Featured Archives

Smart Hustle Magazine’s must-read in-depth feature articles focus on small business entrepreneurs and small businesses that have mastered the art of the smart hustle for overcoming challenges, making the most of scarce resources, finding resources and essentially finding success when it didn’t seem possible. We welcome your story ideas and nominations for featured entrepreneurs and companies.

By Charity RayFeatured, Sales

Selling Automotive Parts on eBay Is a Global Business

Turning a local business into a global business doesn’t have to be as complicated as it sounds. Ecommerce platforms like eBay have actually made that transition fairly seamless for entrepreneurs like Nicolaus Wolfrum. Wolfrum runs an eBay store for his dad’s business, Jim’s Automotive Machine Shop in Greeley, Colorado. At first, Wolfrum simply worked at the shop during breaks...

By Charity RayFeatured, Marketinghealth

Cancer Pushed This Entrepreneur To Start Her Business

Some businesses are born out of innovation, while others are born out of necessity. AneaOno is a case of the latter. The company’s founder, Dana Donofree, recently spoke with us for our latest Smart Hustle Report. During the conversation, Donofree shared how her own experience with breast cancer led her to discover a serious gap in the...

By Ramon RayFeatured, Marketinghealth

The Birth of a Spring Roll Business. Turning Your Passion Into a Business

Sometimes you have to get tired before you can get successful — physically tired, mentally tired, emotionally tired — basically, just ready to make a major change. That was the case for TrueMan McGee, founder of Funky Fresh Spring Rolls. In his case, the change initially came in his personal life. But it eventually led to...

By Ramon RayFeatured, Marketing, Salescustomers

The Importance of Selling to Your Existing Customers – Interview with Salesforce Exec

Once your business makes a sale, your job is far from over. If you want to establish long-term success, you have to continue selling to those customers over and over again. Small Business Trends spoke with Jamie Domenici, global Vice President of Customer Adoption and marketing for Salesforce at the recent Dreamforce conference in San Francisco. Part of...

By Ramon RayFeatured, Operations

1500 Entrepreneurs in India. 7 Things Ramon Ray Learned from #GES2017 in Hyderabad

In the midst of 1500 entrepreneurs, from 150 countries you’re bound to have a great time, meet amazing people, learn a lot, contribute to the needs of others and make lasting connections. This is what it was like at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (https://www.ges2017.org/ ) which took place in Hyderabad, India from 27 - 29...

By Ramon RayFeatured, Operations

1800-Got-Junk Founder Shares His Hustle Story With Ramon Ray

It’s the ambition of many entrepreneurs to grow a small startup into a big, international brand. Brian Scudamore, founder and CEO of O2E Brands, the company behind 1-800-GOT-JUNK and other home service brands, has achieved just that. Check out my interview with Brian on Small Business Trends

By Ramon RayFeatured, Operationsfamily business

Making Your Family Business Last – Mitzi Perdue Shares Her Insights with Ramon

About 70 percent of family businesses never make it past the first generation. Mitzi Perdue is uniquely familiar with the challenges of passing on a family business. Perdue was born into the family that created Sheraton Hotels and then married into the family behind Perdue Chicken. Because of this expertise, Perdue recently wrote a book specifically...

By Ramon RayFeatured

She Left Law Enforcement To Build A Soap Craft Empire

Some entrepreneurs find their niche by helping others release the creativity they have inside. Anne-Marie Faiola understands the importance of creativity more than most. A former corrections officer, Faiola turned to her hobby of soap making to deal with the stress of her day job. And now she helps other people leverage their own creativity in...

By Ramon RayFeatured, Marketing

How to Get Tradeshow Marketing Right So Your Business Shines

We recently shared an article on the essentials of tradeshow marketing. It covered the basics that you need to think about when investing in a tradeshow – finding the right shows, strategy and goal setting, and what to think about for marketing materials. Today, we are going to dive deeper into some of the...

By Ramon RayFeatured

From Death to Entrepreneurship – This Experience Changed His Life

Sometimes major life events, like near death experiences, can help entrepreneurs find some much-needed perspective about what success means to them. That was the case with Rand Leeb-du Toit. Said Leeb-du Toit, “If you were on your deathbed 18 months from now, and there was no coming back. That’s it. You’re on a one way...