The 8th Carnival of Entrepreneurs

Welcome to the 8th edition of the Carnival of Entrepreneurs. So far so good! We continue to get a great turnout of articles from a wide range of people – stay-at-home entrepreneurs, students, veteran business folk, serial entrepreneurs and more.

The combination and mix of writing is what makes the Carnival so interesting.

A couple notes:

1. Please continue to support the Carnival by linking to this post (especially if your article appears below) or link to the index page of Carnivals where I list them all. Each week I get quite a few new submissions, which means people are posting about it and taking notice.
2. Next week (February 7th), the Carnival of Entrepreneurs hits the road and visits Laura at The Dragon Slayer’s Guide to Life. Laura’s site is not about Dungeons & Dragons; she’s a life coach and entrepreneur and has been featured in the Carnival a few times. To submit for next week’s Carnival, visit the blog carnival page. Submissions should end up going directly to Laura.

Without further ado…

Carnival of Highlights

• John Ingrisano has 10 Ways to Beat Business Burnout. There are some great tips in there, things we probably know but don’t focus on or implement. No business in the bedroom, eh? My personal favorites: #2, #5, #8 and #9 (this one is a home run for me.)
• Charles Greene is tired of people empowering themselves when they’re incompetent. Using Americal Idol as an example, and explaining why we all love it (I don’t watch it, honestly) and why it works as a business, Charles breaks down the “I believe in myself” mumbo jumbo. What do you think?
• Jeffrey Tsai recounts the story of his father, the entrepreneur. Jeffrey’s dad worked very, very hard to achieve the success he has, but the result is a son that treats him like a stranger, and a difficult (albeit comfortable from a “possessions” perspective”) life. Jeffrey – entrepreneurs DO work hard, but it’s not just about working hard and never seeing your family. I recently heard Guy Kawasaki speak and he flat out said, “I chose my family over work.” And he’s insanely successful. It is possible.

Practical Advice and Ways to Succeed for Every Entrepreneur

• Robert looks at some ideas on building a web startup on a budget. Specifically, a low budget. It’s a good reminder of how it is possible to start a business with minimal investment. There’s a great tip on how to use lawyers in there too!
• GP reminds us that it’s the small things in life and business that often make a difference. Free WiFi at a B2B is a great way of standing out from the crowd. I can’t stand it when a hotel doesn’t offer free WiFi, it’s just plain silly.
• Mike Buckley tells us that Houdini was the best marketer ever. He knew his audience, leveraged local media and was always working on new, more extravagant tricks. We could learn a lot from Houdini – about magic, and business.
• Wayne Hulbert presents Facing Disappointment: When Plans Go Astray. Like failures or speedbumps or whatever you want to call them, disappointments will happen in business. Quite frequently in fact. How you handle those disappointments and learn from them will seriously determine future success.
• Emmanuel Olawutosin reminds us that starting a business means knowing how to manage it. Entrepreneurs are very often “idea people” – which is great. But often success or failure is in the details, in the operations, in the management.
• Michelle Cramer asks Are You Using Your Business Cards? They’re a great networking tool, designed properly and used frequently, so don’t forget them in your desk drawer.
• Stephanie is turning one idea into three with a 3-part series on interviews. Entrepreneurs are not going out and doing job interviews, but if you’re out there getting service contracts, you’re basically doing an interview. Sales can be considered an interview as well, so there’s a lot of value in understanding how to do a good interview.

A Pinch of Inspiration Please

• Alexander Tretjakov presents Balance Your Life With a Feng Shui Cleanse. De-clutter. Let go. And gain some balance. I’m all for it.
• Wendy Piersall asks Why Do Entrepreneurs Need Inspiration? It’s a good reminder that entrepreneurs can’t stay motivated 100% of the time, we need a kick in the pants every so often, and it’s important too.
• Craig Harper is talking about his own personal failures in business and there’s some great lessons and examples in there of what it takes to succeed. Here’s the last line of his post, “Show me a person who’s never failed and I’ll show you a person who’s never done anything.”
• John Peter feels that too few people take the risks to succeed. John sees that a lot of people want to make more money and do more things, they think up ideas, plan, and even start organizing things but they don’t follow through. And that’s the difference between the people that succeed and those that don’t.
• Debra Moorehead asks What Would Your Future Self Be Doing Right Now? Imagine your future self as a way of getting things done today and succeeding. Hhhm…my future self is doing a lot of very interesting things. Many of them involve vacationing on a Caribbean island. No, wait…Hawaii. Anyone have a house in Hawaii my future self could use?
• Alan offers up The Path of the Rebel and includes 10 ways to look at things that are completely opposite of what the masses might be thinking. Entrepreneurs are typically considered rebels (and occasionally miscreants) so this is right up our alley.

More Food For Thought

• Daniel Scocco wonders if the porn industry will affect innovation when it comes to Sony’s Blu-Ray and Toshiba’s HD-DVD formats. The porn industry is recognized as a leader in technology – influencing the up-take of VHS and certainly of many Web-related technologies as well.
• Nickel presents Renting a Post Office Box, which might be a good idea for your business, and it’s not terribly expensive either.
• Sagar Satapathy says To Win Customers, You Need Cross-Channel Retail Environment. The idea behind a cross-channel retail environment is to meet the growing demands of customers who want to shop anywhere (retail store, online, etc.) and manage their purchases through any of the options. A good example – buy something online, and pick it up in the store. Retail outlets are still dealing with the challenges involved.
• Matthew Paulson asks Does Your Hourly Wage Really Matter? It’s an interesting analysis, but I would say this — it does. At the end of the day you want the highest hourly wage possible. While I agree with Matthew when he says, “don’t just quit the low-paying job cause you’d probably spend that time sitting around watching TV,” I think the point isn’t to quit the low-paying gig, but to find one that’s better paying. One of the worst things an entrepreneur can do is de-value his/her time.
• Vihar Sheth is inspired by companies going green and getting rich. He’s referring to a recent Business 2.0 article about 8 companies tackling 8 environmentally-related problems and profiting as well. Socially-conscious enterprises that can make money as well will be huge parts of our global economy over the next few years.

The Wacky Web and Ways to Succeed

• Corey reminds us that it’s not easy to make money blogging but it is possible. Great content, catchy post titles and marketing will help.
• Chris has four suggestions for your contact form lead responses via email. When you’re sending email to a lead, don’t waste the opportunity. I particularly like the idea of upselling.
• Tom points out that Hilary Clinton is using Yahoo Answers in her campaign. This is interesting on a few levels – politics are certainly changing with the Internet, and there are lessons here for how businesses can leverage the Internet as well.
• Jeff Burkey introduces us to a new tool called Ziggs.com. Jeff describes it as MySpace meets Microsoft Outlook for grownups. It’s another social network that’s looking to connect people through their work and play.

Conclusion

That’s it for another great Carnival. Take a look, click around, read, participate and enjoy!

Next week’s Carnival is on February 7th…see you there!