The Entrepreneurial Mind

The most recent data from the SBA shows that small business is still driving the economy, employing 50.6% of the entire US workforce. The SBA also has a web page that allows you to really dig into the small business statistics from varying sources, looking at industry sectors, number of firms by size (revenues and employment), birth and death rates of small business, and so forth. It also has data by state and metro areas. If you are into data, this is a fascinating site.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Universities are giant R&D departments dreaming up the "next big thing." The problem is, they are not very good at making the transition from ideas to market applications.

Many academics have no experience in the business world. They do not understand the difference between an interesting new idea and a real market opportunity. But, don't try to tell them that. Rather than truly partnering with the private sector to mine the wealth of new product applications, they set up rules and stipulations that keep many good opportunities locked away in their labs, and push many applications that are not ready or not truly viable into the market. They do this through their technology transfer policies and tight control by administrative and faculty committees.

Alfred Mann, inventor of the first insulin pump, wants to give hundreds of millions of dollars to universities with one simple condition. He wanted to the right to pick which ideas get funding based on the experience that he and his staff has had in launching new medical devices, rather than allow a committee of faculty and administrators to decide which should get funding with the money he donates to the university. So far, he has found no takers.

From Forbes.com:

Mann is puzzled by the rejections. As he sees it, universities should welcome his guidance since they typically do a bad job in commercializing their professors' inventions. Professors, he says, don't know how to turn their ideas into products. University patent offices have trouble finding industrial partners. He cites statistics showing that $37 billion in government and industry sponsored university research each year leads to only $1 billion in commercial licensing revenue, a paltry 2.7% return.

But universities say Mann wants too much control for too little money. Experts in technology transfer tend to agree. Robert Lowe, a professor of entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University, who studies the topic, says that universities don't want a single entity to have first-look rights to option its inventions because it can interfere with academic freedom and amount to a giveaway.

If technology transfer is to be part of the engine that drives our emerging entrepreneurial economy, universities need to stop being arrogant and understand that those with market experience can help the common good by accelerating new products coming out of their ivory towers.

(Thanks to Jim Stefansic for passing this along).

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 07:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The news yesterday that health care premiums jumped 7.7%, twice the rate of inflation, is bad news for small businesses in the US.

Groups like the NFIB continues to push for action, a band-aide at best, that might help ease some of the burden that is falling on small employers.

We find it especially troubling to see that premiums continue to grow twice as fast as inflation and wages. An 87 percent increase over the past six years just isn't financially sustainable for small businesses....[T]here is a critical need for Congress to address the unique challenges that small-business owners face as they struggle to afford health care for themselves, their employees and their families. Most recently, NFIB supported efforts to see Small-Business Health Plans become a reality for millions of small businesses around the country. Unfortunately, while the House passed SBHP legislation eight times, this important legislation continues to hit roadblocks in the Senate.

SBHP are not the long-term solution that our health care system needs. But, it will at least help out entrepreneurs and their employees until real reform is enacted.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 06:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The results from a new study on cheating among MBA students conducted by the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University is quite disheartening. From Bloomberg.com:

The study found 56 percent of MBA students acknowledged cheating....The study offered two main explanations for the cheating: the pressure-cooker atmosphere of business school leaves many students willing to compete by any means available, and corporate scandals have distorted the standards of many business students.

So what these students are telling us is that the "ends justify the means" and "I might as well get started cheating now, because that is what I will need to do in corporate America."

Another study found that more than 70% of undergraduate business students admit to cheating.

Corporate America has helped to corrupt our culture with all of its scandals. My only hope is that the entrepreneurial generation will create a new breed of American business leaders that seeks to do well in business without sacrificing their integrity. That is why we need to infuse not just legalistic ethics, but morality and values into business education.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 07:36 AM | Permalink

The NFIB is recommending that we all pay close attention to two cases coming before the US Supreme Court this session.

