Which Famous Entrepreneur would you like to see profiled? Leave a comment below and we might take you up on your idea!

Thank you to Geoffrey for suggesting that we a profile on Bill Gates. The last profile we did on Bill Gates was back in July of 2008 (Never Stop Learning – Bill Gates) so we’re due for another one!

When Bill Gates was asked by Fortune to explain the astounding success of his brainchild, Microsoft, his immediate response was, “Our vision, which has not changed since the day the company was founded.”

Gates was an astute businessman who, upon recognizing the potentially explosive market for home computers, set out to make his mark in the industry. As teenagers, Gates and Allen decided that the possibility of every household and business to have a computer was both a realistic and a desirable goal, which they could work to achieve. “Microsoft was a dream Paul Allen and I had about what software could become – the idea that you could buy PCs from many different hardware companies and yet they would all run the same software,” says Gates.

Despite the vast implications of their vision – that the entire IT industry would have to be restructured – Gates and Allen did not seemingly know just how much of an impact they were going to have. “Not that we had any clear view that it would ever be a large business, but I had to pay these friends that I had hired,” recalls Gates. But, they fearlessly approached their vision, entering into the unknown.

In the initial days of Microsoft, Gates and his co-workers programmed around the clock in order to meet the challenging deadlines that Gates would set. It was largely due to Gates’ aggression in getting tasks accomplished that allowed the company to grow rapidly. As the company expanded its product line, it all the while remained true to Gates’ original version.

“We always knew that we didn’t want to have a single product that was a dominant product,” says Gates. “We wanted to hire in more software people and have a full product line.” In doing so, Gates was helping to ensure that his vision would be realized. He was keeping Microsoft flexible enough to be able to develop as wide a range of products as possible. “We never saw ourselves as limited…As long as it was software where development talent was the key to doing it well. And that it could be sold in fairly high volumes.”

Vision remains an important part of Gates’ career, which is in no way nearing an end. Reflecting on Microsoft’s achievements of the past thirty years, Gates says, “This is just the beginning.” Predicting a future where computers will be much more involved in educating people, socializing people, enabling people to become politically active and engaged and even changing the way markets are organized, Gates sees his vision for Microsoft playing an even more important role. “The software is going to have to lead the way and provide the kind of ease of use, security, and richness that those applications demand,” he says.

By focusing on software – something that he knew well and he knew there would be a market for – Gates solidified his place as one of, if not the most successful entrepreneur of the 20th century. Though he was venturing into completely un-chartered territories, Gates stayed true to the vision he had as a teenager, creating software that has now become the undisputable industry standard.

Which Famous Entrepreneur would you like to see profiled? Leave a comment below and we might take you up on your idea!

Is there a topic you would like to learn more about for the next Entrepreneur University? Leave a comment below and we’ll try to find an expert to discuss your topic!

This week’s Entrepreneur University comes thanks to Jim Bouchard. Jim is America’s “Instigational” Speaker and author of Dynamic Components of Personal Power: Success the Black Belt Way! Visit JimBouchard.org to learn about Jim and how he can help you develop power for personal and professional success!

Jim shares his thought on how entrepreneurs need to stay disciplined to achieve success:

“The foundation for developing personal power is Discipline. Simple; not easy.

I almost started this article by saying, “Please forgive me if I’m going on a bit of a rant today.” Forget about it; I am going on a rant and I’m not asking for anyone’s forgiveness, indulgence or permission. These are the facts and what I’m about to share with you is the truth: period.

Lately I’ve been networking with a lot of business people and employers. I sat in on two meetings sponsored by my local Chamber of Commerce focusing on the development of a quality workforce. These people are all very concerned; so am I.

These leaders in commerce are telling me that young people today are less and less prepared to enter the workforce. While education is always a concern, the primary concern is that young people attempting to enter the workforce are not disciplined, are not willing to accept responsibility, don’t possess fundamental social skills including even a basic understanding of protocol in the workplace and many of them don’t even know how to dress for a job interview.

A major portion of my life is still dedicated to teaching martial arts and many of my students are young people. Martial arts instructors all over the country are expressing the same concerns! We’re seeing children in our programs lacking a basic understanding of respect, ignorance of fundamental etiquette, deficiency in communication skills and a disregard for authority.

Our legislators are hard at work drafting solutions to these problems. We’ve got to invest more in our schools, right? We’ve got to attract better teachers, right? We’ve got to do more to encourage our best and brightest young people to live and work in our communities, right?

Bullsh*#t!

