Eight years of entrepreneurship writing. Happy anniversary Sustainable Work!

I love writing about innovation and entrepreneurship almost as much as I love doing it.  Today is Sustainable Work's 8th anniversary.

I've done startups in manufacturing/engineering, commercial graphics, software, education, economic development, and food.  I've mentored and supported startups across the U.S. and I lend to startups worldwide.

I wrote the masthead for this blog the night I wrote the first post, in a hotel room in Dubuque, 8 years ago.  It followed a long day of installing one of our recycling systems at their John Deere plant.

I haven't changed a word of the masthead - or the work of this writing - since.

Entrepreneurship and innovation.  You can do it. Welcome.

Happy 8th anniversary Sustainable Work!


2012 - 7th anniversary.   40 Years of Life Lessons in Entrepreneurship

2005 - First post.   What I'm Trying to do

Photo taken through the plant kaleidoscope at our wonderful Olbrich Gardens

Great entrepreneurship meeting in Waukesha County, Wisconsin

One of the best micro entrepreneurship programs in the U.S. is based in Waukesha County, Wisconsin.

I'm honored to be on the Advisory Board for the Small Business Center at Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC).

Russ Roberts runs an amazing Small Business Center there.

If you want to start or grow a business and you can get yourself to beautiful Waukesha County Wisconsin, this is a hot ticket.

I got to catch up with many friends today  including fellow entrepreneur Paul Decker, County Board Chair at Waukesha County.

Waukesha County and WCTC represent a remarkable opportunity to start and grow small businesses.

Thanks Russ Roberts and the Small Business Center at WCTC for all you do.  Forward!


WCTC Small Business Center

Photo is from US Patent and Trademark office showing off a geodesic dome, the work of my innovation muse Dr. Buckminster Fuller.

Clean Food - a trend that's changing the world

I am a member of the Willy Street Co-op in Madison, WI.  Our family values and enjoys the benefits of membership in this great organization.

A recent piece in the Willy Street Reader, Five Trends Coming to a Co-op Near You, jumped out at me.  It was written by Marti Ryan, Board President.

In her piece, Ms. Ryan highlights the concept of 'clean food' as an emerging social trend.

I find it pretty cool that in a recent article Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen customer Kevin Lucey talks about customers describing his Happy Valley Farm Tomato Juice as having a 'clean taste'.   

I used a quote from Ms. Ryan's piece at our farm business seminar this week at the Food Enterprise Center in Viroqua.

"More recently, I’ve come to understand clean food as natural, organic, local, sustainable, fresh, safe, ethical, and healthy. And more Americans are interested in clean food: parents, folks who’ve developed food allergies, even kids."

I love this concept and this language.  While not all clean foods may meet all these goals, working toward them is a trend that is here to stay.

The Innovation Kitchen business model works to develop these specific goals.  Thanks to Ms. Ryan for her valuable insights.

Five Trends Coming to a Co-op Near You.  Willy Street Co-op.  I support and admire this great organization.

Innovation Kitchen creating great foods and great business opportunities

Our Innovation Kitchen model creates great business opportunities for food entrepreneurs and farms.

I love that the first recipe suggestion in this article is a delicious bloody Mary mix made with local tomato juice!

"Happy Valley Farm’s tomato juice is prepared at the Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen in Mineral Point using just the farm’s organic tomatoes, lemon juice and salt."

The Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen continues to pioneer great new models for small-batch, professional food processing that supports food entrepreneurs and farms.

Got a great idea for a small food business?  Join us!


Article - In season:  Tomato juice.    Madison.com, 77 Square.   Article by Samara Kalk Derby

Short (1:26) video interview with Kevin Lucey of Happy Valley Farms discussing the role of the Innovation Kitchen

Milwaukee first U.S. city to adopt global model for boosting startups

I love Milwaukee.

It's a city of great opportunities.

A new entrepreneurship initiative is being launched in Milwaukee that I look forward to following and supporting.

"Milwaukee will be the first city in the U.S. to develop an entrepreneurship program using a Boston professor’s model that has helped boost entrepreneurial “ecosystems” in cities in Colombia, Brazil, Denmark and other countries."

"Isenberg said the tipping point for success, roughly, is achieving one successful entrepreneurial venture per 100,000 residents each year in a particular community.

'It doesn’t happen overnight,' Isenberg said."

Milwaukee first U.S. city to adopt global model for boosting startups.   The Business Journal serving greater Milwaukee.  Written by Jeff Engel.

Photo is the Lake Michigan facing architecture of the wonderful Milwaukee Art Museum 

Thanks to Michael Ward of US Bank for this link.

