Struggling Entreprenuer

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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In this episode of The Struggling Entrepreneur,  we have a discussion from Chris Benjamin, the Rogue CFO, in which he speaks about an Entrepreneur who is creating a Business Plan–and is thinking about using software to do it.

This episode is taken from his podcast series called The Rogue CFO’s Expert Guide to Launching a Startup.

In this audio episode, Chris discusses the options that an Entrepreneur has to build a Business Plan, including software or services. He gives the pros and the cons for each, and he makes some key recommendations so that the Entrepreneur can meet the key business objectives of the Business Plan that will support the Small Business and move it forward. The objective for obtaining funding, for instance, must be tempered with the possible results based on reality, and not just “convenience” that a prompting-type software package can deliver using what is termed in the industry as a “cookie-cutter” approach.

The episode is delivered in its entirety from the original publication, with permission given by Chris Benjamin Consulting, LLC.

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Chris Benjamin Consulting, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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