By. James Conrad

By nature, visionary people have a strong independent streak. These are the exact sort of people who would be absolutely MISERABLE in nine-to-five suit-and-tie jobs, especially if the business plan they learned and developed at college makes it seem as though it’s possible to work toward living the dream of being one’s own boss. However, as much as it pains the idealist in me to say this, launching a business requires lots and lots of money, and the average college graduate’s bank balance simply won’t cover such an expense. Luckily, angel investors, who privately finance new businesses, are becoming more and more common. In fact, a study conducted by the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire, the money put forth by angel investors has generally hovered between $15 billion and $25 billion since 2005. According to entrepreneurial expert Ty Freyvogel, founder of makingsenseofyourbusiness.com, “[Angel investors] have been entrepreneurs themselves and delight in helping start-up or even established companies grow toward success. There are countless angels out there just waiting for a worthy project to fund.”

However, attaining funds to launch a startup from an angel investor is not quite as easy as it sounds or looks. They won’t give money to just any schmoe from off the street. First, you have to get the investor interested in your idea.

To successfully pitch to an angel investor, your idea should be well-considered, fully developed, and presented to the investor in an engaging way. Since your presentation will make or break you, it would certainly be a good idea to practice your presentation, and make revisions as necessary.

When presenting your pitch, try to be intelligent, lucid and informative, but don’t be dull about it. Try to cause your natural excitement about your idea become contagious enough to spread to the investor. Also, because angel investors invest more in people than ideas, they usually tend to gravitate toward friendly and positive people, so impeccable manners and an enthusiastic disposition will certainly help you get far with them.

It is also important to remember that your product or idea is not as important as the work behind it. It is worth considering not only the selling points of your product, but also strengths of your work team, the marketing information you have collected, and your competition. Because angel investors have entrepreneurial experience, they will naturally recognize whether or not you have done your homework. You must also keep in mind that it is the best idea to approach the kind of investors that are a good fit for your business. Some opt for startups, whereas others prefer to take risks on more established firms that are looking to expand. Either way, they most certainly will have a limit as to how much money they are willing and able to put up front as an investment. But with that in mind, it would certainly be a good idea to put forth some of your own money, as it will indicate that you have just much of a vested interest in your endeavor as you hope to draw out of them. Truth be told, if you can prove that you don’t desperately need an investment, you will be more likely to attain one. Showing the outside world that you are self-sufficient will be encouraging for angel-investors, as it will also show them that you make excellent financial decisions. Two key indicators thereof are a solid customer base and an excellent history when it comes to meeting expenses. Having both under your belt will make it easy to plead your case to an angel investor when you feel a burning need to expand your business.

It is also very necessary to seek out investors who are as adventurous as they are wealthy. In addition to the fact that these people often will have profound experiences launching businesses, they will know what risks to take, and when to take them. If you become aware that they have a predilection for high-risk leisure activities like say, skydiving or bungee jumping, this could be an indication that they could throw a little baksheesh into your pursuit without thinking twice about it.

Logistically, it is the best idea to seek out investors geographically close to you. As a rule of thumb, fifty miles should be a good maximum distance, as it will make it easier for an investor to swing by at the drop of a hat and check in and see how the operations are running.

By no means be intimidated by a prospective angel investor. At one point, they had only just started in the business world. With that in mind, after they notice your well thought out business plan, your engaging pitch and your enthusiastic presentation, they just might tell you that you remind them of themselves when they were your age.

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GoToMeeting was programmed to broadcast the desktop view of a host computer to a group of computers connected to that computer via the cloud. There are also options to protect these transmissions with passwords and other encryptions.

In addition to multi-monitor support in 24-bit color, a total audio package with VOIP technology and the chance to record and play back meetings, a personal account with GoToMeeting can host up to fifteen users and one organizer, and the corporate account option offers up to twenty-five users with the possibility for multiple organizers.

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Mardi Gras

With Mardi Gras just around the corner, I would like to take an opportunity to recommend a couple drinks that have long been popular in New Orleans.

The New Orleans Hurricane got its name because the curved glass in which it was first served when it was created in the 1940s at Pat O’Brien’s, a legendary French Quarter Bar, resembled a hurricane lamp. The drink was an instant success, and naturally became a major source of revenue for Pat O’Brien’s, which still serves Hurricanes to this day. If you ever do experience this particular cocktail, be advised: it is very, very, very sweet and very, very very strong.

To make a New Orleans Hurricane, combine light and dark rum in proportionate amounts with a blend of orange, passion fruit and pineapple juices with a dash of lime juice, to make things sweet and sour and a little grenadine to give the drink its distinctive red color. Serve on the rocks or on crushed or shaved ice.

