Blog
Ex-Police Officer Becomes an Entrepreneur
I came across a story today about a former policeman that recently launched a printing business. There were a couple of notable items about his story: First of all, he has committed his business to Christ Secondly, he changed his lifestyle by downsizing and getting completely out of debt •••
- June 5, 2008
Former NVL Intern Launches New Worship Music Service
David Craig, a former New Venture Lab intern (see his profile here) has launched a new worship music website call Family Music Service. The new site states that its purpose is to "provide families with quality, God-honoring resources that will aid them in developing skills in •••
- June 3, 2008
Innovative New Franchise Opportunity: Discovery Ice Cream
What do you get when you combine a children's science and technology museum and an ice cream store? Perhaps a very hot new franchise format. Enter Discovery Ice Cream. Founded by two Christians long on entrepreneurial, technology and robotics experience, this new franchise •••
- June 3, 2008
Riding the Age Wave
Another trend to bet on is services for the aging because of the general graying of America. And in that general industry category, in-home health care services appears to be one of the most appealing because it enables seniors to remain independent in familiar surroundings for •••
- June 2, 2008
Betting on Leaner, Greener Energy Solutions
In tracking the news trends, I predict more and more creative startups will come out with ideas to produce lower-cost, greener energy solutions for homes and cars. This is just one example story in this category. I'm not sure consumers will rush to buy a $10,000 ethanol production plant •••
- June 2, 2008
15-Year Old Homeschooler is a Hedge Fund CEO in His Spare Time
This is an encouraging story about how one young homeschool boy is preparing himself for a career in the high-stakes world of hedge funds. What he clearly exhibits is a combination of passion and preparation: NEW YORK CITY— The life of a budding 15-year-old investor is rarely sluggish. •••
- June 2, 2008
Top Ten Disruptive Technologies for 2008 to 2012
Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, has compiled a list of what they believe to be the top ten disruptive technologies for the next five years: Gartner Identifies Top Ten Disruptive Technologies for 2008 to 2012 MELBOURNE, Australia, May 28, •••
- June 2, 2008
Creating Passionate Employees
Managing employees and keeping them focused is hard enough, but what can an entrepreneur do to create passion in his employees? One thing is to continually tweak the compensation model so that an employee is aligned with you as much as possible. This usually means to pay them •••
- May 30, 2008
God Gives Grace to the Humble: Success Stories of Simple Service Businesses
I often hear the lament "If I only had more capital…" and I must admit that in most of my bigger ventures, I have fallen prey to operating that way as well - devising business plans that require massive amounts of capital - call it the MBA curse if you will. But there is hope for the •••
- May 13, 2008
What Is Strategy?
Michael Porter is one of the most famous Harvard Business School professors that I had the privilege of studying under and is perhaps best know for his "Five Forces" model of competitive strategy. He is a brilliant strategist and the excerpt below is a concise overview of market positioning •••
- May 9, 2008
Startup Targets Angry eBayers
Even if you are not yet a die-hard Web 2.0 fan, you've got to appreciate the moxie of this startup that is taking on eBay. It's another case of taking the social-networking aspects of Web 2.0 and applying it to existing web-based business models to take them to the next level. I think •••
- May 7, 2008
Startup School 2008: Key Takeaways
The following summaries were developed by Philip Crissman during his participation in the recent Startup School 2008 at Stanford University: David Lawee, VP Corporate Development, Google; founder, XFire. Main take-away: Hurry Up. David emphasized the role of speed in a startup, and how the •••
- May 7, 2008
Startup Of The Week: Marketcetera Takes Open Source To Wall Street
Even if you are not an open source fan, you have to appreciate the strategy of Marketcetera and admire their market positioning of riding two major trends of a move towards open source by Wall Street and a move towards automatice stock trades as pointed out in this news story. Its •••
- May 7, 2008
Making Audiences More Receptive to Your Message
Entrepreneurs are constantly selling, marketing and presenting - it's the nature of what we need to be about as we seek to provide products and services that meet real needs. Whether or not you are an expert at these skills, this article offers some excellent tips on not only connecting •••
- May 7, 2008
The New Math of Customer Relationships
One of the most enjoyable classes I sat through at Harvard Business School was the service management class put together by Jim Heskett. Most of the businesses I have started have been services companies rather than manufacturing companies, and I have benefited greatly from the •••
- May 6, 2008
Five-Year-Old Has First Brush With Entrepreneurship
There was a recent news story in the U.K. about a young boy and his invention: A five-year-old boy has given entrepreneurs a run for their money, after he became the youngest ever holder of a patent in the UK. Sam Houghton’s invention is called the ‘Improved Broom’, and consists of •••
- April 29, 2008
Thirteen-Year-Old Entrepreneur Starts Hot Dog Business
Are you looking for ways to teach your children about entrepreneurship? This is a story about a 13-year-old boy that has been planning his hot dog stand for some time and is now in the final permitting stage. What a great way to learn with little risk... Most youths want to spend •••
- April 18, 2008
The Funding Sources for the Hottest 100 Startups
Entrepreneur magazine recently announced its Hot 100 ranking of the fastest growing startup businesses in the U.S. They did their research by starting with nearly 21 million U.S. businesses and of those, considered only 64,000 businesses (or 0.3 percent of the total) that met the following •••
- April 18, 2008
8 Common Startup Mistakes
I came across this article recently which was full of good advice and links to additional articles: As the global economy expands, there is reason to believe that small businesses may have some competitive advantage. That is, if entrepreneurs don't fall prey to these common start-up pitfalls. •••
- April 17, 2008
New Startup MinuteFix Revolutionizes Tech Support, Creates Jobs for Independent Contractors
If you are a techie and have been trying to figure out how you can work from home and control your own schedule, look no further than MinuteFix. Or perhaps you are a frustrated computer user and just need easy and simple tech support. The answer is the same, look no further than •••
- April 16, 2008
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