"You aren't a real entrepreneur until you've had to deal with failure," says the website describing FailCon. It goes on to characterize FailCon as "the first conference ever to ask successful founders, investors, designers and developers 'What's gone wrong and how did you fix it?' " FailCon drew well over 300 attendees to the Kabuki Hotel in San Francisco on Oct. 27 to hear entrepreneurs and venture capitalists talk about their failed companies. Among them was PayPal co-founder Max Levchin--now CEO of Slide, a Facebook app maker--who talked about his first four failed companies. Mark Pinkus, who runs... Continue Reading »

Branding is everybody's business these days. Everywhere you look, there's a book or a business owner promising to build your brand, reinvent your brand or add buzz to your brand. It's clear that any business bound for success has to understand branding and all that branding entails in today's world. That's why I'm turning my blog over to branding expert Lynn Parker today. She's recommending a branding book she says will help you outdo your competition, "Branding Like the Big Boys." Here's what she has to say about it: Martin Thoma's new book--Branding Like the Big Boys--performs a neat... Continue Reading »

Looking for a new business trend? Look no further than the water industry and water conservation, Susan J. Marks suggests. Marks has just written the book Aqua Shock: The Water Crisis in America, and she's brimming with alarming facts and figures about the straits we're in and the solutions we're going to need so we don't run out of the precious liquid. "We use 408 billion gallons every day in the United States," she says. "Each of us uses 80 to 100 gallons for personal use each day. That's 152 tons of water per person per year." Yes,... Continue Reading »

The government's Cash for Clunkers program has prompted a spate of copycat offerings from retailers and manufacturers. Customers can trade in used furnishings at Ruby & Quiri in Johnstown, N.Y., or Pacific Manufacturing in Phoenix. There's Credit for Clunkers at 1-800-Mattress, Cash for Couches at Lillian August in Connecticut, and what some retailers are calling Cash for Teakettles, which Chantal Cookware Corp. will introduce next month. Even Leibler-Bronfman Lubalin Advertising in New York City has its own tongue-in-cheek version of the campaign. Called Cash for Creative Clunkers, it encourages companies and retailers to trade in their ad "lemons"... Continue Reading »

Try not to become a man of success. Rather, become a man of value. A successful man takes out of life more than he puts in. A man of value will give more than he receives. --Albert Einstein That quote is the key tenet of Orville and Heidi Thompson's business, Scentsy, a company that sells wickless candles online and through Scentsy consultants nationwide. It's also the central theme behind the Meridian, Idaho-based company's decision to give away $100,000 to 40 local businesses last July, to celebrate the company's fifth anniversary. The couple settled on $100,000 because it was... Continue Reading »

Don't read this post if you want to believe the government's assurances that the economy's turning around and all will soon be right with the world. Lynn Tilton, CEO of private-equity fund Patriarch Partners, is here to tell you that things aren't nearly as rosy as Washington would like us to think. The problem is banks' failure to lend money to small and midsize businesses. "We're losing industry in this country every day--which means we're losing jobs--because they have no access to capital," she says. And that means permanent job losses for the men and women who were employed... Continue Reading »

Like many mom entrepreneurs, Lisa Habermehl came up with a business idea when she realized her daughter had a need that wasn't being addressed. But Habermehl's entrepreneurial effort isn't a product in the usual sense. Instead, it's information about back care, produced in a format children can understand. Her website is IPositionMe.com. Habermehl notes that children learn about calling 911 in an emergency. They're taught dental hygiene. They're told about staying at a healthy weight and eating well. But no one mentions preventive measures for the back. The idea started as a volunteer project, when her daughter came home from... Continue Reading »

It's a good time to buy a business--but only if the business you're buying is profitable, even in these recessionary times. So says Ted Leverette, president of Partner On-Call Network LLC, a franchise that helps buyers purchase small and midsize businesses that owners quietly put up for sale. Leverette advises against buying a mediocre business at a bargain price with the intent of fixing whatever's wrong with it and making a killing. "The only businesses worthwhile are the ones that have been profitable--and I say for a minimum of five years, including right up till now." About 20 percent... Continue Reading »

"Weddings are hectic. What about if, on top of that, the bride is co-founding a stealth-mode company in the [Silicon] Valley? My fiancé and I are launching a startup--and also getting married five days from now at Stanford [University]. So we created the first Startup Wedding Registry."  So began an intriguing e-mail from Drue Kataoka, an accomplished Japanese sumi-e brush painting artist, co-writer of the blog ValleyZen, entrepreneur and soon-to-be bride. "No crystal, flatware or blenders here. Instead, we've invited our guests to feed an engineer for a day ($273), feed a VC lunch ($291) or... Continue Reading »

The Right Lanes, the brainchild of Stacy Brooks and Jenelle Lynch of Herndon, Va., continues to gain traction in northern Virginia. Brooks and Lynch created the organization earlier this year in a bid to help area businesses survive the tough economy and also provide substantial networking opportunities for women. Earlier this summer I wrote about their first event, a daylong dining, shopping and wine-tasting excursion from Herndon to Charlottesville, Va. About 25 women participated in the May 30 trip, pumping several thousand dollars into the local economy and providing the women with solid networking opportunities. This past weekend, The Right... Continue Reading »