Posts Tagged ‘Entrepreneurship’

How to Finance a Business Start-Up

Posted by ArcherTC on April 20, 2009  |   No Comments »

Q: My son has a sure-fire business idea that’s gonna make us rich. Who do we see to get $100,000?

A: I was asked this question by a very serious forty-something father with his teen-something son in tow at a business opportunity fair not all that long ago.

I was tempted say that if I knew someone with that kind of money burning holes in his or her pockets, would I be standing there talking to them? However, my answer was the one any prospective entrepreneur will hear when asking for money: “Let’s see your business plan.”

Even if your business is to be an in-home affair and you’re the only employee, you need to be able to answer two questions before any lender or investor will write you a check:

  1. What will it cost?
  2. Who’s going to buy it?

These are the questions that a business plan answers. Step one is …read more at How to finance a business start-up – Examiner.com (http://www NULL.examiner NULL.com/x-8145-Portland-Starting-a-Business-Examiner~y2009m4d19-How-to-finance-a-business-startup), published 19 April 2009.

Flickr photo credit: YTK23 (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/ytk23/2185074558/)

Customer Strategy Tips from an Indie Rocker

Posted by ArcherTC on April 20, 2009  |   No Comments »

In August 2005, Jonathan Coulton quit his job as a software developer, with the goal of conducting an experiment: over the next year, could he figure out a way to earn a living as a full-time musician, leveraging the Web and his small-but-passionate fan base?

Coulton isn’t the only artist who is trying to come up with new ways of cultivating an audience and making a living in a post-label, post-studio, post-publisher world, where big advances and development deals are essentially a thing of the past for emerging talent. For my new book Fans, Friends & Followers, I spoke with thirty filmmakers, musicians, writers and comedians who’ve been developing new strategies for building a fan base that can support the work they want to do. Many of their strategies would be equally effective for businesses trying to generate buzz and attract loyal customers – without an enormous marketing budget.

Coulton, for instance, has discovered that by giving his fans an opportunity to collaborate with him, they’re more likely to feel like active, engaged supporters – more likely to purchase CDs, merchandise, downloads, and concert tickets.

Here are just three of the ways Coulton has invited his followers to get involved with his career, each of which could be applied by many kinds of businesses. …read more at Customer Strategy Tips from an Indie Rocker – Harvard Business Publishing (http://blogs NULL.harvardbusiness NULL.org/cs/2009/04/customer_engagement_tips_from NULL.html), published 17 April 2009.

Photo credit: Dale May Photography (http://www NULL.dalemayphotography NULL.com/)

18 Tips For Small Businesses That Outsource

Posted by ArcherTC on March 26, 2009  |   No Comments »

Outsourcing has received a bad rap in some circles because of its association with job losses that occur when corporations “export” jobs to countries with much lower labor costs than the U.S.

But those of us who run small and home businesses have a different perspective on outsourcing.

For us, outsourcing is the “secret sauce” that lets us pull together the resources to handle temporary work overloads, reduce fixed costs, speed products to market, simplify distribution, provide more or better service to our customers, and compete with our deeper-pocketed competitors.

Much of the business that small businesses outsource goes to other small and home businesses within our own country. Often those freelancers or subcontractors are business owners we’ve met at local business meetings or events. Sometimes they’re people we’ve “met” by participating in a mailing list or forum, or via specific Web sites, like Elance.

But the key to successful outsourcing has little to do with where you meet the subcontractors and freelancers you work with. Like anything else, it takes planning. Here are 18 ways to get the best results when you outsource work… more at 18 Tips For Small Businesses That Outsource – SmallBizResource (http://www NULL.smallbizresource NULL.com/blog/main/archives/2009/03/18_tips_for_sma NULL.html), published 19 March 2009.

Flickr photo credit: markhillary (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/markhillary/2946979290/)

Mixed Signals: The State of Black Entrepreneurship

Posted by ArcherTC on March 16, 2009  |   No Comments »

The gap in businesses ownership rates between whites and blacks is widely regarded as evidence of inequality. How bad is it really, and what can be done?

