Tag Archives: jamestown

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 →

CBI Wins Prize!

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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 →

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 →

Do You Code?

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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 →

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 →

Focus on the 80%

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ideas biz

I enjoy meeting with clients that come in with invention ideas. I get to put on my engineering hat and talk about engineering and design and manufacturing as well as all the typical business aspects. I met with a group last week that brought in their product idea. In this first meeting they were eager and excited to tell me about what they were going to build and what great ideas they had for packages and versions and the future of the product. There is a battery required to power their product. Within the same conversation they shared their ideas of how to build a better battery. They were full of ideas! Continue reading →

MAKE Camp 2014 a Huge Success

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18 campers, 11 volunteers and 3 Make camp staff spent 5 days at the CBI learning how to make things from soldering led lights and battery holders on a flashing robot pin to making a mini-hovercraft to woodworking projects, making paracord bracelets to learning how to write computer code and dozens of art and craft projects including learning how to sew. Continue reading →

Buy Local

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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 →

The Eiffel Tower & Your Ideas

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In celebration of Bastille Day, Seth Godin’s blog included the following about the Eiffel Tower:

  • It was designed at home on the kitchen table
  • By someone who didn’t get their name on it
  • It had never been done before, not guaranteed to get built or to work
  • It was criticized by hundreds of leading intellectuals and cultural experts
  • It wasn’t supposed to last very long
  • It’s designed to be an icon, it’s not an accident
  • People flock to it because it’s famous
  • You can sketch a recognizable version of it on a napkin

I did a bit more research. In May of 1884, working at his kitchen table at home, Maurice Koechlin made an outline drawing of the scheme he and Emile Nouguier, both engineers with the Eiffel firm, had conceived of as the centerpiece for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris, coinciding with the centennial of the French Revolution. Initially the owner of the company, Mr Eiffel himself, was not enthusiastic about the concept. Continue reading →