Technology Is a Key Growth Driver

According to small business research from Dell and Intel, start-ups and small businesses in the United States are focused on growth, primarily domestically, and are increasingly investing in technology to help them scale.

Key findings:

• Maintaining their optimism: Over the course of the next year, more than half of entrepreneurs and small business owners expect finances to improve (56 percent), and most expect better prospects for sales (75 percent) as well as greater growth opportunities (58 percent).
• Looking to technology as a growth driver: The majority of entrepreneurs and small business owners consider access to technology to be key to successful growth (77 percent).
• Staying domestic: The majority of U.S. startups and small businesses see greater growth opportunities at home than abroad (84 percent).
• Focused on growth: Nearly half of respondents are planning to grow their companies in the near future (48 percent), while a significant percentage is focused on long-term growth (38 percent). 

Access the full report here.

Infographic courtesy of Dell.

Push Yourself Out of Your Comfort Zone

This is a very wild, run-on article!  The key points made within it are based on the recent Women in Technology Leadership and Entrepreneurship Forum RISE (Relationship & Information Series for Entrepreneurs).

Women entrepreneurs must stop hanging back, letting fear win, believing that being partners and parents precludes them from being successful business owners.  They must push themselves to create businesses with scaleable ideas that can grow into multimillion or billion dollar companies.

Read the entire article:  Women in Tech Must Push Relentlessly to Succeed

Photo courtesy:  Wolfgang Lonien

Eric Chats with Sheryl

Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead.
Author Sheryl Sandberg in Conversation with Eric Schmidt

Related article:  Leap In!

Building Beyond the Glass Ceiling

In this post, find out the top U.S. cities for women entrepreneurs (San Francisco and Seattle, for example) and catch a wonderful infographic that includes seven tips for future women entrepreneurs.

Two important steps to successfully starting up are finding a mentor and building a network of fellow female entrepreneurs that you can turn to for advice and referrals. Launching a business in a city with a thriving community of women entrepreneurs is a good place to start.

Photo courtesy:  ericskiff