When he started his company, Donald Coleman had nothing but his personal savings and a few faithful friends to fund it. Twenty years later, GlobalHue, Coleman’s marketing communications agency that focuses on minority consumers, closed 2008 with $825 million in billings. Numbers like that earn Coleman membership in an all-too-exclusive club: He is a successful black entrepreneur. And he has an idea why there aren’t more people like him.

“I think it’s quite evident that the lack of access to capital is the reason why there aren’t more minority entrepreneurs,” he says.

Coleman’s experience resonates with studies like Race and Entrepreneurial Success, published last year by University of California, Santa Cruz economics professor Rob Fairlie and research associate Alicia Robb. They analyzed confidential data from the U.S. Census Bureau to paint a comprehensive picture of minority business ownership, and the results, at least for black entrepreneurship, are bleak. Overall, the number of black business owners is far lower than the national average, and their businesses also “tend to have lower sales, fewer employees and smaller payrolls, lower profits, and higher closure rates.” ….more at Mixed Signals: The Progress of Black Entrepreneurship – Business Ownership – Entrepreneur.com (http://www NULL.entrepreneur NULL.com/startingabusiness/article200506 NULL.html), published 9 March 2009.

Photo credit: Royalty-Free/Corbis

Solving a social problem, without going the nonprofit route

Posted by ArcherTC on March 9, 2009  |   No Comments »

It used to be that people who wanted to solve a social problem — like lack of access to clean water or inadequate housing for the poor — created a charity. Today, many start a company instead.

D.light, a company cofounded by Sam Goldman, who spent four years in the Peace Corps in Benin before earning a master’s degree in business from Stanford University, is an example. Mr. Goldman started D.light with the mission of replacing millions of kerosene lamps now used in poor, rural parts of the world with solar-powered lamps.

Having used kerosene lamps himself while living in Benin, Mr. Goldman learned firsthand of kerosene’s problems — it is expensive, it provides poor light and it is extremely dangerous. When the son of his West African neighbor nearly died after suffering severe burns from spilled kerosene, Mr. Goldman said he realized he wanted to create a venture to solve both the social and economic problems caused by these lamps. His time in Benin also convinced him, he said, that only as a business could a project become large enough to reach the great number of people who use these lamps as their primary source of light.

“We could have done it as a nonprofit over a hundred years, but if we wanted to do it in five or 10 years, then we believed it needed to be fueled by profit,” he said. “That’s the way to grow.” …read more on this at Solving a Social Problem, Without Going the Nonprofit Route – NYTimes.com (http://www NULL.nytimes NULL.com/2009/03/05/business/smallbusiness/05sbiz NULL.html), published 4 March 2009.

Flickr photo credit: jurvetson (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/jurvetson/522409778/)

Startups in a Downturn

Posted by ArcherTC on February 25, 2009  |   No Comments »

Entrepreneurs who helped build their startups into tech stalwarts—companies like Cisco, Oracle, and Google—share lessons on how to thrive during tough times

December 1987 was no time to be raising money for a startup. Computer engineer Len Bosack was trying to attract funding for a young enterprise called Cisco Systems (CSCO). But the stock market had just crashed and the Dow Jones industrial average had plummeted 40% since October. Gun-shy venture capitalists either didn’t get the newfangled technology or deemed it too risky.

Making matters worse, Bosack was running low on the savings he had used to bootstrap the business, and competition was gaining steam. It wasn’t until this 75th meeting that he found a receptive audience. The willing financier was Donald Valentine of Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. On Dec. 14, two months after Black Monday, Sequoia invested $2.5 million in Cisco. “Valentine’s reasoning was pretty simple,” recalls Bosack, now CEO of telecom gear-maker XKL. “It doesn’t matter what they are. They are selling stuff in a bad market. With a little bit of capital and more experienced help they should be able to do better.”

Better is just what Cisco did. By the time of its initial share sale three years later, in February 1990—during a recession—the maker of telecom networking equipment was worth $224 million. Within a decade, Cisco Systems had become one of the world’s most valuable companies. …more at Startups in a Dowturn | Business Week (http://www NULL.businessweek NULL.com/technology/content/feb2009/tc20090221_571602 NULL.htm), published 23 February 2009.

