Businessweek Seeks America's Best Young Entrepreneurs

Bloomberg Businessweek is seeking your suggestions for America’s best young entrepreneurs roundup for 2011. For the seventh year, we’re asking readers to scour the startup world for the most promising companies run by entrepreneurs 25 or younger. Suggest companies for us to look into using the form below through July 31. Then our reporters and editors will choose 25 to profile, and ask readers to vote for the ones they think hold the most promise. We’ll announce the five companies that got the most votes in the fall.

To qualify, companies must:

1) be based in the United States.

2) have no co-founders older than 25 on July 31, 2011. (That means if any one of a company’s founders was born before July 31, 1985, the company doesn’t qualify.)

3) disclose revenue for 2010 and projected revenue for 2011 (we won’t consider companies without this).

Suggest companies using the form below through July 31, and watch for our roundup in the fall.

Click here for more information.

Business Week: Time to Change Course?

I will say it again, today's small businesses have a real opportunity to grow their business by thinking outside of the box; getting creative and maybe even finally forcing your business in a new direction, which you've been delaying.

Moreover, these changes can create opportunities for public relations for your business, further setting you apart from competitors. Here is a great article from Business Week Small Business.....


Is It Time for Your Business to Change Course? By Ann Field Business Week

In an economy like this, it may take more than tinkering to turn you company around. But big changes carry big risks

Kim Matheson Shedrick had spent 16 years growing New York-based Natural Resources into a 15-person, $1 million company that advises developers of high-end spas. But in late 2008 no one was building much of anything, never mind pricey spas selling hot seashell massages and lavender-oil body scrubs. Matheson Shedrick decided the time was ripe for an idea she'd been kicking around since 2001—mySpaShop.com, which would offer products and wellness advice for less affluent spa aficionados. "I looked at how I could use all the contacts I have in the industry to target the customer who can't spend $500 visiting a spa," says Matheson Shedrick, who now makes $10,000 a month through the site. She also expanded the B-to-B side of her company, charging spa owners a monthly fee for advice on how to boost revenue. She expects the new line of work to bring in about 15% of her overall sales by the end of the year.

Sometimes, when business is bad, you can't just tinker at the edges—you have to make fundamental changes to your company. That might mean selling to a new market or changing your offerings. It might mean strategic changes in distribution or marketing.

Read more....