It’s inconvenient that, most of the time, small-business research releases are pretty random and don’t fall neatly into thematic boxes on a monthly basis. September 2010 was no exception. But, if you held a gun to my head and forced me to name a theme for the month anyway, I’d say the major research releases were all about expectations — things that are (or are not) as good (or as bad) as we thought.

As I was working with a client to develop her social media strategy, she mentioned that she has realized that relationship building is really a business practice. This is someone who was under the misconception that networking is about gathering business cards. She didn’t realize that networking is really about building and maintaining relationships with other business people. As we got her more involved with LinkedIn, she started reconnecting with people she had lost contact with over time–and she was really enjoying the rediscovery. She started to understand the real value that relationships play in business.

Ford T. Smith is helping to bulldoze one of the most durable pillars of academic life: the semester.

An adjunct faculty member at Kentucky's Jefferson Community & Technical College, Mr. Smith teaches in an online program that lets students start class any day they want and finish at their own speed. One student, desperate to graduate, knocked off 113 quizzes and six writing assignments for a humanities course in 46 sleepless hours.

But there is a downside to this convenience, and it's deeper than bleary eyes. The open format of Jefferson's program, called Learn Anytime, means students don't move through classes in groups. None of Mr. Smith's 400 online students will have a discussion or do a group project with classmates.

Today's Globe column collects advice from local investors and entrepreneurs about raising money — specifically for first-time founders.

People shared far more insight with me than could fit into the printed column, so I'm posting some "bonus material" here.

- David Beisel, Founder, Web Innovators Group; partner, NextView Ventures

The one piece of advice I most often share with entrepreneurs fundraising is: tell a story. Even the most analytically-driven investor will ultimately base his decision on an emotional connection to the vision of the company. Fundraising shouldn't be just telling the what and how of the endeavor, but also the why. Of course all of the fundamentals must be in place for the company to succeed; but the deeper a narrative is intertwined in the pitch, the more likely an investor will become excited about the human element which is inherent in every startup.

The Great Mosque of Cordoba in Spain is the inspiration for the grand, domed entrance to the American University in Cairo’s new campus. Its architects wanted to symbolise the height of intellectual and mathematical achievement in Islamic civilisation.

But this new $400m, 260-acre oasis of sandstone, mashrabiya window screens and malqaf windcatchers in the 40-degree heat is also a hot spot of western credo: entrepreneurship.

An hour’s drive east of Cairo’s gridlocked streets, the Cairo desert campus is one of the first nodes in a network of universities and business schools that the US government is using to support and educate entrepreneurs in Egypt and other Muslim-majority countries.

In any debate, it is easy to revert to anecdote and highlight examples that exemplify one point of view. Recent TechCrunch posts about women in tech have done just that. The latest of these claimed that women don’t want to run startups, because they’d rather have children. I can understand why: TechCrunch and its editors focus on the Silicon Valley/Web 2.0 world.  In this world, most startups—or at least those that get attention— are founded by young white males; aggression and arrogance are considered positive traits; companies need to be grown very fast—even recklessly—because markets change rapidly; and venture capitalists pay promising students to drop out of school to start companies that will likely fail and wreck their careers. So if you’re debating this tiny slice of the tech universe, it is fair to say that women and minorities can’t—or don’t want to—compete. But this isn’t representative of the larger tech world; and it certainly isn’t representative of American industry.

We often see advertising posters around us where companies are trying their best to inform the public about themselves. If you take a closer look, some of these advertisement are actually pretty unique and interesting. Here is the list of my favorites.

The first step towards an African culture of science is to make science relevant to local people, says development expert Oyeniyi Akande.

For science and technology to contribute to development goals, countries must embrace a 'science culture' — a scientifically enlightened society where research findings can be better and more efficiently used to produce goods and services.

A science culture reflects the practice of applying science to daily life and developing a strong commitment among the public to engage with science. It is achieved, for example, when people adopt better hygiene and sanitation to improve their health, go to hospitals for treatment when they are sick, and grow improved crop species to increase food security in their community.

 Richard Bendis, fundador e presidente executivo da Innovation America, defende que “Portugal deve concentrar esforços em clusters em que é competitivo”. Para este consultor norte-americano, que proferiu uma conferência na cimeira da COTEC — Associação Empresarial para a Inovação realizada esta semana no Porto, Portugal deve melhorar a imagem de país inovador no estrangeiro.

A reader asks:  I’m a first-time entrepreneur, and I’ve been working on a new e-commerce site for about six months.  I outsourced the development work, but now I’m thinking it would be better to bring on a technical co-founder to handle those duties.  What do I need to watch out for?

Answer: Picking the right co-founder(s) is arguably the most important step you can take in starting your business. But the decision isn’t always an easy one. Keeping in mind that I’m an attorney – and have a different perspective than, say, a serial entrepreneur – here are four of the most common mistakes I’ve seen:

Jumping in too fast - Ideally, your co-founder should be someone you know really well and whom you trust. At the very least, it should be someone you are confident that will be in the trenches with you fighting it out when the going gets tough.

Rejoice, interns! Fetching that venti vanilla soy milk latte with whip cream for your ungrateful boss just got a tad bit easier thanks to new innovative cup holder design.

Entrepreneurship is vital to the Chinese and Indian economies, just as it is with the economies of the United States, UK, Germany, or indeed any of the other leading global powers. Yet while many recognise the valuable work of entrepreneurs in the economy and society at large, little is known about what entrepreneurs actually think. What excites them? Who inspires them? Who do they turn to when they need advice? Two surveys published today by the Legatum Institute shed light on these and many other questions, with both aiming to get ‘inside’ the minds of the entrepreneurial class in two of the world’s most exciting, dynamic, and fastest growing economies in the world.

