How Spanx Got Started 
Sara Blakely on how she came up with the idea for Spanx footless pantyhose. Watch video
Research and Development
Recent Research and Development Articles
How Spanx Got Started
How to Tell a Mentor He's Wrong
He's got the experience and the know-how, but his advice is off the mark. How to handle a mentor you don't agree with. Read more
New from CES: A 3D Printer for the Masses?
Makerbot debuts it's first 3D printer for consumers. Here's why entrepreneurs should pay attention. Read more
5 Tips From an Accidental Entrepreneur
Joe Hill never planned to be an entrepreneur. But once he stumbled upon a great iPad app idea for his kids, he didn't look back. Read more
Use Improv to Brainstorm Effectively
At Kohort, we take a cue from theater and comedy to generate new ideas--and enhance morale. Read more
Post Office Delays: How to Avoid a Cash Flow Crunch
Changes coming soon to the U.S. Postal Service will slow payments from your clients. Take steps to minimize the impact now. Read more
How to Test Your Marketing: 5 Tips from YouSendIt
YouSendIt shows how testing your marketing, offers, and pricing can radically improve your business results. Five tips on making it work for you. Read more
Disruptive Innovation--One Pair of Glasses at a Time
Want to shake up an entire industry? Use this story as inspiration. Read more
Meet the Real Mother of Invention: Persistence
For Jonas Eliasson to bring the Me-Mover to market, all it took was one eureka moment. And then 13 years of painstaking improvement. Read more
How IdeaPaint Makes B2B Marketing Fun
Who says marketing to other businesses must be dull? Here's how one small company shakes things up. Read more
Best 2011 Books for Entrepreneurs
Some of these choices don't fit neatly into the "business book" genre. But being an entrepreneur is about a lot more than just nuts and bolts. View slideshow
The Best Way to Become an Expert
How to get to the point where you always know what you're talking about. Read more
Best Problem-Solving Tip: Don’t Be Afraid to Break Stuff
There are lots of tools designed to help you come up with innovative solutions. But sometimes the best one is a sledgehammer. Read more
How to Counter-attack Those Big Box Web Deals
Amazon has an app to lure customers out of your stores. EBay's offering incentives to shop online. It's time to fight back -- with a counterintuitive strategy. Read more
Top 6 Management Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make
The business plan is the easy part. Managing and leading a team? That's where the learning curve gets very steep. Read more
5 Jobs Every Entrepreneur Should Have Before Starting a Business
Think of it as the required curriculum in the School of Hard Knocks. Read more
Want to Build an App? This Is the Customer to Target
There are more opportunities than ever to build an app that people will pay for -- if you know where to look. Read more
The Pivot (or How to Learn Humility in 4 Steps)
Start-up founders don't just wake up one day and decide to launch something entirely different. It's a gradual--and more grueling--process. Read more
How to Launch a Pop-Up Shop
'Tis the season to try out a retail store -- no long-term commitment required. Here's the one piece of technology you need to get started. Read more
Why Brainstorming Sucks—and How to Fix It
Asking employees to dream up innovative ideas on demand never works. Here's a much easier way to get them to be creative. Read more
What Pro Wrestling Can Teach You About Business
Behind the spandex and the melodrama of those WWE matches, there's solid business advice. Seriously. Read more
The Hard Truth About How Success Really Works
Here's what's getting in your way when you attempt (and fail) to hit those "reach" goals. Read more
3D Printing: Now Cheaper and Easier to Use Than Ever
Someday, 3D printers may become as common as inkjet printers. Until then, there are affordable and easy ways to try them out. Read more
Learn Retail Success—the Apple Store Way
Per square foot, the Apple Store outsells most other retailers, but it didn't happen overnight. Here are three things the company got right that you can steal. Read more
The Easiest—and Hardest—Way to Be More Creative
It's no coincidence that a big, new idea never comes when you need it most. Here's how to get the juices flowing again. Read more
Built to Survive: The Darwin Approach to Business
According to evolutional theory, only the fittest survive. Here's how it works in the business world. Read more
How Miniskirts Changed the Food World Forever
Thanks to the innovative cuisine of Ferran Adria, few people can remember a time before molecular gastronomy. But what does that have to do with short hemlines? Read more
Innovative Product Mashups
Sometimes innovation is as simple as turning a ketchup bottle upside down. But what about putting bug repellent in clothing or carbonation in milk? It's conv... Read more
5 Ways to Kill a Brainstorming Session
As brainstorming has become customary, has it also lost its sparkle, and value, for your company? Here's where you may have gone wrong, and what to avoid in ... Read more
The Case for Letting Your Customers Design Your Products
Why limit your company's brainpower to your employees? Here's how to tap the crowd to research new concepts, innovate, and design new products or services. Read more
How to Develop a Disruptive Product
One of the world's oldest publishing companies brought in a ringer to revolutionize the way the company does business. The result? The first fully-interactiv... Read more
7 Unique Brainstorming Techniques
Want to encourage creativity amongst your team? We asked CEOs, creative writers, and a comedy instructor, their tips for drawing out good ideas. View slideshow
How to Tap Employee Ideas
Encouraging your employees' creativity can not only create an engaging work environment, but create new business. Seven experts share their tips on getting e... Read more
How to Make the Most of Your Time at an Incubator
Incubators like Y Combinator and DreamIt Ventures are helping young companies get their start. Here's how to make the most of your time at an incubator. Read more
How I Did It: Lessons Learned: When Things Go Viral
BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti talks about how an e-mail exchange with Nike led to his idea for promoting social content across the Web. Watch video
