Keep up with Elise and her story of becoming a successful entrepreneur: What do you Know? Education Just Notes Golden Numbers How Much? Neither Borrower nor Lender Be Walking Many Paths Horse Trading Three Card Monty It is All Shelly’s Idea The Party Line The Big Meeting “Wait a minute, two and a half percent?” [...]

In a previous column I wrote about my current business’s success in raising monetary and material donations for the school, just by asking for aid and clearly explaining what was needed. A few weeks ago, we set out to raise more money. This time it had to be cash, cement blocks and 2x4s would not [...]

Here’s a question for you established entrepreneurs: if starting capital were not an issue, would you be doing the same thing right now? This is a fantasy scenario. If someone had, the day before you committed yourself to your current venture, offered you a blank check and said, “Do anything you want with it, as [...]

We savvy internet pioneer types tend to pride ourselves on our wild-west wits. We try to wheel and deal solo-like, making our money where we can and covering our own backs. For several years we have enjoyed the wide open spaces and untamed wildernesses of internet business. There comes a day however, and that day [...]

For reasons beyond my control, I am far from my computer (wherein resides today’s Monday’s Mistakes article) and see no prospects for returning to it in a timely fashion. Rather than the scheduled article, I can only offer you the following: a few words of wisdom and the vague promise of a double article next [...]

Keep up with Elise and her story of becoming a successful entrepreneur: What do you Know? Education Just Notes Golden Numbers How Much? Neither Borrower nor Lender Be Walking Many Paths Horse Trading Three Card Monty It is All Shelly’s Idea The Party Line “Thursdays are the best. This Denny’s gets the new ranch dressing [...]

Sometimes sanity is about breaking the rules. During the bulk of the operating days of my first business, a storefront in Albuquerque, I spent every Sunday afternoon at the Starbucks down the street. I went there to sip overpriced coffee and sit in front of the fireplace (this Starbucks had a fireplace) in big comfy [...]

In my aimless youth, coming out of high-school with no idea where I was going and no money to pay for college, I went to those ever-present teenager-targeting sirens: the military recruiters. They all promised my choice of MOS (Military Occupational Specialty, that is to say, jobs within the service). All four branches offered in-service [...]

With the exception of the few, narrow-focus resources I have listed in previous Tuesday Tools columns, I generally disapprove of “small business start-up guides”. Most are too broad, too generalized, too soft to be of any use at all. While I am not revising my position, I am willing to direct anyone who happens to [...]