Today’s guest post is written by Micah Smith. 

It’s pretty safe to say no one likes a crappy economy. Salaries and jobs have been cut, people have lost their homes and livelihoods, gas prices have gone through the roof, and many people are starting from scratch.

The good news is incredible things tend to rise from the ashes. Because of that, in the midst of the economic confusion, entrepreneurship is flourishing.

As it turns out, most people didn’t love the job they lost; they just worked there because it offered security and a paycheck. And when security becomes insecure, it gives us more reason to trust ourselves and start something new.

With so many going out on their own, the process has been well-documented and articulated from a business perspective, but it’s easy to overlook these three basic elements that will show off your expertise to consumers from day one. 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 »

Today’s guest post is written by Rieva Lesonsky.

Although I’m a bit superstitious, I’m going to go ahead, channel iconic 1950s television personality (and songwriter, who knew?) Steve Allen, and say I think 2012 is going to “be the start of something big.”

I know there are naysayers out there who will disagree, and point out the numerous reasons I’m being too much of a Pollyanna, but frankly I don’t care. There are plenty of signs the economy is finally on the rebound.

Consumer confidence (as measured by The Conference Board) soared in November (December’s numbers won’t be out until the end of the month) to 56 (on a scale of 100), from 40.9 in October.

Although 56 indicates consumers are still feeling fairly uncertain, a 15-point jump in a month is a good sign, which is amplified by the “Expectations Index” part of the survey hitting 67.8, an increase of nearly 18 points in a month. Continue Reading »

Today’s post is written by Ameena Falchetto.

My experience as an entrepreneur in Dubai was largely affected by two factors.

First, I am half-Egyptian, half-English which means I am often discounted by both cultures.

Secondly, the company I built with John Falchetto was one of the most male-dominated businesses out there; we provided safety and rescue training for government and corporations. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by JK Allen.

I’m an entrepreneur. My business is “me” and my client is my employer.

As entrepreneurs, we are often challenged with less-than-ideal situations and we find ways to turn them into opportunities or learning experiences. Over the last year or two, my heart has been consumed with the idea of being self-employed again which has led me to despise my job.

As you can see, this is less than ideal. But I’ve turned it into a learning experience.

Many of my online friends who I find to be powerful business people have shown a great amount of appreciation for how I manage my career like a business. No one has been more vocal about this than John Falchetto. But I’ve also gained support from class acts such as Marcus Sheridan and Danny Brown. Continue Reading »

One of my best friends is the manager for the Obesity Prevention Program for the State of Alaska. She has uncovered the secret to losing weight and has a FABULOUS idea for a book on the subject. It’s called, Eat Less, Exercise More.

The end.

I know, it’s a radical idea, and we laugh so hard every time we talk about it. And how huge this book could be in sales, if there were anything more to add, other than the title, but there isn’t. That is how you lose weight. It takes a long time, and there is no SHORT CUT.

My father used to call it the Strawberry Short Cut – it works when you’re driving from Point A to Point B (sometimes), but it doesn’t work when you’re trying to get from Point A to Point B, like say, from obscurity to the cover of Entrepreneur.

I use that example because Gini Dietrich and I always talk about what we’ll wear for our cover photo shoot when we get there.

And the funny thing, my other BFF, Dana Hughens, texted me the other day joking about an incident that will be retold in her Entrepreneur interview some day.

So I bet there are a lot of you out there with similar dreams. And none of us will make it happen by taking the short cut. Continue Reading »

During the past five years, I’ve had the opportunity to work directly under someone (cough, Gini Dietrich) as she has evolved through each of the following entrepreneurial minds.

I’ve now come to a point where I think I’ve figured out how these minds work.  Yes, they say it’s lonely at the top for this select group of individuals, but because they move too fast for the rest of us to keep up, the loneliness is self-inflicted.

I’ve created a chart outlining the stages of an entrepreneurial mind to help the rest of us make it less lonely for our beloved CEOs.

It’s not as National Geographic as I thought it would be. In fact, it’s pretty simple.  Your own CEO is probably at one of these stages now. Continue Reading »

Lisa D. Jenkins is an erratic blogger growing into her Big-Girl Business Panties one terrifying decision at a time.

One of the hardest things we do is to make the choice not to work with everyone who wants to hire us.

That’s easier read than done.

In some cases, we say no to protect ourselves.

Those of us building our young reputations and growing new client bases have (or should have) a very clear vision of the clients we want to represent.  Deviating from that vision can derail months of strategic planning and endanger our place in the market we want to serve.  We must choose carefully.
Continue Reading »

Guest post by Tim Jahn of Beyond The Pedway.

I’m a new dad and an entrepreneur, so I’m familiar with the idea of failure. I have a hunch you are too. We’ve all experienced failure from time to time. The key is to harness that failure into useful lessons.

My son is only about two months old. He has yet to attempt standing up, crawling, walking, talking, swimming, biking, or algebra. But in a matter of months, he’ll try to start crawling. Once he conquers that, he’ll attempt to start standing up and walking around like his parents do.

He’ll fail. I can say with almost certainty that my son will fail at his first attempts to walk.

Why? Continue Reading »

My mom, Christy Norton, is visiting me from my hometown of Salt Lake City and the Arment Dietrich Facebook fans thought it’d be fun to have her make a guest appearance in today’s video. So, here she is, answering the question, “Did Gini always show signs of being an entrepreneur and, if yes, what did you do to instill that in her?”

(If you’re viewing this in Feedburner, click here to watch the video)