Introducing StartupNation’s Next-Level Success Club.
It’s a game-changer. If you are frustrated that your business is just not growing, get ready to FINALLY achieve all of your business goals and take your business beyond what you thought was possible.
The Next-Level Success Club is an exclusive program limited to only 99 participants. The program provides participants with exclusive access to experts and mega-entrepreneurs — to individuals you might never otherwise engage with and learn from. Think of it as the ideal Rolodex come to life!

You’ll learn to bust through actual business obstacles and achieve very specific, personalized goals.

On top of all of this, you’ll take part in two all-hands Retreats in Las Vegas.

Learn further about the Next-Level Success Club at http://www.startupnation.com/next-level-success-club/.

But hurry. If you’re interested in the program, registration ends on November 30th. And once we hit 99 participants, the registration doors will close. No exceptions.

Get ready to fuel your business growth and inspire your mind! Hope you can join us for this game-changing opportunity.

Rich

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Most recenly, Scott has launched Gen Y Capital Partners (www.genycap.com), and I wanted to call your attention to this very cool initiative.

What I like about it is:

A) They will be investing in select Gen Y businesses at the earliest stages.

B) They will take on responsibility for federal student loan debt.

C) They will assume responsibility for costs of living during startup.

D) They will provide all-valuable peer-peer mentoring, which we’ve seen here at StartupNation become a game-changer for many entrepeneurs.

Kudos, Gerber and and Young Entrepreneurship Council, for being relentless, creative and clever about tearing down the stumbling blocks for your fellow Gen Y-ers. Way to START IT UP!

Rich

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I’m telling you the story of what happened to me. I was in the middle of starting up a new business while playing Startupologist here at StartupNation. And my hard drive had crashed, according to the Dell Customer Service rep. A DISASTER!!! ALL MY STUFF, GONE!!!

The Cinderalla aspect of this story, though, is that just a month earlier, a business associate at a collaborating company for my startup suggested that I get an automatic back-up service. Actually, he didn’t suggest, he demanded, saying something like, “If I’m going to be dependent on you, I’ve got to be confident that you won’t have a catastrophe and lose all this data we’re sharing. You’ve got to have an automatic back-up for your data.” He mentioned a couple of options he’d used for automatic backup of your computer. I chose one not knowing the difference - Carbonite, which is always working in the background, syncing your files with a remote storage area at Carbonite.

And thank goodness for his sage advice. Within a few days of my hard drive crash, I had received a new hard drive from Dell, I logged in to Carbonite, I selected “Sync,” and after Gigabytes of downloading, Bingo! I was back in action, not a single thing missing, everything organized just like before.

So I connected with Carbonite to ask them to make a special offer to fellow entrepreneurs at StartupNation who MUST NOT suffer a loss of their priceless data. Our businesses are just too small to endure that kind of blow.

Glad to share that Carbonite has stepped up and offered a special two-months free on an annual subsciption costing around $59. They also offer their standard “Try It Free” trial without a credit card required. Here’s Carbonite’s special offer for StartupNation folks.

My data was priceless, literally. At around $5/month ($59 annualized), it was a no-brainer for me when I was first advised to download it, and now I’m giving you strong encouragement to develop your own hands-off, automatic back-up solution.

Yes, Carbonite is an automatic backup service we have a special offer on, but choose any such service and get your data backed up automatically without having to think about it. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. In business, the key is taking only risks you HAVE to take. Your data no longer has to fall into the “risk” category.

Here’s the special offer at Carbonite

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Basically, the Small Business Braintrust is a video conference call that we record and publish regularly at StartupNation going forward. It is sponsored generously by Discover. Thanks, Discover folks, for funding my extensive personal make-up and lighting budget!

It’s hosted by yours truly and includes several business experts with varying backgrounds and perspectives who shoot the breeze about hot topics impacting small business, innovation and entrepreneurship. Think “Bill Maher” applied to small business, or “The View” for small business - that’s what we’re aiming for. I call the experts “Braintrustees“. They seem to like that. Ego stroke? Maybe.

The videos range in length from 2 minutes to 10 minutes depending upon how LONG-WINDED the experts are (difficult to get them to shut up when they’re on a roll, but working on my hosting technique).

Speaking of long-winded, Scott Gerber is our “Gen Y Guy”, and heads the Young Entrepreneur Council. Brazen, quick-witted, passionate, always interrupting, copping that Gen Y attitude… that’s Gerber.

Rieva Lesonsky is our “Resident Trendcaster”, and heads GrowBiz Media. She was the Editorial Director for Entrepreneur Magazine for a couple of decades. Widely versed on all matters entrepreneurial and is now running her own show, which makes her even sharper as an advice-giver.

