Category Archives: Success

Stop Making Excuses for not being Profitable!

I hear a lot of excuses from people as to why they aren’t profitable or why they can’t get a business up and running online.  It’s the same story different day.  For years people have been guilty of procrastination and excuses.  It’s part of our make-up, it’s in our DNA. 

It’s only when we decide we want more, decide we are fed up and decide we going to take control of our income and our lifestyle that we begin to make progress.   It’s after you hear that first “ka-ching” and make that first sale that you realize you have something to offer that the world wants.  So go give it to them!  There is nothing wrong for getting paid what you are worth.    What are you waiting for?

The first step is the hardest to take.  Just take the first step!

Crystal O’Connor is a single Mother of 3 kids and she can show you how to get started. 

www.moxiemompreneur.com

Small Biz Davids vs. Goliath

Small Biz Davids vs. Goliath

Can’t compete with the big guys? Meet three small companies – a book publisher, a hotel chain, and a doughnut maker – that can.

By Jessica Shambora

From Fortune.com

BLURB VS. RODALE


The challenge: Will established authors embrace Blurb’s online platform over traditional book publishers like Rodale?

What they did: David Kirsch was pretty happy with his publisher, Rodale, which released his two bestselling fitness books. But for his next book he hooked up with Blurb, a self-publishing platform.

What gives? He liked the total creative control, not to mention that after a fee to Blurb, he gets to keep all the profits. Blurb’s social-marketing tools also help build buzz.

As for Blurb, it was launched in 2005 by Eileen Gittins, 56, who couldn’t find a publisher for her photo essay book. So far, so good: Last year Blurb, based in San Francisco, sold 1.2 million books and pulled in $45 million in revenue.


MONTAGE VS. RITZ-CARLTON


The challenge: Can an upstart luxury hotel company rival the Ritz-Carlton’s sterling reputation for hospitality?

What they did: Montage says its edge is offering patrons unique experiences. “There’s no cookie-cutter approach to designing and operating a Montage,” says founder Alan Fuerstman, 53, who has been in the hospitality business for some 30 years.

His guests are registered en route to their rooms. No crab on the room service menu? No worries — the Montage staff will get it for you. At the Laguna Beach resort, an on-staff marine biologist hosts tidal pool tours.

The strategy seems to be working: Sales are up 17% so far this year, and Fuerstman plans to open a third resort in Park City, Utah, next winter.


TOP POT DOUGHNUTS VS. KRISPY KREME


The challenge: With only six Seattle shops, how does this indie doughnut chain compete with Krispy Kreme’s 619-store empire?

What they did: Top Pot co-founders and brothers Mark, 45, and Mike Klebeck, 44, were already known for their old-school coffeehouses. Why not do the same for doughnuts?

They spent months perfecting recipes based on 1920s-style “hand-forged” doughnuts. (Seahawks rookie Golden Tate made news last month when he helped himself to a few maple bars after hours. His defense: They are “irresistible.”)

The shops feature Venetian plasterwork and cabinets the brothers built themselves. Such attention to detail caught the eye of Howard Schultz, founder and CEO of Starbucks, which now sells their creations. Top Pot makes a million doughnuts a week.

–David vs. Goliath update: There must be something about this column. Since we launched in March, two of the three companies we profiled have attracted interest from outsiders: Maverik Lacrosse was purchased for an undisclosed sum by the Kohlberg Sports Group, and Kroger Co. acquired a slew of outlets from the Little Clinic, a health care provider (also for an undisclosed price). Who’s next?

–David vs. Goliath update, part 2: Since this article went to press, Blurb alerted Fortune that they are collaborating on a project with Rodale.

So You Want to Be Your Own Boss…

So You Want to Be Your Own Boss…

8 tips to get you going, even if you don’t know where to start

By Tamara Monosoff

From Entrepreneur.com

If you want to start a business but don’t know where to start, don’t worry–you are not alone. In fact, given the new economic reality of our time, more people than ever before have found the “job” they thought was waiting for them doesn’t exist. Others have come to the conclusion that they would rather create work they love, constructed to fit with their own life goals. No matter what the motivation is to be your own boss, you can start today.