Tort reform advocates will be watching Phillip Morris USA v. Williams. In this case, which arises out of a widow's tort suit against the cigarette manufacturer that resulted in $79.5 million punitive damages, the court will be asked to address the constitutional limits on punitive damage awards. This will be the court's first significant ruling on punitive damages since State Farm v. Campbell in 2003. One issue the court has agreed to review is of significant interest to the business community, namely whether juries may impose damages suffered by people who are not parties to the case. The question of whether a jury may punish a defendant for harms to non-parties arises in a number of other types of cases, including product-liability and environmental litigation.

In the case Lilly Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the Court is expected to decide how far back a plaintiff can reach when seeking damages in a disparate pay claim. Lilly Ledbetter, a supervisor in Goodyear's tire assembly center for 19 years, has asked the court to look way, way back -- to 1979 in fact. At trial, Ledbetter persuaded the court to allow into evidence all of her pay reviews since her hire in 1979. The Eleventh Circuit ruled in favor of Goodyear, finding that the employee can only go back as far as the most recent salary review, observing that there must be "some limit on how far back the plaintiff can reach." It upheld the company's actions and reversed a $360,000 award.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 01:58 PM | Permalink

I wrote a post earlier this summer about the risks of inflation in our economy and how unprepared today's entrepreneurs are to meet the challenges that a period of high inflation can create for small business owners. Here is a summary of my recommendations:

So what can a small business do these days to try and weather this storm?

- Keep overhead low.
- Build cash reserves to buffer short term price increases that precede higher prices on your part.
- Watch your margins carefully. Worry about growing profits, not sales.
- Don't lock into long-term contracts that have narrow margins with large customers.
- When inflation heats up even a little, be aggressive with frequent small price increases rather than waiting and trying to catch up at some point with one big jump.
- Pay down variable interest loans ASAP. As long as there is inflation, interest rates will keep going up.

A recent survey from the NFIB raises additional concerns that inflation may be heating up.

They found that about one third of small business owners plan to raise prices, mostly from small businesses in manufacturing and construction. But, these are real goods that consumers will feel in their pocketbooks. Although energy prices have eased, wage pressure is still strong due to shortages of trained, qualified, experienced workers.

Unfortunately, one of the only hopes for an easing of inflation is a recession. Some of us remember this old dance. The economy gets strong, but then it overheats causing inflation. Inflation dampens the economy, leading to a recession. Then the cycle repeats. The Fed is trying to keep control so we do not get into this old business cycle again. But, this time their interest rate policy may not be enough. Let's hope the ugly beast of inflation can get controlled before it takes us into and economic tailspin. Stay tuned....

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 06:37 AM | Permalink

What follows are a series of posts that summarize the inaugural stop of the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour here at Belmont today. To follow the day's events in order, read today's posts from the first to the last (from the bottom up). Thanks to the EET crew for putting on an excellent program!

I am off to Florida to celebrate my Dad's 85th birthday. Three Cheers for my favorite octogenarian (and still active) entrepreneur!!!

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ephren Taylor was the final speaker of the Extreme Entrepreneur Tour. At 23, he has already achieved amazing success:

Success in business -- His real estate company holds over $150 million in real estate, specializing in affordable housing for urban communities. He also has a highly successful entertainment company. He is one of the youngest CEOs of a publicly owned corporation, haven taken his business public after coming out of "retirement."

Success in life -- Ephren is active in charitable work and a frequent motivational speaker inspiring young people to strive for their own success in life. He is married and has two young children.

Ephren's story is one of drive, ingenuity, and persistence. His is also a story of maturity and integrity beyond his years.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 07:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The second session of today's Extreme Entrepreneur Tour, led by Michael Simmons and Sheena Lindahl, offered a two step program to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to take action.

This first step is develop a dream that is based on:

- what you want to accomplish in life
- those things that bring you happiness, enjoyment, and joy
- your values
- your strengths

The second step is to develop an action plan. Action takes courage, but it also needs a road map. Too many people dream, but never act. Successful action requires:

- pushing yourself to reach your true potential, to break out of your comfort zone

- setting a series of goals that will lead you to your long term aspirations in life. These goals should stretch you, be measurable and attainable, be intrinsically rewarding, and have a specific time frame. What do you need to accomplish this month? In three months? This year? As the old joke goes, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!" Set a series of 90 day milestones that map out the goals you need to reach to move your toward your dream.

- create an honest assessment of what happens if you don't achieve your goal. What's the worst that can happen? It is probably not as bad as you think, so don't let your fears stop you.

Successful action requires accountability -- to yourself and to those who support you on the journey to your dream.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 04:38 PM | Permalink

During the first session of today's Extreme Entrepreneur Tour stop here at Belmont, Doug Fath shared how he came to choose an entrepreneurial career path in his life. Doug began his entrepreneurial career in 2001 at the age of 19. While in school he started an online sports apparel business. He sold that business in 2004 as he graduated college, and moved his entrepreneurial career into real estate by founding Faithful Investments, LLC. His business specializes in urban revitalization. Their mission:

Faithful Investments is committed to making a difference by building meaningful relationships and creating win-win situations with all of its business partners and customers.

To carry out this mission, Faithful Investments creates pleasurable living experiences for its tenants, innovative solutions for homeowners and money making opportunities for its investors.

He began his talk by citing a study which reported that 70% of young people are dissatisfied with their career choices early in their lives. Many of these young people end up in such unhappy circumstances by choosing careers based on what other people expect them to do. He offered words of encouragement and inspiration for young people to find happiness and satisfaction in their careers, by forging their own path by pursuing their own dreams and passions in their lives through entrepreneurship.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 03:31 PM | Permalink

Belmont University will serve as host to the inaugural stop of the Extreme Entrepreneur Tour this afternoon from 3:00-8:00 p.m. as part of our Moench Entrepreneurship Lecture Series. We are delighted to be the first host for this exciting event. The Extreme Entrepreneur Tour brings top young entrepreneurs to college campuses to spread the entrepreneurial mindset at a grassroots level. Included in today's program is Ephren Taylor whose business, Amoro Corporation, is headquartered here in Franklin, TN. I wrote a post a while back about his return from retirement to the business world at the ripe old age of 23.

It should be a great event. Any of you who are local are encouraged to attend. It is free and open to the public.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 06:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

StartupNation recommends ten steps to help grow beyond the start-up mode:

1. Measure and Analyze Current Status
2. Get Efficient through Technology
3. Enhance Your Customer Experience
4. Cozy Up with Vendors
5. Maximize Your Niche, Expand to a New One
6. Develop New Channels
7. Acquire Growth Capital
8. Create a Culture
9. Ramp Up Awareness and Demand
10. Improve Sales Techniques

For each step they offer short articles and other resources to help apply these steps to a business.

Remember, however, that starting the growth process is only the first part of the process of moving your business ahead. Growth will create a new set of challenges:

1. Beware of the Growth Myth. Focus on growing profits, not sales! Too many entrepreneurs assume that profits always follow sales. This is not always the case. And even when profits do begin to follow sales, cash flow can lag even farther behind.

2. Vision Drift. Don't lose your way. Stay focused on your core business. It may need to adapt and change, but these must be deliberate and planned choices.

3. Cultural drift. Managing the culture of your business is your job! If you don't manage it, your culture will take on a life of its own, which is almost never a good thing.

4. Resource crises. Securing the fuel to support growth can be a constant strain...cash, staff, space, equipment, etc., etc.

5. Systems crises. The mundane and the complex all need development. From accounts payable to planning, all systems must be updated, enhanced, and made ready for growth.

6. Muddled structure. Make sure your structure makes sense for your strategy and your culture. We make small decisions on how to organize our employees that may make sense as we make them, but they may create an overall structure that can choke future growth and profits.

7. Disjointed strategies. Your business and your strategy need to be in harmony. All aspects of your business must be consistent and geared toward meeting customer needs and expectations.

Once the business begins to grow, both the entrepreneur and his business need to begin a transformation. If not properly managed, the entrepreneur can grow himself right out of business.

(Here is a link to a summary of all of the posts I have made about the challenges of growth).

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 05:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have made some recent posts about the new book I am writing with Mike Naughton from the University of St. Thomas. It comes out of the work we did developing a class that examined the process of starting and building a business from the perspective of Christian social teaching. The class won a national award (as an entrepreneurship class) and resulted in the two of us writing several scholarly pieces related to our work together. Too often traditional approaches to business ethics are from a legalistic or a morally relativistic perspective. We believe that morality should guide our ethical decisions.