We’ve got to teach all people, young and otherwise, that true success and happiness is built on a foundation of self-discipline and personal responsibility. We’ve got to wake up to the fact that our school systems are not designed to provide surrogate parenting. We better realize, and quickly, that if we don’t want to devolve into a complete welfare state, we better do something to reverse the social disease called “entitlement mentality.”

Success and happiness are products of personal power. To be successful and happy, you’ve got to have some sense of self-worth and self-valuation, and that’s ultimately what I’m calling personal power. You can’t gift someone self-worth, self-worth is earned through hard work over time. Self-valuation happens when you accomplish something. Success is the produce of achievement, not a prize won in a cultural lottery.

People are surprised when I cite data that shows that the greatest incidences of substance abuse, suicide and depression occur in the most developed societies. Why should this information surprise anyone? Over 80% of lottery winners end up broke! You can’t “win” success and happiness; you must create it!

Through my life as a martial artist I learned how to develop power. In the martial arts world, this process is often called “Kung Fu.” As I studied this process for my own development I realized that power is developed through motivation and discipline over time. These ideas became the foundation of my Dynamic Components of Personal Power philosophy. To create a happy and productive life, you’ve got to put in the work! You’ve got to put in the work for a long, long time!

We’ve got to once again start teaching our young people that work matters. We’ve got to teach them that they’ll spend much of their lives engaged in work; that they should choose work that matters to them and work that provides rewards above and beyond the paycheck. For years young people have been indoctrinated with messages of entitlement, selfishness and greed. We’ve got to inoculate them with messages of discipline, self-reliance and personal responsibility.

We’ve also got to take this message to some who in their youth might have missed it!

Success doesn’t start in school; the school should help develop good success habits. Success, discipline and self-worth start at home, and start within each of us. Whether you’re a parent, a teacher, a coach, an employer or just someone who cares; take the time to teach these values to a young person in your life. ”

Evan Carmichael

Is there a topic you would like to learn more about for the next Entrepreneur University? Leave a comment below and we’ll try to find an expert to discuss your topic!

In last week’s Entrepreneur Poll results I asked you What Was The Best Thing You’ve Ever Done For Your Website? The number one answer was focusing in on Social Networking and Social Media Marketing.

Using Twitter was a popular choice for many of our readers so this week our new Young Entrepreneur poll is:

What is the best way to build your business through Twitter?

Many entrepreneurs are just coming on to the service and have no idea how to use it. What strategies are working for you? How do you use your time on Twitter to build connections and grow your business?

I would love to hear your thoughts so we can build a list of best practices for other young entrepreneurs to follow.

Please post a comment with what you’re doing on Twitter to build your business and stay tuned for the results!

Follow YoungEntrepreneur.com: click here: Twitter

Evan Carmichael

If you have a blog and want to learn how to make it better you should check out Darren Rowse’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge.

Darren is the creative force behind two of my favorite blogs, ProBlogger and TwiTip. ProBlogger is a must read for any blogger as it traces Darren’s steps as he transitioned from having a day job to becoming a full-time blogger. TwiTip is a relatively new blog that focuses on getting the most out of Twitter.

I remember when Darren first ran the Better Blog project in 2005 I was just getting serious about building my website and wanted to turn it into a money making machine that I could live off of. Thanks to the great resources that Darren and the participating bloggers revealed I improved my online IQ dramatically over that month.

It’s great to see that the project is back on this year and I’m sure it will be bigger and more valuable than ever considering how popular blogging has become and what a following Darren now has!

Here is how Darren explains the project:

“Each day from 1st April until the 1st May I will make a post here on ProBlogger that is part of the challenge.

Posts will be designed to each have two aspects to them:

1. A teaching component (theory)
2. A practical component (a task/homework)

The idea is that often teaching remains in the realm of theory and doesn’t actually prompt those digesting it to DO something. This project is more about DOING than learning. I hope you will learn, but to be honest if you’ve been blogging for a while some of what we’ll cover many will have heard before – but this project will give you a framework and hopefully some inspiration to put what you know into action.

Some of the tasks will be similar to previous years tasks and some will be new (some things never change so there will always be some overlap). Some tasks will be more relevant to some bloggers than others so you may not choose to do all of them but they will be on a variety of areas of blogging including writing content, interacting with readers, finding new readers, design, tools etc.

This 31 days are designed for beginner and newer bloggers but many of the tasks will be relevant to intermediate and more advanced bloggers also.”

If you want to participate you can sign up here. I’ve already signed up and look forward to getting started!

For those of you who are not familiar with AllTop, here is how it describes itself:

“Alltop is an “online magazine rack” of popular topics. We update the stories every hour. Pick a topic by searching, news category, or name, and we’ll deliver it to you 24 x 7. All the topics, all the time.”

