Raising Equity and Venture Capital on Main Street

I have a business-coaching client, Scott, who is succeeding faster than some of my other clients in his entrepreneurial venture. The other day we were talking about how he has taken his approach to success at work and created a similar system to make his children successful (they are 5, 7, and 10).
Scott's system for his own success consists of planning out his year's goals and creating a series of spreadsheets to monitor week-by-week activity and month-by-month results. He and his assistant are maniacal about keeping the spreadsheet up-to-date-and meeting or exceeding each benchmark. So here is what he implemented with his 7-year-old son, Mark. At the end of the goal-sheet I'll tell you a bit more about what has happened as a result.
Mark's  Objective: To create a set of priorities that I will execute successfully.
School Responsibilities

Homework and projects.
Read 10 minutes alone each day.

Household Responsibilities

Monitoring the trash levels […]

Entrepreneur magazine's Young Entrepreneur contributor Scott Gerber has a cool book in the works called Never Get a Real Job (Wiley, 2010). Scott's an energetic entrepreneur himself and he's looking for stories to include in his book and blog–success and especially failures–so others can learn how to become business owners. He's also got a daily web video show in the works coming this Spring and will be featuring interesting entrepreneurial stories. Worth a look!

How to Never Get a Real Job originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 11:42:30.
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Have you read the latest issue of the New England Medical Journal? If you're an executive who is thinking of going entrepreneur, you need to check it out. Turns out there's a newly discovered condition affecting entrepreneurs, and it's called ABF. Unlike Restless Leg Syndrome and E.D., there's no drug yet to treat it, so you will have to manage this condition without a prescription.
Oh, ABF stands for Accumulated Boss Fatigue. I first noticed I was developing ABF around five years before I left corporate America. I am glad to be able to share the details of my condition so that others may find relief.
Stage One - Independence Day: How do you know you may have ABF? For me, it happened like this: After years of dutiful service to various employers, I found myself forgetting I had a boss. I was routinely making decisions and taking actions that were contrary […]

Chris Brogan's book (co-authored with Julien Smith), Trust Agents, should be required reading for all small business owners and entrepreneurs. As one of the top bloggers in the world (or the blogosphere, or perhaps both), Chris has mastered a medium that countless millions of people and companies are trying to figure out. He has leveraged his blog at ChrisBrogan.com into a platform for a bestselling book and a business, consulting with organizations that want to be better users of social media tools.
About.com caught up with Chris as he was battling Delta Air Lines to find his luggage in Minneapolis airport. Here's the link to our audio interview, where Chris addresses some important questions and issues for small business owners and entrepreneurs, including:

Should all small businesses have blogs?
How can small businesses use blogs and other social media tools to improve their customer relationships?
Can older business owners get into blogging, or is […]