General Business

Legal disputes are costly, time consuming, emotionally draining, and not good for business. A business dispute is a business illness. If mild, you can work through it, but it still drags you down and impacts profits. If severe, a business dispute can destroy an entire business. Unfortunately, just as illnesses are an inevitable part of being human, disputes are an inevitable part of doing business. Learning how to effectively manage the disputes that arise is critical for business success.

Negotiation, mediation, and litigation are each potent processes for breaking down an impasse so that disputants can move from conflict to resolution. As with any tool, there are right and wrong times and ways to use it.

Negotiate, Mediate, or Litigate?

Litigation is often the most costly, time-consuming, and ineffective method for getting to resolution. It takes control of the dispute out of the hands of the business owner and gives it to a third party, such as a judge, arbitrator, or jury. This is not to say that litigation is bad and should be avoided in all cases. Litigation is appropriate when it is simply impossible to work through issues consensually. (more…)

Two and a half years ago, Minnesota craft favorite Surly Brewing announced plans to open a new $20 million “destination brewery” in Minneapolis. There was just one problem. It was illegal.

A Prohibition-era law still on the books in Minnesota forbid breweries from serving their beer on premises. The Free Enterprise Tour stopped at Surly Brewing for a tour, a sample of Furious IPA, and background on the fight to get the outdated law repealed. The original law, Surly Brewing President Omar Ansari explained, was designed to maintain a three-tier system keeping alcohol manufacturers, distributors, and retailers apart.

It’s fitting that Surly was given its name to describe “the anger fueled by the inability to find good beer,” and perhaps even more fitting that Surly led the charge to change the law and put good beer in the hands of beer lovers. The so-called “Surly Bill” to get the antiquated law repealed was championed by beer lovers throughout Minnesota. “Surly Nation”—which includes other craft brewers, an active social media community, and beer lovers alike—demonstrated what the brewery dubbed the “Power of the Pint” through a massive grassroots campaign to garner support for the bill.  (more…)

The Young Entrepreneur Council asked 13 start-up leaders why entrepreneurship allows them to travel so much.

PUBLIC SPEAKING AT EVENTS

 “I travel all the time for work as I am a behavioral investigator. I speak and consult with companies about human lie detection. To be able to reach many audiences, I try to book as many events in different cities. I also love doing on the ground research in new countries to see if their cultural nonverbal behavior is different. I enjoy working with both foreign and national HR and sales teams.”
Vanessa Van Edwards | Author and Techpreneur, Science of People

LIVING OUT LOCATION INDEPENDENCE

 “I created Location Rebel, a community designed to help people build businesses they can run from anywhere on Earth. The nature of the community forces me to continue my own goal of traveling, both for credibility and marketing purposes. It’s my goal to show people that you don’t have to sit in a cubicle all day to make a good living!”
Sean Ogle | Founder, Location 180, LLC (more…)

By Cindy Bates, Microsoft

Even entrepreneurs with amazing ideas weren’t born knowing how to navigate all of the challenges of running a business. The small business owners I speak with regularly share the impact their role models and mentors have had as sources of business guidance and inspiration. Now there’s another place to turn for examples of entrepreneurial success: a new online exhibit created by the National Women’s History Museum (NWHM). This exhibit highlights the impressive journey of women entrepreneurs throughout the last century. It’s something all business owners – male and female alike – can relate to and learn from.

“From Ideas to Independence: A Century of Entrepreneurial Women” leads visitors from the earliest days of female entrepreneurship in the early 20th century through today. If you’ve encountered obstacles in your quest to start or grow a small business, this exhibit will fuel your fire to keep pursuing your goals. Not only does it detail motivational stories of women in business, but it explores the many obstacles they’ve faced – from social pressures to financial discrimination. (more…)

For entrepreneurs, business school presents a unique set of choices and opportunities that can drastically alter a founder’s chance of success — for better or worse.

I founded Troop ID while I was an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School in February of 2010. And while today we employ 17 people and sign up nearly 1,000 new members daily, our path to success would have been much swifter had I leveraged the resources at my fingertips while in business school.

Here are 5 of my top lessons — many of them learned the hard way — for other MBAs considering entrepreneurship:

1. Research vesting carefully.

If you have a co-founder, then you will inevitably face a choice about how to split ownership of the company. Initially, this will seem simple: 50/50. But what happens when your co-founder – comparing his ramen noodle diet to the average starting salary of your MBA graduating class — decides to take a high-paying corporate job several months later and wants to remain an equal owner? (more…)