Struggling Entrepreneur

 

 116B- Lindsey Allen of www.exploringnewmedia.com - inbetween-preneur or project-preneur? [43:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this espisode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we discuss and describe the status of what is being referred to as an “inbetween-preneur.” What is this type of entrepreneur? Let’s compare it to the other terms that describe the different types of entrepreneurs that have surfaced in the online world:

- You’ve heard of Intra-preneur? –> an entrepreneurial semi-independent or independent business unit within a private sector enterprise, for instance, that is funded by the Corporation, but it acts as if were a small business–speed to market and little bureaucacy define its nature;

- You’ve heard of the “necessity-preneur” ? –> one who is usually unemployed (e.g., by a layoff, etc.) and cannot buy a franchise, and thus has to resort to becoming a small business owner to survive;

-You’ve heard of the “solo-preneur” ? –> the individual that will go it alone as a small business owner, without joint venture partners or assistants, and will not outsource at the beginning because this person cannot afford to (i.e., usually undercaptizlized);

- You’ve heard about the “unintentional-preneur”? –> this is the individual that planned to remain with a day-job, but due to circumstances (e.g., downsizing or layoff, etc.) took the opportunity to pursue a dream intentionally due to unintentional situations;

- Youve heard of the ; you’ve heard about the “hobby-preneur” ? –> this is the individual that pursued a hobby that began bringing in revenue (which usually was not the main objective of this pasttime or passion). And then at one point, the “hobby” became a business and was so successful that the individual quit the day-job and pursued the small business full-time as an entrepreneur;

-You’ve heard of the “part-time entrepreneur” ? –> this is the person that began a small business (like a home-based business or internet business) on a shoestring budget and worked it part-time, while still keeping the day-job. The hope of this person is to one day be able to leave the day-job and become a full-time Entrepreneur;

Well, here is the “inbetween-preneur”–and individual that may or may not be retired who “dabbles” in the environment of small business ownership or entrepreneurship by desiring the freedom and excitement of the benefits of being an entrepreneur, but is more inclined to do so with projects or programs, rather than take a plunge into running a firm or small business. Thus, you may say that this individual tends to be a “project-preneur.”

Lindsey Allen happens to fall into this category. A retired high-tech experienced instructor and project manager with IBM, AMD, Tivoli and also a veteran of the US Air Force), Lindsey is now entering the world of training and instruction with the objective of making it into his very small business–perhaps.

And that “perhaps” is what straddles him inbetween the positions of retiree and entrepreneur–or what we call an “inbetween-preneur.”

In this audio episode, you will hear Lindsey describe what drives him, what motivates him, what his priorities are –and how he will decide whether to enter the fray of small business ownership or just keep doing fun projects (like a “project-preneur”) based on his passion for the focus he has at the time.

Currently, Lindsey has his own site (i.e., “project”) called Exploring New Media:

In the pursuit of this passion for assisting others with training, as well as teaching the new media and social media skills to beginners, Lindsey will also be taking over the leadership of the Austin Podcasters and New Media Meetup Group. He will engage in topics ranging from blogging platforms to social media tools like twitter and facebook, as well as podcasting, video and other forms of New Media.

With a passion such as this, and with the success to date that he has had by receiving income from his endeavors, it seems that Lindsey is well on his way to crossing the line and becoming a part-time entrepreneur.

Lindsey can be reached via:

- email:  lindsey @ exploringnewmedia.com

- twitter:  www.twitter.com/xplorenewmedia

- web site:  http://www.exploringnewmedia.com

Copyright (c) 2010, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

 

 116A- Trade Show checklist for the Entrepreneur from www.smartbear.com [19:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we deliver the audio narration of a blog post from Smart Bear Software.

The topic of this post deals with exhibition events, such as Trade Shows or Business Shows.

Written by Jason Cohen, the CEO of Smart Bear Software, this post provides recommended and suggested items that should be on your checklist when you decide to engage your firm in a Trade Show or Business Show. Not only does Jason cover the planning and preparation phase, but he also goes into the time-line planning during the trade show or exhibition, as well as follow-up and other items after the event.

This narrated post is complete and unabridged. As you will hear in the podcaster comments toward the end of this audio episode,  you should take this list and edit it or customize it to fit your needs.  It is a great–although simple–tool and resource for the Entrepreneur.

We thank Jason for giving us his practical experience in the form of this checklist, as it will help us to be better prepared when we decide that our presence is required at a trade show or business show to enhance our brand and our small business.

Copyright (c) 2010, Matrix Solutions Corporation and www.smartbear.com.

 

 115A- Dave Barnhart is a successful Entrepreneur who assists the Baby-Boomer market [42:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we deliver an interview with David Barnhart, a successful entrepreneur with this website of Business Blogging Pros.com.

As you will hear from this audio podcast, Dave has been on the Internet since the beginning, when he was using powerful databases to help firms increase their marketing and competitive differential advantages.

