Business Opportunities Weblog

Need Inspiration? 137 Years Of Popular Mechanics for FreeNeed inspiration? Need mechanical knowledge for a project? Want money making ideas? 137 years of Popular Mechanics are now freely available online here. From Business Opportunities Weblog.
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:18 am

Two Are Better Than OneLike peanut butter and chocolate, many different services from very different business go well together. Could you team up with another entrepreneur, like the two women in this story and combine your products into something completely new? Daily Commercial: Mud pies and pizza pies — two things kids love to get their hands on. Throw in a [...]
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:09 am

Instantly Adjust Your Jeans Using A Simple ButtonWhether you’ve lost weight, gained it, or you’re somewhere in between, I’m willing to bet that you’ve experienced ill-fitting pants at least once in your life. Short of wearing a bulky belt or having them tailored to fit you, there isn’t much that you can do. For Dana Contey the temporary fix to [...]
» 9 Mar 2010, 7:22 am

Entrepreneur Hits The Ground RunningWho needs months of planning to start a business? According to Vindy.com, not Maria Elena Ibanez. The decision to start Intermark Foods even came to her quickly, on a Saturday while she was at the beauty parlor. Ibanez had already built two successful international computer distribution companies, selling the second one just before the [...]
» 8 Mar 2010, 12:00 pm

Certified Business Analyst Helps Business Owners SucceedHe may not have the power that Ben Bernanke wields or the kind of money that Donald Trump has, but the advice Bill McKown shares with business owners can mean the difference between surviving the recession and closing their doors forever, says Tampa Bay Online. “Due to current economic conditions, many businesses are looking for help. [...]
» 8 Mar 2010, 11:00 am

Trailers Are OptionalApproximately 2 years ago Brian Ohnemus create a boat rack that would carry his boat so he could still pull his camper. The idea worked so well that he decided to turn it into a business, reports the Quincy Herald Whig. “While getting all the gear ready for a weekend family camping trip, I realized [...]
» 8 Mar 2010, 10:00 am

The Artful EntrepreneurAnthony Ghattas has the life that many dream about; great wine, beautiful art, and friends in high places, reports The Sydney Morning Herald. In only six years, this serial entrepreneur has managed to build up a successful lifestyle brand United Lifestyle Group – including two galleries in Perth and Sydney and a burgeoning wine group – [...]
» 8 Mar 2010, 9:00 am

Congratulations, It’s A… Business!When Jennifer Dowler was looking for the perfect birth announcement to tell the world about the birth of her son, what she found was less than inspiring. As he got older and she went in search for the right birthday card, she soon found that her choices were just as thin as they were [...]
» 8 Mar 2010, 7:00 am

Dog Bowls Built From A Pet’s PerspectiveFor Jane Grant, creating the perfect dog bowl meant not only making her dog happy but helping dogs all over the world, according to her article on Sky News. Travelling worldwide with work, I searched in vain for a bowl that would make it easy for my family dog to eat with less mess and less [...]
» 5 Mar 2010, 11:00 am

Is Your Invention Infomercial Worthy?Associated Press: There wasn’t a bottle of Oxiclean or a ShamWow anywhere. But there was Dawn Stephens’ nifty new, all-in-one toilet-bowl-cleaning brush. “We don’t have to look for the cleaning liquid and the brush. The cleaning liquid is right inside the brush!” the chirpy, singsongy Stephens shouted in delight as she pitched her invention Wednesday to a [...]
» 5 Mar 2010, 10:00 am

Donate Your Way Into SpaceJean-Jacques Velkeniers lives in Belgium and since he was a little boy he wanted to go into space. Now that Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is selling seats on their spaceship for rides into space for only $200,000, Jean-Jacques can finally go. There’s only one problem: he doesn’t have $200 grand. But proving that the [...]
» 5 Mar 2010, 9:56 am

CNN Money

Cult soda maker sold off cheapJones Soda, the struggling maker of cult-favorite soft drinks, has agreed to be acquired by rival Reed's at a deep discount in a deal worth just shy of $10 million, the companies said Tuesday.
» 9 Mar 2010, 12:57 pm

IdeaPaint all over your office wallsIn 2002, a group of Babson College entrepreneurship students ran out of room on their whiteboard. They had spent hours brainstorming new business possibilities, and the sudden space crunch threatened to cramp their creativity.
» 8 Mar 2010, 2:48 am

GM offers 661 dealers a second chanceShuttered General Motors dealers hoping to get their business back should stay near the phone. General Motors is in the process of calling 661 dealers targeted for shutdown to offer them their franchises back, company executives said Friday afternoon.
» 9 Mar 2010, 12:57 pm

Next tech goldmine: Medical recordsWhen Dr. Bradley Block, a family physician in Florida, began to investigate electronic medical record systems for his four-doctor practice, he discovered that many of the largest firms in the field were not particularly interested in his business.
» 9 Mar 2010, 12:51 pm

First spark of a jobs recoveryMain Street businesses shed another 18,000 jobs in February, bring the tally of jobs lost from America's small businesses to nearly 3 million since February 2008, according to a report released Wednesday by payroll processor ADP.
» 3 Mar 2010, 1:13 pm

Congress coughs up cash for loansAdded incentives for banks to make Small Business Administration-backed loans will continue through the end of March, thanks to a fresh funding infusion authorized by Congress as part of Tuesday's bill extending unemployment benefits.
» 5 Mar 2010, 3:59 pm

A fresh sound for soundtracksLike many aspiring rock stars, Jared Gutstadt, 32, used to split his life in half. He held down a day job editing television shows for clients like Disney, MTV and VH1. He kept his nights free for what he really wanted to do: make music.
» 3 Mar 2010, 6:54 am

142 years old and still hotDozens of entrepreneurial hot sauce bottles line up on a typical grocery store shelf, but only two or three boast significant market share. Tops among them is Tabasco, which has been made by the McIlhenny Company out of Avery Island, La., since 1868. The company, still family-run and privately held, won't disclose its financials, but analysts estimate that the iconic brand -- which supplies countless bars, first-class airline cabins and the U.S. military with bottles of its red sauce -- owns about 20%-25% of the market.
» 1 Mar 2010, 1:52 pm

Regulators ease on small biz loansIt's a chicken-and-egg problem that's plagued the credit markets for a year: Small businesses become riskier lending bets in a downturn, prompting banks to slash their lending. But tight credit cuts off the financing companies need to hire and grow, which in turn drags on the economy and causes more businesses to fail.
» 3 Mar 2010, 6:55 am

Work at home (really)When Jim Ball ran a traditional call center in Golden, Colo., in the late 1990s, employee turnover was rampant. Often, Ball was forced to hire just about anyone who walked in the door because few people were willing to commute to the call center and sit in a sterile cubicle for minimum wage.
» 2 Mar 2010, 6:58 am

