NCET

Jessica DiLullo Herrin co-founded the prominent wedding website WeddingChannel at 24, and for the next few years, she devoted almost all her waking hours to her start-up. Her next business had to be different—because it had to accommodate a growing family. From the start, Stella & Dot has sold its custom jewelry through in-home trunk shows led by independent sales reps—stylists, in the company’s vernacular. Today, Stella & Dot has 10,000 stylists and Herrin has, in her own fashion, learned to slow down. Read full story:

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Understand.com, a Reno-based provider of 3D medical animations for physicians and healthcare companies, has made the Inc. magazine 500|5000 list as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America.

As a global provider of Web-based educational services, understand.com has educated more than 5 million patients and consumers to date. Understand.com was ranked 1,354, with a three-year growth rate of 215 percent.

Established in 2003 with a handful of surgeons, the company has since grown to include more than 2,000 physicians in 40 countries, as well corporate clients and endorsements and/or partnerships with leading medical societies and associations such as the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine and American Cancer Society.

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In the world of startups, success or failure can be hard to consistently predict. One thing that’s sure, however, is that anyone who starts a business is changed by the process. The continual challenges of meeting the opportunities and issues that arise make it fun and always interesting. I think it is why many people continue to start businesses regardless of the (easier) alternatives presented by employment for somebody else.

Having started a few businesses in my life, I view some of the lessons of the experience as intuitive and others much less so. Given the time and money involved in learning these lessons, none could be characterized as cheap.

They all changed my worldview, though. And they all changed me as a person. I’m glad I learned these lessons, but that doesn’t mean I don’t wish that I knew them originally.

Here are the eight things I wish I knew when I started my first business. Read full story:

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When Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kara Kelley announced her plans to leave the organization in September 2009, chamber officials looked for a replacement who was strong in all the areas important to members.

They sought somebody comfortable with economic development and diversification, somebody who valued a strong education system but wasn’t willing to concede that throwing tax money at schools would solve every problem, somebody who had worked with a large business organization and was versed in workers’ compensation and health care plans for small businesses. And it wouldn’t hurt if the person was optimistic and had a personality that could bring disparate viewpoints to the table.

They found Matt Crosson.

Crosson succeeded Kelley in April after spending 16 years as CEO of the Long Island Association Inc., New York’s largest business organization. He helped guide Long Island through a diversification program when the bottom fell out of the region’s aerospace industry in the mid-1990s.

He headed the LIA Health Alliance Inc., a regional health insurance purchasing plan for small businesses similar to what the Las Vegas chamber offers. He also served on the New York State Board of Regents Learning Standards Review Initiative Steering Committee, charged with restructuring the state’s K-12 educational standards and on the Governor’s Task Force on Workers’ Compensation.

Crosson spoke with In Business Las Vegas about issues facing the Las Vegas business community: Read full story:

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On Sept. 15, AITP Las Vegas will bring together all Las Vegas IT organizations for an “Association of Associations Mixer.”  The last mixer of this kind was attended by over 100 of Las Vegas’ IT practitioners, managers, vendors and partners. Each association will have the opportunity to introduce their organizations to the Las Vegas IT Community. It will give all the members and nonmembers of each organization the ability  to better understand what groups and associations are out there.

Wednesday, September 15 2010, 5:30pm – 8:00 p.m., Cadillac Grill, Town Square, Las Vegas. For more information, CLICK HERE.

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