Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2025 i Entrepreneur Magazine

IF A CUSTOMER STOPPED paying you, what would you do? Here’s what Nancy Salamon did. It’s the greatest strategy I’ve ever heard. Salamon is a studio potter and textile designer, and one of her wholesale customers recently stopped paying. She sent a gentle nudge, and the customer promised to pay. But another month went by, and he didn’t. So Salamon sent another email. Instead of being angry or demanding, she started like this: “I want to tell you a story.” Then she told a story about her very first wholesale account, with a guy named John. He always paid on time—until one day, John stopped. Salamon followed up repeatedly but heard nothing. A few months later, she received a check—along with a note from John’s widow. As it turns out,…

1/Take the hit in hard times. “Loyalty is built not during times of success, but when things don’t go as planned. One client’s business model needed to pivot due to unforeseen challenges. Despite the significant cost to us, we helped them restructure their team and adapt their strategy, at no additional charge. This decision reinforced our long-term commitment to the relationship, and as a result, that client has since expanded their team with us by 5X and continues to grow the scope of services they trust us with.” —ALEX ROSS, cofounder and chief operating officer, Horatio 2/Lean into unexpected places. “In the summer of 2023, a TikTok trend exploded our business and created an entirely new consumer set. It was called the ‘flat belly challenge,’ and in it, women in…

At first, I really thought I needed a big title. I cofounded Mid-Day Squares in 2018 with my sister and her husband. They’d created our product, which is a chocolate afternoon snack with protein and fiber. So they became co-CEOs (they’re awesome operators). I took the CMO role because it felt important and had “chief” in the name, and because, frankly, I was really good with social media and building community. But as soon as our company started to grow, I began to fail. To understand why, I needed to ask myself some big questions like: What is my actual value? And how can I best put that to use? These days, I’m so much happier and more effective—and I’m no longer CMO. I think other founders would benefit from…

1/A portable production crew. Shooting content from your phone? You’ll want a gimbal—a stabilizing device that keeps your shots smooth and steady. And the DJI Osmo Mobile 7P Vlog Combo [$208; store.dji.com] is the newest, best option for casual creators. You can hold it or use it as a tripod. It can automatically track subjects to keep them in the center of the action, improve their appearance with a magnetically attached diffused light, and connect to a wireless mic clip. A hidden extension rod moves the camera nearly 8.5 inches away to frame selfies easily. 2/A screen that spreads. You can’t carry a 32-inch monitor on the road—but you can carry the Aura Displays Triple Boost 14-inch Pro [$649; us.aura-displays.com]. It has three 14-inch HD screens that plug into…

Serbia’s economy has been gaining strong momentum in recent years, driven by robust investment, infrastructure expansion, and rising foreign interest. According to the World Bank, Serbia’s GDP is projected to grow by 3.5% in 2025, supported by sound macroeconomic policy and infrastructure-driven development. Deloitte’s latest regional outlook emphasizes Serbia’s improving investment climate and its growing role in logistics and industrial networks. The country is quickly transforming from a stabilizing post-transition economy into a dynamic engine of regional growth. One of the key engines behind this growth is Serbia’s construction sector. With largescale infrastructure projects underway, the industry is seeing a new golden age. The Serbian Construction Chamber reports that the sector grew over 5% annually in the past CEO three years, fueled by projects like EXPO 2027, new urban developments,…

Uruguay is emerging as a compelling economic success story in Latin America, boasting consistent growth, strong institutions, and investor-friendly policies. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Uruguay’s GDP is forecast to grow by 3.7% in 2025, driven by a stable macroeconomic environment and improved investment flows. Deloitte highlights Uruguay as a “regional beacon of governance and transparency,” while the World Bank ranks it among the most business-friendly economies in Latin America, supported by a robust legal framework and prudent fiscal management. For international investors eyeing long-term stability and opportunity, Uruguay offers a uniquely fertile ground. One of the most promising yet underexplored sectors in this thriving economy is the chemical industry. While not the largest industrial branch in Uruguay, the chemical sector holds vast untapped potential. Mr. Néstor Gómez…

THREE ANSWERS/ “We’ve found the perfect sweet spot by cobranding Great American Cookies with our sister brand, Marble Slab Creamery. Since launching this concept in 2014, we’ve grown to over 170 cobranded locations worldwide, with franchisees seeing a 10% to 20% lift in incremental sales.”—Allison Lauenstein, president, Great American Cookies “We stay ahead by continuously investing in technology, enhancing customer experience, and listening closely to our franchise owners. Our focus on operational excellence, brand consistency, and local community engagement helps drive both customer loyalty and raving fans.”—Adam Biedenbender, vice president of franchise development, CertaPro Painters “We’ve focused on delivering a personalized, world-class customer service model that is resilient during uncertain times. And we continue to grow and outperform market conditions by relentlessly listening to our franchisees and customers and pursuing…

