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Bootstrapping a print solution
2008-02-25 23:23:00
Yesterday I’ve mentioned www.bootstrapme.com as a great source of ideas about starting a business on the cheap. But just as I clicked Publish on the article, I realised I have something to say about the “Bootstrapping a print solution” idea. And mostly that I can’t agree with all the points there. First of all, choosing just about any basement to start this business is not the smartest choice. Location is important (and ventilation is important as well). Let’s think about what would be a good location for a printing business. Somewhere were people are coming to print things, copy things. Hmmm, shouldn’t that be somewhere near a school, or university? Students are printing courses, projects or fliers to announce stuff. In fact I usually look for a printing office near our universities when I have big volumes to print, where the prices might be better as they never run out of business. Well, they do run out of business in students vacations. And her...
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Ideas to start business on the cheap
2008-02-24 22:25:00
I was checking on what my fellow blogger Shawn Hessinger has been doing lately, and discovered he created a tremendous list of business ideas to start on the cheap. I’m just listing some of the ideas from his list - you can get the better picture from http://www.bootstrapme.com/ : Bootstrapping a green business Start a record store-without the records! Start a thrift shop for $900 (I wonder what is thrift??) Bootstrapping a print solution and many more. Got something to bootstrap? Write me about your idea, and maybe will find a way together!
More About: Ideas , Business , Cheap

The High Energy Entrepreneur
2008-02-24 22:14:00
I’m hardly watching TV these days - I use TV only as sleeping pill, but the other day I’ve heard something interesting: “the human energy is the most valuable energy known to man kind”. I have no idea who said that (it was the end of an interview or something) but it’s simply a brilliant piece of wisdom from the entrepreneurship point of view. Usually we hear that the oil price went up because this resource is more and more difficult to find, recessions due to a weaker dollar, or poverty here and there because the lack of water or other resources. But if you think in terms of accomplishments, getting things done, create value and wealth, then, the “human energy” is the most valuable resource on earth. Because no matter how hard it is, how scarce resources are, the human mind managed to trigger colossal forces for centuries. Give a country and it’s people all the resources in the World. Give them land, water, sun, and everything else an...
More About: Entrepreneur , Energy , High

Asian economic boost - doing business in China
2008-02-24 07:45:00
After writing the other day about entrepreneurship advices from the Philippines, today I found a very interesting review on the Chinese economic growth, which can at least show you a glimpse of what’s really going on. Usually when talking about stock markets, recession, unemployment and stuff, heads turn towards USA or maybe even Europe. But hold your pants, it seems that the history is written somewhere else this time: China ! Philip Fernando from Asian Tribune, makes an interesting review of the Chinese developments in an article called “Entrepreneurship in Asia, Alive and Kicking“. I’m going to quote a couple of phrases so you can see what we are talking about: “Asian giants China and India have shown colossal economic gains generally considered epochal and almost parallel to what USA went through during period following World War II. “ “Several studies by research groups predict that China’s middle class of 100 million would increase t...
More About: Business , Doing business , Economic

7 steps to start a business -advices from the Philippines
2008-02-23 22:14:00
There are plenty of resources out there with advices about what you are supposed to do if you want to start a business. I’ve selected 7 Must-Do Tasks Before You Start Up from the Pinoy Web Startup (a venue to find like-minded entrepreneurs and build exposure for Philippine startups in the web technology ecosystem.) because is well documented and has plenty of references to external resources. They say: “I just want to share with you issues I dealt with starting out — and consequences of some I still have to deal with today. This is written with a Metro Manila, Philippines setting in mind but should be easily replicated elsewhere.” Here are the 7 tasks in the article (with my comments of course) Unleash the Entrepreneur within While they give plenty of external resources on this one, I think it’s missing a point. Money! The only reason entrepreneurs want to start a business is to make money. Of course, money can have different names like work for yourself...
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Entrepreneurs can’t quit
2008-02-21 22:41:00
They can’t quit in more than one way. They can’t quit office before work is done. While employees have a strict 9 to 5 job, you’re the one that shuts the lights down each evening. (Ok, if everything goes well, you might get to the point where you can leave earlier or maybe don’t come at all. But if you are starting small, read the “There is something wrong with entrepreneur’s minds” post that I wrote earlier to catch a glimpse of what your life will be while starting up) . You can’t quit to a longer Holiday. Feeling tired? Need to sleep? Promised your family a nice vacation away? Give me a dollar for every small business entrepreneur that can’t leave his business for a proper vacation, and I promise you, I will invest wisely. Like buying half of Google or something… the rest I would donate! If you got the entrepreneurship bug, you can’t quit. Get back to the simple employee status, and I can bet you will feel un-complete....
More About: Entrepreneurs , Quit

