Retail Business: Use Foursquare to Boost Sales

How To Use Foursquare To Boost Sales At Your Retail Business

Hello, Everyone! Location-based social networking apps/software applications like Foursquare are among the hottest mobile trends of 2010. More than 500,000 people have joined Foursquare alone, and that number is growing rapidly. Why? Because applications like Foursquare are new ways to promote your business and build stronger customer relationships.

To give yourself a visual image of the business impact of apps such as Foursquare (represented by the darkest blue dot) view the video, below. Then, read more about using Foursquare in the Business Insider article by Bianca Male, embedded beneath the video.

Ann Miura-Ko: The Most Powerful Woman in Angel Investing

Meet Ann Miura-Ko, The Most Powerful Woman in Start-ups

Hello, Everyone! Last week, Mike Maples the highly-regarded angel investor announced that he's reforming 'Maples Investments' as 'Floodgate', a "super angel fund" consisting of himself and Ann Miura-Ko as founding partners. This partnership with Maples makes her one of the most powerful angel investors in Silicon Valley.

Maples is well known since he's one of the most successful angel investors in tech, having taken an early stake in Twitter, Digg, and other successful startups. However, Miura-Ko hasn't been as well known. To learn more about Ann Miura-Ko, read the Business Insider article by Nick Saint, below:

Related Links:

• Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur
• Angel Investing: Matching Startup Funds with Startup Companies--The Guide for Entrepreneurs and Individual Investors (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series)

Innovation: A Practical Approach for Businesses

A Practical Approach to Innovation

Hello, Everyone! Edward G. Muzio, CEO of Group Harmonics, details a practical approach to innovation, in this video. Innovation is critical for the long-term success of many businesses. Great innovation requires a balance between ideas and reality. World-reknown Walt Disney used a three-part process for innovation in which an individual or group stepped through three different roles: Dreamer, Realist and Critic. Listen as Muzio explains this beneficial process for today's businesses.

Are Your Goals, SMART?

Make Your Goals SMART

Hello, Everyone! It's crucial to have every aspect of your life in balance to succeed. Creating goals is a great way to achieve that balance. There are seven areas to achieve balance in:

1. Profession
2. Finances
3. Health
4. Emotions
5. Relationships
6. Community
7. Spirituality

Listen as Ron Stebelton, CEO/Founder of Eagle Leadership Consulting, discusses how we can achieve the goal(s) of balance in those seven areas, and discover what SMART denotes, in this video.

The Effect of Steve Jobs

The Steve Jobs Effect

Hello, Everyone! Here's an enlightening piece featuring John Gruber, Editor of Daring Fireball about 'The Steve Jobs Effect'.



Related Links:

• Very Successful School 'Drop-outs'
• iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business
• Steve Jobs: The Brilliant Mind Behind Apple (Life Portraits)
• Inside Steve's Brain, Expanded Edition
• Return to the Little Kingdom: How Apple and Steve Jobs Changed the World

The Costs of Starting a Small Business

Calcuating the Costs of Starting a Small Business

Hello, Everyone! This video features Tim Berry, President of Palo Alto Software, with Colleen DeBaise discussing how the startup calculator his company created for the Wall Street Journal website works to give would-be small business owners a clear picture of their true startup costs.



Related Links:

• Streetwise Small Business Book Of Lists: Hundreds of Lists to Help You Reduce Costs, Increase Revenues, and Boost Your Profits (Adams Streetwise Series)
• Entrepreneur's Notebook: Practical Advice for Starting a New Business Venture

Captain of Industry: Maria Bartiromo

An Interview with Maria Bartiromo

Hello, Everyone! CNBC's Maria Bartiromo is interviewed by BusinessWeek Editor-in-Chief, Stephen J. Adler, for the Captains of Industry series. It's a great interview!


Related Links:

• The 10 Laws of Enduring Success
• Use the News: How to Separate the Noise from the Investment Nuggets and Make Money in Any Economy
• The Weekend That Changed Wall Street: An Eyewitness Account

Newbie Billionaires

The 20 Emerging Markets Billionaires

Hello, Everyone! Here's an informative article by Gregory White of Business Insider featuring twenty, new billionaires of emerging markets.

