Garage Entrepreneurs

We’ve assembled some top tips for young entrepreneurs from a few of our dedicated members. We asked them: What would be your best advice for a young, passionate entrepreneur or would-be entrepreneur? Joe Ornato – Founder, Ornato Group Create a backstage process.  Write down all the steps that it will take to give your customer the ultimate experience.  Natural sales people tend to “do” what they “know” intuitively, without getting into a well-defined process.  Building a process allows for: consistency, duplication, […] Continue Reading Best Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

As the holiday season comes to an end, we wanted to share with you a few observations that we made. All of the following ten pictures were taken on our phones over the past few weeks: 1.  If you’re going to offer ‘on line’ shopping, can you please spell it correctly? 2. This is a picture of a Staples employee carrying a computer chair across an intersection, into a grocery store parking lot for a customer.  Talk about great customer service! 3. […] Continue Reading Our Holiday Observations

If you’re a business student (or a future business student), you’re no doubt familiar with the 4 P’s of Marketing: Price, Product, Placement and Promotion. I’d like to talk about the 4 P’s of Entrepreneurship: Passion, Persuasiveness, Patience and Pain Threshold. Passion: One common characteristic about all entrepreneurs is that they’re passionate about what they’re doing. If you’re a young entrepreneur starting (or thinking about starting) a new business, you need to be able to live it, breathe it, eat it […] Continue Reading The 4 P’s of Entrepreneurship

Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy. You’re often on your own, making your own schedule, setting your own goals, and holding yourself accountable. It can sometimes feel like you’re spinning your wheels, doing a lot of work but not going anywhere. And finally, when you do move your business forward, you take another step back. As an entrepreneur this is going to happen – I can guarantee it. You’re going to make great progress one day, only to realize that the very […] Continue Reading Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

As an entrepreneur, your schedule is bound to overload. There are times when you’re in a normal routine, getting up early, working hard, managing your time well and (most importantly) getting stuff done. There are other times, however where demands on your time become tighter and you’ll having a hard time getting up earlier, and staying focused on your business. Here’s how you can battle through: Lean on your business partner. Fortunately for me, I have a fantastic business partner who […] Continue Reading Staying Motivated as a Young Entrepreneur

For young entrepreneurs, it’s difficult to take that first step – but it doesn’t have to be. That first step doesn’t necessarily mean assembling a business plan, and it doesn’t even have to mean committing to an idea. In fact, the first step for some (and perhaps most) could be getting in the entrepreneurial mindset and staying on top of current trends. But where do you find entrepreneurial resources? There are a number of resources that we use on a daily […] Continue Reading Resources for Young Entrepreneurs

Marketing for entrepreneurs isn’t as simple as it used to be. Marketing media is changing daily, and under the influence of social media, marketing will never be the same. This post is not a cutting-edge way to advertise your new business, it’s a look at the information you need to know to make marketing decisions. Marketing is the connection that you have with your customers. You need to understand your customers in order to reach them effectively. To change things up […] Continue Reading Garage Entrepreneurs Business Planning Blog Series: Part 6 (Entrepreneurial Marketing)

Michael Phelps is a phenomenal athlete. He has won 14 career Olympic gold medals, the most by any Olympian. As of 2008, he holds seven world records in swimming. At the 2008 Beijing Games, Phelps took home eight gold medals. He won the World Swimmer of the Year Award in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008 – and earned Sports Illustrated magazine’s Sportsman of the Year Award in 2008. Although Phelps has had some amazing individual accomplishments, he was […] Continue Reading Michael Phelps Is A Team Player

This question seems to be the most common question plaguing the minds of entrepreneurs. However, I think the more important question is this: What is failure? Going “off on your own” is incredibly difficult. It’s more motivating than anything in the world, more intense than anything you’ve ever done, and scary as hell. The idea of starting your own business is easy; anyone can do it because all it takes is the ability to recognize a need and a way to […] Continue Reading What If I Fail?

Entrepreneurs come to us all the time asking how they can find that golden idea, their “key to success”, the next “big thing”. Unfortunately, I’ve got to say that there is no easy way to find the right idea – there is no secret sauce, no series of steps that can guarantee the right idea falls into your lap. In my opinion, creativity is not something we were born with, after all it’s not just the creative masterminds who come up […] Continue Reading Garage Entrepreneurs Business Planning Blog Series: Part 1 (Ideation)