Nataly Kogan says: Business is personal. I agree.
2008-02-21 21:06:00
As I had a long gap in my blogging, I’ve decided to have a look at my older reference sources and see what my fellow bloggers have been doing lately. Now I have something to say about Nataly Kogan’s post “Business is Personal and Anyone Who Tells You Otherwise is Lying“. She says that from her experience, man are taking business failure more easily than women. She says she saw men loosing “millions of dollars of other people’s money and walk away without feeling any personal responsibility. “It’s business,” they’d say.” Well, I do take my business VERY personal. And I think most of small business entrepreneurs do the same. If you lose a customer (or maybe the sales guy you hired does), well, it’s your fault. You either didn’t hired the right sale people, either you didn’t help him enough If you don’t deliver (no matter the reason, maybe the production stopped because of lack of supplies, maybe...

Top 3 requirements for an entrepreneur
2008-02-20 23:37:00
Most often, people have strong misconceptions about entrepreneurship and usually they fear about the things they shouldn’t be fearing. After 3 years since I founded my company together with 2 other partners, my way of seeing things about entrepreneurship and owning a small business changed dramatically. I remember quite well, my first fears were about getting enough customers to cover the costs. Having that unique idea that could make the business successful. WRONG! Now I think the most important things are having the following:  The right attitude. (I failed at this) Stay positive. I know it’s hard, especially in bad times. But looking back, being negative, having stressful/sleepless nights never helped me to actually solve things, and moreover it had a bad influence on my partners as well.  You need to know everything and deal with everything - when you start small. (I failed at this) You need to know everything that you can’t safely outsource. If you come ...
More About: Entrepreneur , An Entrepreneur

The Show must go on
2008-02-18 21:17:00
I’m still alive! But as you will soon find out if you start and run a small business, small businesses are easily affected by external factors. And in between doing damage control, blogging and stuff, someone still has to do the work! I have plenty of subjects on my PDA, ready to publish, so keep close!
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That’s not a New Year resolution (but still, it is)
2008-01-07 21:19:00
Note: this is not a generic list of entrepreneurship mistakes - it’s my own list for 2007 If I remember well, I’ve made a New Year resolution post last year. Quite frankly, I don’t remember a thing from the “glorious things” I’ve promised myself a year ago. That’s a sure sign and didn’t get to accomplish these things or maybe they became less important over the year to be marked as an accomplishment. So this year, I’m not going to make any New Year resolutions. Probably you could do these in your personal life, but in the life of a business or the entrepreneur behind, New Year resolutions are just…fake, Unless they take the form of a written business plan with goals, deadlines and so on. Instead, I’m going to make a list of mistakes I’ve did in the last year and that I’m going to try not to do them again in 2008 (still, isn’t that somehow a New Year resolution???). Entrepreneurship mistakes I’m...
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How sociable are entrepreneurs after all?
2008-01-07 20:44:00
I know that most of you will say that entrepreneurs are outgoing personality types, with people skills , charisma and usually easy on getting new friends. I’m not sure about you, or if I’m the exception that confirms the rule, but for me (at least in 2007) entrepreneurship was the single biggest reason to be…un-sociable. Would you like to go to a movie? No, I have work to do. Would you like to come to the party? No, I have to finish the work for that customer. Would you come spend your holidays with us? No, I can’t leave the company for so long? Would you… whatever? No, I’m too busy for that. Sounds familiar? Or maybe it is only specific to IT businesses? Well, I’m not sure, but if you are a small business entrepreneur, chances are that you spend a lot of time working. Working long hours during the week, and maybe even weekends. Which in the end, no matter what type of personality you are will lose you friends. Will lose you human contacts o...
More About: Entrepreneurs , Sociable