Shortly after its release in March of 2008 this blog was featured on AllTop’s feed for startups (we’re still there).

The website was founded by Guy Kawasaki who I called the World’s Most Gentlemanly Blogger and has experienced tremendous growth over the past year and has an Alexa Ranking under 65,000.

One year after its release AllTop has now added in an exciting new feature – the ability to personalize your AllTop experience. Called My.AllTop.com, the feature allows you to choose which blogs you want to feature on your AllTop page so make sure to put the YoungEntrepreneur.com blog feed on your list!

You can drag and drop pages in and out and AllTop will also make recommendations of new blogs that you might enjoy reading. It’s a great way to stay on top of your current favorite blogs as well as discover new ones! There is also the feature to share your customized page with friends, family, Twitter contacts, etc.

Apparently they are also working on creating a RSS feed as well for your favorite blogs but that feature is still in development. Stay tuned!

If you haven’t checked out AllTop yet I would encourage you to create a My.AllTop.com account to see what the excitement is all about and don’t forget to add YoungEntrepreneur.com to your list!

In last week’s Entrepreneur University YoungEntrepreneur.com reader Brandon mentioned meditation as a good way to kickstart your morning routine.

For this edition of Entrepreneur University I’m therefore turning to Jeff Belyea who is an artist, writer and developer of Living At WOW! Seminars. Jeff has a PhD in communications, a certification in hypnotherapy, and is a personal and business coach.

Today Jeff shares his thoughts about how to use meditation to achieve your goals:

“Imagine a senior management team or a board of directors who are gathered together to make several important decisions. On the table are crucial matters that could change the course of corporate life, or even make the different between success and failure of the company.

As the chairperson lays out the agenda for the meeting and begins to launch into a detailed analysis of the issues at hand, a loud “buzz” is heard in the room. The chairperson looks up from her notes to see that virtually everyone in the room is engaged in loud chatter, and no one is really paying any attention to her at all. As soon as she recovers from the shock of this surprise, she loudly demands attention. The room goes quiet. But after a few seconds, the buzz picks up once again. Once again, the impatient demand for attention is made. And once again, after a few seconds, the buzz starts up again.

Now imagine this buzz, quiet, buzz scene going on in the boardroom for two or three hours. Unthinkable, you say. Just wouldn’t happen, right? How could important decisions be made if most of the people in the room were not really paying attention, and their minds were on something else, except for a few seconds of intermittent focus?

Would the scene be more easily imagined as possible and believable if everyone’s “internal chatter” was somehow made externally audible? Now, that VP of Marketing who is worried about his son who just dropped out of college to take up his true passion, pottery, could be heard calming his wife, or himself, or raging at this son, of and on, through the entire meeting. The General Manager cannot keep his mind off that sweet young thing in merchandising who keeps flirting with him, and he is battling the urge to send her flowers. And the CEO keeps rehearsing his upcoming meeting with bankers scheduled for later that day.

At a time when focus, clarity of thought, the and applied use of well-honed listening skills are critical, most of the great minds in that room are somewhere else, for the most of the meeting. Maybe this is part of the reason that we read that we only use a small percentage of our brain. We’re rarely “in the moment” and attentive to he present for more than brief periods of time. Most of our time is spent reliving the past and anticipating the future, trying to steer the ship of our everyday lives in the right direction, or at least in a direction that will avoid disaster.

Meditation is a proven and effective way of quieting of the mind, and the relaxation and stress management “techniques” that are at the core of meditation practice enhance focus, clarity of thought, and improve listening skills. When we learn to use the simple tools of meditation, we can consciously quiet the mind’s internal chatter. In matters of goal achievement, meditation can take us to “the heart of the matter”. With meditation, we can tap a quiet pool of wisdom that presents solutions and opportunities that the chattering mind misses.

It may be some time before meditation makes it to the mainstream of corporate planning, but it is quite certain that there are visionaries in corporate life right now who are seeking out-of-the-box methods, intuitive means – and meditation is to intuition what pumping iron is to muscles, and creative leaders to open new vistas to them. If we (meditation practitioners and teachers) can overcome the old associated images of “yogis in saffron robes” as the only icons of meditation, and compliment it with a clear thinking corporate executive (or caring parent or spouse) we can bring a subtle, yet powerful means of improving individual and corporate lives. Now, where are those corporate visionaries who are ready to sign up their senior management team for meditation classes?”

Is there a topic you would like to learn more about for the next Entrepreneur University? Leave a comment below and we’ll try to find an expert to discuss your topic!

