There has never been a time like the present to start your own business and become successful at what you do best.  Entrepreneurship is hot right now.  You can major in it at college, you can be your own boss, and you can dictate your own future in this troublesome economy.

We find that our business is starting to lean more towards those wanting to get the word out about their venture, or grow their existing business.  Some of the major ways we help these clients is by providing internet marketing campaigns, social media management, research and sales strategy development, website design, and branding.

Enter to win our tricked out Flip Cam.. ours is even hotter!

One great way to get the word out about your business is to network and embrace your local entrepreneurial community.  We are doing just that by sponsoring and attending the upcoming Entrepreneur Expo on March 31st in Philadelphia.  The Expo will have over 200 attendees as well as 3-4 dozen vendors all taking about their passions and dreams!  Not only will we be there to share how our business can help others grow, but we will also be giving away a great tool for growing your business and branding – a Flip video camera! Our custom designed Flip Mino video camera prize will help you start vlogging and recording all your business successes!  So make sure to stop by our booth, share your business ideas, and enter to win the coolest Flip on the market!

More details on the Philadelphia Entrepreneur Expo 2011:

It’s FREE to attend!! The Entrepreneur Expo is a showcase of work by entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial community. If you’re an entrepreneur, you will be able to talk about your work and hear about … the work of others. If you’re interested in new ideas, new business plans, the uses of new technology, or are simply curious about the creative energy in this region, you’ll have a chance to see and meet those beginning to make a difference.

This event is open to the entire community and all are welcome!

Who Will Be There?

Entrepreneurs, students, educators, investors, leaders in the political, legal, and business communities, members of the media, and the public.

March 31, 2011  6 pm – 9 pm

Solmsson Court, Hamilton Hall University of the Arts Pine & Broad

Get excited about the future. Get excited about the entrepreneurial spirit of Philadelphia. Come to the Entrepreneur Expo. Come and see tomorrow, today.

REGISTER:

http://psl.ticketleap.com/entrepreneur-expo-2011/

Sampling of our attendees

UPDATE: Try Coworking for Yourself!  Join us on Tuesday, April 19th @ Cake and the Beanstalk!  Get all the details and register here.

Recently, Cheryl and I were asked to present to the International VA Association on the topic of Coworking for their Expert of the Month series. We ran a quick poll at the beginning of the presentation asking participants if they had ever participated in Coworking. Remarkably enough, 80% of the audience had not!

One week prior, we hosted our own #EECoworking event, and received all sorts of questions from participants, looking for a better understanding of the Coworking concept. “Was it a seminar?” they wondered, “What does it cost?”, “Why do you run these events for free- what is the benefit for you?”

Our response- quite simply “Because we believe in investing in our local entrepreneurial community.” It’s true, our events are free. We’re not selling anything or requiring anything in return. It takes a reasonable amount of our time to plan, coordinate, market and run the events each month. Our time during the event is mostly spent facilitating introductions between attendees, and we couldn’t be happier about it!

Coworking, at it’s core is about reciprocity- the giving and exchanging of information. It’s the most collaborative, encouraging, authentic type of networking that you can engage your business in.

Our events are structured in such a way that you can come and get a modest amount of work done, get your burning business questions answered, learn about a new tool that can streamline your business, make a new friend who could potentially become a JV partner or introduce you to a client, and most importantly- have a genuine, engaged conversation with other local entrepreneurs and share about your business. Our participants consistently say that they always leave our events with at least one great piece of information to help their business.

In comparison to other types of networking groups- we don’t require you to bring in a certain number of leads for the group, and our casual environment is worlds away from walking into a giant room filled with people you don’t know, and trying to explain what you do in an elevator speech. Just come over, grab some coffee, open up your laptop, get some work done and make some new friends who are doing all sorts of interesting things in their businesses!

We’d love to have you out to join us! And whether you’re here in Philly or around the country, here are some great coworking spaces you should definitely check out!

Conjunctured in Austin

In Good Company in NYC (ladies only!)

Indy Hall right here in Philly!

LooseCubes – find a space around the country!

Learn more about all of the coworking options available to you via our shared presentation below!

Here in Philly experts in their field are stepping out of the mold to start their own companies and provide services they know best.  We entrepreneurs are a strong force and growing every day.  We are providing quality and necessary services ranging from web design to copy writing and everything in between.   As a result of all sharing common goals, and the City of Brotherly Love, we are creating the ecosystem to foster growth and support for entrepreneurial success.  In the article, 9 steps are outlined for Creating an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, and sure enough, step two is to the shape the ecosystem around local conditions to tailor the suit to fit its own local entrepreneurship dimensions, style and climate.  We are doing just that; entrepreneurs in various fields are coworking, there are weekly meet ups to meet the needs of any level of networker, and above all, entrepreneurs are accepted and celebrated for their efforts.

