Posts by Dan Fontaine
Burnt Hickory Brewery: Choosing a Distributor
Burnt Hickory Brewery brewmaster Scott Hedeen didn’t have the option to come up with an idea and then open up the next day. For his business, as with any other, there were legal and regulatory hurdles to clear. One of the most important was finding a distributor. Not only was it a legal requirement, but…
Read This ArticleBurnt Hickory Brewery: Cutting Through the Red Tape
It takes more than passion to start a business. Scott Hedeen, founder and brewmaster of the Burnt Hickory Brewery, tells the story of how he turned his idea into a startup reality, with stops at the local, state, and federal governments along the way. He got through the red tape to get his business off the…
Read This ArticleNOWaccount – Finding Customers
To have a business, you have to have customers. After developing an idea, many entrepreneurs start to wonder how to get in front of those customers, how to get them to sign up. All too many take it for granted that if you make a product available, it just gets to people somehow. But usually…
Read This ArticleNOWaccount: Preparing for Growth
For a small business owner, growth is very exciting—and also frightening at the same time. Many businesses fail because they bring on more growth than they are able to process or handle. In this video, NOWaccount President and CEO Lara Hodgson talks about how she prepared her company for growth to make sure the business…
Read This Article4 Ways to Use Video to Market Your Business
Don’t let video marketing just be a buzzword or a vague concept. It’s not out of reach for any entrepreneur today. Here are four ways that you can use video in your business: Meet Our Business Video is a great way to introduce your business to people, giving them a quick tour of who you…
Read This ArticleGeoff Wilson — The Importance of Self Education
To ensure a successful business, it’s important for entrepreneurs to continuously learn. Staying on top of industry trends, current events and more are crucially important, yet not everyone does enough of it. “It’s something that I didn’t do enough of in my early days,” says 352 Inc.’s Geoff Wilson, “and as a result I think…
Read This ArticleTaproom Coffee — Crowdfunding
When Jonathan Pascual decided it was time to start Taproom Coffee, he was faced with the same problem as many other startup entrepreneurs — finding funding. He started by going through the normal channels. He dipped into his savings and got loans from family and friends, but when that wasn’t enough he had to look…
Read This Article[Video] Knowing What You Don’t Know
How often have all the different partners and suppliers who support you in your business all been in the same place talking about how they all fit together? As Nourish CEO and founder Lara Hodgson found out, it’s an unusual thing—but one that worked very well for her business. Before signing any deals to begin…
Read This ArticleNourish Water – What Makes Someone Buy Your Product?
Developing a product is only the starting point for a business. You have to then go on to figure out how to sell it, and what your best options are for that task. One of the key questions to ask yourself: what makes someone buy my product? These are called situational triggers and can be…
Read This ArticleNourish Water — Creating a Brand
Forming the most effective brand for your business is a challenge for any business owner, but you can take cues from what other brands are doing. In this segment, Lara Hodgson, CEO and founder of Nourish, talks about the steps she went through to create the Nourish brand. Sure, she created a great product, but…
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