Business Book: Shoestring Venture – How to Start a Business

What is the name of your business and URL? ShopLocket (www.shoplocket.com) A brief synopsis of the website / application: ShopLocket helps single-items sellers get their products in front of the people that matter. In less time than it takes to brush your teeth in the morning, you can sell your products by sharing them on [...]

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My startup is called Crazy Aaron’s Puttyworld. Our website is www.puttyworld.com. The company began in 1998 with a small box of putty I kept under my desk during my job as a software engineer. I borrowed a Weight Watchers food scale to weigh out the putty and sold it in plastic bags to co-workers. We [...]

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Name of your company and URL? Our company name is ParkingEdge, LLC and our Website is http://www.bestparking.com/ Date started? In business since 2006, we work with the nation’s largest operators and dozens of on-the-ground surveyors to assemble highly accurate parking data. What is your product or service? BestParking.com (formerly NYCGarages.com) is a parking search engine [...]

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A short authors bio: Mark S. Hankins (1962- ) was born in Tampa, Florida, a fourth-generation Floridian, graduated from the University of Virginia and the University of Florida School of Law, lived and practiced law in Gainesville, FL, Tallahassee, Denver (where he earned an LLM in Taxation) and Miami, and returned to the Tampa Bay [...]

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Jill Salzman is currently growing her third entrepreneurial venture, The Founding Moms, the world’s first and only kid-friendly collective of monthly meetups for mom entrepreneurs. A graduate of Brown University and law school, she started a music management firm and then launched a baby jewelry company before creating her current venture. Jill has been featured in [...]

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Name of Social Enterprise and URL? Spud Flower Who is the person behind Spud Flower? What is your background? There’s actually a team of us. The driving idea behind Spud Flower came from my wife as she struggled with finding the appropriate way to give her nephews an investment intended to go toward college 10+ [...]

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What is the name of your business and URL? We’re called Pipedrive and you can find us at http://pipedrive.com Explain your service to a 5 year old? Pipedrive lets you organise and work with your sales leads, hiring candidates, investment opportunities or other important discussions in a really simple way. Technically it’s simple CRM software [...]

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Name of your company and URL? WheelsNeedDeals, LLC- http://WheelsNeedDeals.com What is your product or service? WheelsNeedDeals.com is the first local daily deal site for the automotive industry with the average driver in mind. It is a robust automotive resource where users can get huge savings at reputable automotive businesses in their communities. They can save up [...]

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A short authors bio: Bark Pet Photography, co-founded by Kim Rodgers and Sarah Sypniewski in February 2009, is a Los Angeles-based pet photography business with an underlying mission of giving back to local animal rescue organizations. Their work has been seen in the Wall Street Journal, PEOPLEPets.com, LAist.com, TMZ, PEOPLE Style Watch Maga­zine, and Dogs [...]

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What is the name of your business and URL? ZenCash. You can find us at http://www.zencash.com. A brief synopsis of the website / application: ZenCash is an online service that helps small businesses and freelancers say thanks to customers who pay on time and follow up with those who don’t. We do this through automated [...]

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“Shop here. Give there.” This catchy tag line for online jewelry and accessories retailer, Les Amis, very cleverly summarizes the mission of the company: to bolster the concept of responsible luxury. In French, Les Amis means “friends.” The company is aptly titled, as Les Amis’ founders, Ami Doshi and Amisha Patel, are longtime friends living in [...]

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When I came across Shoestring Venture, I was at once intrigued to read about businesses starting up with very little money and becoming successes and fascinated by their stories. I am thrilled to now be one of them; a sole proprietor small business that was literally started with ten dollars. If I can share anything, [...]

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Joe Payne, Vice President of Professional Services at Source One Management Services, LLC, helps companies reduce costs and manage change. He leads a team of project managers and analysts, developing insights into the challenges organizations face when undertaking initiatives to reduce costs through strategic sourcing and negotiation best practices.His areas of expertise include strategic sourcing, [...]

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What is the name of your business and URL? The platform is called Wabiness. The name comes from melting together a “WAB” (Windows Address Book) file extension from Outlook, and “Business”. You can discover it here http://us.wabiness.com A brief synopsis of the website? We are a professional business platform matching together individuals’ skills and contacts [...]

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Andrea Torkelson loves the thrill of connecting. Even more so, she loves the thrill of helping other people connect. Most of all, she loves helping and seeing people from different backgrounds, belief systems and communities connect. It’s been her professional calling for the past decade as an operations and database manager at one of Florida’s [...]

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Name of Social Enterprise and URL? Lola’s Foundation www.MyLola.org Who is the person? What is there background? Analisa Hightower started Lola’s Foundation in honor of her grandmother, Lola. Lola taught her the importance of education and helping people out in any way you can. Analisa began Lola’s Foundation in May, 2011 immediately after Lola passed. [...]

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Name of your company and URL? Laboratory Style Initiative http://labstylein.com What is your product or service? Laboratory Style Initiative is a boutique lab coat company, specializing in high-end designer lab coats for women. Our intricate construction is what sets our lab coats apart. We feature exquisite detailing and a modern, flattering fit that instantly indentifies [...]

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A short authors bio: Daniel Feiman, MBA, CMC® & Visiting Professor is the Managing Director of Build It Backwards, based in Redondo Beach, CA. He focuses in three areas: Strategy: Planning & Implementation; Finance: Modeling & Analysis; Process: Lean & Continuous Process Improvement. Mr. Feiman is an internationally recognized leader in these areas; working with [...]

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Beware the Black Battlenaut. Earthshaker. Dolphin Knight. Day 9. Each of these indie-published e-books has sold many copies for author Bob Jeschonek. But until recently, he had no idea just how many copies, or how their sales compared to other titles. The distributors who sell Bob’s books–Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, and more–don’t [...]

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With the success of craft-based marketplaces like Etsy, and Artfire and the rapid growth of craft-friendly social sharing site Pinterest, an increasing number of creative entrepreneurs are turning their crafting into part- or even full-time businesses. These folks need simple tech tools that will help them run and grow their businesses without a steep learning [...]

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