Entrepreneurs are those people who see great opportunities and grab hold of them before they can pass by or be taken advantage of by others of their kind. These are the human beings who see massive potential where others see risk, and who are responsible for the rapid advancement in our industries and the world we live in. Without them, the world would be boring, grey and average. If you’re an entrepreneur, here are five apps that could help you on your quest.

Freshbooks Cloud Accounting — Free

Part of being an entrepreneur is doing everything yourself, well initially anyway. This means that alongside important tasks like client service, sales, strategy, research and pesky admin, you have to be an accountant as well. Freshbooks will help make that job easier for you.

Many remember their favorite TED talk (Technology Entertainment and Design), even if they only watched it online. For those of you who may not know, TED was founded in 1984 and is now an annual series of global conferences.

Certain speeches, from TED talks to commencement addresses, endure long after they’re delivered, thanks to the Internet.

Although entrepreneurs are no strangers to speaking engagements, not every business owner is quite as persuasive on stage as they’d like to be.

Over the past thirty years, state research and development (R&D) tax credits have become one of the most common state tools to boost their local technology economy. Few studies, however, have attempted to provide a comprehensive evaluation of their effectiveness. In this article, SSTI provides an overview of the literature on state R&D credits, examining why states introduce these incentives and whether or not tax credits are an effective policy tool to promote high-tech businesses and jobs.

The first state R&D tax credits were introduced in the early 1980s. One year after the introduction of the federal Research and Experimentation Tax Credit in 1981, Minnesota passed its own credit, followed by six other states over the next five years. Earlier this year, a review by the Texas Legislative Budget Board reported that 43 states now offer R&D tax incentives.

So I ask, what makes you get out of bed and passionately work towards a life mission, regardless of how hard it is or how much you get paid? You are going to have a lot more joy in life if you are working for a greater cause than solely for your own personal success.

1.   Your Body

Exercise is good for you. You may have a desk job, but take breaks to stretch or go for a walk. I live in Portland, Oregon, so many Portlanders bike to work. If you like to bike, and can use it as a mode of transportation, it’s a great way to stay fit, save money and be kind to the environment.

When our business in China did not work out as hoped, I could not believe that I failed at something I set out to achieve.  Four years of my life were gone.  The emotional scars and physical ailments resulting from the stress were real enough.  I couldn’t believe that I had lost money for my investors (who were friends and family).

Few people discuss the details about such periods in their lives.  Most entrepreneurs that we hear about succeed.  Or else they fade into oblivion.  Older entrepreneurs occasionally discuss the multiple failures that they experienced to reach success.  Yet, those painful memories are long past.  The younger a successful entrepreneur is, the more he or she is featured and sought after in stories.

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Research Park Corporation (bwtech@UMBC) have expanded the Cync program, a cybersecurity technology incubator initiative, to include three additional companies, among them the program's first international cyber provider. iWebGate of Perth, Australia, joins DB Networks of San Diego and Light Point Security of Baltimore as the latest companies to participate in Cync.

The Northrop Grumman Cync Program is a partnership between Northrop Grumman and bwtech@UMBC, aimed at commercializing technology to help provide protection from a growing range of cyber threats. The program builds on bwtech@UMBC's successful business-incubation framework by offering a "scholarship program" for companies with the most promising cybersecurity ideas.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory made waves last week when he said on syndicated radio that he wants to encourage the funding of four-year programs that align with the job market — not those, like gender studies, that do little to help a graduate’s employment prospects.

This was covered in a pointed column for The Wall Street Journal by Jane Shaw, the president of the John William Pope Center of Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, N.C. Shaw supports McCrory’s attempt to roil the higher education establishment and get students — heaven forbid — thinking about job prospects when they pick a major:

The nationally known venture capitalist and startup advocate whose work helped to inspire part of the spirit behind KC Startup Village in Kansas City is now a part of the community itself. Colorado-based Brad Feld, the author of “Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City,” closed on the purchase of a house Monday at 4437 Cambridge St. in Kansas City, Kan. Feld's Foundry Group, based in Boulder, has invested in several Seattle companies, including funding SEOmoz to the tune of $18 million last year.

After exploring the science of football, hockey and the Olympics, an Emmy-winning educational video effort is tackling the biggest game of all: innovation. The 11 videos in the "Science of Innovation" series are the latest fruits of a long-running partnership between the National Science Foundation and NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News.

The "Science of Innovation" series, narrated by NBC's Ann Curry, delves into the sometimes-unpredictable process that results in better technologies and products — and highlights 10 frontiers of innovation, ranging from biofuels to micro-electronic health monitors that can be worn on the skin like tattoos.

So you’re a startup, and you have a great idea. In fact, your idea is going to change the world. It’s better than Facebook. But you have no money. You need a venture capital firm to take pity on your poor soul (and make a truck load of cash from your great idea). South Africa’s venture capital space is growing quite nicely. With startups funded by the country’s firms exiting to big multinationals like Visa, it’s no wonder the startup scene in South Africa has a seemingly cool visage. In the last year more than 30 startups received funding, won competitions and exited. It’s a growing space and things are becoming hotly contested. Despite a not-so-great economic outlook, there are companies, VCs and Angels out there willing to invest in companies that have the right stuff. That’s important, having the right stuff.

