7 Traits You Need if You Want to Be An Entrepreneur

As the global economy undergoes more changes (and it will continue to do so) even more people will choose to take the plunge into entrepreneurship. Changes to corporate mindsets, downsizing and other upheavals in the “safe” world of formal employment are forcing many to embrace entrepreneurship, and start their own small businesses. Add to those the people with the burning desire to “be their own boss” and you have plenty of new entrants into the wonderful, frightening, exciting and exhausting world of being a business owner.Whatever your reasons for considering entrepreneurship instead of formal employment, there are a few traits you will need...

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Google Offers beta should scare the crap out of Groupon, other startups

Do you remember the days when every startup had to ask: "If we're successful, will Microsoft move into our market?" With its new Groupon competitor, time has come -- and perhaps long past it -- to ask the same about Google.Last night during the opening of the D9 conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Stephanie Tilenius, vice president of Google commerce, demonstrated Google Offers, which begins beta testing today in Portland, Ore. D9 cohost Walt Mossberg asked Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt why Portland? Schmidt said that Portland is a surprisingly good place to test tech products.Google started signing up Portlanders for the beta...

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Please, please, please stop asking how to find a technical co-founder

Listen guys, I'm sorry. But, I just can't do it anymore. I can't keep having this conversation with every non-tech founder. It's just too painful. On you, on me, and everyone else that you've approached. I was once on the search for a technical co-founder, so I can empathize.But, seriously, Please stop. Back in the day, I remember going to my favorite startup mentor, Gregg Fairbrothers, and asking him for help finding a technical co-founder. Here's what he said: I can't help you with that, but all the good entrepreneurs seem to figure it out. Hopefully you will too.Man, I still love that answer. That's being a founder. If you have...

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Note to entrepreneurs: Your idea is not special

– Brad Feld is a managing director at the Boulder, Colorado-based venture capital firm Foundry Group. He also co-founded TechStars and writes the popular blog,Feld Thoughts. The views expressed are his own. –Every day I get numerous emails from software and Internet entrepreneurs describing their newest ideas.Often these entrepreneurs think their idea is brand new – that no one has ever thought of it before. Other times they ask me to sign a non-disclosure agreement to protect their idea. Occasionally the emails mysteriously allude to the idea without really saying what it is.These entrepreneurs think their idea is special and magic. And they...

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Does Data Mining breach of privacy ?

What is Data Mining ?Data mining techniques are used to find patterns in large databases of information. But sometimes these patterns can reveal sensitive information about the data holder or individuals whose information are the subject of the patterns. The notion of privacy-preserving data mining is to identify and disallow such revelations as evident in the kinds of patterns learned using traditional data mining techniques. Can we accept it ? Some people believe that data mining itself is ethically neutral. It is important to note that the term data mining has no ethical implications. The term is often associated with the mining of information...

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How to Create A Unique Selling Point to Beat the Competition

When promoting your product/service it is easy to miss a key trick, which is to make what you are selling unique against the competition, making your products clearly the best choice in your customer’s eyes. This is the key focus of the USP, also sometimes said to stand for ‘Unique Selling Point’.The USP was originally discussed in the 1940s and defined in print by advertising executive Rosser Reeves, who was concerned that advertising was losing track of its purpose.Rosser Reeves stated:“Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must...

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10 Books Every Entrepreneur Must Read From 2010

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? – Seth GodinThere used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there’s a third team, the linchpins. These people invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. They figure out what to do when there’s no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations. Like the small piece of hardware that keeps a wheel from falling off its axle, they may not be famous but they’re...

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