People often ask me the same question: “How do I know if franchising is the right decision for me?” As the leader of the International Franchise Association (IFA), I know some things to be true: Franchising is an incredibly powerful business model. It has opened the door for hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs as well as millions of employees. And according to IFA members, despite recent macroeconomic challenges, franchisors are seeing more interest from potential franchisees than last year. But that doesn’t mean franchising is right for everyone, or that every brand is right for you. So here’s what I (and the IFA) always tell people, whenever they ask if they should buy a franchise. Your north star must be conducting due diligence in the presale process. Gather as many…

THREE ANSWERS/ “Wehelp facilitate connections among our multi-unit owners through conferences, regional meetings, and online forums, allowing them to share best practices and build valuable relationships. We also have franchise business coaches that specialize in supporting our franchisees with more than 10 units.”—Matt Stanton, chief development officer, Purpose Brands (Anytime Fitness), No. 28 “We actively support multi-unit ownership through a flexible and scalable business model, including rewarding growth with reduced royalty fee percentages based on store count and sales, offering expansion planning support, and leveraging a point-of-sale system that can be configured for multi-store operations.”—Gary Skidmore, chief operating officer, Big O Tires, No. 47 “If an owner has the right mindset and a clear vision, we help build a smart, achievable plan for expansion. The PuroClean Elevations Program is a…

Color. Typography. Design. These are all essential elements of a company’s logo. It takes a special combination of these things to create an image that not only represents a brand or idea, but is relevant, timeless, and evokes emotion and response. And let’s face it: Time-strapped entrepreneurs don’t often have the skills or bandwidth to create a logo using complicated design software, or the funds to hire a professional designer. That’s where VistaPrint comes in. With an array of logo design tools and support options, VistaPrint helps businesses of all sizes create impactful logos that quickly communicate their brand and resonate with customers. Take it from these three small businesses that worked with VistaPrint to create custom logos as well as a wide array of marketing materials that help their brands…

Your colleague asks you a reasonable question. You could take five minutes to write a cogent reply. You have everything you need to reply well. Multiple teammates would benefit from reading your reply. But instead, you say, “Let’s hop on a call.” When you say this, sometimes what you really mean is: “I don’t want to do the work of clarifying my own thinking. And I believe it’ll be easier to think out loud and answer in a live conversation.” In turn, here’s what your colleagues or team members may think—even if they won’t say it to your face: If you don’t want to invest a few minutes to write a reply to a reasonable question, why should I listen (with no 1.5x button) as you meander in real time?…

Clean kicks and cactus sips? It might sound like the start of a dad joke, but it’s the growth strategy behind two thoughtful consumer brands. Meet the founders turning hydration and footwear into full-blown movements: Kun Yang, co-founder and CEO of Pricklee, and Steve Patiño, founder and CEO of Ales Grey. Both brands are rooted in personal stories and inspiring missions. Pricklee is reimagining wellness beverages made with real food ingredients. Ales Grey is proving that sustainable, U.S.-made shoes can deliver lasting comfort. They are both supported by Entrepreneur Ventures and recently partnered with SHOPLINE, a fully integrated platform to power unified omnichannel e-commerce experiences. At a time when consumers want more from the products they purchase, these founders are offering a new blueprint for success. PRICKLEE: REPLACING ARTIFICIAL WITH…

For successful people, there’s nothing more confusing than failing when you gave it your best. You leaned on your tried-and-true personality traits—the ones everyone agrees are your “superstrengths”—and yet, things fell apart. Fortunately, when this happens, there’s a fairly common diagnosis: You have encountered a blind spot. As a clinical psychologist turned business coach, I’ve spent years honing my intuition to recognize when previously successful leaders, executives, or entrepreneurs were getting in their own way, and to come up with tailored solutions to help them. What I’ve learned is that we are not as self-aware as we believe. We tend to feel as if most of our traits, instincts, and feelings are like everyone else’s—except for where we see ourselves as exceptional or gifted, in ways that we imagine can…

