No Business Too Small for Phone System

Why No Business is Too Small for a Phone System

Is your small business just too darn small to need a professional phone system? Absolutely not! Whether you are running a one-person shop out of your home office, managing a remote team, or huddling with your staff in a small office each morning, your company needs a business phone system. In fact, not having a professional phone system could put you at a disadvantage to your competition. People expect to get routed into a business phone system when they call a company, store, or office. After all, that’s been the way we’ve done commerce in the U.S. since the 1960s. For about 80 years before that, all calls, both business ones and personal ones, got managed through a single switchboard in the town or neighborhood. The telephone operator managed things by plugging a cord into each person’s jack on the switchboard, and then letting you talk through the cord. But …

Jack Dorsey Mind Behind Twitter and Square

Jack Dorsey: The Determined Mind Behind Twitter and Square

Some entrepreneurs hold great ambitions in early childhood. They’re turning over sports cards on the playground or setting up a lemonade stand in front of the house. Not Jack Dorsey. As a kid, Dorsey never imagined himself as a CEO, entrepreneur, or public figure. In his flights of fancy, Dorsey saw himself as the Wizard of Oz, the man who pulled the levers from behind the curtain. Who knew that the quiet boy who buried his head in maps and computers would one day found and lead Twitter and Square, becoming a multi-billionaire in the process? Oh, no one ever doubted that Jack Dorsey was brilliant — when Jack was a teenager, his boss, a man called Jim McKelvey, nicknamed him Jack the Genius — but he was just so unconventional! Like all great business stories, though, Dorsey’s rise from shy computer nerd to global titan of technology came from …

Finding Investors First Year Waste of Time

Finding Investors in the First Year Can Be a Waste of Time

So you’ve got a great idea to start a business? Maybe you’ve even written up your business plan, gotten feedback from qualified mentors, and tested your product or service in the field. You’re ready to become a genuine entrepreneur. All you need now is money, right? A heft influx of cash from a venture capitalist will provide the fuel your small business needs to launch. Actually, the idea that you need money to launch a business is mostly a myth. It’s a dangerous myth because it keeps smart people with innovative ideas from kicking off new businesses. Have you seen the show Shark Tank on ABC? In this Emmy-winning production, budding entrepreneurs present what they hope are winning business concepts to the show’s panel of five “sharks in the tank,” all wildly successful business founders. The sharks have included luminaries such as billionaire Mark Cuban, fashion mogul Daymond John, and …

Susan Wojcicki CEO of YouTube

Susan Wojcicki: CEO of YouTube and Female Powerhouse

Silicon Valley has a problem with women. There aren’t enough of them. Despite more women than ever earning college degrees and entering the workforce, just 26% of computing operations jobs in the U.S. get filled by women. In most of Europe, Asia, and Africa, those numbers look even more dismal. Social scientists, economists, and tech gurus alike wonder why. Is it the “pinkification” of girls — the idea that girls are introduced to gender-specific roles at an early age? Is it the insider network culture of technology firms? Do many women just not enjoy STEM fields? Do they find working in these fields incompatible with other life goals? Experts are still learning what will help rectify the gender imbalance in global technology firms. But one woman is already serving as a female powerhouse in Silicon Valley, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. Not only does Wojcicki serve as the head of the …

Hire Your First Employee

Why You Need to Hire Your First Employee as Soon as Possible

Hiring your first employee is a major step in your new life as a small business owner. The hire comes with all kinds of positive vibes. Having an extra pair of hands to manage the workflow can feel like a huge relief. And besides, bringing on the first member of a team can make your small business seem more like a genuine company and less like a hobby job. No matter how exciting it is to hire your first employee, though, taking a significant decision like that requires a thoughtful approach. Whom should you hire? What position needs filling? How do you attract the right person? What does it cost to hire a new employee? And when should you bring on your first team member? Once you start a business, you’re a bona fide entrepreneur, and it’s up to you to find out the answers to all these questions, act …

