Why are you in the community you are in? Is it because your target demographic consumers are in surrounding neighborhoods, cheap rent, because you like the culture, or grew up in the town? Whatever your reason for choosing the location of your startup, you’re a part of a community of people connected by location, and...
Can you go from the selling sweet potato cookies on the block in Detroit to exporting overseas? It’s possible. If you can sell on the street, you can sell anywhere. Even Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, learned sales skills on the street of China growing up as a kid. The process is the same:...
Over the past decade, there has been an enormous shift in the jobs landscape, with more and more people choosing to enter what we now call the gig economy. Freelancing has become highly desirable among professionals looking for more autonomy and flexibility in their work lives, while individuals looking to hire skilled professionals for...
As a customer, I've had quite a few customer service interactions that quickly went south. Most often, the agent simply could not make that connection with me, and the exchange pretty much ended with displeasure. Did they not understand what my question was? Were they not the best person to answer my question? How...
Most entrepreneurs are good at seeing opportunities and finding ways to meet needs in the marketplace. Similarly, successful leaders are adept at creating value, managing costs, and understanding their target markets. But many leaders lose sight of the #1 asset of their business and the various ways that asset can be neglected and eventually...
Freelancing can be exciting and incredibly draining at the same time. Unlike monotonous 9-to-5 jobs, freelancers tackle different kinds of projects each day and this makes it challenging. But the fact that you work on new projects requires a fair bit of learning and unlearning each time and this can be a drain on...
The good ol' American Dream may have been passed down many generations, but the spirit from which it was born is timeless. We were once explorers, settlers, and adventurers, and now entrepreneurs. People who strike gold today often do so by launching a unique business idea like an app, a social network or a...
The words benevolent capitalism are two words you don’t typically find together. Capitalism has become something that is viewed as negative. It’s the idea of, “I am here to get my share and in order for that to happen, everyone else has to lose.” When capitalism started out, this was not what it was about. Capitalism...
I was both Clyde and Devin in the early days—Clyde by day, and Devin by night—to keep my day and night worlds separate. As most entrepreneurs chasing their dreams experience, sometimes the “dream” doesn’t pay the bills right out of the gate. The small parcel shipping industry has very small margins, so when I was...
Filing for bankruptcy might seem like the end of the world, but it doesn’t have to be. Many small business owners manage to bounce back and rebuild their dream with a bit of help. However, that isn't to say that it will be easy (otherwise everyone would be doing it). The biggest challenge you will...
