This new era of online consumption of content can be a big help for the Entrepreneur and Small Business Owner that wants to improve the chances for business success. Thus, Entrepreneur Tools Online and Struggling Entrepreneur podcast series are delivering to you an interview with Jay Ehret, a small business marketing specialist.

Jay Ehret (who is known as @themarketingguy on twitter) is also himself an entrepreneur, and he is celebrating 10 years in running his own firm that helps entrepreneurs with their marketing–by means of consulting, training, instruction via webinars, blogging, education and live workshops. However, Jay is now venturing into what is affectionately called the “dial-a-webinar” model, in which he is providing an a-la-carte selection of his recorded webinars from his back catalog (but they are “evergreen”).

And Jay is now venturing into the model of delivering both education and training, as well as initial consultation, in a program that is called the ENTREPRENEUR’S EDGE.

Having known Jay, and having done co-presentations with him in events such as ProductCamp, I cannot wait to see the high quality of what he will deliver and the value it will bring to the entrepreneur.

As you will hear in this audio episode,  we discuss Jay’s vision for the online tools that entrepreneurs will be consuming to gain the skills they need and the knowledge that is necessary to plan for success–and avoid the “shotgun approach” (which he calls “tactic lust” in marketing).

By the way, Jay is also providing a 25 percent discount for any of his products in his online store at www.themarketingspot.com.

Jay has provided a discount code, which is good for any product in his store.

The discount code is the following:  Fred25.

Our thanks to Jay and our best wishes for success in this second decade of being an entrepreneur, and now adapting the business model to online tools, online education and knowledge, and online consultation.

Copyright (c) 2011, Matrix Solutions Corporation and The Marketing Spot. All Rights Reserved.

Although the Entrepreneur today has multiple private sector and public sector low-cost (or free) resources, and although the home-based Small Business Owner is accepted as  a valid business, it was not always so. In fact, the home-based Entrepreneur carried a stigma as a second-class citizen that had no credibility and just only a bad reputation — mainly because the individual was not part of mainstream Corporate America in the employ of a large multinational firm like IBM, DEC, AT&T, etc.

Here, in reflection of the passing of Steve Jobs, we delve into the area of Entrepreneurship in the 1975 time frame–and Steve had to overcome this particular stigma (from this repurposed episode of the podcast series The Struggling Entrepreneur).

In addition to the model of Steve Jobs in founding his startup called Apple Computer Corporation as an Entrepreneur, we also compare this to a case study of my own personal experiences of having been an entrepreneur during this same time — and living through the stigma of being a “no-op” (that is, an individual who could not be taken seriously, as home-based businesses were scoffed and mocked).

The discussion salutes three situations that Steve Jobs pioneered for us:

(1) Launching as an Entrepreneur in 1975 and overcoming the stigma of being a home-based small business owner;

(2) Overcoming the growth of a small business into a multinational firm within several years;

(3) Re-inventing his entrepreneurship after being thrown out of his own company (some call this “failure”) and pursuing his visions and passion until they became reality.

You, too, can buck the tide, overcome failure and pursue your passion and dreams amidst setbacks.

The final part of the discussion discusses exit strategy implementation, as well as updating your own personal plan to complement your entrepreneurial business plan so that you yourself can achieve what only YOU can define as “SUCCESS” and happiness in your world.

Copyright (c) 2011, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved. Photo shared via web site at

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/steve-jobs-photos-apple-cofounder_n_997306.html#s391999&zoom=huge

This discussion is about some online resources that can help you get some revenue streams for your small business from podcasting– that is, including podcasts as part of your marketing plan and marketing tools within your business. This is especially true if they are complementary to your value proposition, your target audience “hot buttons” and your value which you deliver to your customers.

This repurposed episode was from a live presentation made originally for syndication to the podcast series The Struggling Entrepreneur. It was delivered in August of 2011. There are some slides which you may follow.

For the pdf document with the slides to this presentation, please select the link here.

These multiple revenue streams span the spectrum from the very small and incidental ones (usually within 60 days) to the more consistent, timely and lucrative streams that take longer to create, nurture and mature.

What is highlighted most in this audio podcast episode is that a podcast must be integrated as part of the marketing strategies in your business–and they must highlight the value proposition, as well as be integrated in all the marketing communications. They must also support the conversion of prospects to customers in whatever sales funnel model your business would support. They must be complementary with the social media plan, the media plan, the promotion plan, the marketing plan–which all should support the Business Plan for the firm.

A key resource that you can get online is the book More Podcast Money by Dave Jackson (the entrepreneur who hosts several podcasts and has a membership site called The School of Podcasting.

This 82-page ebook shows you all the ways to create multiple revenue streams after creating a podcast series in the form of a show.

