The Career Advice: Business Entrepreneur

Showing posts with label Business Entrepreneur. Show all posts

Sunday, October 10, 2010

20 of the Best Resources to Get Your Startup Off the Ground

Let’s face it: as an entrepreneur, the odds are stacked against you. Most businesses fail after the first few years, and even if you do manage to survive, that doesn’t mean your business will redefine an industry, become profitable, or change the world. Getting off on the right foot is essential to navigating a startup from its infancy to profitability.

Luckily, there have been countless entrepreneurs that have gone through the same toils building their own businesses, and most of them are happy to share their experiences to better prepare you for the journey ahead. In addition, there is now an array of social media and web apps that no entrepreneur has ever had access to before. Together, these resources can give you the edge in a fast-changing business world.

While we can’t highlight the thousands of resources at your disposal, we have put together twenty of our favorite guides, web apps, and tools that can help you build and launch a startup. This guide is divided into six sections, covering everything from coming up with the right idea to the steps you need to take and tools you’ll want to have to secure funding for your early-stage company. In total, you will find that this guide is a comprehensive resource for anybody who’s trying to realize his or her entrepreneurial dreams.

Guides to Getting Started

Before you dive into your startup (or maybe after you’re neck-deep), you should get yourself a crash course education in starting a business. There is no education like doing, but reading up on incorporating, collecting some checklists, and understanding just what it takes to get your specific business off the ground will save you plenty of headaches later on.

1. The Entrepreneur.com Startup Kits: Entrepreneur Magazine’s website has a gem for entrepreneurs: startup kits. There are kits for everything from starting a restaurant to a consulting firm, complete with articles, guides, marketing tips, and more.
2. eHow’s Introduction to Entrepreneurship: Collaborative knowledge resource website eHow has hundreds of thousands of great articles, including a strong set of guides and resources for how to open a business, how to incorporate, raising money, and bookkeeping.
3. About.com Starting a Business Hub: Another resource you should not miss is About.com’s Entrepreneurs Hub. They’ve curated some of their best content for starting a business, including checklists, a small business startup kit, and detailed articles on naming and calculating the cost of your startup.
4. Library of Congress’s Entrepreneur’s Reference Guide: Yes, the U.S. Library of Congress has an entrepreneur’s reference guide, while it’s dated (1999), it also lists a lot of great books that are updated yearly. It covers practically every topic related to starting a small business.

Inspirations for the Idea

There are few things more important to the success of your startup than having the right idea and continuing to be innovative with your product as it gets built and released to your customers. Ideas don’t just come in cans from the store, though. That’s why we’ve brought together some resources that should help inspire your creative juices and help you nail down the next big idea.

5. Vator.tv: A play on “elevator pitch,” Vator.tv is a place where entrepreneurs can upload short video pitches about their startup. Not only that, but you can follow industry news and specific companies. Watching these pitches will certainly jolt your brain’s creative juices. Also check out VentureBeat Profiles (formerly TradeVibes), which also has a great database of startups and a community discussing each one.
6. Alltop Startups: Reading the latest news and opinions in the startup world can only help jolt your brain and keep you current. Alltop has a great list of blogs and news websites dedicated to the subject (including my personal blog). Take a read, subscribe to the blogs that interest you, and you’ll be guaranteed to be reading about great ideas soon enough.

Startup Web Apps

While there is an array of great web tools for entrepreneurs (10 of the best we previously highlighted), there are some tools that just make your life easier when you’re trying to bring order to the chaos of launching your startup. Consider these tools when you’re in the early stages of building a company:

7. Evernote (): Information is king, and there are few web apps that do a better job of collecting information in front of the computer screen or on-the-go than Evernote. The service simply helps you remember everything. You can take pictures of your receipts for easy organization or save key info while you browse, for example, among many other ways to organize and catalog the things you need to remember for your startup.
8. Zoho (): Zoho is a suite of online collaboration tools. Not only does it include email and spreadsheets, but it includes, wiki, chat, customer relationship management (CRM), and web conferencing as well. While it is similar to Google Apps, it is built specifically for businesses.
9. PBWorks: Wikis are amazing for organizing ideas and sharing them with team members. There are few better suited for business than PBWorks, which is not only a wiki but a collaboration tool, document manager, and project management tool.
10. FreshBooks: If your business is client-based, you need to track invoices, teams, and payments constantly. While there are many choices, Freshbooks is one of the best due to its mobile apps, integration with Basecamp (), and reasonable pricing.

