Is Starting A Business Safer Than Your Job? [Infographic] | Lendio - StumbleUpon What's Better - Getting a Job or Starting a Business? With a slow economy, many people have turned to entrepreneurship as a means to pay the bills. Which begs the question, what’s better today — getting a job or starting a business? We dug deep to find out the numbers and have compared the risk of starting a business to keeping a job. What do you think? Small Business Loans Made Simple Create a Free Lendio Account Overview “Laid off? “True entrepreneurs reduce risk to the point that action becomes quite logical.” Unemployment Rate: 9.1% 26% of North American workers are self-employedIn 2008 on average 2,356 people went into business for themselves every day.Their ventures accounted for 78% of U.S. businesses SELF-EMPLOYMENT There are only four paths toward business ownership: Start a business from scratchBecome a consultantBuy a non-franchise businessBuy a franchise (the most secure choice) Among the fastest-growing industries are: Reemployment figures: To reduce risk: Incorporated Self-Employed
Is Your Small Business in Need of Reinvention? [INFOGRAPHIC] In 1998, Steve Jobs triumphantly returned to the company he’d co-founded two decades earlier. At the time, Apple was at a crossroads: Success was anything but certain. “The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting,” Jobs said at the time. “The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.” In 2012, countless small businesses are looking to exit their current predicaments. Innovation Nation Although many small-business owners have recovered from the psychological impact of the economic implosion that began in 2008, self-esteem still isn’t a commodity that’s easy to find. The good news: Throughout history, scores of small ventures have evolved into monster successes as a direct result of reinventing their operations to counter economic or competitive disadvantages. For example, few people were enthralled by The Point, a website that leveraged the power of groups to fund-raise and make other things happen. The Route to Reinvention Embed this infographic on your own site:
Six Deadly Security Blunders Businesses Make Small, subtle mistakes can lead to big security breaches Sometimes it's the unknown or overlooked little mistakes that leave an organization wide open to attack: a missing hash mark in a server configuration, a long-forgotten PBX user account, or an embedded Web server in an office printer. With compliance pressures, increasingly cagey malware, and the fear of being the next front-page data breach victim, it's no wonder that enterprises might not notice potential problems with their lower-profile devices, or make subtle configuration mistakes. Even so, ignorance is no excuse when the bad guys hone in on an inconspicuous weakness, like a few older, rarely used desktops that haven't been updated with the latest patches. It takes only one weak link for an attacker to gain a foothold into an organization and steal valuable data, or set up shop for long-term cyberespionage. Spooked yet? 1 of 7 More Insights
How to Start a Startup March 2005 (This essay is derived from a talk at the Harvard Computer Society.) You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible. Most startups that fail do it because they fail at one of these. A startup that does all three will probably succeed. And that's kind of exciting, when you think about it, because all three are doable. If there is one message I'd like to get across about startups, that's it. The Idea In particular, you don't need a brilliant idea to start a startup around. Google's plan, for example, was simply to create a search site that didn't suck. There are plenty of other areas that are just as backward as search was before Google. For example, dating sites currently suck far worse than search did before Google. An idea for a startup, however, is only a beginning. What matters is not ideas, but the people who have them. People What do I mean by good people?
Raising money is a black swan &045; Venture Hacks Nivi · December 9th, 2008 Raising money is like finding a black swan. It seems like you will forever keep hearing “no”, “let’s keep talking”, or “find a lead.” Or worse, you sign a term sheet and it blows up before you can close it. It seems like you’ll never raise money, until one day—boom—you meet the right investor, he says yes, you negotiate a deal, and suddenly there’s money in your bank account. What’s a black swan? A black swan is a highly improbable, high impact, and unpredictable event. 9/11 was a black swan. Once you see enough white swans, you start assuming all swans are white—until you see a black one. The nos don’t matter. The chances of raising money are low. (The exception to this rule are the chosen ones: “obviously” fundable companies that are founded by successful entrepreneurs, companies that are making money by the truck load, or have cured cancer, or whatever.) There will be no precedent for a yes. If you’re looking for a black swan, ignore the nos. 1. 2. 3. “Thanks.