What to Expect When Starting Your Own Business by Sarah Winfrey (commented)
2008-01-02 11:46:00
If you have already read my latest 2 posts: There is something wrong with entrepreneur’s minds and Commenting on SUSAN SCHRETER’s “What you need to know to start a small business” , then the best follow up is Sarah Winfrey’s What to Expect When Starting Your Own Business . She says she did a ton of research over the last year about starting a new business and she found out that (my comments as usual in between): “You will lose money. You could be facing a year or two of losses even if your idea is eventually successful. It just takes that long to make contacts, acquire customers who return time and time again, and drum up enough recognition for your product and your brand that people know it and trust you.” You can find more about this in both my previous articles! “Things will not go as planned. Something will go wrong. Most of the time, though, wrong turns slow down business growth.” That’s probably the underlying idea on my article abo...
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There is something wrong with entrepreneur’s minds
2008-01-01 09:53:00
I will start from the basic assumption that entrepreneurs start a business from one of these reasons: bigger income, more free time, being your own boss. Ok, nothing wrong so far. Just that in order to obtain these 3 things as an entrepreneur, first you have to go in the opposite direction: smaller income, less free time, and more than one boss (as every customer is your boss). So there must be something wrong with the entrepreneurs mind! In the pursue of their dreams, the start by doing exactly the opposite and just hope they will make an 180 grades shift later! First, at least in the first year, chances are that you will have less money than at your current job. Chances are that you are even going to invest your savings into it. And there is no telling if you are ever going to be able to make the U-turn! Having more free time is an absolute non-sense, at least in the beginning. If you start small and probably without any significant outside investment, then, here we go, you will...
More About: Entrepreneur , Minds , Wrong

Commenting on SUSAN SCHRETER’s “What you need to know to start
2007-12-31 20:44:00
Susan Schreter writes about start-up planning and small-business financing for the Seattle P-I and she came up with an interesting article on 6 essential things you have to have in mind before starting a business. I’m going to comment on each of them, but you should probably first read her article. Ok, here there are my comments: “Plan to earn a living. Better business managers budget these costs rather than hope a few dollars will be left over at the end of the month to pay for food and rent.” I couldn’t say it better myself, and the living proof is…myself. While we started our company almost 3 years ago, and we bootstrapped along the way, I’ve never included the cost of living as a cost of the company. That’s probably one of the reasons why I’m still a part time entrepreneur - bills have to be paid somehow. Well, actually I did some guest-posting a while ago on www.bootstrapme.com and said that mixing personal finances with company ...
More About: Start , Susan , Commenting

Legal helpline for self employed and small business owners within the UK
2007-12-31 18:58:00
“Last year, the helpline received over 100,000 calls, the majority of calls on employment matters but also dealing with issues such as commercial contract, landlord and tenant and consumer affairs.” I’m talking about FSB (Federation of Small Business es) - they have offices servicing most regions in the UK. It seems that being a FSB member has a number of benefits like getting special insurance conditions, financing and more. In fact here is a list of benefits offered to the members: FSB Care Business Banking Telecom Deposit Account Mobile Terminals Financial Services Factors Legal Benefits Package Credit Card Insurance Service Finance for Business Medical Merchant Services Legal Information Online Delivery Service Want to find out more about what these mean? Here is the site section dedicated to FSB members benefits. I think that also the library of documents might be interesting for small entrepreneurs in UK. But what’s really interesting (...
More About: Small Business , Owners

