10 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

This coming Tuesday, Jan. 12, Steve Glenn will be speaking about how he got started as an entrepreneur and the lessons he has learned along the way. Join us at Old Chicago on the 12th at 5:30 p.m. for food, networking and a very educational talk.

10 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make from Nebraska Entrepreneur on Vimeo.

2010 Nebraska Summit on Entrepreneurship Fosters Idea Sharing and Networking

Interest among young Nebraskans in starting a business is high. According to a book published by Gallup, more than half of Nebraskan college-age students want to start their own business. However, research revealed gaps in the education, training, skills, resources and general support entrepreneurs need to successfully launch businesses.
The annual Nebraska Summit on Entrepreneurship is [...]

Awesome Camp All Its Name Promises And More

The same technology that shrinks the world a little more each day — through phone lines and cell towers and mankind’s mastery of the wide open airwaves — also offers a level of workplace flexibility completely unfeasible only a decade ago. Working from home to avoid the morning commute is becoming more and more common, [...]

Branched Oak Farm Prospers Under USDA Auspices

Farming is easily Nebraska’s oldest profession. Frontiersmen and pioneers coaxed a livelihood out of the soil for years before the land they worked was even considered for statehood. And the USDA is doing its part to bring the venerable occupation into the 21st century by fostering relationships between consumers and local producers.
The Branched Oak Farm, [...]

Broken Bow Bison Ranch Wins Nebraska EDGE Honor

via IANR News
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — In 1994, Marty and Karen Bredthauer of Broken Bow began raising bison as an alternative to raising cattle on their 320-acre ranch. They sold their first bison meat the next year.
Today, their Straight Arrow Bison Ranch is home to about 60 head of bison, a growing regional business, and [...]

Build a Business in 54 Hours at Startup Weekend Omaha

If you’re interested in starting a business but procrastination or other obligations tend to get in your way, Startup Weekend Omaha may be just the kick start you need. In fact, in just 54 hours, you might leave as part of a new business.
Startup Weekend Omaha, March 19-21, 2010 is advertised as a community-building startup [...]

Contemporary Analysis Does It By The Numbers

Grant Stanley is a numbers man. By submitting meticulously organized data to the siren song of mathematics, he can tell you when your roof will leak, when your transmissions will fail and even the one day a year when you have the best chance of meeting that someone special. A lifelong entrepreneur who got his start [...]

Engler gives $20 million to support agribusiness at UNL

Audio Interview with James B. Milliken
University of Nebraska alumnus and cattleman Paul F. Engler of Amarillo, Texas, announced today a $20 million gift to support programs in agri-business at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The gift from the Paul F. and Virginia J. Engler Foundation to the University of Nebraska Foundation’s Campaign for Nebraska: Unlimited Possibilities [...]

Entrepreneurship in Nebraska: Conditions, Attitudes, and Actions

This book investigates the vital role of entrepreneurship in the Nebraska economy. It presents the business and economic conditions that affect entrepreneurship in both the short and long run. Using Gallup’s extensive survey findings, it reveals the attitudes of small business owners and the general public about such topics as starting a business, entrepreneurship education, [...]

Inaugural “Quick Pitch” Competition A Rousing Success

An “elevator pitch” is a bare-bones run-down of a business proposition, truncated so as to be deliverable in the time it takes an elevator to travel from the bottom floor to the top. So, it was only fitting that students hoping to win cash prizes for their budding business ideas took an elevator up three floors to [...]

Kauffman Foundation Executive Stresses Understanding Market and Building Network

Bo Fishback, vice president of entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, gave practical advice to entrepreneurs gathered at the 2010 Nebraska Summit on Entrepreneurship.
Fishback, who started his first company when he was 13 years old, said there are two things that matter disproportionately in a startup’s life: your market and your network.
“The importance of [...]

Loans Help Nebraskan Companies Attract Major Investors

In an earlier post, we talked with Dan Hoffman, executive director of Invest Nebraska, about their Venture Competitions. In this post, we’ll find out about their Operational Assistance program. The program offers the equivalent of a low-interest loan of up to $25,000 with favorable terms for qualifying businesses. Invest Nebraska is a nonprofit corporation that [...]

MarketPlace Offers Rural Entrepreneurs Support, Information, Networking and More

Rural entrepreneurs get support, encouragement, practical information, ideas and networking opportunities at the annual Center for Rural Affairs (CFRA) MarketPlace event.
More than 525 people registered to attend the fourth Nebraskan event on February 23 and 24, 2010 at the Ramada Inn Convention Center in Kearney.
The event is making a difference, said Kathie Starkweather, CFRA’s director [...]

Nebraska Business Development Center Decodes Tricky Facets of Entrepreneurship

When offered a price for their thoughts, most people seem content with a penny. But the Nebraska Business Development Center would be selling itself short by accepting such meager compensation for its expertise. In 2009, the NBDC consulted some 3,454 Nebraska businesses, increasing their collective sales by $116,993,589, according to state director Robert Bernier.
Founded in [...]

Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship Helps Students Navigate Troubled Job Market

The most successful entrepreneurs are those who’ve been able to visualize opportunity where others see nothing at all. That propensity for pulling ideas out of thin air is indispensable in an ailing economy, where employment is increasingly hard to come by. In today’s rocky professional landscape, it’s safe to say a fair share of available jobs are those that don’t [...]

Pastabilities Unlimited Bringing “Smiles” to Customers’ Faces

Although the millennium census posits the population of Firth, Nebraska, as a few people short of 570, David and Betsy Ashman have a found a way to put what’s a small town even by Midwest standards on the map. Their Sorrisos line of pasta sauce has been garnering culinary accolades and delighting palates for well [...]

Wayne Business Lets Customers Create Custom Headboards

Marilyn Wilson got the inspiration for a new Wayne, Nebraska business, Heady Bed, while watching a design show on television. She noticed the designer’s staff often had to carry large, unwieldy headboards up narrow, sometimes winding steps. She said she remembers thinking, “Wouldn’t it be good to have a modular system.”
Later, when Wilson designed the [...]