If you’re are thinking about taking the plunge into entrepreneurship, you should avoid making common business mistakes and learn from thriving small business owners. Recently Ramon Ray hosted a small biz panel discussion, consisting of three successful small business owners. Ramon and guests discussed various aspects of running, growing, and surviving a small business....
In a 2009 Sports Illustrated article about why many professional athletes go broke, it was reported that “78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.” And all of this takes place within two years of retiring from the NFL. Gary Brackett, a former linebacker and...
I quit college to sell products door-to-door. I know it sounds crazy, it probably was. After a half dozen successful years selling consumer telecommunication products, I ended up losing all I had earned when “dabbling” in real estate and investing in another side business took a turn for the worst in 2007. I soon...
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...
Remember how much fun it was to play with forts when you were a kid? Regardless of whether you grew up in the city or the suburbs, you no doubt found ways to use the resources around to build your own private little escape. Well, August Graube, founder of Fort Boards, wanted to recreate that...
If you are a small business owner and you want to learn about scaling, franchising and building a brand then the one business you look to as a reference, who has done this incredibly well, is McDonald's. They are a true American business icon and success story. In a new movie, "The Founder", the...
Question: What do you get when you combine serendipity with hard work and dedication? Answer: A booming small business that made $1.4 million in its first year and has been growing strong ever since, for 19 amazing years. More specifically, I’m referring to my latest interview guest, Gina Alexander, an LA-based designer who has created a...
Having recently met Boxed CEO and co-founder Chieh Huang at an American Express event, I was surprised by the wealth of practical and incredibly useful knowledge he had acquired while growing his company. We briefly discussed that journey from startup to acquisition, as well as some of the mindsets and approaches he has adopted...
It is not every day that I get the chance to pick the brain of a young entrepreneur like Wilbur You. At 26, Wilbur has amassed some amazing experience in business and entrepreneurship. During our short interview, Wilbur and I spoke about his early successes and failures, how those shaped his later approach to...
For some entrepreneurs, the path from conception to execution is a pretty clear one. Of course, there are obstacles that creep up along the way, but what works for one tech entrepreneur typically can send another down a similar path to success. But what happens when you have a highly specialized product or service...
