Startup Trends

Draw and Collaborate at Scriblink

By Anita Campbell - Sep 6, 2007 - 4 Comments

Scriblink is a new online collaboration tool where you can draw and collaborate with others over graphics. You can do freehand drawing. Or you can draw circles, ovals, squares and rectangles with standard shapes. You can add text, too. If you have a need to collaborate with someone else … Read More

Women Business Owners Part of Social Entrepreneurship Trend

By Anita Campbell - Aug 31, 2007 - 9 Comments

Today's high-powered women executives make it a point to weave social entrepreneurship into their businesses. The Women Presidents' Organization - Chicago chapter, recently announced the results of a survey of its members. Those survey results were especially interesting because on the one … Read More

320 Cool Business Ideas

By Anita Campbell - Aug 16, 2007 - 7 Comments

Steven Teo and his colleagues Marcel and YueLin, know all about cool business ideas and trends. They track them and write about them all the time. CoolBusinessIdeas.com has been giving us new business ideas since 2004. I found the site early on and have been a reader ever since. Recently I … Read More

Advisory Boards are Not Boards of Directors

By Anita Campbell - Aug 14, 2007 - 3 Comments

People regularly confuse Advisory Boards with Boards of Directors. But the two are very different animals. One of the biggest differences is that Advisory Boards typically have no power within the company. They are informal panels there to advise the owner and management. That's … Read More

Go Global Without Waiting to Grow Up

By Anita Campbell - Jul 25, 2007 - 15 Comments

Micro-multinationals are startups and small companies that do business globally right from the start. Traditionally a company got off the ground locally, then expanded nationally. When it got really big, it went global. You may have heard the SAP commercial where a businesswoman says, "we're … Read More

Persistent Web Apps and Small Businesses

By Anita Campbell - Jul 23, 2007 - 9 Comments

Last week I featured an interview about the future of affiliate marketing and the Web. My interviewee, Sam Harrelson, talked about how in the future we may be accessing the Web without the use of a browser. This morning I ran across an extension of that same idea, from venture capitalist Fred … Read More

Single Person Businesses Booming

By Anita Campbell - Jul 16, 2007 - 41 Comments

The U.S. Census has new statistics out -- and they show that the numbers of single-person businesses are booming. There are now over 20 million such businesses, based on the most recently available data as of 2005. To be exact, the United States has 20,392,068 single-person businesses. In the … Read More

Microsoft Goes Deeper in the Small Business Market with StartupCenter.com

By Anita Campbell - Jun 26, 2007 - 3 Comments

Microsoft this week launched StartupCenter.com to offer advice and resources for entrepreneurs starting their own businesses. According to Cindy Bates, general manager of U.S. Small Business at Microsoft, one million new businesses are started each year in the United States (including home-based … Read More

Promote Your Business at JumpUp by Intuit

By Anita Campbell - Jun 9, 2007 - 4 Comments

Not long ago on my radio program my guest was Kira Wampler, Marketing and Community Leader of JumpUp.com, by Intuit. Kira gave some inside insights into the many activities that Intuit is involved in to support and assist small businesses. You may know Intuit from its flagship product, … Read More

Avoid the Overnight Success Trap

By Anita Campbell - May 31, 2007 - 2 Comments

Seth Godin has become one of today's most recognizable marketing voices. Most people would agree he has been VERY successful. When you do a Google search for "Seth," the first entry returned is for Seth Godin. Yes, he's THAT Seth. He needs no last name to be found -- just Seth. Seth … Read More

The Perils of the Side Business

By Anita Campbell - May 29, 2007 - 7 Comments

Today it's popular to start a side business while being employed somewhere else. My Shanghai-born friend Annie says the Chinese even have a saying for it: "riding in the big boat while carrying the little boat." But one entrepreneur tells a horror story of the pitfalls of starting a side … Read More

Founding Entrepreneurs: To Thine Own Self be True

By Anita Campbell - May 14, 2007 - 2 Comments

Ever since last winter JetBlue airlines has taken a beating. The company suffered through some painfully public operational issues that resulted in cancelling 1700 flights because of two winter storms. One well-publicized instance involved a passenger-packed plane stranded on the runway for 11 … Read More