Lucky Number 7 – The Carnival of Entrepreneurs

We all know 7 is a lucky number right? This time is no different with the biggest Carnival of Entrepreneurs yet!

I hope you’ll enjoy the plethora of posts. There’s more here than any one person could read (except me, cause I read all the posts!) but find a category, post title or summary that grabs your attention and read on. Help these bloggers out by checking out their stuff, commenting on their blogs and linking to them.

And please support to the Carnival of Entrepreneurs by spreading the good word! Link to this post, tell your friends, share the wealth. In February the Carnival is going on the road — if you’ve expressed interest in hosting you’ll get an email soon, I promise.

Finally, a quick note — other than the Carnival Highlights, the other posts are listed in the order I received them, organized into categories.

My Carnival Highlights

• Craig Harper presents Personal Training?…. That will never work! He has a $0 marketing budget but owns one of the most successful personal training businesses around. How did he do it? He tells you, and there are lessons in there for everyone.
• Brian Kim shows us How To Take Risks. This is a highlight in part because of his intro, “When you were young, you didn’t even understand the notion of risk. You just did. You ate paint chips off the wall, you tasted the handful of dirt you scooped up in your garden, you stuck your fingers wherever you wanted to…” Um, and if we’re still doing those things?
• David lists 7 Traits of Highly Effective Teams. I particularly like, “Strong leaders protect protect their teams.”
• John Welsley suggests that you commit yourself to action by investing in success. In a nutshell: plunk down some money to achieve your goals and you’ve just put in place some serious motivation.
• Erek Ostrowski presents Personality vs. Purpose. It’s worth reading because Erek touches on an important point for small business owners and entrepreneurs. We wear tons of hats, but our business won’t become successful because we handle operational details, they’ll be successful because we can strategy, sell, push our ideas forward. It’s not that operational details aren’t important, but businesses become more successful as those things are handed off to others.

Entrepreneurial Deep Thoughts

• Laura is Killing a Sacred Cow. Actually, she’s burning books. Yup, Laura burned 2 books. Find out why.
• GP muses about life as an innkeeper. Reflecting on some of the specifics of running a bed & breakfast operation, GP touches on many issues that impact everyone’s entrepreneurial and business endeavors.
• Steve Faber asks How Can I Be a Successful Entrepreneur? Steve points out rather humorously that many people look successful on the outside but they’re leveraged to the hilt. Still, that BMW sure looks nice doesn’t it? Steve does point out some good facts about successful people too…
• Alan wants to know Do Your Clients Like You? Alan points out that people do business with people they like, or at least they want to. And so there’s a likeability factor when it comes to getting business, retaining it and being successful that’s important.
• Charles Green presents Fear and Loathing at the Office. Makes you want to visit Vegas doesn’t it? Charles is wondering if there’s a place in business education for elements of emotion; vengeance, revenge and all that fun stuff. Interesting read.
• Patricia writes about self-fulfilling prophecies and how easy it is to become negative and create negative results.
• John Peter says that we need to know our sacrifices. He’s talking about the sacrifices you make when starting a business.
• Josh Bickford wants you to give your gift to the world. He’s referring to expressing your desires and pursuing your dreams. Of course, if you want to send me a gift…
• Gazzali Maidin presents his thoughts on achieving success.
• Katie states it plainly, quit doubting yourself and tap into your assets already. Do you know what your assets are? I’ve got plenty of nice assets. OK, enough of that…

