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In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we interview Art Borrego, the CEO of Alliance Tech.com.

Art is a successful entrepreneur in that he started his initial business called TeamTech back in 1995, and he was able to build it and then sell it when a Public company acquired the firm after only 6 years.

Now Art is leading his second business, AllianceTech.com, and growing it successfully.

A key value for this next business comes from the lessons learned from his first venture (which are now starting to pay off for him now).

What are they?

Well, they are explained in this audio episode — especially in the areas of finance and capitalization, getting good people for staffing the organization, and focusing on the right core business opportunities with the proper customers and an aggessive Business Development plan.

Art also recommends that aspiring entrepreneurs read the book by Michael E. Gerber called The E-Myth Revisited. He feels that there is enlightenment in understanding the roles that an entrepreneur has, as well as the fact that a solo-preneur will eventually learn that he cannot do it all alone as his business grows — and that he must trust and delegate to others.

Thus, this is a good summary from one entrepreneur who was successful in growing and selling his first business, and now is on the road with his next venture to meet –and exceed– his objectives. As Art mentioned, an exit strategy that he holds is to be more selective about the partnership interest in the process of possibly being acquired once his business has grown to be attractive for other firms.

Art Borrego’s firm provides value in the preparation, execution and post-event marketing support and customer follow-up and marketing / nurturing in the area of events and conferences. You can find out more about the services offered at www.alliancetech.com.

You may contact Art at

aborrego @ alliancetech.com  (to prevent spam)

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

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In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, our guest Entrepreneur, Jay Ehret of The Marketing Spot, describes for us why having a good small business marketing plan is a critical success factor for the entrepreneur–and how it can save money.

For this expertise, we turn to Jay Ehret, an Entrepreneur of 7 years himself, who has his own small business called The Marketing Spot. Jay is a podcaster, speaker, consultant, instructor and coach to other small businesses and startups to provide help in creating–and implementing–marketing plans. Jay first tells us what marketing for the small business really consists of–and it is more than what the majority of small business owners think it is  [Yes, more than brochures, advertising, public relations, etc--what is commonly referred to as "marcomm" or Marketing Communications].

As you will hear in this audio interview, Jay describes the four main elements that small business owners need to focus on to prepare a marketing plan:

1. Branding

2.Customer Experience

3. Conversation (i.e., Word of Mouth Marketing)

4. Promotion and Advertising

What is remarkable is that Jay offers for FREE the content, materials and worksheets that deliver to you the concepts of these elements to help you put together your marketing plan. This free content is available from his blog, the marketing spot.

This is remarkable, because many of the Internet Marketers  today are charging–and getting–hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars from small business owners just to get the same content in either binders, CDs, DVDs, downloadable audio and video media, etc.

In Jay’s case, you can decide to implement the plan by yourself or get some assistance to ensure its success.

Jay also has a FREE podcast on iTunes(R), or you can visit his web site to get the episodes at http://www.themarketingspotblog.com. This podcast is called POWER TO THE SMALL BUSINESS. He interviews top minds in small business marketing, as well as some interviews with other entrepreneurs.

We thank Jay for his insight and perspective for the entrepreneur, and for reminding us that a good marketing plan is critical for success–just as is having a good plan in dealing with finance for startups.

If you wish to reach Jay Ehret, his contact information is on the web page of:

http://www.themarketingspot.com/about/

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

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In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, our interview is with the CEO of Instant Tax Service,  Fez Ogbazion.

This is a success story of someone who had the burning desire to start his own small business, as he admired two icons that started their businesses at age 19– Michael Dell and Bill Gates. Fez Ogbazion saw the opportunity of providing income tax services. He saw the potential sales volume, and he took advantage of the stroke of luck that gave him the ability to secure the prior location of a previous tax preparer business.

What is unusual is the method of securing sources of funds to grow his business and expand the number of locations for his tax-preparation business. And he became successful when he was able to sell his first key business (which he started as a Solo-preneur).

As you will hear in this audio podcast, he has grown his current business  into a Franchise network empire. In fact, his business is listed in the Franchise 500 list within Entreprerneur Magazine.

It is interesting to note Fez’s recomendations and lessons learned from growing a business from the bottom-up and the traits needed to be successful. In fact, the ITS web site has his own personal testimonial of his success.

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

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In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we comment on a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle written by Tom Abate which is called Accidental entrepreneurs a sign of the economy.

It seems that this sign is actually a growing trend during this economic downturn.

This article was brought to my attention from the blogpost at The Unintentional Entrepreneur. According to this article, credit for coining the term “Necessity-preneur” was given to Bay Area business analyst Carolyn Ockels. Along with the term “Accidental-preneur,” this was used to describe the people who become self-employed because regular jobs are so tough to find.

As you will discover in this audio podcast summary, there are 3 examples of people who lost their jobs and, by necessity, had to find temporary means of income or try to survive just to pay the bills. In one case, the results from the contract work that was supposed to be “contingent stuff” actually developed into something that was started as a small business–to the point where the individual gave the tip he obtained in his job search to someone else.

In other cases, the results from being a “necessity-preneur” may provide additional revenue streams, even after the job seeker may land full-time employment.

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

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In this brief episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur, we deliver the audio narration of a blogpost titled  “8 patterns of highly effective Entrepreneurs.”

 This blogpost summarizes the 8 patterns as described in the book by the same name (8 Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs). The book’s author is Brent Bowers. The book may be purchased at www.amazon.com.

In this brief audio narration, we see that these characteristics are:

1. Opportunity

2. Leadership

3. Innovative

4. Adaptation

5. Drive

6. Passion

7. Unfailing Pragmatism

8. Setbacks equal Opportunity

It is interesting to note how many of these same patterns are considered uncommon traits (as was described in an earlier blogpost in this same podcast series) for an entrepreneur.

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Social Media Today, LLC and Brent Bowers. All Rights Reserved.

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