Our book brings the message of how faith can inform, guide and ground the formation and development of new ventures, to the entrepreneurs who are leading today's entrepreneurial economy. We offer entrepreneurs both a moral perspective and practical tools that they can use in their businesses. We organize the book around the four cardinal virtues from Aquinas: Justice, Prudence, Courage, and Temperance.

Justice can come to life through innovative compensation, benefit, and profit-sharing programs. What we accomplish in our businesses is only because of the support and efforts of many other people who deserve a share of our successes. Prudence is practiced by being intentionally careful stewards of the gifts we have to work with -- our talents, other people's money, the labor of our workers, and so forth. Courage is not just the intestinal fortitude to start the business, but staying true to our vision and values to build a better place to work and become a profitable business. Temperance is understanding our wholeness as people. As I wrote a few weeks ago, there is a risk in viewing your career as a noun.

We want to find a business publisher for this book, but there seems to be an uneasiness with overtly bringing God and faith into how we do our work as entrepreneurs. I have heard this uneasiness, this uncomfortableness, in the voices of some of the editors as we have explained our book.

This agnosticism also applies to how others think we should live our lives in today's culture. The jounalist Fred Barnes recently told a story about a famous liberal who came face to face with the reality that many want God out of our culture:

Back in the early 1990s when I was still at The New Republic, I was invited to a dinner in Washington with Mario Cuomo. He was then governor of New York, and had invited several reporters to dinner because he was thinking about running for president. At one point that night he mentioned that he sent his children to Catholic schools in New York because he wanted them to be taught about a God-centered universe. This was in the context of expressing his whole-hearted support for public schools. But from the reaction, you would have thought he had said that one day a week he would bring out the snakes in his office and make policy decisions based on where they bit him. He was subsequently pummeled with stories about how improper it was for him, one, to send his kids to religious schools, and two, to talk about it. (Imprimis, Hillsdale College).

Our values and our faith should inform our actions because all that we do, be it in our families, our businesses, or our communities, shape our character. I know we will soon find a good publisher, but it is sad that in our culture we have become so quick to compartmentalize God and faith from everyday life.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 05:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Work at Home Business Opportunities has a post about a program to donate books on entrepreneurship and other general business topics to prison libraries. The hope is that we can inspire some of folks to choose a better path in life.

Go to Amazon, order your favorite book, and have it sent here:

L.Haddock
Pre Release Program
South Central Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 279
Clifton, TN 38425-0279

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 05:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Census Bureau released its final numbers from 2002 of their survey of private businesses (better late than never...after all, it is the federal government.....).

Here is a summary:

There were 23 million nonfarm U.S. businesses in 2002, employing 110.8 million persons and generating $22.6 trillion in business revenues. Firms with paid employees accounted for 5.5 million or 24.0 percent of these businesses and $21.8 trillion or 96.6 percent of their receipts....There were 98,352 firms with 100 employees or more which accounted for $16.0 trillion in gross receipts (73.5 percent of the total receipts of all employer firms).

For more detail you can find the summary here and the full report here (all 1579 pages!!!).

(From Ben Cunningham via beSpacific).

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 05:00 AM | Permalink

The Tennessean (Nashville's' daily newspaper) ran a profile of four young entrepreneurs in today's paper. Each has taken a slightly different path to their entrepreneurial career.

One of the profiles is of Andy Tabar, a 19 year old entrepreneurship student here at Belmont. He is integrating his experiences as he grows his business, Nashville Creative, into various class projects.

This need for just-in-time learning is what makes today's young entrepreneurs such a challenge when they arrive at college. Many already have an operating business when they move into the dorms as freshman. We must engage them quickly, and show them how we can integrate their business experiences into their college experiences.

For students like Andy, we plug them into our various co-curricular offerings for student entrepreneurs, including our hatchery, the practicing entrepreneurs programs, and entrepreneurship club as soon as they arrive at our doorstep. Sometimes we know they are coming, and some are "walk-ins" who show up at our Center. By the time they take their first Entrepreneurship class, usually in their Sophomore or Junior year, we already know many of them and their businesses quite well.

