http://www.businessplans.org/businessplans.html

http://www.bplans.com/sample_business_plans.php

www.istart.org

I thought I will add this link on crowd funding websites. Its a good way to see whats happening in this emerging entrepreneurial finance industry. Having chatted with a few VCs, I am getting a sense that the VC model suffers from great inefficiencies–figure this less than 1/6% to 1% of solicited plans get a VC partner (One VC received 978 proposals mostly slides with some spreadsheets–yes not business plans…maybe another post on that soon and chose 87 to do due diligence and then selected 4 to partner last year) and even with such extreme selectivity, the success rate hovers around 30% if you take success to mean reaching estimated goals. this is highly inefficient given that a Kauffman study finds that 84% of the Inc fastest growth companies had no VC backing. Whether making the funding of new ventures more democratic and less susceptible to whims and fancies of a few VCs may increase entrepreneurship all around or just add more noise, we will know soon enough.

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/2853-13-Crowdfunding-Websites-to-Fund-Your-Business

http://plantostart.com/10-crowdfunding-websites-entrepreneurs/

Seeking inventive Entries From Students

Program recognizes students for their innovative work and awards cash prizes

 North Canton,OH(February 6, 2012)—The Invent Now Collegiate Inventors Competition is now accepting entries for its 2012 Competition. For the past twenty-two years the Collegiate Inventors Competition has recognized and honored student inventors whose inventions could one day make significant contributions to society. This year over $100,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to the winning undergraduate and graduate students and their advisors.

The deadline for the 2012 Competition is June 15.   Entries will be judged on their originality, their potential impact on society, and the level of student initiative.    Expert judges will select up to 12 finalists who will receive an all-expense paid trip to the final judging round and awards ceremony inWashington,D.C., held in the fall.

National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductees participate in the final round of judging and have included Thomas Fogarty, inventor of the balloon embolectomy catheter; George Smith, 2009 Nobel Prize recipient and inventor of the charge-coupled device; and James West, inventor of the electret microphone.

Kyle Allison a Boston University student and the 2011 Graduate division first place winner of the Competition says, “The competition was an opportunity for me to test my mettle against some of the most significant innovators and experts I’ll ever meet, and to glimpse the future of innovation by getting to know the other finalists”

The Presenting Sponsors of the 2012 Competition are the Abbott Fund, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Entry forms and more information on the program are available at www.invent.org/collegiate.

Contact: Rini Paiva

Email:  rpaiva@invent.org

As you may know John Deere is based in Moline, Illinois and is the leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery in the world.  In 2010 it was listed as 107^th in the Fortune 500 ranking and employees over 50,000.  Products solder under the John Deere name include tractors, combine harvesters, cotton harvesters, baler, planters/seeders, sprayers and ATVs.  The company is also a leading manufacturer in construction equipment and forestry equipment.  Clearly John Deere is committed to selling its products which no doubt contribute in improving world food situation.

Since many of you are interested in social venturing, it might be a good idea to see what an established company like John Deere is doing to co-align business and corporate goals. That got me thinking, how does a company doing business that aligns well with social goals benefit or suffer from public perceptions? Should it reinvent and re-brand itself? Should it globalize and change its strategy aligned for very large privately owned farms and see how it can work with much smaller land holdings and ill developed infrastructure? Interesting times ahead. Check out what their CEO is saying

http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/corporate/our_company/news_and_media/speeches/2011may10_allen.page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QCJ1PnVlzIE

This article from the Economist provides one point of information that indicates that perhaps not all statistics of entrepreneurship and small business are signs of economic prowess. I think that their point, that having a lot of startups or a lot of small businesses is not necessarily a good thing, makes sense.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/09/entrepreneurship

There are many reasons that companies are small or big that likely drive statistics. So the answer to “Is entrepreneurship good?” is most likely, “It depends.” I think that the problem is that people with a set ideology try to find statistics that support their view, even if they don’t understand the statistics. Moreover, they are never willing to admit that there are conditions where they could be wrong. Finally, there is not sufficient statistical understanding that the public can think through false claims. I hope that academics can play an increased role in helping to provide better information and better interpretation of the data that we have.

This interview also illustrates another project that I am starting on how resource providers’ attitudes toward entrepreneurs and small organizations influence startup activities. Branson says that he had employees that wanted to work in small organizations. Much of his assumptions are based on a Western, individualistic notion of work. These assumptions seem to be limited in other cultural contexts, and may explain differing methods of innovation across contexts.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220199

http://blog.storitz.com/2011/03/how-storage-auction-reality-shows-are-affecting-the-self-storage-industry/