Welcome! This week all around the globe people are celebrating innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare. Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) launched in 2008 and has since grown to 150 countries with over 24,000 partner organizations planning over 34,000 activities that directly engage millions of participants during the week. Continue reading
Idea generation is an art form. It’s about setting a safe, creative space for people to feel like they can say anything, be wild, not be judged – so that new ideas can be born.
To help you generate ideas, some tips used in traditional group brainstorming follow, setting the boundaries of that creative space.
Creative spaces don’t judge. They let the ideas flow, so that people can build on each other and foster great ideas. You never know where a good idea is going to come from, the key is to make everyone feel like they can say the idea on their mind and allow others to build on it. Pose non-judgmental questions and provocations so that the ideas can get better. Continue reading
The CBI recently developed Co-Working spaces. I found an article by Cassidy North-Reist that helps define some of the behaviors that will help you succeed in a Co-Working space.
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The nature of the American workforce is rapidly changing, with more of us telecommuting or starting businesses out of our homes than ever before. It’s no surprise then that there’s been a recent surge in people taking up residency in Co-Working spaces. Continue reading
As a business owner, it’s way too easy to get bogged down in the day to day challenges. Sure it’s important to put out fires but it’s equally (or more) important to think about the big picture and where you’re taking things.
One way to get inspired and to challenge your thinking – or at least get a different perspective, is to find a quote that resonates with you. Often someone else can put into words those ideas that are bouncing around in your head.
These 5 quotes that get to the heart of business success: Continue reading
Cumberland Business Incubator receives $50,000 prize to create Tinker Space
The Cumberland Business Incubator, located on Roane State Community College’s Cumberland County campus, has received a $50,000 prize to create a space where entrepreneurs can turn their ideas into working prototypes.
The incubator was one of 50 organizations nationwide to receive a prize through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Growth Accelerator Fund competition. Continue reading
You are in a group called “big, small business” if you employ at least five people (other than yourself), do over $500,000 per year in annual sales, and have been in business for at least two years. That’s the smallest of the “big, small businesses”. The “large, small businesses” employ 15 or more people (all the way to 500), with annual sales between $2 million and $25 million. That’s a huge range, but according to the Small Business Administration anything under 500 employees is a small business. Continue reading
Nearly everything today is based on computers and computer processing. My car has computers in it. My washing machine has computer chips in it. My phone is based on a computer and code, called apps.
Code.org says that by 2020 there will be 1 million more computer jobs than computer science students in the United States. Experts fear U.S. society will be dominated by users of computers and programs that they don’t understand and haven’t created. Continue reading
Do you have good ideas that would take your business to the next level but don’t know where to find help to implement them? How can you minimize the risks and increase the probability of success in your business? Do you have dreams of starting your own business but don’t know where to begin? Continue reading
Have you purchased something recently at a retail store or coffee shop or paid for a service where your credit or debit card was swiped through a small white attachment to a cell phone or iPad? That small white square was probably the Square. Yes, that is the actual name of the device and card processing service.
I avoided the Highway 127 Sale (the longest stretch of garage sales anywhere!), but I would bet there were a number of vendors with the Square attached to their phones to process payments. Even once-a-year vendors at craft shows and garage sales are using the Square for their credit and debit card customers. My massage therapist in Illinois was one of the first service providers I knew that adopted the Square in her business. Continue reading
Consumers like to buy locally made things. The July 21-July 27, 2014 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek contains an interesting article about a potential new local trend. The owners of Absolut vodka, the French group Pernod Ricard, are looking to profit from those buyers who will pay a premium for small-batch locally made vodka. They are franchising. Pernod supplies the distilling equipment and the vodka recipe, but the production, sales and marketing and some profits are the entrepreneur’s. Continue reading