Struggling Entrepreneur

 

 140- Resources and assistance for all Entrepreneurs [36:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we deliver the audio interview with Vicky Valdez and Joy Miller of the City of Austin Small Business Development Program.

Instead of a remote discussion over the Skype network, we chose to have a live face-to-face interview the local CITY organization’s contacts, Joy Miller and Vicky Valdez.

The web site for this City-funded and Entrepreneur-friendly organization may seem quite simple, but don’t let that fool you. It is loaded with tons of resources (most of them free to the City Entrepreneurs). And their collateral that describes their programs, courses, tech resources and educational offerings, etc., is not only professional, but phenomenal.

This organization’s mission is:

“to foster job creation and support the growth of new and existing businesses by providing capacity building information, tools and resources.”

As you will hear in this audio episode interview, this group provides the following to the entrepreneur:

- A Technology Resource Center for Small Businesses;

- The BIZAID PROGRAM: Technical Assistance program to help people start and expand their businesses;

-BIZOPEN: Business location development process;

- INFO AND RETRIEVAL: A clearinghouse of info with local helpful organizations and business networking resources, as well as professional organizations;

- EVENTS: Includes a Business Loan Information Fair (”Meet the Lender”), as well as a Connection Fair for Small Business Owners (”Getting Connected”)

- SMALL BUSINESS MAPPING PROJECT: an online local business map; and

- EDUCATION, TRAINING AND COURSES: over 70 classes offered for the entrepreneur at any stage.

We thank Joy Miller and Vicky Valdez for sharing with us the value that is delivered to aspiring and current entrepreneurs by the City of Austin Small Business Development Program.

Additional commentary:

During the audio podcast, there is a distinction made between the City of Austin Small Business Development Program and  the network of Small Business Development Centers in the US.  There is a difference between these two groups — one is funded by, and represents, the CITY of Austin, whereas the other is one of the federally funded organizations at the STATE level.

Note:  if you want more details on what a state-level federally funded Small Business  Development Center is like, you can visit the podcast episode of Entrepreneur Podcast Network. This particular blog post deals with the topic of help to Entrepreneurs for free, and the interview that is conducted describes the services for a typical Small Business Development Center (in this case, in Greenville). You can go to this link to listen to this interview:Click here for the audio of the SBDC interview.

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

 

 143- Aspiring Entrepreneur asks IS THIS RIGHT FOR YOU? [37:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we discuss the issues and challenges of being a part-time small business owner from the perspectives of an aspiring entrepreneur.

Dale Freitag was the victim of a massive layoff from a major multinational firm in the IT industry almost two years ago. Although he has the skills, experience, education and contribution potential to be employed in a large firm, he now realizes that he has to continue planning and begin the execution toward his aspiration to be an entrepreneur.

Perhaps this may be the time to start as a part-time entrepreneur and plan to grow the business at the appropriate time?  In this audio episode, we explore the concerns and issues that are in the mind of this aspiring entrepreneur. Many of you will probably identify with these as he tries to answer the question for us:

Is Entrepreneurship right for you?

But more importantly, he probes into the deeper details with the reasons:

- WHY is it right for you, and

- WHEN is it right for you?

As you listen to this audio episode, you will be surprised that the apprehensions and caution that he considers are NOT the normally suggested reasons of fear, risk, uncertainty and lack of research or planning.

Also, Dale is one of the first interviewees in this podcast series who is already planning whom he will hire, so that he does not wait later in the growth of the business to realize that he needs to let go of control and hire the best people with the right skills to deliver the value of their expertise, while he focuses on the success of the company.

We thank Dale and wish him well in his pursuit as an aspiring entrepreneur. We plan to interview him again once his firm has launched to update you on his experience.

Copyright (c) 2011, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

 Naming Your Startup - from a blogpost at SmartBear.com [09:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we deliver the audio narration of a blogpost from www.smartbear.com.  This repurposed post deals with the topic of choosing a name for your new entrepreneurial venture or startup.

Click here to go to the blog post and see the cartoon there.

As you will hear from the audio narration of this unabridged blog post, an article from Onstartups.com is mentioned, as it gives you a checklist in the process of choosing a name for your firm. Click here for the article.

Of course, the more planning and collaboration you do (either with yourself or your partners of the startup) will help greatly. Of course, you should do this while taking into account your marketing strategy for your customer promise, your branding, your social media and word-of-mouth referrals and your promotion. These previous 4 elements are not my creation, but they are the 4 key ingredients of any good small business marketing plan. And they come from the deliverables of the firm The Marketing Spot and  Jay Ehret (who has been interviewed on this podcast).

Once you have the name, then you should feel comfortable with integrating the name, the brand, the customer promise and the promotion, along with social media and referral marketing.

Our thanks to The Smart Bear Blog for this article.

Copyright (c) www.smartbear.com and Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

 141- Never get a real job - what it means to the Entrepreneur [23:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we repurpose a previous podcast interview episode (with permission) that aired on the Duct Tape Marketing podcast series from John Jantsch (author of the book The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself). The interviewee is Scott Gerber, the author of the book Never Get a REAL Job.

 As you will hear in this audio podcast episode, this book was originally targeted for the younger set of aspiring entrepreneurs (Gen Y). However, there are some recommendations and issues that are universal for EVERY aspiring entrepreneur.

Thanks to John Jantsch for his permission to allow us to repurpose this unabridged episode, so that our listeners may get value from Scott’s perspective of a realistic environment and a few recommendations about how to maneuver in this situation.

A SPECIAL OFFER TO OUR LISTENERS

A special promotional offer is available for the listeners of The Struggling Entrepreneur Podcast series. The following comes from John Jantsch, author of various books on Small Business Marketing and creator of the Duct Tape Marketing Program:

Get your copy of The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business To Market Itself today and get over $400 worth of bonus materials.

Order a copy of The Referral Engine send your order receipt confirmation to

john@ducttapemarketing.com

to claim your bonus material for The Referral Engine (www.referralenginebook.com)

When you purchase The Referral Engine, you’ll receive:

Chris Brogan, coauthor of Trust Agents
Seth Godin, author of Linchpin
Guy Kawasaki, cofounder of Alltop
David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR
Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com
Bob Burg, coauthor of The Go-Giver and Go-Givers Sell More
Marcy Shinder, vice president, American Express OPEN
Ivan Misner, founder of BNI
Stephen MR Covey, author of The Speed of Trust
Scott Ginsberg, The Nametag Guy
Zingermans Community of Businesses, a chat with Ari and Mo

Copyright (c) 2010-2011, Matrix Solutions Corporation and www.ducttapemarketing.com.