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Young Entrepreneurs: Experience Preferred

sRisky Business: The Downside of Starting Young

Many young entrepreneurs like cutting corners and hate playing by the rules — and that’s often why they’re successful. But experts warn that those same qualities can also doom a fledgling business.

From: Inc.com By: Angus Loten


While preparing to pitch his social networking site to a group of venture capitalists, 27-year-old Geoff Cook accidentally knocked over a full glass of water on the boardroom table, soaking himself and his presentation materials.”It’s hard enough being taken seriously at these meetings when you’re a little younger,” says Cook, a co-founder of myYearbook.com, a New Hope, Pa.-based social networking site for teens. “Luckily, I was able to dry off before we got going.”

Getting bankers, investors, and others to take them seriously is just one of many challenges younger entrepreneurs face that their older counterparts are often spared. Yet, most of these can be overcome by following a few simple rules, business coaches and mentors say.

Consider that most would-be teenage business owners can’t even enter into contracts or take out loans without their parents or an agent co-signing the agreement, says Hank Kopcial, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business’s Young Entrepreneur Foundation. “They’re simply not of legal age,” he says. “It’s an extra step older entrepreneurs don’t have to take.”

Other typical problems include weak or no credit history, few peer-to-peer mentors, and even fewer corporate connections. And don’t forget time-management issues. (Should I analyze market research or study for tomorrow’s history test?

For the entire article go to Inc.com

Corra can see how flying by the seat of one’s proverbial pants can lead to amazing innovation in business as well as colossal flops. Some entrepreneurs are barely experienced drivers, yet along business people. So it is small wonder that many will eventually hit that speed bump that they cannot surmount.

Nothing is a substitute for experience. Except for maybe innovation. At least when innovation works it is a good substitute for experience. Up to a point. And then maybe the lessons young entrepreneurs learn the hard way will serve them well in either their next venture or in the broader workplace.

Not matter what, there should be some qualifiers. A good pre-employment screening package may have its limitations when the focus is younger people. Chances are it is tough or impossible to obtain business credit reports on their fledgling businesses. But education can sure matter, as can their criminal records. So, if you are lending them money, or becoming involved, as a savvy and experienced business person, check them out before you hire.

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Is Hiring Workers a Waste of Time?

Average Employee Wastes Two Hours of Every Workday

Twentysomethings slack off more than older workers, according to a new survey.

From: Inc.com By: Liz Webber


The average employee wastes about 20 percent of the workday, with young people the most likely to be slacking off, according to a new survey.The 2007 Wasting Time Survey by Salary.com, which asked 2,000 employees across all job levels about how they spend their working hours, found employees waste an average of 1.7 hours of an 8.5-hour workday. This represents a decline from last year, when workers reported wasting an average of 1.89 hours each day.In this year’s survey, 20- to 29-year-olds said they waste an average of 2.1 hours per day. The amount of idle time drops off as employees grow older, with the 30-39 age group reporting 1.9 hours of the day wasted and 40- to 49-year-olds reporting 1.4 hours.”Older employees tend to have a very strong work ethic,” said Bill Coleman, Salary.com’s chief compensation officer. Coleman added that more seasoned workers understand certain humdrum office tasks, like all-day meetings, have value that may not be readily apparent.

for the entire article go to Inc.com

Corra realizes that the fact that so many workers waste away so much valuable working time is hardly news. The only thing you really need to do to pick up on this information is to walk around the work place. We all know about the now iconic water cooler, but let’s face it more employees are screwing around on the Internet than they are gabbing at the water cooler.

Maybe it is just the way things are and the fact that employees are working long hours, under great stress and with less job security has something to do with it. Besides, don’t most of us have something better to do than work? Just kidding. But that is the attitude in a good many places.

When running preemployment screening on your job candidates, it is wise to conduct employment verifications to help better qualify your new people. A credit report will help determine your candidate’s sense of personal responsibility.

Check them out before you hire.

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Entrepreneurs Need Good Help, Too

The Making of an Entrepreneurial Generation

How new technologies, a proliferation of resources, and a disenchantment with the corporate world are making Generation Y the most entrepreneurial in history.