New credit card rules' double standardA batch of new restrictions aimed at curbing the most egregious credit card practices kick in Monday, but business owners will need to stay alert -- the new rules don't cover cards used for corporate purposes.
» 22 Feb 2010, 8:22 am

Damn! I Wish

Saving the world isn’t as hard as you thinkCargo ships are giant fuel-guzzling polluters. Sailboats were invented 6,000 years ago. What if we stick a sail on cargo ship? Reduce fuel use, cost, and pollution 35%. SkySails invented it. (More on how GE cargo ships are using it.) Satellite communications need giant dish antennas. Disaster zones don’t have them, and they are too hard to move. What [...]
» 9 Mar 2010, 6:00 am

How to instantly get more press coverage — a cut-and-paste memo to your PR teamDear PR Department: Why are the videos on our website copyrighted? Why are they in some weird proprietary player? Why can’t people just grab them and put them on their blogs and websites? I thought the whole point of making corporate videos was to get press and exposure. Doesn’t making the videos impossible to share defeat the purpose? Aren’t [...]
» 8 Mar 2010, 6:00 am

What if you’re not big enough to get word of mouth?Answer: Team up with friends! Your little business may not generate break-through buzz. But a crew of similar businesses with more to talk about can become a buzzworthy story. 12 local Chicago childrenswear designers joined together to create the Kooky Children’s Shop. They now have enough collective activity to support a group website and pop-up stores around [...]
» 7 Mar 2010, 6:00 am

Starbucks’ video case study: Building Meaningful Customer EngagementCome to BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media on April 7 in Cincinnati to hear Dell, Duke Energy, Procter & Gamble, Hilton Worldwide, AT&T, Tyson Foods, Rogers Communications, and General Mills share case studies in corporate social media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal [...]
» 4 Mar 2010, 1:00 pm

Newsletter #772: The “Team Up” Issue[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I Thought of That Email Newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.] Finding a good teammate means better ideas, more resources, and better buying power. A few opportunities to make it [...]
» 4 Mar 2010, 8:15 am

Make it impossible to do it wrongHow do you prevent your dental assistant from frying herself with X-rays all day? The “on” button is OUTSIDE of the exam room. There is no way to do it wrong. You have to leave the room to turn the machine on. Your homework: Find one thing that keeps getting screwed up and change the process so it [...]
» 26 Feb 2010, 6:00 am

Newsletter #771: The “Get Great Ideas” Issue[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I Thought of That Email Newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.] You can never have too many good ideas. How a few smart brands are finding their next big [...]
» 25 Feb 2010, 8:15 am

Make sure they remember your service when you leaveWhat if you provide a service that the customer never sees? When we travel, we use a cat-sitting company. We leave, they come, we return, they’re gone. All’s well if the cat is happy and the crap is gone. Our new service, Out You Go, did a great job of leaving a lasting impression: A gift [...]
» 24 Feb 2010, 6:00 am

The danger of bad solutionsI used to be a fan of Guy Kawasaki’s “Don’t Worry, Be Crappy” just-get-it-done-and-make-it-better-later mantra. I still am for most entrepreneurial situations. But lately I’ve been nailed a few times by a band-aid solution. #1: We own a giant mobile battery for camping that can also jump start a car. One day the car wouldn’t start. So [...]
» 23 Feb 2010, 6:00 am

Make the instructions betterTake two decent, similar products from two decent companies. Give one a set of instructions that are well-written, clear, and easy to follow. Guaranteed — all the word of mouth goes to the company with the better instructions. “Buy from Staples. Their stuff is so much easier to assemble.” Making customers happy is always good, but this is [...]
» 22 Feb 2010, 6:00 am

Grateful Dead: The Original Social MediaSome great thoughts from Dave Churbuck about the Grateful Dead’s contributions to (inventions of) the cultural phenomenon we now call the open-source / content-sharing community. In the mid-80s I found a BBS called the Brokedown Palace where Dead Heads posted ASCII files of the shows they owned and the shows they wanted. You could download other [...]
» 21 Feb 2010, 6:00 am

Duct Tape Marketing

Why Word of Mouth Doesn’t HappenWhy Word of Mouth Doesn’t HappenThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Why Word of Mouth Doesn’t HappenThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing This post is a special Make a Referral Week guest post featuring education on the subject of referrals and word of mouth marketing and making 1000 referrals to 1000 small businesses – check it out at Make a Referral Week 2010 Sometimes, what you do is [...]
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:56 am

17 Terrific Tactics to Inspire Customer Love (and Get New Business)17 Terrific Tactics to Inspire Customer Love (and Get New Business)This content from: Duct Tape Marketing 17 Terrific Tactics to Inspire Customer Love (and Get New Business)This content from: Duct Tape Marketing This post is a special Make a Referral Week guest post featuring education on the subject of referrals and word of mouth marketing and making 1000 referrals to 1000 small businesses – check it out at Make a Referral Week [...]
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:52 am

Is Google Local Search For Sale?Is Google Local Search For Sale?This content from: Duct Tape Marketing ShareIs Google Local Search For Sale?This content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’ve always assumed that Google Maps (and other local search directories) would build up the free local directory, drive other for pay players out, get us hooked on their service, and then start charging to be listed in the prime spot. In this case the [...]
» 9 Mar 2010, 8:42 am

Bake a Referral Engine Into Your Business ModelBake a Referral Engine Into Your Business ModelThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Bake a Referral Engine Into Your Business ModelThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing This post is a special Make a Referral Week guest post featuring education on the subject of referrals and word of mouth marketing and making 1000 referrals to 1000 small businesses – check it out at Make a Referral Week 2010 Have you ever [...]
» 9 Mar 2010, 5:10 am

A Simple Way to Increase Referrals 300%A Simple Way to Increase Referrals 300%This content from: Duct Tape Marketing A Simple Way to Increase Referrals 300%This content from: Duct Tape Marketing This post is a special Make a Referral Week guest post featuring education on the subject of referrals and word of mouth marketing and making 1000 referrals to 1000 small businesses – check it out at Make a Referral Week 2010 I’m always amazed at [...]
» 9 Mar 2010, 4:23 am

Author of Word of Mouth Marketing Visits Referral WeekAuthor of Word of Mouth Marketing Visits Referral WeekThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Author of Word of Mouth Marketing Visits Referral WeekThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing This post is a special Make a Referral Week guest post featuring education on the subject of referrals and word of mouth marketing and making 1000 referrals to 1000 small businesses – check it out at Make a Referral Week 2010 Marketing podcast [...]
» 8 Mar 2010, 5:07 am

The Referral Multiplier EffectThe Referral Multiplier EffectThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing The Referral Multiplier EffectThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing This post is a special Make a Referral Week guest post featuring education on the subject of referrals and word of mouth marketing and making 1000 referrals to 1000 small businesses – check it out at Make a Referral Week 2010 After I read an early copy of [...]
» 8 Mar 2010, 5:06 am

