Google Alerts, RSS Feeds & More: 5 Sources of Content to Tweet. Are You Up To The Task Of Running A Start Up? | Small Business Matters. Sure, the idea of running your own show, being your own boss, making your own money is a common dream. But what most people don’t realize is that startups involve a lot of time, energy and often money. Although it may seem rewarding to start up your own company, it can be brutally painful. If you are still unsure, read on… Can You Work With A Partner? When it comes to starting a business, I’d say you’d ideally want between 2 – 4 fouders. Going at it alone can be daunting. Who will hold you accountable for results? Are You Old Enough or Young Enough? Can You Secure Early Funding? Can You Limit Your Spending? Avoid hiring a complete staff. Successful companies take time to mature. Do You Want To Make A Lot Of Money? You’ll need to decide what’s most important to you.
Take Away: Being an entrepreneur is a demanding lifestyle. Retirement? For More Baby Boomers, The Answer Is No. Paul von Goertz and his wife, Mary, like to travel from their home in Knife River to Pennsylvania and South Dakota to visit their grandchildren. He also enjoys bringing the Civil War to life for schoolchildren in the guise of an infantryman with the First Minnesota Volunteers. As a survivor of prostate cancer, he also volunteers on behalf of the Cancer Resource Center at Essentia Health, encouraging other people as they fight cancer.
At 65, von Goertz appears to be enjoying an idyllic retirement. Only he isn't retired. Von Goertz is at the leading edge of the largest generation in U.S. history to enter retirement years: baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964. "I tell people that I'll have to work for seven years after I die," said Johnny Northfield, 50, of Duluth, who said he went from being in good shape to having almost nothing because of a "perfect storm" financially. Northfield isn't alone. What if it's too late for that? How much money will baby boomers need to retire? Jack Dorsey: “The Hardest Thing For Any Entrepreneur Is To Start” Twitter and Square co-founder Jack Dorsey took the stage at the GigaOm Roadmap conference to talk about his experience being well, basically a jack of all trades (rimshot).
Dorsey revealed that both his own and his family’s experiences with entrepreneurship were inspiration for his two current startups — both of which remove friction from human communication and industry, a process Dorsey described as “getting rid of the ‘conceptual debris’.” Dorsey has long identified with the struggles of entrepreneurs; He brought up the example of his mother, who ran a small coffee shop in St. Louis, “Starbucks came and it didn’t go so well,” he said.
Then he brought up his dad, who co-founded “Two Nice Guys,” a pizza restaurant also in St. Louis. When Dorsey’s dad and his co-founder began to hire people, Dorsey said, they promised each other they wouldn’t date any of the wait staff. Boomers Look to Create Jobs, Meet Community Needs. A sizable number of American baby boomers are considering starting businesses or nonprofit ventures over the coming decade, according to new research released Tuesday by Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose.
Nearly half of the 25 million women and men who expressed such interest want to be encore entrepreneurs, making a living while having a positive social effect. Three-quarters expect to create small, local organizations that employ up to 10 people. The study, “Encore Entrepreneurs: Creating Jobs, Meeting Needs,” which was funded by MetLife Foundation and conducted by Penn Schoen Berland, shows that although potential encore entrepreneurs are daunted by the economic risk in starting ventures now, half are still eager to move forward: The new study included findings in several areas.
On experience: 37% of Americans in the 44–70 age group have already started businesses or nonprofit organizations; of these, 42% are still actively involved in their ventures. Tips for Boomers Looking for Part-Time Work During Retirement. “The Boomer” is a column written for adults nearing retirement age and those already in their “golden years.” It will also promote reader interaction by posting e-mail responses and answering reader questions. E-mail your questions or topic ideas to thefoxboomer@gmail.com Boomers face a very different retirement than their parents.
We’re healthier and more active, and expect more out of our golden years than just days on the golf course and reading on the porch. Oftentimes when it comes to planning for our after-work life, we focus solely on making sure we have enough money. While securing the funds to cover our dreams is vital, it’s also important to carefully plan what you want to do with the rest of your life.
For boomers who aren’t fully ready to leave the labor force all together or want to continue making a little extra income without having a full-time gig, there are a variety of flexible and part-time work opportunities. Coleman: A broad background of capabilities. True loyalty. Poll: Boomers anxiety about retirement grows. Susan Webb and her husband Bob hold their dog Max in their West Liberty, Iowa, home, Nov. 9, 2011.
An Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll finds a baby boom generation planning to work into retirement years _ with 73 percent planning to work past retirement, up from 67 percent this spring. AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall WASHINGTON - A majority of baby boomers say they have taken a financial hit in the past three years and most now doubt that they will be financially secure after they retire, according to a new poll. So much for kicking back at the lake house, long afternoons of golf or pretty much anything this generation had dreamed about in retirement. The Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll found a baby boom generation planning to work into retirement years — with 73 percent planning to work past retirement, up from 67 percent this spring.
In all, 53 percent of boomers polled said they do not feel confident they'll be able to afford a comfortable retirement. The starfish and the long tail have trouble getting along. We've all heard the parable of the kid throwing back the starfish, even though there are a million on the beach. "It makes a difference to that one! " The Long Tail argues that if you can aggregate enough choices, people will make a choice and you'll do fine.
Netflix, superstores, eBay--these are all long tail businesses. They might not sell that thing, but you can bet they're going to sell something. Long tail businesses excel at selling anything, but they're not so good at selling one thing. Which is fine, unless you're a starfish. In a world of endless choice, it's mathematically obvious that something's going to get picked, but you, you the creator, the marketer, the one with something at stake--you're not at all concerned about something. If you're a starfish, then, don't sign up with the long tail guys. The long tail is for organizations that own warehouses. Baby Boomers Lead the Way with Business Startups - Baby Boomer Business Owners. Starting a Business - Two Paths to Starting a Business. There are two paths to starting a business and while both paths may end up at the same place, with you running a successful established small business, one of the paths is a lot harder traveling than the other.