From: Inc.com By: Donna Fenn


What better measure of a generation than its approach to entrepreneurship? Generation Y, born between 1977 and 1994, may well be on its way to becoming the most entrepreneurial generation in our nation’s history — and for very good reasons. They took their baby steps during our first true entrepreneurial decade, the 1980s; watched their parents “restructured” out of what were once lifetime corporate jobs; saw barriers to entry collapse as technology democratized the business start-up process; enrolled in newly-minted college entrepreneurship programs, which have increased seven-fold in the past six years.No wonder that a recent study by The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor shows that 18- to 24-year-olds in the United States are starting businesses at a faster rate than 35- to 44-year-olds. The college campus is now a fertile breeding ground for company builders. “Forty percent or more of students who come into our undergraduate entrepreneurship program as freshmen already have a business,” says Jeff Cornwall, the Massey Chair in Entrepreneurship at Belmont University in Nashville. “It’s a whole new world.”

The rising stars on this year’s 30 Under 30 list would most certainly agree. We’ve got a few high school start-ups, and several more college dorm room launches. Some are already racking up revenues in the tens of millions, while others are just experiencing the first blush of success. But we think that all of them are worth watching, not just for the companies they’re running today, but for the ones they’ve yet to conceive of but will most surely start in the future. Because here’s the thing about Gen Y entrepreneurs: they’re lifers, or so they say: the majority plan to start more than one company in their lifetimes.

For the entire article go to Inc.com

It seems that the two mos entrepreneurial groups in America are the Boomers who downsized or tired of corporate life are opening their own business, and the twenty-something Gen Y’ers who are not comfortable working int he corporate world.

Corra has conducted background searches for both groups. While years apart, they show common ground in looking for adventurous and talented individuals who can help them get their businesses off the ground. In qualifying candidates, Corra recommends the criminal check, of course, education verification and a credit report, as well as other searches. It is important for fledgling companies to at least have a strong professional foundation.

So don’t just think you know someone, rely on your instincts, or merely hope for the best. Be smart, and check them out before you hire.

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Are Pedophiles Working For You?

Parents’ Ire Grows at Pedophile’s Unabashed Blog

LOS ANGELES — The search for the self-described pedophile in the large-brimmed black hat commences nearly every day here, with findings posted on chat rooms frequented by mothers.

He was spotted at a fair in Santa Clarita. He recently emerged from the Social Security office on Olympic Boulevard. He tapped away on a computer at the library in Mar Vista. Warnings have gone out. Signs have been posted.

And yet unlike convicted sex offenders, who are required to stay away from places that cater to children, in this case the police can do next to nothing, because this man, Jack McClellan, who has had Web sites detailing how and where he likes to troll for children, appears to be doing nothing illegal.

But his mere presence in Los Angeles — coupled with Mr. McClellan’s commitment to exhibitionistic blogging about his thoughts on little girls — has set parents on edge. One group of mothers, whose members by and large have never met before, will soon band together in a coffee shop to hammer out plans to push lawmakers in Sacramento to legislate Mr. McClellan out of business.

“Just the idea that this person could get away with what he was doing and no one could press charges has made me angry,” said Jane Thompson, a stay-at-home mother in East Los Angeles who recently read Mr. McClellan’s comments about a festival in her neighborhood in which he seemed to be describing her child.

For the entire article go to NYTimes.com

Pedophiles have been on the national radar with increasing frequency. The recent news story in Los Angeles had parents both horrified and up in arms over the child predator who described on the Internet his approach and tactics. Initially, the law enforcement authorities said there wasn’t much they could do to limit this man since he hadn’t really done anything yet. He wasn’t a registered sex offender.

Maybe in his case he wasn’t, but many are. They are listed nationally and on state sites. Corra includes in its state and nationwide criminal database searches the sexual offenders registry in all fifty states. Corra realizes how disruptive a sexual offender can be to the workplace. Most people will hate him, few, if any, with sympathize, and the employee morale can suffer.

In the case of McClellan, the predator in the story, a bond was issued mandating that he stay at least fifteen yards away from any child.

Check them out before you hire.