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.

We have been working from various wifi spots throughout the city this year, with great turnout at all of our events.  Entrepreneurs, business owners, freelancers, and other independents looking to get out of the office and network have been coming together at these events to meet, work, eat, and share business cards.  Check out some of our coworkers in our quickie vlog post:  http://www.watchuslaunch.com/

This month we are heading to a clean, bright, and friendly cafe in Northern Liberties called Euphoria Cafe.  They have great coffee, tea, smoothies, sandwiches, and our personal favorite, iced bubble coffee!  Euphoria offers free wifi and a comfortable area for us to all sit together to work and mingle.  This cafe is also in the exciting Piazza, surrounded by restaurants, shops, galleries, and of course the big outdoor courtyard with the giant screen TV so you can stick around and watch the Phillies game that night!

If you are committed to evolving your business in 2010,  coworking is for you.  Entrepreneur’s Entourage’s Coworking events are a great way to get a change of scenery from your home or corporate office and hang in the presence of some of Philly’s brightest entreps.  Our group brings together the open share of ideas and the strength of the entrepreneurial community here in Philadelphia across all industries.  Our meetup days are informal and a great way to share your business, make connections, get some work done on your laptop, grab a bite to eat, and gain new perspectives.

Please join us for our next coworking day!

Date: Thursday, June 10, 2010 starting at 10am.

Come and go as you please; we will be grabbing some food around 12:30pm, and making business introductions all day!

Location: Euphoria Coffee
1001 N 2nd Street in The Piazza
Philadelphia, PA

Be sure to RSVP here.

Then please tweet that you will be attending, or just follow all of our participant tweets using #EECoworking.

If you are committed to evolving your business in 2010, coworking is for you.  Coworking is a great way to get a change of scenery from your home or corporate office and hang in the presence of some of Philly’s brightest entreps.  Our group brings together the open share of ideas and the strengthening of the entrepreneurial community here in Philadelphia across all industries.  Our meetup days are informal and a great way to share your business concept, make connections, get some work done on your laptop, grab a bite to eat, and gain new perspectives.

EE Coworking and Networking Days are here to stay in 2010! We will be working from various wifi spots throughout the city once a month on the second Thursday of each month.  We’ve had a great turnout at all of our events.  Check out some of our coworkers in our quickie vlog post:  http://www.watchuslaunch.com/

Please join us for our next coworking day!

Date: Friday, April 30th, 2010 starting at 10am.

Come and go as you please, but we will be grabbing some food and doing business introductions at 1:00pm

Location: Chapter House Cafe
620 South 9th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147

Be sure to RSVP here.

Then please tweet that you will be attending, or just follow all of our participant tweets using #EECoworking.

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.

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 April 13th 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 2010:

Philly Startup Leaders present The Entrepreneur Expo – Innovation on Display – April 13, 2010 at University of the Arts. This 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.

April 13, 2010 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.

https://philly-startup-leaders.ticketleap.com/entrepreneur-expo-2010-04-13-2010-18-0

Given our hectic work schedules and commitment to a work-life balance,  it’s hard to argue that our work which takes up at least 40 hours per week of our lives, is not a major part of who we are.  If you are one, sitting miserably in your cubicle right now, reading this blog post, watching the clock tick down to 5:00 (hey, we’ve all been there!), then this post is for you!

Do you love what you do? Does it wake you up in the morning and motivate you through the day?  Do you feel a sense of pride and accomplishment in your work?  Do you have a great idea, but does the fear of going out on your own and forging your own way seem out of reach?

I’m here (as proof) to tell you that it’s possible!  If that’s not enough, come out and witness other local entrepreneurial dynamos in action! Bring a laptop, or a notebook and come meet and interact with folks who are working their butts off to make their vision for their business a reality.  Come pick our brains, and share your ideas and hear war stories about how we’ve worked to turn a vision into a reality.

The next Philly Coworking and Networking Day will be held on Friday, February 12, 2010 at the TBar on 12th and Sansom.

Take the day off from your cube and commute and come cowork and network with some of Philly’s brightest entrepreneurs and small business owners.  There’s no dress code, and no rules; just a group of people spending a few hours of their day getting some work done, collaborating on their thoughts, having a good laugh and truly loving what they do.

Come join us on Friday and get inspired.. we’d L-O-V-E to see you!

“I came to Philadelphia 4 years ago when my job as a magazine publisher moved me here.  As part of a large west coast media company I did not get very involved in my community and neighborhood within Philadelphia for networking.  But, when I left the magazine a year ago and decided to start my own company with a local friend, I was immediately embraced by the community and exposed to the limitless opportunities for networking, support, and social marketing.  We couldn’t imaging running our virtual company, Entrepreneur’s Entourage, from anywhere else.  We have been able to provide our clients with great services like web design, branding, internet marketing, research, copywriting, and project management by including so many of Philly’s talented entrepreneurs and free-lance consultants on our team of professionals.

There are many more reasons why my partner and I have found great success with our new business as a result of being located in Philadelphia.  There is a networking group and business development group for every type of start up.  There are great places to work from that are either coworking offices or just meetups or jelly sessions at one of the numerous coffee shops throughout the city with free wifi.  There are also new entrepreneurs emerging every week in this area that are looking for assistance in getting their business moving forward!

Our top Universities excel in providing programs and opportunities for entrepreneurs and start up companies alike.  The University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University both have entrepreneurial clinics and offer many services to our community out of their Small Business Development Center.  Another great resource that my partner and I have been invited into is the entrepreneurial clinic at the University of Pennsylvania Legal Clinic.  Each year graduating seniors work with companies in the area to help meet their legal needs pro bono.  We were able to utilize the clinic to form our partnership agreement as well as help negotiate some business documents.

Many think of Philadelphia as industrial, dated and a little on the maniacal side when it comes to sports fans; but in reality, our city has only been on the up and up with making our neighborhoods green and eco-friendly, providing accessible resources for small businesses to launch, and providing better services for our budding entrepreneurs.  Plus, what’s a city with a World Champion sports team without a few die hard fans!”

Help us send a message to set a new precedent to put Philly on the map as one of the leading cities cultivating entrepreneurial activities!

What better way to focus on your biz evolutions than to spend the day working side by side with like-minded entrepreneurs! Coworking is a great way to get a change of scenery from your home (or bland corporate) office and hang in the presence of some of Philly’s brightest entreps. Share ideas, make connections and gain new perspectives- all of which are limited by the confines of your isolated cube!

Coworking is at it’s core about reciprocity- The mutual or cooperative interchange of favors or privileges; i.e., you give, you get. Your ideas and hindsight 20/20 reflections on lessons learned can translate across industries to help other professionals (new or veteran). In turn, those same peers have perspectives to share from their unique experiences that can help you as you work on your own business. This organic approach to business development promotes the open share of ideas with the common goal of improving all of our businesses in a collaborative process.

If you are committed to evolving your business in 2010, coworking is for you. Our group represents the open share of ideas and the strengthening of the entrepreneurial community here in Philadelphia across all industries.

We had a great turnout at our last event, and have an even bigger crowd registered for our event on 1/7. Check out some of our coworkers from December in our quickie vlog post: http://www.watchuslaunch.com/ and check out the pic below:

We would love to have you join us for our next coworking day!

Date: Thursday, January 7, 2010 starting at 10am

Location: Chapterhouse Cafe- we will be downstairs
620 South 9th Street Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia, PA 19147-2028

Learn more about the event and be sure to RSVP on our site.  Follow all of our participant tweets #EECoworking.

