Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2016 i Entrepreneur Magazine

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” —W.B.Yeats I met this guy in an airport recently who was holding his guitar like a holy vessel; said he carried it everywhere. He was on his way to Seattle, because, he explained, “It’s where things happen.” He didn’t have a plan for stuff like food and shelter and, you know, work. All he had was a ridiculously invincible spirit about where he needed to be. I understood what he was going through— to be carrying around an entrepreneurial passion like it’s a hot potato, and feeling like you cannot set it free until you’ve reached the ideal ground. Everyone has their ground. Some seek out new ground, traveling great distances to find a…

WHEN SUSAN TAING left her product marketing job at Google, she went to New Jersey to help run her family’s manufacturing business. Taing soon found herself caught up in a belabored transcontinental design process. “I was trying to prototype with the manufacturers, shipping each version back and forth. It was inefficient,” she says. “I thought, What if we could 3-D-print all of this?” That idea forms the bedrock of Bhold, Taing’s product design company that asks users to play with prototypes and give feedback. It’s like beta testing, with accessories. Taing’s latest is Bsonic, a $69 seashell-shaped acoustic iPad speaker that went through 39(!) versions. Here’s how the product evolved: 1 “The horn shape was obvious at first, because of gramophones and horns,” Taing says. “But when you channel sound…

Q A big client is pressuring me to hire his son, a recent graduate, as a “favor.” But it feels like a demand. The son made a poor impression and isn’t a fit for my business. How do I handle it? A LET’S BE GENEROUS AND assume this client wants his son to succeed—and not, say, just have an easy path in life. And yet, the worried dad has pushed his reasoning and ethics aside. (Hopefully, for everyone’s sake, it’s a one-time thing.) Hiring a bad fit as a “favor”—or really, hiring at all as a favor—inevitably ends badly. What will you do when employees become frustrated that the son can’t do the work, and the golden child complains to his dad that he’s being treated badly? Or when the…

The Nashville Fashion Alliance is giving this honky-tonk town a shake of designer spice. The city has the largest per capita concentration of independent fashion companies outside New York and Los Angeles—seemingly a repeat of when, in the 1980s, music industry rebel types fled the big cities and built Nashville’s scene. “We’re very inspired by that,” says Van Tucker, CEO of the Alliance. Here are three local designers to watch. ATELIERSAVAS Designer: Savannah Yarborough “I picked Nashville to open my bespoke leather jacket studio in 2014. Now everyone comes to me. We work with a lot of musicians, but also Wall Street and tech guys. The hardest thing has been finding another person to help sew—very few people here have the skill to make a leather jacket. We’re going to…

Rainey Street was part of a normal neighborhood until 2004, when the city rezoned it to allow commerce. But instead of bulldozed homes replaced by flashy towers, the 100-year-old bungalows were converted into bars and lounges. That’s made the street popular among locals and tourists alike. “The big money guys always want to do something grandiose, but that’s not necessary. I opened my first bar on Rainey Street without a lot of money. I saw the potential in what was already there.” —Bridget Dunlap, owner, Clive Bar, Bar 96, Lustre Pearl, Burn “There are obvious reasons why entrepreneurs come to Texas: low taxes, low cost of business, favorable weather. But in Austin we also have the whole Keep Austin Weird thing, which started in the early 2000s to encourage small-business…

Penn State University is the lifeblood of State College, Pa., but its 46,000 undergrads rarely interact with the township that encircles it. In 2010, a group of graduates set out to change that. Here’s how coworking space and networking group New Leaf Initiative brings everyone together. Set Up Shop The campus and downtown are divided by College Avenue. “Getting students to cross was the first challenge,” says executive director Galen Bernard. “But we secured a space downtown and started helping turn student ideas into action. The community downtown saw what we were doing and said, ‘Hey, we could use some of that, too.’” Change the Perception “The focus here is often on frats, football and finance,” Bernard says. “But New Leaf works with students and young adults in the community—…