Netflix Killed Blockbuster

How the Co-Founders of Netflix Killed Blockbuster

The biggest fumble in the history of the media business happened in Dallas, Texas in September of 2000. Two desperate Silicon-valley entrepreneurs named Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph flew into Dallas for a meeting with John Antioco, the legendary CEO of Blockbuster. Hastings was an engineer who had botched several software startups. Randolph was a serial small business entrepreneur who made his name as a co-founder of MacWorld magazine in 1984. Less than three years earlier the two men had joined forces on a DVD rent-by-mail idea they called Netflix. By September of 2000, their new venture was looking like a bust. On track to lose $50 million that year, Hastings and Randolph’s company wasn’t an entrepreneurial David hoping to defeat a corporate Goliath. Netflix was more like an entrepreneurial Faust willing to sell its soul to the devil if it could turn a profit amidst the ongoing dot com …

Probably Won’t Profit First Year

You Probably Won’t Make a Profit Your First Year & That’s Ok

A first-time entrepreneur experiences plenty of exciting first-time milestones, but few match the thrill when you make your first sale. This is the moment that all of your efforts have been moving towards. You figure you’ll be in the black by the end of the year. If you’re lucky, that might be true. But it might not, and that’s okay – it’s normal not to turn a profit in your first year. Before you get discouraged, let’s make one thing very clear. Just because you take a loss doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It doesn’t even mean that you’re destined to fail eventually. Making it through your first year means you’re already ahead of the 33 percent of entrepreneurs who pack it in before their companies’ first birthdays. Companies Take Time to Turn Profits When you’re looking at a loss on your balance sheet, it’s easy to feel like everyone else …

Daymond John

How Daymond John Changed the Entrepreneurial Game

Some people win the game of business by sticking to the rules. Other people win by changing the game. Most entrepreneurs are game changers not rule keepers. That’s why you go into business for yourself, right? You don’t fit into the gray cubicle world of corporate America so you build your own craft and launch out into the world of business. A few founders go way beyond ordinary, though, when it comes to breaking the rules and changing the game, people such as Daymond John. You might know Daymond from ABC’s hit reality business show Shark Tank. He’s the shark who started with $40 and created a $6 billion game-changing fashion empire called FUBU. Today, Daymond, a boy with dyslexia from a middle class neighborhood in Queens, boasts a personal net worth of $250 million. He didn’t earn it with an Ivy League education and a network of family friends, …

Partner Hire a Co-Founder

Don’t Have a Partner? You May Want to Hire a Co-Founder

Should you go solo when you launch your new business? Or do you need a co-founder to help start things? Getting a new business off the ground can challenge even the most creative minds. When your business is still embryonic, you might think you have everything lined up in preparation for growth. But once you start onboarding new clients, looking for funding, hiring a team, and dealing with customers, you can quickly discover that all entrepreneurs face fresh difficulties every day. That’s why many first-time business owners forge into entrepreneurship with a partner– they want to have help on hand when problems arise. Some founders rely on a spouse, sibling, close friend, or college buddy to help kick things off. Others aren’t so sure about the partnership model, though. You have to split your profits with a partner, share a common vision, and agree on big decisions. Is a partnership …

Alli Webb

Alli Webb: Hairstylist with Big Dreams

Building a great business often starts with a big dream, but it never ends there. Success also requires securing the right team and honing a clear vision. Many entrepreneurs who’ve built empires realize the value of focusing their energy on what only they can do and finding the best people to do what they can’t. But no one exemplifies that vision more than the subject of today’s Storytime Tuesday, Alli Webb, the founder of Drybar, the nation’s premier blow dry bar specializing in just blowouts, no cuts, no color! Alli Webb’s blowout success story began where most people’s business stories start–at home with her family. Key players on the right team already surrounded Alli since they were related by blood or by marriage. Her brother, Michael Landau, was a successful business executive, and her husband, Cameron Webb, was an experienced advertiser. Although Michael and Cameron both lacked something essential to …