So you’ve decided your business or your next personal project needs some funding. You’ve got the ideas and the drive in place to make it happen, but all you need now is the money. One of the better approaches you can take, rather than taking out a bank loan, is to opt for crowdfunding.

When you’re setting up your crowdfunding page, whether that’s on a crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter, or even on your social media pages or website, the description, or pitch, that you’ll need to include could be the only form of communication you have with your readers, so you’ll need to make sure that it counts and gets people excited about your idea.

On my way back to Nigeria, after spending a few days on the streets of various counties collectively referred to as the Bay area, I had the chance to ask myself some deep questions.

When all is said and done, can this fast-paced, highly capitalist, egalitarian model where failure is celebrated and support is outstanding work in a country like Nigeria?

Lately, I've seen a lot of discussion around disruption vs. innovation. The question always arises: Are they the same?

I believe that disruption is simply the result of the rapid evolution of a business. The words disruption and innovation have become almost interchangeable ever since Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen coined the term "disruptive innovation" in the 1990s. It wasn't until recently that I took the time to consider the relationship and differences between disruption and innovation, and how each can affect or alter a company's path to success.

When Dropbox went public last week in the first major tech initial public offering of 2018, a number of people were thinking, “It’s about time.”

The company’s public debut was hotly anticipated in an environment where tech IPOs have not been common.

In recent years, a handful of high-profile unicorns were expected to go public but didn’t. Airbnb, Spotify, Palantir Technologies, Stripe, Pinterest and Uber Technologies, for example, have all been on “most anticipated IPOs” lists going back as far as 2014—if not longer.

Image: https://news.crunchbase.com

If you define your self-worth as an entrepreneur by how busy you are, it’s time to find another lifestyle. We all know people who are extraordinarily busy, but never seem to accomplish anything. For survival, entrepreneurs need to be all about accomplishing results that matter for themselves, their team, and their customers. That’s productivity.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Terry Rock has one of Calgary's more eclectic business resumes.

He's helped Alberta craft beer take off, taught business at the University of Calgary and sits on the board of the Sled Island indie music festival. Many know him as the founding CEO of the Calgary Arts Development Authority.

More diversity sought for agency overseeing $100M fund meant to 'reinvent' Calgary But the 49-year-old will need to draw on all that experience and then some as he takes over as boss of Calgary Technologies Inc., an organization devoted to guiding entrepreneurs through some of the most critical stages of their businesses' development.

Entrepreneurship centers are often expected to seed a crop of new student businesses. But their real value, two researchers suggest, may lie elsewhere.

During my time as a social entrepreneur, I've experienced failure and hardship. Many of us have. And even though there are moments we want to forget, I've grown to learn it's these experiences we should be holding onto and learning from.

Said by Greg Anderson, "Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it."

So whether your company is young or old, thriving or failing, here are a few things to be thankful for as you navigate your unique journey as a social entrepreneur:

When you join an organization, you have a short window of time to adapt to its culture. It’s the old 90-day rule. And we know too many talented individuals who have stumbled in their new company because they failed to read the cultural tea leaves. This happens because most organizations don’t explain the cultural rules to newcomers, and new hires are so focused on the job and the new boss that they overlook the rules’ profound influence. Yet understanding them plays a big role in your initial success. Being cognizant of not just what your colleagues do but how they work matters if you want to be effective and be perceived well.

We unpack some strategies that will help entrepreneurs attract venture capitalist investment

Most budding entrepreneurs cite lack of funding for their ventures as the biggest stumbling block to being business-owners.

Fortunately, venture capitalists and private equity investors are at hand to assist and walk side by side with entrepreneurs as they grow their businesses.

The US Small Business Administration (SBA), Office of Advocacy, is out with a report reviewing the status of small business crowdfunding. According to the SBA, equity crowdfunding was particularly popular among very young firms. Nearly a third of firms were six months or younger when initiating their securities crowdfunding offer, and 88% were five years or younger at the time of filing.

Image: https://www.crowdfundinsider.com

A couple of high school juniors from Billings, Montana, U.S., will be sneaking into neighborhood yards this Saturday night under the cloak of darkness to do some serious “egging.” Before you start envisioning trees draped with toilet paper and yolks dripping down windowpanes, this egging is quite innocent, and a budding business endeavor for two enterprising teens.

Disruptive times call for transformational leaders with a knack for addressing complex problems. To navigate effectively, we must learn to let go—and become more complex ourselves.

We live in an age of accelerating disruption. Every company is facing up to the profound changes wrought by digitization. Industry boundaries have become permeable. Data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence are changing the nature of forecasting, decision making, and the workplace itself.

Image: https://www.mckinsey.com

The most effective entrepreneurs know the secret to continued success is to never stop learning. Zach Sims gets this. As the founder of Codecademy, an education company that teaches users technical skills, including how to code, Sims is looking to help people take their career to the next level.

Sims founded Codecademy when he was just 20 years old and an undergrad at Columbia University in New York City. In 2011, he left school to pursue the business full time.

Image: https://www.entrepreneur.com

Many passionate entrepreneurs fight to add more features into their new products and services, assuming that more function will make the solution more appealing to more customers. In reality, more features will more likely make the product confusing and less usable to all. Focus is the art of limiting your scope to the key function that really matters for the majority of customers.

Half of Americans aren’t on track to generate enough income to cover essential expenses in retirement, according to a recent survey by Fidelity Investments.

Of course, that means that the other half is mostly on track. The question is, do know whether you’re on the right side of this 50-50 divide?

Having ground his way through the startup phase of multiple companies, Pejman Ghadimi wants to help people understand what it’s actually like to be an entrepreneur. Ghadimi is the founder of Secret Entourage and author of the bestselling book Third Circle Theory and its sequel, Radius, which was released in 2017. In Third Circle Theory, Ghadimi sets entrepreneurs up for success by examining the journey most books on the topic skip over: getting from where you are now to the finish line.

Meet SoFi, the little robotic fish that could help change the way we study the ocean. Created by researchers at MIT, SoFi is capable of swimming alongside real fish without any disturbance, this is due to the robots appearance and movements mimicking that of marine life.

SoFi is powered by a smartphone battery and controlled remotely - using ultrasonic signals to communicate. A hydraulic pump moves its flexible, soft silicone tail, allowing it to move nimbly in the water.

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com

You can see the future of Amazon from MARS.

In this case, MARS stands for “machine learning, home automation, robotics, and space exploration”—an invitation-only conference in Palm Springs, California, hosted by Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos. This year’s conference, the third annual, wrapped up on Wednesday.

The term “serial entrepreneur” isn’t very common in business circles, but I believe that some people are built for that kind of practice. A serial entrepreneur is an entrepreneur who continuously comes up with new ideas and starts new businesses. As opposed to a typical entrepreneur, who will often come up with a single idea, start the company, then see it through and play an important role in the day-to-day functioning of said company.