Effectively working with today's young entrepreneurs requires a different approach to teaching. We offer them as much opportunity to gain knowledge and skills outside of the classroom as we do in the courses we teach. And if it works well, the two experiences blend together. What we talk about in an informal student entrepreneur roundtable discussion, may also be something they are using as the focus for a class project.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 07:32 AM | Permalink

We are introducing a new seminar for entrepreneurs of growing companies. Over eight evenings, the course explores the challenges faced entrepreneurs who own growing ventures. I developed this class as a result of my own experiences in managing growth, and look forward to working with entrepreneurs who now face the same issues in their businesses.

There is a challenging point in any business' development when its owners must further develop the skills necessary to successfully grow the business to the next level. This transition includes improving systems, bringing in new talent, and enhancing the infrastructure of the company. The owner also begins a transition into very different roles. This seminar gives you the tools to enhance your skills and make growth transitions more effective.

If you are an owner of a growing company in Middle Tennessee please visit this web site for more information.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 05:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We are delighted to welcome Barry Moltz to our campus today. He will be speaking on the the 'Resiliency Spring'. From his web site:

[F]our foundations for developing true business confidence:

1. Failure is an Option. Never set out expecting to fail, but recognize, accept, and embrace that failures will almost certainly come.

2. Develop the 'Resiliency Spring' through the willingness to endure failure for failure's sake. Resiliency will arrive when you are able to observe and learn the lessons that failure teaches you, without blaming or condemning yourself because you failed.

3. Retrain Your Ego and Develop Humility. Humility is the freedom from the burden of personal arrogance that tells us that we are the only one who determines our future business outcome.

4. The Courage to Experience: View failure as a different kind of success.

Stop imagining how terrible it would be to failure and replace that with the willingness to experience whatever outcome arrives. Be willing to blur the lines between failure and success.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 08:38 AM | Permalink

The NFIB released their latest small business poll and it shows that small business owners are in a grumpy mood. One would think that they would be in a more upbeat frame of mind given the fact that they are planning to expand by hiring and creating new jobs.

So why are they so sour on things right now? Even though they want and need to hire, they are finding significantly higher labor costs and fewer qualified workers. They also are needing to borrow more money, but finding it slightly more difficult to do so as banks tighten credit in reaction to a weaker economy. They would like to increase prices to offset weaker sales, but we all could tell them that that will never work.

Overall so far in 2006 they have had a generally good year in terms of profits and sales. But, they just don't have the cash in the bank one would expect from a good financial year, according to their reports on liquidity.

The Tatum Partners, a firm that provides temporary executive and executive services to companies, finds in a survey of their partners that the economy is getting weaker:

Overall conditions are flattening out at what we believe to be a sub-2% GDP growth rate in the third quarter, probably closer to zero. Residential housing is retreating particularly in markets that had experienced irrational exuberance in the past three years resulting in a speculative bubble that has burst. Commercial and industrial construction markets have remained relatively strong. We continue to sense the most probable near term outlook is for a soft landing with very slow growth in the third and fourth quarters.

Even though employment remains fairly strong right now and commercial real estate is healthy, they may be lagging indicators. All other signs indicate a rocky road in the months to come.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 06:31 AM | Permalink

Scott Burns recently wrote a column on wealth. In it, he reports on a survey on wealth in America that has some very interesting findings. The young in this country are getting less wealthy, and the old are getting wealthier. As we would expect, our wealth peaks in our 60s as many of us begin our retirement. But, the most intriguing finding to me is related to business ownership:

Citing data from other sources, Mr. Murphy observed that 50 percent of all households with a net worth of $1 million to $10 million were business owners. But 76 percent of those with $10 million to $50 million owned a business, and 89 percent of those worth more than $50 million owned a business.

Burns includes a summary table of the wealth scorecard from this report in his article.

(Thanks to John Russell for passing this along).

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 06:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

A new study from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a report on Women and Entrepreneurship in Chile - 2005/2006, led by Universidad del Desarrollo, shows that entrepreneurship among women has risen 68% in the last 3 years despite an adverse setting. If this phenomenon continues, women could outnumber men in new enterprises by 2010.