It Is Make a Referral Week!It Is Make a Referral Week!This content from: Duct Tape Marketing It Is Make a Referral Week!This content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’ve declared this week, March 8-12, Make a Referral Week with the intent of drawing attention to the act of making referrals rather than simply receiving them. In fact, I have set a goal to challenge 1000 businesses, large and small, to make 1000 referrals [...]
» 8 Mar 2010, 4:58 am

Escape from Cubicle Nation

Do more great work, even if you live in a cubicleDo more great work with Michael Bungay Stanier from Pamela Slim on Vimeo. I am so glad that there are people like Michael Bungay Stanier working with  people who choose to stay inside corporations by choice or convenience.  Michael has been doing wonderful work at Box of Crayons for many years and has infectious enthusiasm. His book [...]
» 22 Feb 2010, 10:35 am

Winter musingsMy kids are sleeping and I felt inspired to share a few things on my mind. This has been a very wonderful and busy first quarter. I have been creating and running at least four programs.  Watching people learn, grow, get stuck, get unstuck and blast forward into new businesses has been really invigorating. Each day I [...]
» 20 Feb 2010, 5:16 pm

Business advice from a 94-year old barberThe LA Times ran a beautiful story this morning (covered in our local paper the Arizona Republic) about Elvie Lewis, a 94-year old barber in Los Angeles who is still cutting hair. The article says: His regulars travel from as far as Palmdale, Calif., to the three-chair shop on South Normandie Avenue in Los Angeles that Lewis [...]
» 16 Feb 2010, 8:17 am

How to start a business without destroying your relationshipOne of the unspoken stressors for new entrepreneurs is convincing a partner or spouse that starting a business is a smart idea. The rigors of start-up life require a whole new set of communication skills to ensure that you keep your relationship strong while you build your business. In this 30 minute podcast interview (go here to [...]
» 12 Feb 2010, 2:46 pm

The long winding road to doing what you loveThose of you who have followed this blog for the last few years know that I believe in structuring a business around what you love. You also know that it is not always easy to find the business in the passion. What better way to explain the subtleties of this sweet dilemma than this lovely post [...]
» 11 Feb 2010, 11:25 am

How do you want to lead your life?I had a very interesting coaching conversation the other day with a bright young woman. We were talking about her desire to expand her business and play bigger in the world. (And don’t worry, I asked her permission to tell this story. And no, that is not her picture, it is a stock photo [...]
» 8 Feb 2010, 5:30 pm

Your all-or-nothing attitude will bring all stress and no progressI can always tell when new entrepreneurs are starting to crack under the pressure of decisions. They say things like: “I know everyone tells me I have to choose a specific niche, but I really don’t want to limit myself to only working with one type of person!” “What if I spend all this time [...]
» 2 Feb 2010, 5:08 pm

Question for you: what stops you from testing your biz ideas early? What helps?I am really obsessed with the topic of test often and fail fast. I wrote a whole chapter about it in my book, and still feel like I barely scratched the surface. By “test often and fail fast,” I mean the ability to create a very small prototype or sample of your product or service and [...]
» 28 Jan 2010, 1:26 pm

Guest post by Seth Godin: You are not a cogI have never had a guest post on my blog before. Until now. Seth Godin wrote a special post for EfCN to celebrate the launch of his new book Linchpin. It comes out today — check it out here. You are not a cog If you have your own business, you’ve already taken a huge step, [...]
» 26 Jan 2010, 3:00 am

Registration now open for $100 Business with me and Chris GuillebeauGood morning! I am excited to give you the registration link for the program I told you about last week that I am co-teaching with Chris Guillebeau. We will be working intensively with an inaugural group in a month-long program aimed to power-charge your micro business. See all the details here, and if you are interested, grab [...]
» 18 Jan 2010, 7:01 am

Fast Company

Former Sun Microsystems CEO: HTC Isn't the First Company to Face Legal Threats From Steve JobsJonathan Schwartz, former CEO of Sun Microsystems, has stepped up to defend Google (in a roundabout way, via HTC) from the patent attacks recently levelled by Apple. If you want to be truly disturbed at how virulent the patent litigation scene is in the tech world, read on.Sun, which is perhaps best known for its creation of Java, OpenOffice, and its development of the UNIX core, apparently suffered a threat of patent litigation directly from Steve Jobs back in 2003. Schwartz explains that in the tech world, patents are used not just as defenses against intellectual property theft, but as offensive weapons that can eliminate competition if levelled correctly. In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass,
» 10 Mar 2010, 1:19 am

Facebook to Add Location Data, Encourage Epic Levels of OversharingAccording to the New York Times, Facebook is set to introduce location sharing into their arsenal of social networking tricks this April at the F8 conference. I predict that 98% of my Facebook updates will read "My bedroom."This is unconfirmed, but according to trusted sources, Facebook has been developing this location-based feature in-house for awhile now, tinkering until it's completely ready for release. There are to be two main aspects to the update. First is what you'd expect, a simple update from Facebook that lets you share your location. The second is actually an API, a set of developer tools that allow third-party developers to take advantage of this new feature. That could mean other developers, like Foursquare, would be able to
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:32 pm

Twitter Steps Up the Fight Against Spam and ScamsWith popularity comes trouble. Ask any Windows user, or the Notorious BIG. As Twitter's popularity has skyrocketed, it's become the target for various scams, and the Twitter team is now taking action to stop the abuse.The fight against spam is a consistent one for the Twitter team, but recently, phishing scams have started gaining in popularity. Spread mostly through direct messages (or email notifications about those messages), these scams offer a malignant link that, when clicked, can result in a whole mess of headaches for the user. From viruses to stolen passwords and remote access, these scams are a serious problem for novice Twitterers.So in response, Twitter has set up a separate service that routes all links submitted to Twitter thr
» 9 Mar 2010, 9:34 pm

Penguin's iPad Demonstration Asks: Are Kids Destined to Grow Up With Tablets?We saw Penguin speak about their conception of books-as-apps earlier, but now the publisher has released a beautiful, Apple-like teaser-ad showing their ideas in more detail--and there's a surprising emphasis on children's content. In all our excitement over the iPad's possibilities for text, multimedia, and gaming, there's been hardly any consideration of the lucrative children's market. But the iPad is perfect for kids in a lot of ways--its larger screen is much easier for kids to manipulate than an iPhone or other smartphone, and the full-color screen and fast processor allow for bright, colorful apps with motion, which ebook readers like the Kindle can't handle. The iPad can act as a picture book, coloring book, audiobook, TV, education
» 9 Mar 2010, 3:43 pm

