Bold Ventures

The entrepreneur behind 2 celebrity-backed businesses
While working as a lawyer, Brian Lee was inspired to start LegalZoom, an online company that provides legal documents. Lee cold-called high-profile attorney Robert Schapiro to ask for his help promoting the company. Since that business launched more than a decade ago, Lee has become involved with e-commerce businesses with Kim Kardashian and Jessica Alba. Now the CEO of those two companies, Lee's workday runs from 7 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m., and he depends on Coca-Colas to keep going, he says. Los Angeles Times (tiered subscription model) (2/9)
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Leading the Pack

How to be a more virtuous leader
Good leaders need to be virtuous -- and that means embracing prudence, temperance and courage, writes Deborah Mills-Scofield. In decision-making, strive to be disciplined, balanced and reflective rather than simply jumping at every opportunity that comes along, Mills-Scofield writes. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Leadership (2/7)
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Finance & Growth

4 stages of business success
All successful companies go through four stages, which author Paul B. Brown calls idea, marketing, management and encore. Each stage is essential, but businesses don't proceed through them in a linear fashion. "No one phase is ever completely finished. They are all intertwined," Brown writes. Forbes (2/8)
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Initiative lets entrepreneurs raise money from foreign investors
President Barack Obama recently extended through 2015 the EB-5 Visa program, which connects U.S. entrepreneurs with foreign capital. The initiative allows foreign investors to get green cards by investing a certain amount of money in job-creating companies. However, it can take a while for entrepreneurs to raise money through the program, and there may be administrative costs involved. Inc. online (free registration) (2/10)
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The Whole Entrepreneur

Why a coach is essential to building a brand
As you work to build your brand, you need a coach to help maximize your potential, writes Robert D. Smith. "You need to be able to see beyond the tunnel vision that we all have around the things we are doing," he writes. Duct Tape Marketing (2/7)
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Ideas for Innovators

Tips for fueling your team's innovation
To promote innovation at your company, stay connected to the work that started it all, make money available for employees to spend on "cool things" and avoid the urge to micromanage. These are among 12 entrepreneurs' suggestions for driving innovation as a leader. The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (tiered subscription model)/Young Entrepreneur Council (2/7)
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Fortune from Failure

Examining the Postal Service's failures
The Postal Service is looking to drop Saturday deliveries to save money, but why does the USPS find it so hard to turn a profit? It's mostly because the government granted the Postal Service a monopoly on once-lucrative, first-class mail delivery, writes Brian Palmer. That led the USPS to eschew other strategies and let private carriers snap up the package-delivery business. Slate (2/7)
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Most Read

SmartQuote

Let people explore and make mistakes. Be good with failure -- as long as there is learning in the end." -- Brent Beshore, owner and CEO of AdVentures, as quoted in the The (Toronto) Globe and Mail. Share: