The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp

Is entrepreneurship an inherent characteristic you must be born with? Or is it a skill that can be learned through instruction and study?

This is a topic that has been widely discussed within the entrepreneurial community. Some entrepreneurs are still on the fence about it. Others fall firmly on one side or the other. I tend to believe that it’s both. (I should be a politician!) There are aspects of entrepreneurship that require an innate understanding and passion, while there are other aspects that must be learned, either in a school setting or “on the job.”

An Inherent Trait
Entrepreneurship requires a relentless drive for success, a recognition of successful business opportunities when they arise, a passion for whatever niche your business is in, and, to put it plainly, guts! These are some of the traits that make for truly successful entrepreneurs. These are also traits that can’t be taught in a classroom or even through hands-on experience. Either you have ‘em or you don’t.

A Learned Skill
No one is born knowing how to handle business finances, market a product or service, or raise capital to help grow a company. These skills must be learned. That’s why entrepreneurship has become one of the fastest-growing programs on campuses throughout the country. In the mid-1980s there were about 300 two- and four-year colleges and universities that offered courses in entrepreneurship.  Today there are more than 2,000.

Beyond just learning basic business and management skills, entrepreneurship students can also learn to think strategically as well as study the failures and successes of those who’ve gone before them. One of the biggest benefits to entrepreneurial education is the connections you make with professors and peers. They may not mean as much while you’re still in school, but when you actually start working on your business those relationships can be invaluable.

For those of you who were unaware (I only found out just yesterday), this week is the second annual Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Founded jointly by the Kauffman Foundation and Make Your Mark, Global Entrepreneurship Week aims to introduce young people around the world to entrepreneurship and encourage them to think of innovation as a vehicle that can take them anywhere.

Last year’s events involved more than 3 million people in 100 countries participating in 25,000 different activities. This year’s events are expected to be even bigger and better.

Among the featured events will be a Global Innovation Tournament, the Cleantech Open, the world’s largest clean technology business competition, and screenings of Ten9Eight, a new documentary about 35 business plan competition finalists.

Even if you don’t participate in any of the events taking place this week, consider reaching out to young people through mentorship programs or internships and start encouraging the next generation of entrepreneurship.

The Small Business Administration is looking for nominees for the 2010 National Small Business Week Awards. This is a great opportunity for any small business. Not only is it a chance to step into the spotlight and gain some individual recognition for hard work and a job well done, it’s also the perfect place to connect with members of the media and gain recognition for your small business.

The SBA’s small business awards cover many different categories. They include the Small Business Person of the Year from every state and one national winner, the Young Entrepreneur of the Year, the Small Business Exporter of the Year, the Family-Owned Business of the Year, and many more. Awards are also given for individuals or organizations whose work furthers small business success.

If you’re thinking, “Great, I’ll go nominate my business right now!” it doesn’t exactly work like that. You must be nominated by a local organization “dedicated to the support of the small business community,” according to SBA guidelines. This can include trade and professional associations and business organizations.

The deadline for nominations is Friday, Nov. 13, which if you’re looking at a calendar you can see is tomorrow! (The process isn’t too tedious, so it is certainly possible to still nominate.)

National Small Business Week will be held May 23-25 next year. To learn more and get started, just go to the 2010 National Small Business Week website.

1. Dimdim: Dimdim is a Web conferencing application that lets anyone deliver synchronized live presentations, whiteboards and Web pages and share their voice and video over the Internet—no download required.
2. ADrive: ADrive offers 50 GB of free online storage and backup for all file types. The 50 GB of space is currently the most you can get as far as free offerings. Most others offer just 1-5 GB for free.
3. Blogger: Blogger is a free blog publishing tool from Google that allows you to easily share news, tips and other relevant content with your audience.
4. Craigslist: Craigslist is an online classifieds site where you can post jobs for free.
5. Mint: Mint.com is an online finance tool that can be used for money management, budgeting and other types of financial planning.
6. ZoneAlarm: ZoneAlarm, maker of Internet security software, offers a basic free firewall protection that monitors inbound/outbound traffic and makes you invisible to hackers.
7. PartnerUp: PartnerUp is an online networking site for small business owners and entrepreneurs. With a free membership you can network, search for people (e.g. business partners, team members, etc.), search for resources and get small business advice.
8. CutePDF Writer: CutePDF Writer is the free version of commercial PDF creation software. It installs itself as a “printer subsystem,” enabling virtually any Windows applications to create professional quality PDF documents.
9. Your Pitch Sucks?: Your Pitch Sucks? is a public relations pitch reviewing/editing/advising service. Just send them your PR pitch and they’ll tell you if it sucks (to put it bluntly) and how to fix it.
10. Google…anything: Google makes a ton of free tools to help entrepreneurs. Examples: Google Docs, Google Analytics, Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Alerts, Google Wave, etc. Check them all out!

