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Business Profile: Family-owned Plumbing and Kitchen/Bath Design Company

TomsRiverTimes.micromediapubs.com:

In 1987, a hardworking man quit his job at a nuclear power plant with the desire to start his own company. When Thomas Kohler made the promising decision to transform his previous experience and part-time work as a plumber into a full-fledged family owned business, he knew it would not be an easy task. With […]

Fledgling Business Hauling in the Profits

PressBanner.com:
Jerry Toste of Scotts Valley is only 21 and seems to have a perpetual smile on his face. He should — his low-tech startup, Cheap Hauling, is on everyone’s lips: Those trucks are everywhere.
Toste is grossing $800,000 per year after 1½ years in business, not bad for a guy who decided that “college and I […]

Inspired Entrepreneurs Creating Coffee Cup Accessories Market

Entrepreneur.com:
Every day, millions of people rush off to work or read the news with a piping hot cup of coffee they’ve just bought. These consumers are fueling the $12.27 billion coffee industry and, by association, the coffee sleeve industry.
Moving on to the day’s next task, however, happens to be a little more difficult if your beverage is singeing your […]

Important Advice for Your First Year in Business

BusinessWeek.com:
Barry Thomsen began his entrepreneurial career as a 10-year-old running a paper route and selling lemonade to workers at construction sites. From there, he sold Amway and Avon, delivered pizza, and started and owned a number of businesses that ranged from a small manufacturer to a business forms supplier. During the course of some 30 years […]

Entrepreneur Brings a New Food Line to Market

SoutheastTexasLive.com:
Leo Danna never had any formal culinary training, but he spent years working behind the counter at his parents’ old restaurant, the Quality Cafe. Being half-Italian, he said, he also had a knack “for throwing stuff together and making it taste pretty good.”
So 12 years ago, he began tinkering in the cafe’s kitchen to produce […]

Business Profile: An Artistic Outlet for New Moms

NewsDurhamRegion.com:
An art therapist is showing new mothers a baby doesn’t have to be the only new creation they welcome into the world.
Susanne Watson-Bongard offers art and wellness programs for all ages with her company, Art and Soul Express.
The studio is home-based with a focus on new and expectant mothers they can also give birth to […]

College Roommates Become Business Partners Selling Fresh Product

Weekend.entrepreneur.com:
Like many restless college roommates, Jamee Kunichika and Sherilyn Luke wanted a business to call their own. Instead of just dreaming about it, they took action.
Three years later, having endured extreme highs and lows, they are enjoying the sweet smell of success. Together they have attained their dreams with POOF, a liquid toilet odor eliminator.
After […]

Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2008 Hot List

Entrepreneur.com:   “We’ve busted out the crystal ball to predict the hottest industries for the coming year…”
Be sure to check out all 7 pages!

Determine the Feasibility of Your Business Idea

Entrepreneur.com:
In 2002, when Farshad Tafazzoli started Delray Beach, Florida-based Zoli Corp., it was made up of little more than a series of hip-shooting analyses and his willingness to take a chance. “I looked at everything with an open mind and made a gut decision,” says Tafazzoli, 35, who projects 2007 revenue of $3.1 million for his […]

Entrepreneur Launches Wine Lable with a Cause

EastValleyTribune.com:
Kristen Senseman learned to love wine from her parents while growing up in Scottsdale, although the 24-year-old has only been old enough to taste it for a few years. Now she and seven of her friends — all under 30 — have their own label, Hope Wine, a brand with a cause.
Three of them, in […]

Startup Tips: Finding Angel Investors

ChicagoTribune.com:
Raising capital to move a company to the next level is a common challenge for start-ups, experts said. Too young to qualify for most bank loans or venture capital, many early-stage companies rely on handouts from family and friends, plus credit card debt, to bootstrap their businesses.
When those are tapped out, most start looking for […]

Today’s Entrepreneurs Offering More Services for Senior Citizens

SeattleTimes.nwsource.com:
A year ago, I couldn’t turn around at startup events without bumping into someone launching a social-networking business.
They knew it was the next big thing and a great opportunity to connect with a young demographic sought by advertisers. Now it seems the market is maturing. Literally.
As in, everywhere I go lately, I meet someone starting […]

Former Teachers Using Their Skills and Experience as Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur.com:
Teaching is a selfless career. For some educators, changing a student’s life makes all the hard work worth it. But endless piles of papers, insufficient planning time and meager salaries can leave some teachers feeling helpless and unrewarded. A 2007 report from the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics found that half […]

