Struggling Entreprenuer

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With his own podcast on iTunes called A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks, successful Entrepreneur Jason Cohen has provided a live question/answer format for startups, aspiring entrepreneurs and other small business owners to assist them in the pursuit of a successful venture.

In the late summer of 2011, Jason had over 70 live attendees in the main room at co-working location Cospace in Austin to  listen to those who wished to submit a question to the 3-person panel about any topic that dealt with startups — from marketing to ideas to launches to concepts to funding and capitalization, etc.

In this audio episode, you will hear several aspiring entrepreneurs seek advice from those three panelists who have a track record of successfully building and selling their entrepreneurial firms.

The podcast series A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks has also delivered episodes that dealt with topics like fringe benefits, as well as “the one important thing” for startups, etc. However, his SB Live! show episodes seem to be live call-in shows–which is what Jason really intended as his favorite format.

Copyright (c) 2011, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Jason Cohen at http:/blog.asmartbear.com. All rights reserved.

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This is a repurposed audio episode from the Podomatic podcast series from Chris Benjamin titled The Rogue CFO’s Expert Guide to Launching a Startup.

The question addressed to Entrepreneurs: Is Venture Capital funding necessary?

And what do you do when it is not available? What other alternatives do you have, and how do you go about implementing them?

Chis Benjamin has had years of experience in dealing with Startups and securing funding for them through various means–including Venture Capital and Angel Investors.

If these are not necessary, then what can be a road to financing for the startup?

Copyright (c) 2011, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Chris Benjamin Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Although the Entrepreneur today has multiple private sector and public sector low-cost (or free) resources, and although the home-based Small Business Owner is accepted as  a valid business, it was not always so. In fact, the home-based Entrepreneur carried a stigma as a second-class citizen that had no credibility and just only a bad reputation — mainly because the individual was not part of mainstream Corporate America in the employ of a large multinational firm like IBM, DEC, AT&T, etc.

Here, in reflection of the passing of Steve Jobs, we delve into the area of Entrepreneurship in the 1975 time frame–and Steve had to overcome this particular stigma.

In addition to the model of Steve Jobs in founding his startup called Apple Computer Corporation as an Entrepreneur, we also compare this to a case study of my own personal experiences of having been an entrepreneur during this same time — and living through the stigma of being a “no-op” (that is, an individual who could not be taken seriously, as home-based businesses were scoffed and mocked).

The discussion salutes three situations that Steve Jobs pioneered for us:

(1) Launching as an Entrepreneur in 1975 and overcoming the stigma of being a home-based small business owner;

(2) Overcoming the growth of a small business into a multinational firm within several years;

(3) Re-inventing his entrepreneurship after being thrown out of his own company (some call this “failure”) and pursuing his visions and passion until they became reality.

You, too, can buck the tide, overcome failure and pursue your passion and dreams amidst setbacks.

The final part of the discussion discusses exit strategy implementation, as well as updating your own personal plan to complement your entrepreneurial business plan so that you yourself can achieve what only YOU can define as “SUCCESS” and happiness in your world.

Copyright (c) 2011, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved. Photo shared via web site at

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/steve-jobs-photos-apple-cofounder_n_997306.html#s391999&zoom=huge

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When you are creating a startup or trying to get funding, how can you, as an Entrepreneur, recognize certain shady offers from uncertain deals to downright scams?

This is a repurposed audio episode from the Podomatic podcast series from Chris Benjamin titled The Rogue CFO’s Expert Guide to Launching a Startup.

We hear Chris Benjamin share with us some red flags to see about investment scams which deceive the entrepreneur–and he delivers this from his experience in helping startups to launch and be successful small businesses.

In addition, there may be some programs that are being offered to small business owners that don’t qualify as “scams,” but may end up as a large expense for the entrepreneur due to issues like substantial fees, little history for funding success for those who have gone before these programs, etc.

Copyright (c) 2011, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Chris Benjamin Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.

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