Social Media for Startup Success

Social media is about connecting with people. Interestingly enough, so is business and entrepreneurship, which is perhaps why there is so much overlap between the two. If you want to get your startup off the ground, you have to network, build up your social circle, and reach out to the right people. These social tools are adept at that task:

11. Plaxo (): There are few tasks more important in business than maintaining and organizing your contacts. You never know when someone you meet will lead you to a big business deal, venture capital, or a new team member. Plaxo acts as a digital address book that efficiently organizes everyone you meet. Plus, it integrates with Outlook, Thunderbird and the Mac OS X Address Book to make importing contacts a snap. You have to be diligent about adding contacts, though.
12. Google Wave (): Google’s () experimental real-time communication platform not only has a consumer version, but also comes in a corporate flavor for users of Google apps. Having your team collaborate on projects through waves is a unique experience, one that we have used with success over here at Mashable (). No other social tool has the same collaboration features.
13. LinkedIn (): This one may be obvious, but its importance in business cannot be overstated. It is the world’s most popular business social network for a reason. Its business features, especially those connecting you to friends of friends, are unmatched, and with over 50 million users, it’s a social media tool you need to be using constantly.

Raising Money

Bringing your startup to the next level takes more than willpower, determination, and grit. In most cases, you need startup capital to build the product, hire the right team members, and maintain the product after it launches. That’s why it’s vital to do your homework on how to effectively raise money.

These are a few resources that will give you a crash course education in venture capital and raising money to grow your startup:

14. Introduction to Venture Capital: If you’re clueless about how venture capital works (most people are), this short presentation by Will Price, former venture capitalist and the current CEO of Widgetbox, explains all of the basics. It was given at Stanford University in 2007:

15. TheFunded: This entrepreneurship community is very unique in that it is focused on helping you raise money. How? By giving you ratings and inside details of the practices of countless venture capital and angel investor funds. The information, once you’re in, is invaluable to choosing the firm that will help propel your business to the next level.
16. How to Fund a Startup: This guide by Y Combinator co-founder and early-stage investor Paul Graham is shockingly detailed on the different ways to raise money, the disadvantages of each approach, how venture capital firms operate, and the reality of bringing investors into your company. A must-read for any startup founder before raising capital.

Startup Social Communities

You cannot and should not build your business alone. The world’s greatest entrepreneurs not only had co-founders, but they had friends, family, and a community of entrepreneurs and advisors that helped them with difficult decisions, overcoming adversity, and fixing mistakes.

With the rise of social media and the web, a crop of incredible startup communities have popped up, each one with a unique character but with a wealth of community knowledge that you’d be crazy to pass up on your journey to build a great company.

17. StartupNation: The recently redesigned startup community network has extensive and active forums, useful knowledge hubs, community groups, and plenty more.
18. Hacker News (): The seed investment firm Y Combinator has built a thriving and active startup community known as Hacker News. Users add relevant and interesting stories on the topics of programming and startup entrepreneurship and consistently hold thought-provoking discussions. It’s an incredible place for insight and advice on startups.
19. Young Entrepreneur: Focused around discussion forums, Young Entrepreneur is a great place to ask any startup question on your mind or just to read the over 240,000 posts made over the years on the site.
20. PartnerUp: PartnerUp is a community that really focuses on one thing: helping you find business partners. In business, finding the right co-founders is often the difference between stellar success and a quick, painful startup death. PartnerUp is a community ideal for finding and networking with people that will shore up your weaknesses and help you answer those nagging questions about the partnership side of business.