Tales of The Attorney-Turned-Entrepreneur

TheStreet.com:
Even business owners may have trouble grasping the concept at first: lawyers who give up their practice to become entrepreneurs. After all, who hasn’t daydreamed about standing in a courtroom and nailing a murderer, getting him to break down and confess to a horrific crime?
And yet you have people like Ramy Abu-Yousef, 31, who has […]

Designer Label Discount Business Start-Up - Gilt.com

CrainsNewYork: 
A new Web site business start-up hopes to tap into the $63 billion luxury retail market by offering steep discounts on designer labels.
The site, Gilt, sells items from one designer at a time for about 24 to 36 hours or until items are sold out. Merchandise on the site is marked down by 50% to 70%. The site […]

Social News Web Startup, Mixx, May Be The New Digg

TechCrunch: 
New startup Mixx, which went in to private beta just two months ago, may be finding itself with the right product at the right time. Digg users, including top contributors, are showing an increasing amount of frustration with the Digg community, and many are leaving.
Chris McGill, formerly the General Manager of Yahoo News and more […]

Meebo, The Instant Messaging Web Startup

SFGate: 
Meebo, the Web startup in Mountain View that aggregates instant messaging services onto one site, is on a drive to revolutionize the medium using outside applications.
Last month, it introduced an open platform with new voice and video services. Today, it’s introducing about 20 video games that can be shared among Meebo members.
All of that has […]

Most Small Businesses Expect To Grow Next Year

BizJournals: 
Small businesses expect to increase employment numbers over the next 12 months, according a new survey.
Sixty percent of senior executives and managers at small businesses say they expect employment to increase, according to the survey of 180 senior executives conducted by NFI Research. Small businesses have fewer than 500 employees.
For large businesses with 10,000 or […]

Board Game Entrepreneur Creates Popular Gift Game

Canada.com: 
Entrepreneur Nick Kellet is hoping that his successful board game is the gift that keeps on giving.
And the 44-year-old hopes next year will see him break even on his investment of between $150,000 and $200,000 on GiftTRAP.
“I was trying to think of board games and my daughter Freya, who was six at the time, asked, […]

Entrepreneur Creates Java For Dogs

MediaPost: 
An entrepreneur in Phoenix is looking to combine the growing craze for coffee and coffee products with increased discretionary pet spending, through a new product introduction: Doggy Java.
“Everybody drinks coffee and tea,” Mari Justin, creator of the drink, tells Marketing Daily. “I thought that it would be a good time to share with my dog.”
The beef-flavored (but […]

Entrepreneurs (Like Donald Trump) Find Success in Their Passions

BusinessWeek.com:
I just returned from giving a keynote speech to 1,000 enthusiastic members of the student association Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda. […] 
In my speech, I reminded the students about something Apple…Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said in a Stanford commencement address. “Life is too short to live somebody else’s dream.” Follow your passion, […]

Failed Law Student/Saleswoman Creates Successful Business Around Her Own Fashion Line

BusinessWeek.com:
Sara Blakely had been selling fax machines and office copiers door-to-door for seven years when she had an idea for a clothing line that would transform her from an employee into a successful entrepreneur. In a moment of inspiration, Blakely, frustrated with her “unsightly panty lines,” cut the feet off a pair of panty hose […]

Young Entrepreneur Alex Tew’s Million Dollar Homepage

ThisIsMoney.co.uk:
Alex Tew came up with the idea for the ‘Million Dollar Homepage’, a website that sold advertising space on the internet, in 2005 while brainstorming ideas on how to make money to pay for his university career. […]
[Alex:] “I launched the Million Dollar Homepage in August 2005 and six months before I was working at […]

Entrepreneur Balances Diverse Interests — Franchise Operations and Music

KCCommunityNews.com:
While Dan Mellott, 31, is wrapping an antique piece of china to ship across the world, he might be thinking about his music.
Mellott, who owns two area UPS Stores, also is lead singer of Browntown.
“I’m a man of tangents, I bounce around a lot,” he said. “I may be overnighting a china set for Grandma […]

Script Writers: Consider Going Entrepreneurial

LATimes.com:
The Big Picture: As the writers strike enters its third week, I think the future belongs to a tantalizing new hyphenate: the writers-entrepreneur. […]
“Writers who create something rare — a story with great, original characters that movie stars will cut their price to play — have a real value,” says Mandate production chief Nathan Kahane. […]

Entrepreneur.com’s Top 10 Businesses Facing Extinction Within 10 Years

Entrepreneur.com:
Determining which industries aren’t long for this world may seem easy enough. But some types of businesses, such as telemarketing, are surprisingly hard to kill. And then again, other industries, probably the ones you’re sad to see go, can’t find a way to survive.
So start setting up your office pool, because here are our picks for 10 […]

Owning a Home-based Business: What is it really like?

