Tag Archives: incubating businesses

7 Tips on Better Brainstorming

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brain

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.

  1. Defer judgment

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 →

5 Behaviors That Make You a Co-Working Space Pro

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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 →

Guerrilla Marketing – 5 Unorthodox Ways to Market Your Brand

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Before a million pails of cold water brought amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) global attention, many people had never heard of the disease. After a summer of ice bucket challenges, the devastating motor neuron disorder has an astonishing level of awareness. Although the campaign didn’t originate as a deliberate marketing strategy, it’s a great case of the power of guerrilla marketing in the social-media age.

Inexpensive, small scale and non-traditional marketing tactics can be extremely effective ways to promoting your brand if the idea catches the public imagination and goes viral. Guerrilla marketing covers a huge variety of activities. Continue reading →

Guerrilla Marketing – 5 Basics

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No matter where we live we’ve all been in a traffic jam or at a light that just won’t change in our favor and glanced at the advertising billboards around us.

This “wait marketing” that capitalizes on immobility, or forced attention, maximizes potential exposure for businesses. However, unless the motorist has some special connection to the advertiser, the odds are that he or she will forget about the ad as soon as the traffic starts moving again. Continue reading →

So You Want to Start a Business or Buy an Existing One?

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start business

We have a number of people who come to the CBI for help in buying a business or to start their own business. Sometimes it’s a short conversation when they come looking for the grant money they believe we have. We don’t have grant funds or grant applications to buy a business or start a business. We don’t have access to a pool of investors who loan money without a sound business plan, or know of any that will loan 100% of the cost of a business even with a great plan. Continue reading →

What’s Your Fair Share?

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This October’s issue of INC. magazine has an interesting article about splitting founder’s equity.

15 years ago Atlanta-based Ockham Technologies had three founders. One founder had part of the original idea and was putting in sweat equity and cash. A second founder was putting in sweat equity and cash but wasn’t part of the original idea. A third founder was part of the idea and put in cash but no sweat equity. What type of split of the equity would have been “fair?” Continue reading →

5 Quotes That Can Profoundly Change Your Business

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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 →

Big Small Business

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Small-Vs-Big-Businesses

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 →

Are You Ready?

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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 →

Square Appointments

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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 →