Business Entrepreneurs

Secrets of a Serial Entrepreneur
Platinum Media
46 min - Nov 2, 2006

Serial entrepreneur Mike O'Donnell reveals tips and strategies for starting and building a business venture.

The Call of the Entrepreneur
actoninstitute
4 min - Mar 8, 2007

The trailer for a new documentary being released by the Acton Institute that focuses on the stories of three entrepreneurs. A study of the call to create wealth and the benefit of business and free markets to society. Check out www.calloftheentrepreneur.com for information about premieres and related materials.

Arizona State University: University as Entrepreneur
univinitiatives
7 min - Dec 14, 2006

ASU is transforming the role of the university through entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship 101: How you can develop the mindset of an entrepreneur?

22 min - Sep 28, 2006

The first in a series of videos on entreupreneurship and business setup. The first video looks at the midset needed to be an entrepreneur. www.fourpillarsofsuccess.com

GopherHaul 19 - Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Forum Show
TeamGopher
10 min - Dec 19, 2007

Hello and welcome to GopherHaul 19 — Lawn Care Entrepreneur Business Show.

In this episode we will be talking about

Please continue to submit your pictures for our outdoor holiday lighting contest. www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6159;

Our lawn care business forum member of the month is Tim.
Tim has shared with us three new contracts including a lawn cutting contract, a full service lawn care maintenance and a snow plow contract. You can download them here
www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=1&t=877&st=30&&#entry30713
I added a new link on the left side of the forum for our lawn care business forum member to submit books they have read. I also added a new business book of the month to our list. The book is Guerrilla Marketing Success Secrets by Jay Levinson.
Our friend Tony submitted this great marketing idea to the forum. He prints out stickers that include your business logo and then puts them on buckets of ice melt. He suggests handing these buckets out to your current customer base to help promote your snow removal services or you could use them as a marketing tool to hand out to homeowners in your area who you would like to service with snow removal and lawn care services next spring. If you live in a warmer climate you could also offer potted plants instead of ice melt. Review the post here www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=33;t=6541;st=0;r=1;&#entry30532
Our lawn care forum member Tim suggested buying poinsettia plants in bulk and handing them out to your current customers along with a holiday card. You could also give these out to potential clients you would like to provide snow plow or lawn care services to. Tim said he also sells the plants at a farmer's market booth. He purchases the flowers for $2 and resells them for $5. Great idea! Read more about this post here www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6488;st=0;r=1;&#entry30090
Brian from Lawn & Garden Web Vision sent us this promotional video to show off his new website www.lawnandgardenwv.com Check out his site. It's full of many on demand education and training videos for the lawn and garden industry.
Forum member Tim posted that now is the time to send out letters to businesses asking them to put your company on their 2008 bid list. You can download the letter here www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=1&t=1541&st=0&&#entry29810
Bob from Plan-it Graphics has posted a design challenge www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=23&t=6434&st=0&&#entry29599 There will be two winners chosen. Bob said "You do not have to do anything graphic wise. You can simply submit your ideas in text. If your idea is to have a guy riding his motorcycle with the caption, "This is much better better than lawn work!" then that's all you have to do. We are not looking for the best designer, we are looking for the best/unique way to market. Hopefully we can come up with ideas that are "outside the box" of the traditional lawn/landscape marketing material. It's my job to convert your idea into print form."
In the previous episode of GopherHaul 18, we talked about how you should stay off ladders as much as possible. One of our forum members posted a shop vac device that is a long extension pipe with a u bend at the end which allows you to suck leaves out of the gutter while safe and standing on the ground. Read this post for a product review www.gophergraphics.com/forum/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=17;t=6603;st=0
I hope all these ideas have helped you expand and grow your business and mind. So until the next time, always remember to Dream it, Build it, Gopher it!

If you are in need of free marketing material for your lawn care business, please visit our site at www.gophersoftware.com. We have hundreds of free lawn care logo, flyer, door hanger and web templates you can download and use for your lawn care business. We also have free lawn care business contracts. Also download our trial version of Gopher Lawn Care Business Software. Gopher will help your lawn care business schedule and invoice more customers in less time, allowing you more time to grow or enjoy your life. If you are on myspace send us a friend request. We are located at www.myspace.com/teamgopher.

Also please log onto our lawn care business forum and tell us about your business and if you have any business questions, please ask them.

Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur: What It Takes to Win in High-Stakes Commercial Real Estate.

price: $14.93 (new), $10.18 (used)

If you are setting up your home office, you know that the number and types of various software applications abound. Unfortunately, so do the number of confusing and sometimes misleading advertisement…

Starting An Online Business

Have you ever thought about creating an online home business? If you are an entrepreneur, have a business plan and are prepared to work hard, then online business oppo…

The misconception that if youre work from home you are not actually working has been circulating and it is just plain wrong. The comments ,Must be nice to nap whenever you want to. or Sure…

Virtual Assistants are rapidly becoming a popular industry. It is through learning that this fiend is starting to truly develop. Hopefully in the future people will be asking, Whos your Virtu…

Going once, going public? FCC auction opened up airwaves, but winner Verizon decides how wide.
WASHINGTON - With its winning $4.7 billion bid last week, Verizon Wireless didn”t just stake claim to beachfront wireless property, it also grabbed control of the guest list to the open-access party.

The government, in opening up the coveted swath of the spectrum, essentially said the winner must allow consumers to use any compatible device or software on it as long as it doesn”t harm the network.

But analysts said the open-access playground comes with restrictions and Verizon, as the winner, will be the one making the rules and setting the schedule.

‘It”s unreasonable to expect these guys to go radically changing their business models if they successfully defended the gaggle from encroachment, from the Googles and Comcasts of the world,’ said John Jackson, wireless analyst with the Yankee Group.

Please specify a query! (9003)

BRING IT ON!

I just applied, I was actually just scrolling the site and it showed up so I took about 15 minutes of my time to apply - heck, why not?

Entrepreneur Magazine picks two “Entrepreneurs of The Year…”

1. Entrepreneur of the Year: Must have less than 100 employees in 2007 and more than $3M in revenues.

2. Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year: Must have had less than 5 employees in 2007, more than $500,000 in revenues.

It’s the same application though - I guess they automatically shuffle you one way or the other. Guess which one I’m shooting for?

The application is pretty easy - although they really should offer more insight on how MUCH they want you to write in the short essays. You basically give some general business information, then you fill out a few questions:

1. Have you owned previous businesses? (briefly explain)
2. Briefly explain how have you impacted your industry?
3. Briefly explain how you have impacted your community?
4. Briefly explain how you have impacted your employees?
5. Briefly explain how you have impacted your customers?

I wrote about 200 words or so per question and think I had pretty good answers! Anyways, go apply, even if you make the Top 10, they give you pretty good publicity…

Of late Google has been working on API's and here is the new AJAX Translation API from their stables. So how does it help you? With it you can carry on quick translations and language detection. You certainly need to check out the real time language translation and language detection examples showcased by Google. In the first case all you need to do is type something in the box and with a click of the button the text will be converted into the alien language which you cant read or write but need it to meet your business requirements.

In the second case language detection API helps to recognize languages which might be unknown to you. All you need to do is put the text in the particular box and with a touch of the button it will tell you which language it is and even inform as to how much relevant the data is. It's pretty cool and you must definitely check it out!!
See full article.

Related Entries:

Google Launches Beta Version of Google AJAX Search API - 05 June 2006

Google Ajax Search APIGoogle Video - 30 2006

Ajax API launched by Google for simplifying application mashups - 19 April 2007

PHP-Klasse::karatag Google Translation 14.05.2007 - 15 Mai 2007

Contents of this feed are a property of Creative Weblogging Limited and are protected by copyright laws. Violations will be prosecuted. Please email us if you’d like to use this feed for non-commercial activities at feeds - at - creative-weblogging.com.

Okay my pretties, how would you fix this? Amanda Panda says:

I am making a bias cut dress out of a crepe backed polyester satin… and having tummy trouble. As you can see its got poof at the tummy. I can’t figure out what to do with it… I put bust darts in to help a bit, but no matter what I do it seems I can’t get rid of it.

Others are recommending she increase the hip girth. Somebody go save her. There’s a larger photo after the jump.

We’ll deviate from our usual format to better explain today’s show discussion.

George: When I was just getting started in business, I had an opportunity to buy a property that the real estate broker said would support a 12-unit apartment building.

I determined that 24 units could be built; upon checking with my architect, I found out it would support 26. So I knew the property was worth at least twice what I was paying.

But a business opportunity came along, and I decided to go for that. I sold my option on the property to my architect at cost.

Within weeks, a major building project was announced right across the street from this property. I could have made way more money in months with the real estate project than I did in years in the business!

6 essential factors you must have in place when opportunity knocks

Mary-Lynn: #1 – You have to be in the right place. Your research showed that you were in the right place, George. You knew the property was worth more than you were paying.

