- Jay Maharjan

2010 was a roller coaster year for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs faced the good, the bad and the ugly when it came to sustaining their businesses, start-ups. The goal for most entrepreneurs in the United States this past year was to survive over making big plans. Banks were not forthcoming in terms of offering much needed capital. The government was late in enforcing and assuring key messages to entrepreneurs. Assurance of extension of Bush’s tax cut early in the year would have given confidence to businesses to keeping more people on staff. The worst thing for entrepreneurs besides not having liquidity when they need it – is not knowing what the governance is up to. Surprises and cumbersome regulation does not sit too well with the risk-taking, go-getter types. The same goes for the upcoming new regulation for venture capitalists. Too many rules and regulations make bad entrepreneurial policies.

The movie ‘Social Media’ is shaping up to become ‘The Wall Street’ of our generation. Contrary to the old definition of greed, social media has redefined the platform for making money. In spite of a lot of hype, it is not going to be another dot com bust. We are much smarter now. We have learned to look at the numbers. Every social media company is not going to be a runaway hit, but there are some serious opportunities for realistic business models based on social media that position themselves for smart exit. Also, 2011  will likely be a good year for testing in terms of ROI for advertisers on social media.

The last decade was slow in commercializing some of the new technologies like nano-technology. Nano technology saw promising improvements but fell short – 0ffering limited commercial application in the materials field. The next decade must be the decade when nano applications should attempt to make difference for masses – from leveraging this new technology to produce consumer products and nano scale drug delivery devices to fight cancer and other serious diseases. This is the opportunity that the United States does not want to loose.

There were some strong measures taken in offering incentives for green businesses. Incentives  for fostering eco projects in the new tax bill was a great step. Department of Interiors’ effort to offer free land for solar powers in California and Nevada was another right move. A permanent change in the tax code for R&D tax credit for nano, eco projects – if not for all – would have given many science entrepreneurs the right incentives and set them in the right direction.

2010 was the year that many governements started radical entreprenuership inititiatives – Chilean governemnt offered venture funds for 25 silicon valley based ventures in 2010. These are the types of calculated risk that many governments around the world are taking – keeping the long term benefit in mind. While venture funds are  expected to get much more scrutiny in the United States in 2011, there will be many governments out there offering some strong incentives ( another example being the 1 billion pound government backed venture fund recently launched out of the UK ).

The following are some of the posts from 2010 that might help you to restart your entrepreneurial DRIVE:

Biomedical Incubation: Insider’s Scoop ( 4entrepreneur.net exclusive interview)

How to write an effective business plan

Three Ideas that are pushing the edge of science

Rethinking American export policies to help entrepreneur

The wireless future of medicine

Teaching entrepreneurship to Youth

25 tips for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs

Tags: 4entrepreneur.net, Bushs tax cut, eco, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship 2011, nano, social media, solar, tax credit