Struggling Entrepreneur

 

 Entrepreneur conferences and events- take advantage for your success [26:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we examine some of the conferences, networking events and even “unconferences” where the focus may be on Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners. These are, indeed, resources that many entrepreneurs do NOT seem to exploit to their advantage and use as tools to make their businesses more successful.

In particular, this episode deals with two cases in point:

(1) - ProductCamp events (which are “unconferences” or “user-generated conferences”) that welcome Entrepreneurs as product developers, product marketers, product managers, etc.

and

(2) - The annual Entrepreneur Expo in Phoenix known as the Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference at http://www.azentrepreneurship.com (and similar events geared for entrepreneurs);

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Free unconference events may benefit Entrepreneurs:

1. ProductCamp events (such as the one in Austin) are growing with Entrepreneur participants and now have the majority of participants as Small Business Owners.

2. ProductCamp Austin actually included a separate track for Entrepreneurship, as well as Branding, Marketing and Promotion.

3. ProductCamp Austin’s co-founder and organizer, Paul Young (who is now with Pragmatic Marketing), gave us a few minutes in an interview right after the main tent opening session to describe:

- what a ProductCamp is and how we can participate;

- what value a ProductCamp can deliver to the Entrepreneur; and

- what the Entrepreneur will miss by not taking advantage of participating in this free event.

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Conferences targeted specifically for Entrepreneurs:

Very much like the Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference, there may be either national or local events that cater directly to the Small Business Owner or the Entrepreneur.

For example, at the Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference in 2007, the keynote speaker and luncheon guest was Michael Gerber, the author of the well-known book, The E-Myth Revisted: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to do About it.

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Referral Meetups for Entrepreneurs

In addition, there are other events that are not mentioned in the podcast audio episode. These could be, for example, Networking events for Small Business owners and Entrepreneurs (such as “Referral Entrepreneur Meetups”). These could be found in the www.Meetup.com facility. Although many of them are labeled incorrectly and may appear to be deceptive to the entrepreneur (e.g., another “Amway” MLM scheme), there are some good referral networks that are free to join–and they do provide some value in the form of referral marketing, word-of-mouth and social media contacts.

Copyright (c) 2010, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

 131- Entrepreneur-author-writer-columnist Bob LeVitus - author of iPAD FOR DUMMIES [38:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we deliver to you an interview with famous author Bob LeVitus, who has made his “claim-to-fame” by being a writer, author, consultant and specialist for Apple(R)  products and technologies –  including the iPad(R)  and iPhone(R)  products.  He has a blog persona which is called “Dr. Mac.”

Bob is also an established author and has a library of books to his name. He is the author of 55 books (at the time of this writing), including Mac OS X Snow Leopard for Dummies, iPhone for Dummies, Incredible iPhone Apps for Dummies, iPad for Dummies–and dozens more.

In this audio episode, we tried to highlight the latest Apple product, the iPad, as we ask him how he was involved in this latest innovation as an Entrepreneur and author–and how that is helping his consulting business and speaking engagements. However, Bob has several other books which he is writing, and so he even surpassed the speed of technology improvements within less than a month.

In addition, Bob takes advantage of his being a subject matter expert on the technologies and products from Apple, Inc. In addition to having his own tech support entrepreneurial business venture as “Dr. Mac,” he still finds time to be in person with his community.

 In the Meetups for both the Apple Macintosh line, as well as the Apple iPhone, Bob has delivered many a seminar, workshop, presentation and discussion. And now he did meet with excited audiences about the recent phenomenon of the Apple iPad.

Case in point: in a recent meeting of the iPad Users Meetup for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs, Bob was the guest speaker and answered questions for those entrepreneurs who were considering the iPad as a business purchase– or who had already bought this device previously.

With Bob’s subject-matter expertise, energy and enthusiasm for the technologies and products that are so popular in today’s environment, it is easy to see why he enjoys his freelancing and e-lancing, his authorship, and even his being a computer columnist for the Houston Chronicle.

What we found insightful were his words given for having success as an author:  Keep your seat in that chair.

As you will hear in the audio episode, Bob wants to complete another 20 or so books before he turns his passion to writing novels–as well as other endeavors and pursuits.

Copyright (c) 2010, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.

Apple, iPhone, iPod and iPad are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple, Inc.

 

 130- 5 tips for Entrepreneurs - from experience [25:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we deliver the podcast episode from Chris Benjamin, the Rogue CFO, from his Podomatic Series.

The topic here are five tips that Chris Benjamin delivers to Entrepreneurs from his own experience. He gives us the cases in point for growing ventures for the Small Business environment.

This episode was first delivered in the Rogue CFO’s Expert Guide to launching a startup.

Copyright (c) 2010, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Chris Benjamin Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.