SME Insight Magazine from Philippine
2007-12-31 12:09:00
I’ve come across an interesting magazine if you are interested in doing business in Philippine, or about running a small or medium Entreprise. “SME Insight is the only Philippine magazine to focus primarily on small and medium enterprises. After all, the SME sector is responsible for over ninety percent of business activities in the country today! SME Insight is also the first magazine designed primarily for the informational needs of managers and owners of small and medium enterprises.” I’m not sure about the printed magazine, but the blog is interesting because of it’s dual approach: it got interesting information about business environment in the Asean region and also general thoughts, ideas and articles on running a Small Business in general. I had a look at the articles about Small Businesses, and I have to say that they are well targeted and easy to understand. Let’s take a look at a recent article: Common mistakes small businesses make - it...
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Reviewing position 96 in the Top 100 Business Blogs
2007-12-20 18:51:00
Edith Yeung.com Dream Think Act holds position 96 in the Top 100 Business Blogs and it’s an interesting apparition and story amongst business blogs. Edith Yeung is an IMMIGRANT, EX-CORPORATE, ENTREPRENEUR and SPEAKER. She says about herself: “I am originally from Hong Kong, China and moved to Ossian, Indiana by myself when I was 16. Moving from a concrete jungle like Hong Kong to the land of the Hoosiers was not easy. Despite the language barrier and culture shock, I managed to complete university and graduated in 3-½ years with a degree in Industrial Management with a focus on information systems and marketing.” I stumbled across this article: 99 Life Lessons Learned from Quitting Corporate America - some are funny, some are simple facts, but they all seem to be real! Here is one that is hard to understand for a Web Junkie like me: “13. Software and high-tech is not the only industry in the world. People become billionaires and millionaires making ketchu...
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Reviewing position 97 in the Top 100 Business Blogs
2007-12-20 17:47:00
At position 97 in the Top 100 Business Blogs we have my old friend and blogger Shawn Hessinger with Bootstrapme . Bootstrapme is really a daily reading for any entrepreneur or entrepreneur wanna-bee that wants to start a business with no outside investment. The blog has around 30 posts per month on topics ranging from financing a small business, having an office, hiring, starting a company and anything else. Bootstrapme is in fact quite difficult to review because it approaches so many interesting subjects. I had an interview there a few years ago about my own entrepreneurship experiences and I’ve also did some guest-posting on several occasions. I’m adding below some links to some of the great posts - but really, they are highly irrelevant, you should get and read it all:  Balance especially important for part-time entrepreneurs Don’t mix personal finance with business finance (that’s one of my guest postings How to make your business great These have b...
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Reviewing position 98 in the Top 100 Business Blogs
2007-12-18 19:32:00
The Selling Sherpa is placed at position 98 in the Top 100 Business Blogs . The Selling Sherpa is writen by Patrick Williams, a Professional Speaker with over 2 decades experience developing winning sales teams at top-rated radio stations, newspapers, phone directories and niche publications. His blog is about personal experiences, feelings, thoughts and facts in his everyday life. I would recommed it as a light reading as the blog seems to be quite new. Some of the topics are:  TURNING A MISTAKE INTO A SALE IF YOU DON’T TRY, THEY’LL NEVER BUY THOROUGHLY UNDERSTAND CUSTOMER NEEDS
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Small businesses are easily affected by any exterior factors
2007-12-18 19:27:00
If you are a “Small Business Entrepreneur blog” reader (I mean this blog) (and I wonder how many are you actually out there), you might have noticed a complete silence on my blog for several weeks.  So, ok, maybe you thought that I didn’t fell like writing or something, but the truth is that… I had stupid problems with my ISP, which actually badly affected my business as well. I couldn’t check emails, work was delayed and I was stressed out, because of a stupid Internet connection, value $40 a month. I’ve tried to find another ISP, but as I’m still working from home, there weren’t many other options left (actually none in a fast way). So, I’ve used 3G, kept on calling support lines - all in my limited time as a part time entrepreneur. Ok, so you might think, well, these kind of troubles happen to any size company! I personally believe that there are some factors that make things worse in a small company: I only relied on a $40 ...
More About: Small Businesses , Businesses , Sine

