StartupNation Blogs

Recently, I received some interesting information from a small business owner who is pursuing his passion, and thought I would share his tips with you. Meet Shy Figaro, a successful, high-end fashion designer and entrepreneur.
Tell us about your business and why you started it.
I’m fascinated about beauty and elegance, and believe that fashion is a [...]

We are women. Watch us Manage!
I have people ask me, usually men, how do you do it all? How do you take care of the family, and your business, and be so management oriented?  Did you study business management in college, get an MBA? No sir, I did not even finish high school. I even [...]

Over the 4th of July, I was walking around an affluent neighborhood and about every block or so, there were children selling lemonade.
Lemonade Stand 1.
At the first stand, the kids were yelling from a bench about their lemonade and how much it cost. They were so loud that people were running to get away from [...]

To follow up on a previous post requesting feedback on topics and offering to highlight members of the community, I learned of NightHelpWatchers.com.—a company based on an invention by Lisa Charleston. Lisa started NightHelpWatchers.com in 2004 after being laid off from a nursing job in a home-hospice facility. She transitioned into being a stay at [...]

To follow up on a previous post requesting feedback on topics and offering to highlight members of the community, I learned of visiblelogic.com. A well-designed message can position your organization, product or service to look unique, capable and strong enough to go head-to-head with any competitor of any size.  That is just what Emily Brackett (founder of Visible Logic) [...]

Referencing my prior post on Creative Capitalism, here is another business with a 1 for 1 model.
A new project by California eco-urban design firm LJ Urban aims to make giving more concrete—quite literally—by matching its sales of homes domestically with funds to build homes in the impoverished African nation of Burkina Faso.

Urban has designed a [...]

To follow up on a previous post requesting feedback on topics and offering to highlight members of the community, I learned of Heinz Marketing. Matt has held positions at companies such as Microsoft, Weber Shandwick, Boeing, The Seattle Mariners, Market Leader and Verdiem. In 2007, he started Heinz Marketing to help clients focus their business [...]

I wonder if products have the same experience people do, that when they meet their match, they feel like they are “home?” I’ll bet the product manager of this doosey has earned his bonus:
Hillshire Farm ham and turkey + reusable Gladware
= Green, Money Saving, The-Big-Corporation-Proves-It-Can-Still-Listen-To-Customers

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What partnerships could you consider in your business?
Example: B&B could supply guests with brunch [...]

When you consider your business model (which includes your marketing efforts), you generally concentrate on these core components:

Why will people pay you? (money, votes, donations)
What does it cost you to sell your item…margins?
What protects you from competition, price-feature battles?
How will you turn an agnostic audience into loyal customers?

Early on when transactions had no costs, doing [...]

So excited to share that the 2009 Leading Moms in Business are catching the attention of major media! ABC News’s Tory Johnson just ran a feature on the winner of the 2009 StartupNation Leading Moms in Business Competition.
See the video…

The competition was sponsored by VerticalResponse, a leading email marketing company that we use here at StartupNation [...]