Struggling Entreprenuer

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In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we have an interview with Dick Brady, who is the CEO and founder of Mor Sign Graphics, Inc., a company dedicated to creating signs for other businesses. The signage business is an interesting one, as we see from the discussion–especially when the path to this business originated from retail audio (selling vinyl records and LPs) and the furniture and household goods moving business.

Mor Sign Graphics will be re-branding itself into The Sign Guys soon, as we are told by Dick Brady, a self-made entrepreneur and visionary for multiple small businesses.

What is really interesting is Mr. Brady’s positive perspective of dealing with employees, while keeping the important aspects of running the business and trying to delegate to others the operation of the business.

In addition, Mr. Brady’s words-of-wisdom and recommendations stem from the root basics of any business and clearly indicate why he is now a successful entrepreneur and growing his business to the next level — which can then become a nationwide empire within the franchise model.

We will update this post with the final URL for the newly branded business of The Sign Guys, once that is complete and finalized.

Copyright (c) 2008, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we continue with interviews beyond the world of high-tech and new media environments. We examine the world of entrepreneurs who are musicians and performers. In particular, we discuss the experiences of Shirley Johnson, a strolling minstrel and accordion performer that serves a niche market of Central and Eastern Europe with the popular ballads and songs of the folk music from various countries and regions:

- Italian; German; Croatian; French; Bulgarian; Romanian; Hungarian; Russian; Polish; Slavic,

as well as Polkas and Roma (Gypsy) musical and vocal pieces.

Shirley provides us with some candid and realistic challenges that face entrepreneur-performers, especially in the area of emotional obstacles and barriers to self-confidence.

At present, Shirley provides strolling and on-stage performances at festivals, street fairs, private parties and weddings, as well as restaurants. She also provides background music and concert performances. She delivers entertainment for hire with her accordion.

Shirley has her own production entity (i.e., her label) for creating and selling her CDs at her web site, as well as www.cdbaby.com.

We actually provide several clips of Shirley’s musical and vocal pieces, both at the beginning and at the end of this podcast episode.

For more information on Shirley’s background, her CDs, her concerts, and her list of performances and experience, please click here for the pdf document.

Copyright (c) 2008, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we take the suggestions from some emails from our listeners and venture out to speak with another entrepreneur who is not in the high tech industry or new media or podcasting.

In this interview with Anoek Inbar, we discover a very interesting personality with many years of experience in her own venture. She has journeyed from counselor to life-coach to Interfaith Minister. Her business is called Soul Works.

What is especially interesting is the suggestion for “knowing thyself” and the recommendations for marketing yourself, as well. In fact, if you are an aspiring entrepreneur at this moment– and if you are torn with an unbearable anxiety between the choices of starting your own business and venturing out as an entrepreneur or remaining in your current status quo, then perhaps Anoek can provide you with a method for the resolution of this conflict, by getting to know yourself better and being comfortable and less stressed by your eventual choice. From being a communications coach to counselor to Minister, Anoek describes her 30 years on her own in providing the services of being a life coach.

Please note: Since this interview was conducted at a business conference, there is a level of ambient noise. We apologize for this. Even though we tried to reduce the noise with barriers and filters, it is still apparent. However, we were able to reduce it somewhat with the features of the handy Zoom H2 portable recorder from Samson.

Copyright (c) 2008, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download