Children Having Children
There's a wave of company builders who are starting businesses when they're barely out of college, even high school. It's hard to quantify the phenomenon;... Read more
Writing a Business Plan
Recent Writing a Business Plan Articles
Take the Plunge and Reach the Heights
Novice thrill seekers may point to the ups and downs of the stock market, but the true aficionado knows that for all-out anxiety-provoking, gut-wrenching,... Read more
From Employee to Entrepreneur
When I graduated from Rutgers University in 1985 with a degree in electrical engineering, I immediately did what came naturally back then: I joined a larg... Read more
The Best Business Plan on the Planet
Go behind the scenes with one of the judges at Moot Corp., a world-renowned business-plan contest hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. Read more
Loose Lips Sink You
Even casual public chit-chat among employees can give competitors confidential information about your business. Here's what you need to know to keep your com... Read more
Who Can Help Out with a Business Plan?
Without a credible business plan, an entrepreneur has little hope of landing capital. Here's what investors will want to see in your plan, and where you can ... Read more
The Exit Strategy: Cashing Out and Other Premeditated Escapes
It was probably Jehovah who conceived the first one, and then some time later he charged Moseswith its execution. Churchill had one at Dunkirk. Westmorela... Read more
A Birth Legend We Love
Inc.'s executive editor tells both the official and unofficial story of why Bernie Goldhirsh decided to launch our small-business magazine 20 years ago. Read more
It Was 20 Years Ago Today
A look at the cultural, economic, and political climate during 1979, the year that Inc. was founded, and the entrepreneurs and trends that shaped business ov... Read more
The Entrepreneur in My Bed
A veteran business writer confronts the metamorphic power of company building as his wife starts her own career- and leadership-development business. Read more
The True and Only Heaven
Sometimes entrepreneurship can transform an entire geographic region. Here's how Seattle has changed since the rise of Microsoft, Starbucks, and other hot Pa... Read more
Founder King
Apple Computer made Steve Jobs famous, but it was how he started it that made him a legend. Read more
The Quotable Entreprenuer: Andrew Sather
"I call it virus marketing ... when you find out about one company through the layers of another company's Web site." --Andrew Sather, CEO of A... Read more
Business 101: Capitalization Plans
Guidlines for projecting your company's capital needs Some business owners conduct their capital searches along the philosop... Read more
The Just-Right Business Plan
Business planning is a favorite subject of mine. In the seven years since founding Net Daemons Associates, I've learned a lot about planning. In the same ... Read more
Honest Expectations
"The problem with many small companies' business plans is that they don't actually meet their projections." -- Fred Marcusa... Read more
A Business Plan with Heart
A decade ago, when I was employed as a chartered surveyor for a major British insurance company, I realized that I was doing something that was making my ... Read more
Think Before You Do: Building a Business Plan
Entrepreneurs are natural doers rather than thinkers, but perhaps we were different. In 1996, nearly a year before we launched Executive Options, our care... Read more
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Start-Ups
Inc. 's editor lists seven characteristics of start-up companies that increase their chances of survival. Plus, a look at the types of experts most l... Read more
The Melted Pot
Not long ago, Chamblee, Georgia gained notoriety as a city seeking to keep immigrants out of the area. Today, immigrant-owned businesses have revived Chamble... Read more
Revenge of the Old Rules
Inc.'s editor explains why the mistakes smart people make can teach us old lessons about the new economy; plus, how today's organizational charts reveal that... Read more
I Was Seduced by the New Economy
Throughout the 1990s, pundits proclaimed that the traditional rules of business had changed. Here are seven myths of the new economy that smart CEOs fell vic... Read more
Corporate Universities for Small Companies
Corporate universities are no longer just a big-company phenomenon. Small companies can use in-house training programs to improve recruitment, increase reven... Read more
The Smartest Little Company in America
To pinpoint elusive business trends among eclectic, nonquantitative sources of data, CEO Duncan Highsmith depends on a powerful knowledge-management tool--hi... Read more
What's Hot: Business Plans
A guide to books and Web sites that can help you write a top-notch business plan. Resources include ways to make your business plan captivating and a list of... Read more
The Money Trail
In much of the northern U.S., a hidden, lush economy thrives along thousands of miles of snowmobile trails. Here's how this winterland boom began and what th... Read more
CEO's Notebook
CEOs give advice on: hiring a mentor; securing a line of credit with letters of reference; passing out praise with paychecks; speeding up government collecti... Read more
Upstarts: Rookie Venture Capital
A look at how three businessmen with no venture capital experience started Redleaf Venture Management. Plus, several shorter articles about why so many green... Read more
Inc. 500 Index
The fastest-growing private companies in America in 1998, listed alphabetically. Read more
Hot Tip: Competitive Hiring
In a tight labor market, it pays to consider where résumés come from. Consider a passing comment that came with a curriculu... Read more
Market Research on the Cheap
Last year Pete Slosberg, founder of Pete's Brewing Co., in Palo Alto, Calif., and the author of Beer for Pete's Sake: The Wicked Adventures of a Brewi... Read more
Outsmarting the Competition
The competition's tough! Increasing sales and market share often means beating the competition to the punch. Take advantage of those times when the compet... Read more
Spies Like Us
An interview with Tom Stemberg, CEO and chairman of Staples, Inc. Stemberg describes the industry information he gathers by playing mystery shopper at his co... Read more
