Entrepreneurship is a Journey. Not a Destination.

His CPA & Who We Are

At His CPA PC we strive to do business the old fashioned way giving our clients much more than they thought they needed. In our ever changing economic times it is even more important to stay ahead of the power curve in addressing your business issues, trends, and tax planning. To that end we have dramatically improved our web-site.

www.HisCPA.com A Christian CPA Firm: Imagine the Long-Term Benefits.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES—The small Persian Gulf kingdom of Dubai appears to be an oasis in a region aflame.  Civil war consumes Syria and threatens to spark conflict in Lebanon.  The fighting has sharpened Iraq’s violent sectarian divide and could draw in Israel.

Post-revolution Egypt, Libya and Tunisia stagger along while Kuwait confronts potentially violent divisions.  The Sunni monarchy in Bahrain holds the Shia majority in check with the assistance of Saudi Arabia, which faces a generational power transfer.  In Iran the Islamic establishment is divided.  Even Turkey, long seen as a stable democracy friendly to the West, has been inundated with protests.

If you’re planning on quitting your job anytime soon to travel the oyster that is our world, then this list will probably come in handy. On the other hand, if you’re merely interested in travel startups trying something new in emerging markets, it’ll also be interesting. The web seems to be overflowing with travel and tourism startups. So much so that finding one that matters is difficult. Standing out from the rest means that entrepreneurs need to think outside of the box.

First things first: Confidence is not bravado, or swagger, or an overt pretense of bravery. Confidence is not some bold or brash air of self-belief directed at others.

Confidence is quiet: It’s a natural expression of ability, expertise, and self-regard.

I’m fortunate to know a number of truly confident people. Many work with me at HubSpot, others are fellow founders of their own startups some of whom I've met through my angel investment activity. But the majority are people I’ve met through my career and who work in a variety of industries and professions.

How high brow can you sound?

The Atlantic has hired an “Entrepreneur in Residence.” What does that even mean? Who cares, really, but is that not the greatest job title you’ve ever heard? The lucky journalist behind the lofty new title that should give him bragging rights at any party is digital media innovator (also a pretty good title) Andrew Golis.

Here’s his job description: “Working closely with The Atlantic‘s Editorial and Digital Strategy and Operations teams, Golis will support the media brand’s expanding video and paid-content initiatives. He will also work with the teams to help identify and launch new ventures and products across The Atlantic’s platforms.”

If you thought a top-notch degree from a B-School makes for a successful entrepreneur, you couldn't be more mistaken. Guts, grit and the ability to dream big. That's what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Not everyone with a great business idea can become an entrepreneur. Translating that idea into an actual business calls for a certain kind of person, one who can see himself or herself through their darkest hour. Here are seven traits common to entrepreneurs who have built empires from virtually nothing but a viable idea.

There is an argument that budget cuts and reduced resources inspire fresh ideas; that austerity can actually drive innovation. Sceptics, however, might think it’s the kind of wisdom that belongs in a PowerPoint presentation rather than the real world, but the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) is doing its best to prove it’s true.

What do bike-sharing, bottle service, dog parks, pop-up stores, turnstiles and the wave (the stadium phenomenon) have in common? For starters, they are among the many things that get the “Who Made That” treatment in this year’s Innovations Issue, which came out this past weekend. But they are also features of city life, the sorts of adaptations that you would expect to evolve to take advantage of — and possibly release the pressures of — urban density.

Perhaps we should have devoted some space to cities themselves, as kinds of first causes or prime movers, the places where so many whos make so many thats. (Maybe next year!) Last week, Larry Hardesty’s article in M.I.T. News, “Why Innovation Thrives in Cities,” summarized a new paper from researchers at the Human Dynamic Lab at M.I.T.’s Media Laboratory. One upshot: “increases in urban density give residents greater opportunity for face-to-face interaction” — which enhances inventiveness. The director of the Human Dynamic Lab, Alex Pentland, sums up the dynamic:

Troll slaying is making headlines these days:

• President Obama going after patent trolls today with executive actions, according to report 
• President Obama to take aim at patent trolls with executive actions tomorrow 
• Executive Orders Targeting Patent Trolls

But anyone who knows anything about troll mythology, knows that even if you cut off their leg, they just grow a new one. So the metaphor lives on in patent trolls. While they are creating havoc, the proposed regulations for cutting off their legs just aren’t solutions. For example, limiting the ability of non-practicing entities to bring suit will be easily circumvented by hiring two people and pretending to perform development work.

Even though we don't always see it every day, technology and businesses are moving at a breakneck pace, dismantling industries, saving lives, and transforming the world.   McKinsey recently released a report on the 12 technologies that are disrupting the global economy, from advanced robotics and next-generation genomics to self-driving cars.