A “Baby Boomer” himself, Dave has found a passion in assisting the Baby-Boomer entrepreneur audiences that are starting small businesses with the issues of using the new online and Social Media tools that have “leveled the playing field” in the world of competition for mindshare, awareness and marketing.

Besides the wealth of technical and marketing experience that Dave has under his belt, his work-ethic and dedication to his passion allowed him to bootstrap his own startup firm that initially focused on blogging (and how the Baby-Boomer audience could leverage that). Now, he has extended the focus to include the Social Media and New Media tools, such as twitter, facebook, video, etc.

Some key recommendations that Dave leaves with us are good food for thought–especially for the senior audience members that have spent a lot of their careers in ‘cubicle-nation.’

It was interesting to see that, in 2005 Dave – an avid gourmet chef – started a food and cooking blog, The Fumbling Foodie with an eye towards fully understanding how to leverage the power of the blogosphere for marketing and Public Relations. The Fumbling Foodie has been quoted on the CBS News website, and many Fumbling Foodie posts rank in the top 10 for Google searches returning over a million hits.

One last note of interest:  Dave’s challenges have never focused on funding, capitalization or money. With the understanding that he had to bootstrap a startup, he has managed to become a successful entrepreneur and trusted advisor.  The secret? Well, Dave knows his audience and provides solutions for their problems and needs–especially to the growing numbers of Baby-Boomers that are now starting their own small businesses as Entrepreneurs.

You can reach Dave via twitter with handle @dbarnhart, and you can get a sample of Dave’s “Social Media Slice” advice at:

http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/12624041e9e4e207

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

 

 114A- HobbyPreneurs turn Passion into Profit - by Sam Thacker [7:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we deliver a bonus episode, which is the narration of the blog post by Sam Thacker, a financial specialist.

From the www.allbusiness.com site, the blog post is titled “Hobbypreneurs turn Passion into Profit.”

As you will hear in this audio episode, there are several case studies and examples of how Entrepreneurs who create the business from a previous hobby are actually helping today’s economy.

Therefore, what hobby do you have now for which you have a great passion? Could it be that this may be your future small business and lead you to become a successful entrepreneur? Who knows what may be lurking in that exciting pasttime you may consider just “a hobby“–for it may be the future to your success.

The contact information for Sam Thacker is given in the audio episode.

Copyright (c) 2010, Matrix Solutions Corporation and www.allbusiness.com. All Rights Reserved.

 

 Ten Traits of an Entrepreneur [18:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we begin the discussion of Entrepreneur traits for 2010 with a description from Chris Benjamin, the Rogue CFO. Chris has dealt for many years in delivering financial services and advice to small business owners and entrepreneurs.

He describes the 10 traits of Entrepreneurs in a casual discussion. As this topic is very relevant for aspiring entrepreneurs, they may ask themselves these questions:  “Do I have what it takes to enter the small business world and will I be ready for the challenges, as well as the excitement of owning my own business as an Entrepreneur?”

This episode has been repurposed from the podcast series, available on iTunes(R), from Chris Benjamin’s Rogue CFO’s Expert Guide to launching a Startup.

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

 

 114- Successful PR Entrepreneur whose challenge is NOT money- LuAnn Glowacz [39:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Happy New Year to you for 2010.

We begin the new year with an episode about an entrepreneur’s success in the area of Public Relations.

LuAnn Glowacz started her own PR firm at www.wordcove.com,  after having been an employee for several years in a Marketing Communications company that allowed her to grow and develop skills within one of the best working environments (led by its managing partner, Renee Delaune of Delaune and Associates).

What is remarkable about LuAnn is that her biggest challenge as an Entrepreneur is NOT one dealing with funding, capitalization or money–as are 90 per cent of all startups within the first year (and why they fail). No, her biggest concerns deal with the flexibility to keep her family as the highest priority in her life, as well as controlled growth of her business via word-of-mouth marketing with very loyal customers.

As you will hear in this audio interview, LuAnn has chosen a field that plays to her strengths–writing and Public Relations strategy and consulting. Her recommendations to others entering the world of entrepreneurs help us keep the right perspective on our priorities within the universe of small business owners. Included in these recommendations from her formula for success are:

- leveraging your strengths,

- delivering outstanding quality and timely service to delight your customers, and

- being open to use the social media tools for open and transparent collaboration.

These are elements that can easily be included in the Entrepreneur’s playbook.

LuAnn’s web site delivers an example of the success that her work has delivered to her clients in a video clip from TV station WGN.

In addition, LuAnn was deemed one of “100 PR People Worth Following on Twitter” by  Conversation Agent.

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

 

 113- Year in Review of 2009 for The Struggling Entrepreneur Podcast [26:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we review the year 2009 and our delivery of content to you, our listeners. We also have a brief forecast of what is ahead for 2010 in terms of content, subjects, themes and topics for our episodes.

As you will hear in this audio podcast summary, we have delivered a lot of content with many interesting speakers and interviewees, as well as the audio narration of key blogposts from relevant blogs.