Lose customers by not trying to sell the second time
2007-12-18 19:14:00
Well, first of all, I see loosing a couple of customers as a sign of growth. Before you wonder, there is a simple explanation to this outrageous affirmation: when you are very small, you can’t afford to lose any customers and you will end up taking even the customers you shouldn’t be taking. Ok, so what this all about selling the second time, and loosing the customer by not doing it? Well, I discovered I did some sort of mistake in the sale process: I’ve sold once, and never considered the customer might need something more after a while. To give an example, we did a site for a customer more than a year ago. In the meanwhile, their needs expanded and they announced me they are going to move to another provider for that.  Having a new and better site, should have been a logical and easy sale for us. We had the customer in our yard, we worked with them before so no communication problems here and an upgrade might have been an easier thing to do. Instead of this, we ...
More About: Customers , Time , Sell

Reviewing position 99 in the Top 100 Business Blogs
2007-11-24 11:41:00
At position 99 in the Top 100 Business Blogs is BizzBangBuzz by Anthony Cerminaro. Anthony Cerminaro is a strategic business lawyer, technology attorney, mediator and seeker. “I help people solve problems and take advantage of business opportunities. I received my B.A. in Economics from Princeton University and my J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.”. Althought I don’t find the blog design particulary user friendly, the BizzBangBuzz blog is an incredible collection of resources for entrepreneurs - each post quotes a relevant article on the respective subject. It’s like reading 100 or more blogs into 1 - it has plenty of subjects (the blog starts in 2004!). Probably the easiest way to take advantage of the blog is by subscribing to it’s RSS Feed - and read the articles that interest you. Here is a list of the most recent articles currently on the homepage - just to have an idea: Avoid Rookie Mistakes Outline of an Employee Handbook Top Ten Manag...
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So, what’s wrong with the Top 100 Business Blogs?
2007-11-20 21:39:00
If you remember the Small Business Entrepreneur blog was listed in John Crickett’s Top 100 Business Blogs and now I’m here to say that there is something wrong with it? Well, the top generated just enough buzz around to be relevant (I’ve got plenty of links from other people putting the list on their blogs), but still it misses something. And that is a good description of what each blog is about. I know I don’t have time to write about all the 100 blogs in the list, but I will try. Let’s start bottom up.  The Freestyle Entrepreneur blog I believe that the most relevant way to talk about this blog is talking about it’s co-owners and their entrepreneurial path and contribution to the business world. John R. Ingrisano  says about himself: “I’m an SBO (that stands for Small Business Owner, just in case you were curious). Why am I an SBO?  My kids say it’s because I’m unemployable.  I’ve been outside the box way too long to g...
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Why being the company founder is always good
2007-11-20 21:12:00
Because chances are that your partners (or employees) might get to do a better job than you do at runing the company. They might be smarter, they might put more work or their ideas might be better. But no matter who you credit for the company success, you will always be credited for being a founder.  Because none of this would have happen if it wasn’t you, starting a company.
More About: Company , Founder , Good , Always

