Business Building Basics Most people when they think of business building they think of creating a product, selling the product, and hope to make enough capital to finance their next product idea. This kind of thinking is short-term, and doesn’t lend itself well to a long-term business venture. When you stop and think about a [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, Small_Business, Startup, strategyThere has been a lot of pre-presidential election discussion about the strategies to create jobs. Both presidential candidates agree that America needs to encourage businesses to hire more people. Frankly, the espoused tactics to achieve this goal are vague at best. At some points during the second debate, I was intensely offended by both candidates [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, financing, Startup, strategyI was conducting a small business marketing presentation today. During the presentation I indicated that the practitioners should be building their businesses using some form of video. I received “heavy sighs” and “rolled eyes”. One of the participants indicated that “everyone is saying we should be using video in our marketing but [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Small_Business, Startup, TechnologySome people study the market, find an opportunity, and start a business. Others find a product they like, buy a gross of it, and declare themselves in business. But really, they’re not. An entrepreneur who simply follows their muse and sells whatever they find fascinating doesn’t have a business, in my view. What they have is a [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, organization, Small_Business, StartupName: Lucas Sommer, 25 Founded: Audimated Corp., 2010 Business: A web service providing independent musicians and their fans the tools to make money with music. Location: Miami, Fla. Lucas Sommer of Audimated Corp. Until this summer, longtime guitarist and songwriter Lucas Sommer had been operating a music studio in Miami assisting fellow independent musicians with [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, organization, Small_Business, StartupDuring the earliest stages of starting a business, the last thing you should concern yourself with is writing lengthy plans or long-winded executive summaries. It’s time to kill the traditional business plan in favor of a realistic, practical tool: a one-paragraph startup plan. You might think there’s no way to write everything there is to [...]
Read More Small_Business, StartupBre Pettis, co-founder of MakerBot Industries Photo courtesy of the company With a shock of gray hair, oversized glasses and a messianic zeal for the future, Bre Pettis looks more like the host of a sci-fi movie channel than chief executive officer of a small manufacturing company in a gritty Brooklyn neighborhood of bricks and [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, Small_Business, Startup, visionWhen you start a business, you need help. Often, you need help fast, or you’re going to close your doors. That sense of urgency often leads entrepreneurs to jump on any type of assistance that’s offered. But it can be worth taking a little time to find exactly the right kind of help for your [...]
Read More Entrepreneurship, financing, StartupName: Matt Mickiewicz, 27 Founded: 99designs Pty Ltd, 2008 Business: Marketplace for crowdsourced graphic-design services Location: Melbourne, Australia Matt Mickiewicz started his first business at age 14, filling a need he had for a directory of web-development tools and resources to help him learn how to create the websites he built as a hobby. Within [...]
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