How to Start a Business
Kraft Started With $65, a Rented Wagon and Cheese That Kept Going Bad
In 1903, James L. Kraft was a partner in a small cheese company in Buffalo, New York. While he was away on a business trip to Chicago, his partners dissolved the partnership without him. He was stuck in a strange city with no business and, by most accounts, $65 to his...
A Number You Can’t Act On Today Is Entertainment
Check your business numbers on a schedule, not on impulse, and only check the ones that would change what you do this week. Count how many times a day you look at a number about your business. Sales so far this month. Site visits. Follower count. Open rate on the last...
Give the Old Business a Deadline
Most turnaround stories skip the hardest part. They tell you what the company pivoted from and what it pivoted to, and they leave out the months in between when the old business was still paying the bills, the new one wasn't paying anything, and the founder was...
Avon Started as a Book Salesman’s Free Gift
In the 1880s, David McConnell sold books door to door in upstate New York. It was hard work with a low hit rate, and he needed something to get past the front door. So he started offering a small vial of perfume, which he made himself, as a thank-you to any woman who...
3M Was a Mining Company With Nothing to Mine
In 1902, five businessmen in Two Harbors, Minnesota, put their money into a mining operation. The plan was straightforward: dig up corundum, the hard mineral used in grinding wheels, and sell it to manufacturers. They called the company Minnesota Mining and...
The Five-Minute Testimonial
Ask for the testimonial in the same message where the client says they're happy, ask three specific questions instead of "would you write something," and offer to draft it from their answers. Every small business has a folder of glowing emails from clients and a...
The Podcasting Platform That Became Twitter
Long before Twitter existed, its founders were running a different company entirely — a podcasting platform called Odeo, built on the bet that podcasting was about to become mainstream. The bet had reasonably good timing until it didn't. Shortly after Odeo launched,...
Shopify Started as a Failed Snowboard Store
Some of the most recognizable companies in tech exist because a founder's original business idea simply didn't work — and Shopify is one of the clearer examples of a pivot that turned a frustration into a much bigger company than the one it replaced. In 2004, Tobias...
How to Tell If You’re About to Quit Too Early
Not every struggling business is one pivot away from a turnaround story. Plenty of businesses fail because the underlying idea genuinely doesn't work, and continuing to push isn't wisdom — it's just delay. The harder question, and the one worth asking honestly, is how...
How to Raise Your Rates Without Losing Your Best Clients
The tactic: Raise prices on new business first, give existing clients a dated notice, and hold the number when someone pushes back. Most independent operators are underpriced, and they know it. The reason they don't fix it is straightforward: the fear of hearing...
Entrepreneur Magazine
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- This Billionaire Invested in OpenAI in 2019. Here’s What He’s Betting on Next. November 10, 2026This billionaire is betting that AI will revamp websites as we know them.
- How ‘Boring’ Businesses Can Turn Black Friday Into a Competitive Advantage November 10, 2026Black Friday isn't just for big retailers. Here's how small businesses can attract customers, boost sales and stand out without big budgets.