Alex Griffiths scrolled through dozens and dozens of profiles on his screen. Each featured a glamorous photo and a few paragraphs explaining why the people depicted would make an attractive match. He tried not to get hung up on the photos and focused instead on other characteristics, notably whether the subjects had launched successful companies. After all, nearly everyone listed was a star entrepreneur or investor.

There were times in recent years in which the Wisconsin Assembly couldn’t have mustered 91 votes to pass a resolution confirming the sun rises in the east. Lingering bitterness over the 2011 public-employee collective bargaining bill and the related recall elections that followed widened divides that often separate Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature. Lawmakers are people, too, so there was no shortage of bruised feelings in the Capitol.

The 91-2 Assembly vote in support of a bill to create a state-leveraged venture capital program may represent the beginning of a less rancorous era (or, at least, a brief respite). Democrats and Republicans will continue to disagree on many issues — school vouchers and tax cuts being current examples — but it now may be OK to occasionally agree without penalty.

Much has been written lately about the shrinking venture industry, but the number of active investors isn’t really declining.

Although it is down from the dot-com bubble and took a dip during the financial crisis, in the last two years the number of venture firms making equity investments in U.S. companies has hovered just under 1,000, according to Dow Jones VentureSource, with 998 firms making deals in 2011 and 987 making deals in 2012.

AOL Co-Founder Steve Case has a great perspective on the country's vast and varied startup universe. Now Chairman of Startup America and CEO of Revolution, a venture capital fund based in Washington, D.C., Case wrote a February blog post for the Wall Street Journal describing what he's dubbed the "rise of the rest."   "I'm convinced that we’re beginning to see a regional 'rise of the rest' as cities like Washington D.C., Denver, Chicago, Atlanta, Raleigh, Cleveland, Detroit and many others experience unprecedented growth in startups," wrote Case.

Let's establish up front that Billy and Nick, the two 40ish, out-of-work salesmen played by Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in the new movie The Internship, are unlikely to land a coveted summer spot at Google. But in Hollywood, the place where Cameron Diaz can be an orthopedic surgeon (in There's Something About Mary), anything is possible. So let's suspend disbelief (and put aside the question of whether or not it's funny) and consider what the movie gets right about midcareer internships.

College internships are well established, but the strategy of opening up internship programs to non-traditional candidates is gaining currency. It provides a cost effective and low-risk way to engage with mid-career professionals seeking to return to work. (I wrote about this trend in the November 2012 issue of HBR.) Sometimes, as in The Internship, the non-traditional candidate turns out to be the best choice.

Using data to manage is nothing new. But using big data to manage IS new, offering unprecedented challenges, opportunity, and risk. Senior executives need to learn and learn quickly. They must be prepared to ask penetrating questions when their data scientists bring them a new idea. Those who ask the following questions will be better prepared to both exploit the valuable insights and avoid the disasters that can arise from big — but bad — data.

When your data scientists bring you an idea, ask them the following:

1. What problem are you trying to solve? It is far too easy for data scientists (and others for that matter) to go on extended "fishing expeditions," seeking "interesting insights" that aren't tethered to the business. While a certain amount of exploration is healthy, most innovation is of the small-scale, one improvement at a time, variety — even with data. Encourage your data scientists to focus initially on known issues and opportunities, as well as more tangible insights. As confidence grows, your data scientists should be less restrained. And you should develop a keen eye for the difference between "exploring a difficult path" and "wallowing around."

Ever since the 2008 financial crisis, intellectuals have had to ask themselves, 'Does Capitalism Still Work?'

I have explored this question for several years now, beginning with a seminal column I wrote for Forbes: Capitalism's Fundamental Flaw. Two particular problems stand out. First, Capitalism has been hijacked by speculators. Second, the system enables amassing wealth at the tip of the pyramid, leaving most of society high and dry. Both problems have resulted in a highly unstable, volatile world order that jitters and shocks markets periodically, leaving financial carnage and mass scale human suffering.

So what is the solution? Can the ideals of democracy and capitalism be combined to establish a more robust, stable system?

Political strategists can spend days and weeks thinking, talking and testing a message strategy. They know every word counts. The lessons startups can learn from politics is a subject I have expanded on previously, and made reference to in a book I am launching in the coming months, The New Goldrush. So why is it most startup founders don’t spend much time considering their message strategy?

Time, resources and skills shortages are the top 3 reasons why startup founders aren’t able to properly craft a message strategy. A poor message strategy can impact the success of an entire business. Marketing won’t fix a rubbish product, but it will help launch a good one. Here is five things to consider when you are defining your message strategy.

The debate about whether hopeful entrepreneurs should start college or startup has been alive and well for many years.

There are countless examples of successful entrepreneurs – Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, to name a few – who never completed a college degree but those stories are admittedly few and far between. The more traditional route is that of Mark Cuban, Warren Buffett and Larry Page, all who found success after graduating college.