Eat no wheat.

That is the core, draconian commandment of a gluten-free diet, a prohibition that excises wide swaths of American cuisine — cupcakes, pizza, bread and macaroni and cheese, to name a few things.

For the approximately one-in-a-hundred Americans who have a serious condition called celiac disease, that is an indisputably wise medical directive.

Now medical experts largely agree that there is a condition related to gluten other than celiac. In 2011 a panel of celiac experts convened in Oslo and settled on a medical term for this malady: non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

Small businesses are finding it harder than ever to get loans either for startup or expansion. Fortunately, that hasn’t stopped entrepreneurs raising funds from less traditional sources. Products including the Pebble Smart Watch, Ouya Game Console, Safecast Geiger Counter, Luminae Multitouch Keyboard & Touchpad, and SLXtreme Waterproof Solar iPhone Case were all launched by startups in 2012 with funding collected through Kickstarter. The site is one of the funding alternatives available to small business owners unable to secure a traditional loan. Here are 10 ways, including Kickstarter, to expand your business when traditional sources fail.

1. Use the Kickstarter ecosystem. As observed above, Kickstarter has become a major player in small business funding. The site allows entrepreneurs  to seek funding by explaining their business, product, or project and collecting contributions from the Website’s community. The process is called “crowdfunding”, and since 2009 Kickstarter has helped raise $450 million for startup projects, $275 million last year alone. Reuters

CNET has a detailed report on the mining of rare earth minerals (also called rare earth elements) and created this infographic that shows how they are being used inside the iPhone (and also other smartphones.) And that is why I thought this graphic was worth sharing — so at least we know what is being used and where. Rare earth metals are likely to be a major source of contention in coming years. China is a major supplier of these minerals. (via Randy Krum)

The Post Bayh-Dole Era has seen a dramatic rise in Universities maximizing translational research models to commercialize their innovation. However, translational research models have too often been incremental in nature and the drying up of the financial well may require transformational research models to deliver new cures, better food, and new energy sources. This forum will explore new funding and collaboration models and evaluate this new paradigm’s ability to deliver for universities, companies, patients, and consumers.

Bendis to Speak

For more information, click here.

As advances in genomics, molecular analysis, and data processing have propelled disease research forward, scientists and drug developers still face a formidable challenge: recruiting patients for their studies.

Genetic Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for people with rare genetic disorders, is launching a new site called Reg4All that aims to entice more patients into clinical trials and disease research by giving them unprecedented privacy controls and greater say in how their data is used for research.

While we're used to thinking of the Internet as the portal to a procrastination shame spiral, new research suggests a positive relationship between technology and employee engagement.

Are you wasting time at the office right now? Trick question--Fast Company is actually a huge source of valuable information directly relevant to your job (right?). Especially this article, because I'm going to give you a few data points that show increased access to technology can actually be correlated with greater employee engagement.

Blackstone Charitable Foundation is putting $1.4 million over three years in an entrepreneurship program at the University of Central Florida, officials are expected to announce later this morning. The program — the Blackstone LaunchPad — is an extension of a pilot program at the University of Miami. The program will be accessible to all 60,000 UCF students. Students will be able to create a profile, fill out a venture assessment form, get individualized consultations and venture coaching. The $1.4 million will go mostly to hire staff at the center, plus a little extra toward the buildout of space.

The city of Philadelphia won $1 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies to help the city better partner with entrepreneurs to solve social problems.

Philadelphia was one of five cities announced Wednesday as winners of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors challenge, a sort of civic throw down aimed at encouraging cities to find innovative solutions to urban problems.

You can watch Philadelphia’s presentation, featuring an animated Mayor Nutter, on its winning project here.

The city will be announcing "challenges," basically a call for ideas, and then decide which ones to pursue, said Philadelphia Commerce Director Alan Greenberger.

Freelancer.com chief executive Matt Barrie has lashed out at the “brain drain” gripping Australia’s start-up scene, saying poor venture capital opportunities and a lack of government support is forcing entrepreneurs abroad.

According to The Australian, Mr Barrie went on to declare Australia’s venture capital industry as “dead”.

"The environment is pretty much dried up,” Mr Barrie, talking at a “Silicon Beach” summit in Sydney.

When our business in China did not work out as hoped, I could not believe that I failed at something I set out to achieve.  Four years of my life were gone.  The emotional scars and physical ailments resulting from the stress were real enough.  I couldn’t believe that I had lost money for my investors (who were friends and family).

Few people discuss the details about such periods in their lives.  Most entrepreneurs that we hear about succeed.  Or else they fade into oblivion.  Older entrepreneurs occasionally discuss the multiple failures that they experienced to reach success.  Yet, those painful memories are long past.  The younger a successful entrepreneur is, the more he or she is featured and sought after in stories.