When you think about Africa, foreign kids traveling to the continent to learn how to code isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Well, this didn’t stop Aaron Fuchs and his team from setting up a business doing exactly that. In fact, this focus has given them an advantage. Not only does summer tech academy iXperience have the advantage of earning dollars while running a business in rands, it’s also found the ability to blend world-class educational product with a cherished novelty — Cape Town, South Africa.

A lot more people fantasize about starting a successful business than actually do it. And there’s good reason for that: the numbers. While they vary from one expert to another, the underlying figures tell us that a lot of small businesses fail – many within the first 18 months. So before you set yourself up for failure, what advice do you need to determine whether becoming an entrepreneur is what you really want in 2015?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or on a deserted island in the last few years, you’ve probably heard of crowdfunding. This new collaboration economy has allowed people to raise hundreds, thousands, even millions of dollars to turn dreams into realities. The 2013 Crowdfunding Industry Report by Massolution revealed the crowdfunding industry raised $2.7 billion in 2012, across more than 1 million individual campaigns globally. What's more, it's estimated that crowdfunding put $65 billion into the economy in 2014, according to crowdfunding platform Fundable.

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal. In reality, it is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of the business and the team.

Some entrepreneurs spend months trying to raise more money than they actually need to achieve proof of concept. Many get stuck on the grand vision of their company's future instead of deploying the resources and assets at their disposal. I call this entrepreneurial brain freeze.

The tech world is abuzz with interesting possibilities for the Internet of Things (IoT) lately, but regular folks haven’t caught up yet. Why the enthusiasm gap? That’s the question that Affinnova, a Nielsen company, set out to answer in a recent study of nearly 4,000 consumers.

2014 was a huge year for venture capital — actually, it was its biggest since 2000.

More specifically, venture capitalist invested $48.3 billion into 4,356 deals last year, a 61 percent increase in dollars and a 4 percent increase in the number of deals from 2013, according to latest MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data from Thomson Reuters. This was also the first year in the report’s history during which two deals exceeded $1 billion each.

Many experts are certain that successful entrepreneurs are the ones with the most inspiration (passion and dream), while others will assert that it’s about more perspiration (working harder). In my experience, both are always required in heavy doses. There are no “can’t fail” shortcuts or “get rich quick” scenarios.

Diabetics engage in a painful ritual every day, often several times: pricking their fingers with a spring-loaded needle to test the glucose in their blood. But that ritual could soon be put to rest, and replaced by a small patch designed to extract and measure blood-sugar levels. Flexible, easy to apply, and inconspicuous, the next-generation wearable is a promising step toward noninvasive monitoring of diabetes, a disease that affects 29.1 million people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control. 

Image: Source - University of California, San Diego 

If you haven’t read ”He’s Just Not That Into You”, it can be summed up in a sentence: If he isn’t calling you, asking you out, sleeping with you, or otherwise treating you like he really cares, he’s just not that into you. This of course means you should move on. This pretty much summarizes the stance the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seems to have taken with Small Business. And that’s why Congress should carve out a new capital markets agency dedicated exclusively to the currently unmet needs of America’s job creators: small businesses.

Image: Mark Cuban does not like what he sees here. Image Credit: Keith Allison/Flickr 

For all businesses, getting a customer is tough. It can be tougher when you are a small business. It can be even tougher when your very right to own and run a business to get that customer is also challenged. While it may seem unthinkable, there are businesses today that are blocked, threatened, or harassed just for existing. Special interest groups and associations who have a vested interest in keeping their members happy and everyone else out. 

Freelancing has become a major trend in the small business world over the last few years. And it doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. While more businesses are realizing the benefits of employing freelance workers, more individuals are finding contract work to either supplement or replace their traditional jobs.

These smaller companies seem more able to adapt and adopt new technologies nimbly to meet changing landscapes. Janssen Pharmaceuticals is meeting the challenge by adopting a small venture discovery model, the Janssen Incubator (JI).

Image: http://www.lifescienceleader.com/ 

Nothing changed my ingrained money habits until after I left my corporate job for entrepreneurship. Not the money snowball, not the spare change savings plan, and not the frozen credit card trick.

In spite of my failed efforts to save more than I spent, the first month that chunk of change didn't land automatically in my bank account, my money sense made a very dramatic pirouette to stage left.

Time is perhaps the rarest and most coveted asset an entrepreneur has in their life. The time to read is a crucial but often challenging feat to tackle on every entrepreneur’s to-do list. So when you take the time out of your hectic day to actually read a book, you want to make sure it’s great and worth that time allocation in your schedule.

In case the “imaginary meal” approach to burning fat doesn’t work, now there’s a backup.

Monash University researchers have discovered that two naturally occurring hormones stimulate neurons in the brain’s hypothalamus, causing them to send signals through the nervous system that promote the conversion of white fat into brown fat. This leads to burning off excess fat.

Image: Monash University 

With all signs pointing to real positive movement in the U.S. economy, it’s not surprising that the The 2015 CareerBuilder U.S. Job Forecast has some good news for Americans seeking jobs or raises. In 2014, the study reports, hiring increased broadly, and that trend is likely to be even more pronounced this year. What does it mean for small business owners?

AOL founder Steve Case predicted last January that the region east of the Mississippi River would raise more venture capital than Silicon Valley in 2014. And the winner is … Silicon Valley. By a friggin' landslide.

There is a wealth of valuable knowledge out there that can help you over hurdles and through the darkest days as a small business owner. More entrepreneurs should consider taking time out and asking advice.

Eleven years ago, I invited eight entrepreneurs to a dinner where we spoke frankly about the challenges we were facing in our various ventures. The discussions were so fruitful that we met again a month later, and again a month after that.

Image: Duncan Cheatle speaking at The Supper Club. Photograph: PR 

You may have heard the old saw, “great ideas sell themselves.”

After all, look at Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak working in the family garage, funding their fledgling company by selling a used Volkswagen bus and a scientific calculator. That story is legendary, but unfortunately it’s also the exception. Today, turning a brilliant idea into a market-ready product or process requires venture capital, legal advice, startup mentors, sophisticated business acumen and collaborative workspace.