Category Archives: Small Business Resources
Small Business Grants From IdeaCafe
I stumbled upon a small business resource that might interest some of you. Certainly, any small business in NE Ohio can use all the help it can get, right?
The resource is IdeaCafe, and they have grants, that’s right: grants, for small businesses. You can get a $1,000 grant for entering their competition with the most innovative business idea. You get a chance to look over past winners to see what types of ideas they are looking for.
In addition, they have a $42,000 prize for answering a question about “the most interesting, enjoyable, or memorable way you have ever seen Promotional Merchandise being used”.
Note that these are not drawings! The best answer is what they are looking for.
These might seem like small amounts, but if you are a small business, every little bit helps. Also, it would be nice to see some of that money injected into the NE Ohio region and help the economy pick up a little faster.
Fear Is not an Option
Yesterday, I reminded everyone about Squidoo. You can create a lens about a wide variety of subjects. Only your creativity can limit it. For example, I just created a new one called “Starting a small business: Fear is not an option”. You have heard it said that failure is not an option, but I highly disagree. It really is the fear of failure that holds many people back. Most successful people did not succeed at their first go-around. In fact, many of them failed more than once before they came upon a formula that worked.
Turns out, this wasn’t even an original idea in reality. Then again, how many good ideas really are original? I was excited to learn that none other than James Cameron gave a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk about the subject of failure and fear.
Hopefully, if what is holding you back from starting your own business is fear, then these resources will help you overcome it.
COSE and Sally Hogshead
Well, the COSE Small Business Conference ended yesterday. The first day had quite a crowd, but the second day seemed significantly smaller. Too bad, too! The speaker in the morning was Sally Hogshead, author of Fascinate.
Her presentation was, er, fascinating. In spite of the really bad pun, I actually do mean it was fascinating, and me getting her book signed should be proof enough of that. I have never done that before. Frankly, I cannot even remember ever wanting to do that before.
All in all, I came away with a much better appreciation of some very innovative ideas. It appears that it came just in time, as I am now faced with a situation where I have to deal with an unexpected issue. I think I came away with enough creative energy to make it happen!
Small Business Planner
The government Small Business Administration website contains many useful items for small businesses. One useful resource is the “Small Business Planner- First Steps to Starting a Business“.
Check it out!
