There may be only one day a year devoted to giving thanks. But expressing thanks regularly -- year round -- and doing it well is one of the most profitable business strategies you can have. Study after study reveals that when you say "Thank you" to your customers, they both spend more money and tell their friends about the exceptional service and ...

As young entrepreneurs it’s important that we keep swinging for the fences. Super successful investors like Ron Conway say they’d rather invest in an 18 year old Mark Zuckerberg than a 31 year old seasoned entrepreneur because the young Sean Parker types truly think the sky is the limit.  We’re going to carry that mentality into the interviews that we conduct on the site. Introducing our Top 100 Entrepreneu ...

Jay-Z grew up splitting his time between peddling cocaine and rapping in his native Brooklyn. But by the time hip hop had grown into a popular musical genre — and a powerful economic force — he had solidified his position as one of its pioneers. In his book, “Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from the Street Corner to the Corner Office,” author Zack O’Malley Greenburg traces Jay-Z’s success at amassing w ...

I wasn’t always a Jay-Z fan. In fact, I would say that I was one of the late passengers to hop on the Jay-Z train. While many of my friends were listening to the likes of Jay-Z and Biggie on their walkmen, my mixtape consisted of Mase and Will Smith. Then one day, I think it was about two or three years after the release of Reasonable Doubt. A friend of mine gave me a cassette version of the album. I’ve ...

Benjamin Franklin, unlike many of our founding fathers, didn't come from an aristocratic family. In fact his journey from teenage runaway to wealthy printer is the epitome of bootstrapping a business. As John Paul Rollert points out over at the Harvard Business Review, Franklin took a very structured approach to to success. While he was still in his early 20s and just beginning to run his own print shop, Fr ...