Category:

Entreprneurship Training

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Get Your News on Your Terms

July 6, 2011, Bootstrapping, Entreprneurship Training, google, Technology, Tools
http://www.schoolforstartups.com/get-your-news-on-your-terms/

many of you know about RSS feeds and probably already subscribe to a few. Eric wrote an article on the topic “How to Set Up an RSS Feed” back in May 2010. since then the only thing that has really changed is that Feed Burner has been bought by google and is now Google Reader (see link below).

for those of you who do not know it is a pretty simple way to get the news/blogs you want delivered right to you without having to search the web for them. if there is a blog that you read pretty often because the content is pretty awesome it would save you some time to go ahead and subscribe to the RSS feed and have it delivered to wherever you like. my two suggestions are with Google Reader or Microsoft Outlook, they are both solid and have their advantages. i personally prefer Google Reader but to each his own. i am not going to weight the two in this article i am simply going to recommend (for those just getting started with RSS) setting up your RSS feed and recommend the top ten small business feeds.

to set up Google Reader please visit their site

to set up your feed in Outlook please visit this RSS for dummies page

now that you know what you are doing i would highly recommend adding each of the following feeds to your account.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TechCrunch

http://feeds.mashable.com/Mashable

http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/MKuf

http://feeds.feedburner.com/seomoz

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/feed/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/readwriteweb

http://thenextweb.com/feed-combinator/main

http://feeds.copyblogger.com/copyblogger

http://feeds.feedburner.com/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog

http://feeds.feedburner.com/allfacebook

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/SmallBusinessTrends

http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/tRaA

Are their any feeds you just can’t live without? i would love to hear about them!
cheers!

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Acres of Diamonds – Wealth Under Your Nose?

July 1, 2011, Business Ownership, Creativity and Ideation, Entrepreneur Personality, Entrepreneurship Quotes, Entrepreneurship Stories, Entrepreneurship Tools, Entreprneurship Training
http://www.schoolforstartups.com/acres-of-diamonds-wealth-under-your-nose/

Acres of Diamonds – I’m Late to the Game

I just finished what is a must-read for all would be entrepreneurs.  It is an essay/lecture from Russell Conwell.  This lecture came highly recommended to me from a friend at work.  Once he learned of my role at The Entrepreneur School and of my help on the book he implored me to read Acres of Diamonds.  We were in a bit of a busy season so I delayed until he finally commanded that I read it.  I wish I had not delayed for in my ignorance of not knowing this lecture existed and then in my delay I am now  late to the game and perhaps I’ve cost myself a fortune.  (Similar to the way I felt when I first learned of the philosophy of Jim and Chris here at the school).  I’m being a bit dramatic but there’s real value in this old gem.  So act quickly to read it.

√

Wealth Under Your Nose

Acres of Diamonds is a speech that Russell Conwell delivered in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s.  It’s primary theme is that wealth and opportunity lies immediately before you – right under you nose.  The speech details stories of the then famous entrepreneurs who got their start by observing the needs and problems of those immediately around them.  These were ordinary people with ordinary needs who took action.   Russell Conwell, who seemingly led an amazing life, was an officer in the Civil War, a Baptist minister, orator, philanthropist, lawyer, published writer and is known for founding Temple University.  In this lecture he takes up a Christian call for the importance in profit and industry.  He looks at opportunity (in an eerily similar low risk bootstrapping way). While calling us to these two themes the lecture combines marketing lessons with leadership and character lessons.  All the while he’s pointing the reader (or listener in those days) to the higher call of the lasting impact these things can have.

The beauty of this lecture is it in itself proved the very point Russell Conwell was trying to make.  He delivered over 6,000 times and reportedly earned over $8 million dollars on the speech (bear in mind this was in the 1890s to the 1920s).  His diamond (or opportunity) was not in steel, railroads, or mining but in speaking.  He took something people needed and wanted to hear and built a fortune with it.  You would be wise to get your hands on this speech.

Quotes from Acres of Diamonds

On Opportunity:

Oh, my friends, if you will just take only four blocks around you, and find out what the people want and what you ought to supply them, you would very soon see it. There is wealth right within the sound of your voice.

On Wealth:

But the man who has gone through life dividing always with is fellow-men, making and demanding his own rights and his own profits, and giving to every other man his rights and profits, lives every day, and not only that, but it is the royal road to great wealth. The history of the thousands of millionaires shows that to be the case.

On the Need for Capital to Start a Business:

What you need is common sense, not copper cents.

Young man, remember if you know what people need you have gotten more knowledge of a fortune than any amount of capital can give you.

There’s so many more of these that I could do another set of blogs.  Like I said – get your hands on this piece of American history.