Here are eight tips to get you started:

  1. Take a Stand for Yourself.
    If you are dissatisfied with your current circumstances, admit that no one can fix them except for you. It doesn’t do any good to blame the economy, your boss, your spouse or your family. Change can only occur when you make a conscious decision to make it happen.
  2. Identify the Right Business for You.
    Give yourself permission to explore. Be willing to look at different facets of yourself (your personality, social styles, age) and listen to your intuition. We tend to ignore intuition even though deep down we often know the truth. Ask yourself “What gives me energy even when I’m tired?”

    How do you know what business is “right” for you? There are three common approaches to entrepreneurship:

    Do What You Know: Have you been laid off or want a change? Look at work you have done for others in the past and think about how you could package those skills and offer them as your own services or products.

    Do What Others Do: Learn about other businesses that interest you. Once you have identified a business you like, emulate it.

    Solve a Common Problem: Is there a gap in the market? Is there a service or product you would like to bring to market? (Note: This is the highest-risk of the three approaches.) If you choose to do this, make sure that you become a student and gain knowledge first before you spend any money.

  1. Business Planning Improves Your Chances for Success.
    Most people don’t plan, but it will help you get to market faster. Abusiness plan will help you gain clarity, focus and confidence. A plan does not need to be more than one page. As you write down your goals, strategies and action steps, your business becomes real.

    Ask yourself the following questions:
    – What am I building?
    – Who will I serve?
    – What is the promise I am making to my customers/clients and to myself?
    – What are my objectives, strategies and action plans (steps) to achieve my goals?

  2. Know Your Target Audience Before You Spend a Penny.
    Before you spend money, find out if people will actually buy your products or services. This may be the most important thing you do. You can do this by validating your market. In other words, who, exactly, will buy your products or services other than your family or friends? (And don’t say… “Everyone in America will want my product.” Trust me–they won’t.) What is the size of your target market? Who are your customers? Is your product or service relevant to their everyday life? Why do they need it?

    There is industry research available that you can uncover for free. Read industry articles with data (Google the relevant industry associations) and read Census data to learn more. However, the most important way to get this information is to ask your target market/customers directly and then listen.

  3. Understand Your Personal Finances and Choose the Right Kind of Money You Need for Your Business.
    As an entrepreneur, your personal life and business life are interconnected. You are likely to be your first–and possibly only–investor. Therefore, having a detailed understanding of your personalfinances, and the ability to track them, is an essential first step before seeking outside funding for your business. This is why I recommend setting up your personal accounts in a money management system such as Mint.com to simplify this process.

    As you are creating your business plan, you will need to consider what type of business you are building–a lifestyle business (smaller amount of startup funds), a franchise (moderate investment depending on the franchise), or a high-tech business (will require significant capital investment). Depending on where you fall on the continuum, you will need a different amount of money to launch and grow your business, and it does matter what kind of money you accept.

  4. Build a Support Network.
    You’ve made the internal commitment to your business. Now you need to cultivate a network of supporters, advisors, partners, allies and vendors. If you believe in your business, others will, too.

    Network locally, nationally & via social networks. Join networks like NAPW.com, your local chamber of commerce, or other relevant business groups. Here are some networking basics:

    – When attending networking events, ask others what they do and think about how you can help them. The key is to listen more than tout yourself.
    – No matter what group you join, be generous, help others and make introductions without charging them.
    – By becoming a generous leader, you will be the first person that comes to mind when someone you’ve helped needs your service or hears of someone else who needs your service.

  5. Sell By Creating Value.
    Even though we purchase products and services every day, people don’t want to be “sold.” Focus on serving others. The more people you serve, the more money you will make. When considering your customers or clients, ask yourself:

    – What can I give them?
    – How can I make them successful in their own pursuits?
    – This approach can help lead you to new ways to hone your product or service and deliver more value, which your customers will appreciate.

