business ideas

You might already have everything you need to start making money with a side hustle or new business idea.

As recession fears loom, many professionals are looking for additional sources of income, both to diversify their earnings and safeguard themselves from record-setting inflation. Stories that make entrepreneurship sound easy are all around us, but many of these pursuits require developing additional skills, having a substantial online audience, securing outside funding, or all of the above. 

If you’re entrepreneurship-curious, one coach suggests a simpler approach.

“Definitely do not quit your day job,” says Sigrun Gudjonsdottir, a business mentor of 10 years originally from Reykjavik, Iceland. “So many

CURT NICKISCH: Welcome to 4 Business Ideas That Changed the World, a special series of the HBR IdeaCast. In 1878, a machinist at a Pennsylvania steelworks noticed that his crew was not producing nearly as much as he thought they could. Frederick Winslow Taylor began systematic studies to determine exactly how much work should be done. With stopwatches and later stop-motion film, Taylor analyzed the efficiency of workers, tweaking everything down to how they moved their arms, the size of their shovels, and how long they could take a breather. It helped factory owners make more pumps, steel, and ball bearings with lower labor costs. It was the birth of a management theory… called scientific management or Taylorism. And Taylor became the face of it, a world-renown management consultant before there were any. Critics said his drive for industrial efficiency depleted workers physically and emotionally. Congress held hearings on

ADI IGNATIUS: Welcome to 4 Business Ideas That Changed the World, a special series of the HBR IdeaCast. The debate over how much control to give to shareholders has existed for as long as there have been any. The very first firm with publicly traded shares, the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century, pretty quickly fielded complaints from angry stock owners who felt that the company was being run counter to their wishes. And in the ensuing centuries, managers and owners would tussle endlessly over the questions of ownership and control.

Until the 1970s, that is, when the notion of shareholder primacy the idea that maximizing shareholder value takes legal and practical precedence above all else came to prominence. The person who arguably did the most to advance the idea was Michael Jensen, a professor at the University of Rochester Business School and later, a Harvard

The Colorado Startup Loan Fund, announced recently by the Polis Administration and the Business Funding & Incentives Division of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), introduces new financing options for small business owners across Colorado looking to start, restart, or restructure a business. The Fund will focus on serving business owners who have historically encountered barriers to bank financing so they can start and grow the types of thriving businesses that make up the heart of the Colorado economy and communities.

“As a Coloradan who knows what it’s like to start and run a business, I am committed to supporting entrepreneurs in Colorado and providing commonsense help to save people and businesses money. The Colorado Startup Loan Fund is an exciting new opportunity that will help entrepreneurs transform their idea into reality and create the next generation of great jobs in Colorado,” said Governor Jared Polis.

WOODSTOCK — Let the best business win.

With $30,000 in seed money, three Woodstock business leaders have helped create Startup Woodstock, a pitch competition that will help launch a new business.

“The idea is, the closer the company is to solving some critical need within the community, that’s a big plus,” said Cliff Johnson, one of Startup Woodstock’s organizers and judges. 

Johnson moved with his family from Atlanta to Woodstock during the pandemic. More than a decade ago, while working in Portland, Oregon, he founded Vacasa, an international vacation rental management company, which he left in 2018. 

Johnson is organizing the Woodstock competition with Jon Spector and Larry Niles, both members of the town’s Economic Development Commission, which focuses on issues such as housing, child care and downtown revitalization. The