Recent Articles Published by Cale Bruckner
Microsoft Small Business Summit
Microsoft Small Business Summit 2008, a free on-line event, is running through the 27th of this month and it’s packed with awesome sessions for small business owners and entrepreneurs. John Jantsch, from Duct Tape Marketing, is presenting along with a long list of other well known and excellent small business experts. Microsoft is delivering a... Read more »
Small Business BC Business Plan Competition
The 5th Annual Small Business BC business plan competition just concluded. It sounds like the event was a huge success this year with over 170 qualified applicants, great finalists, and a great winning business plan. Danita Harty, over at fundfindr.tv, wrote a nice post about the event. fundfinder.tv is also featuring a video overview of... Read more »
Boost Your Business
Forbes.com will be kicking off their Boost Your Business competition April 2nd. The prize – a $100,000 cash infusion for your business. So dust off your business plan and get ready to convince Forbes.com that your business, above all others, can do the most with that fat pile of money. This is the 2nd year... Read more »
Fact Check
Gathering information is often one of the most challenging aspects of preparing a business plan or a marketing plan. A good plan supports assumptions with facts. Who says, besides you, the market for your product is going to grow 200% annually for the next five years? A recent post by Michael Stelsner over on Copyblogger... Read more »
Put Your Startup On The Map
Douglas De Jager, CEO of UK startup dotHomes, just released a cool Google Maps mashup (def.) that plots tech startups. If you have a tech startup email mapstartup@gmail.com with your location, URL, tag line/slogan, and logo URL – to put your startup on the map ; ) View Larger Map Read more »
Green? Say It
Are you running a “Green” business? Are you building “Green” products? Is the brightness of your “Greenness” important to your customer? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, let it shine, make sure your customers know about your “Greenness.” I’ll give you an example of a local business that’s doing a great job... Read more »
Great Customer Service Makes a Difference for Elkhorn
I love passing on good customer service stories in my blog posts? Why? Because I want business decision makers to know that putting a little extra effort into customer service makes a difference and the free publicity is a nice way to reward good customer service. Writing this post was especially fun for me because... Read more »
BizJam Indie Business Conference – Seattle June 9th
The Anti 9-to-5 Guide posts today about the upcoming Seattle BizJam indie business conference that’s coming up on June 9th. Pricing is affordable and the speakers are interesting. They have a session titled “Business Plans – Your Roadmap to Freedom” that sounds good and loads of other things on the “BizJam” packed schedule. “If you... Read more »
The Virtual Business Plan Competition
McKinsey & Company is launching a virtual business plan competition in Second Life. Be part of the first truly global business-building contest ever held in the virtual world! The Virtual Venture Competition is your chance to turn your innovative ideas into successful business operations in Second Life. From 3pointD.com The competition is open to students... Read more »
Do you have what it takes to start a business of your own?
The Entrepreneur featured a post today titled Risks, Rewards, and Entrepreneurship that discusses what it takes, on a personal level, to start and grow a successful business. Starting a business is one of those huge, life-altering events. Think of it as a marriage; running a successful business takes the same depth of commitment and desire.... Read more »
2007 R.I. Business Plan Winners Named
The winners of the 2007 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition were announced yesterday. PROVIDENCE – (May 1, 2007) – A local company that provides software which turns GPS-enabled cell phones into personal security devices on college campuses and a student team from Brown University that is creating a company to help employers lower their health... Read more »
TechStars Winners Selected
10 startup ideas from the TechStars competition (300 applicants) were selected this week. The selected startups will move to Boulder Colorado for a 3 month, mentor backed, startup kickstart. TechStars provides seed capital, experts, infrastructure, and access for a 5% equity position. Is all of that worth 5%? Does an environment like this increase the... Read more »
Plug & Play Silicon Valley Incubator
Plug & Play, a 2.0 revision of the 1.0 incubator concept that was once popular in technology circles, is attracting a lot of attention in Silicon Valley. Are incubators coming back? Is Plug & Play representative of what’s to come? Is Plug & Play right for your start-up? Click into the links below if you... Read more »
Q & A: Should I incorporate?
Question: I am interested in starting a home-based business providing executive search services for Technology Professionals. I currently have a business which is a (dba). Since my business is home-based with minimal overhead, is it best to remain a dba or to Inc? In the event I remain a dba, what steps do I need... Read more »
Q&A: Where should I establish my business?
Question: I have a question about market research. I am researching opening a pizza restaurant. The restaurant will be located across the street from a new Supercenter Wal-Mart. Do you think a traffic-flow study and market analysis should still be done? Or, could I make some reasonable assumptions based on the fact that Wal-Mart is... Read more »
“Business Planning” VARBusiness
VARBusiness talks about the importance of business planning in this recent article. ” … small businesses, which often fail to implement formal business-planning processes in the first few … would likely benefit from starting the planning process earlier.” – VARBusiness “Business Planning” Read more »
Creating Passionate Users
Passion is a key ingredient in the recipe for successful products, and more importantly the people that create them – customers and creators alike. But where do you get it – and are there different types of passion? I’m going to tune you into a blog that might just help you figure it out. The... Read more »
