The Farm Incubator and Grower program in Valle Crucis, Western North Carolina’s first farm incubator, is accepting applications for the 2013 growing season.

Located in Valle Crucis, on the site of the former Appalachian State University Teaching & Research Farm, on land owned by the Valle Crucis Conference Center, the program plans to launch two small farm enterprises, run by beginning farmers with access to land, a tractor, a greenhouse and other equipment.

“Starting out as a farmer without access to equipment and land is next to impossible,” said Hillary Wilson, a 27-year-old farmer and executive director of Maverick Farms, which runs the FIG program in partnership with Appalachian State University’s Sustainable Development Program.

Ohioans will see plenty of both President Obama and Governor Romney between now and November 6th, 2012. Yet despite a slew of references to big business and small business on the campaign trail, one term we aren't likely to hear very often is "entrepreneurship."

That's what AOL founder and Startup America Chair Steve Case told an audience of over 200 people at the annual conference of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF) in downtown Cleveland.

Part One of this series provided details about how the JOBS Act will make it easier for small businesses to obtain financing through crowdfunding or crowdsourcing. The reduced red tape and lifted restrictions makes now the best time to take a good hard look at crowdfunding as an alternative solution for your business.

Now is the time to Get Ready:The SEC is currently working on the rules and guidelines for crowdfunding. However, what business owners can start doing now is getting a pitch ready for investors to review. If your company is a start-up, it is always a great idea to work with your local Small Business Administration (SBA) office or a business counselor to develop a business plan, which is needed to pitch your business. If you have an existing business and want to use crowdfunding to finance a growth strategy, you need to review your business and financial plan to put together your pitch. Now is the time to work on these things so that once the guidelines are released, your company can take advantage of this great opportunity.

It's no secret that bank lending figures are continuing to fall, which means many owners, directors & entrepreneurs are looking for alternative sources of funding.

A new survey by Bibby Financial Services shows an increasing number of business owners are relying on their own savings or loans from family and friends.

But what are the alternatives?

Salt marshes have been disintegrating and dying over the past two decades along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard and other highly developed coastlines without anyone fully understanding why.

This week in the journal Nature, scientist Linda Deegan of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass., and colleagues report that nutrients–such as nitrogen and phosphorus from septic and sewer systems and lawn fertilizers–can cause salt marsh loss.

“Salt marshes are a critical interface between the land and sea,” Deegan says. “They provide habitat for fish, birds and shellfish, protect coastal cities from storms and take nutrients out of the water from upland areas, which protect coastal bays from over-pollution.”

Research and innovation have long been a cornerstone of the educational excellence that defines Iowa State. Following a Congressional act that largely aids inventors, the time is ripe for more research.

“(Iowa State) has a very strong research portfolio, which has been increasing over the last five to six years,” said Balaji Narasimhan, associate dean of research for the College of Engineering.

In the creative economy, innovation is more important than ever. Innovation is the only insurance against irrelevance. It's the only antidote to margin-crushing competition, the only hope for out-performing a dismal economy, and the only way to truly amaze your customers. Innovation, in operations, products, business models and ecosystems, isn't merely a competitive advantage, it's the competitive advantage.

We all get it: innovation is the lifeblood of every organization. Yet more often than not, when innovation occurs, it's a "happy accident" rather than the product of a deep-rooted innovation competence. Dig into the genesis of a paradigm-busting new product or service, and you'll usually find that its success owes more to the indomitable spirit of a lone innovator than to the obliging climate of an inherently pro-innovation management model.

Last week, John Coleman posted a list of recommended books, 11 Books Every Young Leader Should Read.

There were no books by women on the list.

While part of me cries "unfair" more than I would like it to, this is John's list, and he gets to recommend as he chooses. What actually concerns me — and I hope you as well — is that in his canon of leadership books there are no women's voices, at least not in the top 11 that he relies on and that inspire him to greatness. John's picks, however, are not an anomaly among men, or even really among women. When I recently asked a group of successful professional women to list their favorite books about entrepreneurship, the list skewed largely male. Not too long ago, my list did too. And that is a problem. Unless of course, we believe women have nothing to offer as leaders.

Male entrepreneurs outnumber women 3.5 to 1. But women behind successful startups say they've found ways to make that statistic work in their favor. Here's how they do it.

Like many entrepreneurs, Nicole Kendrot turned a problem into a business opportunity. In her case, the problem was student loans--not just the amount of debt, but managing the payments. Her solution: to design a mobile app to track multiple loans and gamify the pay back process so users can earn cash incentives. And like many startup founders before her, Kendrot came up against two more hurdles: time and money.

The National Association of Seed and Venture Funds — which has close ties to Lorain County Community College — is merging with a nonprofit in the Columbus area.

The association a year ago announced that it would establish its first physical headquarters at the community college, which is assisting the organization with developing workshops, webinars and college courses designed to help people learn to invest in startups.

That work will continue after the association merges with the Westerville-based State Science & Technology Institute, said Richard Fox, interim president of the association.