Some of the other resources, web sites and links mentioned in this audio podcast are the following (and this is NOT all-inclusive):

- Finance for Startups at www.finance4startups.com and www.premiumcast.com/finance4startups

- Gain Control of Your Day at www.gaincontrolofyourday.com and www.premiumcast.com/gaincontrolofyourday

- Entrepreneur Tools Online at www.entrepreneurtoolsonline.com

- School of Podcasting at www.schoolofpodcasting.com

- Chris Brogan Blog at www.chrisbrogan.com

- No Agenda Podcast at www.noagenda.com

- Jungle Warriors (audio narration of book) at www.premiumcast.com/junglewarriors

-  CasaBlanca to VE-Day: A Paratrooper’s Memoirs (audio narration of book) at www.premiumcast.com/a-paratroopers-memoirs

- Meetup facility at www.meetup.com

- Entrepreneur Edge webinars and courses at www.themarketingspot.com

Copyright (c) 2011, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.

In this episode of Entrepreneur Tools Online, we deliver to you a brief book review by Chris Benjamin, the Rogue CFO, in the form of a repurposed episode from his podcast on Podomatic called Expert Guide to Launching a Startup.

This short episode reviews the book by Cynthia Kocialski titled STARTUP from the Ground Up.

Chris describes the insights that he feels are of value for the entrepreneur who has a startup — or is aspiring to create a startup. Topics range from evaluating if you are really an entrepreneur to planning to promotion to investors and funding your small business (including your revenue model)–all the way to exit strategies.

Since Entrepreneurs are looking for online tools and resources, we felt that this podcast by Chris Benjamin can be a good resource for those aspiring entrepreneurs; and perhaps it can be a good tool for helping to plan and launch your business.

The online version can be found on www.amazon.com with the Kindle Version of the ebook.

Copyright (c) 2011, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Chris Benjamin Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.

In this episode of Entrepreneur Tools Online, we deliver a brief description of an online tool called Choosewhat.

This resource is referred to as Small Business Solutions and Tools and is located at

http://www.choosewhat.com

In our self-guided tour of this tool for the entrepreneur, we discovered that the main focus is on the Home Page panel of 22 steps for the “CW Startup Guide.” This becomes a series of tasks, starting from Naming your business all the way to getting Health Insurance.

In addition, the categories of the articles are rather interesting, as well as the Forum Posts.

What will be interesting is to see in detail the CW Labs and their evaluations of different other resources. Also, the content of the CW Newsletter could be a good resource for quick tips, hints and other current articles for the aspiring Entrepreneur.

We will be attempting to have an interview with the business owner for this site in an upcoming episode. In this way, we can see the directions and trends for this site, membership alternatives and special offers, discounts and promotions for the Entrepreneur.

Copyright (c) 2011, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.

In this episode of Entrepreneur Tools Online, we deliver a repurposed discussion. This is originally published on the podcast series of The Struggling Entrepreneur.

In this episode, we present a challenge to the Entrepreneur–especially the Solopreneur–that is always present in the world of an online presence on the internet, and how it can affect your brand, your business and your person (including unnecessary stress). This could be a hidden challenge for the newly-launched small business owner, and it can turn into a real business “disaster.” We also present a few strategies to address this ever-present– but latent– issue.

The hidden challenge centers around getting feedback from those individuals or firms that want to deliver scathing and negative opinion–which can then present a potential problem or damage to yourself (as an individual with integrity) or your brand or your company or product or service.

This topic was discussed on the podcast episode number 249 from David Jackson and his School of Podcasting at

http://www.schoolofpodcasting.com.

The show notes for this episode are at this link:

http://schoolofpodcasting.com/voicing-your-opinion/

Every Entrepreneur who has a presence on the Internet is exposed to this problem. This exposure is increased many-fold by having feedback mechanisms (like comments from readers)  available on a blog, or participation in social media tools and networks (like twitter and facebook), etc.

A couple of professional-based solutions are presented as some resources for listeners to investigate in order to address this challenge by avoiding the negative feedback, or mitigating it or overcoming it as a solution to a problem:

(1) The CUSTOMER(R) Program from Integrity Systems, especially the Problem-Solving Formula(TM); and

(2) The Feedback Model from both Manager Tools and Career Tools Podcasts.

Copyright (c) Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.

In this episode of Entrepreneur Tools Online, we deliver a repurposed episode from the podcast series The Struggling Entrepreneur. This is an interview with James Weddle of www.groupcharger.com. He is also a founding member of www.worksody.com.

In this audio episode, you will hear an experienced entrepreneur that is bringing to market a tool that will assist different groups and communities. This tool has a web site where you can ask to be on the beta version–at http://www.groupcharger.com.

Also, James Weddle is creating a community of lean startup assistance programs for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Hear how he can help the startup community with this new idea. Take a look at the vision at http://www.worksody.com.

We will be very interested in following the development and deployment of this GroupCharger tool.

Copyright (c) Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.

In this episode of Entrepreneur Tools Online, we deliver to you the actual live presentation at a meeting of small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs at a training seminar at Cospace, a co-working location.