Flickr photo credit: Powru (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/powru/1999174371/)

What I learned in the trenches

Posted by ArcherTC on February 23, 2009  |   No Comments »

Veterans-turned-entrepreneurs offer advice

After 13 years in the Marine Corps, Brian Iglesias was ready to embark on a dream career in filmmaking. Prepared to pay his dues, he worked the phones, sent e-mails, and paid visits. But all he ran into were dead ends. “Not too long ago I was leading over 225 Marines in landslide relief operations in the Philippines,” he says. But “I had to beg people to let me intern. Only my friends were willing to give me work.”

Frustrated, Iglesias decided to start his own company and turned to one of a growing number of programs that help soldiers become entrepreneurs. He enrolled in the intensive 14-month Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (Iglesias has a metal plate fused in his neck), offered for free to service-disabled veterans at Syracuse, Florida State, UCLA, Texas A&M, and Purdue. Started by James M. Haynie, an Air Force vet turned business school professor …more at What I Learned in the Trenches – BusinessWeek (http://www NULL.businessweek NULL.com/smallbiz/content/feb2009/sb20090210_236725 NULL.htm), published on 10 February 2009.

Flickr photo credit: stroopwafels
(http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/santioliveri/2617930440/)

Hidden tax tips for entrepreneurs

Posted by ArcherTC on February 23, 2009  |   No Comments »

Are you missing tax deductions you’re entitled to? Small business owners, self-employed workers, and independent contractors can write off many legitimate business expenses immediately, reducing the amount of income on which they pay taxes. But if you overlook applicable deductions or fail to keep adequate records that will back up your write-offs during an audit, you give up opportunities to cut your tax bill.

The Schedule C tax form used by sole proprietors to report business profit or loss has 21 line items for business expenses—including such catch-all categories as “office expense,” “supplies,” and “other expenses.” The tax forms for partnerships, LLCs, and S-corps are similarly broad. “It doesn’t even begin to hint at all the things that a business can legitimately deduct,” says Bernard Kamoroff, a certified public accountant and author of 422 Tax Deductions for Businesses & Self Employed Individuals. Don’t expect your accountant to find all the deductions you qualify for—your accountant doesn’t know your spending as intimately as you do.  …more at Hidden Tax Tips for Entrepreneurs – Business Week (http://www NULL.businessweek NULL.com/smallbiz/content/feb2009/sb20090212_479578 NULL.htm), published 17 February 2009.

Flickr photo credit: ANATOLI AXELROD (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/tony_axelrod/2817768124/)

Going full-time: four things you’ll miss from the day job

Posted by ArcherTC on January 26, 2009  |   No Comments »

For many of us, it’s that moment we’ve been longing for. It’s what we’ve worked towards for months or years. It’s the reason we’ve been coming home from a busy day and freelancing in the evenings, or at the weekends.

Quitting the day job. Going full-time. Striking out on our own. You’re not going to miss the office for a moment … right?

Chances are, you’ll find yourself looking back wistfully on certain occasions. Here are a few things you might be missing, and how you could replace them as a freelancer…Going Full-Time: Four Things You’ll Miss From the Day Job | Freelance Folder (http://freelancefolder NULL.com/going-full-time-four-things-youll-miss-from-the-day-job/).

Flickr photo credit: Vincent Ma (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/thevince/535469198/)

The winners: Europe’s young entrepreneurs

Posted by ArcherTC on January 16, 2009  |   No Comments »

The tens of thousands of votes from our readers have been counted, and here’s our impressive group of Europe’s best young entrepreneurs

Winning an entrepreneurship contest is a feather in the cap, but it takes a lot more than that to make a business grow. As the nominees in this year’s BusinessWeek Best Young European Entrepreneurs competition can attest, building a successful startup requires passion, focus, constant work, and sometimes a bit of luck. ..more from BusinessWeek (http://cli NULL.gs/vAZ2gT). Photo credit: theresealbrechtson.se (http://www NULL.theresealbrechtson NULL.se/english/default NULL.asp)

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