Getting Down To Business

• Christine Kane presents Business Advice for Artists and Sensitive People. Actually, it’s good advice for anyone in business, not just artists and sensitive people. I particularly liked #3, #5, #9 and #12.
• David Daniels has 3 reasons why it’s hard to hire great Sales Team Leaders. Hiring people is always a challenge, if you want great people. And most companies don’t hire well.
• Kim flatly points out there’s only 2 things a small business owner should do with her time – getting customers (sales), and keeping customers (service). Of course there’s more to running a business than that, but it’s helpful to be reminded of the priorities once in awhile.
• Todd brings you some pros and cons on various corporate structures. It’s an important topic for anyone thinking of starting a business.
• Sagar Satapathy presents Lessons from the Lemonade Stand: 101 Common Sense Management Tips.
• Debra Moorehead presents 5 Ways to Use Your Time More Efficiently. I particularly like Debra’s concept of “the ideal day.”
• Johan Holmberg is Overthrowing the Dreaded Business Failure Rate. Do 9 out of 10 business really fail? Not really. It’s important to understand how failure is defined, and debunking the failure myth could help encourage people to start businesses.
• Emmanuel Olawutosin presents So, you are thinking about starting a business? He’s got some tips and ideas on how to move from an idea to a living, breathing business.
• Becky McCray has 4 tactics for coming up with business ideas for small towns. Becky’s a master businesswoman, go read her stuff (even if you’re not in a small town.)
• Jakob Dupont Knudsen recommends that you share your business ideas with others. He’s completely right. Hold an idea close to your chest and you’re setting yourself up for failure. I’ve always said that you need to talk to people about your ideas.
• Barbra Sundquist has 6 Key Questions to Ask When Setting Up Your Home Office. This is a must read for anyone starting a home-based business.
• Wayne Hulbert presents Creative thinking: Forget the lesser of two evils. When faced with trouble in your business, don’t just look at bankruptcy or downsizing, there are other creative ways of getting out of a sticky situation.

Online, E-Marketing Tips and Tricks for Entrepreneurs

• Krishna De recommends using Google alerts as a research tool. It’s a great recommendation. You can use it to track what others are saying about you, news in your industry and more. Kohl’s should use it.
• Tom M says PayPerPost is a brilliant marketer. PayPerPost is certainly an interesting company – they give advertisers access to bloggers who will write posts for money on their blogs – and as a result they’ve generated a ton of buzz. Does the rule, “no press is bad press” apply?
• Jim Logan presents Is personalization a Web 1.0 gimmick? A short, amusing look at the minimal personalization done in most ezine and email newsletters. Is “Hi Jim” enough to convince someone they’re receiving a personalized email newsetter or is it really just phony?
• Dragos Roua offers up The 6 Thinking Hats of Your Blog which really goes through 6 steps or goals that you’ll most probably work towards while blogging – focusing on content, comments, design, plugins, optimization and revenue. That’s not the exact order I’d follow, but they’re all issues worth discussing.
• Jason Hulott suggests asking your customers for feedback through the use of online surveys. He claims that people love being asked their opinion, especially online. People do like to voice their opinion, but I’m not sure people love filling out online surveys. Still, he’s got some good tips on how to do an online survey, which may be useful.

More Great Business and Entrepreneurial Blog Posts

• Surfer Sam has some business opportunities you might be interested in. There are some interesting business ideas — decorated concrete pavement business and pet hotel stood out as rather unique.
• TJP has some ideas on investing in an import-export business. I wanted to get into the import-export business with a friend a couple years ago. Sandals. Marble (marble is big!) It never happened. But you never know…
• Gerry Wollert presents Why You Should Trade ETFs & Mutual Funds Rather Than Individual Stocks which is a good introduction for people into the world of ETFs and mutual funds. The day trading craze may be over, but investing wisely has never been out of fashion.
• Jonathan Lambert is also interested in ETF investing and has some beginner information for those people who are unfamiliar with Exchange Traded Funds.
• Matthew Paulson presents My Experiences at a Quixtar Recruitment Meeting. I’m not familiar with Quixtar at all, it sounds like an MLM-type business that you can join. It’s not the type of thing I’d recommend to any entrepreneur, and Matthew generally agrees.
• Scott Lee has some ideas on How to Handle Your Credit Cards. His post has a great opening line, “Credit cards are an absurd creation. I mean, really, what is the point?” OK, I’m in. Tell me more. He also suggests you cut up your card if you’re ever not able to pay your monthly bill in full. Interesting.
• Mary Emma Allen recognizes the importance of learning more about the Internet and how to use it for home-based business owners.

That’s it for Carnival #7. Next week’s Carnival will be hosted right here on January 31st.

What a ride…I hope you enjoyed it, and keep on coming back to Startup Spark for more entrepreneurial content.