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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

37 Productivity Tips for Working From Anywhere

The days of shackling your business to a brick and mortar office are over. Even people who work primarily in traditional offices occasionally find themselves working on the road or from their kitchen tables. This flexibility is great in a lot of ways, but each new work setting also brings with it a new set of productivity challenges.

We asked people who work from home, from co-working spaces, in coffee shops, on the road and in offices to share their secrets for a productive day no matter where they’re working. The following are the highlights of their collective advice.

From Home

Joel Ohman, the founder of Domain Superstar, uses three monitors to maximize his productivity at home.

Home workers reduce their commuting time to zero, aren’t distracted by coworkers, and can work on whatever schedule fits their style. On the other hand, their work often competes with their children, errands, and other distracting comforts. Here are their tips for staying focused, keeping a schedule, and reducing distractions.

Have a work space that has a door that can be closed. It’s hard to be productive with kids screaming in the background or the TV on. It also gives a bad impression to clients. — Rohan Hall, Founder and CEO of rSitez, Inc
Even if you’re the only one in the house, try listening to music on headphones while you work. It will help you forget your surroundings and focus on the task at hand. — Emily Widle, E-Commerce Marketing Specialist at Pegasus Associates Lighting
Put together a box of toys, games, and books that your children are only allowed to use when you are on the phone. Make sure these ideas are saved for “special” times (when you’re on the phone, or can’t give your child your full attention). Also, load up on popsicles. It always keeps them quiet for a few minutes for an important phone call. — Deb Walker, Project Manager for Contemporary-VA
Even if you work at-home, get dressed for the office, go through your typical morning routine and tackle your day like you’re clocking in at 9. — BJ Cook, CEO of Digital Operative Inc.
Don’t eat lunch in your office. Use this time to regroup and take a break. Why? Because if you do it right, working out of the house is constant work – no water cooler/cubicle talk, no walking across the building to the copier, etc. So you have to re-energize by getting out of the chair and out of that room. — Roger Grant, Founder of RG2 Solutions
Be honest with regard to when you are productive. For example, I am far more productive at night. I get more done between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. than I ever do before noon (when I have the luxury to choose). When I was in a situation where I had that flexibility, I would go to the gym in the morning because that requires no thought and do the hard stuff in the afternoon, evening and night. — Jeff Bogensberger Co-Founder and CEO of SOCO Games
To the extent possible, chain yourself to the desk. There are plenty of non-work distractions at home. Spend as much time working at home as you work in the office. — Jon Gelberg, Chief Content Officer at Blue Fountain Media
Three monitors is the productivity “sweet spot” for most people. I love using my three 30″ monitors and my “Geek Desk” that is fully hydraulic and accommodates working from a seated or a standing position. — Joel J. Ohman, President of Domain Superstar

From the Office

Mashable Tech Editor and office productivity master Blake Robinson at work in Mashable HQ

Most offices are designed with efficiency in mind, and some workers focus better if they have a set schedule and a dedicated workspace. On the other hand, a work day is a huge chunk of time to stay focused, and organizing it productively can be daunting. To avoid getting stuck in water cooler talk, organize the workday, and maximize productivity, read these tips.

Do NOT check your e-mail for the first 45 minutes that you are in the office in the morning. Don’t even open it. There are never meetings at that time and most people are settling in and reading their e-mails, so it’s a mellow time (not too much talking, few drive-bys, hallway conversations and urgent requests rarely happen). — Amanda Feifer O’Brien, Marketing Manager at Firmenich Inc.
Take the first 30 minutes to plan the rest of your day. By plan, I mean make a list of the important tasks that you need to have done today and stay focused on these items. If you start working without first organizing your day, it’s very easy to spend the first 4 hours just reading and responding to e-mails. Most of these e-mails are distractions from the more important tasks that you need to do. Make a list of the things that you want to achieve that day and work from that list until it’s completed. — Rohan Hall, Founder and CEO of rSitez, Inc
I stumbled across an application called Freedom. It is actually pretty pathetic that somebody would need to purchase something like this, but it was the best $10 I have spent! The app simply locks you away from the Internet (). It removed nearly every distraction possible. — Erick Bzovi, Founder of HealPay.com
Block [the] like-minded tasks together. Set aside time to make outbound calls, and make one right after the other. Plan times during the day to check your e-mail, Twitter () and social media to avoid a huge time trap. — Lorraine Bosse-Smith, President of Concept One
A few years ago I did not change the time on my alarm clock back to winter time. So I got used to getting up an hour earlier than the “rest of the world.” It is probably my most productive hour of the day as the world is still asleep, no phones ringing, etc. — Ann Castro, Investment Banker and Author.
I give myself three must-complete tasks each day (usually fairly large tasks) and take short breaks between each one to give my mind a break and switch gears. — Britt Reints, author of miss-britt.com
Show up to meetings on time. How many times have you had to get late arriving people up to speed on what was covered in the first five minutes, then again when someone comes in 10 minutes late? That’s a huge waste of time. — Chad Otis, Executive Creative Director of Smashing Ideas
Carve out transition time. Devote the final hours of your workday to some of your least-pressured tasks. I like listening to music on grooveshark.com and doing paperwork. You will feel a sense of accomplishment by completing at least one thing before day end. — Susan Fletcher, Ph.D., Author of Working in The Smart Zone

From a Coworking Space

Workers get down to business at New Work City, a coworking space in Manhattan (courtesy of Alex Hotz)

Coworking solves the lonely independent worker problem, and coworking spaces can be great environments for collaborating and finding feedback on your work. But even though coworkers leave the distractions of their homes, there are other distractions at a coworking space — mainly, other enthusiastic people working on interesting projects that you want to know more about. Read these tips for staying focused.

I like to pretend all the people around me are potential clients judging my work habits. Is it a little weird and unorthodox? Sure. But competition and putting yourself “in the spotlight” will always make you work harder. — Eric Fulwiler, Partner at ZAC
If the work you’re doing requires some skills that are outside your immediate field, see if your coworkers might be interested in working with you on the project. Or they might know someone in their network of friends who would be perfect for it. Word of mouth referrals from someone you know is still the best way to find good help. — Jay Catalan, Co-Founder of The Network Hub
Rather than standing up from behind your wall of monitors and shouting “Can you all shut up?!” you may want to consider, what I call “The Cone of Silence.” It really works! All you need are a nice pair of headphones, (not earbuds), a wave file that plays “white noise,” and Windows Media Player set to “auto-repeat.” — Paul Preibisch of B3D Multitech
Surround yourself with the right people. Coworking spaces can be a huge asset or a huge liability, depending almost entirely upon who I’m surrounded by. You want to surround yourself with smart people who have similar work styles as you. For instance, if you’re a loose, fun worker, then being surrounded by just computer programmers hacking away at keyboards all day will cramp your style. The opposite obviously applies if you’re a “get down to work and work long and hard” type of person. — Jesse Davis, Co-founder of Entrustet.com
Pretend like you are in third grade again, and return to the same desk everyday. While technically ‘open’ space does not mean you have rights to that same spot, it’s amazing how inherent social etiquette brings us to respect the spots that are regularly staked out. Having a space you return to every day will make you feel like you have an office, and people with offices must be productive because they pay a higher rent, right? — Melissa Pickering, Managing Co-Founder of iCreate to Educate
When someone is in your cube space and they keep talking beyond what you consider acceptable, just stand up like you are about to leave to get coffee or go to the bathroom. It’s like magic with some people — they wrap up what they are saying and head out. — Kenneth Carlson, Owner of Authentic Development
Plan on wasting time. Instead of keeping unnecessary windows open (chats, blogs, twitter, etc.) all day long, work intently with no distractions for a given time, then give yourself (significantly shorter) blocks of time to be unapologetically unproductive. — Matthew Hall, Jr. Consultant at Mutual Mobile
Engage. The whole point of working in public spaces is to be out in public. So, engage the people around you. Ask their perspective on a topic of debate amongst your team. Did you overhear them mention something of interest to your business? Offer to buy them a coffee in exchange for fifteen minutes of their expertise. Or, offer them a few minutes of your expertise on their problem – sometimes, stepping outside your immediate task can be refreshing and re-motivating. Get a stranger’s feedback on your product, website, blog post, etc. You’d be surprised how often you are standing too close to the problem to see the obvious solution, and a newcomer’s point of view can prove invaluable. Your environm ent should be an asset to your work, even in less traditional workspaces, so take advantage of the opportunity to connect with the people around you. — Erica Benton, Marketing Communications Manager at oDesk.com
Bring headphones to a co-working space as an indicator of busyness. Wearing them signals to others that “I can’t be disturbed right now.” — Jonathan Wegener, Founder of Adopt a Hacker