Costa Rica has firmly established itself as one of Latin America’s most promising economies, driven by political stability, sustainability, and a highly educated workforce. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that Costa Rica’s GDP growth has averaged above 5% through 2024, outpacing many regional peers. This economic resilience, paired with a commitment to green energy and digital transformation, has positioned the country as a magnet for foreign investment and entrepreneurial ventures. At the heart of this success story lies tourism, a sector that continues to fuel Costa Rica’s economy. In 2024, the country welcomed 2.66 million tourists by air—a 7.7% increase from the previous year and the highest in over 16 years. Tourism generated a record $5.43 billion in foreign currency earnings, reflecting global demand for Costa Rica’s unique blend…

Taiwan’s economy is showing remarkable strength in 2025, driven by robust export performance and domestic investment. The International Monetary Fund has boosted its forecast for Taiwan’s 2025 GDP growth to 2.9%, up 0.2 points from earlier projections—placing it ahead of regional peers. In Q1, annualized growth was revised upward to 5.48%, with resilient performance in production, exports, and investments—prompted by rising demand for semiconductors and AI-enabled technologies. In response, the government raised its full-year GDP forecast to 3.6%, up from the earlier estimate of 3.14%, positioning Taiwan for sustained economic momentum despite global uncertainties. These impressive figures reinforce the country’s capacity to invest significantly in strategic sectors such as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. At the core of Taiwan’s pharmaceutical ascent lies a deep-rooted culture of innovation and collaboration between academia, industry,…

Rochelle Hendricks moves fast. In 2022, a decade after opening her own insurance brokerage, she decided to try her hand at the siding business—fast-tracking the purchase of an Ideal Siding franchise in Ontario, Canada, in less than two months. Over the next two years, she opened three more locations and has now surpassed $1 million in annual sales. But what’s most important to her? It isn’t just the numbers. It’s the way her business benefits her family. She’s transformed her Ideal Siding franchises into a true family operation, including immediate and extended relatives. Here, she shares how she built momentum, how working with family has been a game changer, and the advice she has for women ready to bet on themselves. You opened your siding franchise in just six weeks.…

Picture it: An aspiring franchisee sits in an audience, listening to a franchise CEO speak. Now, a question: How old are those people? A generation ago, the answer would have been easy: The aspiring franchisee is a late-career corporate professional looking for a change, as is the audience, and the CEO is a near-retirement leader who’s spent a lifetime in franchising. That was the stereotype, anyway, and it often proved to be true. But by the time Katie Webb wanted to be a franchisee, things looked different. Four years ago, when she was in her early 30s, she attended a Stretch Zone discovery day. That’s when she heard from Stretch Zone CEO Tony Zaccario, who was in his late 20s. “Every time I’d write down a question to ask, it…

THREE ANSWERS/ “Managing multiple teams across different locations requires the ability to inspire, delegate, and build a cohesive culture. We’ve seen that effective operators empower their teams and foster a sense of belonging and ownership across their restaurants.”—Jake Barden, senior vice president of franchise sales, Dine Brands (IHOP), No. 10 “Ultimately, it’s about shifting from being the best operator to becoming the best coach of operators. Multi-unit success is all about leading through others and knowing how to build, trust, and develop a team. The franchisees who do this while also staying extremely engaged in the business are the most successful ones.”—Susan Valverde, brand president, Sylvan Learning, No. 81 “A clear long-term vision is essential. Knowing where you want to be in five or 10 years helps guide smart decision-making.…

I was exhausted. My B2B fulfillment business had grown rapidly and was doing $1.2 million annually, but finding new clients was a grind. I was trapped in an endless cycle of networking events, cold calls, and business card exchanges that yielded minimal results. Then I discovered what I now call the “Lumberjack Strategy”—and I started getting clients with ease. Better yet, I never had to attend another networking event again. Here’s how it works: Instead of hunting for individual customers in a vast networking forest, I realized I could connect with people who had already chopped down all the trees. These are people who spent years building relationships with exactly the clients I wanted to serve—and now I just needed their help reaching their clients. How? By playing a long…

Marcus Lemonis came home feeling crummy. After eight years of hosting his hit TV show The Profit, in which he helped turn around struggling businesses, he’d just finished taping a show for HGTV called The Renovator—where he helped families with their home renovations. “I didn’t really like that,” Lemonis told his wife. Then he asked her: “Why didn’t I like that?” “Because people didn’t need you for that,” she replied. “They could renovate their own home, or they could get somebody else to do it. The world wants you to help them make more money, or fix their business, or crack the code to something inside them. And absent that, the world doesn’t really need you.” This was 2022, and she was right—the show ran for only four episodes. Lemonis…

The Chilean economy has resumed its steady growth path, while inflation has fallen, according to the OECD, a grouping of affluent countries. The organisation expects “solid” growth through 2025 and 2026, with an improvement in financial conditions spurring investment growth, with the crucial mining industry attracting significant capital as demand for products such as lithium rises. Chile is a world leader in aquaculture, with output of more than 1mn tonnes and ranking as one of the world’s largest producers of salmon, with exports worth nearly $4.4bn, according to industry conference Aquasur. In recent years, salmonids have ranked as Chile’s secondlargest export, after copper; they accounted for 6% of all export income in 2024. The country exports to more than 100 countries worldwide. Terramar Chile is a leading global supplier of…

Benefitting from its “large reserves of valuable minerals, vast forests, abundant water and marine resources, and fertile land for agriculture”, Papua New Guinea’s economy will grow by an impressive 4.8% in 2024, according to the World Bank. The growth of natural resources industries, particularly LNG, over the past decade has driven huge demand for transport and logistics services, with companies able to deliver services and infrastructure in complex environments in particular demand. Trans Wonderland Limited (TWL) is one of PNG’s leading integrated logistics companies. It is one of the country’s largest “landowner” companies (“lancos”), that are owned by traditional landowners in areas of oil and gas activity. It was established in 2009 with a $192mn contract from ExxonMobil on its landmark PNG LNG contract. This required TWL to coordinate logistics…

Increasing urbanisation, a large and young population, and strong consumer demand make the Philippines “one of the most dynamic economies in the East Asia and Pacific region”, according to the World Bank. These factors are driving increasing demand for healthcare services, with the private sector to the fore in pursuing investments, acquiring smaller hospitals, and upgrading hospital infrastructure, according to the US International Trade Administration. St. Luke’s Medical Center is one of the leading healthcare providers in the Philippines, with two world-class hospitals and a third at the design stage. The organisation, a private nonprofit institution, is to a great extent the public face of the country’s medical sector, a pioneer and trendsetter in the healthcare industry, continuously taking the lead in its development, and working as a strategic partner…

As global supply chains recalibrate in the post-pandemic era, Taiwan has emerged as a quiet powerhouse—a model of economic resilience and industrial precision. According to Allianz Trade, the island’s “solid business environment,” low public debt, and “well-developed and resilient financial system” have all played critical roles in supporting its sustained economic momentum. Even during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan managed to maintain positive GDP growth—an outlier performance by any global standard. This stability has created fertile ground for Taiwan’s biomedical sector, which now generates over $24 billion in annual revenues, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration. One of the key drivers of this growth is EirGenix, Taiwan’s largest biologics-focused contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO). Founded in 2012, EirGenix has carved out a niche in monoclonal antibody…

THREE ANSWERS/ “They’re visionaries, with a game plan. They know how to build a brand that’s not just a business, but a movement, and are set apart by their dedication to transparency, consistency, and culture. They give their franchisees the tools, the playbook, and the freedom to win, without losing the essence of what makes the brand great.”—Adam Sartin, vice president of franchise growth and development, Motto Mortgage “Good franchisors listen to their owners. Great franchisors create advisory councils and have a feedback loop that allows franchisees to share what is working and opportunities for improvement. The best of the best aggregate mistakes and create open channels for the sharing of best practices among franchisees.”—Eric Martin, senior vice president of franchise development, Lawn Doctor “The best franchisors have an entrepreneurial…

Susan Valverde is the brand president of Sylvan Learning, a tutoring and test prep center franchise. She describes her career as “a series of fortunate but very unexpected turns.” Valverde was born in northern Mexico, immigrated to the U.S. as a child in the early 1980s, and learned entrepreneurship from her parents, who built a trucking business in Mississippi. She became the first college graduate in her family, then worked in banking and economic development—until her career changed in an unforeseen way. It happened in the year 2000, when Valverde’s husband needed to take a professional exam. He did it at a Sylvan Learning franchise location near their south Texas home. While her husband took his test, Valverde observed the center in action. “It just struck a chord,” she recalls.…

As a young lawyer in the early aughts, my first months as an in-house general counsel were chaotic. The previous counsel had left abruptly weeks before I arrived, and there was no one to fill me in on the multitude of open cases and ongoing projects. I felt lost and overwhelmed. Management didn’t seem to care; everyone expected me to immediately pick up where my former counsel left off, and I was extremely stressed. Following a meeting, I stepped back into my offce, and sat there, gazing. Then, someone approached me and asked if they could enter. He was a consultant who attended the meeting, and it was the first time we met. Placing a heart-shaped pink card on my desk, he said, “You’re going to be alright. It will…