Another must-drink for Mardi Gras is the Sazerac, named in honor of the Sazerac de Forge et Fils brand of cognac that was its original prime ingredient. This drink, invented around 1850, is known as the oldest known American cocktail, and is indeed so popular that in 2008 that the state legislature in Louisiana named it the state’s official drink.

A Sazerac is made by first an chilling an old-fashioned glass by filling it with ice and letting it sit while preparing the rest of the drink. Next, in a separate glass, submerge a sugarcube with Peychaud’s bitters, muddle the sugarcube until it is pulverized, fill the rest of the glass up with cognac or rye whiskey, and stir. After that, discard the ice in the chilled glass and rinse it with a little absinthe. If you cannot procure absinthe, Pernod, Ouzo or sambuca make for solid substitutes.

Finally, strain the whiskey mixture from the mixing glass into the old-fashioned glass, squeeze a lemon twist into the drink to release the zest and essences, and use the twist of lemon as a garnish.

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Networking events are a key element to business success. They provide ample opportunity for brand positioning, contact establishment, future mergers, and personal marketing.

Schmooze baby, schmooze…

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Jason’s story offers insight into what it means to not only think differently, but live differently. Being exceptional takes discipline, and a dedication to diverging from those around you, even when it’s difficult. Learn how to excel in business or other aspects of life, by changing the way you think about success.

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Here’s how:
Find a meal that interests you and make your reservation before the reservation cut-off time. Once your reservation has been confirmed, print out your ticket/menu in your ‘My Meals’ tab. When it’s time for your meal (be early!), simply bring the ticket and show it to the waitstaff when you’re seated. You’re ready to start your social meal experience!

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The idea of cloud computing entails using a connection to the internet and central and remote servers to maintain data and applications. The advantage of cloud computing is that individuals and businesses can use applications without installation and access their personal files at any computer with internet access.

Whether you know it or not, if you check your email through a website like Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo or have ever bought a product from Amazon or E-Bay, you are participating in the phenomenon of cloud computing. At the time the internet was first made widely available to the public in the middle to late 1990s, software produced by a company like America Online, CompuServe or Prodigy needed to be installed in order for a person to become connected to the world wide web. Nowadays, all you need to check your email is an internet-ready computer with a suitable web browser because the server and email management software is all “on the cloud,” a poetic way of saying “on the web” and completely managed by the service provider, be it Microsoft, Google or Yahoo.

The basic analogy that drives cloud computing is, “If you need milk, why buy a cow?” True, if you were to buy a cow, you very probably would not actually have to buy milk. Then again, if you wanted the cow to provide quality milk, you would have to keep an eagle eye on its diet and choose the best quality food, which just might get expensive. Not to mention the amount of space you would actually need to ensure that this animal would be able to get the proper amount of exercise. As you can envision, buying and owning a cow would cost considerably more than simply going to the supermarket and peeling off a few bucks for a gallon of milk.

Although software is not as much of an imposition as a cow, it does take up space on your hard drive, and from time to time it needs to be updated. Over time and in the interest of making things easier for web users, many designers and engineers opted to set up servers (the metaphorical market) on the internet (the pasture), where the software (the cow) would be contained. This way, for a web user to avail him- or herself of any benefits to be found online (this would be the milk), all they would have to do is open up the web browser and navigate their way to the respective web site, instead of installing internet software. In other words, cloud computing is just like hitting up the supermarket for milk without all the hassle of owning a cow!

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Adding bookmarks with Google Bookmarks is a breeze. All you have to do, once you have downloaded and installed the Google Toolbar, click on the Toolbar’s blue star to bookmark a website. If you want to add one or more labels, click the star again.

Google Bookmarks also enables you to import the bookmarks stored in the menu of your previously installed web browser, whether you use Internet Explorer or Firefox. Simply download the Google Toolbar and click the “Import bookmarks” option that appears on the drop-down menu next to the Bookmarks icon.

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As information technology has become more widespread, the number of social networking and/or web logging sites has exploded. We have WordPress, BlogSpot, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, MeetUp and FourSquare, just to name a few. Because people rely on social networking platforms to investigate newsworthy articles, keep in touch with friends and share photos, videos and other links, keeping up with news from all of these websites is a tall order.

Because most web sites distribute new content through RSS, which stands for Resource Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, when a user subscribes to a web site’s RSS feed, he or she is automatically notified of new information published on a website. Google Reader, which is one hundred per cent free , works with any web browser and requires no software installation, tracks an internet user’s web surfing patterns, checking for updates from the user’s favorite sites and alerting the user of these new developments. All of the syndicated web content is then aggregated into a single location for easy viewing. In addition, users are provided a built-in public page to make it easier for them to share interesting headlines, podcasts, images, and videos with their friends and family.

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