Gig Harbor, WA (PRWEB) March 11, 2010 — Artbeads.com, a Gig Harbor, Wash., online retailer of beads and jewelry supplies, is proud to celebrate its tenth anniversary and tenth consecutive year of record sales.  Like many small businesses, Artbeads.com began as a part-time venture operating out of the garage. Two years off the ground, Devin and Cynthia Kimura found themselves struggling to balance one full-time job to pay the bills and a quickly growing web business, while raising two young children ages two and four.

“Cynthia, like most moms, was burning the candle at both ends, making sure that orders were filled and in the mail while at the same time taking care of family,” says Artbeads.com CEO & Strategist, Devin Kimura. “But we liked beads. I worked with glass, Cynthia began to develop an interest in making jewelry, and there was space in our garage for something new.” Launching a new online retail business in December of 1999 at the peak of the dot-com boom gave the Kimuras motivation to chase their dream of building a world-class bead and jewelry supply company.

As their business started, however, the Kimuras would soon find themselves in the midst of the dot-com crash and a major economic downturn, much like the situation many small businesses are facing today. Aware of the risks associated with debt-leveraging a business, Devin and Cynthia “bootstrapped” growth, reinvesting every penny of profit back into the company and tightly managing expenses. “The lessons we learned by bootstrapping in the early days have continued to serve us well especially now in this latest economic downturn,” says Devin. Artbeads.com came up with creative ways to reduce costs without layoffs and focused on launching low-cost marketing programs to grow free organic search engine traffic and generate word-of-mouth advertising through social media. They also became more aggressive with their pricing and promotional strategy, using email marketing as the primary channel to reach value-seeking customers. Devin credits these and many other efforts along with the entrepreneurial spirit of the Artbeads’ employees for leading Artbeads.com to their tenth straight year of record sales and solid growth in profits.

“2009 was a fantastic year for us,” says Artbeads.com President and Chief Creativity Officer, Cynthia Kimura. “We’ve been able to expand our efforts to educate and inspire jewelry makers and crafters with our Learning Center, which has grown to include over 600 inspirational jewelry and craft ideas along with numerous how-to-make-jewelry videos that are all freely available to the public. We’ve also made great strides to support the beading community while encouraging others to share ideas and discuss projects and events.” In 2009, Artbeads.com sponsored numerous beading events; supported jewelry-making instructors, bead societies and bloggers; launched a forum on their “Blog for Beaders”; and drove significant growth in its social-media sites such as Facebook, which now supports over 20,000 fans.

As Artbeads.com enters their tenth year, the Kimuras are proud to have built one of the largest online bead and jewelry supply companies in the United States that has served hundreds of thousands of customers from all corners of the world. Their dream that began in a garage now operates out of a 24,000 square-foot warehouse and provides jobs for over 140 employees in the Pacific Northwest while supporting countless artisans and craftsmen from around the globe who contribute to the more than 25,000 products carried on the Artbeads.com website, ranging from beads, findings, and tools to unique hand-painted pendants.

About Artbeads.com
Artbeads.com is a leading provider of beads and jewelry supplies for jewelry designers and the beading community. Artbeads.com caters to the quality-conscious designer with products like Swarovski crystal beads and the finest sterling silver beads, but also works vigorously to provide an exceptional customer experience while maintaining competitive prices. Thanks to Artbeads’ buying power, those looking for wholesale beads are attracted by wholesale pricing discounts, no minimum order requirements and fast, free shipping anywhere in the United States. With a vast Learning Center, Artbeads.com is also a popular destination for beginners looking for jewelry designs and tips on how to make jewelry.

Gail Parker
28284 Franklin Road
Southfield, MI 48034
888-903-7262
gail@franchisesforsale.com

Entrepreneurship education is one of several key factors, along with access to finance, government policies, infrastructure, and others, that influence attitudes about entrepreneurship and people’s willingness to start businesses, according to GEM. Interviews with experts in 31 countries around the world found that in almost every country entrepreneurship education and training was inadequate, especially in primary and secondary schools.

In surveys with more than 100,000 individuals, GEM found that 80% of entrepreneurship education and training is provided through formal channels such as primary and secondary level schooling, and through university degree programs.  This is significant because most formal training is at the primary and secondary school levels.

“Training at a young age cultivates an entrepreneurial spirit early on, but college-level training is important too, because it validates entrepreneurship as a potential career path,” says report author and Babson Professor Donna Kelley. “Besides skill-building, training increases an individual’s awareness of entrepreneurship and their intent to start a business, and improves perceptions about their ability to do so,” says Kelley.

Sixty percent of individuals engaged in entrepreneurship training acquire it from informal sources, which GEM defines as non credit-bearing courses at a university, local business organization, or government agency, or self-study using books and Internet courses. “Access to informal programs is a good thing too, because entrepreneurs can obtain the specific skill sets they need to achieve their immediate goals,” says Alicia Coduras, from IE Business School in Spain and lead author of the report.

GEM also learned that entrepreneurship training is of most benefit to individuals in wealthier countries where the entrepreneurial environment is rich in conditions that allow new businesses to thrive. “For entrepreneurship training to be productive in low-income countries, it needs to be complemented by beneficial government policies, infrastructure, and other basic requirements,” says Kristie Seawright, GEM Executive Director.

To view the full report go to: http://www.gemconsortium.org/download.asp?fid=1005

For more on GEM go to:  www.gemconsortium.org

Other GEM findings:

• Across 38 countries, where training in starting a business was measured, only 21% of the adult population had received training.
• Training appears to have the greatest effect on early-stage entrepreneurial activity in wealthier, innovation-driven countries with favorable institutional frameworks.
• The highest levels of training were found in Finland and Chile, countries with government initiatives aimed at stimulating and preparing individuals to start businesses.
• Men are more likely than women to seek training.
• Younger individuals are more likely to have received training in starting a business, reflecting a recent rise in entrepreneurship education in many countries’ formal educational systems.

About the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor has conducted surveys worldwide on entrepreneurship since 1999. GEM was co-founded by Babson College and the London Business School. Babson College maintains a position as lead sponsor of the project, and Universidad del Desarollo in Santiago, Chile, and Reykjavik University in Iceland are also sponsors of the project.

GEM has become the world’s most comprehensive research consortium dedicated to understanding the relationship between entrepreneurship and national economic development. It has provided the most comprehensive comparative data about attitudes toward entrepreneurs, start-up business activities, and plans for starting and building businesses, globally, by geographic region, and by country.

GEM publishes annual global reports and GEM national teams publish individual country-level reports. In addition, GEM publishes special reports on topics including women in entrepreneurship, high-growth ventures and entrepreneurial finance.

This special report on entrepreneurship education and training draws on additional questions developed around this topic for the GEM 2008 APS (adult population survey) questionnaire. Data for this report was gathered by members of 38 national GEM teams. The report was authored by Alicia Coduras, IE Business School, Spain; Jonathan Levie, University of Strathclyde, Scotland; Donna Kelley, Babson College, USA; Rognvaldur Saemundsson, Reykjavik University, Iceland; andThomas Schott, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.

Throughout the interviews I could sense there is a fundamental difference between the 90% people coming from troubled companies and the 5% troubled freelancers or small business owners. I didn’t know what it was until this evening when I’ve had a breakthrough:  panic levels where different.

Panic level was different

For the vast majority of the 90% group getting laid off was a fundamental problem. For the 5% small business entrepreneurs, shutting down the business, having a hard time surviving looked like a surmountable situation. How is that possible when most people are more afraid of opening a business and failing than having a job and loosing it? After all having your own business is a big risk, right? Well, the interviews showed differently. And I think I know why.

Why do entrepreneur cope better with the crisis than employees?

Well, to start, having your own business is not really riskier. John Crickett from www.businessopportunitiesandideas.co.uk has an interesting point of view regarding the risks taken by an entrepreneur versus the risks of being an employee. His article kind of supports my discovery regarding the panic levels, so I’m going to take some of his ideas and add my owns.

• Being an employee means you have only one customer; being an entrepreneur comes with more customers. While most employees don’t think that way, they are actually selling. They sell their work to the employer. Entrepreneurs are also selling but have more customers, therefore an employee is more dependent on “his customer”.
• Employees have less control. Let’s say you are a programmer. That’s good, but if your employer gets into trouble with sales, revenues, funds for paycheck you can’t really do much, because you only code. You can’t do much if you’re getting laid off. Entrepreneurs on the other hand can do whatever it takes to make things work – change business line, do partnerships, get help, find funds and investors. They have a chance to improve things.
• Entrepreneurs know from start-up they might be failing. Employees don’t get a job with the thought they might be failing. And therefore the crisis don’t change that much for entrepreneurs, which prepares them better mentally.
• Entrepreneurs are business problem solvers (regardless of the crisis). Crisis or no crisis, entrepreneurs have challenges and need to find solutions on a constant base. This shapes their minds to cope better with challenges, it’s like getting trained for the crisis.
• Entrepreneurs remain entrepreneurs even if they are failing; employees become un-employed. Having your business turned to ashes doesn’t make you less entrepreneur.
• Entrepreneurs have more people helping them getting past the crisis. Employees are on their own. What I’m trying to say is that basically an entrepreneur through the people he hires gets an entire group of people that work to make the business work: sales, marketing, production – more minds to help stay afloat.
• Entrepreneurs have better exit plans. Probably because they know from the beginning they might be failing, most entrepreneurs have exit plans. Including getting a job. It’s not the end of the World.
• Entrepreneurs have an asset to sell, something more than just their work. Coming back to the initial idea that employees sell their work, entrepreneurs have a business to sell and that’s usually more valuable than one man’s work. Might be physical assets – buildings, machinery, might be customer base, might be the idea. It’s more.

I didn’t realised so far, but last year my decision to be more than an employee with a “secured job during the crisis” might be just the best thing I did in years. Even better than 5 years ago when I started my first own business in non-crisis times. Glad to be an entrepreneur. It puts me on the better side of the crisis.

But wait! If you don’t have customers, funding and what to do, it should mean a start-up would fail in what? 3 months? I don’t have at hand any statistics, but I bet most business don’t fail in the first 3 months – they say they fail in the first 5 years! I don’t know how this sounds to you, but to me it sounds that they fail for some other reasons. And wanna be entrepreneurs fear about the wrong things! I’m not really an expert in why small business are failing in the 5 years (I’m sure there are statistics to show why), but if you are reading my blog for some reason, let me tell you my version of things.

Not so obvious reasons why your business might be failing

• You can’t see the forest because of the trees. That’s one of the classics, you have so many things to do as an entrepreneur that you need to become the hardest long hours employee of your own business. Everything that can’t be done by one of the employees, gets to be done by the entrepreneur, regardless of the work load. So, what happens is that before you know it, you develop some sort of business autism: you care  so focused on the daily business that you are left with little time to watch for opportunities, competition and what your bigger goal is.
• Doing well, or too well. Why on Earth doing too well is a reason to fail?? Simply put, there is nothing that puts you in motion better than hunger and if you stop being alert and looking for opportunities things will change. Can be a legislation change, a new competitor entering the market or anything else. And because you felt well secured because of your well being it might happen that you won’t have the best product, best marketing or best sales to cope with the business environment changes. I think the current crisis is the best example, way too many business were caught off guard.
• Changing interests and goals. Usually, when starting a business, entrepreneurs are well focused on making it work. Ask any start-up entrepreneur and they will say there is nothing more important and requiring more attention than the new business. Problem is that people interests are changing: family balance sometimes comes first, having some time of your own, getting sick. So unless you manage to build a healthy enough business that is going to sustain itself without your intervention, it’s going to go belly up.
• Building a business on wrong values. I use to say that your business is your little baby. So, you want your child to leave a healthy moral life, with good values? Well, you should, because sooner or later a business build on bad values will go down: employees will leave, deals will get harder to get, bad mana and negative aura will build up against you.
• Starting the business with wrong partners (wrong as in not suitable). While a start-up it’s sometimes hard to know what are the best partners you should get. You’re selling them the business idea, so not so much to sell. If you don’t have much to sell, then you can’t ask for much in exchange. In the beginning it might not be much of a problem, but if money will come, trouble will come. They have something to win, you might be having something to loose. And if these fundamental issues arise business might end up badly.
• Failing to adapt. Again, I haven’t looked lately on any statistics on this, but from my experience, a lot of businesses end up doing something else than they were supposed to do as focus. I will give you my own business example – about 5 years ago I started my first business (exited about a year ago) with a clear goal: making software products. Along the way it turned on doing Web Design and PR. This doesn’t mean the business failed, it means the business adapted to do something better, accordingly to its strong points and market opportunities.  So if you’re not prepared to adapt and do something completely different following opportunities it might spell trouble.
• Un-willingness to let someone else take control if you are not up to the job. As said earlier, every entrepreneur has paternal feelings about his business. You’re the all mighty creator, you’re the absolute ruler. Thing is that this doesn’t mean you’re the best CEO. In fact being an entrepreneur is quite opposite of being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs have an idea, spot an opportunity, then do whatever they need to do to make it work, including hiring the right people to manage the business. If you think being a CEO is what entrepreneurship is about, then you might be a business owner, but not an entrepreneur after all.
• Non-ability to cope with problems. No matter how successful you think a certain entrepreneur is, you can be sure he has to deal with problems. When you start up you think that if the business will make enough money, you won’t be having any other problems. Wrong. If you business makes money it just means you won’t have the money problem, but have all the rest. Problems with competition, hiring people, launching new products, all problems are still there except the money problem. Having a business making money does not bail you out of the rest of the problems. So if you’re not prepared to be a problem solver all your entrepreneurial path, things will go down eventually.
• Backup exit plan. Wait, exiting your own business doesn’t mean you failed? If you believe exiting your business means failure you’re dead wrong. Remember, an entrepreneur is the person that spots opportunities and make something out of them – this could mean one business ore 100 businesses. In fact, not having an exit plan makes you fail for real – you’ll get so obsessed that you need to make things work for you in that particular business that you won’t be able to act toward the real goals.
• Loosing life balance. Life balance can be lost in many ways as an entrepreneur and I’m not talking only about not having enough time to spend with your family or to do whatever you want to do. There is also greed. There is also health. There is goodwill and leaving a social life in your community. Loosing control over your own life and destiny.

Of course, I can almost hear you saying: I don’t need to worry about these now. Now I just need that money making idea to start a business and have it turn into a successful thing now. I will worry later about the other things. And that’s why most business are failing in the first 5 years.

Premises

Ok, let’s say you are working on a new product and you need to decide what features should be in. I will start by assuming you are knowledgeable enough to lay down the features of the new product and you probably have a reasonable idea about what’s needed to make it a successful one. So what do you do? You write down what the product is about, list some features, maybe do some research upfront and here you go, you set up a meeting with your employees to let them know the plan and what they need to do to create the product.

Meeting starts. Probably for the first 10 minutes nobody says anything, they just listen to what you say. Then the first questions appear and together with them (if you are lucky enough) the first sign of opposition – some of the guys will tell you are dead wrong. First reaction? You will get upset. In fact, you are so damn sure about what needs to be done that you feel things are so obvious and everybody will agree from the beginning and all opposition is just because your employees don’t know what they are talking about.

Things will heat up. Maybe someone will raise the voice. Your blood pressure is going up. Who are they to challenge you? Why the 1 hour meeting turns into a 3 hours meeting and nothing is decided? Why does everybody is convinced they are right and everybody else is wrong?

Why is it a good sign that your employees don’t always agree with you (and you are lucky)

• It means you created a working environment where your employees feel free to express their opinions. I’m going to argument this with a question: what would you prefer having your employees executing your decisions (good or bad) without feedback or brainstorm on ideas?
• It means your employees speak up based on their best knowledge. And that’s good because even if you are in a leading position you might never have as much knowledge, experience and skills as the sum of your employees.
• It means your employees are well committed to bring value to your business. Actually if you don’t get feedback and opposition should be an alarming sign: nobody cares enough to make things better or to take responsibility.
• Having a different opinion is way different from doing things wrong and not executing duties. As long as stuff gets done the right way and everybody does what is supposed to do it means everybody does his job.
• You might actually be dead wrong and not knowing it. Yes, you, the absolute ruler, might overlook things.

But what might get wrong? Lots of things.

• People might get angry and stressed. Remember I told you that the product features seem to be so obvious that is hard to accept your employees might have a different opinion? Well, their experience, knowledge and skills tells them with the same emphasis that you are wrong and they are right. They get angry and stressed the same way you do and unlike you, employees fear repercussions. What if you fire them or don’t give them the raise they deserve because they told you are wrong? And what happens if your employees are angry and stressed? Their productivity drops. And you don’t want this.
• You might prevent your employees from expressing their knowledgeable thoughts in the future. It happen to me when I was employed. I just wanted the meeting to finish and to do whatever the boss wanted me to do just to get at the end of the day. I’m quite sure it happens to all employees at some point if you get out of control. And you don’t want this.
• Burn a lot of time with no constructive results. Don’t you hate when it takes you 3 hours and nothing gets decided in the end? Or nothing new and constructive gets added to the product? You need to schedule another meeting and burn some more time. That’s expensive because you keep a lot of people from actually doing something. And you don’t want this.
• Confusing decisions that might slow down the creation of the product or lead it in the wrong direction. This usually happens when you fail to make clear conclusions or when your arguments don’t convince. Employees will leave the meeting without a clear “What needs to be done” vision and come back for more details or even do things wrongly because they understood things wrongly. And you don’t want this.
• Lose employees commitment due to low acceptance or misunderstanding of the product vision. Ok, now, what will happen to some employees is that if you fail to present your vision with strong arguments they will still not agree, but go ahead and implement stuff without truly believing is “What needs to be done”. And you know what happens when you don’t believe that what you do is good: you work slow and don’t really show interest in doing it. And you don’t want this.

Through my professional experience, being an employee myself or an entrepreneur I got to deal with being in an environment that permitted or even encouraged different opinions to an environment based on despotic management. It doesn’t make me an expert in meetings management or decision enforcing, but what I can do right now is to lay down my own observed rules in mitigating different opinions from up to bottom.

Golden rules when your employees don’t agree with you

Prepare the meeting like you’re doing it for a group of investors

Are the investors going to be convinced and give you some money? Have you made your everything to preset things to the best of your abilities? Your employees are the first ones that will have to buy into your idea. Whatever you do, slideshow presentations, executive summaries, features lists, expected outcome, market opportunities, all should be sold to your employees first.

Deal with anger/stress and keep the meeting at reasonable levels

You shouldn’t forget who is leading the meeting and what is the scope of the meeting. After introducing the product concepts, state a clear list of achievable for the meeting, what should be the output: a list of features, a specification, whatever it is. When things are heating up let people know through your own attitude that opinions, language and deliberations should be constructive.

Never rise your voice (hard to do if things are heating up)

If you’re raising the voice it will just stress people more. Nobody wants the boss yelling at them and sometimes your employees will yell more just to impose their view. It’s going nowhere.

Never say “Because I say so”

If you do, it means you run out of valid arguments and just use your position to impose decisions. It stops employees from expressing their knowledge. Of course that in the end, employees will have to do whatever you are setting as their duty, but just don’t say it as an argument.

Ask for constructive feedback

Whenever someone has a point that is not obvious, ask for argumentation. A list of examples, market research or previous experience might clear up things, steer the product in a better direction or show flaws in the original vision.

Write down opinions and points of view

Sometimes some opinions seem out of space, but they might prove valuable later on when product is being created. Maybe a feature might not look important now, but will differentiate your product later. Don’t let these ideas being washed away in the heat of the discussion.

Don’t let the meeting slip up

It might take hours to let everybody speak on every piece of information. Meeting direction might slip – usually focusing on details and missing the main points. Whenever you feel this is happening ask for resolutions and decision making.

Meeting minutes

Meeting minutes are a must in more ways: everybody has a clear list of things to do and second if they got confused at some point they can check with the minutes if they got it right and come back if they didn’t.

Don’t forget to thank everybody for the contribution at the meeting

I know it sounds a little cheesy but it helps people de-stress and give them the feeling that they accomplished something.

Never ever take things personally

If your employees have the courage to not agree with you it’s not probably because they have something with you personally. They just think at what is best for the company.

Milpitas, CA, February 07, 2010 –(PR.com)– SimpliFun Studios to Donate 50% of Proceeds to Haiti Relief Effort

SimpliFun Studios, in cooperation with several of its business affiliates including Samantics, Haley Productions and Treasure Adventure, announced today its plans to directly contribute sales of its printable party games and party supplies to benefit victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti during the month of February.

The company’s founder, Lou Anne McKeefery, felt that by joining forces with SimpliFun’s partners and launching a cooperative charitable initiative, more funds could be raised to help provide aid to Haiti in the aftermath of the devastation than would otherwise be possible. She commented, “After seeing the heart-wrenching conditions in Haiti and so much suffering, I wanted to find a way to generate a larger amount of collective financial support than I could contribute individually.”

Customers who visit the SimpliFun website between now and the end of February can help make a difference for the people of Haiti when they purchase any of the company’s family-friendly downloadable entertainment products. Buyers simply need to enter the code “HelpHaiti” at http://www.SimpliFun.com/haiti-donations.html during checkout, and half the purchase price on downloaded parties will go to the Haiti Relief Effort.

McKeefery added, “We hope our customers will be as enthusiastic as we are at the opportunity and privilege to come together and contribute to this very worthy cause, sharing our comparative wealth with those who are much less fortunate in this time of great need.”

For additional information regarding this fundraising campaign, please contact SimpliFun Studios at (408) 946-8632 or visit the company website at http://www.simplifun.com/haiti-donations.html

• Know all that is going on: Small business can suffer great losses when there is internal theft or when your employees do not get along with each other. Unless you have your finger on the pulse of things, you’re not going to be able to manage your business efficiently. When you don’t take a hands-on approach to running your business and instead delegate most of your work to a subordinate, you run the risk of running your business to the ground. So make sure you know all that is going on in your business by keeping your eyes and ears open so that you can catch any problem early and nip it in the bud.

• Work to improve your situation: If you’ve inherited your business or bought someone out, you must strive to better your predecessors. It’s not enough to just keep the business running as it was; you must take the initiative to expand according to your budget and your capability. Take risks that are calculated and that will generate decent returns instead of being greedy for large returns and losing all your money in the process. When you constantly strive for improvement, you keep your interest going and don’t lose the momentum you started out with. At the same time, be prepared to accept failure as part of the game and understand that it chalks up to the learning experience.

• Cultivate invaluable relationships: And finally, for a small business to flourish, you must cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with your customers and your suppliers. The advantage that small businesses have over their larger competitors is that they generally know personally the people they deal with on a regular basis. This makes it hard for people to value relationships based only on money. In a small business, people matter because you know the person behind the deal as opposed to them being faceless customers or suppliers. When you nurture your relationships, you know people will continue to patronize your business.

Small businesses are all about the people, the ones running them as well as the ones who form the clientele. So when you value relationships, work hard, and are ethical, you know you can make a success of your venture.
——

This guest post is contributed by Brenda Harris, who writes on the topic of online executive mba programs . She can be reached at her email id: brenda.harris91@gmail.com .

With her impressive enthusiasm and love for building and designing custom steel bicycles and components, Megan Dean, the owner of Moth Attack (http://mothattack.com/), instantly grabbed the hearts of Idea Café.com’ regulars and stood out amongst hundreds of other small business owners.

Megan Dean said winning the grant would help her start a small sponsored cycling team that would be racing on custom bikes built by her. She is currently a very active bike advocate, volunteer and donates to several non-profits that have similar goals and ideals.
She will pass on her business wisdom and entrepreneurial spirit to Idea Café regulars through monthly updates, posted on Idea Café blog (blog.ideacafe.com ).

Moth Attack joins a line-up of inspiring entrepreneurs, who have won an Idea Cafe grant in the past. The previous grant winners, Go Green Go and WOMbeat!, are well known for their insightful reports and useful tips. Another exceptional business owner, Leah Larson, not only won Idea Cafe grant but went on to win the $100,000.00 Wells Fargo’s Someday Stories contest. Yet another Idea Café grant winner, Percy Marchand and his company, Marchand Ink, have been featured in The London Times and New Orleans Magazine. “Winning this grant propelled me into a spiral of success and accolades,” commented Percy in one of his updates for Idea Cafe.

Established by veteran entrepreneur Francie Ward, the Idea Cafe Small Business Grants distinguish small business owners with extraordinary ideas and drive to succeed, who are dedicated to helping their local community and peers.

About Idea Café
Idea Café (http://www.ideacafe.com)

BusinessMorgue small business blog provides tips and tools to help entrepreneurs select the right franchise business opportunity. In a five-part article series, BusinessMorgue discusses the assumptions that can send would-be franchise owners down a path that’s likely to end in business failure.
The national unemployment rate in the U.S. doubled between April, 2008 and October, 2009. As quality employment opportunities dry up, experienced professionals may be looking to open a franchise business. Operating a franchise business may have its advantages, but the risk of failure can be high — particularly when the overall economy is unstable. Small Business Association data for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2008, indicates that franchisee defaults rose more than 50 percent from the prior year.

The BusinessMorgue franchise content series urges prospective franchise owners to challenge their own assumptions when evaluating business opportunities. Buying a franchise should never be an emotional decision. It must be a decision that is justified by hard data. The BusinessMorgue articles provide entrepreneurs with concrete questions to ask about any prospective franchise opportunity.

The articles are available on the site and as download-able podcasts. Visit http://businessmorgue.com/category/franchise-opportunities/ to learn more.

About BusinessMorgue
BusinessMorgue.com is a Brock Communications, Inc., publication that caters to the small business owner who wears all hats, from strategy and business development to file clerk. The blog covers a variety of small business topics, including marketing and finance.

I’m from Eastern Europe and I’ve tried to make a mild description of entrepreneurship environment on several occasions. Through my entrepreneurship stories I’ve got to know how easy is to start a business for example in US. Let me give you my main thoughts on that.

5 reasons why is easier to start a US small business

• Business environment. There is no secret that it’s very easy to start a business and incorporate in US. Legislation, infrastructure is there to support small businesses. Plenty of supporting organizations.

Let’s take opening an online business – an shop for sporting gear. You will need an online shop, some stocks, marketing and internet merchant accounts . Online shops? The greatest ones are in US: Amazon for example. So you have some sort of a culture of well done online shops. Stocks? I don’t think there is any kind of merchandise you can’t get delivered in US. credit card processing ? That’s where it got invented. Elsewhere? Take Eastern Europe – people are not used to buy online, are afraid to pay by credit card and love to pay cash.

• Market potential. If you’re opening a wide audience business, you are already marketing and selling to millions of customers.

I was discussing last week with some local entrepreneurs and we were analyzing why there aren’t that many big investments in let’s say online shops over here.  Besides the things like less infrastructure, payment  methods and so on, frankly speaking if you are opening an online shop in Romania (I’m taking this example because it’s my home country) you are only selling to a maximum of 15 millions. If you take out people that don’t want to shop online, don’t use credit cards and so on, you are only left with very few millions.

• Entrepreneurial thinking. Generations of entrepreneurs created a strong “entrepreneurial culture”.

If your parents own a business, if your friends own a business and if you see even young entrepreneurs succeeding how willing would you be to start a business? I bet you are!  Elsewhere? People are used to work for the public administration. Stories say you could lose everything if you fail in business. Your ancestors have raised you saying you shouldn’t take any risks. Starting a business is an act of courage!

• Funding. Angel investors, venture capitalists, a banking system created to support small businesses.

Someone asked me a couple of days ago: What do you know about angel investors in Romania? Where can I find them? Any success stories? I didn’t know the answer – maybe because they don’t identify themselves as angel investors and belonging to a group. So most businesses around here start small and take long to develop. That’s way different from having a good idea, a good business plan and putting them to work with outside investment. That’s more likely to pay back!

• Education. Hands on education on how to run a business, plenty of supporting organizations, all great business teachers are in US

10 or 20 years ago the East European education system was praised for the quality of skilled force it delivered. Reality showed later that these so called skilled students know more in theory than in reality (at least this is my opinion). Have a look at this list of 200 Best Blogs, Free Courses and eBooks for the Business Student and you will see why you grep a better grasp of the reality with the entrepreneurial minded education system in US.

What to do if you are elsewhere?

Ok, so it might be harder to start a business elsewhere. But sometimes this offers just the right opportunities. I think I wrote in several occasions that if you take a small town in Germany for example is much harder to find an area that is not yet covered and make a business from it. Elsewhere there are so many needs that still don’t have a solution! Let’s take the above steps and see what if you are elsewhere.