Today in Most Innovative CompaniesDaily news of note from our Most Innovative Companies, including Apple, Nokia, and Google. Apple: Most of you probably caught a glimpse during the Oscars of the dozen ways you can hold an iPad, and I'm sure many of you were excited to find out that the tablet will ship April 3, with pre-orders beginning March 12--but don't worry about getting in line too early. Analysts now estimate that Apple will build 5 million iPads in the first half of 2010--enough iPads for every citizen of Ireland. Wall Street had previously estimated that the iPad would sell between 1 to 5 million units its first year, but it looks like Steve Jobs wants to test those predictions to the max. What do you think? Is Steve overdoing it here? The iPhone only sold 5 milli
» 9 Mar 2010, 3:11 pm

Mapping Toronto's Sound Ecology: From Architecture to Santa ClausWhile the City of Toronto unveils a material-culture scrapbook of 176 years of history, designers Greg J. Smith and Max Ritts map what Toronto sounds like today. Toronto just celebrated its 176th birthday by cleaning out its closet. The city gathered up 100 of the 150,000+ objects in its historical collection and put them online in an awesome, interactive, object-based scrapbook of Toronto's past called the Toronto Museum Project, designed by Ecentricarts with York University's Augmented Reality Lab. Each item gets both the curatorial treatment and, in a Storycorps-like touch, the memories of a local Torontonian it inspires. Plus, some of the objects are grouped into online exhibitions, organized around things like architecture and, uh, San
» 9 Mar 2010, 10:41 am

If the Customer Is Truly King, Then Sonoma Partners Is One Smitten QueenAny time a head of a company uses the word "upswing" in detailing his business' recent success, there is a bit of a compulsion around these parts to comment on the company. Please excuse a little cheerleading. But it is especially important to draw attention to an Upswing-ing outfit that saw its revenues swing up by ... 44% last year! So how did Chicago-based Sonoma Partners do it? The firm works exclusively with Microsoft Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management software, thus they were in a prime position to goose their bottom line during a downturn. First they identified an opportunity in the soft belly of the bear--in this case, Sonoma Partners realized that companies needed a competitive advantage more than ever and a good p
» 9 Mar 2010, 10:47 am

IBM Researchers Develop Highly Recyclable, Biodegradable PlasticA mind-boggling 13 billion plastic bottles are tossed in the trash or recycled each year. And while most plastics are recyclable, the resulting materials are limited to "second generation reuse" only--so anything made out of recycled plastics has to be thrown on the landfill pile at the end of it's life. But now researchers from IBM and Stanford say they have solved the problem by developing plastics that can be continuously recycled. The discovery, published in the American Chemical Society journal Macromolecules, involves the use of organic catalysts instead of the metal oxide and metal hydroxide catalysts typically used in plastic-forming polymers. While metal catalysts degrade the polymers so that the plastic becomes increasingly unrecy
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:13 am

Do Improv Comedians Make the Best Design Thinkers?A teacher of design thinking at Dartmouth uses improv set-ups to boost his students' creativity. Big design firms such as IDEO and Smart Design have made millions on their "design thinking" and "human-centered design process." Which is good for them, but doesn't necessarily teach you how to crib their mojo for your own endeavors. Peter Robie, an Engineering professor at Dartmouth, has an answer that would make Dunder Mifflin's Michael Scott: Copy improv comedy classes. Apparently, in his Design Thinking course, Robie has students act out how people use the objects around them. It's a technique learned from experience. According to The Dartmouth Engineer:"This class on improv is a tool for brainstorming," he explains. "I've always thought t
» 9 Mar 2010, 11:16 am

Tom Dixon's Burlesque-Themed Circus: G'hed, Order the Strip!You've never really dined until you've dined next to a stripper pole. Superstar designer Tom Dixon--whom we've covered frequently before--recently finished his newest interiors project, for a new restaurant in London called Circus. Obviously, restaurants with a circus theme have been done over and over ago--there was the original Le Cirque, with monkey-drawings everywhere. And Aureole, in Las Vegas, features trapeze performers that fetch your wine. But where Le Cirque and Aureole are pure kitsch, Circus aims more for trust-fund cool-kids that wear Helmut Lang. The building itself used to be housing for the animals performing for the Royal Opera House--a fact that Dixon and the Seven Dials restaurant group have used to inspire the design.
» 9 Mar 2010, 1:15 pm

Rapture Architecture: Designers Tackle the Coming ApocalypseWe live in terrifying times: Pandemics ranging from bird flu to swine flu regularly threatening to kill millions. Can architecture deal with those problems?
» 9 Mar 2010, 2:26 pm

Inc

HBO Launches Series on Young EntrepreneursIf you ever doubted that it’s incredibly hip to be a young entrepreneur these days, consider that HBO is about to launch a new Entouragesque series about the travails of aspiring young business owners. How To Make It In America, which airs Feb. 14 at 10 p.m., follows Ben Epstein (Bryan Greenberg) and Cam Calderon (Victor Rasuk), two twenty-something New Yorkers who decide to launch a premium denim company. Greenberg and Rasuk, along with co-star Lake Bell, who plays Ben’s ex-girlfriend, Rachel, and series creator Ian Edelman, were at the New York Stock Exchange this morning to ring the opening bell. I chatted with them before they headed down to the trading floor. As it turns out, each of the young actors had a little first hand exper
» 8 Feb 2010, 10:38 am

Tom Friedman Gets Why Youth Entrepreneurship MattersIf you missed Tom Friedman’s OpEd piece in The New York Times yesterday on why the Obama administration needs to focus on youth entrepreneurship, please read it here right now. Go ahead; I’ll wait. Friedman suggests that President Obama seems to have all but forgotten the “amazing, young, Internet-enabled, grass-roots movement he mobilized to get elected.” I couldn’t agree more. Sure, there was a meeting of young entrepreneurs at the White House last March, organized by Elliott Bisnow, founder of the Summit Series. In attendance: Jake Nickell (Threadless); Tony Hsieh (Zappos); Aaron Patzer (Mint.com); Evan Williams (Twitter), and 25 or so others. But what has the administration done since then to engage this incredibly entrepre
» 25 Jan 2010, 10:47 am

Happy Holidays, GenY StyleIt's the time of year when our mailboxes and our inboxes are flooded with generic greetings -- electronic and paper -- from the people with whom we've done business throughout the year. The messages are pretty much all the same. We read them and often rack our holiday-fried brains to remember who we met where and what conversations took place. So when I checked my email this morning and saw that Zach Ferres had sent me a link to a video greeting, I guess I was a little cynical. Ah, I thought, the generic holiday video greeting is now replacing the generic email holiday greeting. Zach, the CEO of Bouncehost.com is one of the many young entrepreneurs I've had the privilege of meeting this past year as I've been spreading the word about the f
» 23 Dec 2009, 5:12 am

