FRIDAY, March 1, 2013
TEMPLE DAILY TELEGRAM / 1
Embracing Entrepreneurism By: Vane Hugo, Central Texas Entrepreneur Center
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EVENTS CALENDAR
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free and low-cost technology, you are empowered and enabled to sell to local markets and reach customers on a global scale. Easy to say and easy to do! Three good reasons to start a business today: • Low start-up costs – many businesses can now start with less than a few hundred dollars in actual startup costs. With a smartphone and a handful of business cards, you can instantly set up your operation and quickly make sales. And…you can do it from home or anyplace else you can get an internet connection. • Enabling technology – cheap computers and phone equipment, social media platforms and online shopping carts provide start-up companies with a powerful way to market, just like big business. Selling and promoting yourself online is affordable, achievable and The Entrepreneur Center of Central Texas, rewarding. Small businesslocated at 19 North Main St., Temple, TX 76501 es are more nimble than Photo by Skeebo the behemoths. Businesses are being built on Facebook and pronesses in the United States. These are enterprising times. Faced moted via Twitter, YouTube and with limited entry level jobs, students LinkedIn, selling everything from are turning their talents into business heirloom vegetable seeds to e-books ventures. Experienced professionals and financial services and artisan are choosing the freedom and flexi- foods. Whatever your passion you can bility that comes with self-employ- sell it as a product or service. ment. Middle aged people are finding • High level of support – when startgaps in the market and filling them. ing a business, you won’t be alone! The over 50’s are leaving the insecu- There is an abundance of support to rity of modern corporate life, launch- help you start and grow, including ing new ventures, to support their public and private sector support. In lifestyle as their life expectancy fact, there is so much data out there on starting and growing businesses grows. Regardless of your age or current that you may want a safari guide to employment, there is potential to turn get you through the information juna passion or skill from your profes- gle. TEC is just such a guide. The sional or personal life into a bright Entrepreneur Center of Central Texas business idea. Embracing your entre- (www.TEC-CenTex.com) assists with preneurial spirit and coupling it with mentoring and coaching individual Many ask, “When is the best time to start a business?” The answer is crystal clear,“There has never been a better time to start a business.” When the numbers are finally tabulated, 2012 likely marked a record high for the opening of small businesses. With an improving economy, millions of people just like you established their own businesses and became their own boss. Now is your opportunity to join those millions of self-employed people and small busi-
businesses, providing workshops and seminars on specific aspects of small business and connecting new entrepreneurs with experienced small business owners to deliver advice and provide business specific expert mentoring. With all this available, can you resist the draw to become your own boss? For every business, regardless of its current state, there is a logical set of next steps. Often, the business owner knows many of these activities. Yet, no business has to be an “island”. Help is just a call or click away. Use it! (254) 298-8781 w w w. T E C - C e n T e x . c o m
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What is the Entrepreneur Center
The Entrepreneur Center is a nonprofit organization that serves the Central Texas community, by providing area businesses with the right resources at the right time in the development of each business. Through group and individualized training coupled with connecting businesses to needed resources, The Entrepreneur Center is able to teach business skills to startups as well as mentor existing businesses to grow their revenue and profitability. In the next issue, there will be two short articles, one focused on topics for the startup business and a second on a topic of interest to more established businesses. I encourage you to read both, as the gap between what you know and what your business needs you to know, may occasionally widen.
~Vane
Executive Director of The Entrepreneur Center of Central Texas