Blogging makes you smarter
2007-11-16 20:20:00
That’s a strange idea I had a couple of days ago while getting home from the office. I actually started by thinking what’s the thing that my colleagues like best about the way I’m doing my job. I believe that I’ve somehow turned into the “idea guy” - a little monkey that sits in a corner and gets out of the box ideas about solving things (some would call this as being a consultant). But where are all these ideas come from? Well, in a twisted and un-expected strange way, the ideas come from…blogging. Yes, blogging is an outgoing process in which you share your thoughts with the world. But then again, blogging is an incoming process in the same time. Somewhere in the process of playing smart and write a blog, bloggers need to accumulate knowledge about the things they are writing. They are reading other blogs, they receive comments from readers and maybe they do guest blogging. And for that, they start to know things. And if you know things ...
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Knowledge resources for entrepreneurs: Club E Network
2007-11-11 07:56:00
Peter Burns from Institute for Entrepreneurs hip introduced me to a great resource for any USA based entrepreneur: Club E Network . The Club E Network is “the new online and “on the ground” social network for aspiring, emerging and experienced entrepreneurs. Our open source organization invites the global entrepreneur community to join together and synergize their talents while encouraging the free exchange of ideas and resources.” So I thought, WOW, finally a network where I could meet entrepreneurs! He said: “You could help spreading the word of our growing network of entrepreneurial resources (all free) and encouraging many of your European contacts to sign up on our beta site www.clubenetwork.com. Then, you could include your blogging on our own site, in addition to your own, of course, so our viewers in America could learn much about the European perspective on entrepreneurship and what’s happening cross the world.” I’ve also got ...
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Motivating a sale team through success
2007-11-10 08:20:00
Back in 2006 I wrote a short post about Motivating a sales team , mostly based on the idea of achievable targets and real incentives for the sales guys. For sure, the post didn’t discuss all the ways you could make  sales people more committed and I’m not trying to do that now either. But I really have to mention another important factor in motivating a sale team: success. Sale s people are usually success starved people. They are used to be the “stars” in any company - even if the company results are based on the entire team work, the sales are the ones that get all the fame by signing big contracts and bringing money in the bank. Moreover, good sales have a strong personality, they are outgoing and think well about themselves. That’s why they feed on success. Put a great sales in an unsuccessful company and this will bring him down (even if he does good sales). Put him in a good company that is growing, getting good customers and make it to the newspa...
More About: Success , Team

Cowboy boots for Entrepreneurs?
2007-11-09 19:58:00
My friends and co-workers know that I don’t pay a great deal of importance on what I wear, but I had the chance recently to discuss with a serial entrepreneur and an excellent sales guy about the subject of business wear. You will have to imagine the three of us hiking in the mountains while discussing about the proper way to get dressed for a meeting We had 3 opinions: Sales guy: “I have to wear my best suit when going to a customer, to show him respect and suggest the quality of our business” Serial entrepreneur: “Wearing a suit is not necessary, you should dress in a way that makes you comfortable. If you dress casual, then it should be from top brands.” Me and the serial entrepreneur: “Dressing a suit when visiting a customer, might just mean you are inferior to the customer, and you need the suit to protect you. If you dress casual, you show the customer that you are strong enough and don’t need a suit.” And then again, I remembe...
More About: Cowboy , Boots , Entrepreneurs , Rene

One more thing about Entrepreneurs
2007-11-08 21:21:00
People are used to think about entrepreneurs in many ways. They think that entrepreneurs have the power to make their own schedules and play golf on Wednesday at noon. They think that entrepreneurs are the happiest people on earth (as they get to hear more ofthen about the ones that are succesful than the ones are struggling to make it to the next day). They ask if entrepreneurship can the taught - something that I also tried to answer here . They think that entrepreneurs take risks. They think…everything. But I got one more thing to say about the Entrepreneurs . Entrepreneurs have the power to keep it going. They don’t quit. And, with the help of my familly and my business partners I didn’t quit either. And looking back, that’s amazing enough.
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Easier to read the Small Business Entrepreneur blog
2007-11-08 19:43:00
I thought I should make a little present to my faithful readers and took a big step forward to improve my blog. Following Tyler Cruz’s advices, I’ve managed to change the layout of the blog to something that I find much more easy to read. It was quite a lot of work to migrate the old b2evolution blog to Wordpress but should make your reading a more pleasant experience. And talking about reading, I know I don’t write as often as I should (although I have plenty of writing ideas each day) so, I’ve also implemented Feedburner. Even if I might space out from time to time, you can now register to feedburner by RSS or email in the top right column, and get my writings whenever they happen! Well, hope to see you come back here more often now!
More About: Business , Small Business , Entrepreneur , Blog , Read