Passion, ingenuity, hard work. These are important personal attributes that can help ensure business success. But it’s not what you make, it’s what you keep (after tax) that counts, so follow these tax tips to improve your bottom line.

1. Set up an accounting system. You don’t need an accounting degree to use simple and inexpensive software or online solutions to record your income and expenses. Make it a habit to log in your gross receipts and your payments on a regular basis. Don’t have the time or inclination for data entry? Find someone—an employee, outside bookkeeper, or accountant—to do this for you.

2. Use a separate business bank account. Don’t co-mingle your personal finances with your business matters. A business-only bank account can simplify your record keeping and help you easily manage your finances so you can focus on running your business. There are many tools out there that can help you easily make this separation. Bank of America’s Business Fundamentals checking package provides small business customers with the control to easily manage fees and account information as well as the security of knowing that transactions are guaranteed to be safe and protected. Take it one step further and go online. Besides tax savings, using online banking can save you considerable time in monitoring your cash and paying your bills.

3. Understand how your choice of entity impacts your taxes. Are you a sole proprietor? An S corporation? The legal structure of your business affects tax payments. For example, if you’re a sole proprietor, you must pay Social Security and Medicare taxes (collectively called self-employment tax) on your net earnings from self-employment, regardless of whether you actually take this money or reinvest it in the business. Factor tax considerations into your choice of entity.

4. Keep receipts. To claim various tax deductions and tax credits, you need proof of expenditures. You also need a diary or other written record of travel and entertainment costs (BlackBerry entries and other electronic records can be acceptable). Get organized so you can find receipts at tax preparation time.

5. Plan ahead for tax payments. Usually, as a business owner you must pay taxes on your business income in quarterly estimated tax payments. To ensure you have enough cash on hand to meet this obligation, it’s a good idea to set aside money on a regular basis for this purpose. For instance, if you’re in the 25% tax bracket for federal income taxes, you might want to transfer 25% of all fees or other earnings into a separate bank account used for making tax payments.

About Barbara

Barbara Weltman is a top selling author, attorney, tax and small business expert. Barbara serves as an expert on Bank of America’s Small Business Online Community. She recently conducted an expert forum on the Small Business Online Community, where she answered questions about the impact of the stimulus package on small business owners. Barbara has also authored several books include “J.K. Lasser’s Small Business Taxes” and “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business.”

It’s time for another SEO Advice post! Last week, I offered free SEO advice to Adventure Mopeds. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader, Aaron Tucker from Poker Strategy, Theory, and Tips.

Aaron Tucker – http://jacktenoffsuit.com/

Hi,

I saw your blog post on youngentrepreneur.com. My site is www.jacktenoffsuit.com. I would love if you could help me out!

Thanks,

Aaron Tucker
My Recommendations

1) What’s With The Forward?

Your website is jacktenoffsuit.com but when you enter the url it automatically forwards you to jacktenoffsuit.com/homepage/. If you’re doing it through a 301 redirect then any Page Rank on your main page will automatically forward to the homepage folder but why do it? The closer your keywords are to the left of the url the more it will help your SEO efforts so unless there is a good reason for having the homepage folder, I would eliminate it. If you absolutely have to have it in, at least change it to a keyword that will help you drive traffic like /poker-tips/ instead of /homepage/.

2) Use Your Keywords

Blogs are great for SEO because most blogging platforms automatically optimize many aspects of your site. This takes some of the work away from you but you still have to pick good keywords if you want to drive traffic! The most important place where your keywords should be is in the title of your post. Your recent post Raise ‘em ‘Til They Crack might be descriptive of the content you have in the post but it’s not going to help you drive traffic. How many people are searching in Google for “Raise ‘em ‘Til They Crack”? For your future posts I would suggest trying to target keywords that you see people actually typing into Google so the hard work you put into creating content will pay off with visitors!

3) Put The Keywords In The URL

One of the SEO drawbacks from many blogging platforms is that they don’t put your keywords in the url of the post. For example, your post on Annette Obrestad MTT Strategy Guide is listed as http://jacktenoffsuit.com/homepage/?p=364 instead of http://jacktenoffsuit.com/homepage/Annette-Obrestad-MTT-Strategy-Guide. Having the keywords in the URL will give you a nice SEO boost and there is usually an option in your blogging platform to turn it in. It’s just usually set off by default.

Good luck Aaron!

Readers, what do you think about Poker Strategy, Theory, and Tips?

To learn more about how to get SEO tips for your website please read my post: Need SEO Advice? Submit Your Site!