The State of Oklahoma benefits directly from a strong Science and Technology (S&T) base. Economic development in the United States over the past 50 years or more has illustrated that a commitment to S&T is the most important key to building a better economy and quality of life for our citizens. Oklahoma has been a leader in bold and innovative approaches to foster economic development, including unique incentives to support quality jobs, aerospace engineering and S&T investment. The collective efforts of the public and private sectors have led to Oklahoma being widely considered as one of the most business friendly states in the nation, standing strong with a robust expanding economy and relatively low unemployment.

However, Oklahoma has suffered some decline in recent years in S&T, as measured using several different S&T indicators. The state must reverse this decline. With strategic investment and planning, Oklahoma is well-positioned to realize growth in multiple S&T areas, including traditional core S&T sectors as well as new, high-profile, emerging markets and technology sectors, such as biotechnology and unmanned aircraft systems.

Download the report: OneOklahoma A Strategic Plan for Science and Technology in Oklahoma, 2012

One of the biggest mistakes seed-stage entrepreneurs make is asking for too much money.

If you are an entrepreneur, you have probably heard from countless advisors and pseudo-advisors that you should raise enough money for 12-18 months of runway, have a plan for use of these proceeds, and understand what milestones are needed for profitability or another round of financing. You probably also have heard that startups almost always require more capital than called for in an original business plan. So, raising more money typically makes sense.

But just because you want to raise more money doesn’t mean you should ask for it.

(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) Oct. 17, 2012 – Global Entrepreneurship Week is an idea bigger than the thousands of communities around the world that make it up. That idea and the benefits of engaging a global community working to advance entrepreneurship are the subject of the latest Kauffman Foundation animated sketchbook video released today.

Most entrepreneurs wear a variety of hats. Some wear every hat.

That's why most entrepreneurs need to be very well rounded.

Here are six books that at least partially cover the entrepreneurial gamut: starting a business, personal productivity, marketing, improving skills, operations--even health and fitness.

Each will leave you feeling challenged, inspired, motivated, and ready to take your professional life to new heights.

After wrapping up their #FixYoungAmerica campaign, the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) set out to find different solutions that could curb one very startling statistic: one in two college graduates are either jobless or underemployed. Their answer? Mentorship. And they’re beginning with #StartupLab.

#StartupLab is a free virtual mentorship program and Facebook app presented by Citi, allowing everyone—from aspiring student entrepreneurs to more seasoned founders—the chance to connect with innovators from the YEC network.

Last weekend, millions of people tuned in online to witness the Red Bull Stratos project, in which Australian skydiver Felix Baumgartner ascended to the edge of the atmosphere in a helium balloon and jumped -- plummeting 128,000 feet back to earth and breaking the sound barrier as he fell.

What you might not know is the name of the entrepreneur who made it possible for the world to watch Baumgartner's historic feat: Jay Nemeth of FlightLine Films. He founded the company in 2007 to provide aerospace cinematography -- before there even was demand for it.

Do your homework. The consequences of not following that oft-repeated mantra when entrepreneurs prepare to pitch healthcare providers, pharma companies and payers was detailed by three panelists at the New York Digital Health conference. They also shared opportunities where entrepreneurs could contribute ideas.

Among the panelists were Leonard C. Achan Jr., Mount Sinai Medical Center chief communication officer who works on digital strategy;Wendy Mayer, Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) Worldwide Innovation vice president, and Martha Wofford, Aetna’s(NYSE: AED) head of CarePass, a platform that synchronizes data.

Maybe the business world has jumped the gun with all the talk about a looming skills shortage in big data and advanced analytics. There’s mounting evidence that it doesn’t take much to turn a novice programmer or statistician into a perfectly capable data scientist. Maybe all it takes is just some cheap cloud computing servers, or a few weeks studying machine learning with Stanford professor Andrew Ng on Coursera.

Much of this evidence comes via Kaggle, a platform where companies and organizations award prizes for the best solutions to their predictive-modeling needs. In September, for example, I covered a first-time Kaggle user and admitted data science neophyte named Carter S. who won a competition using a simple but effective method he dubbed “overkill analytics.”

As we celebrate National Boss Day, Oct. 16, I’m enjoying the things leadership coach and author Michelle McQuaid has to say. I talked several weeks ago about profanity in the workplace, and how it affects employee/employer relationships. Today I’d like to take a closer look at the bosses. Many great entrepreneurs have been undone by the fact that they are great at business, but they are terrible bosses.

When it comes to the entrepreneur, success doesn’t come much greater than the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump.  Yet in addition to their many accomplishments, there’s an expensive mistake they have in common: they are both reported to be really bad bosses. Trump has even made a second career of horrible bosshood with The Apprentice. Luckily for them – although not their employees – it’s been a mistake they’ve been able to afford and survive.

BioAdvance, the operator of the Biotechnology Greenhouse of Southeastern Pennsylvania, has expanded its team with the additions of a new venture partner and a new entrepreneur-in-residence.

Dr. Gregory R. Harriman, the venture partner, brings more than 25 years of experience in academic medicine and the biopharmaceutical industry. He previously held research and development posts at IVAX, Centocor and Johnson & Johnson. In 2006, Harriman founded Main Line Ventures, n Berwyn, Pa., investment and consulting company focused on the life sciences industry. He is also a research professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering Science and Health Systems at Drexel University, and a member of Robin Hood Ventures, a Philadelphia angel investing group.