Is Milo the Next Mint?The ink was barely dry on the check from Intuit when Mint.com founder Aaron Patzer, flush from the software giant’s recent acquisition of his young company, wrote a check of his own last month. The happy recipient was 23-year-old Jack Abraham, who I met in Manhattan a couple of days ago and whose website, Milo.com, moved out of beta today with a million unique users and $4 million in Series A financing. Patzer is an enthusiastic participant in that round. Milo enables shoppers to research items on line and then actually find them in stock at local retailers. So if you’d like to buy, say, Upstarts: How GenY Entrepreneurs Are Rocking the World of Business (shameless promotion alert), you’d enter the book’s name and your zip code int
» 9 Dec 2009, 10:17 am

Snoop Dogg Speaks to Young EntrepreneursTo kick off Global Entrepreneurship Week, I spent the morning at the New York Stock Exchange at an event called “Mentoring Madness,” sponsored by NYSE Euronext and the Kauffman Foundation. A roomful of eager, aspiring college entrepreneurs soaked up advice from a panel of inspiring veterans, including Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes, Barry Sternlicht, chairman of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Stephen Hanson, founder of B.R. Guest Restaurants, and rapper/entrepreneur Snoop Dogg (no wonder every seat was filled!). CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo interviewed the group and extracted some pearls of wisdom, relevant to all entrepreneurs, young and not so young alike: 1. Some Rules Are Not Meant To Be Broken. Blake Mycoskie talked ab
» 16 Nov 2009, 2:50 pm

An Upstart's Debut on the Inc. 500When I talk about my new book, Upstarts: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business, which is out next month, people tend to assume that the bulk of the companies I cover are in the tech industry. And while it’s true that I do profile many awesome companies in that space (like Loopt, Xobni, Mint.com, Aviary, Quirky, and many more), I’ve got to confess that I’m always a little more drawn to companies that have become wildly successful in industries that are a bit more mundane. That was the idea behind my first book, Alpha Dogs, which showcased eight amazing businesses in relatively ordinary industries. So in Upstarts, I continued to seek out those kinds of companies. Among them is College Hunks Hauling Junk, which made
» 13 Aug 2009, 12:14 pm

Hiring Generation YNow that unemployment is at 8.5% and no one is really talking about a labor shortage any longer, can you forget all that nonsense about how you need to pay special attention to training, motivating, and engaging your Generation Y employees? They ought to be happy just to have a job, right? Not so fast, says Bruce Tulgan, author of Not Everyone Gets a Trophy (Jossey-Bass, March 2009). “The downturn in the economy will cause them to keep quiet for a while,” says Tulgan, “but by and large the essential equation remains the same. This generation is being shaped by a lot of forces that cause them to arrive in the workplace with thoughts, words, and actions that are out of sync with the needs of their employers.” Among those forces: ov
» 7 Apr 2009, 2:59 pm

'Tis the Season for Hard Core Capitalism?Jake Kloberdanz, the 25-year-old CEO of Hope Wine, doesn’t think the holidays are a particularly great time to engage in cause branding. For Kloberdanz and his team of seven GenY partners, cause branding is a 24/7, 365-day proposition: the Newport Beach, California company gives away half its profits to charitable organizations associated with breast cancer, autism, AIDS, serving the families of fallen troops, and green causes. “We’re the perfect balance between hard core capitalism and democratic socialism,” says Kloberdanz. (BTW, Kloberdanz incorporated Hope Wine long before President-elect Obama gave the word new meaning, but what a happy coincidence, eh?) It’s not at all unusual for GenY entrepreneurs to embrace social missi
» 23 Dec 2008, 4:47 am

The GenY Spin on Start-UpsI’ve been interviewing young entrepreneurs for almost two years now and one of the re-emerging themes in the businesses they start is dissatisfaction with the status quo. Sure, that’s pretty much true for all entrepreneurs, but this generation of upstarts has its own way of looking at existing products and services and judging them not quite up to snuff for their own needs. Their response: I can do better. The result: businesses like Mint.com, Unigo, and Ignighter. Mint.com, which was featured on our Inc.com 30 Under 30 Coolest Entrepreneurs list, and in our magazine feature, Cool, Determined and Under 30, was started by Aaron Patzer, who was frustrated with personal finance software like Quicken and Microsoft Money. They were “tedio
» 10 Dec 2008, 6:06 am

Social Media Can Get UglyI read a blog post by Chris Brogan this morning that I think everyone using social media for business should take to heart. Here’s part of the post: “Twitter isn’t amazing. The ability to connect to many voices in a collaborative way is amazing. Facebook isn’t the future. Having mutual social environments that permit deeper understanding of each other’s interest is the future. It’s important that we learn how to talk in terms of benefits and not the features.” The simple message here is “it’s not just the medium, stupid, it’s the message.” And that’s exactly were Johnson & Johnson went horribly wrong last week. The company launched a viral advertising campaign for Motrin targeted to new moms who may experience ne
» 21 Nov 2008, 8:11 am

Election 2.0Last week, Brett Jackson, the 22-year-old CEO of a Boulder, CO company called Generation Think Tank, got a call out of the blue from an organization called Protect Colorado’s Future. Would he be interested in a five-day, get out the vote project to convince young Coloradans to vote no on three business and labor-related amendments? The concern was that young people would go to the polls to cast their votes for the next president, but would ignore the amendments. A “hefty” fee was proffered, says Jackson, whose company specializes in non-traditional marketing and advertising. He singed on and got to work immediately, GenY style. “We did four things,” says Jackson. “We had a Facebook strategy which allowed people to update th
» 3 Nov 2008, 2:37 pm

Microsoft Startup Zone

Windows Azure - Microsoft's Cloud PlatformAt Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles, CA today, Ray Ozzie, our Chief Software Architect announced our new cloud operating system, Windows Azure. Windows Azure, built on Windows Server 2008, extends the Windows environment to the cloud for developers who want service hosting, scalable storage, and automated service management of their software applications. Azure is a component of the Azure Services Platform, a set of cloud-based technologies such as storage, identity, and multi-device sync that extend software development for both enterprise server and PC/browser/phone applications with services on the Web. As you can see from the image above, the Azure Services Platform includes SQL Services for relationa
» 27 Oct 2008, 12:57 pm

Microsoft reports strong quarter in turbulent timesMicrosoft  (MSFT) announced revenue of $15B for the quarter ended Sept. 30, a 9% increase over the same period last year. Operating income was $6B, net income $4.4B and earnings per share was $0.48 for the quarter. This was a strong performance in a difficult economic environment. Of course Wall Street immediately looks beyond this to the "guidance" for the next quarter and full year. The guidance was slightly lower than previously forecast, but not much. The stock market reacted favorably moving up in after hours trading. Other highlights for the quarter; Microsoft ended the quarter with $20.7 Billion in cash. Microsoft (Office) profit of $3.3 billion on revenue of $4.95 billion. Client (Vista) profit of $3.26 Billion on
» 24 Oct 2008, 8:47 am

