The Realities of Crowdfunding: Building Relationships During Struggles and Success

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Taking on the large task of pursuing your business goals by yourself and with crowdfunders is difficult, but rewarding for both parties. In the end, crowdfunding is all about building real relationships-and showing gratitude in success or in failure.

Planning For A Customer’s Bad Day

CustomerBadDay

With enough bad experiences, even small ones, you can cause a customer to “quit.” And that’s the catch with running a business. You never know when someone has reached the tipping point.

The Power of Connection: Maintaining Valuable Relationships (Part 3)

The Power of Connection (Part 3)

This series started with a discussion about where to find good connections and how to build your relationships. Here, Erica Holthausen will give you a few tips for how to maintain those relationships.

14 Online HR Tools to Manage Employees Much Better

Freckle -- www.letsfreckle.com

Members of the Young Entrepreneur Council share their recommended web tools for people management. Come share your favorites, too!

15 Basic Tech Skills All Entrepreneurs Should Adopt Early

doreen-bloch

What is ONE baseline tech skill should all entrepreneurs have a good handle on before starting up?

Worth Your Investment: Business Software for Microbusinesses on a Budget

Up Shift

Podio, MailChimp, Highrise, Google Apps, Quickbooks, GoToMeeting and more — learn what software YEC members recommend for microbusinesses on a budget.

Gender in Social Media

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How does gender balance affect the way your business uses social media? …or does it?

Do You iFast?

iFast

For the last couple of years I’ve been reading about iFasts. The idea that for a full month you simply walk away from social media. Blogging. Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn. (Do you feel anxious yet?) But I’ve never been able to commit to it…

The Dangers & Opportunities of Social Media

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Many social media users simply don’t understand their privacy options — or the privacy policy they agreed to when they signed up for a particular service. (This is certainly a candidate for simplifying legal jargon, as previously discussed.) Facebook is notorious for its complex and confusing privacy controls, for instance.

Paying for Privacy

Silent Circle

Silent Circle is an encrypted phone call application for iOS and Android, and its creator’s comment on pricing the service at $20/month caught my attention. Phil Zimmermann: “This is not Facebook. Our customers are customers. They’re not products. They’re not part of the inventory” (CNet).