From a Coffee Shop

For many people, coffee and working go together. The coffee shop itself, however, can be a b

it of a challenge. Although it provides a temporary office and free Wi-Fi, it also provides an excell

ent people watching venue and a wide variety of sugary desserts. Getting down to business undisturbed can be tricky, but these tips can help.

Get to know the guy who runs the coffee shop you frequent. Learn his name, make small talk, take an interest in his business, become friends. He usually knows everyone who comes in, and if you’re a freelancer you can get some good — and importantly, varied — business introductions. — Cody Robbins, Founder of Sakuzaku
If I feel like I need some extra motivation to work hard, I’ll leave my computer charger at home. This forces me to complete my work before my battery runs out. — Ben Nesvig, Project Manager at Fuzed Agent
I buy a drink and give myself 45 minutes to an hour to complete an assignment. I “bribe” myself by saying that I can’t get a pastry (how I love them) or a refill until that assignment is done. So it motivates me to work faster and stay focused because I have an incentive. — Jessica Aguiar, Senior Copywriter at PostcardMania
In coffee shops I have a few rules: Try to face a wall and never a busy street, and order a small drink to minimize bathroom breaks. — Corina Kellam, Founder of Life History Books Ltd.
Choose a coffee shop that does NOT have Wi-Fi. You can check your email and news later. Alexander Seinfeld, Executive Director of Jewish Spiritual Literacy

From The Road

Taking a break from the office might not mean taking a break from your work responsibilities. But shuffling between trains, planes and automobiles without your usual workspace isn’t conducive to efficiency. Learn how to make traveling work better for you by reading these tips.

I usually check in to airports [on location networks] just to let my family know that I am traveling and getting around safely. However, the tips are what make the app priceless. For instance, I can check in to terminal B at Logan International, and I can find a tip that says, “Logan International has free Wi-Fi and if you go to the Legal Seafood bar, they have outlets for every stool at the bar.” Now that is helpful. — Andrew Lazorchak, Director at WineSoiree.com
Keep everything electronically. If you’re working from a coffee shop or in a park, the last thing you want to be doing is shuffling papers. Become proficient in taking notes in PDF documents and get used to reading documents on your computer. It’s a challenge at first, but worth it in the end. If you must, carry one small notebook for notes and memos. — Michael Carney, Founder and President of MWC Accounting
Assign yourself a “course” each month during your commute. One month, listen to one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and then listen to a commentary. The next month, listen to part of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, then listen to it again so you start to hear themes. Does this have anything to do with your work? No. But it definitely gets your mind in the game more than listening to drive-time shock jocks. — Laura Vanderkam, author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think
Get menial tasks done like organizing your My Documents folder or going through your e-mail client and deleting useless/outdated e-mails (all the stuff you always want to have time to do but just don’t ever get to do during the week). — Ashley Schwartau
Managed Mischief, Inc.
Use the settings on your iPhone or Droid to troll for free Wi-Fi when the traditional bread company isn’t around. If you can connect to it on your phone, you’ll be good to go when you crack open your laptop and get down to work. — Tyler Sickmeyer, Director of Client Development at 5Stone Marketing
Get a portable phone number (such as Google Voice ()) that can ring one or more phones. I am an attorney and work from my home, different office locations and on the road. Being accessible to my clients wherever I am is crucial. — Lara A. Aman, Attorney at Law
I scanned and saved my actual signature as a graphic and insert it into Word documents as a picture. If it’s a PDF, I have the same signature saved as a Custom Stamp. I don’t have to print anything. — Peggy Duncan, Personal Productivity Expert at The Digital Breakthroughs Institute
Make sure you can cache your e-mail. This way, you can work on planes or in areas where you do not have an Internet connection.– Blake Bookstaff, Vice President of moneymanager.com

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

8 Jobs That Require Imagination

Get paid to use your creativity and imagination with these great-paying jobs!