• Business environment. It’s harder to start a business, more bureaucracy, expensive banking services and many more. The thing is that if the entry barriers are bigger, chances are that you could keep your market position for longer, have less competition and be more successful in general. Not sure if you ever thought about this before, but it really depends how you think about things. Sometimes being hard is good.
• Market potential. Ok, here we have a real issue that can’t be overcome that easily. If you want to start a mass business, let’s say toilet paper, you won’t get to sell that many in a small market and there is nothing you could do to sell more. Unless you plan for the begining to become a ‘regional’ player instead of a local one. On the other hand, niche businesses tend to do better. It’s far easier to take a niche business and make it mainstream in a small market.
• Entrepreneurial thinking. Your parents told you shoul get a safe 9 to 5 job. All your friends have a job. Thing is that if you get yourself to think and to feel that you are in charge with your life, and you get the power to go and do anything that drives you forward, entrepreneurship is something you could do. It only depends on your desire to take control of your own life.
• Funding. Yes, it’s hard to fund a new business. Good thing is that nothing pushes you forward better than being hungry. It makes you efficient, it makes you take more advantage of things. Don’t believe this is true? Read more about in the Interview with Mike Michalowicz, Author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.
• Education. Well, you can’t really change what you learn in school. So the only way to do it is becoming a self educated entrepreneurs. Luckily there is Internet.

The competition, presented by DTE Energy and the University of Michigan and now in its second year, challenges teams to develop business plans that promise to move a new, clean-energy technology from the laboratory to the market place.

A total of 32 teams made up of students from six Michigan colleges and universities participated in Round 1, for which judging was conducted Nov. 23 at U-M’s Ross School of Business.  The schools represented by participants in the first round include The University of Michigan, Davenport University, Henry Ford Community College, Wayne State University, Michigan State University and Oakland University.

The competition requires that teams focus on business ideas that support renewable energy, energy efficiency, smart grid technologies, environmental control technologies, plug-in electric vehicles or energy storage. The teams are competing for a share of a $100,000 prize pool, which will be awarded Feb. 12 after the final round of judging. The prize money rewards the winning teams with resources that can help them further develop their ideas and ultimately start new businesses that can contribute to Michigan’s emerging role as a leader in clean energy.

The teams that advanced from the first round are:

• Advanced Battery Control
• Carbon Perks
• Dadi Systems
• Enertia
• Food Waste Energy
• Go Green Energy Consulting
• Green Silane
• Ice Mitigating Systems
• Nalu Solar Software
• The Planeteers
• Qisol, LC
• ReGenerate
• Rho G Wind
• Smart Energy Inc
• Solaculture
• Synerton Innovations

In Round 2, these teams will present a market analysis and preliminary financial analysis to a panel of judges that includes leaders from the venture capital, business, industry and academic communities. The teams also are required to submit a written summary of their analyses.  The judges will assess the teams on their written material as well as their presentation skills.

Of the 16 teams competing in Round 2, as many as eight teams will advance to the semi-final round that will be held Feb. 12.

The Clean Energy Prize competition was established by DTE Energy and the University of Michigan to encourage entrepreneurship in Michigan and the development of clean-energy technologies.  The Masco Corporation Foundation and The Kresge Foundation were Clean Energy Prize founding sponsors and they continue to support the competition.  Additional sponsors include UBS Investment Bank and Nth Power, a clean-tech venture capital company.

“The primary purpose of the Clean Energy Prize is to foster greater entrepreneurship within universities and be part of a broader ecosystem to encourage more risk-taking and tech start-ups in Michigan,” said Knut Simonsen, president, DTE Energy Ventures.

The U-M Ross School of Business’ Ross Energy Club along with the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute and the Michigan Initiative for Innovation and Entrepreneurship are organizing the current competition.  Also providing support is several other University of Michigan entities, including the college of engineering’s Center for Entrepreneurship, the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, and MPowered Entrepreneurship.

Simonsen said he is pleased with the number of teams participating and with the number of schools represented. In the first year, all teams had to have at least one U-M student or faculty member. “After the success of the inaugural Clean Energy Prize last year, we decided to open the competition to all Michigan colleges and universities so that it could generate more ideas and greater participation,” he said. “And the results – with 32 teams and 135 individuals participating – have exceeded our most optimistic expectations.”

Jeff Caveney, one of the Ross Energy Club student leaders, said the competition has generated dozens of compelling ideas for new, clean-energy businesses and demonstrates the enthusiasm that students have for entrepreneurship.  ”Round 1 of the 2009/2010 Clean Energy Prize was a testament to the creativity, ingenuity, and overall interest in clean energy amongst students in Michigan,” he said. “Both the participants and leadership team are eagerly awaiting rounds two through four to watch the ideas mature into viable business plans.”

Details of the competition are available on the Clean Energy Prize Web site: www.dtecleanenergyprize.com.

DTE Energy Ventures is a DTE Energy company that invests in emerging energy technologies and to date has invested more than $100 million in energy-related companies and funds, making us one of the largest Michigan-based venture capital operations. Information about DTE Energy Ventures is available at www.dteenergyventures.com.

DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) is a Detroit-based diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services nationwide. Its operating units include Detroit Edison, an electric utility serving 2.2 million customers in Southeastern Michigan, MichCon, a natural gas utility serving 1.3 million customers in Michigan and other non-utility, energy businesses focused on power and industrial projects, gas midstream, unconventional gas production and energy trading. Information about DTE Energy is available at www.dteenergy.com.

The Ross Energy Club is a group of talented business students who share an interest in energy. REC promotes career development by providing a forum for education about all aspects of business in the energy sector.

The Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute develops, coordinates and promotes multidisciplinary energy research and education at U-M. Some 75 faculty in disciplines ranging from engineering to policy to environmental science to urban planning are a part of the institute.

SOURCE DTE Energy

RELATED LINKS
http://www.dteenergy.com

Event and media-related details include:

• Carl Schramm, Kauffman Foundation president and CEO, will deliver a “State of Entrepreneurship” address at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, January 19 at 12:30 p.m. EST.
• Entrepreneurs from multiple sectors will participate in a panel discussion and share their personal stories following the “State of Entrepreneurship” address.
• Kauffman Foundation will release the results of an exclusive survey tracking entrepreneurs’ concerns and their perspective on the economy.
• A printed report including an analysis of entrepreneurship trends and the challenges facing new business, an overview of the links between job creation and entrepreneurs and concrete policy recommendations will be released at the event.

WHEN: Tuesday, January 19, 2010; 12:30 p.m. EST

• Members of the media can attend the “State of Entrepreneurship” address at the National Press Club, 529 14^th Street NW, 13^th Floor, Washington, D.C.
• Lunch will be provided
• Printed “State of Entrepreneurship” reports will be available at 11:30 a.m. EST.
• Still photos and images of the “State of Entrepreneurship” address will be available from the Kauffman Foundation following the event.

WHY: As the engine of the economy, entrepreneurship warrants attention as the nation embarks on a new year dedicated to reversing the recession. With nearly $2 billion in assets, the Kauffman Foundation is the world’s largest private foundation dedicated to entrepreneurship and the leading funder of economic research in the United States. Recent Kauffman Foundation research has shed new light on the importance of entrepreneurship to economic recovery and growth, such as:

• Over the past 30 years, nearly all net job creation has come from companies less than five years old.
• Ninety-two percent of Americans in a September 2009 study say entrepreneurs are critically important to job creation.
• The highest rate of entrepreneurial activity is among people ages 55-64.
• Immigrants to the United States start new companies at nearly twice the rate of the native-born U.S. population.

To attend the event or schedule an interview contact: Kelly Rohrs, Edelman, 212-819-4852, kelly.rohrs@edelman.com

Edelman
Kelly Rohrs, 212-819-4852
kelly.rohrs@edelman.com
or
Smita Saran, 212-819-4889
smita.saran@edelman.com

Businesses in Chile, India, Australia, Vietnam and Brazil are the most optimistic in the world, all scoring over +70%. Close behind are South Africa, mainland China, Singapore, Canada and Hong Kong (which showed the biggest swing of sentiment from 2009) at +60% or higher (see figure 1). At the other end of the scale, many eurozone countries remain pessimistic about the future; Italy, Denmark, Finland and France all scored +9% or lower with Greece (-23%) and Ireland (-42%) even more gloomy. Spain (-56%) and Japan (-72%) kept their places as the most pessimistic economies in the world, although even here the figures were slightly up on last year.

When compared to the IMF’s GDP figures for 2009, economies that avoided recession (for example, Australia, mainland China, India and Vietnam) or suffered a relatively minor recession (such as Brazil, Hong Kong, Canada and New Zealand) all feature, not surprisingly, at the top of the league table.

Against the IMF’s GDP forecasts for 2010, however, an interesting picture emerges, with businesses in places as geographically diverse as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia and Germany recording disproportionately higher optimism than might be expected (see figure 2).

Alex MacBeath, global head of markets at Grant Thornton International, comments, “The question is whether businesses in these economies can forecast their future more accurately than the IMF. Many governments, on reading these results, will hope their business community is right and that their GDP in 2010 will outstrip IMF forecasts as a result.”

The survey also found that expectations of increased revenues in 2010 came out highest (at +40%) when respondents were asked to rank likely business trends in 2010. Increased turnover was followed by the surprisingly positive view that investment in plant and machinery (+31%) and profitability (+29%) would both increase. Businesses were much less hopeful about selling prices with 21 out of 36 economies less optimistic about increasing their prices than they were in 2009.

Alex MacBeath comments, “This suggests that during the recession businesses have become leaner and more cost effective which may enable them to lower prices while still securing increased revenues and, crucially, profits. As the global economy emerges from recession, we are likely to see many businesses reaping the rewards of recession induced efficiencies to lead the way in the upturn.”

When asked about employment expectations in 2010, European businesses were far more pessimistic than their counterparts elsewhere in the world; a negative balance of -1% in Europe compared to balances of +33% and +42% in Asia Pacific and Latin America respectively. All countries who recorded negative balances for employment were European, led by Ireland, Italy (both -14%), France (-10%) and Spain (-8%).

Alex MacBeath adds, “Privately held businesses contribute 81% of global GDP, and the global business community should be encouraged by the results of this survey.  Many people blamed globalisation for the speed of the downturn but we are now seeing that globalisation may also help us accelerate out of recession. This survey suggests that businesses in the giant emerging markets of mainland China, India and Brazil are confident that they can help to pull the rest of the world back into growth and businesses in many other economies are equally optimistic (in some cases more optimistic than they have been for years) that they have not only survived this recession but are well placed to help drive the upturn, and see their business grow as a result. European governments, in particular, will hope such optimism is well founded.”

