Small Business Labs

Book Review: Entrepreneurial Journeys

Sramana Mitra is a technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley.  Her book Entrepreneurial Journeys is a series of interviews with successful technology entrepreneurs. 

The book covers a lot of ground.  It has a dozen interviews spread across 6 chapters.  Given the state of the economy, I enjoyed the chapter on bootstrapping the most. 

The structured interviews in the reader to learn how these people created break through ideas and organizations.  I was already familiar with most of the companies and people mentioned in the book, but the interviews contained a lot of useful information that was new to me. 

I can also report, based on knowing some of those interviewed, that Mitra does a great job capturing who they are and how they work. 

Anyone interested in tech start-ups will find this book both interesting and informative.  Its interview format and chapter structure also make it easy to read in bite sized chunks. 

Book Review: Fools Gold? The Truth Behind Angel Investing in America

Scott Shane, the author of Fools Gold? The Truth Behind Angel Investing in America and professor of entrepreneurship at Case Western Reserve, loves small business data.  HIs books, research papers and articles always include detailed data and analysis on the topic he is covering.

And the great thing about Scott's work is he organizes the data so well he creates instant reference guides for the rest of us.  My copy of Illusions of Entrepreneurship rarely leaves my desk because I refer back to it so often.

He has done the same thing with angel investing.  In Fools Gold he presents a broad, data-intensive picture of of angel investors.  The analysis goes beyond the popular press version of angels to describe the diverse angel investing sector.

An excellent analysis of angel investing, the book is useful for anyone interested in becoming an angel investor, attracting angel investments, or creating public policy related to angel investing. 

Interesting Small Business Facts and Data From the SBA

The SBA released a reference guide to small business activity that includes state level detail.  A lot of good information including:

• Between 2000 and 2005 the number of nonemployer business (personal businesses) grew at a rate almost 4 times faster than the overall growth growth rate for businesses.  As of 2005 there were over 20 million nonemployer businesses.
• The number of small employer business (less than 500 employees) grew at a rate roughly 3 times faster than large companies.  In 2005 there were roughly 6 million small employer businesses.
• Small businesses created almost 80% of the US economy's net new jobs from 2004 to 2005.

These numbers clearly illustrate the growing role the small business sector is playing in the US economy.

I saw this on SBA Chief Economist Chad Moutray's blog.

Obama CTO and Civic Software

Front Seat Software has released a community website called Obama CTO. 

The goal of the site is to provide an example of how software and the Internet can be used to make it easier for citizens to participate in government.

The site allows citizens to vote and comment on issues related to President-elect Obama's technology and general agenda. 

Front Seat calls their category "civic software", which they describe as software that connects people to the places we live, resources we consume and our communities. 

Blending social service with software, they have a number of projects including the popular Walkscore site that grades neighborhoods on walkability. 

Desktop Manufacturing Dental Crowns and Bridges

SensAble has released a dental lab system that allows dental technicians to create a digital model of dental crowns and bridges using a pen-like interface.  A 3-D printer is then used to produce a resin prototype, which is then cast into metal for insertion. 

           

According to the company this process takes half the time of conventional methods.

3-D printers and desktop manufacturing are rapidly improving in performance.  Already in wide use for prototyping, as the example of above shows they are increasingly being used to make products.

I saw this in Popular Science but could not find it on their website. 

Great Explanation of Coworking

NBC News has a great story on coworking.  The video is short (2:05 minutes), focuses on the social aspects of coworking and is one of the best explanations of the concept I've seen.

NBC News SF also has a coworking story.  It is on Cubes & Crayons, a coworking facility that also has daycare.  It also does a nice job explaining coworking.

For those not interested in watching the video, an SF Chronicle story describes coworking as:

"Laptop nomads - that growing tribe of folks who can be found typing away at any cafe with wireless Internet access - are starting to put down roots. And some .... are doing it through co-working, a 21st century twist on the old idea of the shared artists' studio.

In co-working, a group of freelancers or other solo entrepreneurs share one big office space with perks that they might not get at home, such as conference rooms, espresso machines and opportunities for socializing."

For more info, see our category on coworking or visit the coworking blog

Health Care Reform Gaining Support

The Los Angeles Times has an article suggesting that support for health care reform is gaining momentum and we may see sweeping changes next year.  The article points out that reform has broad, bipartisan support and has the support of President-elect Obama. 

The cost and availability of health care is a major concern for small businesses.  The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the Business Roundtable and other business groups are pushing for reform.  Key quote from the article:

""It's the single biggest cost pressure our members face," said John Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable. "This is coming to a tipping point." Castellani warned that failure to resolve the healthcare crisis would increasingly threaten major employers."

Despite the need and broad based support, healthcare reform will not be easy to achieve.  Powerful interest groups oppose reform and most proposals require substantial increases in federal healthcare spending. 

But the biggest obstacle may be higher priorities.  The new administration's highest priorities are going to be the economy, jobs, Iraq and Afghanistan.  Given the state of the US economy and our involvement in two wars, healthcare reform may have to wait.   

 

Survey on Working From Home

The Council of Smaller Businesses (COSE) is the small business division of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, which is one of the nation's largest metropolitan chambers of commerce. 

COSE recently conducted a membership survey focused on better understanding home based businesses.  The results show that many home based businesses are stable, profitable and full-time small businesses.   

The results of the survey are not surprising to those of with home based businesses.  Here are a couple of interesting data points from their results:

• 70% of the respondents had been working for home for over 5 years
• 41% said they started their business because they stopped enjoying working for someone else
• Only 21% said they started their business because they lost their job.
• Only 12% said being a home business hurt their ability to attract customers

It is well worth reading for anyone interested in home based businesses. I saw this on the Selling to Small Business blog and a copy of the report is on Slideshare. 

Webinar on Growing Your Business in a Down Economy

SAP is hosting the third webinar in their series on weathering the economic downturn on Thursday, November 20th at 1:00pm eastern time.  The title of this webinar is Think Different: Find New Ways to Grow Your Business. 

The session will focus on creative ideas and tactics that can be used to grow and thrive in a down economy. 

Dr. Jana Matthews leads the session and will be joined by other experts and small business executives.  Click here to register for the event.

The prior two webinars were quite good.  You can also view them at the same site.

The SBA's New Blog

The Small Business Administration has a new blog.  It is called The Small Business Watchdog and it comes from the SBA Office of Advocacy.  The scary looking dog on the right is part of their blog logo, so they seem to be taking their watchdog role seriously.

They are encouraging feedback and comments on their blog, which I think is quite brave for a government agency:).

Kudos to the SBA for embracing social media and creating an easy way for small businesses to provide input and feedback.  We've added the blog to our reading list.