Entrepreneur

“Six months after I cofounded a small activewear brand, [e-commerce site] Carbon38 placed an order with us. This was a dream come true, so even though I was unsure we could execute on their timeline, I went for it. As a result, we didn’t let our fabr

I have built two companies and am now growing my third, Hark Audio. Often, people wonder how serial entrepreneurs like me continually come up with new ideas, and my answer is this: Starting a business doesn’t always mean starting from scratch. If you

The company Parting Stone offers a novel service: It turns the ashes of deceased humans and animals into pretty little stones—like river rocks. And when Justin Crowe founded Parting Stone in 2019, it seemed obvious who his first customers should be.

Some entrepreneurs live by a kind of oral tradition. They think out loud and share ideas with colleagues but rarely write them down—for themselves, or for others. “That’s sort of stupid,” says Ray Dalio. As the founder of Bridgewater Associates, wher

Water is the basis of life: It grows plants, it constitutes up to 60 percent of the adult human body, and we can’t go longer than about three days without drinking it. So Liquid Death is probably the last thing you’d think to name a water brand. That

Business leaders are often fascinated by military tactics, and with understandable reason: They see themselves as waging battle against challenging incumbents and evading minefields in the marketplace. But there is a radically different, equally impo

Q Trends are always changing. Which one would you bet on the next few years to help small businesses grow? —LEANNA, CHARLESTON, S.C. AT FIRST GLANCE, trends look like great opportunities. A wave built by many is capable of carrying many to success. B

REPEAT AFTER ME: “I will do the best work with the resources available.” This has become my mantra. It isn’t sexy. It doesn’t make for a great motivational poster. But it is true and honest, and I think of it often. It’s also what I repeat every time

In the previous story, we told you about the forecasting company Good Judgment and its worldwide team of superforecasters. Now it’s time to put them to the test. Their crystal ball is pretty fancy, based on science and a system that has helped them o

JUST OVER A YEAR AGO, Daniella Pierson took a deep breath and clicked on a Zoom link. The 25-year-old still couldn’t quite believe who she was about to interview—much less on something as intimate as mental health. But when the other windows popped u

Shawn Shariff’s journey is like a page out of the American Dream playbook. He immigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan in the ’80s, and at age 18 he got a minimum wage job at KFC. He worked there for four years before making his way into the insurance in

Before January 1, 2022, will the United States Olympic Committee announce that it is boycotting the 2022 Olympics? I am in a virtual workshop that will test my abilities to forecast the future, and I have 10 seconds to answer. I’m scanning my brain.

When I look at small, private businesses,” says Jim Cramer, “I love to hear expansion plans. It is so exciting to me to hear expansion plans.” He believes the future will be full of expansion. Cramer sees business from all sides—as the host of CNBC’s

In 2017, reporters Anne Helen Petersen and Charlie Warzel moved from New York City to Missoula, Mont., and started asking some existential questions. The couple—who both wrote for BuzzFeed at the time—were working from home and began to feel like som

When you’re in the business of caring for others, nothing beats having Mother Teresa on your résumé. Kiran Yocom has just that; she worked with the sainted nun for more than a decade in India, and Yocom’s commitment to serving others continued when s

Today, employers face hiring challenges at every level. The U.S. government reported a recorded high of 10.9 million job openings in July, and the National Federation of Independent Business said 51 percent of small-business owners were still struggl

It’s been a wild year for franchising. Some categories reinvented themselves in the earlier days of the pandemic, like tutoring, when it moved from in-home to virtual. Others experienced a massive boom once vaccines rolled out and people began resumi

Every December, we at Entrepreneur put on our prognosticators’ hats and try to forecast which types of franchises will do best in the year ahead. We look at growth—both in the number of franchise units and in the number of new franchisors in a catego

I graduated from college in the early ’90s with a major in Italian literature and no clue how I was going to make a living. I struggled to find my footing in a new city, on a new coast, working a variety of jobs, always looking for my “real” career.