  6. Get the Word Out.
    Be willing to say who you are and what you do with conviction and without apology. Embrace and use the most effective online tools (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn) available to broadcast your news. Use social networks as “pointer” sites; i.e., to point to anything you think will be of interest to your fans and followers.

    Even though social networks are essential today (you must use them!), don’t underestimate the power of other methods to get the word out: e.g., word-of-mouth marketing, website and internet marketing tools, public relations, blog posts, columns and articles, speeches, e-mail, newsletters, and the old-fashioned but still essential telephone.

    If you take these steps, you’ll be well on your way to becoming your own boss. It’s important to remember that you are not alone. If you want to “be your own boss” but you still feel stuck, reach out and connect with other entrepreneurs in a variety of ways. You may be surprised by the invaluable contacts that are right at your fingertips.


Tamara Monosoff is the author of Your Million Dollar Dream: Regain Control & Be Your Own Boss (hit #1 on Amazon in 3 categories: Marketing, Entrepreneurship & Home-Based Businesses). She is also the best-selling author of The Mom Inventors Handbook, Secrets of Millionaire Moms, co-author of The One Page Business Plan for Women in Business, and CEO of www.MomInvented.com. Connect on Twitter and Facebook.

How to Create an Overnight Success

How to Create an Overnight Success

Natalie Zaun just wanted to make a few extra bucks. What she got is a six-figure business that just keeps growing.

By Natalie Zaun

From Entrepreneur.com


While chasing kids around the kitchen in the fall of 2006, a friend and I decided we wanted to do more than pick up toys and change dirty diapers.

She sewed and, as a former junior high school English teacher, I was comfortable in front of others. So we thought we’d give the idea of selling custom purses at parties a try. After contacting a few friends to host parties, we quickly felt the excitement of giving women an opportunity to design their own purse. So with a little effort and research, PURSEnally Yours officially launched in January 2007, specializing in customer-designed purses.

Our intent was to make a little extra money, spend some time away from our lives as moms and perhaps even hire someone to work with us by the end of the year. It didn’t exactly happen that way. We hired another seamstress within two weeks, and we began to get quite busy just with the sales I was generating. In the first month, we had sewn 31 purses designed by our customers. By the end of the year, we had sewn thousands of them. Our sales topped six figures our first year in business.

During that first year, we hired six seamstresses and fabric cutters, and 13 direct-sales consultants. Because we need people who can sew well, we start them out sewing samples for us. Currently, we have a production team of 10 independent contractors and a waiting list just as long of women interested in working for us. I’ve been very cautious in hiring, consulting our attorney and our accountant to make sure these ladies fit the parameters of independent contractors.

A couple of blurbs in the local media, Fishers/Geist Magazine and at Geist.com, helped spread the word in the early days, but our customer base that first year grew largely by word of mouth through our customers and their handbags.

While the early success was certainly exciting, it was also overwhelming. About midway through the year, my partner needed to give up her portion of the company because of family conflicts. By the time we hit the last quarter of the year (aka, the busiest time), I was overseeing all aspects of the company, including production, which I knew nothing about. Fortunately, the seamstresses working directly with me were very excited about our success, and they were very helpful in navigating me into the next year.

After happily surviving the first year of owning a business–and succeeding–I was able to create a system that is still very effective and efficient today. The beauty about creating and owning your own business is that you can really design it however you wish. I have done just that.

PURSEnally Yours operates as a direct-sales company, which allows me to recruit ladies independently to sell purses through in-home parties or online. It also allows me to expand my reach. The company originally only had consultants in Indiana; now we have consultants throughout the country.

Initially, the biggest challenge in adding consultants was the cost of producing a sales kit. Each kit costs from $500 to $600–a lot to ask of women who wanted to join the team. So in the beginning, we didn’t charge consultants for the kits. Today the kits cost consultants $299 to $399, depending on whether we have specials at the time.

