The Business Herald

RSS feeds are great and I love Google Reader for collecting my all-time favorite blogs, but I also appreciate and enjoy reading those precious few Newsletters that I subscribe to from my E-Mail In-Box. There are only a hand full that I genuinely look forward to receiving and I’ve listed 4 below(in no particular order).  Although they each have different publishing schedules, they all have one thing in common… they contain great content that will inspire, inform and get you pumped about Business & Entrepreneurship:

Newsletter Title: SpringWise Newsletter
Website: www.springwise.com
Publishing Schedule: Weekly
What I Like About This Newsletter: This is probably my all-time favorite newsletter. In fact, their site is jam packed with ideas and inspiration for business ideas.

Newsletter Title: Startup Nation Weekly Publishing Schedule: Weekly
Website: www.startupnation.com
What I Like About This Newsletter: This newsletter always included helpful articles and with the creators and founders of Startup Nation being very involved with their Startup Nation Community, they’re constantly adding more features and resources to their lively site.

5Newsletter Title: Duct Tape Marketing Newsletter

Website: www.ducttapemarketing.com
Publishing Schedule: None
What I Like About This Newsletter: Although there is a little "Ad Overkill", this newsletter usually has at least 1-2 good articles. Sometimes you’ll find some free downloads.

 Sidenote: Although IMHO I think the self promotion is a little on the saturated side, it must be very effective.  Otherwise, I doubt this guru would be doing it.

Newsletter Title: Agenda Inc. Newsletter

Publishing Schedule: Weekly(sometimes a little late)
Website: news.agendainc.com
What I Like About This Newsletter: It’s all about the business of Branding in this newsletter.  This newsletter keeps you up-to-snuff on anything related to branding. From news and inspiration to opinions and gossip, you’ll find it all here.

For years, I’ve been a subscriber to Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc. Magazine and Business 2.0 Magazine(no longer published).  Sometimes I get a great issue and other times I get a boring issue, so it’s really a hit or miss in my opinion. I’m more interested in reading articles and stories about people who started with practically nothing or How-To articles from those who have "been there, done that", not the politics or opinions about business.  If that’s what you prefer than there are definitely other magazines that cover those topics and issues very effectively(save that topic for another day), but if you’re like me I think you’ll appreciate the Millionaire Blueprints Magazine. The magazine has been around since Spring 2005, but I never really noticed it until about a year ago.  I didn’t actually picked it up and read it until about July of this year and I have to say it’s a great magazine for aspiring and budding Entrepreneurs.

The covers could use some design improvements, but besides that it’s practically jam packed with success stories from real Multi-Millionaire Entrepreneurs. What I believe truly makes this magazine unique from the typical others are:

In-Depth Articles: The articles are more like interviews and most are a few pages long in a Q&A format.

Resources Pages: After each 5-7 page article/interview, there are detailed Resources pages with descriptions and url’s that were mentioned in the interviews and the resources that were used by the Entrepreneur through his/her venture. VERY HELPFUL!

BLueprints To A Business: Each issue features a "Blueprint" to start a particular business.  From beginning to end, the do’s/dont’s and all the details, they manage to cover them fairly well in only a few pages.  Then of course the Resources pages follow right along. 

Far Less Advertising: I counted less than 20 full-page ad pages throughout the current issue.  The rest of the magazine is pure reading information and inspiration.

Millionaire Blueprints Jr.: They’ve recently launched a version of their magazine for the Kid Entrepreneur and I’m sure it’s going to be very successful. This reminds me of an idea I had a few years ago to develop a Young Entrepreneur Expo(maybe I should reconsider).

Millionaire Blueprints Teen: Coming Soon! 

Writing a Business Plan is one of those things you absolutely hate to do, but know it has to be done if you want a real chance at getting a business loan(most times).  Through the years I’ve scoured through books, websites and even attended workshop(free of course) on developing your business plan and yet I still hate doing it.  It’s just a boring process, but I think that’s all about to change… Finally!

I just started using it myself about 3 days ago, so I haven’t seen it’s full potential yet, but with a 30 day free trial, I’m sure I will. I’ll point you to a favorite blog of mine, WorkHappy.net, to read what Carson McComas has to say about PlanHQ. I’ll follow-up in a few weeks with my final thoughts on PlanHQ. Until then, what’s it gonna hurt to check out? If you’ve been holding off writing that Business Plan, take this opportunity to force yourself to get started.

 QUESTION: Have you used PlanHQ? What do you think of it?