Billionaires of the Fairer Sex

Why Are So Few of the World's Billionaires Female?

Hello, Everyone! Here's an interesting article by Business Insider's Henry Blodget about the small number of female billionaires. Ladies, more of us need to join that club, the 'Billioniare' club! My favorite line in this article states, "And you don't become a billionaire by working for someone else.".




Related Links:

• How to be a Billionaire: Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth
• Billionaire: Secrets to Success

Very Successful School 'Drop-outs'

The World's Most Successful 'Drop-outs'

Hello, Everyone! Here's an interesting article by John Carney of Business Insider, about those among us that have achieved tremendous success even though they are 'drop-outs'. Without degrees, they are intelligent people with a lot of knowledge and tremendous success. Lesson: A degree isn't a guarantee of great success. Knowledge, skills and wisdom can be gained and possessed even if degrees aren't achieved and school isn't completed.

SEQ: Social Entrepreneurial Intelligence

ECHOING GREEN'S Social Entrepreneurial Intelligence

Good day, Stars! Echoing Green is a global non-profit, which has awarded more than $27 million in start-up capital to over 450 social entrepreneurs, worldwide since 1987.

"Echoing Green has awarded start-up capital to hugely successful non-profit organizations such as 'Teach for America', 'City Year', and the 'Freelancer's Union'. In this talk, Echoing Green President Cheryl Dorsey outlines the traits and skills that have defined their most successful social entrepreneurs in a new behavioral model called 'SEQ', or 'social entrepreneurial intelligence'." ~ 99%

The Startup 2010 Competition! - Enter Now

2010 Startup Competition - Thursday, May 20th

Hello, Everyone!

"Startup 2010 is a business plan competition and one-day event about entrepreneurship and digital business that will showcase 10 top startups competing for bragging rights, buzz, and a $100,000 prize. The conference is co-hosted by Silicon Alley Insider and New York University's Stern School of Business, with support from exclusive founding sponsor General Catalyst Partners.

ATTENTION ENTREPRENEURS: Submit your business plans now! Applications are open March 5, 2010 through April 5, 2010. [Note: While the conference will focus on mobile + content topics, applications can be for any type of digital business.] ~ Julie Hansen & Henry Blodget, Business Insider"

Related Link: Search Amazon.com for Business Plan

Measuring Your Social Networking ROI

How to Measure Your Social Media Marketing Campaign's Return On Investment (ROI)

Hello, Everyone! Bianca Male of Business Insider shares "The 10 Social Media Metrics Your Company Should Monitor".

The top three social metrics being measured are 'Visitors and sources of traffic', 'Network size (followers, fans, members)' and 'Quantity of commentary about brand or product'. The ten important social media metrics to measure are:

• Social media leads
• Engagement duration
• Bounce rate
• Membership increase and active network size
• Activity ratio
• Conversions
• Brand mentions in social media
• Loyalty
• Virality
• Blog interaction

Wordpress Websites For Busy People

Event: Build Your Own Wordpress Website

Hello, Everyone! Have you been thinking about a Wordpress website/blog? Want to build a website for your business, yet don't know where to start? Learn how without difficult programming languages with the "Build Your Own Wordpress Website" online course! No experience necessary. For details and tickets click: Build Your Own Wordpress Website.


What: Build Your Own Wordpress Website
When: Tuesday, June 08, 2010 ~Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Time: 4 two-hour sessions
Location: Online workshop
Fact: 11 tickets remaining as of 3/1/2010, 12:25 AM (CST)


This Workshop Series Will Show You How To:

• Register a domain name
• Sign up for website hosting
• Download website editing tools
• Install Wordpress
• Configure Wordpress
• Manage your cPanel account
• Add power blogger plugins
• SEO and content strategy
• Monetizing your blog

You Will Learn:

• Why websites are important to business
• 3 Important parts of a website
• What is SEO and why you should care
• Your options for building a website
• How to select a great memorable domain name
• What to look for when selecting a website hosting providers
• How to make your website Social Media friendly
• How to find and insert photos
• How to add videos from YouTube

Learn More or Get Tickets: Build Your Own Wordpress Website