*This is the first post in series about ‘Entrepreneur lessons and mistakes’. Aside from being a person who has committed atrocious stupid mistakes in life, I also made numerous missteps in the past 6 months I’ve been out of college trying to successfully launch 2 start-ups at the same time. So far the only thing I have to show is plenty of gray hair at 21 which is…
Building your brand means growing consumers dedicated to the success of your company; people who have a vested interest in your products and services. These are your evangelists, your biggest fans, your mavens. If you want people to shout from the rooftops about your company you’ll have to start forming community. Look at Harley riders, Mac geeks and the Red Sox–people are absolutely obsessed. They have meetups, wait…
Building a brand is all about getting the word out. It doesn’t matter if you have the most fabulous product or service if nobody knows about it. If you want more people to hear about your company you need to start telling you story as often as possible. Make your story compelling enough and people might just tell their friends. Start with a Problem Great companies solve a…
Steven Spielberg: Dreamworks Spielberg got his start charging admission to his homemade movies as a child. His first war movie Escape to Nowhere was award winning at age 12. After doing Jaws, ET, and Jurrasic Park, Spielberg co-founded Dreamworks which went on to do 10 movies over $100 million at the box offices. Forbes puts Spielberg’s net worth at over $3.1 billion. Hugh Heffner: Playboy The playboy…
Checking Since the beginning of time, we’ve gotten free checking as students: Chase, Bank of America, Wachovia, Capital One all offer it to us. If we are no longer eligible as a full time student we have two options: A. Lie and tell them we are or B. Get direct deposit. Most banks will extend free checking for as long as we do this. Gen Y hates fees…
We all want to live richly. I’d like to discuss that goal for a moment: Living richly means a life full of riches: Friends, love and health, a life with the freedom to express yourself. But having riches also implies having the means to care for your friends and family, and to do those things you want to do. That’s the game we play. The sad truth is…