The discussion centered around the top issues facing the Entrepreneur — especially the solo-preneur — and what you can do about them. The presentation was only 30 minutes long, and it is delivered to you as part of the audio podcast episode.

You can get the  slides that accompanied this recording:

Click here to get the slides in a pdf document  .

One key area that was of focus during the presentation was the list of questions that an Entrepreneur needs to ask about the four critical challenges and issues that can actually put the business at risk, if they are not addressed.

This presentation also stressed the importance of networking, good mentors, meetup groups and giving back to the community in the form of free consultation for the entrepreneur’s services.

The free whitepaper to which reference was made that dealt with Addressing the Issues facing the Struggling Entrepreneur can be obtained in episode 2 of this same podcast series of

Entrepreneur Tools Online .

Copyright (c) 2010, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.

In this episode of Entrepreneur Tools Online, we take a step further into the Solo-preneur’s top issues and challenges. We examine the four biggest ones from the top ten listed in the free whitepaper called “Addressing the Issues Facing the Struggling Entrepreneur” (you can get this whitepaper in either pdf document format or via audio podcast episode in the previous post of this same blog/podcast series).

These four areas of concern that keep the Solo-preneur awake late at night are definitely real and can be a worrisome venture. The reason is that these are the “demons” that attack the creation, foundation and growth of the small business environment for those individuals who have to bootstrap their firm and go it alone in the beginning.  These same demons can cause surprises–the entrepreneur is blindsided with elements that were not even suspected. These same demons can cause a loss of the excitement and passion for the business that once drove the solo-preneur to enter this environment; and now, the result may be burn-out, tiredness, and sometimes frustration leading to anger because the immense feeling of being overwhelmed has dominated the solo-preneur’s sole. And these same demons are the ones that raise a “Stop” sign (not just a red flag) when it comes to the financial aspects of the business–that is, the always-present threat of being undercapitalized or running out of cash by not knowing what the entrepreneur needed to know about finance before starting the business.

However, the graphic you see above lists the top 4 challenges and the issues that plague the entrepreneur. But these challenges can also be met. These issues may be problems that can also be overcome. These areas of concern can be met head-on and avoided, thus steering your business (and your own personal life) away from the dangers of possible failure.

“How can this be done?” you may ask.

Instead of doing this the hard way (which is suffering from the problem by not addressing the issues and overcoming the challenges), you as an Entrepreneur can do it the smart way.

Avoidance of the problem comes from addressing the issues before they become problems. And that means knowledge of the issues and the possible negative outcomes for you and your business. This also means knowing what needs to be understood before the issues do become serious problems.

And you can do this by proper education for the Entrepreneur by specific training, tools, techniques and resources that are directly targeted to prevent these challenges from becoming issues and problems for you.

These last topics we shall discuss in the upcoming podcast episode.

Copyright (c) 2010, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.

In this episode of Entrepreneur Tools Online, we deliver to you a free whitepaper that discusses the Top 10 Issues and Challenges facing the Entrepreneur.

This whitepaper (taken from the blog of The Struggling Entrepreneur) is titled Addressing the Issues Facing the Struggling Entrepreneur.

The whitepaper is available in the way that YOU would like to consume it.

For the EXECUTIVE  SUMMARY VERSION:

If you want a quick 8-minute read or listen to get the executive level SUMMARY version:

- if you prefer to READ the whitepaper, it is available as a pdf document. Click here to access the whitepaper or download it: 

- or, if you prefer to LISTEN to the audio version of the whitepaper, Click Here for the mp3 audio of the EXECUTIVE SUMMARY VERSION of the Whitepaper.

However, if you prefer to get the FULL VERSION of the whitepaper in its entirety, with all the details:

- you can get the pdf version for Reading. Click here for the FULL VERSION of the whitepaper in pdf format .

- or you can LISTEN to the audio of the FULL VERSION of the Free whitepaper. We have divided the entire audio of the whitepaper into 3 bite-sized consumable chunks for you.

Click  on the episode you wish to get the mp3 audio of the FULL VERSION of the whitepaper:

- Click here For the audio mp3 of Challenges 1-4 that Face the Entrepreneur in the free whitepaper;

- Click here for the audio mp3 of Challenges 5-8 that Face the Entrepreneur in the free whitepaper;

- Click here for the audio mp3 of Challenges 9 and 10 that Face the Entrepreneur in the free whitepaper.

The choice is yours.

We hope that this evergreen content will be of value to you when you are considering the launch of your own small business as an Entrepreneur.

In the next set of future episodes, we shall have a discussion with 2 entrepreneurs, in which they will discuss the value of the Entrepreneur Tools Online site and its resources for your success.

However, we will explore first the four critical challenges that an Entrepreneur faces, and which questions need to be addressed–questions that may determine if the business can survive the initial launch period.

In the meantime, thank you for listening.

Copyright (c) 2007-2010, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All rights reserved.