NFTE blog

Written by Alexandra Mayzler, Founder and Director of Thinking Caps Tutoring

It seems that as soon as a business is off the ground, and sometimes even before then, talk turns to how to grow and scale the company. Often business owners think about how to delegate responsibilities, improve leadership skills, and gain financing to allow for growth. While these are important aspects to building a healthy business, one topic that can be overlooked is creating systems in order to achieve growth.

So we’re coming to the end of 2011 and I’m sure for many of you entrepreneurs out there you had your ups and downs this year. With all those highs and lows though comes a lot of good experience, and with that experience it’s time to prepare for the new year ahead.  Take some time, if you haven’t already, to start making a list of things you plan to do in 2012 and set some goals that you want to accomplish by this time next year. While making that list here are some things to think about so that the next year is the best one yet.

Gary Vaynerchuk discuses here in this video on Next Wave about how the future of businesses using social media might not depend on the number of followers they have anymore. Because more people are using filters on Facebook and Twitter to limit who they are getting updates from in their news feed, businesses need to figure out better ways to interact with their fans.

Written by Nick Nanton

The current economic climate in the United States has made life harder than ever for many entrepreneurs. Consumer spending is down and unemployment rates remain high. For entrepreneurs and small business owners in particular, competition has intensified — as businesses are forced to compete tooth-and-nail for every sale.

Therefore, it is important for business owners to find something that makes them stand out in their market — to differentiate themselves from their competition.

I feel that there’s a moment in everyone’s life where they think to themselves and say “I should start my own business.” Whether it’s when you’re a teenager who dreams of making millions while selling their great invention, or a business professional who is tired of the cubical lifestyle, we’ve all had the idea. But what does it mean to be an entrepreneur? How do you know if you have all the right credentials to be successful? Unfortunately there is no surefire way to determine if you’re cut out for it but here are a few things to consider before you jump right in:

The Parents’ Guide to Raising CEO Kids raises funds and awareness for the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

A new book Dr. Jerry Cook, parenting expert, and Sarah L. Cook, prominent youth entrepreneurship advocate and NFTE supporter, are raising funds and awareness for NFTE. The resource section at the conclusion of the authors’ inspiring and educational book, The Parents Guide to Raising CEO Kids, features NFTE as a valuable resource for youth.

When it comes to marketing, for entrepreneurs big and small, you will always need to make a plan to build and develop the audience for your business. But where do you begin? For starters you might want to take some tips from Danny Iny, author of Engagement from Scratch!, who has already gone around and talked to some of the best in the business.  

Here we saw some inventive entrepreneurs decide to focus on solving a societal problem – kids dropping out of school, small businesses unable to access the knowledge and the networks they need to expand, people in poverty needing a little seed capital to start a business. At this breakfast that Ernst & Young hosted, we heard from some top social entrepreneurs who are using the power of entrepreneurship to address social problems—and to learn how you and your employees can get involved to make a difference.

As some of you know already, for the past two weeks we've been hosting our online voting piece for the World Series of Innovation as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, and well it's that time folks. We are so proud to announce the winners of the 2011 World Series of Innovation presented by Microsoft and the fantastic ideas that they have created! Here are the winners for each category: