While recently chowing down on too many pounds of crawfish, a conversation sparked up with the guy who runs the local crawfish hut famous for their spicy mudbugs. Crawfish season generally begins in March – depending on how mild the previous winter was – and ends on July 4th weekend. So, curiosity sprang up on where crawfish hut/shack/truck owners go and what they do in the off-season. The answer? “I go back to my regular job and work the nine to five.” Rather than quenching the curiosity, it only sparked more questions. What profession allows a 4 to 5 month break? Is this the case for other seasonal businesses like ice cream trucks, sno cone shacks, ski lifts, etc.? How much revenue do they have to pull in to stay float in the off-season?

After digging in, we found how these men and women stay successful and there are only a few minor differences from the year-round businesses.
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We often find ourselves using family analogies when discussing our small businesses. In the case of discussing how to market to existing customers, we want to use you – the small business owner – as the parent figure. You’ve just had a new baby girl. You spent months preparing for this baby and you want to give her all your attention and care. But she’s not your first baby. You have another one who just turned 5. If you’re focusing all attention, expense, and effort on the new baby, what happens to the 5-year old? You see where this is going.

As a small business owner, you might have a tendency to focus all your attention on growing your client base. But in the meantime, your existing one starts to feel the neglect. There has to be a balance in the focus. So we’ve provided some tips on great ways to continue the marketing effort on attention on existing customers.
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The Internet has made the entrepreneurs of today some of the luckiest of all time. Not only is it now easier to run a business and promote products and services because of the web, but entrepreneurs also have a wealth of information from the world’s greatest minds right at their fingertips. What once would have required clearing out a spot on your calendar to attend a conference or speaking engagement, buying a ticket, and paying for travel costs such as gas, food and possibly a hotel, now only takes a click of a button.

Arkansas entrepreneurs should be taking full advantage of this incredible learning opportunity, and TED Talks are a great way to get started. We have rounded up a few of our favorites below.

How to pitch a VC: David S. Rose

A self-proclaimed “serial entrepreneur turned serial investor,” David S. Rose has been on both the giving and receiving side of VC pitches, giving him a well-rounded perspective on the process. Known as “The Pitch Coach,” he has personally raised tens of millions of dollars for his ventures, and then has also supervised the investment of tens of millions of dollars. In a fast and furious 14 minutes and 35 seconds, Rose breaks down the key points every entrepreneur should know going into a VC pitch, from the main qualities investors look for in an entrepreneur to presentation tips.

“You’ve got to convey passion. If you’re not passionate about your own company, why should anybody else be?

Success, Failure, and the Drive to Keep Creating: Elizabeth Gilbert

The life of an entrepreneur is full of a range of failures and successes, creating an emotional roller coaster that can make pressing on in a venture difficult in both success and failure. Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert discusses how she found failure and success oddly similar to her, and how she kept both from derailing her career.

 “The only trick is that you’ve got to identify the best, worthiest thing you love most and then build your house right on top of it and don’t budge from it.”

The Single Biggest Reason Startups Succeed: Bill Gross

Idea Lab founder Bill Gross has spent his entire life starting businesses. Many have succeeded, and many have failed. As Gross began to explore the key factors that contribute to the success of a venture, he found one old adage to be true: timing is everything.

 “I believe the startup is one of the greatest forms to make the world a better place. If you take a group of people, with the right equity and incentives, and organize them in a startup, you can unlock human potential in a way never before possible. You get them to achieve unbelievable things.”

For those who have spent their careers working for companies in traditional 9 to 5 roles, startups are shrouded in mystery. This often leads to the general public painting their own (and at times misinformed) pictures of what startup life must be like. While some of these common ideals may be accurate, a few couldn’t be further from the truth. Here, we’ve listed out 5 of the most common misconceptions about startups, and why they’re not true.

1. As long as an entrepreneur is passionate about their idea, everything will work out.

While it’s true most entrepreneurs do have a passion for their business, it takes so much more than passion to build a successful operation. For starters, the entrepreneur has to be excited about a business venture that is actually sustainable and beneficial to society. Even then, passion for a great idea isn’t enough for a successful business, which brings us to our next startup myth …

2. A great idea guarantees a successful business.

The best idea in the world can fail if the proper business plan isn’t in place. The initial idea is merely a springboard for creating a successful business, not the determining factor in the success or failure of the entire venture.

3. Most startup owners are 24-year-olds who wear hoodies to work.

The Silicon Valley stereotype has become the image that pops into most people’s heads with they think of startups, but the hoodie-wearing college dropout represents a small fraction of entrepreneurs. The startup community is a group of diverse, dynamic dreamers with a wide variety of backgrounds … and wardrobe choices.

4. Once a startup has money from an investor, it’s all smooth sailing.

First off, let’s debunk the myth that startups ever reach a phase of “smooth sailing.” While the necessary time commitment will definitely lessen as the business becomes more stable, a truly great company must constantly be innovating, learning and improving its services or product. Secondly, startups with ample investment capital flop everyday. While funding is nice, it merely provides startup entrepreneurs the means to keep growing and bettering their businesses, not assurance that the company will thrive.