Optimism

The surveys find that both Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs are full of optimism about the future trajectory of their respective countries. In India, 60 percent of respondents stated they believed their country was headed in the ‘right direction’ (although this was down from 84 percent in 2009), while in China this figure was even higher at 75 percent. In addition, 81 percent of entrepreneurs in both countries said they believed that their country will be a stronger economic power in the next five years. Interestingly, given the current economic conditions, a notable finding among Chinese entrepreneurs was that 64 percent expect their own businesses to grow by 10 percent or more over the next year.

I love meeting and spending time with interesting entrepreneurs.

It’s especially fun to be around those who have achieved great success as I personally feed off that type of energy and it gives me something to strive for.

One of the things I recommend others to do is to connect other people in their network to help them grow their businesses or achieve their goals.  I find it satisfying making introductions and actually seeing others succeed because of it.

This past week I was in Vegas speaking at the Perfect Business Summit (some top speakers and entrepreneurs from all over the world attended) and I got to meet some great new people but also hang out with some good friends.

Lazy. Entitled. Fickle. Freighted with their own inscrutable agendas. These are the kinds of things people say about cats -- and millennials. For today's managers, the generation born after 1980 is a favorite punching bag.

It's not hard to see why, given that they're the generation of Lindsay Lohan, Jersey Shore, and flip-flops as appropriate office footwear. While it's obviously silly to stereotype an entire generation, whether you're Tom Brokaw or me, so many people have spent so much time criticizing the millennials that I think it's time an old lady stuck up for them. I want to be clear: I'm not doing it because I'm a cougar. I am vouching for them because I see their strengths every day in the Do Something office; all but two of our 21 full-time staff are millennials. The very same characteristics that are frequently maligned are the very qualities that make millennials awesome employees. The trick, of course, is to know how to exploit them.

It is becoming harder and harder to predict what factors will drive the success of a new product or service, as consumers face more and more choices these days. Success is contingent upon more than just engineering-driven features and functions, new product bells and whistles, or a creative campaign. Ultimately, none of these factors by themselves ensure market success because they cannot predict consumer behavior or reaction. Despite a sense of short term achievement and perhaps stimulating initial consumer interest, they fail to deliver long term brand loyalty.

Instead, successful products and services identify and understand our deeply seated natural tendencies and the ways in which they can be used to change our behavior. By leveraging game-like mechanisms to satisfy these needs and tendencies, we can create behavioral change across a broad spectrum of pressing issues, from healthcare and finances to philanthropy and conservation. Games engage consumers and build value around products and services, creating a powerful competitive advantage.

Last week, I had the amazing fortune to have been invited back as a featured blogger at the World Business Forum at Radio City Hall in NYC.

The speakers were world class, including people like Charlene Li, Jim Collins, Al Gore, Jack Welch, Steve Levitt, Nando Parrado, James Freakin’ Cameron, Martin Lindstrom. All were charged with not only holding the attention of, but mesmerizing the audience of 5,000 CEOs and top-level business leaders from around the world.

The content was, for the most part, fabulous (which I rarely say coming away from a conference), but the real gift for me was the chance to absorb how the best real-content (not schtick-fest buy-my-stuff hawkers) presenters own a stage and inspire an audience the size of Radio City.

Richard Bendis, Chairman e CEO da Inovvation America, acha que os europeus ainda têm de vencer algumas resistências para investirem na inovação. E, afirma, a dimensão de Portugal é a mais adequada para seguir os preceitos da inovação.

Que importância tem a inova- ção para um pequeno país como Portugal?
É especialmente importante. Os pequenos países, mais do que os grandes, têm a capacidade de reagir mais rapidamente. É mais fácil mudar dez milhões de pes- soas em vez de 300 milhões es- palhados por 50 estados, como nos EUA e ter um sistema de inovação efectivo. Mas essa não é a tradição da Europa: está ha- bituada a ter paciência e as suas decisões são muito políticas.

Como explica a inovação? É uma boa ideia, um sistema ou um modo de vida?
É isso tudo junto. É uma forma de fazer as coisas mais eficaz- mente, uma forma de colabora- ção – que pode ser incorporada na vida de toda a gente e não apenas nas elites ou em quem trabalha nas tecnologias.

A Europa perdeu para a Améri- ca em termos de inovação?
A inovação é global. A Europa está a dar passos no sentido cer- to. Começou na América? Não tenho a certeza: vocês [euro-peus] tiveram o Leonardo da Vinci e o Miguel Ângelo. A dife- rença actual entre os EUA e a Europa existe ao nível do em- preendedorismo, dos empresá- rios inovadores. E da aceitação do risco de falhar, que não exis- te na Europa.

Mas há um papel para os gover- nos?
Claro. Os governos devem esti- mular a envolvente. Mas a ino- vação não deve ser controlada: é o campo dos privados, dos em- preendedores, das PME, são eles que devem liderar a inovação. Por isso, os governos devem criar os instrumentos e sai do caminho.

On April 21, 2010, Fast Company magazine sponsored a conference called Innovation Uncensored. Nike president and CEO Mark Parker was one of the featured speakers. Parker told the story of what transpired when, shortly after he became CEO, he got a call from Steve Jobs.

"Do you have any advice?" Parker asked Jobs.

"Well, just one thing," said Jobs. "Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. Absolutely beautiful, stunning products. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff."

Parker told his audience, "I expected a little pause and a laugh. There was a pause but no laugh. He was absolutely right. We have to edit."