Small Business Trends
November 5, 2009
Lisa Barone shares some good activities to help you stay focused and motivated as a home-based worker bee. Create alliances, join coworking groups, attend networking events, read a lot, create lists and just plain get out of the house.
CIO top priorities: productivity and cost reduction, according to SIM survey
ZD Net
November 9, 2009
This post by Jason Hiner gives insights into what CIOs are finding the most important priorities this year.
Last week, I gave you a glimpse of my early entrepreneurial endeavors. No doubt, my parents are shaking their head and wondering “What else haven’t you told us?” Don’t you worry about that – I survived, right? But what I didn’t say last week was that in order for us to prepare young people for life in a business world, we should do everything we can to get them the training and experience at the youngest age possible, when we are still involved enough to be able to help them deal with the consequences of their early exploits.
I worked during high school. First it was Carl’s Jr (breakfast cook), then it was Nordstrom, then it was at a neighborhood bank. Balancing the responsibilities of a job with schooling and social commitments while still living at home, helped me to balance those same challenges when I went to college. Working multiple jobs, taking a full course load and still having a good time here and there at UC Santa Barbara was made easier because I had already learned how to prioritize when I was still living at home.
And the same is true in business. By the time I went to work for Deloitte, I already knew how to have the discipline to survive and thrive in 80 hour work weeks and in a variety of professional situations, because I had already done it for years. It was unfortunate to watch those people who had never worked a day in their life, with parents that wanted them to “just focus on school” flounder and fail in that environment simply because they didn’t have any prior experience.
I recently read about the 10th Annual Guardian Life Insurance Girls Going Places Conference in New York City. What a tremendous event and I applaud the organizers for their efforts. I believe that women in the workplace are finally gaining the recognition they have long deserved. What follows from that is to ensure that we are passing along the encouragement and support to young women with great ideas and business minds.
Here in Denver, I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the Denver Venture School. I have to tell you, I’m intrigued. While my daughter lives with her mom in the Pacific Northwest, if she were here I would love for her to consider going to such a school. With a business-focused curriculum, on top of the general education topics, I applaud the school for trying to get real world experience and information into the hands of young people. A new documentary released this month “Ten9Eight” was produced in conjunction with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (“NFTE”) and chronicals the benefits of its business plan competition on the lives of at-risk teens. Not only are the participating teens positively impacted, but so are their peers and the community at large.
One of the keys to engaging young people in learning about business is to focus them on areas that they are already passionate about and then teach them the business tools that will help them be more successful in pursuing those passions professionally.
What programs exist in your area that help to foster entrepreneurship in young people? Do you think that young people will be more prepared for the business world previous generations? What new challenges will they face?
Next Week: Raising Financially Savvy Kids – Part III
What Gen Y Entrepreneurs Have Learned…and Can Teach You
American Express OPEN
November 09, 2009
The highlights of a new book by Donna Fenn details some of the key lessons that Gen Y business owners are sharing with the world, including partnering, use of technology in an old industry, social consciousness, building a great culture and running a meritocracy.
It Just Isn’t Working? Some File for Customer Divorce
The Wall Street Journal
November 9, 2009
A timely article as a friend and collegue was just complaining about collection issues with some of his clients that he “trusted”. As we pull out of this recession (slooooowly), this article talks about how you can save money and time by firing those clients that are no longer valuable for your business. If you don’t fire, at the very least protect yourself with contracts, proactive calls when payments aren’t received on-time and if it makes sense in your business, the running of credit checks in advance. Best advice that I can offer is not to throw good money after bad by continuing to work with unprofitable clients.
I Cannot Predict the Future…Budgeting is Worthless!
by Ken Kaufman
CFO Wise
November 6, 2009
Words of wisdom on the value of budgeting for business. The information that you learn about your business is tremendous. I would even argue that it is not necessarily the budgeting that helps, but the discipline of a detailed monthly review of your business. The accuracy of your forecast should also provide you with some insights to understanding your own business.
I think that I have always had a soft spot for kids. I love spending time with them and I love that there are so many things that you can teach them, every single day. I have a daughter who is 13 and lives in the Pacific Northwest with her mom. I want to make the world a better place for her, and I want her to learn all of the lessons that I learned, only long before they cause her the pain and heartache that they caused me. But I’m smart enough to know that most of the really important life lessons can only be taught through experience, so I brace myself each day for that learning.
I recently read a section in Southwest Airlines’ Spirit magazine called Your Entrepreneur Handbook. I was pleasantly surprised at what a good set of articles and advice it contained. If you get the chance, you should give it a read. But a couple of things stood out. First, there was a quote that 42% of entrepreneurs started their first business in childhood. Second, there was an entire section on kids in business and how they were being successful.
It got me thinking about my own entrepreneurial roots. In 5th grade, I “borrowed” seed capital of $20 from my dad while he was sleeping (sorry Dad, I owe you $20) and I took that down to Green Jug Liquors in the San Fernando Valley where I grew up. With that $20, I bought candy. A lot of candy. This was when candy bars were $.25 each and some candy was less. I filled up my backpack, hopped on my bike and opened up shop at recess. I sold candy bars for $.50 to all my friends, and let me tell you, I made a killing. I learned about supply (I had it) and demand (they had it). I learned what money and supply could do to elevate your social status, if only briefly, and that anyone will be your friend if you give them the stuff they want. But, I couldn’t save the money (why bother) and I couldn’t spend it on anything big (parents would assume I stole it, which was only half true), so I got bored with it.
I had a car washing business with my brother in middle school, where we made business cards that I just found the other day – “We Cleanz It Carwashers” where I listed myself as “Owner/Founder”. How did I know anything about that? In high school, our Junior Achievement group did “Rose Production” in which we bought 2 dozen roses for $5 from the flower mart, individually packaged them and then sold them on campus and outside Rocketdyne, where someone knew someone and let us set up a table near the employee parking lot during shift change. We learned a lot about material cost and labor cost. We learned about rewards by getting to go on a ski weekend with our earnings. We also learned about theft and management dishonesty as our treasurer and others routinely stole money out of the company. All very valuable lessons that I still carry with me.
I think that the entrepreneurial spirit is something that we can and should pass on to young people, and that it can have a lasting impression on them long after they forget our names. Volunteer with Junior Achievement. Encourage your son, daughter, niece, nephew or neighborhood kids by helping them start something that they can call their own. Mowing lawns, walking dogs, babysitting, or maybe website design, computer training or social media training. With the online economy it is less important what age you are than what service you can provide at a reasonable price. Encourage kids to believe in themselves, to think big and have passion, while giving them the tools to succeed.
What were your early entrepreneurial exploits? How did you get funding and where did it take you? What hard lessons did you learn that you still refer to today?
Next week: Raising Financially Savvy Kids – Part II
http://www.pr-squared.com/index.php/2009/11/4-ways-to-build-relationships-with-web-content
PR Squared
November 2009
http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/11/02/does-multitasking-make-you-more-productive/
Web Worker Daily
November 2, 2009