Watch Them Now: Research and Technologies Revealed  We've just put together several video clips about some of the technologies we offer for licensing. Check out the clips - they're 2-3 minutes apiece: 3D Face Modeling takes a photograph and creates a 3D face model. Video clip. Exchange ActiveSync is a communication protocol that enables mobile, over-the-air access to Exchange Server mailbox data. Video clip. Microsoft Interactive Image Cutout makes it easy to remove objects from a photo. Video clip. Microsoft Interactive Display is a interactive display technology. Video clip. Locadio's signal strength technology makes it possible to locate objects in buildings. Video clip. Microsoft Research has developed a solution to create weathering effects. Video clip. Microsoft Sync Framewo
» 22 Oct 2008, 10:33 am

Where are They Now—Fractal:Edge Revisited  Fractal:Edge  NEW YORK, NY http://www.fractaledge.com   Wins 7 of Top 10 Investment Banks as Customer and Highlighted Twice by Gartner Fractal:Edge Limited is harnessing fractal technology (the power of mathematically defined geometric curiosities) to solve the complex problem of how to present large amounts of data visually. Built using Microsoft® tools and the .NET framework, its Fractal Maps are dynamic displays that leave pie charts, bar graphs and pivot tables in the dust. Fractal Maps give users the ability to digest huge amounts of information faster and more easily than ever before. Explains Gervase Clifton-Bligh, Vice President of Product Strategy and Development
» 20 Oct 2008, 1:00 pm

Completing the Technology Ecosystem - PACTPlug and Play is one of the valley’s most popular startup incubators. They house several hundred startups in their facilities. Plug and Play has been doing a great job of complementing their business acceleration efforts with offline events. Their next big event, called the “Plug & Play Acceleration Collaboration Track (PACT)” will be held on October 20 and 21, 2008 at their main offices in Sunnyvale, CA. The speaker list is extremely impressive. Dan’l Lewin, corporate VP of the Emerging Business Team at Microsoft will be doing a keynote at the event on October 21. And I will be participating on a panel called “Completing the Ecosystem” alongside key representatives from Cisco, Sun, Yahoo!, Orange and Symantec. The agenda look
» 17 Oct 2008, 6:26 pm

Start a company in a recession? Absolutely!Now is a great time to start a company. Why? Because great people are available to join you, VCs are loaded with cash, and office space is available cheap. Everything is cheap and readily available in a recession.   Paul Graham says "If we've learned one thing from funding so many startups, it's that they succeed or fail based on the qualities of the founders."  "Which means that what matters is who you are, not when you do it." In good times all the really great people are busy doing fun projects...and not available to join you in a startup. In bad times projects are cut, people are laid off, and big companies retrench to improving the existing stuff. New projects don't get any budget. So, great people get bored and start looking fo
» 17 Oct 2008, 8:03 am

MIT Enterprise Forum on Advertising NetworksThe MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge will host a panel conversation on October 28th to discuss the re-emergence of advertising networks and their growing role in reaching an increasingly fragmented audience.   I will be moderating the keynote panel which will include leaders from advertising agencies and ad networks. We will explore topics including the impact of new economics for the advertising inventory value chain, targeting methods and the future role of advertising exchanges in the ecosystem. We will also dig deep into how "attention data", the social graph, rankings, ratings, preferences, and click stream data may be used to better target advertisements.   Panelists: Ron Belanger -VP of agency development for Yahoo. Prior to
» 15 Oct 2008, 8:17 pm

Silverlight 2 Released to the WebYesterday, we announced our release of Silverlight 2 to the web. Silverlight 2 builds on its predecessor, Silverlight 1, which brought HD video and interactive animations via the browser plugin. The most compelling aspect about Silverlight 2 is that it brings the .NET runtime to the browser. This means developers who are familiar with any of the .NET Languages (languages like VB, C#, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby) can leverage their knowledge to create rich interactive applications that run in a web browser. Cross-browser support Silverlight was designed with cross-browser and cross-platform support in mind. Silverlight supports Internet Explorer and Firefox on the PC and Safari and Firefox on the Mac. Through our friends at Novell
» 14 Oct 2008, 11:03 am

The Myth of Data Center Economies of ScaleOver the past year, current and aspiring cloud infrastructure providers have been locked in an arms race to build the biggest, baddest data centers out there, preferably somewhere in the boondocks with cheap land and big waterfalls. Yet in a recent paper, James Hamilton suggests that this scramble for “bigger is better” may be misguided. First, he points out that while the innards of a mega data center may be bulging with commodity, off-the-shelf IT equipment, the data center building itself is extremely proprietary and frightfully expensive, ringing in at about $200M per site. Part of this hefty price tag is due to massive (and wasteful) over-engineering to ensure that the data center never, ever goes down, since the failure of a mega
» 13 Oct 2008, 10:48 pm

Corebridge and Viapost case studiesWe've recently published case studies on two of the companies on the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program, Corebridge and Viapost. Both are great examples of the business benefits that startup companies can get from using Microsoft technologies. Through the Accelerator Program we have provided these companies with some additional assistance, but the many advantages that the technology provides are of course open to any startup company that chooses the Microsoft platform.
» 13 Oct 2008, 1:51 pm

Investigate, Innovate and InteroperateI often get asked what the “IP” in the Microsoft IP licensing team I work in stands for. It’s “intellectual property”. IP licensing is a possible way to innovate, creating new products. It is also an opportunity to interoperate, finding ways to make products work together. Drilling down a little further IP licensing offers a way to innovate by using the latest research and technologies from Microsoft without spending years trying to create your next big thing alone. The IP licensing team also offers protocols, protocol specifications and components for licensing to help companies interoperate. This help might be especially important for companies developing high value add-ons and feature-rich solutions that run on Microsof
» 11 Oct 2008, 4:15 pm

Seth Godin

The factory in the centerOld time factories had a linear layout, because there was just one steam engine driving one drive shaft. Every machine in the shop had to line up under the shaft (connected by a pulley) in order to get power. That...
» 9 Mar 2010, 2:24 am

You rockThis is deceptive. You don't rock all the time. No one does. No one is a rock star, superstar, world-changing artist all the time. In fact, it's a self-defeating goal. You can't do it. No, but you might rock five...
» 8 Mar 2010, 2:07 am

Losing Andrew CarnegieCarnegie apparently said, "Take away my people, but leave my factories and soon grass will grow on the factory floors......Take away my factories, but leave my people and soon we will have a new and better factory." Is there a...
» 7 Mar 2010, 2:43 am