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The Only Way to Learn Entrepreneurship (Pt. 1)

April 12, 2011, Entreprneurship Training
http://www.schoolforstartups.com/the-only-way-to-learn-entrepreneurship-pt-1/

As a subscriber to the Wall Street Journal, I am always on the lookout for something that peaks my interest that is not related to corporate mergers and acquisitions. Today I found it. The article was titled How to Get a Real Education. In it, the creator of Dilbert outlines his college experiences and the entrepreneurial endeavors that he undertook while at college. Everything from getting the dean to let students run his dormitory to creating a new accounting system for the popular on-campus eatery. Now, obviously not all of us are in college where we can experiment with odd jobs and try out crazy ideas to see what turns a profit, but there are several lessons in being an entrepreneur (that Scott Adams outlines) that can only be learned and refined in the “school of hard knocks”.  The first one, combining skills, is discussed below and over the next week or so, I will go over each of these lessons as Scott describes them and elaborate on each one to hopefully help you get a real education in entrepreneurship.

Combining Skills

Here Scott talks about how his mediocre drawing and writing skills along with his good sense of humor have made him successful and that he does not need to be extraordinary at any one of them to be successful. He is comfortable with being mediocre in a variety of areas. I disagree with this. While I see where he is coming from, I encourage people to focus on a small set of skills and refine them as best they can. Rather than spending a lifetime trying to correct your weaknesses, why not magnify your strengths. In business, this can prove invaluable.

Rather than trying to be the SEO master, the accountant, and the CEO (which will eventually burn you out and potentially ruin your business) why not choose what you are the best at and hire someone or find inexpensive software that can do the rest? Now I understand in those first months you have no choice but to wear all of the hats, but in the long run focusing your efforts will lead to a much higher return. Find those 2 or 3 things that you do better than everyone else around you and apply those to your business.

Whenever I have a new business idea, Chris Hanks, who is a member of the faculty at The Entrepreneur School and a constant advisor to me always asks, “Josh, what makes your idea compelling and provocative?” I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that phrase, but Chris has this down. How are you making yourself valuable so that you can in turn add a unique spin to your business so that your customers are beating down the door to get their hands on your product or service? I say that unless you have the next Google in your back pocket (which for most of us is not the case), you are going to have to learn to down play your weaknesses and magnify your strengths to add value to your business.

So now it is time for practical action steps. Grab a piece of paper, a notebook, blank word document, napkin, something and think about those 2 or 3 things that you do that blows everyone else out of the water. Can’t think of anything? What is that one thing that you would bet someone a million dollars that you could do better than them because you know that you are the master at this task? Got your list? Great. Start thinking about how those skills can be integrated into your current business or your next business idea.

Be sure to check back all week for more lessons in your entrepreneur education. Class dismissed.

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Two Atlanta Entre. Events Worth Considering

January 18, 2011, Consulting, Entreprneurship Training
http://www.schoolforstartups.com/two-atlanta-entre-events-worth-considering/

Entrepreneurial Education January Symposium LINK
January 21, 2011
Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta
8 am – 12 pm

PROPOSED AGENDA
Derailed: Five Lessons Learned from Catastrophic Failures of Leadership
How CEOs Bring Out the Best in People
2011 Economic Forecast for Entrepreneurs
Bulldog 100 – Meet CEOs from the Fastest Growing Bulldog Businesses
From “King of Riverbend” to “Czar of Atlanta’s St. Regis”
“Live Solid”
How to Take Command during Live Rounds
Entrepreneurial Updates – Hot Topics:
Fitness
Technology
Legal Eagles
Investment Banking

Entrepreneur Magazine 2011 Growth Conference LINK
World Congress Center, January 20
8:30 am

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AJC Features The Entrepreneur School

June 25, 2010, Entreprneurship Training, Marketing, The Entrepreneur School
http://www.schoolforstartups.com/ajc-features-the-entrepreneur-school/

First, we’re excited to announce the AJC featured The Entrepreneur School in a recent article.

But, before I get to that here’s a fun story about email marketing leading to a newspaper article. This also illustrates one of the concepts we teach at The Entrepreneur School called the corridor principle.   Basically said, the corridor principal teaches that once an entrepreneur starts a business and the sets down the path of that business the entrepreneur will gain access to new opportunities through “corridors” opened because of the business previously started.

As you may have read, we have done several e-mail campaigns through Constant Contact.   This has already led to many interesting opportunities, including a press release by Constant Contact. More recently, one of our e-mails was picked up by an AJC journalist. This is similar to the corridor principal in that we started down a path of e-mail marketing for the launch of the school and we ended up being featured in a major newspaper publication.  Now this wasn’t our primary goal  for the e-mail campaign; but we are certainly excited to get the e-mail back from Laura Raines.