9 Reasons Why Now is the Best Time to Do Business Online If you’re a blogger, an Internet advertiser, or someone running an online business, then consider yourself lucky because you are operating in a world of near-endless opportunities. The World Wide Web offers tons of chances for people to make connections, find customers, and earn money. Markets are evolving, and more and more consumers are going on the Internet to find information, make purchases, and connect with others. If you’re thinking of doing business online but are still on the fence about it, check out the detailed explanations below on why there is no better time than now to become an online entrepreneur: 1. We are in the information age – The industrial age, which is characterized by assembly lines and factories, is long gone. We are now in the information age and we will continue to be in it for years to come. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to get into the business of digital goods. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The good news is you can do it too. 7. 8. 9. About the author
12 Brawny Business Intelligence Products For SMBs -- InformationWeek Business intelligence isn't just for the big boys anymore. Check out our short list of star SMB options, from easy-to-deploy SaaS choices to affordable versions of the biggest BI suites. 1 of 14 12 Brawny Business Intelligence Options For SMBsBusiness intelligence started out as a technology geared to large organizations with big budgets and plenty of IT support. The good news for small and midsize businesses is that BI has gone mainstream and that trend has led to plenty of low-cost, easy-to-deploy, and easy-to-manage BI options. There are desktop-analysis tools that enable power users to distribute reports, dashboards, and data visualizations across your organization. Working smarter--not harder--is what business intelligence is all about. Midmarket CIOs Rate Analytics As Top To-Do Item 5 Factors In Agile BI Cost, IT Support Top BI Obstacles For SMBs What's Next In Analytics Can Open Source Solve Big Data For SMBs? The Ultimate Shortcut To Fast Analysis More Insights
How to Know if Your Business Startup Idea is Any Good You’re ready to start your own business. You’ve got a killer idea, and you can’t stand one more day in your office (or, let’s face it, on your parents’ couch). How do you know that the idea is a good one? What if you work your butt off and when you make your grand reveal, people don’t like it? Or worse, what if they don’t care? These questions roar through the heads of entrepreneurs. Businesses evolve over time. I’ve compiled the best advice I’ve heard based on countless conversations with entrepreneurs, business books, startup blogs, and conferences. These frameworks can help you figure out if your idea has legs: Alleviate pain. While working through these thought experiments, it’s also important to do your research and get out into the world: Talk about your idea–a lot.
How Fewer Working Hours Can Save Our Health, Economy, and the Planet |... September 9, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Millions of Americans have lost control over the basic rhythm of their daily lives. Imagining a world in which jobs take up much less of our time may seem utopian, especially now, when a scarcity mentality dominates the economic conversation. But fewer work hours for people with jobs is a key step toward solving the unemployment crisis—while giving Americans healthier lives. Today, driven both by necessity and the deliberate choice to live simply, more Americans are shifting toward fewer work hours. Finding Time Economists today focus solely on growth as a mechanism for job creation. The grueling schedules of the 19th century undermined health and prevented people from achieving what we now call quality of life. Since the 1970s, Americans have been working longer. Not surprisingly, over the last 20 years, a large number of U.S. employees report being overworked.
41 questions every business leader should ask (The Invisible Thread) Change is the only constant in the world, there’s no doubt about it. Today more than ever, businesses must face – and effectively manage – rising change and complexity. Uncertainty is everywhere we look. From marketplace shifts to surprise disruptions, managing this new reality is not an easy task. If you think about our organizations today, they are all part of a dynamic business network of relationships with customers, partners and suppliers that shape the way we do business. Bottom line is that the time is up for sitting on the sidelines. As you consider the processes that make your business run, here are 41 key questions you should ask yourself: Does your organization change effectively when it needs to? Tags: ceo business-agility business-leader featured change questions cio agile cto complexity it-leader
The Benefits of Top-Down Thinking & Why it is Critical to Entrepreneurs... For the first 5 years of my career I was a “bottom up” thinker and worker. I assembled tons of data, grouped things, found results and drew conclusions. It was difficult to make the transition to a “top down” thinker but as a senior executive – and as an entrepreneur – you’re far less effective without this skill in your arsenal. The difference is in formulating hypothesis then testing conclusions / data vs. assembling data and finding patterns. I started my career as a programmer. In billing we literally started thinking about all of the types of bills that would be generated for customers: full payment, partial payment, split payment, senior discount, student discount, level pay plan, etc. I next moved into system design where I designed computer systems to deal with large industrial natural gas customers and telecommunication companies. I spent the first 5 years of my career as a “bottom up thinker.” The wisest mentor I ever had was Ameet Shah, my partner on several projects.
Create a Killer Business Plan - Martha Stewart Community You've got the idea, now package it well! The way you present your company and vision will determine whether you get the right financial partners and the right deal. Marketing Your IdeaLife is marketing. We're constantly being pitched to as consumers, yet we also market our products, our ideas, and ourselves personally and professionally. But where do so many early-stage entrepreneurs go wrong? They fail to sell their start-up effectively. As a former entrepreneur and a start-up consultant today, I've certainly seen more business plans than I care to remember. Make your business plan shine with the three "Cs" to success: Be ConciseA concise plan provides a simple explanation for why the business is a great idea, as well as how it will be executed. Be CompellingThe goal is to make your company appear to be deeply compelling. Be CompleteYou must have a trusted third party review your plan to ensure it addresses all possible issues an investor may have. Wow!