Great Gray Owls and entrepreneurship. Show up. Shut up. Work for luck.

I was a dinosaur and fossil kid (still am).   I lamented the demise of dinosaurs.  I dreamed about meeting one.

Sometime during my childhood, scientists realized that birds were dinosaurs.

Birds survived the destruction of their dinosaur kin 60+ million years ago.  And they're all around us.

Wow.

When I need to think straight, I go hang out with dinosaurs.  They're all cool.

Great Gray Owls are the largest owl in the world (by length) and have the longest wingspan of any owl in the world.  They are also very hard to see. 
 
Luck is a beautiful thing.  This year, I've been able to see not only my first Great Gray Owl, but a second one six days later.

The first sighting was in a beautiful rural setting in central Wisconsin.  The second sighting was in my own city (Middleton, WI) this week.  Amazing.

Entrepreneurship can be an ever-increasing wall of noise.  Your job is to sort it out in real time.

For me, the only way to do that is to find some quiet love in your life.

Quiet places in your  life are critical.  You need to show up, shut up, and work for luck.  It will make your life better and your entrepreneurship more sustainable.

Wikipedia - Great Gray Owls



Photos taken with standard handheld digital camera.

My Kiva update - 40 loans to entrepreneurs in 33 countries

I just made my 40th loan through Kiva.  I've now made small loans to entrepreneurs in 33 countries.

The loan I made today supports the work of a food entrepreneur in Liberia. 

I love Kiva.  They are a great lending organization.

Kiva just crossed an amazing milestone- over one million loans worldwide.  Congratulations Kiva!

Here is what they say about their work:

"We are a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world."

Here is my current portfolio of 33 countries where I've chosen to support entrepreneurs through my small loans:

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Benin

Bolivia

Cambodia

Chile

Columbia

Costa Rica

Dominican Republic

Ecuador

El Salvador

Georgia

Ghana

Honduras

Iraq

Jordan

Kenya

Kyrgyzstan

Lebanon

Liberia

Mali

Mexico

Mongolia

Nicaragua

Pakistan

Palestine

Paraguay

Peru

Philippines

Rwanda

Togo

Uganda

Viet Nam

The lifeblood of entrepreneurship and economic development is access to capital and the creation of viable business environments.  If you want to make a globally relevant impact with small amounts of money, I recommend Kiva.

Kiva

Kiva Blog:  One Million Borrowers!  March 18, 2013.  Congratulations Kiva!  Congratulations Kiva borrowers!

If you let me invite you to Kiva they will give us both $25 for free to lend to entrepreneurs of our choice. 

Fast Company - World's 50 Most Innovative Companies

One of my last startup companies was awarded Fast Company Magazine's Fast 50 Award in 2004.

Their award is now called The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies.

Our small startup band of warriors invented, patented, built, sold and successfully deployed some of the most innovative industrial water treatment systems in the world.  We built a globally relevant new business from scratch and developed an important new market.  I'm still very grateful for and proud of this recognition from Fast Company Magazine.

The new Fast Company list of the World's 50 Most Innovative Companies is out.  It's a great collection of stories... people changing the world through innovation and intense customer focus.

Opportunities for innovation occur in every industry, no matter how big or small your enterprise.  Who will be on the list for 2014?  Maybe you!


Fast Company Magazine.  The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies.

Our 2004 Fast Company Magazine Fast 50 Award

SustainableWork pageviews - 100,000+

This was a good week for the blog.

SustainableWork will have been published for 8 years next month.

I started writing this while I was running our last business (engineering), largely to talk about what we'd done in our previous business (graphics/printing).

Now I'm working in and writing about new opportunities in food entrepreneurship.

Visitors to SustainableWork have jumped with the writing about food entrepreneurs and economic development.

This week the blog went over a nice pageview milestone.

Thanks to all visitors and friends!

Innovation Kitchen partner featured on Fab.com

Congratulations to Innovation Kitchen partner Food Your Body Likes!

Their great Cereal Revolution line of foods is now featured on Fab.com

Cereal Revolution will be available for another few days.  Then Fab.com will feature their amazing Yumbutter line.

Congratulations Matt and Adrian! 

Here is a quote:

"Like you, we believe in the goodness of the human spirit. Our potions embody flavors as bold as world peace that wow your taste buds, rock your mouth, and dish out the energy your body needs to live the dream. Welcome to the Cereal Revolution."

Thank you Food Your Body Likes!  We are celebrate your food preparation partnership with our Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen!

Fab.com:   Food Your Body Likes.  Healthy Cereal Your Body Needs

Matt D’Amour & Adrian Reif, Chief Revolutionaries, Food Your Body Likes 

Innovation Kitchens