As we mentioned in the episode, many of our listeners wanted a summary of the year that included the date and the episode number with the theme, topic, subject, title and description or participant speakers. To help them in this request, we hope that these listeners will be able to save time with this recap to locate the episodes that these individuals will want to review and consume.

We understand that, in this tough environment of the financial situation and recession during these days, many listeners who subscribe could not consume the content during the scheduled delivery. We also know that they would like to go back and listen to the key podcast episodes now that things may have slowed down a bit toward the end of this year and the beginning of the next.

From episode 75 to episode 113–along with multiple bonus episodes–we were delighted to deliver this information to help the aspiring and recently-launched entrepreneurs and small business owners. We intend to continue to provide this type of information of the Entrepreneurs’ stories and resources for your success in 2010–and beyond–without giving in to those companies or firms that would like to advertise on our site or within our podcast. We intend to keep this “advertisement-free” (as was requested by the survey to our selected listeners).

Welcome to a better year of 2010 and a great year for the small business owner and Entrepreneur.

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

 

 100 Best Social Sites for Entrepreneurs - from www.careeroverview.com [21:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we narrate a suggested blog post that lists “100 Best Social Sites for Entrepreneurs.”

Our thanks to Carol Brown for the recommendation of repurposing the blog post into narrated audio for our listeners.

You can get to the blog post and see on the web the listing of the top 100 social media sites at this web page:

http://www.careeroverview.com/blog/2009/100-best-social-sites-for-entrepreneurs/

The 100 Social Sites are grouped into 8 categories on this blog post:

1. General Social Networking

2. Meet-ups

3. Entrepreneurship and Startups

4. Discussion

5. Branding and Customer Relationships

6. Jobs and Classified

7. Collaboration

8.  Miscellaneous

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation and www.careeroverview.com.  All Rights Reserved.

 

 111- Why Social Media should matter to the Entrepreneur [38:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode of the Struggling Entrepreneur, we interview a Social Media Advocate, Bryan Person. In addition, Bryan has also been an interviewee on “The Big Show” podcast called Power to the Small Business, with host Jay Ehret on his business site, The Marketing Spot. This latter resource for small businesses that helps them to improve their marketing asked the questions about whether Social Media tools (like twitter) are a waste of time for small business owners.

We wanted to capture the theme of Social Media and its importance to the entrepreneur–especially why social media matters to the small business. So we pursued these questions with Bryan Person.

Bryan is currently working at a firm called LiveWorld  in the position of a Social Media Evangelist.

Bryan is the founder of an organization called SOCIAL MEDIA BREAKFAST–a group of interested business people from Private Sector America, Public Sector and non-profit America and Small Business Owners that meet monthly to listen to guest speakers about Social Media topics in business. From a grass-roots gruup, Bryan has now organized these types of self-run teams in over 35 cities (and you can go to the web site for details).

In December, the theme for the standing-room only meeting was: Predictions for 2010 for business and how Social Media will impact them.

From this meeting, we brought you a special bonus episode 111A of The Struggling Entrepreneur that delivered the presentations by Tim Hayden and Aaron Strout on the predictions of Media & Events and Branding, respectively.

This interview with Bryan Person was conducted immediately after the above-mentioned session in an outdoor-type patio, and so we apologize for the ambient noise of the drive-by autos in the street.

However, Bryan addresses the issues and questions that are often asked by Entrepreneurs:

- why should social media matter to the small business now?

- what is the cost (both dollar and resource and other hidden costs for social media) to the entrepreneur?

- where is the ROI for investing time, money and resource into social media?

- where is the roadmap for an entrepreneur to venture into social media marketing?

- which social media tools / platforms / applications should the entrepreneur engage and begin?

As you will hear in this audio podcast, Bryan deals quite a bit with entrepreneurs who attend his Social Media Breakfast sessions. And now, he is starting to get the passion and flames growing for one day staring his own small business and becoming an entrepreneur.

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

 

 111A- Predictions for 2010 for Business and Entrepreneurs with Social Media [11:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this bonus episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we deliver 2 of the 10 speakers who presented at the meeting of the Austin-based Social Media BreakfastBryan Person (founded by ).

The theme of the 10 speakers was the predictions for different areas of business in 2010 and the upcoming forecast of social media within these areas. Yes, there was representation from Public Affairs, non-profit organizations, the Public Sector and the Private Sector–both entrepreneur and Enterprise firms.

Here are the top 2 presentations that dealt with the topic more for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners (and, which in my opinion, were the best):

(1) Tim Hayden

- Twitter handle:  @GamePlanHayden

- Topic:  2010 Predictions for business in media & events

(2) Aaron Strout

- Twitter handle:  @AaronStrout

- Topic:  2010 Predictions for business in Branding

Our thanks to Bryan Person for organizing and coordinating this meeting, in which there was standing room only.

By the way, the Social Media Breakfast events have spread to over 35 cities. Check to see if there is an event near your location–it is definitely recommended for entrepreneurs as a social networking and educational event.

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.