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There is nothing more exhilarating than knowing where you’re going in business, seeing the road ahead and knowing what steps to take.  Just having that in your pocket feels like a currency, like being rich with hope AND strategy. Conversely, speaking for myself and possibly the other 22 million of us US entrepreneurs who sometimes [...]

Last year I was operating under the old ratio of:  busy tasks vs. priority tasks.  The equation looked like this:  600 + 4 = a day in the life of an entrepreneur. The 600 represents everything other than what you should actually be doing -  reading possibly important stuff, looking for stuff, responding to stuff, [...]

Entrepreneurs are dreamers, optimists, builders, connectors, inventors, doers and very often people in flannel pajamas. We spend enormous amounts of time in our heads, hearts and on the computer, learning, connecting and planning what to do next. Most of the time we are a force of nature – but there are times when no one [...]

Build and Evolve Your Company If you are building a start-up or updating your current company – and you need quality professionals – call the Big Ooga – we’ve got great people. Build Your Skills If you want to learn social media, SEO, how to set-up a blog, start a Twitter page, streamline your process, [...]

There are 27,000 current members in Linked n Chicago, thousands of members & friends of Big Ooga, Local First, BNC, Evanston Chamber, West Suburban Chamber, the Naperville LinkedIn Business Group and the Evanston / North Shore Business Group. Among them, the owners, founders, leaders, volunteers and members share a common vision, to create a working, [...]

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 [...]

How much time do you estimate you spend thinking about your business?  It probably ranges from – every waking moment to only when I can shut it off. The real heavy lifting of the entrepreneur’s journey is the thinking process.  Our work is problem solving on the fly.  To do this we are supposed to [...]

After the blush and expense of getting your small business website up – you may have noticed THAT IT’S ALREADY TIME TO EVOLVE – DANG IT! Transforming your company website from an online brochure to a customer engagement tool is the next vista of the journey. Luckily we have incredibly smart, skilled people among us [...]

The more inbound links your website has the better.  This raises your visibility in the search engines. (SEO) You link to us, we link to you and everybody wins.  It’s not rocket science. It’s with great pleasure that we announce PROJECT INBOUND – the more the merrier Link Fest.  Calling every Big Ooga member – [...]

Image by kevindooley via Flickr I worry about myself when everything is in order.  Isn’t a neat office the sign of an empty mind? How is it possible that my accountant and bookkeeper have overcome my chaos? How is it feasible that my efficiency expert has delivered on her promise to “get more done so [...]