MSNBC.com:

They roll out of bed in the morning and head off for work–still in their pajamas. They work from their dining room tables, stock inventory in their cupboards and arrange meetings in the lobbies of their local hotels. They set their own schedules, jog on the beach during their lunch breaks and give out their […]

For New Entrepreneurs: Advice about Advisors

Inspired.entrepreneur.com:
Whether you call them advisory boards or mastermind groups, much has been said–and written–about the value of good advisors. In one of the programs I lead where we’re helping women start technology-based businesses, we all but require the women entrepreneurs to build an advisory board. […]
If you are new at the whole entrepreneur thing, advice […]

Starting a Small Business: Think through NOW how you will handle Growth!

USAToday.com:

Q: I started a web design company last year and it’s going great – I have more work than I know what to do with. My problem is that I have been asked to do a site that is much bigger than anything I have done before and it will take all my time for […]

Entrepreneur Begins Handbag Company That Makes a Difference

AmericanVentureMagazine.com:
The ten years that Pauline Lewis spent as an international market researcher taught her how to navigate the complex waters of corporate America.
But that decade also taught her something else: how she would do things differently.
Lewis, 36, has put that hard-earned knowledge to work. Three years ago, she walked away from her job to create […]

Entrepreneur Imports Genuine Italian Coffee - Espresso

JamaicaPlainGazette: 
When Francesco Calderaro came to the United States from Palermo, Sicily eight years ago to pursue a master’s degree, he was amazed at some of the things that passed for “authentic” Italian food, he said in an interview last week. The JP resident said he was particularly shocked at most of the coffee that was […]

Social News Website, NewsVine.com, A Huge Success

NWAsianWeekly:
Choosing not to follow the typical professional career path of working for a big company right out of college, Calvin admits he felt behind where he and others closest to him felt he should have been at the age of 27.
“I always came back to the same idea of putting together a venture and taking […]

Canadian Entrepreneur Takes Advantage Of Hot Real Estate Market

680News.com: 
The booming Toronto condominium market means business opportunities for more than just real estate agents.
Adam Roach, 26, has been recruiting people to secure spots in line for agents, for up to a week at a time, so that they can get their first pick when new condominium developments go on sale.
He told 680News about his plan […]

More Online Publishers Now Offering “Free” Ad-supported Web Content

WashingtonPost.com:
Rupert Murdoch’s announcement this week that he expects to stop charging for access to the Wall Street Journal’s Web site is the latest example of a publisher giving up on the subscription-based business model — a significant shift in the evolution of online content.
In recent months, the Economist, the New York Times and the Financial Times […]

Young Entrepreneur Builds Succesful Golf Club Business Online

SMH.com.au:
I don’t get golf. But obviously a lot of people do. And that’s great for small business entrepreneur Brad Lindenberg who has harnessed people’s love with the sport into a thriving business. Three years ago, Lindenberg had the foresight to purchase www.golfclubs.com.au for $4000. It was then owned by a photocopier repairman.
He has now parlayed […]

The Accidental Web Entrepreneur who Made Millions

WiltonVillager.com:
Laurel Touby never set out to become an entrepreneur, yet she recently sold her company for $23 million.
Building a Web site was never in her mind as she pursued a creative writing career, yet her Web site has more than 700,000 registered users and gets more than a million unique visitors each month.
“I never dreamed […]

Stories of Women in Business for Themselves

Leesburg2day.com:
Cheryl Harris, owner of Conscious Creations, found her business because she wanted to help others. After more than 10 years in corporate America, she looked for a job that would make her feel fulfilled. “I worked my way up from secretary to contracts manager,” she recalled. “I reached a point where I looked after all […]

Guide to Structuring Your Business Startup

WashingtonPost.com:
Choosing how to structure a business can be daunting for any small business owner or entrepreneur. Should a firm be a limited liability complany (LLC), an S Corporation or something else?
“It’s the No. 1 most misconstrued, misinformed decision that small businesses make today,” said tax expert Gene Fairbrother of Dallas.
Much of the decision-making process should […]

Retirement May Be a Great Time to Start Your Own Business

Entrepreneur.com:
There’s a big difference between starting a company as a young entrepreneur with stars in your eyes and launching a business at an age when you need reading glasses. If you’re a twentysomething student with an idea for a better search engine, like Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, you can start over if the idea […]

Do First-time Entrepreneurs Have an Advantage?

TechCrunch.com:
American lives, F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, don’t have a second act. As the New York Times’ Gary Rivlin reported in his profile of PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, Silicon Valley hasn’t noticed. More companies than ever are being started by serial entrepreneurs. The second coming of the Internet bubble, Web 2.0, has in some ways […]