EQ Journal

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70 Ways to Raise Bootstrap Capital

There are certainly hundreds or even thousands of clever techniques entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs are using to raise cheap/free capital, aka bootstrap capital. No list is ever going to be complete. But here is our summary of what people are doing these days to self-capitalize their new products/services/enterprises. If you would like to add to our [...]

More About Curation

(Curating Sweden: http://www.eqjournal.org/?p=2995) (Profession to Watch for in the 21st Century: Curator: http://www.eqjournal.org/?p=487) The proliferation of information in the last Century and this one is beyond belief. In 2008 alone, 487 million gigabytes were added to the collection of digital information world-wide according to an IDC study: As the Economy Contracts, the Digital Universe Expands, [...]

Main Sources of Capital for Startups

Is lack of access to capital really the main barrier to entry for most entrepreneurs? I believe that a stated lack of access to capital by many would-be entrepreneurs is more of an excuse than anything else. There is lots of funding around for passionate entrepreneurs who can execute on a good biz model. Here [...]

Financial Leverage: A Simple Model

(Is Bootstrap Capital a New Form of Capital?) (What Occupy Wall Street is Really Complaining About) Leverage or gearing means using OPM, Other People’s Money, in one of your projects. Simply put, when your project’s rate of return is higher than the coupon rate (interest rate) on money you borrowed or used to capitalize it, [...]

Goal Setting and the 1992/93 Ottawa Senators

(Which Team was the NHL’s Worst Ever? The 1974/75 Washington Capitals and I Can Prove It.) Goal setting is an important part of future success for would-be entrepreneurs. Enterprises that set goals and track their metrics are growing at 7x the rate of enterprises that don’t according to a Silicon Valley study published in May [...]

Raising Capital by ‘Issuing’ Script

(Plus Tapping Sponsors/Co-Branders/Strategic Investors and Partners for Free Capital) There’s nothing new about raising money by issuing script. The Reynolds Brothers ran a sawmill (established in 1870 by Orson L. Reynolds) in the Adirondacks that in addition to central logging and operating their mill also ran a company store and developed other sources of income [...]

How Do I Beat The Competition

Professor Carlisle Adams at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Engineering challenged me to train his second year class on how they can build world class enterprises in a tough competitive world and then sustain them. In an hour and a half no less. Case studies I use include: Rick Hunter’s Mont Cascade and Pro [...]

Entrepreneurs Handbook II: Foreword

(Here is the Foreword to Entrepreneurs Handbook II, coming out in March 2012. Stay tuned.) Do you want to learn how to create significant value for yourself and your family in an enterprise that you own and control—value that can provide you the freedom and security to realize your lifetime goals? Then read this Handbook [...]

Institute of Entrepreneurs

Introduction Exploriem.org is launching the Institute of Entrepreneurs (IOE) this year. Why? To bring advanced research, education and mentoring to student entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs from self-capitalized and forward-looking enterprises across Canada and around the world. IOE provides access to research, education and a network of high achievers that you just can’t get anywhere else. The [...]

Learn from Failure

T.C. Transitus Communications Inc. Case Study Introduction Unfortunately it is often true you can learn more from failure than you can from success. This was true of the Starflyer and it was true of Transitus as well. Just as the Starflyer was a can’t-miss idea of mine from the 1980s, Transitus was a can’t-miss idea [...]

Why Business Models Are Important

Sam Palmisano, when he was CEO of IBM told BusinessWeek (April 3rd, 2006) why he places a great deal of emphasis on the importance of business model innovation. He said: “…with product innovation, it’s a certainty that your competition is shortly going to copy what you have done. With business-model innovation, though, if you can [...]

25 Steps to Entrepreneurial Success

I am often asked: “What are the keys to success?” I have developed some ideas on this over the years and, like any list in this area, mine is incomplete. Worse than this, many of these ideas for success are contradictory. Things that I learned from my Dad, Professor O. J. Firestone, like “Never take [...]