Jana Matthews – författare

Entrepreneurs often struggle with many aspects of business: planning and financing company growth, creating a company vision, recruiting, leading, and managing people, as well as personal costs. In Lessons from the Edge, more than 50 business owners and entrepreneurs offer a wealth of real-life stories--in their own words--that provide rare insights about keeping a company healthy and growing. Here is a unique collection of first-person accounts by entrepreneurs who describe their mistakes in business and the lessons they have learned as a result. The stories cover a wide range of experiences from the trials and tribulations of partnerships, to the loss of key customers, theft, finding and retaining employees, and the personal cost of living on the edge. The authors have drawn on interviews with more than 50 entrepreneurs, all of whom are under 45 years of age and are founders or presidents of companies with revenues over $1 million and growing rapidly. They volunteered to share their stories, describing why they lost or almost lost their companies, what they did wrong, and the lessons they have learned. Their narratives are full of mistakes, failure, courage, moments of realization, and timely moves that saved the day. Every company owner will find these accounts insightful, compelling, and occasionally gut wrenching, especially because most face similar challenges and live with the reality that they too could fall off the edge.This instructive and inspiring book brims with lessons for all business owners about courage, persistence, and survival. Lessons from the Edge is an essential read for both established and prospective entrepreneurs.

Building the Awesome Organization discusses the eight components of an awesome organization. This book will help you to realize the core competencies for growth. It describes the processes, policies and systems that support growth. Find out how to attract and retain awesome peoplea and develop an environment that motivates and empowers people to achieve extraordinary results. Explore the responsibilities of the leader and the expectations others have of the role that the leader of an entrepreneurial company will play.

In 1980, only 10 business incubators existed in the United States. By 1995 there were nearly 500, and a new incubator is opening every week. Despite the rapid growth, the success of business incubators has been mixed at best. Growing New Ventures, Creating New Jobs provides sponsors, boards, and the management teams of business incubation programs with proven strategies for enhancing the creation and development of new ventures and ensuring the success of programs that support business growth and development.Business creation experts Jana B. Matthews and Mark P. Rice explain the three key principles of successful business incubation; the 10 best practices for starting, developing, and managing a business incubation program; ways to attract high-quality entrepreneurs; the litmus test to determine an incubator's feasibility; and many hands-on examples from the directors of some of the country's top business incubators. Incubators have helped to create more than 82,000 new jobs in communities throughout the United States, and they foster the entrepreneurial spirit that is the lifeblood of the economy. Growing New Ventures, Creating New Jobs gives business, university, and government leaders a blueprint incubator program for invigorating the regional economy.