TechLifeMashup | Entrepreneurs, Social Media, and Technology

Maisha Walker is a successful blogger and internet entrepreneur who took some time last week to due a live Q&A session with the readers of inc.com.  During the session, Maisha answered a variety of excellent questions related to starting your own business and running a successful blog regardless of your niche.  So if you’re still trying to put some of the pieces together to some of your unanswered questions about entrepreneurship or you just want to build your entrepreneur (or blogging) knowledge up further, I would encourage you to check out the video post below.

I’m sure you’ve heard location is everything.  That couldn’t be more true when trying to start your own small business.  Foot traffic for any offline business can make or break your long-term success.  That being the case, selecting an optimal location for your new business to assure you get the high volume of targeted traffic you’re looking for is mission critical to say the least.  So wouldn’t be nice to know what the current list of top cities are for someone looking to start a small business?  Well, entrepreneurs you’re in luck!  Here now are the 2010 top cities for entrepreneurs looking to start a new business based on a variety of different factors:







Source: Grasshopper

Pamela Slim is a career coach who focuses on helping people take the leap from corporate employee into the world of entrepreneurship.  She is also the author of a book titled Escape From Cubicle Nation, which I highly recommend to anyone just starting out or thinking about starting their own business.  Pam gave a recent presentation titled Who Do You Think You Are?, which focused on becoming the authority of your niche business and using that to build your success.  The thing I really love about this presentation is that Pam Slim takes the time to show how she went from a low traffic blog to a huge success both online and off.  Enjoy and have a great weekend!  Happy 4th!

Every successful business needs to be able to effectively leverage promotion to some degree at one time or another.  Most folks get bogged down with too many details, techniques, processes, and other thoughts that only end up hurting any real progress they could have made in promoting their business or startup as an entrepreneur.  In an effort to keep it simple, I wanted to share a short (and to the point) presentation given by Derek Sivers at the SXSW Conference earlier this year where he highlights the crucial ingredient to successfully promoting your business.  Best of all, he does it in under 5 minutes.  Take a look!

I’ve never been a fan of working in a cubicle, especially the massive cube farms that seem to be popping up these days at many corporations.  I could go on for hours about this, but that’s another post for another time.  In short, I feel that they are actually a very poor concept, unproductive, and a huge morale crusher!  Most people working the corporate lifestyle don’t often have a choice on the matter though despite the proven fact on this issue, and therefore have to deal with such situations on a daily basis. 


Pam Slim is the author of a book called Escape From Cubicle Nation where she writes about getting out of your cubicle, turning on your brain, and working to make yourself wealthy instead of someone else.  I’m currently in the process of reading it now and have enjoyed it thus far.   Pam herself is a business consultant with a proven track record who also is a strong supporter of startups and self employment.  Check out this interesting video where she highlights some of the main takeaways from her book – quite interesting for any entrepreneur out there:

False stories that people mistake as facts can be trouble for anyone.  Myths as they are called surround all facets of our lives.  So much so that even doing something like starting your own small business is plagued with them.  We all read about the statistics or facts of actually having a successful business.  If you were to just look at the numbers, you might quickly get discouraged as many often do.  That would be a mistake because the fact is that many of those discouraging negative things you’ve heard about starting your own business are actually false.  Today, I’m going to debunk 10 of the more common myths about starting your own business. More »

Most internet startups and new entrepreneurs typically work out of their own home because it’s cheap on costs and convenient to do so.  While there are some nice benefits to this, working out of your house as an army of one can sometimes have its disadvantages.  It can make it harder to interact with like minded people, which can make developing ideas tricky sometimes.  There is also the whole seperation of work and personal debate that we won’t get into here, but it is worth mentioning.  Wouldn’t it be great if there was a place where entrepreneurs from all different startups could come and work while at the same time network and share ideas?  Thanks to the folks over at Dogpatch Labs, there is now a place where entrepreneurs of all kinds can come to work, share ideas, and even get some lunch while working on their next startup. More »

Whether you’re a entrepreneur who has been in the game for several years or you’re just starting to get your toes wet, making sure you take the time to file your small business earnings properly is a must unless you want a very unpleasant visit from Uncle Sam.  It’s frustrating enough to file my regular taxes most years, but even more so now trying to figure out how to include my entrepreneur ventures (well the ones that profited) on top of it. Fear not for I have some excellent tax tips for any entrepreneur running a business that are sure to make your next filing much easier. More »

Starting your own business is essentially what defines you as an entrepreneur.  It’s something anyone with some time and hard work can do regardless of background or location.  I talk a lot on Techlifemashup about the benefits of running your business online, but I recently came across an interesting piece of information that some of you out there might find interesting.    CNBC just finished ranking their 40 best states to open a new business in based on a variety of factors such as quality of life and cost of living.  We’ve got the best 10 for you hear today. More »

Have your own business?  Wish you could save more money than you currently are?  You’re not alone.  Many entrepreneurs who run their own business whether it be from an office or at home, are constantly looking for ways to cut spending without hurting the business.   You may be surprised to hear that this is actually easier then it seems.  Today, I’m going to share my top 5 tips  for saving money on your business.  Not only will you save money, but you’ll be more productive too! More »