Your Suspect - Latest Comments

Re: Decisions, Decisions

twitter-14192586 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:27:19 -0000

Ben...as always thoughtful, frenetic and honest. I know that your decision is the right one...regardless of what it is.

Re: Decisions, Decisions

Aaron Irizarry — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:04:57 -0000

Nice read Ben... very true.

I know you will do the right thing, and I am excited to see the future for City Squares, I am sure great things lie ahead...

Love the authenticity man

~ Aaron I

Re: I’m a Happier Person, Thanks to My Mac

bsaren — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:32:47 -0000

Mark, get real. In Dances with Wolves' tent she was totally a Mac user. Remember, she was half mac user and half PC. A halfie. Come on man, I expect better from you.

Re: I’m a Happier Person, Thanks to My Mac

reelseo — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:38:38 -0000

You have no idea how wrong you are. Stands with fist was a PC user and I she is the hottest woman on earth. Tatonka

Re: When the Going Get Tough…

bsaren — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:54:43 -0000

Thanks Aaron. I'm glad you were able to find the points! lol. Sometimes I'm not so sure myself. See you in two weeks!

Re: When the Going Get Tough…

Aaron Irizarry — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:50:30 -0000

Ben,
Great article, and vid. Love the insights, keep it up man... very encouraged by your points.

Re: When the Going Get Tough…

bsaren — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:35:35 -0000

Thanks Josh! We entrepreneurs need to stick together! :) Talk to you Friday.

Re: When the Going Get Tough…

josh — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:29:16 -0000

Ben,

Enjoyed the video blog post. I am looking forward to our conversation on Friday because we are also a small, lean, mean, and hungry team of guys scrapping our way to success.

Josh

Re: The Best and Worst of Being an Entrepreneur

Tim Kilroy — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:28:20 -0000

Ben, I know that you manage the least favorite aspects of entrepreneurship well.

The constant need to adapt and change is only on my favorites list. Part of the exercise in entrepreneurship is creating an organization that is fluid, and malleable. Fluidity in motion in an athlete is a beautiful thing. For a business, it is a needed survival skill.

The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is always the finances. There is no easy way to birth a vision, create a company, and create valued and valuable employees, and to add the stress of financial management on top of it can often be backbreaking. But keeping in mind that the goal is to create a company that is fluid in its approach allows for a fluidity of business model that creates opportunities whereas a business that is static in its approach must have a rigid approach to funding because its needs are fixed.

Create fluid thinkers, fluid doers, and you will create an entity that will grow beyond what one can imagine.

Re: Your Entrepreneurial Spawn

bsaren (Ben Saren) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:12:03 -0000

New blog post: Your Entrepreneurial Spawn: Recently I found myself going through a bit of a ‘.. http://tinyurl.com/c2xn9t

Re: Your Entrepreneurial Spawn

bsaren (Ben Saren) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:43:55 -0000

New blog post: Your Entrepreneurial Spawn: Recently I found myself going through a bit of a ‘.. http://tinyurl.com/c2xn9t

Re: The Founder’s Quandary

bsaren (Ben Saren) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:04:05 -0000

New from Your Suspec The Founder’s Quandary: After three and a half years running City.. http://tinyurl.com/cadvzq

Re: The Founder’s Quandary

bsaren (Ben Saren) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:32:06 -0000

New blog post: The Founder’s Quandary: After three and a half years running CitySquares, and.. http://tinyurl.com/cadvzq

Re: Right Now…

bsaren (Ben Saren) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:24:14 -0000

New blog post: Right Now…: Right now is the most important moment in your business.
Right no.. http://tinyurl.com/caupuf

Re: Migration from Drupal to Wordpress.com Complete

bsaren — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:51:00 -0000

Hi Max,

I highly HIGHLY recommend Wordpress. Drupal is great, but it just can't hold a candle to Wordpress. My suggesting is that you go to www.site5.com, sign up with them, and when you're up and running, use they're free Fantastico to install Wordpress. It takes less than 60 seconds! Next thing you know, you're downloading Wordpress themes, installing add-ons, and doing all sorts of fancy stuff as if you were a programmer! Believe me. :)

