However, applicants must prove themselves worthy before reaping any rewards, through a rather extensive application process. Each grant program holds their own requirements, though in general, applicants can qualify if they meet these few:

• Your business is small enough. Such size requirements are typically determined by the U.S. Small Business Administration. For all wholesale trade industries, this means 100 employees or less, according to clearinghouse Grants.gov.
• Your business has big impact. Most grant applications require that you send a business plan and proposal letter with your application. With these, they want you to demonstrate how their money would be put to good use. (For help, refer to Bplans.com for a number of business plan templates, and the Small Business Administration for a basic template.)
• Your business can still hire for help. Though you can easily apply for smaller grants – ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars – yourself, bigger grants could require more help. Consider hiring a professional grant letter to write up a proposal letter, an accountant to write up your business plan, or both.
• Your business can afford to wait. Some steps of the registration process can take one day, some can take three – and then, your application may only surface after months of sifting by the grant agency.

Have you tried applying for a small business grant? If so, what was your experience like?

• Vaughn Jereaux , The Vaughn Jereaux Collection
  Back when he studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology, a professor told Jereaux he was more fit to design for another company, rather than his own. Despite such advice, Jereaux used his namesake and a $20,000 cash prize to start his own line of custom-made cocktail, evening, and special occasion dresses. Then, in November, he would earn another prize of vindication. An expert panel of judges – featuring Def Jam’s Russell Simmons and Ernst and Young’s Dan Valerio – picked 25-year-old Jereaux as their favorite fashion entrepreneur in The Race to BE competition. This time, the cash prize totaled $50,000.
• Janice Maasaoud , Under the Nile
  Q: What would inspire readers of Esquire, a men’s magazine, to seek out Under the Nile, a baby and young children’s clothing company? A: Organic Egyptian cotton, used not only in the clothing, but also in what the magazine deemed “the best blanket in the world.” Maasaoud first sought out to source organic cotton ten years ago, after discovering her children’s allergies to harmful pesticides, toxins and dyes. The company has since expanded to offer toys, cloth diapers, and gift baskets – making it one of the most well-known companies sourcing organic materials.
• Mark Zuckerberg , Facebook
  Google may have taken over the Internet this year, but there still remains one online territory that it could not penetrate – social networking. With over 100 million users registered in August, Zuckerberg’s Facebook more so became a face-to-face competitor when, earlier this month, it released its business "Connect" platform the same day Google launched its own. Like Netscape Navigator creator Marc Andreessen with Internet browsers, Zuckerberg may not have created the first social networking Web site – but he certainly stands as one, if not the most prominent player in his field. (After all, is it a coincidence that Andreessen also serves on Facebook’s board of directors? Probably not.)
• Kurt O’Brien , Simply Self Storage
  With 229 facilities and growing, Simply Self Storage is now the largest privately owned self-storage company in the United States and Puerto Rico. And, after it earned its first million in sales in just four years, Entrepreneur magazine ranked the company as its No. 1-ranked fastest-growing businesses in the area, out of nearly 21 million others. Among other criteria, Simply Self Storage ranked highest in rapid sales growth and positive job growth. According to O’Brien, the company’s tipping point was when it reached 100 locations. “It allowed me to assemble the dream team in my business sector," he said.
• Matthew Szulik , Red Hat, Inc.
  Years ago, Szulik – then president and CEO – found that his customers grew tired of paying for program licenses, maintenance and upgrades, only to receive flawed software. So, despite protests, Szulik and founder Bob Young then worked on making the company’s software coding freely available over the Internet. Through many years of development, they pursued to create such transparency, which they thought could “redistribute the economics of the technology industry from vendor to customer.” To date, Ernst and Young named Szulik its 2008 "Entrepreneur of the Year," while Red Hat stands as the sole profiting software company offering open-source material.

What entrepreneurs – new or old – inspired you this year?

Cost effectiveness– No more guessing numbers for your print run, then winding up with too few or too many brochures. The cost of an e-brochure is fixed, whether you send out one or one million of them. Fees are based on the number of pages and any extra "bells and whistles" like video or audio. What’s more, digital distribution means you omit postage costs.

Interactivity– This can greatly boost the overall impact of your message by engaging your audience. Viewers can turn the interactive pages, view video or listen to audio with a simple click of their mouse. Better yet, they can immediately place orders or request more information by clicking on embedded links.

