TechLifeMashup | Entrepreneurs, Social Media, and Technology

There were 672,000 new small business start-ups in 2009.  Small businesses continue to grow in popularity as more people continue to turn to this career path.  Events such as a slow economy, job cuts, and better benefits are just some of the reasons people have turned to small businesses for work.  Wondering what types of small business did well, where the best place to start a small business is, or maybe you want to know why some businesses fail and other succeed?  Well,  Focus recently published a very interesting infographic answering these exact questions.  Take a look! More »

LiveJournal is a internet blogging and journal platform where users can share and discuss their lives with others as they see fit.  The site was extremely popular in the early 2000′s and continues to remain very popular in 2010 mostly with the younger audiences as is the norm it would seem with most social networking sites these days.  That combined with the sites overall financial success is why this week in the spotlight we take a look at entrepreneur Brad Fitzpatrick who created LiveJournal. We’ll look at just how he did it and highlight what lessons any upcoming entrepreneur can learn. More »

Women entrepreneurs represent about 40% of the private small business space with over $3 trillion in profits per year among them according to a recent article published at biznik. I’ve come to find entrepreneurship to be a much more level playing field when it comes to doing business than the traditional corporate setting for almost anyone regardless of background.  For this reason alone it is no surprise that we continue to see more women-based entrepreneurs entering the small business market.  So I figured I would take a moment to highlight 5 highly effective social networking sites geared towards women entrepreneurs. More »

Taking a start-up business public through stock options has been the traditional approach for most entrepreneurs of the past.  A entrepreneur would find a investor to fund the start-up.  The entrepreneur would then have to either sell the company off or have an IPO  and offer a public stock option in order to payback the investors.  IPOs and the public option have taken a backseat in recent years to corporate buyouts for a variety of reasons.  This shift in methods for generating financial revenues can easily be explained and with good reason. More »

Youtube is a free online video sharing service where anyone can publish, watch, and discuss shared videos uploaded by the community.  Youtube has grown significantly since its initial launch back in 2005.  Video has since taken over the internet as a primary form of media making Youtube a smash hit both from a users perspective and a money-making one.  That’s why this week in the spotlight we take a look at entrepreneur Chad Hurley who created Youtube. We’ll look at just how he did it and highlight what lessons any upcoming entrepreneur can learn. More »

Making money online is something many of us as entrepreneurs aim to do.  Pat Flynn was an Architect who lost his job a little a little over a year ago.  Being down on his luck, he decided to give entrepreneurship with very little background in the area.  Over the course of the next year he was able to generate over $200,000 in sales from his small online business.  Pat now works full time on his business as an entrepreneur with no plans of ever going back to the daily 9-5 workweek.  I’ll let Pat himself tell you all about it from how he did it (step-by-step) to what you can do to have the same success as Flynn. More »

Anyone who dreams of being an entrepreneur knows the importance of education.  Most colleges have lacked any type of entrepreneurship education program or degree leaving any would be entrepreneur to teach themselves in most cases.  Despite the poor level of support in the past though, it looks like things are finally changing as the upcoming generation of college bound students will have much more of a selection when it comes to majoring in the field of entrepreneurship.  However, we all know nothing is created equal, which is why we bring you the top 10 schools for college bound entrepreneurs. More »

Skype is a low cost online peer-2-peer VoIP phone service used by millions across the globe.  The now common household name has grown so successfully over the past several years that it has been embraced by almost all of the internet community.  Behind every great success as we all know one is a great entrepreneur.   That’s why this week in the spotlight we take a look at entrepreneur Niklas Zennstrom who created Skype. We’ll look at just how he did it and highlight what lessons any upcoming entrepreneur can learn. More »

Almost all the entrepreneurs I’ve talked to have told me the same thing, which is you can’t go it alone forever.  Many entrepreneurs often launch a start-up business with no official team to leverage for support.  This can work initially, but it can also quickly become a huge negative as your company begins to mature and grow in popularity.  The importance of team building should never be underestimated.  The sooner you start putting together a solid team of people, the better off you’ll be going forward.  Here now is an excellent quick video on the importance of team building, and how it can make a difference for your business. 


Take a look at this 5 minute video:

See this video on Vator.tv »

I would also like to take a moment to throw in my two cents here as well.  You’ll want to make sure that the team you build isn’t too large.  A small team can be just as effective as a large one.  The important thing is finding the people that fit and hiring based on the amount of actual work that needs to be done.  Remember that team building is a great way to overcome your weaknesses.

Transitioning to the job title of entrepreneur is no easy task and to obtain the title of a successful entrepreneur is often even harder.  I firmly believe anyone who has the desire and determination to do so can make it down the path of entrepreneurship.  That being said, I also think there are some personality traits and characteristics that can be very beneficial to possess for anyone looking to pursue such a career.  What those exact characteristics are is up for debate, but I was excited when I came across a list of 10 common characteristics of people who tend to pursue entrepreneurship full time.  Read on to see how you match up! More »