Spring reading list--big ideas for idea peopleReaders have told me that they enjoy my off-the-wall book lists. Here's another. Science fiction, Tom Peters, Krista Tippett and even a book for touring musicians. Enjoy them. And don't forget it's okay to share books. They don't wear out.
» 6 Mar 2010, 9:44 am

Pulitzer PrizefightingPeople are drawn to existing competitions like moths to a flame. It's precisely the wrong way to succeed. Lots of journalists take significant detours in their careers and their writing in order to win a Pulitzer. Maybe not to actually...
» 6 Mar 2010, 2:36 am

On self determinationI posted this eight years ago (!) but a reader asked for an encore. ...are we stuck in High School? I had two brushes with higher education this week. The first was at a speech I gave in New York....
» 5 Mar 2010, 2:52 am

Open buying and open sellingIf I can sell you something without a sales call or expensive ad campaign, I can sell it cheaper. If you want to buy a business development relationship but you're not willing to negotiate, do contracts and invest a lot...
» 4 Mar 2010, 2:40 am

Try differentThe usual mantra is to 'try harder'. Trying harder is impossible when you're already trying as hard as you can. But you can always try different. Years ago, I was creating trivia questions for a product we built for Prodigy....
» 3 Mar 2010, 2:29 am

"Be what losers call a loser."Think about that for a minute or two... Sort of turns the whole idea of 'cool' upside down. From an interview with David Horvath. And my favorite new blog in ages (from an old friend and sage): Alan Webber.
» 2 Mar 2010, 3:18 pm

SprezzaturaThis is an archaic Italian word for being able to do your craft without a lot of visible effort. It's a combination of elan and grace and class, sort of the opposite of loud grunts while you play tennis or...
» 2 Mar 2010, 2:55 am

I don't feel like itWhat's it? Why do you need to feel like something in order to do the work? They call it work because it's difficult, not because it's something you need to feel like. Very few people wake up in the morning...
» 1 Mar 2010, 2:52 am

Shoestring Branding

Are you working on your brand associations?In my recent trip to Brazil I took a picture of this shirt, which I think vividly exemplifies a very important attribute of great brands: their ability to generate clear and consistent mental associations as soon as somebody hears their name.  The words on this shirt are exactly what comes to mind when we hear [...]
» 9 Mar 2010, 2:48 pm

Water bottles, coffee mugs and the power of brandsThe following example is a testament to the power of brands. Head over to your closest Whole Foods and you’ll probably see this Sigg reusable water bottle display: Each bottle sells for $19.99 or more. If you head to Walgreens, you will find very similar bottles selling for $3.99.  The difference?: the brand is not Sigg. Keep browsing through [...]
» 29 Dec 2009, 6:41 pm

Niche Marketing Example: Bamboo Bike StudioEntrepreneurial creativity never ceases to amaze me. I was going through some Twitter feeds today, and found a link to this excellent report on NPR about a company called Bamboo Bike Studio, based in Brooklyn, NY. Three entrepreneurs, Justin Aguinaldo, Sean Murray and Marty Odlin are the force behind this remarkable outfit that is, in [...]
» 23 Dec 2009, 7:57 pm

Is it personal or is it just business?Can we really separate our personal life from our personal brand? When every person is a channel and broadcasting something to the world is as easy as sending a tweet, everything we say or do is pretty much out in the open. If we say one thing and do another we will sooner [...]
» 4 Dec 2009, 10:04 pm

Social Media Marketing: A Three-Legged Stoolhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/marc0047/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 With social media consultants popping up faster than Realtors in 2006, we need to set the record straight: knowing how to use the tools doesn’t make you a social media expert. Like the proverbial three-legged stool, using social media effectively means paying attention to three basic elements: Strategy Tools People Strategy: Before you [...]
» 26 Nov 2009, 6:31 pm

When a Company Name Can Build a Brandhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/paulofierro/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Your company name can be one of your most important brand signals. In some cases, like in the example I’m about to show you, a name alone can build a brand. In 1999 the HVLS Fan Company, a manufacturer of large industrial fans, opened for business in Lexington, Kentucky. HVLS [...]
» 21 Nov 2009, 8:27 am

Burger King Gets BrandingI live five minutes away from Burger King’s headquarters, and today I passed by a BK restaurant located next to their building.  This is one of the few restaurants that sports BK’s recently launched new look.  The new BK, more upscale and futuristic (and more sit down than drive through) clearly stands out from other [...]
» 10 Nov 2009, 5:04 pm

Sandbagginghttp://www.flickr.com/photos/chaimann/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 A few weeks ago I took my car to the dealer for an oil change and the clerk promised it would be ready in about 1 ½ hours. Once the car was ready, he presented me with a questionnaire which asked, among other things, if the car was delivered within [...]
» 7 Nov 2009, 12:25 pm

Rediscovering Your Personal Brand AssetsI was browsing through my advance copy of the next issue of Personal Branding Magazine, and found an interesting interview with MC Hammer. Hammer, as you probably know, is a hip hop artist who had his fifteen minutes of fame back in the 1980’s, and after many years under the media radar has now [...]
» 31 Oct 2009, 6:52 pm

Free: The Future of a Radical Price (Book Review)I just finished reading Chris Anderson’s book Free: The Future of a Radical Price . It is a fascinating read, following in the footsteps of Freakonomics, the book that a few years ago taught us that a subject as dry and technical as economics could be entertaining if used to explain why ordinary things around [...]
» 24 Oct 2009, 7:46 am

SmallBiz Trends

Small Business News March 9, 2010It’s time for another addition of our small business news roundup here at Small Business Trends. We hope you find these roundups useful and will visit some of the stories we’ve recommended being sure to let them know where you heard about their post or article. Marketing Is the idea of viral marketing a bit too contagious? Viral marketing may not be good for every business so keep in mind it’s a means not an end. Right Ideas/Bright Ideas Getting personal with your marketingRead MoreFrom Small Business TrendsSmall Business News March 9, 2010
» 9 Mar 2010, 4:57 pm

Facebook Helps SMB Owners Make Events More UsefulFacebook has been getting a heck of a lot of buzz lately as the social networking site continues to add value for brands and small business owners. Late last week they improved local ad opportunities for SMBs and just yesterday they announced a partnership with Eventbrite to help business owners monetize events advertised on the site. The combination helps to make Facebook an even more attractive marketing channel for SMBs to utilize. If you didn’t catch yesterday’s announcement, Facebook has partnered withRead MoreFrom Small Business TrendsFacebook Helps SMB Owners Make Events More Useful
» 9 Mar 2010, 6:00 am

Make This Your Most Profitable Year Ever – Profitability TipsIf you’re like a lot of small business owners I’ve talked to since we rang in 2010, you probably sympathize with this statement: “Enough with the doom and gloom already. I don’t want to know how awful the economy is, I want to know how to make a profit anyway!” A couple of weeks ago, our very own Anita Campbell tackled that issue with an Intuit Community webinar titled, “Make 2010 Your Most Profitable Year Ever.” Joining her for the webinar wasRead MoreFrom Small Business TrendsMake This Your Most Profitable Year Ever – Profitability Tips
» 9 Mar 2010, 5:01 am

