The Association for Entrepreneurship USA
Success by Association
The Association for Entrepreneurship USA serves independent and small business leaders across all 50 states through community involvement, peer mentoring and education. By joining forces for greater purchasing power, we offer todays entrepreneur the competitive edge needed to compete in todays digital world.
Discussion Forum
Entrepreneurship can be tough, but you don’t have to go it alone. Connect with other entrepreneurs.
Newsletters
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Library
A collection of resources to help you achieve your entrepreneurial goals.
Joel Weldon
Get some inspiration from one of the country’s top motivational speakers.
Recent Articles
Small Is a Choice, Not a Stage
THE IDEA A business that stays small isn't a business that failed to grow. If small is what you want, it's a finished design, not an early draft. Spend enough time around business advice and you'll pick up an assumption without noticing it: small is where you start,...
Why More Freelancers Are Building Small Agencies
For years, the core appeal of freelancing was simple, complete autonomy, flexibility, and control over your client roster. As the digital economy has matured, however, many high-performing freelancers have hit a ceiling. Because working as a solo operator inherently...
Motivating the Mind Through Learning
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” —Benjamin Franklin When I was growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher. I loved the organization, continuous learning, and helping others. To me, teachers are the epitome of lifetime learners....
Can a Stranger Explain What You Sell?
When sales slow down, owners tend to suspect the product. Maybe the service isn't good enough, the market moved, or the idea was wrong from the start. Sometimes that's true. But a surprising number of small businesses are selling something people would happily buy,...
Kleenex Was Leftover War Material Sold as Makeup Remover
During World War I, Kimberly-Clark made a material called Cellucotton, a creped wadding made from wood pulp that was far more absorbent than cotton and cheaper to produce. With cotton in short supply, the military bought it for surgical dressings, and the company...
Bubble Wrap Failed as Wallpaper, Then Failed Again
In 1957, an engineer named Al Fielding and a Swiss inventor named Marc Chavannes ran two layers of plastic shower curtain through a heat-sealing machine. The sheet that came out was full of trapped air bubbles. They thought they had invented a new kind of textured...
Give Your Business Worries an Appointment
THE PRACTICE Set aside fifteen minutes at the same time each day to think through business worries on paper, and when they show up at other times, write them down for that slot. Every business owner worries. Cash flow, a slow pipeline, a client who's gone quiet, a...
Give Your Clients a Number That Isn’t Yours
THE PRACTICE Use a separate phone number for your business, and decide when it's on, so your personal phone stops being a direct line to your work. Early on, most solo operators give clients their personal cell number. It's easy and it feels personal, and when you...
Book Next Year’s Time Off Before You Book Anything Else
THE PRACTICE Put every week of time off for the coming year on your calendar now, before client work has a chance to claim those weeks. Ask a solo operator when they last took a full week off, and you'll often hear a pause. Maybe two years ago. Maybe before they...
Tired Isn’t the Same as Wrong
THE IDEA Exhaustion makes every problem look like proof you chose the wrong path. Most of the time it's proof of something smaller: you need rest, or help, or fewer things on your plate. Sometime late on a long week, a certain thought tends to show up. Maybe this...
Nobody Is Watching as Closely as You Think
THE IDEA The crowd you imagine judging every move you make is mostly in your head. Everyone else is busy thinking about their own business. A lot of small decisions get stuck on an imaginary audience. You hold off on raising your prices because of what your clients...
The Part of Your Work That Bores You Is What People Pay For
THE IDEA The skills you've practiced longest stop feeling like skills. That's exactly why you underrate them, and exactly why clients will pay for them. Think about the parts of your work you could do half asleep. The estimate you can put together in ten minutes. The...