All Blog Posts (858)

It’s that time of year--graduation season.  If you are like me, you are receiving those graduation invitations in the mail.  I actually have three nieces graduating from college or high school.  Let me encourage you, as you are writing those graduation cards, and perhaps slipping in a little financial incentive, to also include a suggestion to help them get their professional careers off on the right foot.  Here are five graduation tips for 2012’s women grads:

1.    Immediately clean up…

At our last EOK meeting, I asked everyone to help build a quick website for our friend, Ron Carlson.  The response was pretty amazing.  Imagine, if we did a little work like this for every member...

I'm sure if we wanted to go further, we could build a nice twitter page,…

Business Records in both paper and digital formats are a major entrepreneurial asset for all organizations – large or small. Being organized so information is accessible and making sure you retain records needed for the future is critical to any business.…

1. Kickstarter.com is a great funding site where entrepreneurs take a crowdsourcing approach to funding. 75% of kickstarter projects have made funding according to Mitch Joel.

2. Don't try to contain social media in one department. Make it part of your company's culture and make everyone responsible for integrating it into the plan.

3. Videos don't have to be expensive productions to serve a purpose. Make your own short video (a few minutes at most) and get your message…

I had the fortune of hearing Mark Kelly, Captain of the last Endeavor space flight and husband to Congress-woman Gabriel Gifford, speak today at a national conference.  Watching his opening video was inspirational to say the least. 

The biggest item I took away from Captain Kelly’s speech was how life can change in an instance, and how it is the smallest of adjustments to our plans that can make all the difference. 

Captain Kelly shared story after story of the risks his career…

EoK Episode 172 (Adam Slack and Chad Ridner) from Entrepreneurs of Knoxville on Vimeo.

I don't know about you but book keeping is one of my least favorite tasks. I like having the data to make decisions but don't like the constant…

I thought you might like to see this list-- and to know I made it!

Top 50 Sales & Marketing #2012_influencers http://bit.ly/topInfluencer

Ken Thoreson

www.AcumenManagement.com

I know that there is a lot out there about what it means to be an entrepreneur, including plenty of case studies and real-life examples. What I find most fascinating are the characteristics of people who excel as entrepreneurs. 



If you do some research, the word enterprise comes from the French word “entreprendre” or “to undertake,” dated as far back as 1852. The word defined means one who organizes, manages and assumes the risk of a business or…

Hi Everyone,

There are 2 Tickets still available for the Mt. LeConte overnight trip this Thursday, May 3. Stay over at the Mt. LeConte Lodge with dinner and breakfast and wine included. Hike up Thursday, stay over and hike down on Friday. If you are interested please let me know. The Cost is $122.00. There is a group hiking up together or you may come and go on your own. You may purchase either one or two tickets.

My Mobile/Text # is 865-300-8125

Prasad Hutter

Did you know that Google did a special event in Nashville on April 19, 2012?

Neither did I.

Apparently, Google really, really likes Nashville.  They said that Nashville and Silicon Valley have a lot in common.  They put on a full day conference called "Google for Entrepreneurs."  

Check out Google's article on the event: …

Dear Fellow EOK Members,

Part of the joy of being entrepreneurs is being socially responsible......giving back. What better way than to impart the knowlege of knowing how to be a successful entrepreneur. That is exactly what is happening with the Empowered Teen Entrepreneurship Camp at the UT Campus from Sunday, July 29 - Friday, August 3, 2012.

Go look at the website with your teen and encourage them to make application. We can only take 80 students this year because…

Sales Leadership:  Creativity is Critical

In many of my sales leadership workshops and in my writings I have often spoken on the need to hire creative salespeople and the need for sales management to offer creative solutions to the many problems you face.  The good news is “creativity” can be learned and enhanced in everyone!  I believe it is also critical in building a sales culture of high performance and coaching sales strategies.

I…

Google and American Express have introduced a new feature on YouTube that could generate 22 million views for your business introduction video.  Called "My Business Story", this new service helps you put together your business story video, which may be featured on a major YouTube web page if it is selected by Google.  You can also host the video on your website or on social networks such as facebook.

This is one of those promotional deals that you can't refuse.  I know I can't.  But I…

I almost didn't go.  There is a lot on my plate and Tuesday was no exception.  But then I remembered I paid $25 for my ticket.  That settled it.  I was going regardless how busy I was.

Call me cheap.  I'll take it as a complement. It wasn't that the waste of $25 would have impacted my budget.  It was that I had committed myself to be there and, at some point previously, I figured the event was worth my time.  

When I arrived at the first ever EOK Quarterly…

If you attended yesterday's EOK quarterly workshop then you probably noticed that I was conspicuously chatting with strangers in a Google+ hangout while the speakers were presenting. Not only that, but my laptop was aimed so that the person speaking could see that I was busily typing away to the faces on the screen. Rude? Hardly. I was experimenting with unique ways to use social media to get others talking about us.…

Your Sales Leadership Workout

May 9 & 10, 2012

Atlanta, GA

A Proven Regimen for Getting

Your Sales Organization in Shape

Build a proactive approach to sales management that creates predictive revenue and a self-managed sales team.

Learn how top performing sales leaders muscle…

For those just starting a small business, the name and logo they choose may be one of the most important business decisions they make in terms of how successful their brand name will appeal to the public. Having an effective business name means relating to your customers who you are and hopefully what you do. A business logo is, in essence, a shorthand version of your business name that grants instant identification and gravitas to your company, even if it’s only a small, one person…

I just created an EOK Stock Trading Group.  You can join by clicking here: http://www.eokhq.com/group/stock-trading-group

Over the past four weeks, I've been playing a virtual stock trading simulator at http://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com and I love it.  (If anyone knows of anything else better on the Web, please let me know.)  Otherwise,…