Archive for the ‘Entrepreneurship’ Category
Col. Littleton No. 9 Journal: The Near-Perfect Writing Companion
Late in 2010, I began writing a journal every day, having abandoned the practice several years ago. Going full-time on Chiefist prompted me to start again. As my friends know, I like, use and admire high quality products, preferring a nice fountain pen to a Bic any day. So I looked around for a nice journal, and found an outstanding one in the Col. Littleton No. 9 Journal. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: Business Model Generation
Knowing the recent developments at Chiefist, a friend recommended I read Business Model Generation, a book sitting idly on my Amazon Wish List for about eight months. With his prompting, I purchased it and read it across the past week.
BUILD’s 2011 Business Plan Competition
After a year of work, today is the BUILD 2011 Business Plan Competition. It’s been a great, challenging and inspiring year working with the kids. I’ll blog more about lessons from BUILD soon, but today’s a great day for the team — the Body Oilers. Great job, you all!
Scott Shane on Entrepreneurship Education
Scott Shane takes a look at entrepreneurship education: does it help?
“Fairness” and the Bush Tax Cuts — An Appeal to Political Philosophy
By Guest Blogger Ryan Berg
Yesterday, I posted on the policy-side of the Bush tax cuts. Today, let’s examine the philosophical issues involved with them—to wit, the idea of “fairness” and what constitutes the government’s definition of “rich.” Read the rest of this entry »
Business Plans
Rosalind Resnick writes a good article on business plans in today’s Wall Street Journal. Bottom line, they force you to organize your thoughts about your business, and break up the work into manageable chunks. They discipline your thinking, or they should. And if you ever need to work with a bank for a loan, they will want to see a business plan. It will prove your seriousness about your business and your approach to it.
Immigration, Entrepreneurship and Policy
Scott Shane writes a article worth reading on immigration and entrepreneurship. He argues that the small disparity between immigrant entrepreneurs and native-born entrepreneurs does not warrant policies designed to increase immigration as a way to spur American entrepreneurship.
This is the second article of Scott Shane I have posted. Both have contained original perspectives on data and their implications. That’s exactly the kind of thinking and writing I enjoy. I will keep an eye out for more of his writings.
More Gut-Checking for Would-Be Entrepreneurs
A couple weeks ago, I noted a useful entrepreneurial gut check by Daniel Isenberg. Now comes a response from Seth Kravitz. He writes about the negatives to starting and running a business, and would-be entrepreneurs should definitely take a look at them. The more experience I have in business, the more I think most people should not start or run a business. In fact, I think few people should start companies and run businesses. Mr. Kravitz’s 20 statements offer some good reasons why – few people could stomach all of the vagaries of running a business.
Quick Entrepreneurial Gut Check
If you are considering going it alone — going the path of the entrepreneur — Daniel Isenberg has a nice, quick test to give yourself. As I have written before, many people thinking about entrepreneurship consider only the potential upsides — the freedom, not working for others and reaping possible financial benefits. But many people neglect to ask themselves if that lifestyle really suits them or if they possess the non-technical skills, like financial acumen, to succeed. Mr. Isenberg’s quick gut check helps potential entrepreneurs determine whether to hold off, or to look further into their small business ideas.
Revised: About Capitolism
I have revised the About page, to more fully explain what Capitolism is, er, about. I have elucidated upon the goals of Capitolism and the issues in view. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am in the process of drafting a strategic plan for Capitolism in 2010, and will share that on the blog when I complete the plan.
About Capitolism:
Capitolism addresses, explores and focuses on issues concerning business, trade, leadership, management, economics and small business. Issues at the intersection of these topics will attract Capitolism’s particular interest. In probing these matters, Capitolism will rely on lessons from philosophy, history, literature, current events, great speeches, newspapers, magazines, sports, academia, science, theology, military history, poetry and the authors’ own experiences, as appropriate. The aims of Capitolism are threefold:
1. To explore challenging and even subterranean issues pertaining to business, economics and leadership
2. To offer a hopefully interesting and unique perspective on these issues to readers
3. To create a venue for wide-ranging, thoughtful, penetrating discussion on these issues
You, the reader, will judge how well or poorly Capitolism achieves these aims. We encourage your comments, whether you agree, disagree or violently disagree with our writings.
