1.    Where were you and when did you come up with the idea for your business?
2.    What inspired you to take the leap and start your business?
3.    Can you talk a little bit about what you needed to start-up, whether equipment, training, or seed money? How did you secure those things and get what the business needed to get started?
4.    What was your first concrete step in starting your business?
5.    Share with the Harvard Community a situation that turned out to be one of your greatest challenges as a business owner? How did you handle it?
6.    Can you talk a little bit about specific things that you have done in order to survive in business during economic downturns, recessions, and otherwise tough times?
7.    What would you say is one of your biggest pet peeves as a business owner? How do you cope with it? What do you find most challenging about running a business?
8.     What do you find is the most rewarding aspect of owning your own business?
9.    If you could offer a piece of advise for those out there who are just starting out or thinking of starting a small business, what would it be?
10.    What are you up to now? What are you looking forward to?

Please also include your name, company name, website, contact info and a brief explanation about your business.

Name of your business: Heidi Lowe Gallery

Your background: Started my own jewelry business at the age of 13, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jewelry and Metalsmithing at Maine College of Art, then received a Master of Fine Arts in Metals at State University of New York, New Paltz, interned at Leo Koenig Gallery in NYC

Your chief characteristic: busy, creative, and determined

Your regular reads: The Week, New York Times Magazine, Design Sponge, Art and Business Books

Clients, Customers, Constituents: Conscientious buyers, people who support local and handmade art

How long have you been in business? 4 years

Where do you do business? Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

Your concrete inspiration: Making the world more beautiful

Your big dreams: To make a living doing what I love

Your first success: At 13 years old I started my first jewelry business, a month later the stores reordered

The status of your business: Better every year

The future of your business: To fully support me and many other artist’s creative endeavors

Your greatest challenge in business: Pricing

Business pet peeve: People who drop the ball

Your favorite entrepreneurs, pioneers, mavericks, artists, and heros from real life and history: My mom, Charles Flynne, Peter Korn

The greatest rewards of your entrepreneurship: Getting to see my ideas and visions realized

Your idea of happiness in business: All the parts working together

Your present state of mind: Contemplation and Growth

Your business advise: Be happy where you are, it is constantly changing

Your favorite motto: “Each of us must be the change we want to see in the world.” Mahatma Ghandi

Your favorite business book: The Alchemist

Your one sentence business story: I have created a well-rounded life – making, teaching, and showing art which all come together to form a “career.”

Your name: John Fanning
Name of your business: Napster Inc. , Netcapital Inc.
Your background: Founding Chairman and CEO of Napster
Your chief characteristic: Driven
Your regular reads: Slashdot: Science, Digg, TechCrunch, Valley Wag, Fortune
Clients, customers, and constituents: Everyone
How long have you been in business? 1979
Where do you do business? Earth. Based in Boston
Your concrete inspiration: Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Getty, JD Rockefeller, Henry Ford,W K Kellogg, William Hewlett, Gordon Moore, Bill Gates
Your big dreams: 100B.
Your first success: Over 1B in assets Jan 2000
The status of your current business: Private
The future of your business: Global
Your greatest challenge in business: Growth and Capital
Business pet peeve: Failure to follow up
Your favorite entrepreneurs, pioneers, mavericks, artists, and heros from real life and history: Ghandi, Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch, Vinod Khosla, Yosi Amram
The greatest rewards of your entrepreneurship: Creating Value
Your idea of happiness in business: From idea to execution instantly
Your present state of mind: Frantic
Your business advice: NEVER GIVE UP
Your favorite motto: NEVER GIVE UP
Your favorite business book: Dale Carnegie books
Your one sentence business story: Powerful ideas with simple execution

Your name: David Clinton III
Name of your business: Sabre Compliance Services, Inc.
Your Background: The entrepreneur son of an entrepreneur; I’ve been business-minded since about age 14
Your chief characteristic: An obsession with creating business operations systems and improving the efficiency of those already existing
Your regular reads: Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazine, Popular Mechanics, Fortune, the Bible
Clients, customers, and constituents: Real Estate Developers and others who have or need large quantities of LLCs, but don’t want to deal personally with keeping them compliant with multi-state laws and requirements. Sabre began by catering specifically to Sponsors of Tenant-In-Common real estate investments, who require multiple Single Purpose Entities to be Formed and Maintained.
How long have you been in business? Sabre has been operating since 2005.
Where do you do business? We serve customers across the U.S.
Your concrete inspiration: My father always inspired me to work smarter AND harder to get ahead.
Your big dreams: To use entrepreneurial innovation for more than just making money, but for coming alongside businesses and helping them work as vehicles for good. Toward this end, I’m excited about my new position with the Foundation for Christian Stewardship, an organization committed to principled financial giving.
Your first success: Probably running a successful vending business out of my college dorm hall tripling my profits until I got shut down for competing with the school’s vending contract!
The status of your business: Have annually maintained over 3000 legal entities to date.
The future of your business: We are in the process of taking our services more fully online to make the same streamlined services we currently offer more accessible to distinct markets.
Your greatest challenge in business: Having a strong, “driver” personality, delegation, and trusting my employees has been very difficult to learn.  Once I learned that I hired people for a reason, my life became much easier.  I found I was often the very bottleneck of the systems I had developed.
Business pet peeve: Miscommunication!  I tend to think that 95% of the world’s problems can be rooted in basic misunderstandings. If we take the time to communicate I think it’s worth it.  We try very hard to keep it this way at Sabre, and have found that it ends up saving time and relationships in the long run.
Your favorite entrepreneurs, pioneers, mavericks, artists, and heros from real life and history: Steve Jobs, Sun Tzao, Guy Kawasaki, Joel Spolsky, Tony Hsieh, Markus Frind
The greatest rewards of your entrepreneurship: Seeing the fruit of my labor manifest itself in good jobs for good people. Having fun while working: who would have thought?!
Your idea of happiness in business: Having employees that love their jobs, while continually enjoying a profit.
Your present state of mind: Content having created a business that is helping to fix the problem it came to fix. Looking for further businesses and customers that can profit by the services we provide.
Your business advice: I’ve created many businesses; the only one that worked was the one for which I wrote a business plan! Failing to plan is planning to fail…
Your favorite motto: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter F. Drucker
Your favorite business book: The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
Your one sentence business story: While working for a securities firm, I realized the need for TIC Sponsors to arrange corporate compliance solutions for their investors and so created Sabre to fill it, and it fit like a glove.

Sabre Compliance Services, Inc.
http://www.sabrecomplianceservices.com/
Main: (888) 444-1031

Your name: Richard H Bell III
Name of your business: Clean Cut Interlocking Pavers, LLC
Your background: A young entrepreneur who started my first business at the age of 13
Your chief characteristic: Determined, artistic and hard working
Your regular reads: Cape Gazette, Construction Journal, EP Henry Magazine and the BJ’s Coupon Book
Clients, customers, and constituents: Homeowners who want to enhance the look of their home with quality eco-friendly hardscaping. We also do commercial and municipal jobs such as the sidewalks and crosswalks on Second Street in Lewes, Delaware (30,000 sq ft)
How long have you been in business? 12 Years
Where do you do business? Delaware
Your concrete inspiration: Since the young age of 4 years old I have always enjoyed working outside and using heavy equipment
Your big dreams: To help people create the vision they have for their home and yard by working with them to design and build their outdoor living space using pavers and walls
Your first success: At the age of 13 I bought a truck, a bobcat and a trailer. The only problem was that I did not have a driver’s license to get to my jobs, so I had to start hiring my older sister’s boyfriends.
The status of your business: 15 employees
The future of your business: Continue doing quality work for a good price
Your greatest challenge in business: As the business grows I have had to learn how to delegate
Business pet peeve: Keeping the trucks clean and making sure the pavers are cut straight
Your favorite entrepreneurs, pioneers, mavericks, artists, and heros from real life and history: Joe Montana and my dad
The greatest rewards of your entrepreneurship: Providing a good life for my family and feeling a sense of accomplishment when the job is done.
Your idea of happiness in business: Happy customers
Your present state of mind: Staying focused on the positives while facing challenges
Your business advise: Have a vision, work hard and do the job right the first time
Your favorite motto: No Excuses
Your favorite business book: Good to Great by Jim Collins
Your one sentence business story: At the young age of 13 I knew that I wanted to use heavy equipment and work outside so I followed my dream and created a business; through the years I doubled my business every year and have grown to be a full service design/build landscaping and hardscaping company.

Clean Cut Interlocking Pavers, LLC.
www.cleancutpavers.com
1-888-701-PAVE