• At a desk
• 2 monitors running
• Large coffee resting dangerously close to the keyboard
• USB hub filled to capacity
• Music playing
• IMing with partner as emailing 2 different clients
• 8 Internet tabs and 4 spreadsheets open
• Dog sleeping at your feet…which are still in slippers

Describe your working environment on Thursday, December 10th:

• At a big round table surrounded by great art, hardwood floors and rich burgundy walls
• Hot fresh chai, latte, or coffee in hand, made by someone else
• Engaging in great conversation with an entrepreneur about a new project idea
• Making new connections with local business owners
• Music playing overhead
• Still answering emails and IMing with partners

Interested?
Emily Morgan and Cheryl Amaya of Entrepreneur’s Entourage are!

Entrepreneur’s Entourage will be hosting our first off-site Coworking & Networking Day in Philadelphia! This month’s will be Thursday, December 10th at Double Shots Coffee, located at 211 Chestnut Street in Old City. We will be there starting at 10am, so drop by anytime, open up your laptop, start a conversation, grab some great coffee or a pastry and get some work done…or at least some good networking done!  Maybe we can even convince our favorite Double Shots owner, Steve to make us some fresh gingerbread cookies like he did for us today!

Coworking may be a new concept to you, or coworking may be something you are big fan of and are currently supporting in Philadelphia through jelly sessions or established coworking office spaces.  Whether you run a virtual or brick and mortar business, coworking not only provides you with an escape from your office for the day but it also facilitates connections and offers opportunities to think and communicate more creatively about your business, bounce ideas off of other entreps and could even lead to new business!

So, bust out of your lonely office for the morning or afternoon and experience a new type of collaborative work environment; Coworking in Center City Philadelphia!

Day one started off with a welcome by Kelly Lee, President of Innovation Philadelphia, and was followed by an interesting breakfast talk by Elizabeth Gilbert.  We all know her from her famous book, Eat Pray Love, but few of us knew (before this week) about the next book she is putting out early 2010 about marriage!  Yup, you guessed it with whom she got remarried to!  Elizabeth told us of her life and dreams and inspired us to find our creativity in ours.

Entrepreneur’s Entourage gave a Social Media workshop following the breakfast keynote.  We expected a much different crowd, and not knowing anything about our participants’ backgrounds, nor how many were planning on attending, we decided to be creative in our presentation to better meet the needs of our participants.  Our workshop introduced effective ways to build any social media campaign and then turned it into a Q&A/Discussion.  We found that many people had specific questions about their current practices and wanted feedback on how to do it all better.  I am so thankful that our web guru Mary was presenting with me to help answer the dozens of questions.  All in all I think we helped a ton of people understand how to run their campaign with differentiation, relevance, efficiency and quality.

Later that afternoon Emily, Founder of Entrepreneur’s Entourage, sat on a panel discussing alternative workspaces.  Many participants here were interested in the co-working buzz and how to find ways to make their office use some of the alternative practices to save money and go green.  Emily talked a lot about industries that are ideal candidates for outsourcing and the benefits of using virtual professionals.  Her other fellow panelists included David Walker, who runs a co-working space in Austin, Todd Sundsted, a manager of Shift101, and Nathan Gasser, Founder of Rock River Star.

The second day of the event was kicked off, rather abruptly, but the one and only Peter Shankman.  He was his usual entertaining self and focused on the importance of relevance in a social media campaign and how to effectively market your business.   Other great sessions throughout the event were delivered by Jane McGonigal, via Skype, all about the use of gaming to optimize human ability (which was really fascinating); Gloria Bell, Hajj Flemings and Melinda Emerson on growing your creative passion; and Emily Morgan on taking your office virtual and the green benefits.  You can see that presentation at: http://watchuslaunch.com

The opportunities for networking each night of this 2-day event felt rushed.  We had so many contacts lined up to speak with and ended up speaking to only 1 each night!  Just one!  But, that one conversation each night was fun, insightful and meaningful.  We thank David Walker of Conjunctured and Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, for their time and open discussions about business growth and networking!

Innovation Philadelphia hosted a great event and brought together some very talented entrepreneurs and professionals as speakers, sponsors, attendees and volunteers.  We look forward to working with them again in the future.  We also look forward to following up with everyone who attended our sessions and provided us with such great feedback and support.