Have a great weekend!

When I was in college, the big question was, “what do I want to do?” It’s a question that all young adults have at least thought about. The answer for me was writing. The answer for others could be anything from teaching kindergarten to serving in the military to being a personal trainer.

For young entrepreneurs, maybe the answer doesn’t matter. Maybe “What do I want to do?” is the wrong question. I read an excellent post this morning on The Entrepreneurial Mind that talks about the question that entrepreneurship students SHOULD be asking themselves.

“What goods or services are needed that people are willing to pay for?”

Instead of focusing on themselves and what they want, entrepreneurs need to focus on what other people (potential customers) want. Pursuing your dreams and being willing to take risks is a good thing. But living in a rusted-out van down by the river because your vintage record shop didn’t pan out is not.

While I’m a huge proponent of people finding what makes them happy in life, I agree with the author’s points. We live in a shaky economy right now, so we have to be smart about the decisions we make and the paths we follow. That’s not to say that young entrepreneurs can’t still pursue the things that make them happy, because they can, they just need to approach them intelligently and with the needs and desires of potential customers in mind.

This is a guest post by Jamie Flinchbaugh.

I’ve met a number of people who want to start businesses but have been clawing away at the same idea for many years without progress. I’ve met just as many people who have great ideas but never bring them to fruition. These folks are stuck because they don’t approach idea management the right way. Idea management is a discipline that every entrepreneur, present and future, should master.

Here’s how I handle the process. As I generate ideas, either randomly or through brainstorming, I use a spreadsheet to track them. This includes the idea, status, next steps, required financial or time investment, and current or potential partners. When I have an idea, I don’t judge it nor do I start to work on it. I simply add it to the spreadsheet. This gets it out of my head so I can manage it rather than be distracted by it. I keep this spreadsheet updated continuously, color coding the ideas I discard, those I turn into something, and those that have simply stalled.

Why is such a list important? First, the organization of your ideas can be used for further idea generation. If you’ve tracked five ideas but then decided against them, that’s OK because your brain can potentially use those bad ideas to trigger the generation of good ones. The more ideas you generate, the more your brainstorming skills and habits will grow.

Second, and more importantly, the spreadsheet will help you better analyze the viability of your ideas. Too many people fall in love with the first idea they have because it’s their only idea. The list helps you to think more critically than that. It enables you to say no to the wrong ideas so that when the right ideas come along you can say yes with conviction.

Idea management is critical to the development of your business. Businesses thrive off ideas, but if your ideas don’t go anywhere your business won’t go anywhere either.

Jamie Flinchbaugh is an executive coach, consultant and entrepreneur. You can follow more of Jamie’s writing at www.jamieflinchbaugh.com.

Some people are natural-born brainstormers, and some people are not. If you’re one of those who are not, I know how you feel. It can be tough. Luckily I have some tips that have been given to me over the years to make for more productive brainstorming.

1. Start by throwing out the craziest, most far-fetched ideas. They may not be as crazy as you think.
2. Talk your business issues through with people who know little or nothing about your business. You’ll get a fresh perspective.
3. When brainstorming with others, emphasize the notion that no idea is a bad idea.
4. Try Googling random/weird words or phrases that may only be slightly relevant. It will help get the juices flowing.
5. If you’re stuck in the middle of a brainstorming session, walk away and do something completely unrelated. It will allow you to free your mind and come back refreshed.
6. Don’t just stop when you think you’ve come up with the right idea/solution. Keep going until you’ve exhausted every avenue. The best may be yet to come.
7. Don’t worry about evaluating a single idea until later. Brainstorming time is just for throwing out ideas.

Have a great weekend!

The microlending site Kiva.org is known for helping entrepreneurs in developing countries get financing to start and run their small enterprises.

How it works is entrepreneurs-in-need create profiles of themselves and their struggling businesses. Then Internet users can choose to provide small loans of $25 or more to these entrepreneurs who are located in nearly 50 impoverished nations across the globe.

With the recent lending issues facing small businesses in the United States, San Francisco-based Kiva has decided to open its services to struggling entrepreneurs in its own backyard.

Premal Shah, president of Kiva, believes that small businesses are a real growth-driver for the U.S. economy and wants to help them.

“Even before the credit crunch, small business loans were hard,” Shah said in an interview with National Public Radio. “Post credit crunch it’s really, really hard. So, Kiva started thinking, ‘Wow, we’re allowing people in the developing world to request loans, why not un-crunch America and allow people here in the U.S. to request loans and see if the Internet community wants to fund them.’”

The thing to remember should you be interested in looking for financing through Kiva.org is that this is a microlending site, meaning if you need hundreds of thousands of dollars to turn your dream into reality, you’re not likely to receive that kind of funding. Kiva users typically ask for/receive between a few hundred dollars and several thousand.