The opportunities for an entrepreneur to be successful in this current market are high.  Many companies are seeing the value of outsourcing and slowly starting to open their checkbooks to bring in these expert entrepreneurs to help their business grow.  Many groups are also supporting entrepreneurs by hosting coffees, lunches, happy hours, meet ups and conferences to allow for networking, sharing, and learning.

In doing our part to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem, we have been hosting coworking and networking events around the city.  Our next event will be on Thursday, January 20th, in Northern Liberties at One Shot Coffee.  Here we meet with dozens of other entrepreneurs to work as a community for the day; sharing stories, asking questions, making new introductions, drinking coffee and just enjoying eachother’s company as we meet our work demands.

As a bonus for the new year, we will follow coworking with a Philly Entrep Hapy Hour, starting at 5:30pm at PYT in The Piazza

Please join us for our next coworking day!

Date: Thursday, January 20th

Coworking: starting at 2pm

Location: One Shot Coffee
George Street (and American) behind Liberties Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19123

Come and go as you please; we will be grabbing some food and making business introductions all day!

Happy Hour: starting at 5:30pm

Location: PYT @ The Piazza in Northern Liberties
1015 N @2nd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123

*Parking available on the street or in the free lot located on Germantown Ave on the Northeast side of the Piazza.

Be sure to RSVP here.

Here’s what we recommend:

Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, – Hot of the shelves, written by the founders of 37Signals (aka the Basecamp/ Highrise Enterprise)-  A quick read breaking down their rules for success (hint here- Simplify, Simplify, Simplify).  If you are a new entrepreneur and are continually mystified by the corporate nonsense business structure, you’ll appreciate this authentic review of the new way of working.

Review here by Inc. Mag

Tribes by Seth Godin- Forget traditional marketing, authenticity is key and having a tribe of supporters is the best kind of publicity.  The Web has opened new doors to leadership and has presented us with a new way to garner a following of people interested in what we have to say.  Godin’s mantra  (and we would concur)  is that everyone can now find or assemble a tribe and lead it. The tools are there to lead the tribes that are forming from Facebook to Twitter to Craigslist.

Review here by USA Today

Faves for female entreps:

Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense & Sensibility- by Mireille Guiliano, the long-time super-classy CEO of Veuve Cliquot, and the author of French Women Don’t Get Fat. A guidebook for the professional woman on how to navigate the business world and live a well-balanced, happy life.  From acing a job interview or performance review to hosting a dinner party, Mireille tells it like it is (with her french flair!) as she shares her secrets for feeling good, facing challenges, getting ahead, and maximizing pleasure at every opportunity.

The Martha Rules- Martha Stewart (Emily’s favorite!)  Martha’s fundamentals for successful entrepreneurship.  A legendary entrepreneur in her own right, she shares her 10 rules for succeeding in business.  Having turned her personal passion and experience into a multi-market phenomenon the MSLO enterprise is a leader in diversification.  Tapping into her years of experience in building a thriving business, Martha will help readers identify their own entrepreneurial voice and channel their skills and passions into a successful business venture.

Oldies but Goodies:

Rules for Revolutionaries- Guy Kawasaki, former Apple Chief Evangelist.  The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services. Rules lays out Kawasaki’s decidedly audacious (but personally experienced) strategies for besting the competition and triumphing in today’s hypercharged business environment.  Lots of note-taking in this summer read, definitely more product and corporate focused, but relevant to entreps nonetheless.

The E-Myth Revisited- Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work, by Michael Gerber – The original guidebook for running a small business.  Key takeaway here- “As Entrepreneurs we need to focus on working ON our business and not IN our business.”  So many of us start out doing everything in our businesses, when really we should be focusing on being the leader of our business.

Summer Fun:

The Accidental Billionaires- Ben Mezrich  The story of the founding of Facebook (unofficially!) but a great, interesting fun read.