Re: Migration from Drupal to Wordpress.com Complete

max — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:08:15 -0000

hi ben,

i am assuming that since you switched from drupal to wordpress that you were not happy with drupal. i am in the midst of putting up a blog and am trying to decide between the two. the blog needs to be able to handle plenty of video. any advice/suggestions?? i am not a programmer and cannot understand the intracies of each technology to make an informed decision on my own. so, i need to rely on the advice of people who really know this stuff.

thanks so much for your insight.

max

Re: Migration from Drupal to Wordpress.com Complete

bsaren — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:00:20 -0000

I'm so glad I did it. I now have three different sites running on Wordpress, I'm helping a friend build one, and I'm launching another two more for gits and shiggles! Wordpress (.org) is just awesome. Glad to hear you safely crossed the waters!

Re: Migration from Drupal to Wordpress.com Complete

Elvis Ripley — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 04:30:58 -0000

I just did this. It kind of feels like failing but I upgraded to Drupal 6 and had a rough time getting the content out any other way.

Re: The Best and Worst of Being an Entrepreneur

bsaren — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:17:54 -0000

Hi Christian,

Thanks for the comment! I totally agree about the market/industry "constantly evolving... stay on top of the game.... constantly innovate." I often say that when I cash out of CitySquares I will become a plumber or landscaper - as far away from technology as I can! Then people laugh at me and suggest that I may do that, but I'd twitter from the job site! I think they have a point...

I don't do guest posts on this blog, but on CitySquares' blog we do, as long as its pertinent to small business, marketing, and the challenges of being a small business etc. I'd love to have you write something for it, or even be a regular on there if you think the topics will be relevant.

Re: The Best and Worst of Being an Entrepreneur

Christian - Wpromote — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:08:19 -0000

Thanks for posting this Ben and thank you for mentioning us!

I totally agree with your #10 post,
"The constant change and need to adapt."

Often times the fun and difficult thing about about online advertising is that it's still such a young industry and constantly evolving, which means to stay on top of the game you need to constantly innnovate.

Great blog, we'd love to do a guest post if you are accepting any at the moment.

Re: The Best and Worst of Being an Entrepreneur

Elizabeth Grace Saunders — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:35:33 -0000

Thanks for posting my quote as part of the Inc article. I truly believe that a business can allow you to decide on and live out your personal definition of success.

For me, one of those is excelling professionally without sacrificing my personal life. That's why I aim to run two businesses in just 40 hours a week and also take about four weeks of vacation each year.

My blog www.RealLifeE.com/blog offers time strategies that anyone can use to achieve similar success.

To creating a brilliant life in a burnt-out world!
Elizabeth

Re: Check out CitySquares on Merchant Circle!

Larry Sullivan — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:02:06 -0000

Great post Ben. I got one of those call the other day too. I really do not like them either, will be taking my name off of their call list!

Re: Check out CitySquares on Merchant Circle!

bsaren — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:05:05 -0000

Full disclosure: Ben Smith (Co-Founder of Merchant Circle) and I are now in touch. From the looks of his bio, we seem to have a few things in common. I look forward to making a connection with Ben and Merchant Circle.

P.S. - To opt out of Merchant Circle phone calls, go to http://www.merchantcircle.com/optout/remove?rea...

Re: Seth Godin’s 7 Tips for Startups in a Down Market

bsaren (Ben Saren) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:15:30 -0000

New blog post: Seth Godin’s 7 Tips for Startups in a Down Market: Seth Godin’s 7 Tips for St.. http://tinyurl.com/cnagu9

Re: Get a Life

bsaren — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:52:53 -0000

Wow, I just read Arrington's entry on TechCrunch about being spat on in Munich and about death threats! Um, folks, if there was ever a time to CALM THE EFF DOWN, it's NOW. My blog post just got even more relevant to me after reading this: http://bit.ly/6BYz1