If you choose to travel the first path to starting a business, you've decided to start a business based on your wants. That is, you've decided that you want to do a particular thing, such as open a book store or provide Web site design services, and/or that you want to do this thing in a particular place. Often people have very good reasons for choosing to go this route when starting a business. They have regular jobs or family obligations that tie them to a place, or possess a set of skills that they want to capitalize on.
Many successful small businesses have been started because someone became passionate about a particular product or service (including mine)! If the first three rules of real estate are "Location! Location! Starting a Small Business - Before Starting a Small Business of Your Own. Thinking of starting a small business? You're on the right track. There's a lot of thinking to be done before starting a small business of your own. Starting a small business is one of those huge, life-altering events. Think of it as a marriage; running a successful small business takes the same depth of commitment and desire. As in a marriage, you're going to be living with your business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Like any relationship, if you want it to be successful, you're going to have to work at it. But on the positive side, if you're the right person with a solid plan, starting a small business of your own can be the most satisfying, exhilarating experience of your life.
This article looks at four aspects of starting a small business so you can make an informed decision about whether it is right for you: basic questions about running a business the characteristics of an entrepreneur necessary abilities for successfully operating a business reasons for business failure. Starting a Business - Tips for Starting a Business - Advice on Starting a Business. 1) Do what you love. You're going to devote a lot of time and energy to starting a business and building it into a successful enterprise, so it's really important that you truly deeply enjoy what you do, whether it be running fishing charters, creating pottery or providing financial advice. 2) Start your business while you're still employed. How long can most people live without money? Not long. And it may be a long time before your new business actually makes any profits. 3) Don't do it alone. 4) Get clients or customers first. 5) Write a business plan.
Remember, you don't have to work through a full scale business plan for each new business idea you come up with; my Quick-Start Business Plan, for instance, will let you test the potential of your business idea much more quickly. 6) Do the research. 7) Get professional help. 8) Get the money lined up. 9) Be professional from the get-go. 10) Get the legal and tax issues right the first time. There's nothing wrong with having a plan. Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques. Three Entrepreneurial Levels - Succeed as an Entrepreneur: Starting Your Own Business. How to Optimize Social Media to Kick Start Your Career. College freshmen can’t help but feel a bit of trepidation when they follow their Twitter feed these days.
News of economic uncertainty and the attendant bleak jobs outlook are re-tweeted with ferocity across every networking site in existence. The irony accompanying this no-doubt troubling news is that the very modes of sharing bad news with students and others are experiencing their own period of unprecedented expansion. An embedded part of the online learning that makes up a huge part of today’s coursework, online social collaboration provides tomorrow’s executives with powerful marketing lessons.
Played well, the very social media skills possessed by today’s university student, regardless if they are 18 or 35, might lead to that first good job even in tough times. Linkedin 1. First, build from connections for which you’ve provided some value. 2. Linkedin is not Facebook. 3. Career networking on Linkedin is an iterative refining process. Blog Facebook More Reading: Image by comedy_nose. Meeting the Needs of Adult Learners in Developing Courses for the Internet.
Linda Stilborne, Ingenia Communications Lindy Williams, Williams Donaldson and Associates While the Internet is a relatively new medium for enhancing and delivering distance learning courses, distance learning is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, correspondence courses were first developed by universities in the middle 1800s. In the 1930s, radio broadcast became a prevalent medium for delivering distance education, and institutions dedicated to distance education, such as the Open University in the United Kingdom, have been with us for more than 40 years.
The first open university, the University of South Africa, was established in 1951 and the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand dates back to 1946. What is new is the range of choice around the technologies that can be used to deliver distance learning. Overview of the Internet as a tool for distance educators As a tool for distance learning, the Internet can both deliver content and serve as a multipurpose communications tool. 7 Steps To Sure Fire Marketing Success - Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. Www.gao.gov/new.items/d1276.pdf. Are you doing math or arithmetic? I have enormous respect for mathematicians. They're doing work on the edge, a cross between art and science and music. Arithmeticians, not so much. They are merely whacking at a calculator, doing repetitive work better done by a computer or someone cheaper.
Many fields have precisely this same division. There's a chasm between the proven, repetitive work that can be farmed out and the cutting edge risky work that might just change everything. When someone asks you what you do all day and you respond, "I take what comes into this basket, do a standard process to it and then put it in that basket," it sounds a lot like you're doing arithmetic, doesn't it? Far better to have a job where there are equal parts magic and art involved in processing the stuff in that basket.
Sure, it's harder to figure out the values of the Ramsey numbers, particularly R(5,5), than it is to add together 318 numbers, repeatedly. Essential Competencies Required In Businesses. 0Share Based on practical realities of life, the following essential competencies are fundamental in business: Leadership: This is the ability to lead, guide and motivate group of people to deliver results, build teams and encourage risk taking, initiative and responsibility. The three styles of leadership commonly used are: The “iron fisted” or autocratic leader, who makes decision and gives orders without asking the opinion of employees. The “let’s vote” or a democratic leader, who gives group members a voice in decisions up to the group members. The “hands-off” or laissez-faire leader, who leaves all decisions up to the group members. Strategic Thinking: This is the ability to think strategically about longer term goals, plans, needs and capabilities that address the needs of the business.
Teamwork: This is the ability to work cooperatively with colleagues, team, committee and subordinates across organisational boundaries to achieve shared goals. Enjoyed the post?
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