Is anyone else concerned we’re very close to another tech bubble burst? It’s normal that history repeats itself, but it usually happens with generations who don’t remember the first time around.

In Chicago, we don’t have to look far to begin this conversation. A little more than a year ago Groupon was offered $6 billion from Google (an offer they turned down in order to go public, which they did less than a year later). At the time, I predicted they would falter and never see that kind of money again.

I didn’t make this prediction because I have some crystal ball that tells me what’s going to happen and gives me winning lottery numbers. I made it because I was reminded of what happened during the dot com bubble. Continue Reading »

This blog post is for all of the women in the Spin Sucks community.

Guys, you can read it too, but I’m not sure it’ll mean much to you. I hate to lose half our audience on a Monday morning, but it’s going to be worth it to the girls.

There is a new social network worth checking out…and it’s for women entrepreneurs and business owners.

Project Eve , launched just a month ago by two recovering investment bankers, is dedicated to furthering women’s understanding about business and overcoming hindrances to action.

Sorry, guys. Of the nearly 1,000 members only a couple are men (who I’m convinced are trolling for dates). Co-founder Kim Oksenberg says the reason for this is to allow women to communicate, collaborate,and share actionable solutions minus the “sharp elbows.” Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Mark Harai.

I often read articles about the bliss, excitement, and glory of being an entrepreneur.

Don’t get me wrong, these are certainly part of the overall journey, but typically just the icing on the cake.

Everything in between the start of the climb to the icing at the top define you as a person and shape your entrepreneurial career.

Dealing with bills, budgets, and payrolls isn’t glorious. Driving day-to-day operations, motivating the crew, and meeting crushing deadlines may sound exciting, but it can be daunting. It will seem as if everyone and everything is conspiring to derail you and your plans. It can really suck!

Pushing through constant resistance and overcoming challenges on a daily basis requires commitment, mental toughness and hard ass work.

Before you buy into the bliss of entrepreneurship, one must first understand and accept the realities to have staying power when the tough gets going. Continue Reading »

I was not popular in high school. I was not popular in college.

It took me well into my career before I had enough confidence to speak without mumbling because I was so painfully shy.

We also moved around so much that I didn’t have a set group of friends. So I’d move into a new school (particularly in high school) and I was cute and I was smart and I was new.

On my second day in a new high school, a girl threatened to beat me up after school. Just because I showed up for the second day.

Those years were extremely painful. So painful, in fact, I refuse to attend any kind of reunion or Facebook groups.

That’s why I was so interested to read Erika Napoletano’s new book, “The Power of Unpopular.” Well that and because I love her style of writing (minus the curse words). Continue Reading »

Last week I had dinner with Ken Jacobs who said to me, “I was shocked to see you almost went out of business last year. What happened?”

When I blogged about it earlier this year, I used the word “bankrupt” and that got everyone’s attention. Yes, we nearly went bankrupt.

You see, we had plenty of accounts receivables to accomodate our expenses and even make a little bit of money last year. But, when the debt ceiling crisis debate ensued last July, all of our clients retracted and went into hiding.

No one knew what it was going to mean for the United States and, in particular, businesses. And, because we’d just had three years of really rocky times, everyone was skittish.

We didn’t get paid from a single client for nearly 90 days. Sure, we’ve done all the things you’re supposed to do: Require deposits upfront, make calls before A/R is late, even stopping work when clients were late. But it didn’t help when push came to shove. We still had bills to pay and nothing to pay them with, except signed contracts that showed the money was coming.

I don’t blame our clients. We did the same thing to our vendors and partners. I blame myself. Continue Reading »

In 2005, I took the plunge from climbing the corporate ladder to entrepreneurship.

It wasn’t a conscious decision. More done out of frustration with the way communication results were handled (or not handled) inside agencies.

I thought I had a better way.

I did have a better way, but it took me five years to get the business to a point that we could do things differently. To the point other business leaders would listen to something so radically different than what they were hearing from other PR/marketing/communication firms.

It wasn’t because we couldn’t prove it worked. We could. It was because I had to learn how to jump from big budgets, big funding, and lots of resources to, well, nothing.

This is a point made in a recent Forbes article, “Confessions of a Successful Entrepreneur.” Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Lisa Gerber.

I’ll never forget the day the Counselors Academy brochure arrived in the mail.

It was Jan 2009, and my PR business was almost five years old. I had been growing it every year in double digits and had added an employee in 2008.

And then it all hit the fan, and I lost about 40 percent of my business in one fell swoop, and let my one employee go.

It felt like I was back to square one.

I realized at the time, I knew a lot about PR, but I didn’t have a clue on running a PR business.

That’s when I opened the Counselors Academy brochure – a conference for agency CEOs and leaders about the business side of the agency.  I thought long and hard about it. At a time when I was to be implementing austerity measures, I was contemplating a fairly significant expense.

There are two reasons for this post:

1. I have drunk the Kool-Aid that is Counselors Academy and want to pass the glass around; and
2. Whether Counselors is for you or not, the idea of taking a risk, and investing in yourself and/or your business is an important one. Continue Reading »

I’m an English major. Not as in the language, but as in literature and creative writing.

I preface with that because what I’m about to say may come across as biased.

Read. More. Fiction.

As it turns out, though, I’m not biased (well, maybe a little bit). In the November issue of Scientific American, author and researcher Keith Oatley describes what reading fiction does for our minds and souls. Continue Reading »

I’m baaaaack!

I hope everyone had great holidays. I did…and I’m dragging a bit this morning because of it. I was getting used to sleeping until 7:30 every morning!

Because it’s the first day back for many of us, this isn’t going to be a heady blog post.

I have a feeling. I think 2012 is going to be a very good year. It’s going to be a good year for the economy, for business, and for a lot of us personally. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is by Molli Megasko.

It’s Facebook question of the week time.

I hope I don’t disappoint anyone, but I’m replacing Gini Dietrich this week.  She asked me to help her out as she actually is taking some vacation days, believe it or not.

Her question to me was…

“Molli, you’ve worked at Arment Dietrich for nearly six years. During those six years, what are the top three accomplishments you’ve seen the firm achieve?” Continue Reading »