Although Chilean women believe they have less opportunity to become entrepreneurs than men, they have nonetheless forcefully begun to start companies, and the rates of growth are nearly 20% annually, higher even than egalitarian developed countries like Germany or Spain.

This report constitutes the first detailed analysis of female entrepreneurship in Chile. The report is part of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, which is led by Babson College and the London Business School.

Today, it is estimated that there are 513,000 women entrepreneurs in Chile, equal to 33% of all entrepreneurs in the nation. Three years ago the percentage was just 20%.

If the high growth rates persist, by 2010 female entrepreneurs will equal male entrepreneurs and create more than 50% of jobs in new enterprises in the country.

Where women are equal to men is in readiness: 85% say they have the same level of knowledge and skills as men in beginning a business.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 06:06 AM | Permalink

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 05:22 AM | Permalink

The 2007 version of the Doing Business rankings have been released. This is an annual report supported by the World Bank and the IFC.

How this ranking works (from their website):

The Doing Business database provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement. The Doing Business indicators are comparable across 175 economies. They indicate the regulatory costs of business and can be used to analyze specific regulations that enhance or constrain investment, productivity, and growth.

Taxes and regulation are the two biggest policy issues that predict entrepreneurial activity worldwide. Less lower and simpler tax systems and fewer regulations are among the most powerful tools for true economic development. That is what makes this ranking one of the most valid ways of looking at entrepreneurial support. Too many others are laced with superfluous measures dealing with social policy that have nothing to do with entrepreneurial support.

This year's top ten are as follows:

1- Singapore
2- New Zealand
3- USA
4- Canada
5- Hong Kong (China)
6- United Kingdom
7- Denmark
8- Australia
9- Norway
10 - Ireland

The US had one glaring low mark: the regulatory cost of paying taxes. With over 60,000 pages of tax code, this comes as no surprise. What the US needs is a new, simple, fair, and politician-proof tax system. Perhaps something like the Fair Tax?

Georgia, Romania, and Mexico made the most regulatory reform last year. China and Eastern Europe were also among the top regulatory reformers.

The website also has a business law library, which "is the largest free online collection of business laws and regulations."

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

From time to time I have written about myths that I see when dealing with aspiring entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur.com has put together their own Top 10 list of Small business Myths that are worth a read for anyone thinking about starting a business.

Several of their myths dealing with financing issues:

Myth No. 1: "The government has grants for startups."

Generally this is not true. There are a few instances where local governments set up programs for disadvantaged people looking to use free enterprise to improve their lives, but they are not that common.

Myth No. 2: "The SBA loans money directly to small businesses."

Another financing myth busted. You still must go to a bank. Some banks work with the SBA program to get small business loans guaranteed by the SBA.

Myth No. 3: "Venture capitalists loan money to startups."

VCs fund less than 0.5% of entrepreneurial ventures, and of those, only rarely do they fund a start-up.

Myth No. 5: "I'll be able to write everything off."

Actually you can, but you will face interest and penalties from the IRS, so I don't recommend it either.

Myth No 6: "I can pay myself whatever I want."

Again, you can, but you'll be out of business in a few weeks. You can only pay yourself what is left after everything else gets paid. You are last in line if you want to make your business work.

Myth No. 8: "I should be profitable after six months, because I'm an expert at what I do."

The article states that most businesses take 2-3 years to make a profit. That is also kind of a myth. I have owned businesses that make profit within a few months, and I have had some that took years. It all depends on the business model and the market. That is why a plan is so important to help you understand what you are getting into. Which brings us to another of their myths:

Myth No. 10: "If I'm not getting funding, I don't need a business plan."

See my comments above...

They also have a couple of marketing myths:

Myth No. 7: "If I create a website, I'll get traffic (or the more popular 'If I build it, they will come.')"

Myth No. 9: "I don't need a marketing plan or marketing materials. This product/service sells itself."

I tell entrepreneurs that they should be prepared to spend 80% of their time selling and marketing early on. Nothing sells itself and no website creates its own traffic.

Finally, one of their myths deals with lifestyle:

Myth No. 4: "I'll have more time to do what I want."

