Risky Business
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Paul Newman: Entrepreneurial Icon
Continue reading… 3 CommentsWhile we sift through the ashes of the bailout plan and figure out where to go next, I thought I'd take a second to look at something a little more positive. Yesterday the Hartford Courant had a great retrospective on Paul Newman in one of his greatest roles—not as an actor but as an entrepreneur.
Newman's Own was about as successful as a company can get at branding its image in the public consciousness. Of course, it had some serious help from its founder—something with Newman's face on it can't help but be a bit iconic. Still, the sketches of Newman found on each product accomplished no small feat—making a legendary face even more legendary.
Newman also has the distinction of being on top of the "socially responsible consumerism" trend long before it had really taken off.
I'll leave you with one of the best moments from probably Newman's best movie.
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Bailout for Wall Street, Credit Problems on Main Street
Continue reading… 4 CommentsLast week, I mentioned that it's still far from clear just how much this financial crisis is really causing credit sources to dry up. Evidence on the state of the credit crunch after all this turmoil will slowly be filtering in, and here's one of the first tidbits. Today, the new Discover Small Business Watch poll for the month of September shows that the conventional wisdom might be right after all when it comes to small businesses.
One key finding:
Of small businesses who have attempted to get loans, 72 percent say it is harder to borrow money right now.
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YouTube: The Great Equalizer for Small Businesses
Continue reading… 3 CommentsForbes has a great story on its website about how YouTube helped one entrepreneurial firm break into the monopolistic market for blenders. An established blender manufacturer that had enough money to dominate advertising found a young up-and-comer nipping at its heels when its videos became a hit online. The breakdown of barriers to enter and compete in markets is one reason to love YouTube. It also helps explain why we need to be wary about politicians nosing around in YouTube.
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The Bailout Plan: Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke's Bogus Journey
Continue reading… 38 CommentsPrudence is no longer a virtue.
That's the message coming from supporters of the Paulson bailout plan—including Democratic leaders like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank who want to make a few (important) modifications but keep the basic plan intact.
Warren Buffett says that the plan is akin to the U.S. response to Pearl Harbor. Don't think—just fight back.
Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke are annoyed at Congress for having the gall to actually debate the plan.
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Pet Cloning: Is It Animal Abuse?
Continue reading… 7 CommentsPet cloning may still sound like science fiction to most people, but there are actual businesses in America offering these services. Greg Beato visited one, and I highly recommend his excellent report in Reason. He paints a much more heartwarming picture of cloning than the Humane Society would have you believe. But for a balanced view, check out its report on pet cloning as well.
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John McCain: How Badly Does He Want the Entrepreneur Vote?
Continue reading… 1 CommentWhom should entrepreneurs vote for in November? At the Inc. 500 conference this Friday, a panel consisting of McCain's top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, and Obama's chief economic guru, Jason Furman, was supposed to be convened to answer that question. Unfortunately, Furman had to cancel at the last minute, so we got the side of the story only from the McCain camp. Still, we got the meat of what a McCain presidency would do for entrepreneurs, according to Holtz-Eakin.
- "The notion that we must tear down the fundamental business model of Washington" is the single most important step for improving the business climate for entrepreneurs, he said.
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The Financial Crisis: A Silver Lining for Venture Capital?
Continue reading… 0 CommentsCorrected on 09/22/2008: An earlier version of this blog post incorrectly reported the maximum company revenues as $1 million. The maximum is $100 million.
When I last wrote about venture capital, I gave the impression that the outlook was not good. The financial crisis currently rocking Wall Street obviously does not make the situation better and will probably make it harder for venture capitalists to raise money. But that's the short-run picture—in the long run, the changes in the financial sector this crisis will bring about could shift things in a beneficial way for venture capitalists. I just talked to Faysal Sohail, managing director for CMEA Ventures in San Francisco, a firm that invests in life sciences, high technology, and energy. Here are his thoughts:
Our view is that there are going to be stronger, smaller banks that are going to pop out of this chaos that would be better equipped to work with our early-stage startups and growing companies to take them public.
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John McCain Says: Let's Bail Out the Auto Industry
Continue reading… 6 CommentsHere is one of the planks of John McCain's plan "for getting the economy back on track by helping small businesses."
John McCain Will Veto Any Bill That Serves Only The Special Interests And Corporate Welfare. On his watch, there will be no more subsidies for special pleaders, no more corporate welfare and no more throwing around billions of the people's money on pet projects.
So how do you square that statement with McCain's coming out in favor of $25 billion in loans for the Detroit auto industry?
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Why I Actually Agree With Mark Cuban
Continue reading… 1 CommentOn my post from last week, Mark Cuban (and yes, I know it's really him and not some commenter calling himself "mark cuban") makes the case that the benefits of getting rid of taxes on small businesses outweigh the possible drawbacks:
It comes down to this, would you rather have small busineses worry about what to do with their 26th employee or not start the business because they cant afford to deal with all the tax burdens.
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No proposal is perfect. But creating a decision point at 25 employees is a far better scenario than stifling innovation and entrepreneurship before it can get started -
Wall Street Recession—What Does It Mean?
