Apply for One of These Awards or Competitions for a Shot in Your Business’s Arm

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Apply for One of These Awards or Competitions for a Shot in Your Business’s Arm
Tips To Recharge Your Batteries
Dollars and Common Sense: Finance Basics for a Successful Life

Posted: 04 Aug 2012 01:32 PM PDT

Awards. Competitions. Contests. The ones that offer financial prizes can give your business a big financial boost. Those that offer honors and recognition can be a motivational boost for the entire team.

But don’t be shy! So many people don’t want to enter their own companies into contests and awards. But you know what? If YOU don’t do it, it probably won’t happen. Who do you think is going to enter you into an awards program — your competitors? Hardly. Customers — maybe, but most are too busy.

Not, it’s likely going to be up to you to take that first step. Here’s a list of awards and competitions we recommend checking out:

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Dell $100M Innovators Credit Fund
Ongoing

Dell has launched a $100 million Innovators Credit Fund, with the purpose of helping entrepreneurs "maximize potential for innovation, speed to market and job creation." The credit fund will offer both funding and technology resources with IT support, depending on what each start-up needs.

To be eligible, you must have already received some angel funding or venture capital before you can apply. Start-ups can get up to 10% of its current funding or up to $150,000 with limited credit terms. See website for details and application.

Win an Office Assistant
Enter by August 7, 2012

To celebrate the launch of high-tech recruitment company TeleworkingExpatsForHire.com, business owners can win the services of a teleworking office assistant for two months worth $4,800.
See company LinkedIn page for details

Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition
Enter by August 8, 2012

The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is an annual international business plan competition in Michigan. The event is the world's largest business plan competition with more than $1 million in prizes. The goals of the competition are to promote Michigan as a venue for innovation and opportunity and stimulate job creation.

American Airlines Flights. Camera. Action.
Enter by August 10, 2012

Upload a short video telling how the connections you make through travel help your business soar – and you might win up to 80 round-trip tickets for your company and exposure to thousands of potential customers.

The New York Times Make Your Pitch Contest
Enter by August 29, 2012

Submit your pitch on video, telling about your product or service, your marketing plans, your customer base. Tell what makes your business different — why it is one to watch? Do you need capital? If so, how much and what for? Most important, how are you going to make money?

All video pitches that meet the submission guidelines will be featured on The New York Times small-business Facebook page and selected pitches will be featured on the New York Times You’re the Boss Blog.

PITCH NYC 2012
Enter by August 31, 2012

After hosting the successful 5th Annual PITCH 2012 in the Silicon Valley, Women 2.0 is excited to launch the inaugural PITCH NYC Conference & Competition 2012 (PITCH NYC 2012).

Open to early-stage high-growth ventures around the world, PITCH NYC 2012 invites companies with at least one female in the founding team to apply. Applying companies must be in beta stage and have received less than a million in funding. They are looking for the most disruptive web/mobile ventures, connected device companies, double and triple bottom line ventures, etc. Prizes include $25k cash, services and more.

See website for entry rules (you have to send in your business plan on a napkin!)

MillerCoors Urban Entrepreneurs Series
Enter by October 26, 2012

The 2012-2013 MillerCoors Urban Entrepreneurs Series (MUES) business plan competition is now open and accepting entries.

Since 1999, MillerCoors has invested more than $1.7 million in the dreams of entrepreneurs. This year brings new opportunities for entrepreneurs like you. Enter your business plan for a chance to vie for a $50,000 business grant and potentially become a MillerCoors supplier.

Infusionsoft Battle of the Apps
Enter by December 31, 2012

?Do you have a great idea for an Infusionsoft App, integration or plug-in that will enhance the Infusionsoft user experience? Then you have a shot at being crowned the Kick Apps Champion in the Battle of the Apps 2013. First prize is $10,000. See website for details.

The list of awards and competitions is brought to you by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.

To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit our Small Business Events Calendar.
If you are putting on a small business contest, award or competition, and want to get the word out to the community, please submit it through our Small Business Event and Contests Form (it’s free).

Please note: The descriptions provided here are for convenience only and are NOT the official rules. ALWAYS read official rules carefully at the site holding the competition, contest or award.

From Small Business Trends

Apply for One of These Awards or Competitions for a Shot in Your Business’s Arm

Tips To Recharge Your Batteries

Posted: 04 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT

"With that kind of care and determination…you don't need to be a genius. What you do need is perseverance." — Lisa Cron, Wired for Story

reading book

Creating a small business is work. There's no way around it. I don't care how passionate or how good you are at what you do, there are days when it just feels like "a lot" and "too much." Those are the days when you contemplate using your time in other ways. Even though you are glad to be the boss, you can acknowledge the benefits of being an employee — medical and insurance, plugging into an established system, an easy exit strategy if you need it, etc.

But that was just for a moment — right? Hopefully, your passion, ideas and dedication to the problem you solve and the people you serve pulled you back in. If that's not enough here are few other things to help you get your head back in the game:

1) Take a Break

Take some down time, extended moments to think about nothing. You need several days in a row where your core responsibility is to wake up, eat, walk and sleep.

2) Read a Book That You Want to Read

To step it up a notch, make sure it has nothing to do with work or your industry. You want fresh exposure.

3) Take a Class

Photography, painting, any thing that interests you. It's a simple change that can potentially expand the way you see the world, your business and your team.

4) Do Something on That Bucket List

Quit waiting for retirement to do an amazing thing. Do it now.

In most cases, your business is driven less by genius and more by your ability to just keep going. And when the energy you have and effort you make doesn't seem to be enough, then it's time for a shift — time you need to mix it up, time to have some fun — and then get back to the day to day.

When you're refreshed, your business gets refreshed and your team too — because they feed off your energy.

Reading Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Tips To Recharge Your Batteries

Dollars and Common Sense: Finance Basics for a Successful Life

Posted: 04 Aug 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Dollars and Common Sense: Taking Charge of Your Investments in the Tumultuous 21st Century, by Peter Andresen looks at how to manage your money and invest it to build wealth.

Andresen, a financial advisor who founded Andresen and Associates, wrote this book mainly for anyone interested in making financial choices without "fear of investment fears, phobia, and mythology." It does not dive into small business financials. But small business owners don’t have the luxury of receiving a paycheck and need financial planning more than most, and so should consider it a guide for growing their investment income.

Grandparents Had A Point About Saving Money…

The author's fiscal approach is conservative, based on a self-described 10 commandments of Investing for Success. Early passages concern a very centralist view of finance – The first commandment is:

"Times of economic and physical hardship are an inevitable part of life. They pass."

Then segue into more about the investor's rational ("Manage your own irrational mind"). Andresen's point is one where extremes distort us from our primary objectives.

This view makes Dollars and Common Sense stand out from many prominent guru books. Andresen writes on perfectionism, the idea that you avoid imagining how your portfolio can be in a downturn – and on preventing scam. The nice perspective he brings is placing the ego in check:

"The best investors lose money too. The difference between them and everybody else is how they deal with it."

Andresen advocates budgeting, but takes that ethos beyond the topic of reducing debt into conservative suggestions regarding investment choices. Chapter 5 suggests investing only in mutual funds, followed with detailed chapters on differing mutual funds classes. I am not sure using the phrase "only" is a trump card for all investing, but given the amount of the exotic instruments unleashed on the American public, Andersen works to take you towards a manageable selection of investments.

… and Andresen makes a solid case for fiscal conservatism

Andresen is against the complexity that investment banks have wrought on the public. It's the velocity of these instruments that have come into question, and Andersen does a good job explaining how that velocity came to be institutionalized:

"The core of 2008's financial explosion was … constructed as early as 1970. There were those who spoke out. Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote his books on the Black Swan, the effects of the unexpected. Robert Schiller wrote about Unbridled Exuberance. So we were warned, but their voices were drowned out in a sea of marketing disguised as advice…..as the entire mortgage-backed securities market came crashing down, the stock market, the oil market, the gold market, and the real estate market imploded as well. It was a perfect storm. There was nowhere to hide, except Treasury bonds… The bottom line is that the rules of the last 30 years don't appear to have worked. How humbling to discover that the World War II generation was right after all!"

Supporting charts indicating economic performance over the past several generations; most of the data presented supports a conservative approach for one's portfolio. A chapter on rebalancing your portfolio explains the definition and process, while another chapter notes the qualities a financial adviser should possess.

Furthermore, Andresen’s writing style is imaginative and light on jargon, while still covering some good technical details and the purposes behind those details. Read this quote for example:

"It's important not to get diverted into researching for new funds right now. If you chase a magazine's top-performing funds, you will wander off into a forest of mutual fund statistics and anxiety. Let it go. Right now all you need to do is rebalance to the best of your ability."

Dollars and Common Sense offers a standard read on personal finance. You'll certainly need to weigh the advice against your own set of investment risks. If your investment tastes lean towards more risk – investing in stocks or occasionally use calls and puts options — other books will suffice.

But Dollars and Common Sense will address readers who need a balanced approached of self-management yet still need advisory for fiscal management. For the busy small business owner, the brevity of text won't overtake a business day in understanding the book's personal finance messages.

Those messages will reward you with a good baseline for getting back to finance basics.

From Small Business Trends

Dollars and Common Sense: Finance Basics for a Successful Life