It has never been easier to start a business ever before. Especially if you can build something online, software or services you can keep your investments low. You just need a computer, internet connection and knowhow on what you want to do (no, I’m not talking about getting rich quick online businesses type of thing). But even if you start small and don’t really need to invest much there are rules that can make you successful. Or not, I should know about this as I had my own bootstrapped company back in the days which I exited 2008. So let me say what I have learned, it might help you.

1. Things are harder than they seem at first. Have at least 6 months to a year funds to cover your living costs. Chances are that if you passed the entrepreneurship fear of failure moment, you’re not even close to realizing how hard is to run a business. Let’s say you are a programmer and have this exceptional idea of a software product, but is it build it and they will come? My experience says … no. Because you also need marketing, sales and all the rest that comes with a business. Or maybe you make some sort of a business plan that in 6 months you will break even and don’t worry about it afterward? Wrong again, first you might not get it done in 6 months but a year, then the economy is changing. You never stop fighting for your business (unless you are extremely lucky, but most people aren’t).
2. Don’t mix personal finances with business finances. Separate costs and accounts. I know that if you are bootstrapping you are basically paying for everything from your pocket, right? Things is that before you know it, you will need let’s say a new PC, a new desk or a new phone. Things get messy when you’re running out of funds or even worse if you have partners with you in the business. How much have you invested? How much has your partner did? Did you make a profit, or is it just because you paid from your own pocket for the furniture? Or in reverse, you overspend for your own things and company funds are depleted. The surest way to kill a business. Don’t buy a Mercedes from your first year of operating a business even if you do well. It means you didn’t use the funds to grow your business wisely. It might not mean much as I’m saying it, but you’ll get to feel the pain when your competition will invest more than you do in marketing or production.
3. Evaluate your own work and consider it a cost. Ok, so besides the very few cash investments you do to start a boostrapped business what else do you do? You work your butt day in and day out without getting paid (because your pay should also come from your own pocket which makes it a non-sense). Problem is that on one hand if you don’t know how much your own work worth you’re probably not selling it at the right price (if you never lose a customer it’s usually a sign you are going under the market price and unless you have a technological reason for it most likelly is because you don’t put a price on your own hours). And on a second hand, if your work doesn’t have a value, you’ll also forget to pay yourself and guess what, you will end up with no personal funds (because you used them all to start the business and live for the last 6 months) and with a business in trouble. Best way to deal with this is to consider how much you have been paid at your previous job (or at least the industry standard if you didn’t have a job before), add the hours and see at the end of the month how much your work costs. You might end up closing down your business and get back to a regular 9 to 5 job if you’re not making close to what you would be paid on a regular job, but that’s better than ending up in debt and bankrupt.
4. Outsource things that are outside your main competence. Yes you heard me right, money are tight and I’m saying you should pay someone else to do stuff you could eventually do yourself? Yes, you could do them on your own, but my experience says that if you are a marketing guy you should try to code your own site. Of course, you could do it, but even a small 2 hours task could easily become a 10 hour task because you don’t know to code. And coming back to the “evaluate your own work” thing, if your work is $70 an hour, then the cost of doing that easy thing on your site just went up from $140 to $700. Outch!
5. Under-evaluate money coming in. Let’s say you just signed 2 contracts, $2.000 each for the coming month. This should cover your month’s expense so why should you under-evaluate? At least 2 reasons. One is that even if you signed 2 contracts, one might not happen, or even if it does, it might take longer to finish than you thought, and guess what, you’ll get $2.000 next month. So what are you going to do this month to cover your costs? And second, $4.000 seem enough to cover your own costs right? Yes, but $4.000 is not so much after you pay the taxes, cover the Internet bill and the rest. And what happens if your PC broke down? Trust me, even if you sign big contracts it doesn’t mean you’re safe. They usually take more work than you think, and you never know what else comes along and better be prepared by under-evaluating your income.
6. Family support. Ask for it before you start. You know, the thing is that starting a bootstrapped company is far harder than starting a regular company with outside funds. You start on your own, have long hours each day, money are tight, and most likely you don’t have that much staff to share responsibilities or at least brainstorm things. It’s going to take a toll on you, both physically and mentally. Don’t let it affect your family balance, because in the end, even if the business turns belly up, is far more worse to lose your family and business altogether.
7. Don’t overspend. Keep money for the worse to come. You know what will happen? After months of hard work, tight money and stuff you might just get to do a little better. Then you’ll get to some sort of shopping spree, after all, it’s all your hard earned money, you should indulge yourself right? Well, yeah, but unless it’s really going to help your productivity in a real clear out loud way, don’t do it. Don’t just buy that Mercedes because you deserve it. Things will eventually turn worse at some point (you go up hard and down fast, that’s a business life) and guess what. Your Mercedes won’t help pay the bills.
8. Focus on your business strengths, don’t try to make everybody happy. Truth is that no business or company will make everybody happy. And I know that your pride is to make happy customers, but it might get costly trying to do everything. Instead focus on what is your business absolute best, and make this for your happy customers. It’s far more important to have some very happy customers than having pleased customers but not happy ones.
9. Get a partner. But he should know what he is getting into. It’s a bit hard to find a partner for a bootstrapped company, because it’s hard to find someone that thinks like yourself and decide to put his own money into a business, not getting paid and hope for the best. Thing is that if you’re starting on your own, there is nobody saying when you’re doing things wrong. Or you might just run out of ideas – your brain can only cope with that much when it comes to creativity. Might also help when you’re feeling down.
10. Have an exit plan. It doesn’t sound good to have this one as the last point because it somehow says your business will eventually go belly up. That’s not what I meant, and this is entirely after you to make it run. But if the things get nasty the thing that could turn a simple failure into a disaster would be to not have an exit plan. An exit plan might mean getting a 9 to 5 job. So leave the door open when you’re quitting the job to start on your own. Or selling the business might be even better. You just need to build your business in a way that is “sellable” at some point. Keep everything in good order both financially and legally and build value besides your own work. Build a brand, a customer base, everything could be an asset when selling.

Addon rules. Still golden.

1. Luck. Never underestimate the importance of luck when starting a bootstrapped business. If you don’t want to call it luck then call it perfect alignment between market demand, timing and your products or services.
2. It’s never too soon to start improving your business. I’m just going to give you a link to something I wrote earlier.
3. Trust in yourself. Sometimes is everything that you got. I have a list of interviews I did with entrepreneurs, you’ll be amazed how many “impossible businesses” turned millions.

Some restaurant operators are proving restaurant experts wrong. Rebecca’s cafe is one such example. According to owner and operator Michael McAdam, “Rebecca’s cafe has seen a nice increase in business over the last quarter. Rebecca’s cafe was recently recognized as the largest caterer in the Boston area. Rebecca’s cafe is currently serving up the greater Boston area with over twenty locations.”

Rebecca’s cafe has embraced technology as a means to grow its business. Rebecca’s cafe uses BigHoller’s restaurant online ordering system to attract and maintain repeat customers. According to McAdam, “through the use of tools like email marketing, discounting etc, we have seen month over month growth in our online orders. There is a strong segment of the population that wants to use technology when interfacing with us.” The fact that Rebecca’s cafe has delicious food doesn’t hurt either.

To its end, BigHoller puts out a marketing “how-to” for its online ordering restaurants that illustrate how they can maximize growth and even thrive in a downturn economy. With a growing number of people now using the Internet than ever before, providing this type of easy access has grown from a luxury item to a industry necessity.

About Rebecca’s cafe

Always fresh, great tasting, and convenient, Rebecca’s cafe provides everyday meal solutions prepared with care to satisfy your taste buds and suit your busy life. Meals inspired by a catering team dedicated to exceeding your expectations, you can always count on Rebecca’s cafe to provide inventive cuisine using the finest ingredients, always from scratch . . . . . always fresh.

About BigHoller

BigHoller is an online food ordering solution used by Pita Pit USA, Buckhorn Grill, Planet Pizza and OrderSubway.com. They specialize on providing both large-scale restaurant chains and smaller, single-location restaurants’ simple and easy to use online ordering solutions. They tout user-friendly customer interfaces, robust back-end database capabilities, popular ordering features and unsurpassed service to their customers. For more information, contact G.R. Homa at (888) Big-Holler (244-4655) or visit http://www.BigHoller.com.

For veterans, women, minority and traditionally disadvantaged small business owners, this is an opportunity to learn more about cutting edge business opportunities in Energy Efficiency. Topics to be addressed include energy audits; residential and commercial building retrofits; and energy efficiency products and materials. Panels will discuss Renewable Energy business opportunities in the increasingly critical solar, wind, geothermal and alternative fuel areas.

“The whole country is on the verge of major changes in energy supply and demand. Maryland and North Carolina have emerged as cutting edge pioneers on the East Coast. This conference will give small businesses an opportunity to understand the energy environment, plan business growth and find financing. It’s time to catch the green energy wave” said Stanley Tucker, Chairman of the Board of the Baltimore President’s Round Table.

A special Career Track and Expo will introduce  career seekers to ‘in-demand’ skills needed by the green energy industry. Knowledgeable advisers will provide insight into current job openings, compensation and long term prospects.  State regulators and college advisors will share  certification and training program availability as well as financing programs to secure that training.

Speakers from national energy research organizations, major utilities, Federal and state energy agencies,  educational institutions and investment capital firms will present current news on legal guidelines, stimulus funding, the power outlook (particularly demand and pricing dynamics) and impending procurement contracts.

For more information about the conference and speaker updates, visit www.businessforgreen.com.

Article

Josh Ruxin talks in an article called Fashion, Rwanda and the Power of Social Entrepreneurship about KEZA (www.keza.com) a fashion business born in Rwanda which sells jewelry all over Europe and in the US. As Josh says “When you think about fashion, do you think about Africa?” Probably not, but that’s what makes entrepreneurship such a powerfull reality shapper. With the right mindset and determination you can sell sand in the desert.

You know most people wanting to start a business procrastinate believing that they don’t have a chance because the market is bad, they don’t have investment money or they don’t want to risk. You can go ahead and read this article on how to Go From Procrastinator to Entrepreneur but no matter how you put it, Keza is a true story of entrepreneurship as a force to make things happen.

As Josh says, it’s not easy, but the achievements make all the difference: “KEZA first had to get over some large hurdles, including training their manufacturing cooperatives in design, quality control, product consistency, and accounting. In the end, KEZA helped the cooperatives get on their feet and connected them to an international market for their products. KEZA has a team of international fashion experts that assist in product design and development and, more importantly, KEZA continues to train poor Rwandan women in business development and growth. This helps them to generate salaries of $200-$300 per month with full benefits. This is a massive boon to people who are used to earning about $17 per month during the best of times.”

Video

Yesterday I had one of my friends from South Africa sending me over some videos. So in the video below, we have Professor Hans Rosling from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden talking with facts and numbers about how wrong is our perception about Western/Developing World

So what if we are simply dead wrong? We are working all our life towards the Western “happiness” but what if hapiness is elsewhere or has a different format?

I can’t say I’ve started young – I think I took the entrepreneurial path at 26-27 years old, but I had the chance to interview a lot of young entrepreneurs in the last 2 years, – I think the youngest was 16 at the interview time. So let me write down some advantages and disadvantaged of starting a business before let’s say 30. Damn I feel old at 32…

Later edit: I found out that it was harder to fill in the 10 disadvantages than the 10 advantages.

Top advantages of starting young

1. Risks is lower.
   You don’t have a mortgage to pay or a family to provide to. And even if you do bad for a while, family is there to help you (see point 2) and your living costs are lower (see point 5). And even if you’re messing up big time, it’s not like you’re going to loose your lifelong savings (or maybe you do, but we are not talking about huge amounts yet)
2. Family and friends support.
   While in some cases if you are married (with children) might raise demands from your family to spend more time with them and might not be so supportive with you running a business, I think in most cases, being young gets you more support from your parents and friends. If you get it wrong (see point 1) you still have a place to sleep and something to eat. Besides, because of the point 2 at the disadvantages list, you might need to get some financing from the 3F – Friends, Family and Fouls. Being younger makes things easier then.
3. Easier to allocate time resources.
   Because you are probably not married yet, nor having children, chances are that there is nobody to complain if you stay late at the office. And you might have less duties at home (even if you have to take the trash out) and much more resistance at spending nights working.
4. Hiring young employees.
   As stated in my post here, start-ups do better with young employees. Being young yourself, it wouldn’t be a problem working with these young employees, and it might cost you less (see point 5). You will get to learn together with them how to make the business work, and on the long run it might get you some life-long friends and business partners.
5. Lower costs.
   Maybe you are still living at your parents, or even if you don’t, you might settle for a small condo. And you don’t need to drive a Merc. And your employees are costing you less because you’re hiring young (see point 4). You can live with just some pocket change for a while!
6. Business innocence.
   That’s both a benefit and a disadvantage (see point 1 at the disadvantages list). But basically, assuming that you have never worked before (or just did it for a short time) it might be that you were protected from the business adversities. You are less afraid of things, more innovative (because you just have to learn everything from nothing) and not afraid of things. You get to do things your own way because you don’t have the pre-conceptions on how things should be done because you worked before that way.
7. Learning is easier.
   That’s both a scientific factor that young people learn faster and an outcome of point 7. Your brain acts like a sponge, because there is so much to learn and partially because of point 9.
8. Failure effects are easier.
   First, it’s not like you’re going to loose your house (or maybe it does, but it’s outside of the thinking for this list), and even if shit hits the fan, you have the excuse that you are young and inexperienced. Besides, being young gives you more time to try again and do things better.
9. Enthusiasm.
   Easy to understand this one. Remember when you were little, you enjoyed  your little toys for much more time. Go out and buy yourself a towing truck (or barbie doll)  like you had when were little – your enjoyment will last less than in your childhood. It’s the way things go, if you are older and already been employed for a while, or had your own company for a few years, and let me tell you something: nothing gives you more enthusiasm than starting your first business and being young.
10. Easier to stay up to date.
    This is a result of point 7. Think about your parents. How easy is for yourself to get around with the iPhone, and how long it takes them to use it fully? It’s so easy nowadays to have your brain bombarded with information that it becomes a problem – it get’s worse with time, because you get to know a bit of everything.

And some disadvantages of starting young

1. No experience in running a business.
   Ok, that’s quite easy to explain, you simply don’t know anything. You don’t know how to make a contract, you don’t know how to rent office space, you don’t know how to talk with customers. Maybe you learned something in school, but nothing compares to a few years of real life experience.
2. Hard to get financing.
   You have no credit history, no money put aside, no relevant experience. You can’t even put a your house as a collateral (because you don’t own one)
3. No Business connections.
   Sometimes is not a matter of what you do, or how you do it. Sometimes is a matter of who do you know. It opens doors, it get’s you customers and might get some help in for you.
4. Less trust from the customers.
   Let’s say you’re running a hosting business and you’re 18. How do you feel your customers will react to letting their corporate sites on your hands? Or how would you negotiate with your customers face to face? How do they find references about your previous work, experience and testimonials?
5. Dropping school.
   You might need to drop school (ok you might say that there are some people out there that did damn well being dropouts). Yeah, might not be a problem, but if things don’t turn out that well, this might just be another things you failed at.
6. Harder to get big contracts.
   This is the result of point 4. You need to have credentials, good standing financial power, or simply years of experience. Hell, you might not even know what you’re doing well enough to respond to the demands of a big contract.
7. People management problems.
   Ok. let’s say you do well enough to hire more people. But would you hire a 50 years old accountant because you need an experienced man for your bookkeeping? Will you be able to manage a man that is almost double your age and inspire him confidence and will he do what you ask him to do? Can you even impose yourself as a manager amongst your young employees or they think about you as their buddy?
8. Even trivial tasks might be difficult.
   This comes from point 1. Let’s say you need to draft a contract. How do you start? Or you need to hire and pay taxes. Do you know how to pay taxes? Legal requirements anyone?
9. Less self-discipline.
   If you are a bit older, and maybe already had a job, then it’s easier to self impose rules. Like getting up in the morning and go to work. But if you’re young, and had a dancing and partying night, are you driven enough to get up next morning and head to the office no matter what?
10. Less time to live your life.
    Sure, your business is your life now, and you have set your own personal goal to make it work no matter what. But you know what? Your buddies might have a 9 to 5 job, and are free to do what they want in the evening. Going to concerts on the weekends. Stay out long. And you might not be able to do this until is too late. And you know what? Nobody will give your time and life back.

I don’t know what to say. But I wish I knew earlier what I know now about life, running a business and life in general. And start my own business sooner. If you’re not convinced, read my article How does it feel to be 20 years late on entrepreneurship.

- New Business Model for Venture Capital Enables CEOs & Founders to Leverage Equity to Become Investors in VC Funds

The Founders Club (http://www.founders-club.com) announces the launch of the first reverse venture capital fund, enabling CEOs and founders to use their shares and stock options to become limited partner investors.

Members of The Founders Club agree to pay a small percentage of their personal cash exits from an IPO or M&A transaction into the fund, which is then distributed to all the members in that specific fund. Each fund balances risks of 30 different VC-backed early and later stage companies to maximize returns and synergies among participating entrepreneurs and VCs. All participants must first be already funded by tier one VCs to qualify to apply to join.

Fourteen senior venture capitalists from Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, London, Paris, Munich, Stockholm and Tel Aviv joined forces to establish and launch the club, whose new model is one of the most significant innovations on the VC model in decades.

Andrew Romans, founder and General Partner, said: “A VC would never invest its entire fund into one company, but rather invests across a portfolio of different companies diversifying and balancing risk. By contrast, founders and hired CEOs have essentially invested their entire fund into one company and have all their eggs in one basket.”

Romans continues: “The Founders Club is a unique way of bonding elite entrepreneurs and investors together so that they help each other with each next key milestone. Members needing to raise additional VC funding can draw on the club’s collective global contact network and its official venture advisors providing unique access to capital. When it is time to sell a company the club unites to bring more buyers to the table resulting in fewer companies failing and exits coming in faster and bigger.”

    Key benefits for CEOs & founders:

    - Diversification
    - Liquidity
    - Incentivized CEO support network
    - Attractive investments in a portfolio of strong VC-backed companies

Jonas Risberg, venture advisor to The Founders Club, and former Partner at 3i and InnovationsKapital, said: “The best VCs provide not only capital for innovation and growth, but CEO mentoring and strategic hands-on assistance for the management teams, which generates higher returns for fund investors. The Founders Club is a natural progression of the VC model to accelerate progress and success with each specific milestone.”

About The Founders Club

The Founders Club is a global venture capital vehicle where CEOs & founders of VC backed companies pool together a small percentage of their personal future equity upside in return for becoming limited partner investors in a ground breaking VC portfolio.

The Founders Club has hosted a series of 11 VC Entrepreneur Roundtable events on 3 continents bringing together over 600 VCs, CEOs and founders before launching its first Technology & Cleantech fund to be followed by the launch of its inaugural Healthcare & Life Sciences fund in 2010.

The Club featured Jon Moulton as a speaker today in London along with 100 VCs and entrepreneurs. Next events will take place in Paris on January 26 and 28, 2010. VC backed entrepreneurs and VCs may register at http://www.founders-club.com/events

As always I will list the reasons below and add my comments.