Customization options– E-brochures let you to target your messages to specific audiences, increasing the likelihood they’ll buy from you. Such market segmentation is much harder with printed collateral.

Easy to update and edit– You can quickly and efficiently customize your message, target your market and adapt to changes in the marketplace without re-printing a single page. Nor do you need to reprint your brochure if your offerings or price points change. Updating your e-brochure "template" is a simple and affordable editing job.

Unlimited distribution– The ability to e-mail your brochure means you can immediately and affordably respond to requests for information from anyone at any time. In fact you can instantly send your brochure to prospects around the globe and create a viral effect–one potential customer can forward it to other potential customers, which in turn can forward it to more customers and so on, at no cost to you.

Access to additional information– Your audience can quickly browse through content, zoom in on items, and print pages, all from the convenience of their home or office. You can also include a homepage link for customers who want to learn more about your business.

Tracking –With traditional printed materials, it is extremely difficult to track your ROI. Not so with e-brochures. You can track how many times your e-brochure is downloaded as well as how many orders you received from its distribution.

Environmentally friendly– Obviously, no trees are involved in the creation of an e-brochure. You won’t need any storage boxes to house extra brochures, either.

Makes your company look smart and innovative– Having an e-brochure gives the distinct impression that you’re ahead of the curve and well-positioned for the future. Customers like to do business with savvy companies who literally think outside the box.

Those are a lot of good reasons to give e-brochures a shot

If you haven’t seen it already, Entrepreneur.com has a great article listing 20 things to consider before you take the leap. Here are the first 5:

"Factor 1: Get company-wide commitment. Every employee should be a vital member of your international team, from the executive suite to customer service through engineering, purchasing, production and shipping. You’re all in it for the long haul.

Factor 2: Define your business plan for accessing global markets. An international business plan is important in order to define your company’s present status and internal goals and commitment, but it’s also necessary if you plan to measure your results.

Factor 3: Determine how much you can afford to invest in your international expansion efforts. Will it be based on ten percent of your domestic business profits or on a pay-as-you-can-afford process?

Factor 4: Plan at least a two-year lead-time for world market penetration. It takes time and patience to build a great, enduring global enterprise, so be patient and plan for the long haul.

Factor 5: Build a website and implement your international plan sensibly. Many companies offer affordable packages for building a website, but you must decide in what language you’ll communicate. English is unarguably the most important language in the world, but only 28 percent of the European population can read it. That percentage is even lower in South America and Asia. Over time, it would be best to slowly build a site that communicates sensibly and effectively with the world."

For the rest of them check out "20 Factors to Consider Before Going Global"

Also check out "Preparing Your Business to Enter the Foreign Market" and "Gathering Foreign Market Research" for more information on going global!

Still, even entrepreneurs need some assistance when it comes to running a good business, no matter how capable an individual you are. In part, it’s standing on the shoulders of giants; there is a lot to be learned from those who went ahead of you and started their own businesses, forming workable theories and platforms along the way.

There are a couple of different ways that you can learn the art of successful entrepreneurship, two of the best being through mentorship and formal training through a college or university. Entrepreneurship resources are also available online – Entreprenuer.com has tons of helpful resources and ideas, including articles and tips on related issues such as marketing, sales and finance.

In this article, we will take a look at what formal education has to offer the aspiring entrepreneur. There are five different areas in which faculties of entrepreneurship will develop in individual students:

Innovation: The seed of any entrepreneur. In courses which develop the innovative characteristic, students are encouraged to sit and brainstorm different ideas that could be workable in terms of a business.

Validation: Measuring the marketplace in order to determine if a given innovation is feasible. This step also usually includes competitive analysis.

Foundations: Once the idea has been validated and critically evaluated, including a determination of competitive companies and their strategies, the entrepreneur must be able to form a strategy that will start the business and set it apart from others. Foundations courses take a look at ways to do this.

Business Plan: Hand in hand with the formal strategy comes the business plan, in which students are introduced to ways in which they can identify their target demographic, conversion strategies, and so on. You can also expect to explore several different business models.

Execution and Launch: Finally, the practical aspects of beginning a business are also explored at the educational level. Everything from a basic understanding of tax and employment laws may fall under this category, so be ready for a very broad range of courses.

Almost every major university in the United States includes courses which can help to develop and hone the skills of entrepreneurs. The information put forward at this level comes in handy not just at the entry level, but for entrepreneurs at all stages of the business game.