Hopefully efforts such as these will help to spur entrepreneurship and economic growth in West Africa. As opposed to reliance on outside development aid (as depicted in the film last week), programs such as these can generate opportunities in Africa and create jobs to help attack the source of poverty rather than alleviate the symptoms.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/08/huge-hackathon-in-west-africa-hopes-to-produce-the-next-wave-of-startups/

This article looks at some of the best places in the world for entrepreneurs. The US is in the lead followed by Canada, Australia and the UK.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102186254#.

Just like Professor Hollis emphasizes in class, the author of this article believes that, “[I]nside the soul of the person we call our customer hangs the key to our success.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericwagner/2015/02/04/entrepreneurship-101-your-blueprint-for-a-successful-startup/

This is an article written Mariéme Jamme, a Senegalese businesswoman based in London, who has launched numerous ventures to support development, which include Africa Gathering, an organization that brings entrepreneurs together to create positive change in Africa. In this piece, Ms. Jamme calls for women to have greater access to entrepreneurial opportunities and says that internal policies have to be changed to allow for greater advancement. Without such changes, she argues, that economic prosperity and stability will not be achieved. She also comments that foreign aid received has not done enough to close the gender and that more needs to be done.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mariame-jamme/africas-poor-policies-let_b_6585676.html

http://www.inc.com/tim-askew/second-acts-and-the-aging-entrepreneur.html

J.D. Harrison suggests moves for Congress to make to stop the rapid decline of business in the U.S. His recommendations are perhaps a bit lofty, but are interesting considerations. We can all get behind lowering student debt, right?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/more-businesses-are-closing-than-starting-can-congress-help-turn-that-around/2014/09/17/06576cb8-385a-11e4-8601-97ba88884ffd_story.html

I’m not really a fan of Breitbart.com but I thought some of the data was interesting. We mentioned it briefly in class last week but the article discusses how the number of small businesses closing exceeds the number of businesses starting.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/01/28/american-small-business-is-literally-dying/

This article explains why some businesses fail even after they make it past the startup phase.

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2015/01/27/attention-successful-startups-beware-the-pitfalls.html?page=all

Based on our conversation in class yesterday, here is a recent article looking at the State of Washington’s liberalization of the legal market by adding a legal technician license. Although the State is only allowing the licences to be used in the practice of family law to start, it will probably grow quickly if embraced by the general public.

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/washington_state_moves_around_upl_using_legal_technicians_to_help_close_the

Here are the requirements for the license:

“To become an LLLT, an applicant must have at least an associate’s degree and complete 45 credit hours of core curriculum currently being taught at community colleges in the state. The core curriculum is specified by court rule and covers topics such as civil procedure, contracts, legal research and writing, professional responsibility, and law office procedures and technology.

In addition, applicants must complete courses specific to the practice area in which they seek to be licensed. For family law, the only approved practice area so far, the 15-hour curriculum was developed jointly by the state’s three ABA-approved law schools—at Gonzaga University, Seattle University and the University of Washington. Applicants also must have 3,000 hours of substantive law-related work experience supervised by a licensed lawyer.”

This article discusses online spending and, in particular, the way that “Generation Z” spends the highest portion of their income online compared to older age groups. It shows not only a stronger move toward e-commerce but also notes that more traditional notions about shopping habits don’t necessarily hold true for online shoppers.

http://www.businessinsider.com/generation-z-e-commerce-shopping-2014-9