So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur?

So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur?
Wall Street Journal Feb 23, 2008

Thinking about starting a business? Make sure you’re cut out for it first. We spoke with entrepreneurship researchers, academics and psychologists to come up with a list of questions you should ask yourself before making a big leap.

This special report from the Wall Street Journal contains a group of articles on the issues of becoming an entrepreneur.

Readings

Some additional readings:

Blue Ocean Strategy

The Long Tail

- the above link is to the article version of this title.  For the book you will need to come to the library and use the copy we have on reserve.

Welcome to the ENTR 200 Resource page

This site provides information to support your work in ENTR 200. Browse the topics on the right for links to relevant resources and databases.

Geared mostly for developing a business plan, these resources are also valuable for developing a stronger comprehensive concept statement.

Seek further assistance from the Management & Economics Library kranlib@purdue.edu or at www.lib.purdue.edu/mel

- MEL

Components for Developing a Business Plan: Consumer spending habits

The book Who’s Buying… contains consumer buying trends on specific product categories including: Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, entertainment, groceries, household furnishings, and several others.

The Consumer Expenditure Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics consists of two surveys collected for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Census Bureau — the quarterly Interview survey and the Diary survey — that provide information on the buying habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics.

Choices III is a massive survey conducted by Simmons Media & Markets. It is a study of consumer buying and media viewing habits. Choices III provides a significant level of flexibility in finding patterns and cross-matching different survey elements.  Data is from their 2003 survey. Choices III is available in the Management & Economics Library.

MediaMark is similar to Choices III and presents data on consumer buying and viewing habits.  It provides more prepackaged reports than Choices III.

Sustained Competitive Advantage

Is a competitive advantage sustainable?

- Unfair competitive advantages don’t exist on the web

- Sustainable Competitive Advantage Portal

- Examination of Sustainable Competitive Advantage

- Sustainable Competitive Advantage: Fool.com

Competitive Advantage

When a firm sustains profits that exceed the average for its industry, the firm is said to possess a competitive advantage over its rivals. The goal of much of business strategy is to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

Read more about Competitive Advantage –>

Relevant articles on Web 2.0

Web 2.0 Amateur Entrepreneurs: Failure to Succeed

In New Net Economy, Everyone Gets to Be Stupid for 15 Minutes
(Wall Street Journal article available from ABI/Inform Global database)

Reply All: Is ‘Web 2.0‘ Another Bubble?
(Wall Street Journal article available from ABI/Inform Global database)