And the users of video blogging might surprise you. While all vlogs are experimental, some have a little further reach than others. Politicians are hosting their own vlogs to share information and answer questions. Radio and TV shows are using video blogs to interact with more listeners and viewers. Even iTunes allows you to upload video through their podcasts!   Check out a sample here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZNWh8blWB8

There are many sites to host your video blog. If you already have a blog check there first, as almost all allow video uploads. Some good sites for hosting a blog as well as a video blog are WordPress, Blogger, and Typepad. If you are launching with just a vlog then look into a video hosting site.  Sites like WordPress have specific video themes (skins) that you can purchase to kick up your vlog.  We went with a Woo Theme, “Groovy” to host our vlog, www.watchuslaunch.com.  Install some google analytics and you’re good to go!

Tip:  To shoot easy video for your vlog, check out a Flip Cam- available at Best Buy, etc for around $100!  This cool, palm-sized camera has a built in USB port that snaps right into your computer.  Just shoot, flip and upload it right to your YouTube account.  And it even comes in cool colors like pink, orange and green, so you can fully personalize your vlogging experience!

Getting your message out there: Whether you want to share your birthday party video with your sister, show a new product about to be released to your end users, or just give some insight into starting a business (www.watchuslaunch.com) you have to promote and market your vlog. Social media tools are an excellent grass roots campaign starter. Depending on the scope of your reach you may just want to keep the videos public on YouTube and promote them within your industry circle. Either way, using RSS allows others to subscribe to your site or have your content feed into their reader. This is simple if you have an existing blog that you can add your video to. Record yourself, post it, and share it! We hope to hear about more of your joining the video blogging world!

Constant Contact

Pros: Super-simple contact management and email creation, customizable autoresponders.  Great customer support team!

Pricing: Free 60 day trial, $15/mo for up to 500 contacts, pricing increases per number of contacts.

Offers: Over 300 fully customizable HTML email templates for newsletters, announcements, cards, promos, surveys.

List Mgmt: Sign up box which can be added to your website, ability to easily import/ upload your contacts into segmented lists, a useful unsubscribe comment box.  Real-time open and click tracking, above-average inbox delivery rate.

Cons: Because you can easily upload your contact list into their system, your list may not be as clean as with other email programs that may require subscribers to re-opt-in to confirm interest.

AWeber

Pros: Small, dedicated team of developers, mandatory verifying opt-in helps you build a stronger list, and they take spam seriously!

Pricing: Free trial, $19/mo for up to 500 contacts, pricing increases per number of contacts.

Offers: In addition to email marketing, analytics and autoresponders, AWeber also offers website sign-up forms with split-test forms that let you test which headlines get the best response, the ability to send subscribers to any page on your website, or create hover pop-up forms.  Over 100 html templates to choose from, split test messages (to track which gets the best results), blog newsletters, and autoresponders with download delivery.  Integrated shopping cart capability.

List Mgmt: Zero spam policy, automatically processes unsubscribes and undeliverable addresses, detailed web analytics, verified list opt-in.

Cons: A third  of the amount of selection in templates and while the required opt-in will eventually give you a stronger list, initially it could be tough for some to see their mailing list numbers deplete!

Our Recommendation:

If you are just looking for a simple way to manage your mailing list, and deliver a clean newsletter or html email to your subscribers, Constant Contact will give you the results you need.  If you are looking to get technical, possibly integrate lots of shopping cart/ ecommerce functions eventually, and work to build out a streamlined list, consider AWeber for its additional features and stricter opt-in rules.  If you only have a small list and want to send a beautiful html (simple, no coding required!) emails, check out MailChimp which is free if you send to under 100 recipients a max of 6x per month.

Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks… calculated risks that is. In my experience, that typically breaks out to about 25% innovation and 75% dedication and perspiration.  Commitment is key in bringing any great idea to reality and eventual profitability.  A great idea is useless if it is not developed and promoted properly.

This is where a team (or Entourage as we say at DS!) is critical.  Even my commitment alone is not enough to launch an entrepreneurial venture.  Along the way I learned (pretty quickly, actually!) that I’m only one person, and that no matter how much I work, there are still only 24 hours in any given day.  By adding a reliable, skilled team, those hours dedicated to the launch process can multiply dramatically.  In addition to manpower, my team gives me valuable feedback; each coming at any new idea with varying perspectives and a fresh set of eyes.  Some may say, “adding a team just adds extra headaches.”  I’ve learned that I’d much rather have faster, more rounded success to move my idea into a profit generator, than a drawn-out process in which I invest all of my time and have zero perspective.

Besides, like most entreps, by the time the venture is finally launched, we’re already onto the next great idea!  Are you looking to launch an entreprenurial venture?  If so, let us build out a customized team of support tailored to your specific needs to take your idea from concept to profitability.

Entreps Entourage: Customize.  Strategize.  Organize.  Realize.