The design kit includes all of our current sizes and styles of purses and accessories, and consultants continue to receive new fabric swatches, fringes, etc., throughout the year. In addition, I work directly with each of them offering communication via e-mail or the phone to answer questions, provide support and give suggestions. We also offer incentives for consultants to get active quickly and earn cash back. Most of the women on our team are previous customers or have heard about the company through family and friends.

We also advertise for consultants via the web and encourage our sales team to spread the word. And we include a note in every customer’s purse mentioning our consulting opportunities. Turnover is high, so we’re always on the lookout for new consultants.

Members of our production team also work independently from their homes. They pick up orders from the office on a weekly basis, sew the purses and accessories at their discretion, and return them by the date requested. This has been a great opportunity for those ladies to turn their hobby into a full-time living.

PURSEnally Yours has been successful in growing without much risk. Because everyone works as an independent contractor, the “office” is still located in my basement. And because our products are custom designed, the company carries virtually no overhead. The office also doubles as my warehouse.

More than 80 varieties of fabrics are numbered and lined up on shelves. Each week, my production leader (head seamstress) sends me an e-mail with all the orders that have been collected, and I fill totes with fabric for our cutters to pick up and return by the weekend. They’ll cut the order per customer designs. Once they are returned, notions get added, and then they’re ready for the seamstresses to pick up.

The excitement of PURSEnally Yours continues to spread as more women are exposed to the fun, fashionable concept of designing their own purses. Currently, we are on track to have our best year yet. The recession did slow us down a bit, so I expect this year to be closer to what I was anticipating in the second or third year of business. We tend to do about 65 percent of our sales during the fourth quarter. But based on our gross sales and continued expansion of our consulting crew, we hope to reach $250,000 by the end of the year.

Think Outside the Bag
Here are some tips detailing what I’ve found helpful in developing my company:

  • Stay involved. I was so tired after the first full year of business that I passed along as much work as possible the next year. In doing so, however, I found myself frustrated because not everything was being done the way I thought it should be, such as communicating with salespeople and encouraging unique approaches to working with new consultants. I also noticed a decline in overall sales. Since it’s my company, nobody was going to care more than I did. I quickly became fully engaged again. I believe that in time I will have the opportunity to be comfortable and less involved, but it wasn’t meant to be in the second year of business.
  • Be proactive. I did not need to make a big financial investment when launching Pursenally Yours. This made it easy to get started, but challenging when trying to promote my business. I knew the concept was great, as the feedback from customers and consultants was phenomenal. So I did some research, created a press release and started contacting local and national print and broadcast media. I went to them instead of waiting for them to come to me. I get a response about 30 percent of the time, which often turns into free exposure for the company.
  • Change with the seasons. I see numerous designs from repeat customers throughout the year. This tells me that, as seasons change, so do purses. I make sure we continue to update our inventory by launching new fabrics every three months and a new product twice a year. Not only do ladies have the opportunity to design their own unique purses, but they can do it all year long. It’s just as exciting for us as it is for the customers to see the new selections available.
  • Give back. It’s easy once the company grows and you start earning money to want to keep as much as you can. It’s important, however, to make sure you take the time to give back. We have worked with numerous schools, churches and other nonprofit organizations to create FUNdraisers! It’s an opportunity to share the concept of the company with others, while they enjoy raising money for their favorite organization. Hosting a purse party to raise money can certainly be more creative and memorable than flipping through a catalog to place an order.

I was a junior high English teacher before I had children. I didn’t start PURSEnally Yours until both of my kids were born. I’m happy to report that I’ve been able to maintain my stay-at-home mom status while successfully growing and managing a nationwide business.


Natalie Zaun is the owner of PURSEnally Yours, specializing in custom purses, hip handbags and trendy totes. PURSEnally Yours operates in eight states and works with some 65 women who help sell, sew, cut and create the custom-designed products.

Harry Potter and Personal Branding

Harry Potter and Personal Branding

By Nick Nanton and J.W. Dicks

From Fast Company

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened at Universal Studios Orlando June 18 and the studio is reporting rising attendance and guest spending. This is of particular significance since Universal’s theme park attendance had been hurt by the global recession and travel slowdown. The opening of the new attraction had been a long awaited event for Universal and Harry Potter fans, so the news of positive performance brings a welcome sigh of relief for the hefty $250 million bet Universal placed when they went after the Harry Potter attraction and scooped it out from under Disney who resides only a few miles away.

While all looks great with Harry Potter and the investment Universal made, the naysayers have been wondering out loud if Harry Potter will indeed have legs for years to come, after the last movie is out. After all, J.K. Rowling has said she will write no more Potter books and she certainly has enough money (Forbes estimates her net worth at more than $1 billion) to make that statement believable.

First, it will be a very long time before all of the Harry Potter fans even have an opportunity to go to the attraction. By then, many of the readers will have had more of their children come of reading age and turned into Harry Potter fans. And at some point, the books will pass down to the next generation. Additionally, just because J.K. Rowling doesn’t want to write any more books, doesn’t mean she won’t license different forms of Harry Potteradventures, from cartoons to video games. All of this brand continuity is up to Universal, who has both the burden and the opportunity, to make the Harry Potter brand stay fresh and make its product line continue to flow.

The lesson in all of this for us is to remember that we too must be vigilant with our own brands and work to keep them fresh with new ideas and expanding products that not only grow in number, but also lead into new business verticals and opportunities. Like Universal, most of us have invested lots of time and money to build our brand and in doing so have secured a bit of intellectual property that we have that is unique. While our brand may not have the value of Harry Potter, it doesn’t have to for it to be an opportunity to create more jobs, economic growth contributions, and a nice nest egg for ourselves and families. That’s a bit of “Wizarding” magic in and of itself.

JW Dicks (@jwdicks) & Nick Nanton (@nicknanton) are best-selling authors that consult for small- and medium-sized businesses on how to build their business through Personality Driven Marketing, Personal Brand Positioning, Guaranteed Media, and Mining Hidden Business Assets. They offer free articles, white papers, and case studies at their Web site. Jack and Nick have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Newsweek, FastCompany.com, and many more media outlets.

Why Morning People Rule the World

Why Morning People Rule the World

Morning people are more proactive – and therefore more successful in their professional lives — according to new research.

By Courtney Rubin

From Inc.com

To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, the morning people are different from you and me – or so says new research.

Early birds are more proactive than evening people – and so they do well in business, says Christoph Randler, a biology professor at the University of Education in Heidelberg, Germany.

“When it comes to business success, morning people hold the important cards,” Randler told the Harvard Business Review of his research, some of which originally appeared in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. “[T]hey tend to get better grades in school, which gets them into better colleges, which then leads to better job opportunities. Morning people also anticipate problems and try to minimize them. They’re proactive.” (Not that evening people are life’s losers: They’re smarter and more creative, and have a better sense of humor, other studies have shown.)

Who is a morning person, by definition? Randler says it is someone who gets up at roughly the same time on weekdays as on weekends. He surveyed 367 college students (an age group not exactly famous for early rising) when they were most energetic and willing to change a situation. The morning people were more likely to agree with statements such as “I feel in charge of making things happen” and “I spend time identifying long-range goals for myself.” (In the sample, the “evening people tended to sleep two hours later on weekends.)

Can you change type? “Somewhat,” says Randler, pointing to a study where half of schoolchildren were able to shift permanently their wake-up time by an hour. Still, it can be tough, partly because half of your chronotype, as it’s called, is determined by genetics. And just changing the hour you wake up may not change your inherent “morning-ness” or “evening-ness” In other words, getting up earlier will not automatically make you proactive.

Chronotypes also evolve over a person’s life cycle: Teenagers are evening types; between the ages of 30 and 50, people are evenly split between morning and evening types; and people become morning types as they pass through their fifties.

Randler says the challenge for businesses is to “bring out the best from their night owls.” He points to universities, which often do this successfully. (Randler is a morning person who gets up at 5 a.m. and works, whereas he has a colleague who arrives at work at 11:30 a.m. and stays until 7 or 8 p.m.)

But if morning people are ruling the world – winning the promotions and the top decision-making jobs – will night people ever get any concessions?

Says Randler: “Morning people are very capable of understanding the value of chronotype diversity. Remember, we’re conscientious. This understanding probably originated far back in history, when groups comprising morning people, evening people, and various chronotypes in between would have been better able to watch for danger at all hours. Evening types may no longer serve as our midnight lookouts, but their intelligence, creativity, humor, and extroversion are huge potential benefits to the organization.”

Becoming an Entrepreneurial Expat

Becoming an Entrepreneurial Expat

Thinking of launching a business abroad? Here’s what you need to know.

By Michelle Goodman

From Entrepreneur.com

After working in Mexico City as a manufacturer’s representative for two years, Elizabeth Helsley thought about returning to her hometown of San Diego to start her own company. Then she ran the numbers and discovered that bootstrapping her business in Mexico would drastically reduce her overhead. She decided to stay.

“The cost of living here is so much cheaper,” says Helsley, who launched Global Luxe, a firm that helps manufacturers enter the Mexican market, this spring. “I just moved into a really nice place with three bedrooms, and I’m paying less than $800. In San Diego, the same place would be $2,000 a month.”

But she’s not just saving on room and board. Her operating costs are also significantly lower.

“Here, I can hire an accountant for $20 a month,” Helsley says. Also cheaper: legal services, printing costs, trade show fees and, most significantly, corporate taxes. (According to KPMG’s latest “Competitive Alternatives” report, Mexico’s business taxes are 40 percent lower than those in the United States.)

For Helsley, the financial boon wasn’t the only detail that tipped the scale in Mexico’s favor. She already spoke the language, had a large network of professional contacts and had no trouble obtaining a long-term visa.

Of course, not all regions roll out the red carpet for U.S. entrepreneurs. Depending on the location, you could face difficulties getting a long-term visa, cutting through regulatory red tape and keeping as much of yourrevenue as you’d like.

Emigration 101
Among your top concerns should be whether you can legally emigrate to the country you’re considering.

“Most of the industrialized, more advanced countries tend not to just let people come and open up shop,” says Christopher Uzpen, a partner in the international tax group of law firm Withers Bergman LLP.

In other words, unless you’ve first established residency by living or working in your country of choice, nabbing a long-term visa can be easier said than done.

Cory Kidd, founder and CEO of Intuitive Automata, a health-care robotics startup based in Hong Kong, knows this firsthand.

Although getting his initial employment visa after setting up his company’s legal structure in 2008 was a snap, renewing it each year has required jumping through hoops.

“Hong Kong Immigration appears to be used to granting visas for employees of large, well-established companies but not for startups,” Kidd says–this despite the fact that his company employs 11 people, received a $250,000 interest-free loan from the local government, belongs to a local business incubation program and has raised a small round of angel investments.

Get the Lay of the (Foreign) Land
China, India, Brazil, Russia and some parts of Africa are among the more difficult startup locations for Americans, says Larry Harding, founder and president of High Street Partners, an international business services firm. And with the exception of the UK, he adds, doing business in the European Union can be pricey. (On the flip side, Harding calls starting a business in Hong Kong, Singapore or Japan “relatively straightforward.”)

Even if a region does welcome foreign entrepreneurs, the local infrastructure may not live up to U.S. standards, especially in developing nations.

“Here, we take it for granted that if our business is broken into, we can call the police,” says Bruce Bachenheimer, clinical professor of management and program director of Pace University’s entrepreneurship program. “But in other countries, the rule of law may not be what we expect.”

Likewise, Bachenheimer adds, in some locales, the roads, electricity, phoneservice, internet service, shipping companies and court system may be sorely lacking.

For Danny Wong, a partner with Blank Label, a Shanghai-based custom dress shirt company, doing business in China means accepting that the local government restricts internet access to many blogs and social media sites.

“We’re okay with that,” says Wong, who originally hails from Boston. “But ifyour business is heavily reliant on interactions on blogs, Twitter and Facebook, then China is not an ideal location for you.”

Play Location Scout
Obviously, doing the necessary recon before you relocate is a must. Embassies and trade missions in the United States are fine places to start. So are the chambers of commerce and U.S. embassies in your target location, many of which you can mine for introductions to other business expats, as well as referrals to local attorneys, accountants, business advisors and banks.

But international entrepreneurs say nothing beats visiting your target location and immersing yourself in the culturebefore taking the permanent leap.

“I came here three or four times before starting the company,” says Kidd, who began visiting Hong Kong five years ago. “The first was a vacation. The second was to start considering it as a startup location. I stayed in an apartment instead of a hotel to get a better sense of what it would be like to live here. The last visit or two was networking for setting up the company.”

Learning the local tongue can only help open those professional doors, says Helsley, who’s fluent in Spanish.

“You really have a deeper understanding of the culture if you learn the language,” she says. “You can pick up on things that you might not pick up on otherwise.” For example, she says, “In Mexico, a lot of times when people say ‘yes’ they really mean ‘no.'”

Adopt Local Business Practices
Along with the required permits, registrations and business licenses, you need to suss out the local labor laws and employment practices ahead of time.

“In some places, the labor is relatively cheap, but the churn factor is 100 percent,” Harding says.

For insider info, he suggests asking other business expats questions like: How challenging is it to hire local people? Where’s a good place to find them? What are the employment costs? What’s the turnover like?

“It’s a matter of figuring out all the details and nuances–simple things like the structure of an employment agreement, how to recruit candidates, how to motivate and incentivize employees,” Kidd says.

Cultural attitudes and regulations surrounding work-life balance are another consideration, Harding says. Working 80 hours a week to launch a startup might seem completely natural to you. But in quality-of-life-conscious France, he says, expecting that much overtime from employees won’t fly.

Follow the Financial Trail
The low overhead that enticed you to launch your business overseas won’t do you much good if you sacrifice your savings to unfavorable exchange rates, repatriation rules and tax regulations. For this reason, say entrepreneurial expats, enlisting the services of a local tax professional is critical.

“You want to have any taxes you pay in a foreign country reduce the taxes you pay in the United States whenever possible,” Uzpen says. What’s more, he adds, you want to keep your tax bill in mind when choosing a legal structure for your business, as the structure you select likely will affect the amount you owe.

“Ultimately, you don’t want taxes to drive how you do business,” Uzpen cautions. “But as an American, you’ve got two jurisdictions to worry about, which a lot of entrepreneurs from other countries don’t have.”


Michelle Goodman is a freelance writer and author of My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire.

Business Tips from Small-Town USA

Business Tips from Small-Town USA

By Kasey Wehrum

From Inc.com

Survival stories from rural entrepreneurs. From the pages of The Oklahoman comes a reminder to big-city entrepreneurs that their rural counterparts may operate under a different set of circumstances, but they still have some important lessons to teach on how to run a business. Becky McCray, an entrepreneur from Alva, Oklahoma, who owns a cattle range and a liquor store with her husband, speaks to the newspaper about howsmall-town entrepreneurs have learned to adapt to limited income streams, tighter budgets, and fewer customers. As McCray explains, “The market, your income, the value of your house or your business, these don’t always go up. Small towns don’t forget this. We are too close to farming. That changes the way a rural entrepreneur does business. We plan with a long-term perspective.” McCray even has some thoughts on the value of social media. “With social media, all your customers can talk to each other. This has always been true in a small town where everybody talks to everybody else. We know that if all our customers can talk to each other, we must treat every customer very well, similarly but not the same.”

Longtime Yankees owner dies. George Steinbrenner, a former shipping executive who bought the New York Yankees for $10 million in 1973 and transformed the struggling franchise over his tumultuous reign into a seven-time World Series champion worth $1.6 billion that fans either love or hate, died this morning at 80, The New York Times reports. His first taste of business came as young boy, raising chickens and selling their eggs. Over the decades of his ownership, Steinbrenner was perhaps best known for his meddling and impetuous nature and his free-spending ways. “A pioneer of modern sports ownership,” The Times writes, “Mr. Steinbrenner started the wave of high spending for playing talent when free agency arrived in the mid-1970s, and he continued to spend freely through the Yankee’s revival in the late ’70s and early ’80s.” He was twice suspended by Major League Baseball and often feuded with managers and star players. “In many, many instances, George will follow my advice,” his longtime publicist Howard Rubenstein told Inc. in 2004.“Sometimes he doesn’t.” But Steinbrenner will also be remembered as an owner committed to spending whatever it took to ensure a successful team and franchise. Under his leadership, the Yankees brought in significant revenue through the creation of the YES television network and marketing deals, such as a 10-year agreement with Adidas, The Times writes. Steinbrenner was also a generous philanthropist, explains the St. Petersburg Times, giving to many charities in Tampa, where he lived much of the year.

Hugh Hefner’s bid to take Playboy private. Still swimming against the tide, formerly of federal anti-obscenity laws, now of the outbreak of IPOs, Hugh Hefner made a proposal to purchase outstanding shares of Playboy and take the company private (via Daily Finance). A release from the company reveals that Hef’s motives are based on his concern for the editorial direction of the magazine and for Playboy’s legacy. Despite his eagerness to retake control, the pajama-clad entrepreneur may face some stiff competition. The Wall Street Journal has announced that Penthouse’s parent company, FriendFinder, plans to make a competing offer.

What Google could learn from Apple. By now, you’ve probably seen those sappy iPhone 4 ads on TV, showing off the phone’s new FaceTime feature. Cheesy? Perhaps, but according to Fast Company bloggerHenrik Werdelin, these emotional “experiences” that Apple offers its users are exactly what set it apart from the competition (via Fast Company). Werdelin says other tech giants, like Google, need to put less emphasis on the usability of the tools they offer and spend more time providing customers with an experience. He says the new generation of tech consumers is looking for solutions to their problems, not tools that can fix a problem. “People never lack a screwdriver,” he writes, “they need to hang a painting on the wall.” To drive his point home, Werdelin points out the stark difference between the official videos for Android 2.2 and the iPhone 4. See foryourself.

The Inevitable Recall of the World’s Greatest Smartphone. Speaking of the iPhone, Consumer Reports is sending mixed signals to potential iPhone 4 buyers this week. On the one hand, Cult of Mac says that in light of the agency’s tests, released yesterday, showing that antenna issues are hardware-related, Apple will be forced to recall the iPhone 4. Apple initially claimed it was a result of the way the phone calculates signal strength and put out a software fix. After Consumer Reports said yesterday that it can’t recommend buying an iPhone 4, crisis management expert Larry Barton told Cult of Mac, “They are in danger of betraying customers’ trust and hurting the brand, which is infinitely more valuable than any one product.” So how does all that jibe with Consumer Reports ratings of the same device? Not well. In its newest ratings, Consumer Reports gave the the latest iteration of the iPhone 76 out of 100, two points ahead of its closest rivals, reports AllThingsD. “In short, the iPhone 4 is hands-down the best smartphone available today, but Consumer Reports advises against buying it.” (via Techmeme)

Skype and Fring’s blog battle. Last week, mobile Internet-based phone service Fring announced a new feature that allowed users to video chat using the iPhone 4 over a 3G connection. (The iPhone currently requires WiFi for its FaceTime video chat.) The feature was so popular that Fring said it had to temporarily reduce support to Skype. That didn’t sit too well with Skype, who announced that it was blocking Fring members from using its service. Fring fired back with a blog post calling Skype “cowards” and accusing them of trying to “muzzle competition, even at the expense of its own users.” The logo of Skype on Fring’s website is now (rather comically) crossed out with the words “Banned” appearing below. Skype responded that Fring’s accusations are “untrue.” The New York Times sums it up best: “The latest Silicon Valley squabble sounds like an unusually esoteric episode of “Gossip Girl.” My Web Page