Hello everyone and welcome to Throw Back Thursday! Here’s a piece Leo wrote back in 2009 while he was building his company, Fitness Arch. Enjoy!
Yesterday I was a finalist at the MIT Entrepreneurship Forum and was one of the 6 companies that presented at the 2009 Start-Up Demo (http://www.mitwa.org/catalog/index.cfm?fuseaction=product&theParentId=119&id=828 ). As I was working on my presentation, I realized that there are a few tips and Tricks that I have learned along the way and that some of these can be of use to others on the entrepreneurial path. So I am putting them here for your enjoyment.
Networking Organizations:
• MIT Forum –best technology and education forum around
• NWEN –great place to meet fellow entrepreneurs and recruit team members
• SBA (Small Business Association)—free start-up resources from US Gov —the best use of your tax dollars!
• SCORE –part of Small Business Association—retired executive advisors for free!
• Toastmasters –international organization that helps people improve their communication and leadership skills. Key to any success
• Industry Associations
• (yours & customers)
• Linked-In –Facebook for professionals—use your network to find answers to your questions or to connect to a person who you need to find.
Online Resources to Discover:
• www.elance.com –best place to find good outsource labor in anything (note: Elance is moving to Upwork)
• www.uspto.gov –best and most user friendly source of everything you need to know about IP
• www.officelive.com –free document sharing, customer management, project management, web management system from Microsoft!
• www.skype.com –cheap way to communicate online and offline
• www.freeconferencecalls.com –name says it all
• www.craigslist.com –best place to find anything
• www.zoho.com –great customer management system (better than Salesforce) that is free for the first three users.
Education:
• Entrepreneurship Classes –great use of the money—I would advise Devry
• Business Plan Competitions –free help, great practice, fantastic PR, potential $$$
• University Resources –every university has an entrepreneurship department with money to burn… (Your, Spouse, Friends)
• Harvard Business Review –a bible for business. Teaches me how to think business
Best Books:
• Getting to Yes –classic negotiation book
• The Power of Full Engagement –great self-improvement book
• E-myth Revisited –fantastic primer for starting a business
• Leading at a Higher Level –key book on situational leadership
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