Blue Sky Partners

Bootstrapping any business is tough, but establishing a consumer product-based business versus a service-based or tech-based startup creates some very specific challenges. With service and tech, most of the initial...

As the startup community continues to grow in Chicago and across Illinois, universities are active in encouraging new company formation and shepherding research through the commercialization process through technology transfer...

When a mentor asked Microsoft software engineer Steve Fernholz how much money it would take for him to quit his day job, he had a ready answer: $100,000. She wrote...

Building a brand is best achieved by developing a reputation in the community for having expert knowledge within your industry niche. While everyone wants to have their brand become an...

Four years ago, David Hendrickson was a 23-year-old college dropout with a sick puppy. Hendrickson, who lived in a studio in Anaheim, California, was working three jobs and had $20,000...

There's a report in your Analytics called "User Flow." It's a beautiful, but difficult report to read. It combines a lot of data, showing how visitors move throughout your site....

Throughout the 1990s and up to 2008, LexJet, a 165-employee, $68 million seller of inkjet printers and related supplies and services, enjoyed double-digit growth. But when the recession hit, the...

Regardless of their industry, entrepreneurs have to put their companies on the map. A small business owner's ability to create buzz around his or her new product or business can...

For startups and small businesses, when it comes to allocating marketing dollars, value is the most important word. We all seek to gain maximum value and exposure with limited budgets....