It was time to bring the role of new media (Web 2.0, social networking for business) into my marketing research course material. The course needed to include newer online techniques and resources for gathering and analyzing data. These techniques cover finding, observing and listening to the chatter, and then analyzing and learning from the vast amounts of data.

Next week I am going to be doing a panel for the NVTC on how to grow a business without external financing.  The link to sign up is here .  This is certainly a topic that is near to my heart, as I am sure you know from some of my prior postings .  I have felt for some time now that as the economy adjusts to a reality of smaller amounts of Angel and institutional risk capital, entrepreneurs would find ways to adjust.  In other words, I do not believe that people stop being entrepreneurial merely because equity financing is harder to obtain.

With the upcoming panel and my recent experience with local entrepreneurs, I thought that I would catalogue some strategies I have seen entrepreneurs use to advance their business in the absence of venture capital or significant outside investment.