Have you heard of Ballet Parking? The World’s Largest Thong? Or celebrated Have a Bad Day Day?  Maybe you’ve read Harry Potter, taken a Zip Car or tried the new Fare Share taxi app in NYC. Those are all figments of some one’s imagination gone terribly real. 
I have had enough experience to believe that imagination rocks. 
For many of us, we also have visions, [...]

I couldn’t get the word Ooga out of my head. It sounded so Google, so Yahoo, but with a honk.  Instead of foolishly following my instinct, I conducted market research and asked professional women, business women’s groups, businessmen, entrepreneurs, friends and everyone I knew what they thought of the name Big Ooga. Here were my findings.  
90% of people had a strong reaction to the [...]

There is a distinction between making a living and building a company.  Both are entrepreneurial, but the approach is very different. Breaking out of your box means understanding business models and putting them into effect.
Making a living means finding a stream of customers or clients who want what you sell or do and doing more of it.
You [...]

Imagine juggling five balls in the air while running through a plate of spaghetti - then meet people who have done it well - and you’ve got the entrepreneurial journey.
Tonight, with an expert panel and a room full of seasoned and new entrepreneurs,  we will be talking about navigating business chaos and making strategic choices [...]

The real heavy lifting for Chicago entrepreneurs is the thinking - it’s the figuring out and adjusting  - what is my product or service? What needs to change and improve? What words should I use to describe it? The ongoing evolution process is agonizing!  Real entrepreneurship means hitting moving targets and constantly adjusting to the [...]

I have started two companies - one backwards and the other with planning.  The one I knew nothing about was much easier than the one I thought I knew something about.  Here are both formulas for your reference.
Company 1
Epiphany + no clue + limited skills + first client falls in lap x ignorance and [...]

Image by Francesca Tronchin via Flickr
I can see not wanting to keep meeting overhead - but lowering overhead to meet the future.
I can see my current business tools are not sharp enough and that sharpening them means finding new ones.
I can see that the power and depth of my relationships are as meaningful yesterday as [...]

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We need a new name for Monday.  Sunday sounds like a dessert.  Saturday reminds me of grass and sneakers. But when I think of Monday, I think of the first day of a long week and the only day when I feel completely behind in my entire work week by 10 am on [...]

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I’ve spent a lot of time this week shaping and articulating entrepreneurial companies.  We have searched for the “vein of gold” as Julia Cameron refers to it - for what sets a company apart and fills an unmet market need.
We have approached it by asking what really turns on the entrepreneur & what [...]

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There was debate amongst Chicago art dealers that included those still in business and some no longer open as to how to price art in this economy.  According to the article in the Sunday Trib, the camps were divided into: the artists have earned their provenance and deserve their prices vs I’m making [...]