George: #2 – It has to be the right time. Had I done more research, I might have discovered the new project across the street. But I got nervous about losing my option money, which I needed for the business. 

Mary-Lynn: #3 – Recognize that you’re in the right place at the right time.
You have to actually realize the moment you’re in so you can capitalize on it. But George, you sold because you had another opportunity?

George: I did. However, the returns came in slower than they would have with the real estate project. I can’t complain about it, though – the business opportunity helped launch my other businesses.

Mary-Lynn: Why did you sell the property at cost when you knew it was worth more?

George: I was only 22 at the time … I was inexperienced. And frankly, a little scared. I needed the money for the business opportunity. So I did what I thought was best, but I lost out on an opportunity to jump-start my net worth.

Mary-Lynn: #4 – You need knowledge of what to do. This is all about education. When your opportunity presents itself, you don’t have time to prepare.

George: I knew enough to find the opportunity; what I lacked were the specifics of what to do with the exact situation.

Mary-Lynn: So how did you to get ready for the next time?

George: I studied all of the ways you could make money with a property. I read books, listened to tapes, and talked to anybody and everybody who would talk to me.

Mary-Lynn: #5 – Know how to do what you need to do. This is about experience – knowing how you actually execute what needs to be done.

George: From this experience, I started smaller the next time. I learned how to go through the process, from beginning to end, to develop a property.

Mary-Lynn: Is it important to start out smaller?

George: Not necessarily, although I think most people start out relatively small. I wanted to make sure that I could afford to see my next project through to the end.

Mary-Lynn: #6 – You need access to the required resources. Who you know plays a part. You need to be able to raise the money required and find the right people to get the job done.

George: This was perhaps my biggest stumbling block. I became overwhelmed at all that would need to be done. I didn’t see how bigg an opportunity it was or how easy it would have been to capitalize on it.

But here’s the good news – I learned so much that made me so much because I missed out on this deal!

Our bigg quote today comes from Abraham Lincoln.

Do your homework now so when opportunity knocks, you can answer.

Next time, we’ll discuss communicating effectively across department lines. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Related posts 

Lessons Learned From A Bankrupt Business Owner

Confessions Of A Serial Entrepreneur

The Single Biggest Barrier To Your Success 

ShareThis

About a billion people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water, but solving the crisis could cost up to $4 billion a year. Sam Eaton reports on a competition that’s using entrepreneurs to find innovative solutions.

In June 2007, John Sadowsky gave a conference about the transition between an entrepreneur, a manager and a leaderto 50 Swiss entrepreneurs seleceted by the group Venture Labs. This fascinating conference was organized in partnership with the Swiss consulate of Boston: Share Boston.

Please specify a query! (9003)

It’s pretty safe to say that virtually any of us would love to be a successful entrepreneur. The trick is getting started on this path to financial security. So many of us don’t even have a clue what we wish to do in life. This is clearly an obstacle in the road. However, you can go to college and slowly figure this one out. You know, take in some knowledge, attend a few job fairs, and maybe even do some job shadowing. It’s all wonderful experience that can aid you with your future success. After all, you have to begin at some point.

It’s true; I wanted to become a successful entrepreneur by the age of 20. Unfortunately it didn’t happen that way. I was so busy doing nothing that I must have missed the opportunity. I wish someone would have come out and told me that I had to be aggressive, motivated, and driven. How was I supposed to know! I was merely a kid at the time. Anyway, these are crucial characteristics to adopt if you plan to become a successful entrepreneur. You basically have to know what you want, and go get it. Don’t give up at the first sign of trouble. This is a mere test to see if you’re worthy. Proceed on and capture your dream. That’s the way all success stories happen. Okay, well maybe except for Paris Hilton. That woman somehow makes oodles of money by just acting glib. Well maybe she’s not acting after all. Regardless, for the majority of us, a good amount of work and dedication is involved to reach the pinnacle of success. Fortunately you can get tips and pointers from the masters. So if you’re itching to be a successful entrepreneur in the near future, then I suggest you do the necessary recon work first. Hop on your PC or Mac and see what’s up. You can purchase books on how to become a successful entrepreneur. Take advantage of these wonderful sources.

So maybe you’re not quite a successful entrepreneur yet. Don’t fret over this minor issue. It’s time to get your butt in gear. It’s time to brainstorm and decide what the things are you feel passionate about in life. What are you great at? How can you make money with these things? It’s all there if you just think hard and go after it. With the Internet on your side and the world at your fingertips, you too can become a successful entrepreneur.