Continue reading… 0 CommentsAmid the wreckage from the tumultuous markets yesterday, the blogosphere has some thoughts on what this all means for small-business owners.
Kelly Spors at Independent Street says that small and savvy companies have hidden advantages in these times.
Along similar lines, John at Business Opportunities and Ideas explores the chances for creativity that emerge when the economy seems to be in shambles.
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Controversy Over YouTube's 'Terrorist' Videos
Continue reading… 8 CommentsHere's a story you might have missed because of the weekend.
The video-sharing service YouTube is banning submissions that involve "inciting others to violence," following criticism from Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) that the site was too open to terrorist groups disseminating militant propaganda.
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Obama vs. McCain—The Battle for the Small-Business Vote
Continue reading… 9 CommentsHere's another breakdown of where Barack Obama and John McCain stand on small-business issues, taken from their own platforms.
One interesting tidbit about Obama's specific small-business plan: He's secretly Mark Cuban. A few months ago, Cuban wrote on his blog about getting rid of all taxes on small businesses. Obama wants to do the same thing, but only with capital gains taxes. Here's what the Blue MauMau website says on this point:
Provide Zero Capital Gains and Other Tax Relief for Small Businesses and Start-ups: Barack Obama believes that we need to reduce burdens on small-business owners, many of whom are struggling to succeed as healthcare and energy costs continue to skyrocket. Barack Obama will also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small and start-up businesses to encourage innovation and job creation. Obama will support small business owners by providing a $500 "Making Work Pay" tax credit to almost every worker in America. Self-employed small business owners pay both the employee and the employer side of the payroll tax, and this measure will reduce the burdens of this double taxation.
Of course, this would run into some of the same problems with incentives for which I criticized Cuban's plan.
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The Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs
Continue reading… 2 CommentsBudding high-school-age aspiring capitalists out there, take note: Entrepreneur magazine and Princeton Review have put together a list of the top undergraduate and graduate programs in the country. Here's what came out on top:
Top Undergrad Programs
- University of Houston
- Babson College
- Drexel University
- University of Dayton
- University of Arizona
- Temple University
- DePaul University
- University of Oklahoma
- University of Southern California
- Chapman University
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How to Blog for Your Business—the Good and the Bad
Continue reading… 4 CommentsIt's almost a given now that if you have a website, you also have a blog. The question for small-business owners is: Is blogging, twittering, etc., really worth your time?
A lot of bigger companies have decided it is. Just check out this list of 50 companies and how they are using social media. In these examples, I think you can find what TO do and what NOT to do when it comes to promoting your business with social media.
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How to Get Overseas Business From Home
Continue reading… 2 CommentsI've written about methods for small businesses to get a piece of booming international markets here, here, and here. The problem is that many of these methods are out of reach for many small businesses. It takes a lot of resources to set up an office abroad or acquire a foreign business. That's why I recommend checking out this WSJ piece about how the weak dollar is spurring some small companies to find easier ways to go global:
Some companies recognize that they are too small to venture abroad alone, so they are setting up partnerships or affiliations with foreign sellers.
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The Often-Overlooked Truth About Immigration
Continue reading… 25 CommentsEveryone wants to be on the side of the small-business person—and to make the opposition look as if it is against the average entrepreneur. Barack Obama said in his DNC speech that "we measure the strength of our economy...by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business." Then John McCain said in his nominating speech that Obama's economic plan "would force small businesses to cut jobs."
But wait a minute—there's actually a policy that promotes more entrepreneurial innovation than anything either candidate talked about in their speeches. What's more, it's actually a bipartisan issue!
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Google Chrome: Wow, That Was Fast
Continue reading… 11 CommentsA sharp commenter has alerted me to the fact that sometime yesterday, Google removed the portion of its licensing agreement for Google Chrome that caused users to essentially sign away the rights to their content. It has been replaced with this:
You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.
That should allay any fears that Web-based entrepreneurs might have had about using the browser.
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Google Chrome: Bad for Business?
Continue reading… 3 CommentsGoogle is one of those companies that can do no wrong in the eyes of a lot of people. And for good reason: Its track record has been pretty spotless so far, and almost everyone who has used an Internet connection can say that Google has made their lives much easier. But could Google finally have a blemish with the recent release of its Web browser Google Chrome?
Web entrepreneur John Crickett found a little tidbit in the fine print of Google Chrome's licensing agreement that might make it a particularly unattractive option for business people:
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Animal Cloning and Food: More Than a Feeling
Continue reading… 22 CommentsCloned animals are more and more becoming parts of our everyday lives, the Wall Street Journal reports:
Don Coover, a veterinarian, rancher and owner of SEK Genetics in Galesburg, Kan., estimated that "hundreds, maybe thousands, of offspring of clones" of beef cattle already exist in the U.S.—though that is a fraction of the nation's 97 million head of cattle. He said he has sold about 30 offspring of clones to be slaughtered for food.
Reason to panic? Some people aren't thrilled:
"As a mom of two young children, it makes me very uneasy, very nervous that these things are in the food supply," said Alexis Joyce, a 35-year-old homemaker in Arlington, Va., who shops mostly at farmers' markets. "It just doesn't feel right."