Small Business News March 8, 2010It’s time for another Small Business News roundup.  Here are the news links and blog posts that are shaking up the small business online community for March 8, 2010 hand picked by the team at Small Business Trends. Operations Small Business celebrates the Oscars! Hey, what small business leader has time to watch a movie? But if you happen to slip one into you’re busy schedule, here are some cool lessons you can learn, from author and speaker Barry Moltz.  Small Business Trends MotivatingRead MoreFrom Small Business TrendsSmall Business News March 8, 2010
» 8 Mar 2010, 2:47 pm

Assessing Small Business Owners’ OptimismPolicy makers, the media, and many other people care about small business owners’ perceptions, making the monthly optimism figures put out by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) and Discover Small Business Watch (DSBW) noticed statistics. The goal of these measures is to tell us if small business owners are becoming more or less optimistic about prospects for their businesses and the overall economy. Because these indices get reported and discussed in the media, it’s important to recognize their strengths andRead MoreFrom Small Business TrendsAssessing Small Business Owners’ Optimism
» 8 Mar 2010, 1:43 am

3 Steps to Free Publicity for Your BusinessWhen you’re a small business, positive word-of-mouth is critical to growth. One of the best ways to get that buzz going is through publicity.  But how do you compete with the big guys, and get publicity?  Here are the only three steps you need to get great publicity FREE: Step 1:  Have A Great Product, Service or Business Most small businesses think that what they sell is great.  The Key:  To get publicity, you need to provide what the media thinks is great. Here areRead MoreFrom Small Business Trends3 Steps to Free Publicity for Your Business
» 7 Mar 2010, 10:22 pm

Small Business Lessons We Can Learn from Watching MoviesMovies have a big impact on our everyday life. There is no denying that even with DVRs where we can record everything on cable television, we still take a lot of time to watch movies. The 2009 movie “Avatar” now has become the highest grossing film in history — by a wide margin. In fact, technology has increased our appetite to watch to entertain ourselves since we can now watch not only on television, but computers and smartphones. There’s no reason to feelRead MoreFrom Small Business TrendsSmall Business Lessons We Can Learn from Watching Movies
» 7 Mar 2010, 7:03 am

Latest Small Business Awards and ContestsThis week’s list of contests has some great opportunities for recognition and cash prizes. This list of competitions and awards for small businesses is brought to you every other week as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com. - * * * * * B2B Social Media Integration Case Study Challenge Enter by March 12, 2010 This is your chance to join an expert panel at the B2B Forum session. How did your company boost ROI by integrating social media into your marketing strategy?Read MoreFrom Small Business TrendsLatest Small Business Awards and Contests
» 6 Mar 2010, 6:53 pm

“Rework” by 37signals Founders Reimagines How Business Should Be“It is time to rework work. Let’s get started,” declares the authors of the new business book Rework by 37signals founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. They want to change how businesses are run, and to borrow a segment title, “Make a dent in the universe.” They are definitely knocking on the universe’s door. I read a review copy, and was inspired to rework my own thoughts on entrepreneurship and business strategy. What Worked Well in Rework This is a book you don’t wantRead MoreFrom Small Business Trends“Rework” by 37signals Founders Reimagines How Business Should Be
» 6 Mar 2010, 6:22 am

Small Business News for March 5, 2010We hope you’re enjoying your daily small business news roundup here at Small Business Trends. Here is the latest from news sources and blogs we are following regularly. Marketing What can Lego teach us about guerrilla marketing? Shane Gibson talks about giving away real value and offering a variety of options in the digital world. Closing Bigger.net Does your business really need customers? Here’s a completely different way to look at and treat the people you serve each day. Walt Goshert Self-Development How to create your ownRead MoreFrom Small Business TrendsSmall Business News for March 5, 2010
» 5 Mar 2010, 5:50 pm

The Entrepreneurial Mind

We've MovedThe Entrepreneurial Mind has moved. Nothing has changed other than our address. After almost five years of blogging we had started to outfgrow our old digs. So decided it was time to make a move. It is the same blog...
» 27 Jul 2008, 6:16 am

VCs Have Regional FlavorsWhen first entering into the world of VC funding entrepreneurs often overlook in the importance of understand the local "flavor" of VCs. VCs tend to be more geographic in their investing -- they tend to favor deals closer to home....
» 25 Jul 2008, 8:14 am

Entrepreneurship as Tool to End World PovertyThe Social Equity Venture Fund (SEVEN), just launched a competition to develop new indicators and models for investment in emerging market small and medium-sized enterprises. The competition is open to everyone, and is offering $50,000 in funds awarded for the...
» 23 Jul 2008, 9:26 am

So Why the Long Face, Professor?For many years I have been the optimist. The enthusiasm that I experienced in my daily interactions with entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs was contagious. The data that was showing a shift to an entrepreneurial economy gave me so much hope...
» 22 Jul 2008, 6:26 am

Small Business Owners Are Hunkering DownI have been writing my advice to entrepreneurs on what they need to do to weather the current and near future economic storms. But just what are they all actually doing? A new poll from NFIB offers some insight. Here...
» 21 Jul 2008, 9:39 am

Venture Capital Going to Shore Up Later Stage BusinessesOne of the best barometers of the economy is the behavior of venture capitalists and angel investors. The stage of investment is one key to follow. When they shift to later stage deals as they have the past few years,...
» 21 Jul 2008, 5:41 am

Your Business Should Match Your LifestyleMy column in this week's Tennessean: When people use the term "lifestyle business," they usually are referring to something small and even part time. I would argue that every business should be viewed as a lifestyle business. If you choose...
» 21 Jul 2008, 5:32 am

The Two V's of the Good EntrepreneurMany of you know about the Four P's that make up a marketing strategy -- product, price, promotion, and place. Those of you who read this blog regularly or have had me in class also know about the Three M's...
» 17 Jul 2008, 5:51 am

Leadership and FailureOver the years I have become more comfortable using my missteps and failures as lessons and examples for my students. Of course, they seem to love to hear the success stories. But they need to learn that hardship, challenge and...
» 17 Jul 2008, 5:37 am

Inflation Heats UpThe inflation news released today is not good news. We had a 1.1% increase in the CPI in just the past month, according to a report released today by the US Department of Labor. This is the kind of double...
» 16 Jul 2008, 12:26 pm

So Many Good Blogs, So Little TimeBen Cunningham sent along a link to a great blog called Church of the Customer that focuses on building customer relationships. Nothing could be more important in these uncertain economic times. The blog authors offer a variety of helpful inform...
» 15 Jul 2008, 10:29 am