• Passion. Most entrepreneurs that I’ve got in touch and are successful in their businesses are passion driven, so I agree. However, maybe we should define “passion” as passion for running a business. To explain, I’ve met wonderful technology driven persons with a great passion for their work falling miserably in business. They simply know very well their professions, but when it comes to business (and this always includes marketing/sales, people skills, dealing with customers, suppliers and basically plenty of their non core abilities) they are unable to perform. On the other hand, most entrepreneurs that are passionate about spotting opportunities and turn them into businesses even if they are not in their core professional skills have most chances. They might not know all the details of the technology or whatever the business is based on, but their entrepreneurial approach identifies issues and find solutions.
• Physical and mental strength. Here Jim refers to long business hours – something that I always experienced in my entrepreneurial life, I agree again. I don’t think that it has something to do with working a lot more than 50 hours a week – the actual number of hours doesn’t really matter. What’s important is to have the strength to perform when there is nobody else could. Maybe it means answering support emails at 3 AM in the night. Maybe it means working 16 hours per day. But mostly means doing whatever nobody else is able to do when it needs to be done. You need to have the inner power to push yourself over the limits and get outside of your comfort zone.
• Self-doubt. At times you will be the only one who believes in you. Agree, but we need to make some detailing. First, if you have time to look through the list of entrepreneurs I’ve interviewed in the last 2 years you will see that some of their businesses seem highly improbable to succeed. And still some of them have made it big, with business ideas that “couldn’t” work. On the other hand, running a business in a despotic model and doing  things because “I said so” regardless of the opinion and suggestions might not be so successful. So believe in yourself but stay alert to what other people are saying, advising or thinking.
• Belief. I haven’t seen a single entrepreneur yet that doesn’t believe in the business they are creating. Even if times are rough, they do believe in their passion, vision and path. Agreed.
• Foresight. I’m not sure about this one. Not because I can say an entrepreneur can be really successful without exploring unsighted opportunities. From my experience, some just get lucky (and luck is always important in entrepreneurship) and some don’t get that much out of the regular boundaries but still do a good job in creating a business. But not all entrepreneurs need to make it big.
• Guts. Most people are actually afraid of starting a business so running it on the long term is out of the question. Agreed, most people fear of failure stop them becoming an entrepreneur, so you need guts to be one. We could talk here about fear of not getting an innovative business idea, fear of not getting customers, fear of not having enough money to pay the bills at the end of the month. But you know what? Even most successful entrepreneurs have passed through these fears at least once in their path. I simply don’t know any entrepreneurs that started a business and went from 0 to success in a straight line.
• Failure. I’m probably one of these entrepreneurs that like to play things safe because failure is not an option. Missed a lot of opportunities along the way so I had to learn the hard way that failure is part of an entrepreneur life. So how can entrepreneurs start something that might fail? How do they have the guts? I will write a separate article about this, because it’s an interesting process. Is not that they don’t fear about failure, it’s the way they are thinking about failure.
• Self-discipline. I think this is one of the hardest things to learn as an entrepreneur. After all some people think that the entrepreneurs can make their own schedule and do anything they want as they own the business. Right? You will be amazed that an entrepreneur has more restrictions, more self-imposed rules and limits than the regular employee. Simply because there is nobody else higher in rank to say when they need to start working, to take care of their health and most of the rest of the things it means the entrepreneur must run his life through self-discipline.
• Fairness. Jim says: “Are you hung up on the belief that life is fair? If so, forget being an entrepreneur. The strong survive.” Well yes, life is unfair mostly. But if you don’t run your entrepreneurial life on moral and “fair” principles you are most likely to fail on the long run. But I think Jim agrees with me on this because his last point is:
• Integrity: yes, some creeps are big successes but in general those who keep their commitments no matter what, are more likely to succeed than the creeps. Agreed. Although there are plenty of entrepreneurs that become rich in shady ways, I don’t think that having money made them successful entrepreneurs. Successful entrepreneurs measure their success in many other ways than money: feeling of accomplishments, giving back to the community, creating jobs or improving life in any way.

I know that Jim’s list was not a “top 10 reasons for underperforming entrepreneurs” and I don’t think his intentions were to create a complete list either. But if we are talking about performance, I would like to add some of my own.

• Power to delegate (or wrong delegation). My own entrepreneurial experience says that doing things that are outside your core abilities are better off delegated. I know, I know, sometimes you just have to do things on your own, but you know what? Your time costs money! And instead of focusing on growing your business, you do a poor job doing things you are not good at. And even worse than non-delegation is the wrong delegation. Give away things you should really be doing and you will end up loosing control. Seen both happening, first one stops you from growing, the second one might kill your business.
• Being a business owner instead of an entrepreneur. Well, actually you are a business owner all the time, but when you stop being an entrepreneur you somehow become an employee that pays his own salary.
• Fear of not loosing what you have so far. You know, usually you fear most in the beginning, because you don’t know how things are going to perform. But if things go well, you actually have more to loose in the next few years than in the beginning (and I’m not talking about the money). I’m mostly referring at loosing something that you know it was running. And if you fear this and stop being an entrepreneur and looking for opportunities you better have an exit point because you’re dying as an entrepreneur.
• Becoming self-sufficient and out of focus. Sounds like a no-no, but entrepreneurs can become out of focus. It comes mainly from 3 changes: changes in their private life (getting married, having children), self sufficiency (I have enough for a nice retirement) or focusing on new ideas. Either way, an exit for a while might save your soul and entrepreneurial spirit. No shame stepping out of the business, finding out what’s important in your life and get back (or not) to being an entrepreneur from the bottom of your heart.

- Entrepreneurship Increases: Total entrepreneurial activity (TEA) increased to 10.8 percent in 2008 from 9.6 percent in 2007.

- Opportunity Obsessed: Opportunity continues to be the main driver for entrepreneurs in the United States – 87 percent started their businesses because of a business opportunity while only 13 percent started their businesses out of necessity.

- Early-Stage Entrepreneurs: The United States continues to be at or near the top of the world’s innovation-driven economies in terms of early-stage entrepreneurial activities.

- Substantial Perceived Opportunity: Perceived opportunity is substantial despite a greater fear of failure. This fear of failure has increased appreciably in the U.S. and in the other GEM countries. Perceived opportunity has declined in the U.S. and in the other innovation-driven countries. It is important to note, however, that the decrease in perceived opportunity is only off its high levels of 2007. Thus, perceived opportunity is still substantial despite a greater fear of failure. This contrasts with the marked decrease across the board in GEM countries for individuals who expect to start a business in the next three years. See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSv8MGNpN1c .

The Changing Entrepreneur

- The Aging Entrepreneur: For the total entrepreneurship and the established firms measures, the results indicate a marked reduction (around 8 percent to 9 percent) in entrepreneurial activity for individuals in the 18-44 age group and an increase of a similar amount in the 45-98 age group. While previous reports pointed toward this trend, this year’s data indicate the need to follow this trend closely because of possible implications for U.S. entrepreneurial behavior. See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcz3ncjlOaI .

- The Shrinking Entrepreneur: Size of the ventures entrepreneurs are thinking about is changing. From 2007 to 2008, the number of jobs entrepreneurs expected to create from their startups decreased in all categories – no jobs, 1-5 jobs, 6-19 jobs – except in the category of 20+ jobs.

- The Service Economy: GEM indicates a continuation of the trend toward a business service- and away from a manufacturing-economy. Looking at particular sectors of entrepreneurial activity, U.S. activity is more concentrated in the business services sector and less concentrated in the transforming sector than the activities of other countries in the innovation-economy group, for both early-stage and established firms.

Battle Of The Sexes

- Women Rising: The TEA for women shows a marked increase (6.1 percent to 7.5 percent) while the TEA for men shows a slight decrease (10.7 percent to 9.8 percent). See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvzodL1-CeU.

- Cash Crunch: Women start ventures with eight-times less funding than their male counterparts.

- Different Visions: Men and women differ on the businesses they start. Men are more likely to start business-service businesses than consumer-oriented businesses (47 percent vs. 24 percent), while women are more likely to start a consumer-oriented rather than a service-oriented business (52 percent vs. 26 percent). However, for established businesses, roughly one third of businesses started by men and women are consumer-oriented and service businesses.

- Opportunity Vs. Necessity: Men are substantially more motivated than women by opportunity (93 percent vs. 68 percent) as opposed to necessity (5 percent vs. 21 percent).

- Failure And Status: In the realm of established business, women entrepreneurs have reported greater fear of failure and lower perceptions that business success leads to higher status than male entrepreneurs.

Ethnicity And Immigration

- African Americans Are Starters: African Americans have higher levels of start-up activities than whites (13.9 percent vs. 8.4 percent) while having significantly lower rates of established ventures (8.1 percent vs. 1.8 percent)

- Non-Mexican Hispanics Vs. Whites: Activities of non-Mexican Hispanics are near those of whites for start-ups (8.6 percent vs. 8.4 percent), but for established firms are lower (5.5 percent vs. 8.1 percent).

- The Immigrant Experience: With few exceptions, the entrepreneurial pattern continues when breaking the data down by immigration status.

Funding

- Individuals Invest, Governments Don’t: In terms of financing, the number of adults reporting that they had invested in someone else’s business increased (to 5 percent), as did the amount they financed ($17,500); yet those numbers are countered by the precipitous decline in SBA lending. Read more at http://blogs.babson.edu/facultyblog/2009/11/13/public-policy-in-the-united-states-gem-2008-report/ . See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRVY_rJr2n0 .

- Geek Economy: In terms of technology, the 2008 survey data indicate that while early-stage entrepreneurs continue to be cautious when it comes to developing technology products, the number of entrepreneurs involved in the technology sector–either by starting an Internet business and/or using web marketing or being willing to spend more than $1,000 on new technology–all increased in 2008.

- Where’s The Cash?: There is a decline in both the perception of good opportunities and in the availability of funding for entrepreneurs.