PROJECTORS TYPICALLY NEED to shoot an image clear across a room for you to bask in their high-def glory. The LG PF1000U Ultra Short Throw LED Smart Projector (shown here, upright) needs less than five inches to display a bright 60-plus-inch HD picture—meaning you can literally place it on a surface that’s flush against a wall. (The secret to this visual sorcery: an aspherical lens.) The projector also does away with excess cords: Built-in Bluetooth beams sound to compatible speakers; it’s wi-fi- enabled, making it easy to connect to a mobile device; and it’s even got integrated Netflix and YouTube. And because this unit weighs just five pounds, it can go wherever you need it to. That makes it perfect for presenting a pitch deck—or Pitch Perfect on office movie…

Investors love familiarity. “It’s their money, which leads them to play it safe and scour the same homogeneous networks for deals,” says Ross Baird, executive director of Village Capital, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., that trains and funds startups with an altruistic bent, many of them led by women and minorities. Stats tell how rare those companies are: Of U.S. startups that landed an initial funding round between 2009 and 2014, only 15.5 percent had a female founder, according to CrunchBase. Only 1 percent of funded startups have a black founder, according to CB Insights. So, how to find a more open-minded investor? Baird says to consider these questions. How do they usually find investments? Beware those who say, “We like introductions from people we know and trust.” You’re better…

THE MARKET $31.3 Billion Amount Americans spent on “f loriculture” items in 2015. $150,000 What a startup flower shop might expect to make in sales in year one. WHAT YOU’LL NEED 1. Multiple products or services. Flower sales are heavily impacted by the economy and trends. Insulate yourself by diversifying: offering door-to-door delivery; selling nonperishable goods like cards, candles and ceramics; building out your event portfolio; and hosting flower-arranging classes. 2. A resale certificate. Depending on your state, it may be required to receive tax-free wholesale goods. 3. Relationships with local businesses. Drop off a free arrangement once a week at a coffee shop or restaurant frequented by people you would like to be your customers. Just ask the manager to keep a stack of your business cards next to…

THE SMELL OF FRESH BAGUETTES baking, shelves full of croissants, cream cakes and pastries in shop windows: It’s not what Americans associate with South Korea. But that’s the unexpected hub of this French-style export. In 1988, businessman Hur Young-in launched the Paris Baguette Café in Seoul and grew it into Korea’s version of Starbucks, with 3,300 franchise locations saturating the country. Now this cultural mash-up is preparing for global expansion: It aims to be a brand with more than 12,000 units open worldwide by 2030. France is already taken care of: Paris Baguette’s Parisian debut was in 2014. The café currently has 43 corporate units and three franchises in the U.S. and plans to open 21 units this year—350 of them by 2020. Can they do it? Larry Sidoti thinks…

THEY SAY IT TAKES MONEY to make money—and, well, they’re right. But does it have to take a lot? Not according to our 100 top low-cost franchises that can be started for less than $60,000. ¶ These lower startup costs aren’t just a boon to potential franchisees. Offering a more affordable opportunity gives franchisors a larger pool of candidates to choose from, allowing them to be more picky about who gets a franchise, with a focus on attributes beyond mere financials. So what type of person are these companies looking for? People such as Diana Hurtado, who went from a part-time dog-walking job to owning a thriving business (page 90). ¶ These companies are ranked based on their score in Entrepreneur’s 2016 Franchise 500, which is determined by objective, quantifiable…

NOTE TO OLD PEOPLE: STOP YOUR BELLYACHING ABOUT MILLENNIALS. NOTE TO MILLENNIALS: LAY OFF THE NEXT GENERATION, WILL YOU? IF YOU’VE BEEN a part of the workforce for more than 15 years, you’ve probably heard some of the following complaints: •Millennials are disloyal! •Millennials won’t work long hours! •Millennials feel entitled! •And they’re narcissistic! And if you were standing anywhere near me on a subway platform during the morning commute, there’s a chance I was the one saying those things. I have rolled my eyes at millennials who have had five jobs before the age of 28. I have wondered why anyone that young cares about work/life balance. (When I was 23, my idea of a healthy work/life balance meant I didn’t fall over while walking to my desk due…

When Livability’s Carmichael crunched our data and saw the result, he wasn’t surprised to see that Boulder sat at the top. “Boulder always seems to be the perfect storm of everything,” he says. It has 300 days of sunshine a year, Flatirons mountain views, a foodie culture with a killer craft beer scene, universities, a tech-savvy government and, according to a 2013 New Engine/Kauffman Foundation research report, the highest density of tech startups in America. So what’s it like to work there? That’s what we asked Brad Feld, a longtime resident and cofounder of the $1 billion investment firm Foundry Group. DEMOGRAPHICS “The town is very progressive,” says Feld. “It’s a highly educated population—30,000 people are affiliated with the University of Colorado and another 5,000 with government and research labs.…

Startup Village is a residential block that has been home to as many as 32 startups at once. It began with no funding or master plan but has evolved into an incubator and, as of last year, an official 501(c)3 nonprofit. Other cities may try to replicate the magic, but it won’t be easy. Here’s why. 1. IT WAS BLESSED BY GOOGLE. In 2012, Startup Village’s street was ground zero for Google Fiber, the tech giant’s superfast broadband service that’s said to be 80 times faster than the national average. Matthew Marcus, one of Startup Village’s co-leaders, owns the house that first received service. 2. HOUSING IS AFFORDABLE. When Fiber launched, the median listing price for a house in Kansas City was just $112,000. (That’s $52,000 less than in Austin,…

Black Dot, a startup resource center nestled in Seattle’s historically black Central District, aims to mentor and connect the city’s African-American entrepreneurs. Three of the organization’s cofounders talk us through their plans. How did Black Dot get started? K. Wyking Garrett: We grew out of Seattle’s Africatown Community Development Initiative and Hack the Central District Startup Weekend. We asked, "How does the African-American community reinvent itself in the face of displacement with gentrification?" After the startup weekend, aspiring entrepreneurs really wanted to continue building their ventures, and they needed consistent community, access to resources, networking and a space. Why was the Central District an important location to you? Garrett: Twenty-third and Union has been an epicenter of the African-American neighborhood. My grandfather was a cofounder of one of the first…

The Treefort Music Fest began in 2012 as some music fans’ passion project. It’s since grown into a massive community event that celebrates Boise-grown technology, yoga, beer, food, comedy and film. Cofounder Lori Shandro Outen (who is also owner of local insurance agency the Shandro Group) explains what makes it so special. What makes Boise a great place to be an entrepreneur? The spirit of the people. The size of the community. The ability to effect change. I grew up in large cities, and I never felt there was anything I could do to effect change. A lot of things aren’t perfect here, but there are enough of us who love what it is, and if we keep participating and doing what we love, I believe it will get even…

We design and manufacture accessories for smartphones and computers, and ship 11,000 different SKUs. Shipping costs were rising, so I analyzed the expenses with the firms that warehouse and send out our products. Then, armed with my data, I worked out a deal with UPS. The results were amazing. Even though our business grew 35 percent last year, we were still able to reduce our overall freight spend by 9 percent over the previous year. —As told to Grant Davis…

MORTON’S SELLS A PERFECTLY suitable box of kosher salt. It’s $2.49 for three pounds. Then along comes Ben Jacobsen from Oregon, whose salt’s price is 650 percent higher. But his isn’t just any ole salt: It is pulled from a handpicked spot in the Pacific Ocean and run through a complex process of purification. It is not salt to just salt things. His is a highlight—a “finishing salt,” the flaky crystals that chefs sprinkle on food right before serving to give it a pop of flavor. Jacobsen launched his company in 2011 and called it Jacobsen Salt Co. He knew his price would make some scoff—but that plenty of others would be willing to be impressed. “The challenge was to keep the product quality at the highest level possible and…

Q How can I create a culture of gender equality? A The statistic is well-known: In full-time work, women make 79 cents for every Washington that men take home. Keep your company from stumbling into the salary gap (and all your staffers happy) with the help of Elissa Ellis Sangster, executive director of the Forté Foundation, a nonprofit that provides education and resources for women in business. • Hire neutrally. Sangster recommends using blind résumés, scrubbed of names and other gender identifiers, when screening applicants. Then track whether your company offers plum assignments to equally qualified male and female employees. • Create manager-mentors. Make your senior managers responsible for shepherding junior employees through the promotion pipeline. “Put that gender-neutral advocacy in place so that your top talent, both men and women, has…

MY HUSBAND AND I took an “Around the World in 80 Days” honeymoon in 2010. We visited 13 countries in Asia and Oceania, the Middle East, Europe and South America. Then I returned to my career as a freelance fashion designer in New York. But I felt changed. When you go to design school, you imagine yourself draping fabric and sketching ideas, but the work I was doing for big brands wasn’t hands-on. Mass-market American fashion is made overseas, which means you can come up with a color story, fabrics, prints and patterns, but the rest is text and emails with China. Back at work, I couldn’t stop thinking about my visit to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi, where I saw intricate, ethnic traditional dress designs. They weren’t…

Fargo’s tech renaissance lured native son Miguel Danielson back to North Dakota in 2014, and the attorney wasted no time lending a hand, cofounding the startup resource group Emerging Prairie and launching Fargo’s very own (and rent-free!) startup house. DRONES? YOU BETCHA! Once a month, the best minds in drone making gather in Fargo to talk all things airborne. Drones, you say? Yep. Drone Focus is a meeting for everyone interested in the space—from developers to clients—to powwow about the fast-growing industry. And Fargo is just the spot to do it. There are currently 18 drone-related companies in North Dakota, and the state has invested $34 million in growing unmanned aircraft operations, research and businesses. “What makes Fargo unique is that the end user sits next to the entrepreneur and…

How can something as simple as ice cream be impacted by its city? Salt & Straw’s Kim Malek (of Portland) and Lofty Pursuits’ Gregory Cohen (of Tallahassee) dish on demographics, local flavors and how hot-weather businesses survive rainy days. Cohen: Let me start by saying I’ve never been to Portland. Malek: I’ve never been to Tallahassee! Cohen: Well, it’s about one-third the size of Portland, and it’s also really isolated, with no big cities within two or three hours. The city was a whole bunch of plantations, and some of them still exist, so we have these long, diagonal roads lined with trees that are hundreds of years old. You can drive for an hour without seeing the sky overhead, just sunlight dappling down through these old oak trees. Malek:…

When an NFL player retires, it’s not uncommon for him to return to his old stomping grounds and open a sports bar—specializing in cheap beer, memorabilia-littered walls and nostalgia of glory days past. Former San Diego Chargers kicker Nate Kaeding, however, had more ambition than that. When the Pro Bowler retired in 2013 after nine seasons, he returned to his native Iowa City and enrolled in the University of Iowa’s Tippie Executive MBA program. Along the way, he helped start.…well, OK, he started a bar. It was Pullman Bar and Diner, a locally sourced joint that uses Iowa farm ingredients. But he also launched Tailgate Clothing’s Iowa City store, a vintage T-shirt shop that American Eagle purchased for $11 million in 2015. Then last fall, he went large—becoming the retail…

1. START WITH A CLEAR PURPOSE Having a motivating purpose is a critical foundation for building a successful company. It is not enough by itself, but it is an important starting point. Make sure you get your starting point down before you jump into something that doesn’t create staying power for you, your team, or your customers. 2. BUILD ON WHAT YOU KNOW A strong and motivating purpose is critical to long-term business success, but a variety of opportunities can help you fulfill that purpose. The important thing is to do something you already know a lot about that is consistent with your “Why.” Explore experiences and opportunities in your given industry, related industries, and industries you understand as a customer from frequent exposure to the products, services, and pain…

Energize Your Laptop Travelers have many choices for juicing gadgets on the go, but there’s not much to differentiate one backup battery from another. What sets the ChargeTech Portable Power Outlet ($185) apart: In addition to two USB jacks, it features a full AC outlet, making it the rare roving device capable of powering a laptop—or really anything else you’d need. Plus, its 27,000 mAh capacity is several times larger than a typical battery pack. Track Your Luggage Checking luggage can feel like playing airline roulette. The Smart Unit Luggage Tracker ($80) goes inside your bag and uses nearby cell towers to give you a real-time view of its whereabouts as soon as you (and it) land, via an app. It even alerts you if anyone opens your luggage. Built-in…