Scott MacDonell is our “Marketing Maniac”, and heads up marketing for LegalZoom. You should see this guy work his desktop camera. Obviously a card carrying SAG member. But he’s definitely got substance and goes deep on marketing savvy he shares for the smallest (and biggest) businesses. Is he our only MBA? I think so. We made an exception including him.

We have other periodic guests, like Nina Rodecker, the 2010 winner of the StartupNation Leading Moms in Business competition. She runs a gourmet cotton candy company called Tasty Clouds, so we’re considering giving her the title of, “Fluffy Entrepreneur”. Still deliberating on that. And there are other guest experts you’ll run into, like a tongue-tied mobile apps expert (come on, spit it out!), or social media experts, creativity consultants, other successful entrepreneurs who’ve got an extra half-hour laying around to burn with us, and so many more in the works.

We hope you get a kick out of features like, Strategy Smackdown (hot debates on pros and cons of specific business strategies) and Key Moves (profiles of game-changing moves made by fellow entrepreneurs). We occasionally plan to release Out Take videos, too, which are a total gas.

We hope you get a kick and kickstart out of our Small Business Braintrust. It’s just one more way we’re trying to empower you to become smarter and more successful while loving the journey.

Rich
“Chief Startupologist” and “Braintrustee”

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As I wrote a while ago here in my blog about the Twitter squatter who was trying to extort StartupNation, there are definitely systems in place at the social media companies that support ethical companies and certainly intellectual property rights of individuals and companies. Twitter worked on our behalf to wrestle away the /startupnation account for us given that it was a registered trademark owned by our business and was obviously strategic to us as well as a source of confusion in the marketplace under the squatter’s control. They quickly moved the account into our control.

Now through the encouragement of Daliah Saper of Saper Law, we’ve done the same thing at Facebook. In less than 24 hours, by following their simple, clear instructions, we were able to pull www.facebook.com/startupnation away from the squatter and now have that username as our own, appropriately so.

Here’s the simple, step-by-step process we followed in case you have a squatter issue and/or trademark issue as it relates to a Facebook username:

1. Go to the bottom of any Facebook page. Click on the link called “Terms.”
   For your convenience, that link is here.
2. Scroll down to #5, “Protecting Other People’s Rights,” and select “How to Report Claims of Intellectual Property Infringement”.
   For your convenience that link is here.
3. For copyright infringement, scroll down to “How to report claims of copyright infringement by users” and select the link.
   For your convenience, that link is here.
4. For trademark (or other intellectual property concerns), which was what applied to our situation given our registered trademark for StartupNation that the squatter was unethically using for their benefit, scroll down to “How to report other claims of intellectual property infringement by users” and select the link.
   For your convenience, that link is here.

We are always looking out for you and hope that you find similar success and satisfaction in the process, which is set up and well enforced by Facebook.

We hope that you can soon make your own blog entry titled, “Me 1, Facebook Squatter 0″!

Rich

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In the survey, it may come as no surprise that stress levels are at an all-time high among business owners. 2011 results are similar so far to 2010 results - both gnarly years for a lot of business owners.

But it may come as a total surprise that business owners are choosing to invest aggressively in their businesses, even in these times. The Brother Small Business Survey revealed that nearly half of business owners prefer the option of investing in their business rather than sitting on their cash as a way to counteract market dynamics and beat out competition.

Find out more about these and other findings.

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I had just finished reading through Josh Linkner’s brand new book, Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity.

Linkner’s big idea: Breakthrough creativity doesn’t need to be random or something that happens only at the inception stage of your business. Creativity can be–and must be–cultivated systematically on an ongoing basis.

Linkner provides five simple steps to help you become a creative, innovative, dynamic powerhouse - both individually and as a company.

As a long-time friend of mine, I’ve had the privilege of watching Josh perfect this systematic approach to creativity as a successful entrepreneur who rapidly grew a business to over $70 million in sales and as a legit jazz musician where improvisation has been a constant.

He deduced from his experiences that rather than waiting for a-ha! moments to wander through the door, it was possible to establish an environment where breakthrough ideas are farmed and harvested predictably, like crops.

It’s one thing to develop a system that works for yourself, but in Disciplined Dreaming, Linkner successfully packages his ideas into appealing, usable insights in a step-wise process that even at 33,000 feet, are simple and obvious to follow. Totally doable.

His five steps (paraphrased by me) are:

1. Ask - Define your creativity challenge and foster curiosity and awareness of your business opportunity.
2. Prepare - Get into the proverbial “zone” to be creatively productive.
3. Discover - Explore and reveal every avenue to generate ideas and think innovativaly.
4. Ignite - Explode your creative thinking up to the next level to create extraordinary ideas.
5. Launch - Establish a specific framework for transforming ideas into action plans.

And Josh provides specific instructions for each step.

