Blogs
Four Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Business
A couple of months ago, I was telling someone that my job is to help people start businesses and she responded, “So basically you make dreams come true!”
Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution
Starting a company is a risky business. (Pardon the pun.) Roughly 2 out of every 10 new businesses fail in their first year, and about 7 out of every 10 new businesses have failed...
Implement Tech Into Your Business, Or Get Left Behind
In the modern world, technology is a necessity for all businesses. It is not enough to just have a website that offers your products or services anymore. You need to offer...
Why Your Business Should Reinvent the Wheel
We’ve all heard the old adage that there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Yet, history has shown us time and time again that companies that strictly follow this advice often do...
Developing the Right Mindset Toward Information Disclosure
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” These sage words, slightly paraphrased from John Heywood centuries ago, have been uttered countless times across inestimable contexts. Most...
Jumping Generations in the Land of Opportunity: West Virginia
Reversing the cycle of generational poverty is the grand challenge of our time here in West Virginia. Generational poverty ensues when two consecutive generations of a family have...
The Leap from Failure to Success: Why Entrepreneurs Should Test Their Assumptions
Recent data paints a clear picture of the critical role small businesses play in our economy. There were over 33 million small businesses in the United States in 2020. This means...
Look Closer: Appalachia’s New Economy is Emerging
The organization I founded in 2010, Coalfield Development, has been a leader in modeling what a new, more sustainable, and more fair Appalachian economy can look like. As the coal...
Designing Life Decisions
Each day we make hundreds of decisions. Some of these decisions are simple, like what will you eat for breakfast...
Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?
As a professor who teaches entrepreneurship for a living, I’m often asked the question, “Are entrepreneurs born or made?” It reminds of a similar question...: “Are leaders born or...