Success Stories

Recent Success Stories Articles

How We Turned a Wedding in a Baseball Stadium Into an Ad Firm

Dave and Carrie Kerpen were inspired to start events and marketing firm Likeable Media after they got sponsors to fund their wedding.  Read more

Why I Stopped Firing Everyone and Started Being a Better Boss

Indigo Johnson, CEO of Careers in Transition, fired her employees on a regular basis until she started focusing on their strengths instead of their weaknesses.  Read more

Still Growing, Still Independent, Still Happy

Life After the Inc. 500: Elizabeth Elting has grown Transperfect Translations by over 30 percent annually since 2000 without a dime of outside funds--and she...  Read more

How Effective CEOs Spend Their Time

After more than seven years of training CEOs, Jim Schleckser explains what separates the most effective business leaders from their weaker peers.  Read more

MicroTech: The Latest Inc. 500 Hall of Famer

Tony Jimenez, CEO and founder of IT-services company MicroTech, talks about the road from military service to running a tech company--where he sometimes hang...  Read more

3 Free Apps to Enhance Your Inner Creative Genius

Give your presentations, documents or Web pages a little creative oomph with these three free business tools.  Read more

Why Cheerleaders Make the Best Employees

Heidi Sweeney of Slate Rock Safety hired a team full of cheerleaders for her uniform company.  Read more

Reading Rainbow's Digital Future

When PBS canceled LeVar Burton's show, he set out to revolutionize education for kids.  Read more

Politicians Who Really Understand Business

Meet four of the entrepreneurs applying their small-business skills to the campaign trail as they run for Congress.  Read more

No Succession Plan & an Uncertain Legacy

Life After the Inc. 500: An untimely death and no succession plan left Michelle Taylor at the helm of her mother's company, Betah Associates, with no oars.  Read more

Top Female CEOs of the 2012 Inc. 500

Of the 500 companies on this list, women lead just 10% of them. But the most successful among are in industries as diverse as consulting, private jets, and IT.  View slideshow

Shaking Up the Healthy Foods Category, Again

Life After the Inc. 500: Former WhiteWave CEO, Steve Demos, is back at it, taking his upstart Nextfoods to new levels of growth--this time with a touch more ...  Read more

U.S. Start-up Harnesses Tidal Power

With interest in solar and wind power waning, can Ocean Renewable Power Company make tidal energy the next big thing?  Read more

Fundraising Saga of a Desperate Entrepreneur - Part 3

In the third part of this launch story, Shazi Visram, founder and CEO of HappyFamily, struggles with personal situations while trying to grow her company.  Read more

Secret: Your Age Doesn't Matter

Hey, baby face. Think you're being judged? You're not. In fact, you may be at an advantage when starting a business.  Read more

If Men Are From Mars, Then Women Are Too

In business there is so much disparity between women and men, from leadership roles to compensation, but new research proves that our brains work nearly the ...  Read more

10 Secrets of Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur

There is a myth that entrepreneurial success is all about innovative thinking and breakthrough ideas. Here's what success truly means.  Read more

Talk to Your Customers; You Might Learn Something

CEOs need to put themselves out there to see what their customers are saying. And the best way is to communicate with them directly.  Read more

Inspire Olympic-Size Team Spirit in Your Employees

Creating a real team-oriented approach, where everyone is rooting for the same thing, is crucial to any company.  Read more

5 Entrepreneurship Lessons From Obama and Romney

What can entrepreneurs learn from the backgrounds of the two men running for the highest office in the land?  Read more

5 Reasons to Build an In-House Creative Team

It's tempting to take creative responsibilities off your shoulders and hand it over to an agency, especially when you're growing. Here's why I decided to bui...  Read more

5 Signs That You're an Entrepreneur at Heart

You might be surprised how many "entrepreneurs" are not at the helm of a growing business but rather are among the employees helping to build it.  Read more

Entrepreneurship Education for the Jobless

A nonprofit is helping transform the unemployed into entrepreneurs through simple but effective training. File that under both 'good deeds' and 'smart econom...  Read more

Make Money & Make the World Better (& What It Has to Do With Your Brain)

When you do something altruistic, your brain releases a squirt of the neurotransmitter Dopamine, and you feel good.  Read more

When Do You Need an HR Specialist?

If HR-related issues are getting in the way of running your business, then it's probably time to bring in an expert.  Read more

Eric Ripert on How to Build a Classic Brand

Le Bernardin restaurant has received four stars 26 years in a row. The head chef explains what it takes for a brand to never go out of style.  Read more

Richard Branson's Advice to a (Very) Young Entrepreneur

The Virgin Group founder offers advice to a kid, and it's advice that could help entrepreneurs of all ages.  Read more

How to Build a Brilliant New Venture

Highly effective entrepreneurs like Zipcar founder Robin Chase tend to follow the same method. Here's a look at how it works.  Read more

Acquisition or Partnership? How to Decide

If you're thinking about forming a partnership or acquiring another business, these questions will make it easier to decide which option is best.  Read more

These 3 Questions Will Help You Close

Understanding the needs of your prospects is paramount to closing a deal. Ask these three simple questions to get those critical insights.  Read more

Columbia University Launches Entrepreneurship Lab

After graduation, Columbia MBA students who are starting their own businesses will now have a new place to call home.  Read more

Traits of a Truly Entrepreneurial Mindset

E-Myth author Michael E. Gerber says that starting a business is like writing a book, because you must create a business that says something important...  Read more

How Jules Kroll Ignored Naysayers & Started a Rating Agency 

When credit rating agencies came under fire for their role in the 2008 financial crisis, Jules Kroll, the corporate-investigations pioneer, saw a business op...  Watch video

Surprising Way Female Entrepreneurs Are Left Out

A pair of number-crunching economists claim that women-owned small businesses are missing out on the revenue-boosting effects of shops clustering together.  Read more

Hidden Ways to Learn From Other People's MBAs

Should an entrepreneur get an MBA? That's up for debate. But your business could benefit from working with the best and brightest at business schools.  Read more