Imagine this: getting paid to let your imagination run wild. If you're a creative person with a great imagination, we've got some ideas to help you turn your passion into a profit with one of these eight great-paying careers.

1. Graphic Designer

Here's a profession that really rewards creativity. By becoming a graphic designer, you can use your active imagination to dazzle clients by imagining and executing visual solutions to their communication problems.

Training: Interactive media is a game changer for graphic designers, who often earn a bachelor's in computer aided design, animation, or graphic design and multimedia. Shorter certificate programs can also help you keep pace with the competition.

Pay: Graphic designers earned an annual average salary of $42,400 in 2008. Those specializing in computer systems design earned an average of $47,860.

2. Marketing Professional

Creative brainstorming sessions are the norm for marketers, who are constantly coming up with fresh ways to communicate with consumers.

Training: It's not enough to come up with a brilliant plan. You need to know how to execute it. Marketing/communications programs can help you launch your career. An MBA can help you land a more senior position.

Pay: Marketing managers earned an average of $108,580 per year in 2008.

3. Detective/Forensics

If you enjoy detective stories, why not live the life yourself? Before detectives and forensics specialists can get the bad guy, they have to imagine how he did it.

Training: An active imagination can help law enforcement personnel envision crime-scene scenarios and motivations for different suspects. A lot of legwork is required, but imagination can be the key to cracking a case. A degree in forensics/crime scene, police & law enforcement, or criminal justice can help make that your job description.

Pay: The median annual wage for detectives and criminal investigators in 2008 was $60,910.

4. Business Entrepreneur

Walt Disney once famously said, "If you can dream it, you can do it." Creating a successful company requires bold, unconventional thinking. Some people call visionary businesspeople "crazy" - until their idea becomes huge. There are no guarantees in the business world, but every great business starts with that new idea. Do you have what it takes to make an idea come to life?

Training: Get started with an associate's or bachelor's degree in business administration or e-business/e-commerce, and finish with an MBA.

Pay: SimplyHired.com says the average entrepreneur earns $111,000.

5. Video Game Designer

Sharing their own mind-blowing ideas can quickly turn profitable for video game designers since imagining new worlds is what they do for a living.

Training: But imagining that brave new world is just the first step. Getting a degree in video game design or animation can help you share that vision with the rest of us.

Pay: Video game designers new to the job make about $46,000, according to AnimationArena.com.

6. Forensic Accountant

Money laundering is a dirty business that requires smart, creative accountants to visualize how the white collar criminals do what they do.

Training: Math courses are the obvious choice here and you'll get plenty of those while getting a bachelor's degree in accounting or business administration. An associate's degree in accounting can help you land a more entry-level job.

Pay: Accountants and auditors earn $59,430, with the top ten percent clearing over $100,000, according to the Department of Labor.

7. Teacher

An active imagination and a flair for creativity helps teachers connect with students. And the more they inspire the students, the more the students return the favor.

Training: Teachers need an active imagination - and credentials. Thankfully, getting your education degree or teaching certificate has never been easier, thanks to a proliferation of online teaching programs.

Pay: Forbes magazine says new teachers made $49,000 in 2005-06, the most recent year for which data is available.

8. Chef

Among other things, inventiveness is a key to being a great chef. Great dishes won't make as big a splash if the artistic presentation isn't up to par.

Training: Prior experience in the industry may help you get your foot in the door. If you want to get formal training, look into getting a degree in culinary arts.

Pay: Chefs, and head cooks earn an average of $38,770 per year. That average goes up ($44,660 per year) for those in traveler accommodation.