Beach and Hanks are passionate about teaching entrepreneurship, and they wanted to create an affordable resource for anyone interested in becoming his own boss. For $29 a month, Entrepreneur School members gain access to 70 hours of video training — the equivalent of three or four semesters worth of MBA-level lectures and other resources. – From the AJC Article

Laura writes the educational opportunities column for the AJC.   She was previously connected to Chris Hanks, faculty at The Entrepreneur School and at UGA’s Entrepreneurship Program and was excited to get our e-mail about the site launch. Thus, she contacted us to feature The Entrepreneur School in her column. Within a week, she had an article published.

Interestingly enough, Laura mentions Jim Beach about a corridor principle in the article.

Take a look at the article:   “Jobs: low–risk  entrepreneurship is within almost anyone’s reach”

Here are some quotes from her article:

In quoting Jim and Chris: “Research shows that 72 percent of adults want to start a business, but only about 13 percent ever make that step,” Hanks said. “That’s a huge gap and for reasons that aren’t necessarily true. People think it’s too risky or they’re not that kind of person. If you’ve got the desire and the passion, we can show you how.”

“You don’t have to quit your job and start a $1 million business. You don’t have to swing for the fences and put your family at risk. It’s OK to hit a single,” Beach said. “If you started a business that brought in an extra $1,000 or $2,000 a month, how would that change your life?”

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Value Proposition Part I

June 4, 2010, Business Ownership, Entreprneurship Training
http://www.schoolforstartups.com/value-proposition-part-i/

I’ll be doing a blog series on the need for a value proposition. I’ll have 3 or 4 blogs on it. A more in depth look at it can be found in the online lectures at The Entrepreneur School and/or or new book coming out soon.


A value proposition forms an important piece of the foundation for your business.  It is the cornerstone upon which you will build the business. What is it exactly? It seems like something you would read about in a dry text book on entrepreneurship – something you would almost discard as just another vapid piece of business jargon.  This is a mistake and one that many make.


The value proposition is the second step in the process I  follow to start a business .  I also see it as the second most important thing you can do during the start-up process. (For more visit The Entrepreneur School)


The best way I’ve found in answering the question is that is the one thing you do better than anyone else in the world. You can’t stop there though.  Take for example the Entrepreneur Program at the Terry College of Business (UGA).  When asked what our value proposition is I answer that we are a program centered around starting actual businesses.  If we stopped there though then the value is never realized.


The next part of defining the value proposition is wrapping a process around that thing which you do better than anyone in the world.  I call this processing it out.  So with the Entrepreneur Program at Terry we figured a way to not just say we will start businesses but we actually built a process through the program to move students to start real and actual business.


So the value proposition is that thing which you can do better than anyone else in the world and then creating a process around it to produce the value.  A few points of clarification on the definition here.  First, I think it is important to realize that the value proposition isn’t just a mission statement that defines your niche (Terry’s Entrepreneur Program – We create businesses); but, it is the thing that defines all that you do from your culture to your operations or how you treat your customers.  I think a mistake people make when they think of their value proposition is they think to narrowly in its application and too broadly in its focus.
I’ll be elaborating more so check back soon.

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Can You Learn to be an Entrepreneur…CNN's Take

May 14, 2010, Entreprneurship Training, The Entrepreneur School
http://www.schoolforstartups.com/top-5-schools-for-entrepreneurship-by-cnn-8/

In doing some research I just came across an article debating the question about learning entrepreneurship (CNN on Can you Learn to be an Entrepreneur)

We’ve debated and answered that one can learn entrepreneurship; this is one of our central tenants at The Entrepreneur School. The CNN article starts out highlighting Greg Fairbrothers, founder of the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network.  One quick thought I had was wondering whether Greg Fairbrothers was himself an entrepreneur.  (I checked out his bio here)

Here are a few interesting quotes from the article:

Twenty years ago teaching people how to start their own businesses was a sideshow at B-schools, of scant interest to future consultants and Wall Streeters. Today entrepreneurship education is everywhere. More than two-thirds of U.S. colleges and universities — well over 2,000, up from 200 in the 1970s — are teaching it, and they offer it to all comers: social workers, farmers, and even musicians. The field is thriving, but have we figured out yet the best way to teach this stuff? If not, are we at least getting better at it? And can you even teach someone to be an entrepreneur?

According to a Kauffman Foundation study published early this year, the surge in entrepreneurial education during the past three decades has had “no appreciable impact on entrepreneurial activity in the United States.” Even at Tuck, less than 2% of graduates immediately start their own businesses.

Entrepreneurship is not “an all-or-none trait that some people or organizations possess and others don’t,” the authors wrote, but rather “a range of behavior.”

By developing in students the proper attitude toward risk, for instance. Entrepreneurship isn’t about the love of living on the edge; that’s pure myth. “You’re all about de-risking your idea,” says Fairbrothers. He means one, identifying, unblinkingly, what could go wrong; and two, taking whatever steps necessary to slash the odds that it will. You do that by relentless learning — about your market, your customers, your competitors, and if you’re truly new at this, about the nuts and bolts of business.

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