Business Startup ideas, Entrepreneur News, Tips for CEO

A lot is going on in the world of startups, business owners and entrepreneurs. Here are some great articles you should read from the week of Novemer 25, 2012.

CEO Blog Nation

Intersect Fund of Rohan Mathew and Joe Shure Aided Hundreds of Small Business Owners and Emerging Entrepreneurs (Hearpreneur) – Rohan Mathew and Joe Shure are small business experts and founders of the Intersect Fund which aids small businesses grow through different training programs.
Entrepreneur Jeff Frank Builds Despite Business Hurdles (Hearpreneur) – Jeff Frank founded Simplicity Sofas, a small furniture factory, in November 2007, exactly three weeks after then President Bush made an announcement that the US has entered recession.
What Can Entrepreneurs Do To Increase Awareness For Diabetes Awareness Month? (Rescue a CEO) – Cyber Monday is a holiday tradition when consumers revel in getting fast online deals. The holiday season is a great time to sell products and services.
How Entrepreneurial Students Can Split Time between School and Business (Teach a CEO) – Balancing the workload of a student with that of an entrepreneur is a heavy job for most people out there. Both are needed for greater success, but it might seem like a difficult road to go down.
Why It’s Better to Make Your Business Wait for a Delayed Filing (Rescue a CEO) – Though the end of the year may seem like a perfect time to finally follow up on those big business ideas you’ve had in your head all year long and start incorporating your dream startup, take it from me that you’ll want to wait and opt for a delayed filing.
Can You Learn to be an Entrepreneur? [ANSWERS] (Teach a CEO) – Entrepreneurship is more than a popular buzzword. It is a way of life. There has been an ongoing argument about whether entrepreneurs are born or made so we asked entrepreneurs and business owners if someone can learn to be an entrepreneur.

Across the Web

Richard Branson on Beating the Competition(Entrepreneur.com) – Building an innovative culture requires that you strike a balance, learning from your competitors' mistakes while pushing ahead with ideas of your own. Here are three tips for forging that balance.
Branding Basics: Six Steps to a Successful Business Image (Under30 CEO) – “Branding” is not exactly a new business buzz word, but it seems that more than a few companies have forgotten the importance of a strong, consistent image.
How Businesses Can Get Started Using Social Media, with Peter Shankman, Creator of Help A Reporter Out [Audio] (Small Business Revolution) – For centuries, reporters needed sources to provide quotes for their stories, and experts who wanted to be quoted in the media had no easy way to get matched up with those reporters. Peter Shankman solved that age-old problem.
Sharpen Your Marketing By Measuring What Matters Most (Forbes) – Something I always tell my clients is to measure what matters most because you will get what you measure, that’s for sure.
The 6 Most Important Lessons To Learn From Losing (Business Insider) – The lessons you learn from losing can change the rest of your life.
Everything Worth Doing Takes Time – The Impact Equation (Chris Brogan) – Do you know who also says it will take to long? Kids. On everything they don’t want to do. Homework, room cleaning, etc.
9 Ways to Improve the Impact of Your Email – The Works (Chris Brogan) – Want to know how to get your email answered? Need more impact in what you do? Want more time? I’ve got ideas.
Self-Love for the Busy Entrepreneur (She Takes on the World) – When you’re busy, love what you do and immerse yourself in work 24/7, it’s super easy to forget to take care of yourself.
The cycle of customers who care (Seth Godin) – Organizations that grow start by selling their services and products to people who care. These organizations are staffed by people who care making something that demands “caring-about” for people who have chosen to care.
What Rock, Paper, Scissors can teach you about startup strategy (VentureBeat) – When two people in America need to make a boolean decision and a coin isn’t available, the go-to method of problem resolution is Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Small business advice: How much capital should be invested in cybersecurity protection? (Washington Post) – How much of small business owners’ time and capital should be spent on cybersecurity protection, and what factors should play into that decision?
Top 10 countries for small business professionals [Slideshow] (Washington Post) – Here are the ten countries with the most small business professionals.
The hottest start-up cities in the world [Sideshow] (Washington Post) – A look at the latest rankings compiled by Startup Genome and Telefonica Digital, based on data from 50,000 early-stage companies around the world. Researchers gave each city a score based on its levels of start-up output, funding, performance, talent, support, mindset and trendsetters.
An Entrepreneur’s Guide To Patents: How To Determine Whether They Are Right For Your Company (TechCrunch) – Each business is unique and requires an individual analysis. This article discusses some frequently asked questions and presents an analysis framework that may be useful for you to explore the applicability of patents for your business/invention.
$5.5 Billion Spent On Small Business Saturday (Forbes) – This year, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, a lot of people decided to skip the malls and shop on Main Street.
3 Tips to Help a Small-Business Owner Survive the Holidays (Manilla Blog) – One of the hardest things to do as a small business is survive Q4 (October through December). Sales are coming in and you have to buy gifts, visit family, and have employees calling off on a regular basis. I’m not sure how we all do it, but I have figured out a few tricks to help make surviving Q4 as a small-business owner much easier.
Instagram co-founder on startup success: “Identify your early obsessions” (Gigaom) – Launching a startup? Take the advice of Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, who recently sold his startup to Facebook, and take a look at your early obsessions when starting a company — you might have more knowledge there than you think.
The MBA Holiday Gift Guide (Bloomberg Business) – Coming up with the perfect holiday gift for MBA students can be hard because they often seem to have everything. If you’re playing Santa for an aspiring B-schooler, these gift ideas, broken down by category and come from students, professors, and administrators at top business schools, should help.
Standing Out During the Holidays (Open Forum) – There’s still plenty of time for your small business to make money this holiday shopping season. If you’re wondering how to attract new customers, we have some advice.
3 Ways to Get Bit by a Shark Named Daymond John (Fox Small Business) – Fox Small Business spoke with John for some insider tips on how to successfully grow a business. Here’s what John suggests entrepreneurs should nail down first.