STOP PACKING FOR a moment, and ask yourself: Do you really need to move your business? Relocations are expensive, disruptive and risky. If they’re done poorly, your business can fail—and that new location may turn out to have just as many problems as your current one. But, OK; let’s say moving is the only option. Now start with a systematic look at where to move. Analyze regulatory differences, access to your market, workforce availability and cost, utility and transportation infrastructure and costs and, of course, real estate. A good commercial real estate broker can help gather most, if not all, of this information on your behalf, over and above just locating properties for you to consider. Once you zero in on a potential location, run a cost/benefit analysis with a…

I love HBO’s Silicon Valley— and my favorite characters are (of course) the investors. A quick primer for those who, for whatever insane reason, haven’t watched the show yet: There are passive but calculated VCs at a firm called Raviga Capital, and then an ultra-involved angel investor named Erlich Bachman. Fresh off an exit of his own company, Bachman has turned his house into an “incubator,” and lives, eats and breathes with its primary tenant: the team from Pied Piper, our heroic, hapless startup. Bachman is involved in the business in every way imaginable. It drives everyone a bit nuts, but there’s little they can do about it. He fronted the space to launch the business, so he gets to set the house rules—literally. This setup is…

“IF IT STARTS TO FEEL COMFORTABLE, YOU’RE PROBABLY NOT PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES ENOUGH.” ASCHKAN ABDUL-MALEK HAD come to Afghanistan to solve problems. He was working for a consulting firm, and in 2013 was helping the World Bank study healthcare constraints in developing countries. One day, as he was home talking to his cook, he learned how personally devastating the healthcare problem could be: The cook was spending six times his annual income to fly his wife to India for medical care, because she couldn’t find the doctor she needed at home. Many Afghans were in similar positions: Despite an average annual income of about $680, locals spend nearly $300 million a year on what’s called medical tourism. Abdul-Malek wondered if he could fix this. Entrepreneurship was new for Abdul-Malek, 34,…

MARIANNE CONTI BURT was a painter. Her husband, Craig, was a freelance digital retoucher. Both have degrees from the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago. But when the recession hit in the late 2000s, their careers fell apart. They were forced to downsize their home in Raleigh, N.C., sell many of their possessions and give away their dog. Marianne began looking for jobs on Craigslist and saw a listing for art teachers from a new studio called Wine & Design; it was part of the then-emerging “paint and sip” trend, where friends or coworkers have a few drinks while painting. “I didn’t think this painting-and-drinking thing would take off,” Marianne says, but she and her husband were low on job options. When they were hired, they expected it…

AS A HOSPITALITY management major, Diana Hurtado landed what should have been her dream job: an internship at the Crowne Plaza at the United Nations, in New York City. “But I hated it, because I had to be in an office from nine to five,” says Hurtado, who was born and raised in Colombia and moved to New York in 1995, when she was 15. “I’m an outdoor person, and my real passion was pets.” So she quit the internship and followed her heart to a very different gig—working as a dog walker and a pet sitter for In Home Pet Services. Five days a week, four hours a day, Hurtado would walk her charges through Bayside, Queens. “The income wasn’t that great,” Hurtado admits, “but I loved what I…

I have an English pal, David, whose dad was an electrician—a “sparky,” as they’re called. As a kid, David occasionally went out on calls with his father. Once, while finishing up work on a large, wired-up fuse box, David noticed his dad signing the inside of the box. “Why’d you do that?” David asked. “Artists sign their work” was his dad’s reply. These are wise words. Take pride in, ownership of and responsibility for your work. If it’s an excellent job, say “I did this.” And if there’s something amiss, own up to it: Say “I did this.” Our reputation is all we have—and it should be a sign, literally, of our accountability and pursuit of excellence. Today David runs Hiut Denim out of Cardigan, Wales. Every pair of jeans…