StartupNation Blogs

Good evening Startup Nation visitors! Today we begin a 15-part, five week crash course that will help you decide whether or not franchising is the right thing for you. Starting your own business can be extremely daunting.

What is the right business for me?
How do I get financing (or do I even need financing)?
Home based? Retail? [...]

Here’s a link to the webcast of my 8 Secrets to Startup Success.
Throughout April and into early May, I was on a seminar tour with the folks at Microsoft Office Live Small Business. The tour, Vision to Venture (aimed at women entrepreneurs), was a huge success. Hundreds of people showed up in St. Louis, San [...]

Sadly, Romeo, one of our beloved dogs has passed away. It was time. He was twelve. But it’s never time, is it? We’re sorely missing him today. He’s not laying across our feet, wagging his tail at the door, bopping around outside with an overzised ball in his mouth.
Romeo had a special “spirit” connection to [...]

I recently spent an hour on the line with Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid and more recently Beyond Booked Solid, as well as Howard Behar, former president of Starbucks who recently published, It’s Not About the Coffee.
I hope that many of you attended the call live.
For those of you who didn’t, check out [...]

Have you ever heard someone say, "let’s do a work back"? I met with a techie recently who was talking about how he approaches creating a great website. He said, "My preferred strategy is to write out the wish list and then do a work back plan."
He was referring to the same concept that [...]

Last week was a tough week. Hundreds of people lost their lives in the escalating war in Iraq. The Virginia Tech massacre left 33 students and faculty dead and 29 others injured. A neighbor of mine was killed in a car accident, leaving behind his wife and three young kids. So much tragedy. So much [...]

We all know the importance of balance in our lives. We’ve all heard about how nobody at the end of their life wished that they had worked more. (I’m not totally buying that, by the way, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog) StartupNation’s 1st step in the 10 Steps to Open For Business? Create a [...]

Planning for retirement is an important part of our lives. We all know the statistics: we’re living longer and have more income needs for retirement years that are extended beyond the previous generation.
There are many resources and strategies for how best to accomplish our life goals. A recent Washington Post article shares some statistics that [...]

I was just glancing at my baseball wall calendar and noticed that today is the 100th anniversary of baseball great Satchel Paige’s birth. A quick Google search tells me that Leroy "Satchel" Paige was born in Mobile, Alabama on July 7, 1906.
He’s the oldest player ever to be a rookie in the major leagues at [...]

Let Freedom Ring! As Americans we are wired for freedom. Unlike any other country, we were founded on the solid principles that flow from the virtue that freedom brings.
When Jeff & Rich Sloan are in front of live audiences throughout the country, they regularly kick off their presentation with a reminder of how special America [...]