11 Businesses You Can Start In Your Pajamas

For the above entrepreneurs, wearing pajamas for a day at the office isn’t far from reality. From pet care to virtual assistants and even online dating, we found entrepreneurs who are not just enjoying work from their living rooms and bedrooms, but they are also making a good living at it. In one case, a business owner grossed $10 million in a year, and cleared half that amount. Here’s a look at the hottest industries for home-based entrepreneurs — illustrated with some fun CEO self-portraits. read more

How To Reward A Million Dollar Idea

Two years ago, Noah Weiss, a young programmer who spent the summer working here at Fog Creek Software, came to me with a business idea. Noah, who was still in college, had noticed that a lot of smaller tech-related blogs were running classified ads for job listings. He suggested that we do the same thing on my company’s blog, Joel on Software. The site is read by thousands of programmers a month — the ones who are so good at programming they have spare time at work to read the self-absorbed drivel I publish there. read more

The Education of an Educated CEO

Twelve years ago, Jeff Koeze surprised his wife, his parents, and himself by agreeing to give up a comfortable life teaching law to take over the then-86-year-old family business. At 36, the professor was going to become a nut man.

His father, Scott Koeze (pronounced KOO-zee), was sick of running Koeze Co., which was doing about $7 million a year, mostly in mail order, primarily in cashews. That worried Jeff enough that he insisted that his father not stick around any longer than two years. If the elder Koeze ended up refusing to leave, Jeff had a golden parachute: two years of salary. Moving from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Jeff and his wife, Kate, even chose a house in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Koeze Co. is based, that they figured would be easy to resell. “I wanted a risk-free out if it didn’t work,” Jeff says.

Instead, a few months after Jeff showed up, his father went on vacation and didn’t come back. Didn’t return phone calls, either. “I know your dad — he’s retired,” a longtime worker told Jeff.

Koeze was in disbelief. “That just can’t be,” he replied. But it was. read more

How Much Is Your Company Worth?

After a string of rough years and falling values for private companies, here’s some good news: Now just might be the best time to sell a business that we’ve seen in quite some time.

Why? Jay C. Jester, marketing director of Audax Group, a Boston-based private equity and mezzanine firm, explains that many private equity companies and venture capital firms raised money for investment funds with capital-deployment time limits several years ago, and now the clock is ticking ever closer to midnight. “There’s a ton of private equity with a fuse on it,” Jester says. “You’ve got pent-up supply and pent-up demand coming together. There’s activity in just about any sector you can think of.” read more

Business Lessons From Kindergarten

Recently, a business associate came to my office for an important meeting. During the meeting, I had to take a phone call, and while on the phone, I watched as my guest wandered around my office looking at the various photos and framed memorabilia that I have hanging on my walls. When I was done with the phone call, he pointed to my one and only diploma and laughed. read more

Political Profiting = Smart Business

Just like the impending recission, the election is a great time for inventive, smart entreprenuers to make a buck. In the latest issues of Inc Magazine, take a look at how some great ideas have sprung political profits. read more

Felix Dennis – How To Get Really, Really Rich

Felix Dennis is the founder of Maxim Magazine, along with a number of other publications. In his new book, How to Get Rich: One of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets, Dennis shares some of the secrets that made him a near billion dollar man. He’s preaches that becoming successfully rich involves not working for anyone but yourself.

Inc Magazine interviewed Dennis at his New York offices.

For a book called How to Get Rich, you spend a lot of time dissuading potential entrepreneurs from trying. You say I’ll need to get used to groveling and failing, and I’ll need to be so driven, it may put my marriage at risk or hurt my relationship with my kids.

It’s kind of a crazy thing to decide that you’re going to be worth tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars and set out to do that. It doesn’t suit everybody. I warn people throughout the book that if you’re not driven by this desire, you really shouldn’t try. It will lead to a lot of heartache and a lot of sacrifice — and not just you doing the sacrificing.

read more

Angel Investors Guide

They are the true believers in the world of start-ups. Inc Magazine presents a guide on searching for and courting these diamonds in the rough.

Inc Magazine Angel Investors Guide

Also, check out Jason Nazar’s Guide to Raising Money for a Startup Company. Jason is the CEO of Docstoc.com, an online community for document sharing.