There’s an old notion that the people who got the richest during the gold rush weren’t the pan handlers, they were the people selling the shovels, picks, and other equipment. So it goes to reason that people that come up with a good business model tailored to people who need assistance in finding their riches are also going to get wealthy.
The national economy is at the point of diminishing corporate jobs. The unemployment rate is rising quickly. And people have to pick a path. One route to take is government employment. Each level is hiring, especially the Federal Government. Another route to take is starting your own business. There are many underserved markets during tough economic times and people who see opportunity can quickly get their footing.
So if you combine the first two paragraphs you get plenty of entrepreneur opportunities. One that I really like is Startup Weekend. The concept is to bring people who want a crash course in starting their own internet related business in over a long weekend and provide them the opportunity to learn from the experience. CNN.com did a story on it called How to launch a tech company in one weekend by Curt Merrill. Here are some excerpts:
Twitpay was one of several projects in development at Startup
Weekend, held November 7-9 in Atlanta, Georgia. The event brought
together more than 100 programmers, marketers and designers who tried
to create new companies from scratch in less than three days.“The actual building of the product was about 80 to 90 percent done at Startup Weekend,” Brown said.
The process began Friday evening when more than 100 entrepreneurs
gathered to pitch their ideas. Organizer Lance Weatherby said about 60
ideas were presented. After a series of votes, eight or nine projects
were selected, and the attendees split into groups to work on the ones
they were most excited about.The Atlanta event was the 25th
Startup Weekend since the concept was created in Boulder, Colorado, in
July 2007. Startup Weekends have been held across the U.S. and in a few
cities in Canada and Europe. Past weekends have produced such companies
as Market Monitor, a search engine optimization tool, and iDream, an
online collection of dreams and dream interpretations.
When you consider the down economy, every excited customer is like gold
“I’d absolutely sign up again,” Gebert said. “I got to meet some great people.”
Stobbs said that’s the point of Startup Weekend.
“The projects are a great byproduct, but our goal is to push community,” he said.
George Junginger, of Raleigh, North Carolina, has been to four Startup
Weekend events and said he’s still in touch with people he met at the
first one he attended.“You work like crazy for 54 hours, but it’s actually way more than that,” he said. “It doesn’t end when the weekend ends.”
Working Thoughts 