One of the great advantages of a research program such as GEM is that it systematically examines entrepreneurship issues through annual surveys, allowing for examination of the characteristics of entrepreneurship, actions and qualities of individual entrepreneurs and factors in the environment impacting entrepreneurship in diverse economic conditions. See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGXST1AwRHo .

Entrepreneurship And Economic Distress: The global economic crisis that started in 2007 presents a different set of economic conditions than in the prior periods of GEM examination. As such, this 2008 report is particularly important, because it begins to tell the story of entrepreneurial behavior in times of economic distress. However, a note of caution is warranted.

Age And Entrepreneurship: This year’s report examines entrepreneurial activity for those in the 18-99 age group. Traditionally, GEM has examined entrepreneurial behavior for those in the 18-64 age group. Given growing evidence of entrepreneurial behavior past the age of 64, and the likelihood that all GEM countries will move to this new convention, the GEM U.S. team decided to make this change immediately in order to have a fuller picture of entrepreneurship in the United States. When appropriate, comparing the United States to other GEM countries, this report uses data from the 18-64 age group.

Shift In Social Entrepreneurship: GEM concludes that more new and established ventures are seeing the necessity and opportunity of serving a broader social mission while also managing and growing the bottom line. Read more at http://blogs.babson.edu/facultyblog/2009/11/13/social-entrepreneurship-gem-2008/ . See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tIgSW4VLn4 .

The authors thank the Consortium of GEM National Teams who participated in 2008: Angola, Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Latvia, Macedonia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and Uruguay.

Although GEM data were used in the preparation of this report, their interpretation and use are the sole responsibility of the authors.

(c) 2009 by Babson College, Baruch College, Abdul Ali, I. Elaine Allen, Candida Brush, William D. Bygrave, Julio De Castro, Julian Lange, Heidi Neck, Joseph Onochie, Ivory Phinisee, Edward Rogoff, Albert Suhu and the Global Entrepreneurship Research Association (GERA). The full report is available at http://www.gemconsortium.org/ .

View the press release at http://www3.babson.edu/Newsroom/Releases/usgem2008.cfm .

GEM Sponsors

GERA and GEM

The Global Entrepreneurship Research Association (GERA) is, for formal constitutional and regulatory purposes, the umbrella organization that hosts the GEM project. GERA is an association formed of Babson College, London Business School and representatives of the Association of GEM national teams.

The GEM program is a major initiative aimed at describing and analyzing entrepreneurial processes within a wide range of countries. The program has three main objectives:

- To measure differences in the level of entrepreneurial activity between countries

- To uncover factors leading to appropriate levels of entrepreneurship

- To suggest policies that may enhance the national level of entrepreneurial activity

New developments–and all global, national and special topic reports–can be found at http://www.gemconsortium.org/ . The program is sponsored by Babson College and London Business School.

Babson College

Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA, is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. Babson grants BS degrees through its innovative undergraduate program, and grants MBA and custom MS and MBA degrees through the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. Babson Executive Education offers executive development programs to experienced managers worldwide. For information, visit http://www.babson.edu/ .

Baruch College

Baruch College has a 160-year history of excellence in public higher education with an emphasis on business. A senior college in the City University of New York system, Baruch College offers undergraduate and graduate programs of study through its three schools: the Zicklin School of Business, the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Public Affairs. Housed at the Zicklin School is the Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship, a model of entrepreneurship education built around the collaboration of an institution of higher education, government and the private sector.

Participants at the November event included academics representing leading universities and families from throughout Asia Pacific. The driving themes of the events were “An entrepreneurial approach to succession” for the open morning session and “The role of effective governance in stimulating entrepreneurship” during the closed session afternoon roundtables. The conference was sponsored by Korean Association of Small Business Studies.

The Babson Global STEP Project is an applied research initiative that explores the entrepreneurial process within business families and generates solutions that have immediate application for family leaders. More information can be found at www.STEPProject.com.

Each year families who participate in the STEP Project are invited to join with academics for a STEP Summit. The Summit is a distinctive part of the STEP Project’s applied research design, allowing the families to receive immediate value from the findings and the academics to better understand the needs of the families.

Asia Pacific STEP Project Partner Universities include:

* Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

* Nankai University, Tianjin, P.R. China

* Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan

* Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, P.R. China

* Kyungpook, National University, Korea

* Seoul National University of Technology, Korea

* Waseda University, Japan

* Bond University, Australia

* Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India

* UNIRAZAK, Malaysia

* Bangkok University, Thailand

The STEP Project initiator, the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship, is the hub for entrepreneurial activity at Babson. It is the Center’s mission to lead the global advancement of entrepreneurship education and practice through the development of teaching, research, and outreach initiatives that inspire entrepreneurial thinking and cultivate entrepreneurial leadership in all organizations and society. Visit http://www3.babson.edu/eship/ For more information, contact STEP@babson.edu.

Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. Babson grants BS degrees through its innovative undergraduate program, and grants MBA and custom MS and MBA degrees through the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. Babson Executive Education offers executive development programs to experienced managers worldwide. For information, visit www.babson.edu.

Ok, now about entrepreneurs, I really think they can’t settle for average. Let me explain. I’m the kind of person very hard to please (friends and family have always complained about this at personal level). At the business level I always think there is place for improvement (and if it doesn’t I usually exit the business) – and because being also hard to please at the personal level I thought it’s just me. But if it’s just me, then I have some questions for you:

• why entrepreneurs don’t stop at the first million?
• why do we have serial entrepreneurs?
• why do entrepreneurs work so hard to make a business work?
• and how do they find ways to do things better than anyone else in a way to make a business successful?

If you look at the Kathryn’s list of  Top 25 Teenage Millionaires you will see that some of the businesses that brought them fame and fortune are not looking like million generators. In fact I wouldn’t put my own money in half of them and still they did it big. I don’t think I’ve ever met a real entrepreneur planning to generate $100k per year and settling there for good no matter how improbable their business was. I watched growing under my own eyes the most unlikely businesses because their entrepreneurs didn’t settle for average.

Actually this thing with settling for average works on multiple levels.

You know how they say that entrepreneurs find something that they can do better than the current solutions in the market and turn this idea into a business? That’s because for them there is no average! There is always something they could do better somewhere. And most businesses are not based on completely new needs or ideas. Most are remakes of something that already works.

You know how it works that real entrepreneurs are the last ones to leave the office working day and night? Doing anything that nobody else could or fixing and patching what has already been done to a better state? That’s because they don’t work with average.

You heard about serial entrepreneurs and wonder why do they start one business after another even though their bank account looks quite nice by now? Why would you work your butt off if you have enough for an easy life? Because there are always opportunities ahead, things that could be done more than average.

Average has a different meaning for a real entrepreneur. If for most of the people means good enough, for a real entrepreneur is the lowest level possible and their business are conceived as average being the absolute bottom from where they have to work their way out to excellence.

Then again, maybe it’s just me just needing to find a shrink. Or maybe this is just what makes me an entrepreneur.

Small Businesses Increase Online Marketing

The survey also revealed a notable increase in small businesses’ use of Internet-based marketing strategies since both last year and February of this year when Constant Contact conducted a similar survey. Substantially more small businesses plan to use holiday-related email marketing this year (89 percent vs. 60 percent) and 43 percent expect to increase online holiday sales (versus 38 percent in 2008). In a remarkable shift since February, significantly more small businesses are using the following digital platforms and tools to market their products and services, in order of popularity: email marketing, online advertising, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The only platform small businesses are using less today than in February is MySpace.

“Small business owners have again proven their resilience by surviving one of the toughest years in decades. They have clearly told us that marketing plays an important role in keeping strong connections with their existing customers and attracting new ones,” said Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact. “Consistent with their generally optimistic outlook, these business leaders now look toward a more promising future, because they have learned how to promote themselves through new platforms and developed habits and practices that will serve them well in any kind of economy.”

Constant Contact Recommendations for Smart Holiday Marketing

Constant Contact regularly provides training, tips, and guides to businesses and organizations looking to make the most of their marketing efforts. The following strategies can be used by small businesses to help drive sales and get their companies noticed this holiday season:

• Involve your customers — Poll your customers to determine which products should go on sale, and use social media to extend your reach. Letting a popular vote determine sale items will give recipients an incentive to send friends and family your survey, spreading awareness of your offering, and extending your reach.
• Brand all forms of communication — Ensure that your company name, logo, messages, and tone are consistent from one communication tool to the next, to help reinforce brand recall.
• Link, link, link — Include links to your website, blog, and social networks throughout all your communication channels. This makes it easy for interested readers to find out more about your business and what you offer.
• Host an event — Host a holiday-themed customer appreciation and shopping event with discount incentives. Use an event marketing tool to manage your event, and promote it via your social networks.
• Market your business right to the end — Don’t stop marketing on December 23. Last-minute shoppers are still out there, as are customers armed with gift cards. Segment your email lists to reach people who’ll be interested in last-minute or post-holiday shopping promotions.
• Bring that in-store feeling to the inbox — Your communications should remind past customers why they shopped with you last year. It may have been your excellent customer service, your no-hassle return policy, or your personal shopping service. Be sure to highlight why your business stands out from the competition because not every shopper is driven by price.

Full survey results are available at http://www.constantcontact.com/display_media.jsp?id=139t. More ideas for driving sales and getting noticed this holiday season and beyond can be found at http://www.constantcontact.com/learning-center/index.jsp

About Constant Contact, Inc.

With more than 300,000 customers, Constant Contact, Inc. is a leading provider of email marketing, event marketing, and online survey tools for small businesses, nonprofits, and member associations. Founded in 1995, Constant Contact helps small organizations grow stronger customer relationships by delivering professional, low cost, easy-to-use online tools backed with award-winning support, education, and personal coaching. Constant Contact is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq:CTCT) with offices located in Waltham, Mass.; Loveland, Colo.; and Delray, Fla. To learn more, please visit www.ConstantContact.com or call 781-472-8100.