Posts tagged entrepreneur ideas

Are you an Entrepreneur? Here’s a Challenge for you

Dec 7th

Posted by David Brim in entrepreneurship

I recently came across an interesting video from Stamford University’s Entrepreneurship program. A professor there came up with an interesting challenge for her entrepreneurship students. First she formed them into groups then gave them each “seed funding” of $5. The groups had 4-5 days to plan and then had 2 hours to make as much money as possible after their envelope was opened. Afterward the groups presented their findings and outcome in front of the class.

There were some really creative ideas. The team that generated the most money actually ended up selling their 3 minute presentation slot to a company interested in recruiting the students.

Some ideas that I think would do quite well include:

1) Buying tickets and cans then raffling off “dates” for group members. (This depends on the attractiveness of the group members. This could also be an auction where the highest bidder wins the date)

2) Massages for $X or doing them free for donations.

3) Hold a focus group for businesses in the area so they can better understand and reach college/grad students. Call restaurants and solicit food donations. This focus group concept could be held for almost any vertical. You could simply give the participants a free lunch and charge the companies $10-$20.

4) Hold a educational session on how to use twitter or new media to grow your business. Again lunch would be provided through solicitations and you would charge people to attend.

5) Call a magician or other skilled person (artist, musician, etc) and invite local parents and kids (or the talent’s target market). Convince the talent to perform for free to get his name out there and request $10 for admission for attendees giving half to charity. People give their money away a lot easier when they know a portion goes to charity. You could also get food donated for this event as well.

Well it’s late and that’s all I got for now. I may add some more later.

What do you think about this challenge? Which was your favorite of my ideas? What would you do with $5 and 2 hours to generate the most money possible?

business entrepreneurship, business innovation, characteristics entrepreneur, characteristics of entrepreneurs, entrepreneur ideas, stamford entrepreneur

10 Things a Start-up Entrepreneur’s Valentine Should Know

Feb 14th

Posted by David Brim in entrepreneurship

15 comments

This is a guest post written by my girlfriend Lindsay Ament (@Lindsay273).

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Since it is Valentines Day I spent some time reflecting on my wonderful relationship of three and a half years with my boyfriend David. However, being the girlfriend of an entrepreneur is challenging but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. So for those of you in the same boat as me, hang in there it will be well worth it! Here are some tips that I found helpful:

You must be able to block out the alerts coming from the cell phone. It will drive you nuts with all of the e-mails, phone calls/text messages and Twitter updates.
Only expect a tiny little corner of the bookshelf. Most likely the book shelf will be completely stacked with books like “Future Millionaires”, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and “Founders at Work”.
Let him know that dinner is ready about 10-15 mins before it actually is. Therefore, he can finish his e-mail, conversation on Twitter or phone call in a timely manner before his food gets cold. I can’t tell you how many meals I’ve had to microwave.
Always be supportive. Being the girlfriend or wife of an entrepreneur requires you to be their support through the many ups and downs of the roller coaster ride.
You may have to move across the country because he needs to go to the state/city that will be best for his venture.
Be prepared for him to NETWORK everywhere you go!
Be prepared for him to be in front of or at least near his computer 75% of the day
TV shows like BIG IDEA will be filling up your DVR
Get used to going to bed alone. Especially if you work early and want to get at least 8 hrs of sleep. Most likely he will finally shut off the computer and crawl into bed around 2 or 3 am.
Most importantly, understand that you are with an extremely motivated, self disciplined and inspired person, be proud of them. It takes special people to be entrepreneurs.