What it takes to become an entrepreneur varies greatly from country to country. Below, we illustrate some of the notable differences in entrepreneurship among the US and several European countries. Click on the image to enlarge.
There are so many great places for entrepreneurs to get information; blogs, forums, Twitter, conferences, meet-ups, co-working spaces, etc, etc. Sometimes it’s hard to sort through them all!
To at least make one part simpler for you, and give you something to read this holiday weekend, I’ve put together a list of some of my favorite blog posts about entrepreneurship and business from the past month. I’m sure there are a hundred more out there but here are my favorites. Enjoy!
1. Which Excuses are Keeping You from Starting or Growing Your Business?
Overview: Matthew from Blogtrepreneur.com offers tips for those “wanna-be” entrepreneurs that are hesitant about starting a business. If you are on the fence about starting a business, this should inspire you to take a leap of faith and just do it! (or at least stop making excuses about why)
2. Entrepreneurs Test Before Starting Your Business
Overview: Kevin from dorm-room-biz.com gears this post towards internet entrepreneurs. It provides step-by-step instructions on how to set up an online marketing campaign for your business.
In 1997, the Boy Scouts of America quietly launched their Entrepreneurship merit badge. Sadly, despite the Boy Scouts’ best intentions, the badge did not receive much in the way of consistent support. But on April 29, the Entrepreneurship badge was reintroduced with a much stronger commitment. As Maria Popova of the Huffington Post writes, the badge’s return symbolizes “the increasing value of entrepreneurial thinking as a social problem-solver and a necessary lifeskill in the pursuit of success today.” The badge aims to promote execution, critical evaluation of business ideas and the fundamentals of capitalizing on market opportunities.
Below, we’ll take a look at the Boy Scouts Entrepreneurship badge requirements, and what they can teach you about being an entrepreneur.
Define Entrepreneurship Realistically
One striking feature of the Boy Scouts Entrepreneurship badge is how it begins by asking you to define entrepreneurship, as well as the entrepreneur’s role in the U.S. economy. Yet, a glance at the requirements page shows that it is not sufficient to merely theorize on what entrepreneurship is. To earn the badge, you must find and interview a real-life business owner and ask them:
Well, the Grasshopper Buzz Team is at it again. We are heading to another city (or country in this case) to meet local entrepreneurs and share some free drinks! Only this time it’s a bit more exciting than usual…
For the first time in Grasshopper History (–> Insert Star Wars Theme Music) we’re going to be able to offer Local Canadian Numbers (currently in beta but available to everyone in the next couple of months)!! We decided in honor of the occasion we needed to do something fun.
So what did we do?
We partnered with a great organization and decided to throw a fun event. We joined forces with the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF). Not only are the folks over there just as passionate about helping entrepreneurs as we are, but they do some great things to inspire & mentor young Toronto entrepreneurs.
On June 1st at 6pm Grasshopper and CYBF will take over the roof deck of The London Tap House.
The shortage of female entrepreneurs and executives has long been lamented by business and academic leaders. As Harvard researcher Vivek Wadhwa told BusinessWeek in February 2010, there has never been a female Wall Street CEO. According to Dun & Bradstreet data from 2004 (the most recent available), only 19% of the 237,843 firms founded that year were primarily owned by women – including only 3% of tech firms.
Ultimately, Wadhwa contends, the relative lack of female tech entrepreneurs reflects a “societal failure.” But others, like Illuminate Ventures CEO Cindy Padnos, hold that female-led tech firms earn higher revenues using less capital. Today, Grasshopper examines several female entrepreneurs who will, as Padnos predicts, “lead the next wave of growth in global technology ventures.”
Caterina Fake
Caterina Fake is best known for co-founding online photo sharing giant Flickr in 2004. Fake started the company with the help of then-husband Stewart Butterfield and the free service rose to popularity in a breathtakingly short time. By March 2005, Flickr was acquired by Yahoo! for a reported $35 million price tag.
Flickr made important contributions to the “Web 2.0″ revolution both before and after the acquisition, including social networking, photo tagging, community open APIs and photographic algorithms.
