Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Wikinvest Seems Good Investment For VCs

What Company Is offering:
Wikinvest is an online stock wiki.
Wikinvest is an investing resource that aims to provide investors with information about companies, trends, and concepts affecting the business world. Using a Wiki approach, Wikinvest uses crowdsourcing to help create an investment research tool that actively encourages community participation.
How It Works:

Wikinvest divides company coverage into "Neutral," "Bull," and "Bear" perspectives so that investors can understand the range of arguments for and against investing in a particular stock. In addition, the site offers insights into movements in stock prices, an ongoing frustration for individual investors who have limited research tools available to them.

One of the interesting features is the unique WikiCharts that allow users to annotate stock charts, explaining the price movements of hundreds of companies.

How Much They Got From VCs:
Wikinvest received $2.5 Million from DCM venture capital.
More at:http://www.wikinvest.com/
Sponsers: Alabama payday loans

Virtual Assistants Forum

North American Virtual Assistants and particularly Canadian VA’s have never before had the opportunity to meet and exchange views in this kind of forum and on Canadian soil. Barb Lang, a Toronto based Virtual Assistant specializing in Event Planning, saw a need for new and seasoned VA’s to meet in person in order to exchange ideas and business expertise in a mastermind / workshop type event. Other successful VA conferences, generally held in the U.S., have followed the traditional conference format where participants listen and learn from guest speakers but very little interaction is expected.

“There is an incredible amount of talent and expertise already among the VA community. We should tap into that ‘real life experience’. The entrepreneurial freedom of Virtual Assistance is becoming a very desirable alternative to the corporately employed admin or executive assistant. I get people calling me weekly to find out more about the profession and how they might start out.” At the same time, experienced VAs who have successfully been in practice for more than 3 - 5 years, are looking for ways to move their businesses forward.

Barb decided that it was time to bring VA’s together in a stimulating and safe environment where judicious and relevant business issues and information could be exchanged and debated. “I want delegates to leave the forum with a solid plan in hand to take back to their businesses and implement immediately” says the organizer. “Personally, I’m not interested in hearing about ‘Laughter Therapy’ or having my ‘Colours done’. I work in my home office wearing my slippers and what I most need to know about is what a ‘wiki’ is and how my clients can promote their businesses using the latest Webinar technology or what the best way is for me to earn some residual income. I want to know why my ACT! database doesn’t play nice with my Adobe software and what are others do when they run into problems. Based on the positive responses from the VA community, it appears that I’m not the only one who needs to know these things.” Forum delegates, new or experienced, will take home practical and actionable step-by-step plans to start or grow their VA businesses immediately. The forum will be based on a dual track system so that delegates, no matter what level they are at, can get the information they came for.

“I also hope to get some big players to help sponsor the event. Office supply chains, courier companies, printers, banks, marketing companies, software, hardware, service oriented businesses… you name it, we buy it and so do our clients. The more Sponsors brought on board to support this event, the bigger the event which in turn means more businesses shopping in their stores or using their services. It’s a win win!” Says Barb.

The Forum on Virtual Assistance or FoVA will be held in early May of 2008 and is expected to become an annual tradition.

http://www.forumonvirtualassistance.com

Are all things equal in the pursuit of entrepreneurship?

Are all things equal in the pursuit of entrepreneurship?

An entrepreneur's gender does not correlate with a new venture's performance, according to a new report by the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy. Factors

While gender may not have an effect on overall success rates, however, the report shows that there are still several areas where men and women differ on the subject of starting a business. The report looked at data from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, which yielded a representative sample of 685 entrepreneurs who started their business in 1998 or 1999. Factors such as the entrepreneur's preferences, motivation, and expectations were controlled for, in the case of the report.

Researchers found that one of the main differences between male and female entrepreneurs is in the kind of businesses they start. Female entrepreneurs are more likely to start businesses in personal services and retail trade, while males tend to get involved in the technology and manufacturing sectors.

One possible explanation for this, according to the report, is that women often face barriers to entry in starting a business. As a result, women may be more likely to start businesses that do not have high demands for human or financial capital often because they lack access to it early on. Along the same lines, women-owned businesses tend to be smaller in scale than those started by men, the report found.

The study also highlighted the fact that female entrepreneurs work fewer hours, on average, than their male counterparts. Researchers found that because women generally have more domestic demands competing for their time, they also spend fewer hours on developing their new ventures.

Additionally, the report also examined risk preferences among male and female entrepreneurs. Previous studies have determined that women in general have a greater aversion to financial risk than men. As entrepreneurs, women are more likely to start ventures that have a lower risk factor, and consequently focus more on minimizing risk during the start-up process than males do.

Finally, the report compared men and women on the basis of their business savvy and found that the genders differ in the way they identify and seek out new business opportunities. Women pursue information through their social networks, and therefore have a greater variety of sources than men, while male entrepreneurs tend to identify business opportunities through conversations with investors and bankers, the report found.
Via-INC

Ernst and Young’s National Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Matthew Riley, chief executive officer of Daisy Communications, was awarded the accolade of Ernst and Young’s National Young Entrepreneur of the Year during a ceremony held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on 1 October.

Having been named the young entrepreneur for the North Region in June he was pitted against winners from other regions of the country who had shown enterprise at a young age.

Daisy is the 33-year-old’s fourth company, and last night’s award is recognition of a level of expansion that has seen the business become one of the fastest growing technology companies and Riley one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the North West, and now the UK. The company recently recorded a turnover of more than £23 million for the year ending March 2007.

He received the award in front of 800 entrepreneurs and their guests, and was one of 36 finalists to battle out the awards in nine different categories.

“To win the regional award in June was amazing, but to win the national award gives me an overwhelming sense of pride,” said Riley.

“The competition was very fierce in the ‘young’ category and I really do feel honoured to have won this accolade. I look forward to heading back up to Nelson and celebrating with my colleagues - without them this wouldn’t have been possible.”

Having left school at 16 to take up a YTS place as a trainee fax machine engineer, Riley has now spent a career spanning 17 years in the communications industry.

Daisy was established in his home town of Nelson in 2001 with just three employees. The company now operates from a 20,000sq ft state of the art office complex and employees more than 130 people and selling business communications solutions to businesses it is one of the UK’s leading independent companies for telephone, mobile, data and broadband.

Ernst & Young’s Manchester senior partner, Jan Gregory said: “The judges described Matthew as a great salesman, who has built a niche business, has good ideas and is continuously improving his business's offering and service. He has a thoughtful leadership style and invests in his people.

“The Entrepreneur of the Year programme recognises the determination, hard work and passion of entrepreneurs in over 40 countries on six continents. Our North West winners are shining examples of how entrepreneurial spirit can create world class businesses that make an enormous contribution to the local and UK economy.”
Via-http://www.cbmagazine.co.uk/News_Article_JS.cfm?X=0&Y=0&YearViewed=&Newsmonth=&EndDay=&NoNews=0&NewsID=3856

Unusual Business Idea

A couple of years ago, Jonathan Hall and his wife, Kate, decided that there must be a way to capitalize on the popularity of iPod add-ons. Cases and “skins,” had become big business by then — but those items decorated only the main device, which was usually stuffed in a pocket, out of sight.

Today, the Halls have sold tens of thousands of pairs of flexible rubber charms called Emotibuds, which clip onto earbuds, almost like earrings. Each pair features a blocky little face that incorporates an emoticon into a cute cartoon visage. There are a variety of faces, each set against a bright color and corresponding with a mood, like “starry-eyed” or “frisky.”

When they first dreamed up their idea, they knew nothing about making a product. They contacted a manufacturer of injection-molded plastics, but they didn’t know how to make the detailed computer-aided drawings such manufacturers require.

Hall bought the appropriate “For Dummies” book, and after some false starts they sent out the drawings and received price quotes only to realize they needed an investor.

Not surprisingly, potential investors wanted to know if the Halls had any market research suggesting consumer interest. So the couple put the drawings of their design on a Web site and sent e-mail messages to about 10 online cool-hunter types, in the hope of gauging interest.

Then, eight months later, Hall received a sudden flood of e-mail from people demanding to know where they could buy Emotibuds.

It turned out that an online trend-hunter — thecoolhunter.net — had belatedly posted a link to their site. The Halls, of course, had no actual product. They decided that with the help of an uncle, they would bankroll a first run themselves.

By the start of this year, Emotibuds were popping up all over the cool-little-design-product ecosystem, which includes retailers like the online shop Shana Logic as well as the Daily Candy e-mail newsletter.
More at:http://www.emotibles.com/
Via-Uncommon Business Blog

eWORDofMOUTH gives online companies a cost-effective alternative for advertrising

What Company is Offering:
eWORDofMOUTH gives online companies a cost-effective alternative for driving a steady stream of qualified traffic to their Website. Not only does eWORDofMOUTH create an ongoing flow of potential customers for users, but it goes a step further. It attracts motivated prospects who are pre-sold on the user’s brand by a referral from a friend or family member, which provides important advantages for users. According to research, referred customers spend more money on each purchase, buy more often, are more loyal and refer others more frequently. They also have greater trust for the referred company and its recommendations, and negotiate on price less. eWORDofMOUTH is ideal for e-tailers, membership Websites, offline retailers and direct marketing companies, and nonprofit organizations.
How It Works:
eWORDofMOUTH capitalizes on this trend by enabling Web users to recommend products and services that they value to their associates. The eWORDofMOUTH system combines the power of word-of-mouth marketing with the Internet to drive continuous traffic to users’ Websites. eWORDofMOUTH gives online companies an easy, cost-effective method for acquiring and retaining customers, as well as increasing sales.
More at:http://www.ewordofmouth.com/

Actionize For Finishing Your Business Well

What Company Is Offering:
Actionize is a web-based, highly integrated team, task, and contact manager and is ideal for both recurring business processes as well as time-constrained projects. Actionize automates and tracks all team interaction while simultaneously keeping you completely up-to-date on if, when, and why you’re meeting your goals on time, to specification, and on budget. Use the Actionize task list templates to immediately begin to collaborate online. Then invite your team to join the mission, assign responsibilities and milestones, and get to work.
How It Works:
The site allows there to be a central location where everyone can see the task lists, time-lines, responsibility charts, goal sheets, sales revenue... whatever tracking device the team needs to stay together and on target. As important, all the data is safe and secure under this site. The site is well designed and easy to use, and was obviously made by people who know the difficulty of maintaining communication and accountability within a group setting.
More at:http://www.actionize.com/

Get Paid To Make Accurate Predictions

What Company Is Saying:
Predictify.com which pays you for the accuracy of your predictions. They use an interesting system by which to pay people for the correctness of their guesses. With predictify there are many answers that you are able to answer for free, and the percentage that you get correctly boost up your score and you are able to make more money for the answers that you answer correctly that are pay answers. Some of the questions you need to pay to answer, and the ones that you pay to answer, and do answer correctly give you monetary rewards for answering correctly dependent upon the percentage of correct answers you have accrued with the free questions.
More at:http://predictify.com/

Win Money

What Company is Saying:
ZeroRiskPoker.com – a new site for Texas Hold’em fans who like the idea of holding onto their money and winning large. Pull up a chair at our sponsor-based online poker tables and play for prizes like your very own home gym, energy drinks, magazine subscriptions, and more. Thanks to our sponsors, we have over $25,000 worth of free stuff to give away every month and more is being added every day.

They are totally free which makes them legal in the US. They do not charge players to play poker ever. In addition their product crosses numerous verticals. They are an entertainment software package, they help companies market their products and services, offer turn key solutions for companies and at the end of the day, and they might lose money.
How It Works:
Players are attracted to the site because they love poker and they love the prospect of winning something for nothing. While other free poker sites are simply offshoots of real-money poker sites designed to convert you to a real-money player, this website is dedicated to keeping poker 100% free while making it more lucrative, more enticing, and more exciting than ever before. The site offers an opportunity for advertisers to meet those who like to play the game and will cater a marketing proposal for them in which we guarantee results or the sponsor does not have to pay.
More at:http://www.zeroriskpoker.com/

Business Plan Competition

The annual BYU Business Plan Competition gives students the opportunity to create a business plan or start a business over the course of the school year.

The event kick-off will be Oct. 10. The competition will consist of several events and workshops throughout the year, with final deadlines in February.

Students are encouraged to get involved and get started early, said John Rasmussen, the leader of the student team organizing the event.

The theme for this year's contest is Begin Your Adventure.

The competition is open for all students.

"Many teams come from outside the business school and do well," Rasmussen said. Some recent winners were from history and engineering majors, among many others.

The competition of several events will include smaller competitions and workshops to help students develop their business plans, and ventures for the final competition in March, he said.

There are many categories that students can get involved in, depending on their interests and ideas. There are separate competitions for plans, ventures, stay-at-home businesses, social entrepreneurship and global categories.

The Business Plan competition at BYU is a great opportunity for students, said Nile Hatch, a professor at BYU. More than 60 new ventures were created on campus last year.

"We get attention from all over the country," he said.

Students who participated in last year's competition went on to compete at the University of Texas-Austin, "the super bowl of Business Plan competitions," Hatch said. Winners at BYU get an automatic invitation.

The competition is a great way to help students who have an idea get started, said John Richards, a professor at BYU.

"It provides a central focal point for good ideas and good teams to put their time and attention into a packaged business plan that will help further the interests of all involved," he said in an e-mail.

The competition offers many advantages, said Gary Williams, a business professor at BYU. Workshops help students create teams and improve plans.

"The average investor is going to see 1,000 plans. There is a lot of finesse that goes into creating [written] plans," Williams said. Some investors will decide if they are interested in a business in as little as three pages

The business workshops will help students create plans, start businesses and learn to pitch their ideas to investors.

"We're helping share vision and providing opportunity," Williams said. The professors put structure in place and the students do the rest.
Full Deatil:http://nn.byu.edu/story.cfm/65543