All Articles Tagged "entrepreneurship"
Not All Entrepreneurs' Goals Created Equally
(New York Times) — Small-business owners are often described in monolithic terms. But as I rediscovered during a conversation with three women who run companies, their goals and motivations tend to vary. When I met recently with Jessica Johnson, Susan Parker and Carissa Reiniger of ournewly formed business group, we talked about their long-term goals. (Alexandra Mayzler, the fourth member of the group, couldn’t make the meeting.) I was particularly curious about their thoughts and attitudes about eventually exiting the companies that they or their families — in the cases of Ms. Johnson and Ms. Parker — built. Ms. Johnson said that exiting Johnson Security Bureau would feel like walking out on a spouse: “My daily struggle is, how do I keep the business going successfully for as long as possible, while protecting myself and my interest?” She added that she did not want to turn 75 one day and find that she was still trying to find security guards to cover a client at 2 a.m.
Another Advantage of Grad School: Free Advice
(Wall Street Journal) — Carolyn Starks admits she didn’t know the first thing about marketing when she launched her own business last year. But she also couldn’t afford expert help. Previously laid off from a reporting job at a daily newspaper, Ms. Starks says a friend working at nearby Elmhurst College just outside Chicago offered to introduce her to faculty in the school’s marketing department, knowing it has a program that matches students with small businesses in need of support. The introduction paid off. For the next five months, Ms. Starks, 49, met once a week with two senior marketing majors to identify low-cost ways to promote her start-up, a publishing firm called Storybuilders Books. In between, the students would do research on Ms. Starks’s target audience — preadolescent girls — to come up with relevant ideas. A professor at the school oversaw the project.
Obama's 'Startup America' Takes Shape
(Wall Street Journal) — It’s been eight months since Startup America was announced, but a major part of the initiative has only recently taken off. The initiative is made up of a series of public-private programs designed to spur small-business growth. The two operations of Startup America have different missions to accomplish the same goal – boost entrepreneurship and job creation. On the private side, a number of initiatives have rolled out over several months including classroom and mentorship programs provided by nonprofits and corporations. But the principal agenda for entrepreneurs, called the Startup America Partnership, launched only this month. It is now allowing entrepreneurs to apply for free or discounted products and resources such as Google Adwords, Intuit payroll services and Salesforce technology. Collectively, there are more than 25 partners who have pledged $730 million worth of in-kind resources to help small firms grow.
Is The Cloud Right for Your Company?
(New York Times) — Most businesses, whether they realize it or not, already have at least a foot in the cloud. If they use Gmail, for example, they are going into the cloud to let Google’s computers handle e-mail. In fact, most of us have been tying into Internet-based services for more than a decade. But now, more and more business-oriented tools are becoming available online, including many that can be critical to running a company. This guide looks at questions business owners ask and trade-offs they have to make.
WILL IT WORK? Jeff Becker, president of Kotis Design, a custom apparel company based in Seattle, primarily used custom applications to handle tasks like inventory management, order production, invoicing, accounts receivable and customer resource management. They were all tightly integrated, and Mr. Becker said he believed that nothing in the cloud could match his applications for zipping orders through his 45-person company. But for an accounting and financial management system, he decided cloud-based services were more sophisticated and flexible than anything he was likely to build, and he selected offerings from Intacct. Even after spending four months integrating Intacct into his system, he expressed confidence that he had saved time and money: “We’re definitely in favor of moving to the cloud as we go forward.”
Life Beyond PowerPoint
(Entrepreneur) — PowerPoint, Microsoft’s presentation tool, was once ubiquitous as the business standard for organizing, distilling and demonstrating business ideas. Now, PowerPoint has far more competition. The Web has sparked a brisk market in alternatives for presenting your next big idea. And we spent about a month distilling the best among the new offerings in online presentation systems. Here are four worth knowing.
Google Docs Presentations: What it is: Google Docs, part Google Apps’ set of Web-based tools, contains a presentation-building tool which is both simple and powerful. Similar to Google’s document-sharing capability, users can create, edit and collaborate over the Web on what are usually basic slideshow presentations. Slides can be shared, published, embedded in a website or posted online for mass consumption. Microsoft PowerPoint presentations from your computer can also be uploaded into Google Docs Presentations.
Going from Manager to Motivator
D.C. Extends Medical Marijuana Application Deadline
(Washington Post) — The D.C. Health Department, which has been charged with running the District’s new medical marijuana program, has run a pretty tight ship to date, For instance, some would-be applicants were summarily tossedafter they failed to properly sign and date their applications. But the District has loosened things up.
Fewer Choose Entrepreneurship
(USA Today) — The ranks of self-employed Americans are shrinking. In August, 14.5 million people were self-employed, down 2.1 million from the most recent peak in December 2006, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The number of “incorporated” self-employed workers — those who incorporate to gain legal protection and other benefits — began its decline in 2008. Last month, 5.1 million people were in this category, down 726,000 from August 2008. The decline is a “troubling” trend, says Scott Shane, professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University. This category, which usually represents businesses that hire more employees than the “unincorporated” self-employed, was showing healthy growth before the recession, he says.
5 Ways to Build Business Credit
(Entrepreneur) — A year after launching her printing business, Sherry Stewart Deutschmann began leasing a new facility and needed large printing and sorting equipment. She had a business credit card with a $5,000 limit, but it would take hundreds of thousands of dollars to finance the kind of fast growth she saw for her business. It was 2003, and she was generating about $2.5 million in annual revenues at the time, yet several banks and equipment suppliers all turned down her credit requests. “Nobody explained to me why,” says Deutschmann, the 51-year-old founder and CEO of Nashville-basedLetterLogic, which prints business statements and invoices. ”They just flat out said no.” She suspected it was because she was still a new business with little track record.
Take a Holiday and Help Your Business
(Wall Street Journal) — Take a break. It’ll be good for business. Getting away from work can recharge your batteries. But it can also bring insights and inspiration. Many entrepreneurs say that they got the idea for a new venture while on vacation, or came up with a way to boost their existing business. Here’s a look at some of the insights entrepreneurs brought home as souvenirs.
Inspiring a Change: For many aspiring entrepreneurs, a trip can be the catalyst for moving into a new business. Inspiration struck David Warren seven years ago while climbing Mount Rainier with friends. At the time, Mr. Warren was stuck in a rut as a vice president at a security company. He wanted to own his own business but was pinned down by doubts.