I am so psyched to put these steps to work with my team, and I know they’ll be equally into the process. It will not only bring fresh ideas to light and game-changing strategy, but it will also be A BLAST!

With its creative prescription at just the right moment in my life’s work, I know that this weekend read will have a sweeping, positive impact on what I crank out as a visionary entrepreneur. 

If you want to take your business and personal achievements to the next level, and if you’re wondering what you should be disciplined about today, I’d say, get yourself a copy of Disciplined Dreaming and start creating your future systematically.

Amazon link for Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity

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Here’s the deal: Dell has provided me with a Dell Vostro V130 laptop, and I’m so impressed, they’re allowing me to give one away for free to one entrepreneur winner among you!

Through this giveaway, you have a chance to win your own, brand-spankin’ new laptop. It’s Dell’s latest ultra thin, very light, highly functional, travel ready, productivity enabling computer.

See more here: Vostro V130 microsite. Or you can also click on this computer image (below).

If you follow the directions below, you may just win your own!

Giveaway Guidelines:

• Post a comment below with your secret sauce advice (your tricks of the trade, not text book stuff!) on winning in any business situation you select. Could be something on fund raising. Could be on selling. Could be on managing cash flow, etc.
• You may only post a comment once. But who knows, maybe you could cut a deal with your friends to post on your behalf…
• To improve your odds of being selected, include in your comment a link to a similar comment you posted at the following Dell Vostro V130 Facebook page: Trade Secrets Facebook tab
• Our team will weigh and consider all posts submitted below. (This won’t be easy and it will be pretty subjective given the fact that many of you will provide very valid advice. If that’s the case, we may end up doing the “close the eyes and put our finger” on a random winner.)
• Entrants must be 18 and over and based in the U.S.
• Deadline for entries is Feb. 12, 2011. StartupNation reserves the right to extend the deadline at its sole discretion.
• Use of different email addresses for one individual contestant will result in disqualification.
• The selected winner will be announced by StartupNation as a final posting in this blog entry. (The last comment under this post will be StartupNation’s announcement of the winner.) Entrants must monitor this blog on or after Feb 12, 2011 to learn whether they are a winner or not.
• Instructions will be provided to the winner to enable delivery of the prize. If delivery instructions are not followed, StartupNation makes no assurance that the prize will be successfully provided to the winner. We sure hope that doesn’t happen!

So now let’s hear it. What’s your best advice for success in certain business situations. Fire away!

And good luck!

Rich

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Rieva Lesonsky was Editor of that magazine at that time, and so, it’s an incredible thrill and honor when StartupNation collaborates today with Rieva on new and helpful advice for entrepreneurs.

I’m writing today to share with you that Rieva–now running her own business–and StartupNation have just released a new eBook for 2011.

26 Hot Businesses To Start Right Now! is the second annual kick-start, jump-start, fire-you-up, open-your-mind, take-action-now, whip-crackin’, break-on-through, fertilize-your-mind, start-it-up, breeze-to-read downloadable eBook that will leave you rich with ideas and inspiration for a business that fits you perfectly and equips you with the specifics to get started.

By reading this eBook, [click the image to see it] you will learn 11 hot trends and 26 hot businesses that you can start today. For example, you’ll gain insights like:

• Make it personal. Millennials (60% of all weddings by 2012) are demanding their wedding experience be more distinctive, opening opportunities for personalized wedding décor & accessories businesses.
• Make the world come together. Open a translation services business, and capitalize on a market that has experienced average annual growth of 22% since 2004.
• Sell plus-sizes. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of all U.S. adults (age 20+) are overweight and about half of those are obese. Make their lives easier by selling plus-sized products and apparel.

The download is jam-packed with a simple, easy-to-understand analysis of the market landscape and specific recommendations for businesses you can start now that have the highest probability of success in 2011.

The great thing about 26 Hot Businesses to Start Right Now! is that it can be read in a day, immediately empowering you to select a new business to start and to take the first steps in building your future as a business owner.

The eBook is a launching pad for your business with links to more than 20 additional resources.

By reading this eBook, you’ll tap into the insights necessary to create a small business blockbuster.

About Rieva, the author: Rieva Lesonsky, CEO and president of GrowBiz Media (www.growbizmedia.com), a content and consulting company specializing in small businesses and entrepreneurship, and SmallBizDaily.com, her daily blog. Lesonsky has been covering America’s entrepreneurs for nearly 30 years. She has appeared on hundreds of TV programs and radio shows, including the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, The Martha Stewart Show and Oprah, and can be seen regularly on MSNBC’s Your Business.

LEARN MORE HERE

… and START IT UP!!!

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We’d like to get your feedback which you can provide by clicking here.

We’re giving away one of our advice-packed downloadable eBooks as a thank you.

Much appreciated…     Rich

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