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| SmartBrief on Entrepreneurs |
| September 2, 2010 |
Hives for Lives sisters make giving sweet
Sisters Molly and Carly Houlahan said they wanted to do something to honor the memory of their grandfather, who died of cancer in 2003, so they turned the family beekeeping hobby into a small business. Hives for Lives started selling its honey at fairs before expanding nationwide with Whole Foods. When demand got too big to handle at home -- some 60,000 jars have been sold to date -- the sisters partnered with giant Dutch Gold Honey to supplement their own output. So far, they have donated $170,000 to cancer-related charities. Entrepreneur magazine (9/2010)
Study: Entrepreneurs are surprisingly cautious with personal finances
Entrepreneurs typically are viewed as financial daredevils, but research from the Kauffman Foundation suggests otherwise. For instance, business owners are more likely than nonowners to say saving for retirement is important to them, and they spend more time researching investment options as well. Small Business Trends (9/1)
The best date to incorporate
Incorporating your business comes with tax advantages and legal protections, writes Nellie Akalp, who urges small-business owners to stop putting off incorporation. For tax purposes, the best date to incorporate is clearly Jan. 1, advises Akalp, who recommends checking out delayed-filing options that let you file now with an effective date in the future. Mashable (9/1)
10 common startup screw-ups
Are you a "solopreneur" simply because there's no margin in your pricing to allow for new hires? If so, you're making the No. 1 mistake of new entrepreneurs, Rosalind Resnick writes. Among the other errors on her list: emphasizing product development over sales and overpaying to acquire new customers. The Wall Street Journal (9/1)
You don't have a monopoly on passion
Entrepreneurs are passionate people. But when you're staffing a startup, it's easy to forget that potential hires have passions, too. Workers today are "not really interested in tolerating work that they don't love," writes Mark MacLeod. If you want to keep your employees happy and engaged, "take a chance and let your people define their role inside your company. ... You will unlock energy and passion in the process." StartupCFO.ca (Canada) (9/1)
Steps to achieving excellence
More and more scientific evidence suggests that greatness in any given area is a matter of practice, not natural talent. According to Tony Schwartz, researchers now believe that skills are worked out the same way muscles are: "Push past your comfort zone, and then rest." Schwartz offers "six keys to achieving excellence" -- and it all starts with doing what you love. FastCompany.com/FC Expert Blog (9/1)
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--Tony Schwartz, author and consultant, writing in FastCompany.com's FC Expert Blog |
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If you want to be really good at something, it's going to involve relentlessly pushing past your comfort zone, along with frustration, struggle, setbacks and failures."