Entredot

From Ideation to Commercialization in 4 Days

Fred Hathaway — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:12:08 +0000

Bands For Boston

Student entrepreneurs are awesome! In a recent newsletter, we shared the success stories at the Wake County men’s and women’s leadership academies. This week, we invite you to become a part of the success of another student enterprise with a great social impact opportunity. Bands For Boston (@BandsForBoston) is a start-up at Wake Forest-Rolesville High School that is selling wrist bands to provide relief aid for victims of this week’s bombing at the Boston Marathon. The students used their own debit card to order 250 wrist bands on Tuesday, accepted pre-orders and sold out. They received bands yesterday to fulfill orders and have already placed another order. The bands are selling for $5 each and 60% of the proceeds are going to the American Red Cross to support victims, repairs of facilities, and the like.

Entrepreneurs With Too Much Passion Are Challenged

Fred Hathaway — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 04:59:35 +0000

We’ve all heard that there is such thing as too much of a good thing. In this blog post, we discuss serial entrepreneurs and how too much passion can cloud judgement and ultimately close down a business.

Photo courtesy of Wildfirehub.com

When Less Polish is Better

Fred Hathaway — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 01:57:41 +0000

We all know that no one is perfect, so why do we let the fear of imperfection affect relationships with our clients? Patrick Lencioni writes about the importance of open and honest communication in his book Getting Naked. We examine some of the points made in his book in this blog post.

Photo from Free Range Stock

Know How to Find Customers

Fred Hathaway — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 01:51:12 +0000

Who is your company and how do you reach them? A lot of companies seem to take the “strategy of throwing noodles on the wall to see what sticks. In this blog post, Bill Warner explores the making of a successful plan to find qualified leads.

Photo from Free Range Stock

External Causes of Small Business Decline

Fred Hathaway — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:35:54 +0000

Early warning signals companies should look for in the external environment include all legal, political, competitive, technological, economic, and social changes that affect them. Regular review of social media, trade periodicals, business publications, and newspapers will help to keep you current. A technological advance, for example, often affects buyer attitudes and expectations, thereby causing social changes that need to be addressed in product/service design and delivery/sales. If your organization is uninformed with regard to the changes–either that they occur or the extent to which they occur–company performance may lag behind competitors. Read more…

Entrepreneurship Knows No Boundaries

Fred Hathaway — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 18:02:56 +0000

Last night, we had the opportunity to open our newest innovation center in Chatham County, located at 288 East Street in Pittsboro. At the Grand Opening, we were fortunate to have the economic development team, the town manager, the provost of the community college, banking representatives, real estate professionals, and an array of other participants. The exciting upside of the evening was the groundswell of support for helping more businesses launch smartly. While much of the Research Triangle is hyperfocused on technology startups by young entrepreneurs, it is exciting to think about what Main Street businesses can be started in the bedroom communities that surround the hotbeds of innovation.

Most entrepreneurs in the hinterlands don’t even consider themselves to be an entrepreneur, per se, because that title has become the domain of high growth targeted teams who seek outside equity funding to scale their technology. Instead, many who start businesses in places like Pittsboro consider themselves small businesses. We’re here to say that this i snot a bad thing–at all. When you remove the need for large traunches of outside capital, much of the risk associated with the process is also taken away.

What small business owners need–whether they are just starting out, or needing to jumpstart an enterprise that has been around a few years, is some education about bets practices of running a business coupled with personal mentoring. Unfortunately, that combination is in rare supply. Some mentoring organizations lack a cohesive curriculum that assists business founders in scaling their idea into a commercially sustainable success. Other organizations offer curricula on business planning, but don’t necessarily challenge the founders on whether they even have a good business idea, coupled with a feasible conceptual model that will make money. Finally, mentors who have first hand experience in starting a business from scratch and leading it to successful outcomes are in rare supply versus retired corporate types who have never had a business of their own.

EntreDot is committed to intentionally helping small business founders get the help they need. The unique combination of hand-picked mentors with the right kind of experience and a proven methodology is valuable. We know that there are low cost–even free–alternatives out there. We hope that folks in Chatham County and beyond will make the investment in themselves and their fledgling businesses to create success stories that encourage others to do likewise!

Are You Content With No Content?

Fred Hathaway — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:21:20 +0000

Keeping your website and blog content fresh keeps your relevant and interesting to your customers. It seems all too easy to farm this important task out to outsource this task whose time isn’t as valuable as the “experts”, but does this tactic come with a price? We’ll examine why it could here.

Photo is from Free Range Stock

8 Ways to Start a Business

Fred Hathaway — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:03:52 +0000

People who want to start their own business do so for many reasons. Some want to change the world, others just want to be free from the 9 to 5 life. If you want to start your own business and you already have an idea, it’s easier, but what if you have the desire, but no ideas? Jane Porter of Entrepreneur.com examines 8 ways to brainstorm business ideas and we’ll examine them here.

Photo is from FreeRangeStock

Managing In an Uncertain Economy

Fred Hathaway — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:28:35 +0000

Managing finances and employees can be tough when the economic outlook is uncertain. Being cautions with your budget, boosting productivity and communicating effectively with your employees so they don’t feel like they are being kept in the dark can allay anxiety and make your business run more smoothly.Read on for more advice on managing in an uncertain economy.

We Need More New Companies

Fred Hathaway — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 13:52:32 +0000

Entrepreneurship is an important aspect of the American Dream. In our country, anyone with drive can be upwardly mobile. During these tough economic times, many have questioned the Dream. In reality, a boost in entrepreneurial spirit is just what this economy needs. Read more about how more companies can boost the economy and how we can make this happen here.