You should assume you'll have some long hours early on. But, if time is important, make sure to build that into your business plans. Plan for slower growth or less ambitious goals if you want to structure time for other things. Also understand that some businesses just demand more of our time by their very nature. For example, if you want to start a restaurant, plan on very few days off, long hours, and no vacations for a LONG time. Know what you are getting into before you start any business and make sure it fits your non-financial and lifestyle goals.

Make sure to go the the Entrepreneur.com article, as it has some great links to more information on all of these topics.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 05:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A common mantra in successful new ventures is that everyone in the company must be a part of marketing. Building customers is the most important activity any start-up engages in.

eVenturing from the Kauffman Foundation has a great collection of articles and tools for on-line marketing in entrepreneurial ventures. This is fast becoming one of the most important aspects of marketing in today's economy. It gives tips on getting clicks, and helps understand the world of Google and the issues of privacy and security.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Every virtue has two ditches that take it beyond virtue and into vice: one ditch is deficiency and the other one is excess. Courage, which is a commonly used virtue for entrepreneurs, is no exception.

Take for example Andre Agassi. What a wonderful career he has had in tennis, winning eight major tournaments that included a career grand slam.

This past weekend he played his last US Open. The word courage seemed to come up every five minutes on TV and in every story written about his efforts this year. For those of you who are not tennis or even sports fans, Agassi played this last year with a severely injured back. But, he played on, in spite of his father publicly stating that he should not.

He was touted as a hero. "Give Agassi credit, he retired swinging", was one headline.

While he has shown great courage in the past with his comebacks, playing through injuries, and with his incredible work ethic, this weekend Agassi went beyond courage and into the vice of recklessness. Even the commentators who marveled at his "courage," would say in the next breath that this last tournament could cause serious permanent physical injury.

So why did he go on? It was not the money -- he and his wife have more than they can spend. It was not to win another major -- even Agassi knew he could not win again in a major.

Sadly, I think society has convinced many of us that being Herculean even when there is no hope of success is somehow noble and good. But this is not true. Every virtue, even courage has limits.

There are good lessons here for the entrepreneur. When taken too far, risk taking can become reckless. Staying with a deal or sticking with a major decision even when it is clear that the best course of action is to move on is not courage, it is recklessness. Taking risk just for the sake of taking risk is not courage, it is recklessness.

Courage has two ditches. And Andre Agassi strayed off the road of courage into the ditch of recklessness.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 06:14 AM | Permalink

There is a hopeful sign that our economy, and particularly our entrepreneurial economy, is bouncing back. After a few months of sluggishness, we are seeing increases in employment.

An overall view of employment shows a drop in unemployment in August, according to data just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And in the NFIB membership survey for August, just released this morning, there is an indication of a significant strengthening of employment in small business, with 55% of those surveyed reporting that they hired or tried to hire new employees in August. This improvement in small business hiring is critical, as small business is now 50% of our GNP and consistently accounts for about 70-80% of new job creation in the US.

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Micro loan programs are basically a good tool. They provide funding for the poor and economically disadvantaged to start small businesses. It provides for many a first step out of poverty, using a path that can move them toward economic prosperity through free enterprise.

In many countries micro lending is being supported by non-profits and private banks. But a trend in the US is for the government to extend the reach of socialized entrepreneurship to include micro lending programs. Such is the case in a new program here in Tennessee. From the Nashville Business Journal:

Governor Phil Bredesen and Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matthew Kisber today announced a partnership between the state and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to launch a new Micro Loan Program for micro-enterprises, which are businesses with five or fewer employees, one of whom owns the business....

"This is an excellent example of state and federal partnership that will help encourage job creation, build entrepreneurial capacity and increase revenue in rural communities across Tennessee," said Bredesen.

Wrong, Gov. Bredesen. Government meddling like this in the private markets just does not work. Loan repayments are way below private market standards, creating yet another give-a-away.

We already are dealing with the mess the corporate welfare has created. Let's not start building a system of entrepreneurial welfare!

(Thanks to Ben Cunningham for passing this along. Visit his new tax blog).

Posted by Jeff Cornwall at 06:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)