NCET

When Sue Drakeford became the first African-American to represent Nebraska at the Miss USA Pageant in 2001, she saw a great business opportunity. She would start a production company that would host its own pageants and teach others like her gain the confidence and skills to compete in the real world. The company would provide an alternative to the “cold-blooded cutthroat world of modeling and beauty pageants” that she endured. So Sue completed her MBA and started her venture—all while working full-time at a regional bank. Her company, Drakeford Productions, is now two years old and employs seven. It doesn’t produce anything (except beauty queens) and isn’t really innovating under the traditional definition of business innovation espoused at business schools. Read full story:

Technorati Tags: BusinessWeek, entrepreneur, Sue Drakeford, Vivek Wadhwa, Miss USA Pageant, Drakeford Productions, Peter Drucker, Anatomy of an Entrepreneur, Murali Bashyam, Chad Moutray, Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, business, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

Green Initiative 3rd Quarter Sustainability Cafe:
Chamber Green Roots Launch

Date: Thursday, October 1, 2009
Time: 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Location: EMBARQ® Business and Conference Center
at the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce

Take advantage of a brand new benefit at the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce! The Chamber Green Roots program is a one stop resource for increasing the sustainability of your business. All of the information, tools and resources you need to begin and continue making green efforts at your company will be provided. Walk through the member tables at this mini green expo and get first hand, face-to-face, practical advice on how you can achieve a green business designation, increased exposure and recognition in the Chamber’s online membership directory through participation in Green Roots.

RSVP: Click Here to RSVP

Sponsorships and exhibiting space still available!

Email lboitel@lvchamber.com
or call 702.586.3893 for more information.

Technorati Tags: Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, business, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

Web start-up companies at this year’s Tech Crunch conference face a financial climate that has dried up venture capital, forcing them to turn to friends, family and foundations.

Dan Olsen, a Stanford Business School grad, was one of the many entrepreneurs presenting his newly developed software at the tech conference held in a converted wooden warehouse on Monday and Tuesday.

Olsen said he could not secure any venture capital and had instead turned to his friends — and their willingness to work for food — to develop his “real time discovery engine” that scans Twitter, Facebook and many other places in a specialized search called Yourversion.

“My friends come over and code all day on Saturday and, at the end, we have a barbeque and beers,” he said. “I give food equity.” Read full story:

Technorati Tags: David Lawsky, Reuters, Tech Crunch Conference, Dan Olsen, Stanford Business School, venture capital, Twitter, Facebook, Yourversion, National Venture Capital Association, Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital, Google Android Developer Challenge, Chris Hulle, Leila Chirayath Janah, SamaSource, Rockefeller Foundation, Amita Paul, Objective Marketer, business, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

In this adaptation from his new book, Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t (Broadway Books), author Kevin Maney explains the tension between two key qualities and how a great brand got caught in a no-man’s-land between them.

We constantly, in our everyday lives, make trade-offs between fidelity and convenience.

Those trade-offs, and how they affect business, help explain why Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) hit a wall in 2007 — and why CEO Howard Schultz is still struggling to get his company’s mojo back.

Fidelity is the total experience of something. At a rock concert, for example, it’s not just the quality of the sound, which often isn’t as good as listening to a CD on a home stereo, but also everything else going on, like the crowd around you and the social cache of later telling people you saw the band live. Read more:

Technorati Tags: Kevin Maney, CNN Money, Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On and Others Don’t, Starbucks, Howard Schultz, McDonald’s, Tyler Cowen, Dale Roberts, Java Shack, Jim Donald, Maria Bartiromo, business, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

Starting a business is a lot like becoming a parent. Not only do you have to prepare for your start-up emotionally and financially, but you have to be committed to its constant needs until it’s mature enough to hum along on its own. And even then (much like a child) it will always need you in some capacity, no matter how old it gets. here are five questions to ask yourself before you get started:

1. Am I passionate about my product or service? 

2. What is my tolerance for risk?

3. Am I good at making decisions?

4. Am I willing to take on numerous responsibilities?

5. Will I be able to avoid burnout?

Click HERE to read additional details about the above questions.

Technorati Tags: Wall Street Journal, entrepreneurs, Getty Images, business, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology