Entrepreneurs Share Secrets to Achieving Balance between Work and Family in Second Founders School eBook

Because entrepreneurs have to be “all in,” their businesses can consume them unless they devise and follow strategies for balancing the competing demands of work and family.
In “Startup Balance: Finding the Harmony Between Work and Life,” the second eBook in the Kauffman Founders School series, startup owners share their pull-no-punches secrets for creating harmony between the people they love and the dreams they’re trying to accomplish.
The founders were interviewed as part of the Founder Genius video series, in which entrepreneurs share insights on starting and running businesses. The eBook content was drawn from those interviews.
The featured entrepreneurs share their perspectives on the journey toward achieving work/life balance, including minimizing stress in family interactions, setting boundaries around time commitments and the importance of spousal support.
The ongoing Kauffman Founders School eBook series addresses topics that are important to new and prospective startup owners, illustrating both the anxiety and the excitement of taking the entrepreneurial leap.

Title Inflation and the Rise of the Startup Ninja

Ninjas. Gurus. Czars. Creative job titles are on the rise. But what can possibly explain this growth, if growth is indeed happening?
The ranks of ninjas and rockstars in startups are seemingly growing. Anecdotally, inflated and creative job titles are considered so common now that they have even become fodder for comedy sketches like this one.

Similarly, the data we have available points to a similar direction: LinkedIn professional titles, job ads and Twitter bios suggest a trend of increasing use of creative job titles.

Source: LinkedIn’s Blog

It is easy to write off this trend as a tongue-in-cheek quirk. Probably, that is part of it. But I think that there is something else going on. Maybe this is another way to glamorize startup life. Or, maybe, the entrepreneurship world has a case of “medieval jobs envy,” in addition to a potential “zoology envy.” 
This is speculative, of course, but I see this broad trend as a title inflation of sorts. Developers become ninjas. Social media specialists become wizards. Analysts become warriors.
I venture that there are at least three mechanisms going on: 1) Employers use it to signal an informal workplace; 2) Companies use it to signal the value of their employees to outsiders; and 3) Employees accept the trade of titles for cash.

Legacy Pension Managers grows shareholders fund to N1.76bn

Legacy Pension Managers announces a 37 percent growth in its shareholders fund from N1.285 billion to N1.765 billion in the 2013 financial year. The company also recorded net profit before tax of N730.29 million, showing a 40 percent rise from N522.34 million in the preceding year


Profit after tax stood at N454.14 million, growing 31 percent from N346.47 million in 2012.

The chairman of the board, Mahey Rafindadi Rasheed, who read out the company’s performance at the sixth annual general meeting held in Abuja, also disclosed that the company’s assets under management grew 23 percent to N140.024 billion from N114.228 billion figure of 2012.

He explained that the clientele base of the company had also grown to 243,339, representing a 9 percent increase of 20,795 from the previous year’s record of 222,544.

According to him, the number of beneficiaries of the various forms of pay-outs also increased in the course of the year. This, he attributed to carefully crafted management strategy based on prudence, innovation and exceptional service delivery of the company.

Entrepreneurship: A Path to a More Productive and Inspired Workforce

It’s time to dispel the myth that entrepreneurs are purely in it for the money.
While significant financial gain could be a big payoff of pursuing entrepreneurship for a select few high-scale entrepreneurs, a need to fulfill a sense of engagement in one’s work leads some to start up.

A Gallup poll found that only 13 percent of employees worldwide are engaged in their jobs. That leaves 87 percent of workers reporting they are ‘not engaged’ or ‘actively disengaged’ and are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces, making them less likely to be productive, according to the report.

Gallup Job Engagement Definitions

• Engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward.

• Not Engaged employees are essentially “checked out.” They’re sleepwalking through their workday, putting time — but not energy or passion — into their work.

• Actively Disengaged employees aren’t just unhappy at work; they’re busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish.

In the United States, 30 percent of workers are engaged in their jobs, 52 percent are not engaged, and 18 percent are actively disengaged. While we seem to be faring better than the rest of the world in terms of job engagement, engaged workers represent one-third the size of our disengaged co-workers. 

Nigeria to host investment forum in Russia — Envoy

The Nigerian Embassy in Moscow, Russia, said it has concluded plans to host an investment forum focused mainly on energy for the business community in Russia.

The investment forum is meant to boost trade relations between the two countries, which is said to be very low.

Nigeria’s Ambassador to Russia, Chief Asang E. Asang, who disclosed this in Russia, at an investment dinner organised by the Nigerian National Committee, NNC, to the just-concluded 21st World Petroleum Congress, WPC, in Moscow, said the forum is scheduled to hold on August 1, 2014.


Asang said, “On August 1, the Nigerian Embassy will host the Russian community to an investment forum. The focus of the forum will be on Energy and hydrocarbon distillation.”

He added that the forum, which will have in attendance about 50 Nigerian investors, will be declared open by Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, who will also use the forum to push her pet project for caring for the under-privileged.

Anatomy of the 1 Million Cups Entrepreneur

1 Million Cup organizers from across the country gathered last week in Kansas City at the Kauffman Foundation for the 1 Million Cups (1MC) Organizers Summit.
At the Summit, my colleague Arnobio Morelix and I presented our latest research findings about 1MC. Our research draws from data collected through a survey of 1MC founders from across the country. We received responses from 605 entrepreneurs coming from 58 different cities. We asked 20+ questions about themselves (founder) and their startup.
Examples of questions included:

How would you describe the stage of your company?
What sources of financing have you drawn from to finance your / current company?
What would you say is the primary sector of your venture?
We distilled our findings into two useful tools for 1MC organizers and entrepreneurs: The Anatomy of the 1MC Entrepreneur Presentation and an Interactive 1MC City Map.
Primary Findings:

The demographics and skill sets of 1MC Entrepreneurs
The business stage and financial state of 1MC Startups
1 Million Cups is a Launching Pad into the greater entrepreneurial community and to other organizations

Presenting entrepreneurs roughly double their participation in local entrepreneurship events.

SMALL BUSINESS IDEAS IN NIGERIA PT 1

Are you in search for small business ideas in Nigeria here is list of 15 fastest growing small business opportunities in Nigeria. For quite some time now, my email box has been filled with
request from aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs asking for the fastest growing business opportunities in Nigeria which they can invest in.

How Entrepreneurs Can Use Boards to Help Grow Their Businesses

The earlier series, released in January, features startup thought leader and investor Brad Feld.
Dutia’s insights, “A Board Member's Perspective,” supplement Feld’s videos, which teach entrepreneurs how to build and configure boards that help their companies thrive.
In his six-video Kauffman Founders School series, Dutia recommends that startup companies:

• Designate a board chairman other than the company’s CEO.
• Understand the five key roles of startup boards.
• Select board members with diverse backgrounds whose skills complement the management team’s capabilities.
• Recognize the board’s strategic role in helping the founding team add employees that offer new expertise as the business grows.
• Include focused discussion of strategic goals and action items in board meetings.

Teaching entrepreneurs best practices in areas not typically covered in other training programs, the Kauffman Founders School enables entrepreneurs to learn anywhere, anytime, and to immediately apply the lessons to their businesses. Other Founders School topics include:

• Financing Your Venture: Venture Capital, presented by Jeff Bussgang, venture capitalist and general partner of Flybridge Capital Partners.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Investing

It has been nearly five years since the depths of the U.S. financial crisis, and investors have learned a lot since then. Or have they?

Despite the downturn that left many investors reeling from losses on everything from real estate to the stock market, when it comes to investor behavior—those hard-wired instincts that drive us all—little has changed, say psychologists and financial advisers.

Investors still make the kinds of mistakes that have gotten them in trouble for decades. They are wooed by the hottest new trend, they want to follow the crowd—consequences be damned—and they just can't seem to pay enough attention to important details, such as the steep annual fees charged by many mutual funds.

"When it comes to money, we are operating as if we were in the jungle, having to deal with predators like tigers," says Brad Klontz, a clinical psychologist and associate professor of financial planning at Kansas State University. "We have a caveman brain."

Investing Sins

Dave Whamond

There are ways to avoid these pitfalls. Investors need a hard and fast plan of their investment goals, they need to find a trusted adviser or family member to help weed through decisions and they need to stop paying so much attention to the short-term events that drive media coverage.

Here are the seven deadly sins of investing, in no particular order, and how to protect against them.

Lust: Chasing Recent Performance

The belief investors feel that recent performance will dictate future performance—known as "recency bias" in psychology—is one of the biggest investor pitfalls, experts say.

"People tend to buy something that has done really well recently," says Terrance Odean, a professor of finance at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. "They chase performance."

In the lead-up to the financial crisis, investors dived headlong into real-estate investments, convinced that rising housing prices would never falter.

Building Ecosystems Starts With Creating More Connections

Whether you use dated expressions like “it isn’t what you know but who you know” or you are deep into “networking theory,” we all know the importance of having communities to turn to for advice or validation. But how important is what Dane Stangler and Jordan Bell-Masterson call “connectivity” in their Kauffman Foundation report offering policymakers a framework for evaluating and measuring entrepreneurial vitality?

In the early 1990s, Iqbal Quadir was struck by the idea that connectivity equals productivity. An economist from Bangladesh, he theorized that “connectivity helps people to reorganize themselves step-by-step into more complex economic arrangements” that foster “greater interdependence and specialization.” This insight led him to found GrameenPhone, which revolutionized thinking about development and foreign aid. The idea, while radical at the time, has now become accepted wisdom. During a TED talk, Quadir said, “Allowing people to be connected through mobile phones generated a culture of entrepreneurship, which is crucial for any economic development.”

How closely the key elements within an entrepreneurial ecosystem are connected to one another continues to be critical through an ecosystems’ evolution.

Yas Motoyama, a senior scholar at the Kauffman Foundation, recently conducted an in-depth study of connectivity within entrepreneurial ecosystems. Of his key findings, one stands out. Entrepreneurs learn from interacting with one another irrespective of industry boundaries and this is especially true for seed and early-stage startups.

Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) to create synergy with Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC)

ABUJA, Nigeria, January 8, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The newly appointed ED/CE of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, paid a courtesy call to the Managing D/CEO of the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) (http://neximbank.com.ng) at the Headquarters of the Bank in Abuja, to discuss areas of possible collaboration and synergy.
Logo NEXIM: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/nexim.png
Photo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/photos/140108.jpg
The visit would be the first of such courtesy calls by Mr. Awolowo since he was appointed to the position by Mr. President last December.
Welcoming his counterpart to the Government Trace Policy Bank, Mr. Orya thanked Mr. Awolowo and his team for taking the initial collaborative step, noting that NEPC and NEXIM Bank were the principal agencies of government responsible for the promotion of non-oil exports
The NEXIM MD provided the NEPC team with a snapshot of NEXIM Bank's mandate, mission and vision stating that the institution was established by Act 38 of 1991 as an Export Credit Agency with the broad mandate to promoting the diversification of the Nigerian economy away from oil and deepening the external sector.

Mr. Orya stated that upon his resumption in August 2009 as the MD/CEO of the Bank, he discovered that the Bank has completely moved away from its core mandate and veered into lending to both oil and gas resulting in a dismal credit performance and loss of both its Shareholders' and investors' confidence. This warranted him to seek the approval of the Bank's Shareholders to initiate a Corporate Transformation Project (Project Spring) that led to the re-definition of the Bank's Mission, Vision and Strategic Objectives, with the intention of channelling its resources into the development of four sectors [Manufacturing, Agro - Processing, Solid Minerals & Services]. The MASS sectors were deemed to have high amount of employment and foreign exchange earnings.

Finding the Right Equilibrium for Effective Non-Compete Agreements

When states permit policies that shackle labor mobility, without consideration for the economic costs such enforcement imposes, both prospective entrepreneurs and the economy as a whole suffer. One example of how state policy can impact labor mobility is through non-compete agreements.
In previous posts, I emphasize that well-functioning labor markets are essential pieces of growing economies. When people can move in and out of different industries, between employment and entrepreneurship, and between locations, they can best find where their skills are the most valuable.
The mismatch of talent to job openings, or a worker’s inability to find a better match, can have a significant effect on unemployment and productivity. This is especially true for younger workers. Here, I explain the consequences of improperly enforced non-compete agreements and its impact on entrepreneurship and growth.
Non-compete agreements have become an increasingly common legal obstacle to labor mobility. In my opinion, restricting exiting employees, who are potential direct competitors, from using trade secrets or customer lists is a fair use of non-compete agreements. This application is why nine out of ten managers or technical employees report that they are bound by non-compete agreements.
But individuals with very specialized skills can feel how painful non-competes can be. When these individuals aren’t able to break out on their own and test their ideas as an entrepreneur, potential growth opportunities are wasted.
And the presence of non-competes is not just prohibiting entrepreneurs from moving from employment to entrepreneurship. It also shrinks the pool of available talent that entrepreneurs need to jumpstart their companies. When new firms need workers with technical knowledge to innovate or iterate on technology, the strict enforcement of non-competes lock away the talent entrepreneurs need. This results in both entrepreneurs, and their potential employees, unable to reach their full potential.