN Adventures in Entrepreneurship is: How do you manage change? The only constant is change, and to be an entrepreneur today you really have to embrace and understand that no matter how diligently you prepare, your business will probably not be exactly the same one year from now. I’ll post more on [...]
Phil Dunn: When considering the value of your products, pay special attention to buyers’ fears. Fears also indicate benefits, and, they can be intimately intertwined with dreams. With Tivo, for example, customers fear advertising mind control while dreaming of convenient TV watching. With soap, they fear stinking while dreaming about attractiveness. When you get right [...]
The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing
R. F. Parker, a reviewer on Amazon: The title of this book makes it sound like a white-paper or a report, but it is really 200+ pages of conceptual, well-written marketing advice. Each “step” is actually a high-level concept and each forms a different section of the book. Each “step” is then broken down into [...]
Do You Have an Entrepreneurial Mind?
Inc.: So just what makes an Inc. 500 CEO tick? To better understand the mind of the Inc. 500 CEO, strategy consultant Keith McFarland teamed up with Inc. magazine and administered the Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS) to nearly 250 leaders of Inc. companies. TAIS has been in use since the 1970s and [...]
More followup from Startup School: Coverage: Linux Journal, Michael Mandel, Chris Sacca, Harvard Crimson, Gabor Cselle, Part 1 and Part 2, Kevin Hale, Ben Atkin, J Aaron Farr, Ted Tagami, Frederick Giasson, [day] will, Daily Static, Keith Casey. Images: Kevin Shockey, Lou Huang, Miguel Menchu, Beau Hartshorne, Ted Tagami, Branimir Dolicki. There are links to [...]
Paul Graham’s Startup School Recap
Weblog reader Keith Casey, who originally signed up because of a post he read here, has made a report on his experiences at Paul Graham’s Startup School. It sounds like he had an excellent time, and has loads of good advice to share. Here’s how he described Paul Graham’s presentation: Next, was the nearly infamous [...]
Anita has responded to today’s challenge from OPEN Adventures in Entrepreneurship with her own style of answer, and lists the top five websites that small businesses wouldn’t be able to live (as well) without. Two of my favorite from her list are: SCORE Biz Powerlinks – SCORE’s (Service Corp of Retired Executives) website is impressive. [...]
Rob has posted his own take on today’s question from OPEN Adventures in Entrepreneurship: First off is Skype. Talk free with anyone, anywhere. If you want to do business in another state, or even another country, you need Skype. I’ve talked with people in Europe and it work better than the telephone. Next on my [...]
What’s New & Essential For Small Business
Today’s question from OPEN Adventures in Entrepreneurship: There are a number of institutions that small business couldn’t live without–FedEx, Kinkos, Staples, Starbucks. What new functions are essential to small businesses today? Google? Ebay? What else? I recently experienced something that I’d long since forgotten: what it must have been like to do business before the [...]
Big Companies Are Not Entrepreneurial
Dr. Jeff Cornwall: “I decided several years ago that once a business goes public, things change enough that I no longer consider the business to be entrepreneurial any more. All of these companies were started as entrepreneurial ventures, but being a public company alters governance, corporate culture and management practices enough to make it a [...]
According to Darren Rowse, a Google Page Rank update is underway. I’m really excited about this update because this weblog is finally a PR7, and the other sites in my network (Español, MLM, Work at Home) are all PR5! While the update is underway, you can check your new PR with SEO Tools’ Future PageRank [...]
Ty Tribble: In order to stay in business you must solve problems. Most people assume I am talking about business problems like cash flow, inventory, and customer service issues, and while those things are important to your business, they do not keep you in business. What will sustain your business long term is how well [...]
Transcript of Jane Pauley’s Interview with Sir Richard Branson
I wasn’t able to attend the kickoff event for the OPEN Adventures in Entrepreneurship conference last night, so I’m really excited to finally read the transcript. If the event was half as good as this transcript reads, it was an outstanding success, and amazing time: Jackie Gleason Theater 1700 Washington Avenue Miami Beach, Florida 8:00 [...]
Get Intimate With Your Customers
Rob touched on it his post, but one of the biggest advantages small business have over their larger rivals is that the people who make the real decisions in a small business typically work more closely with their average customers than do their counterparts in large companies. This intimacy allows a freedom of communication that [...]
On Meeting Richard Branson – Part 2
Anita Campbell: One thing I do want to mention is how much enthusiasm and energy was in that crowd. The session went longer than expected. Other than a handful of people (possibly parents leaving to go relieve babysitters at home) everyone seemed enthralled and stayed until the end. In fact, there was so much energy [...]
The Battleship vs. The Row Boat
When I was young, and first starting out in business, I worked with my father in a variety of small businesses. It was almost an apprenticeship-like arrangement, because although I was young and had my own responsibilities within the business, my relationship with my father made me privy to issues that I would have normally [...]
Anita Campbell: Last evening I met Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire entrepreneur, and renowned journalist Jane Pauley. I have to say, it was a memorable encounter just to see how poised and yet down-to-earth they were. … After a while in walks Richard Branson, with Jane Pauley on one side and Susan Sobbott, the President [...]
A Night With Richard Branson: The Money Quotes – Part 1
BusinessPundit: I want to talk about the night and about Richard Branson. But you don’t want to read 3000 words right now, so I’ll break it into smaller posts over the next few days… What were the money quotes? Branson said he was never interested in being a business owner or entrepreneur, but just wanted [...]
OPEN Adventures in Entrepreneurship
This evening Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin companies, will be speaking at the American Express OPEN Adventures in Entrepreneurship Conference in Miami, Florida: OPEN Adventures in Entrepreneurship is an offline/online investigation into the challenges and solutions confronting entrepreneurs as they strive to develop and grow their businesses. The event begins in Miami, with [...]
Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising
My new reviewer, Sarah Bosch, starts her series of profiles today with a look at Phil Dusenberry’s Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising: According to ad industry veteran Phil Dusenberry, one big insight is worth a thousand good ideas. In his new book [...]
I’m looking for someone that wants some long term work doing translation from English into simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese . Send me an email if you’re interested, or can point me in the right direction.
How a Jam-Maker Found Her Recipe for Success
Startup Journal: Ms. Braunschweig and a co-worker, inspired in part by their job covering the venture-capital industry, would discuss “get-rich-quick schemes” over lunch. One day, the idea for a jam-of-the-month club struck her fancy. “I wasn’t an engineer or doctor, so I wasn’t going to come up with the next great technology or medical invention,” [...]
Network Marketing Tax Benefits
Tracy Austin: The average American works until May 5th just to pay their taxes. And many Americans have little or no savings or investments for retirement. And here’s why I’ve brought up this uncomfortable topic at all: Enter the savvy person who joins a network marketing business, or starts any home-based business this year. As [...]
This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up at a Accidental Verbosity.
Forbes: Cacophony reigns inside Michael Biddle’s 45,000-square-foot recycling plant in Richmond, Calif. Pieces of fax machines, telephones, keyboards and cell phones are fed into green hoppers atop 20-foot-tall chutes. Pipes and conveyor belts run everywhere. Amid the whirring fans and clanging grinders, you can pluck out the sounds of metal clinking as it gets sucked [...]
Selling Old Magazine Pages Online
Seth Godin found, and bought, a copy of the the first big full page advertisement he ever did in a magazine. Where’d he find it? Someone is selling it on eBay. (Not any more, I bought it for $5). This guy buys old magazines and sells them online, one page at a time! Is there [...]
Reflections of a BizDrivenLife: Ideas are a dime a dozen. If you have new initiatives being undertaken, and you are not getting the results you need, maybe it is not that the idea was no good. When you open a new seafood restaurant in the neighborhood, and it is not doing well, maybe it is [...]
Be Original When Starting Your Own E-Business
Small Business Computing: Is there anything that really distinguishes your site from similar online merchants? If you’re merely going to sell widgets like the 14 other well-established widget sites do, your ‘me-too’ approach will limit your success. Find some way to set yourself apart so that people shop with you instead of with your competition. [...]
Great Companies Aren’t Born, They’re Grown
37Signals: Apple started in a garage. Dell started in a dorm room. Starbucks started with a single store. Nike started out of a car trunk. Crate & Barrel started with a single store without budget for displays so they used shipping crates and barrels to display their products. Anthony Maglica started making Mag Lights in [...]
How I Got My Funding: A Ladies Shoe Designer
Startup Journal: When Courtney Crawford first explored launching a designer-shoe company in 2004, he had no previous business experience. He envisioned a line of primarily high-heels for a woman who “didn’t mind being center stage” and was “unapologetically sexy,” he says. But he knew designing his own line would be an expensive proposition. He’d have [...]
Should You Start A Business With Your Spouse?
MSNBC: Meeting someone special, falling in love, getting engaged, planning a wedding, living the everyday reality of a marriage. Millions of Americans have taken the plunge until death do us part. In fact, according to Census data, there were 57 million married couple households in 2003. These couples said vows promising to love, honor and [...]
States Planning to Require License to Sell on eBay
Slashdot: CNN reports that North Dakota and other state governments are trying to pass laws to require people who are selling for others on Ebay to purchase an auctioneer license, attend classes (for a fee) and become bonded.
Profits From Knowing Your Customer Better Than Anyone Else
Philip Greenspun: If people this young can start successful companies… … old people must really be stupid and lazy. http://www.paulgraham.com/sfp.html is a report on what happens when you give seed capital to 18-21-year-olds so that they can start little tech companies. My personal theory is that most supranormal profits are the result of people who understand [...]
Anita Campbell: NFIB: Hold the presses! Rex Hammock informs me this evening that the NFIB now offers RSS feeds. The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) is a member and advocacy organization for small business in the United States. The NFIB offers excellent research, surveys, tools and other important information for business owners and anyone [...]
MLM – Network Marketing Podcast No. 6
Ty Tribble: MLM – Network Marketing Podcast No. 6 is now available for download. You can also find it by searching iTunes Podcasts for MLM. MLM – Network Marketing Podcast No. 6 features Doug Firebaugh of PassionFire.com discussing Cold Market Contacting.
Mary Sullivan: This is the “stealth” advocacy counterpart to my Part #1 blog. The situation: You’re still holding down your job while you’re starting your business. “7 Steps to Going Solo While Holding a Job” in CNNMoney came to me via Ken Dyck. The subtitle tells us, “If you dream of launching your own private [...]
StartUpNation: If you’re truly concerned about the competition licking at your heels, check it out thoroughly yourself. You need to experience what customers are experiencing there. See how their pricing or product mix or the overall encounter fares with your own. Certain other ways of spying on your competition can be helpful as well, as [...]
What Small Businesses Need To Know About Market Research
SFGate: Before selling a product or service, it’s important to know the market you will be entering. Research includes finding out what potential customers need, what they want and don’t want and why. Your goal is to build a demographic profile of your customers. A research or business library can prove helpful for studying the [...]
