What's an intern?

What's an intern? Silly question, right? Not so. It really means something different to everyone you talk to. The "traditional" internship is 8 weeks, over the summer, at a big firm, and the intern is typically in between their junior and senior year of college. But we can tell you as the owners of a site with the word "intern" in the name, that we haven't seen a single job like that posted, so something must have changed. The economy has put a lot of people not only out of work, but in career transition, as well as in limbo after college or grad school. In addition, the growth in online universities has made higher education accessible to the masses, enabling people of all ages and backgrounds to gain additional skill sets.  Social media has made it possible to build an entire business based on free online marketing, and it doesn't take an advanced degree to execute on that strategy. And non-Fortune 500 businesses need help more than ever. Essentially, it's the perfect time for small busineses to find part-time, flexible help. Call them interns or call them George, but they're multiplying, and not in the ways we saw 10 years ago when this girl interned at Arthur Andersen (aka happy hour every day! Should have known the place was doomed.)

Today, interns can be anything from apprentices, to admins, to research analysts, to PR people, to sales people.  They can be in college, post-graduation, or experienced professionals with years under their belt. They can work on site, virtually, or somewhere in between (i.e., once a week in-person check-ins with the rest of the time being solo.)  They can have set hours or a flexible schedule. They can work at a sole proprietorship, a mid-sized firm, or a large public company.  The rules have changed.  Thousands of Urban Interns await you.

Lauren Porat

Co-Founder

Urban Interns

Ultra Light Startups - Great Networking for Entrepreneurs

When starting a new business everyone tells you to network, network, network.  “Be out there,” “meet people,” – call it what you may, but the truth is that as the Founders of an early stage company, a VERY large part of our job right now is selling the concept of Urban Interns and building our brand.  While you can fill every minute of your calendar with networking events, quickly learned it’s more about quality of affiliations than quantity.  We deliberately keep our list of organizations and affiliations short.  That said, Ultra Light Startups, started by Graham Lawlor, continues to be one of our favorites.

What is Ultra Lights Startups? “It’s a group Ultra Light Startups is a group of technology entrepreneurs who collaborate online and in-person to help each other launch startups quicker and cheaper.” 

Okay, so what does that mean? It means that month after month, Graham fills a room of early stage entrepreneurs, all of whom have at least some tech component to their businesses (and who doesn’t these days, right?) to meet, connect and listen to a panel of experts speaking about a cutting edge topic relevant to today’s start-up environment.   The first Ultra Light event we attended was on employment-related business models. In the last few months, he’s also had events based on twitter-based business models, bootstrapping a startup and monetizing online video.  The event starts with an opportunity to do a brief pitch about your company, and dedicated networking (and pizza!) midway through.  All this for $10, $20, or $30 per event, depending on whether you pitch, don’t pitch, or pay at the door.

Graham told us the other day that he began ULS because he was tossing around a number of business ideas and wanted to bring together like minded entrepreneurs, also in their early days, and looking for peers to discuss business ideas and challenges.  Why “Ultra Light” (or pre-funding) as a requirement to pitch at ULS? Because Graham also believes that an entrepreneurs first job is to focus on building a profitable business, not to run out and secure funding.  There are a lot of resources available for later stage companies.  ULS is very unique in its focus on the earlier stage ones.

Why do we like ULS and continue to go back? Great info from the panels, a collegial environment and we never know where the connections will lead.   As a business that focuses on serving small businesses, we’ve gotten a great response from the ULS crowd—who needs an affordable extra set of hands more  than entrepreneurs?

ULS has chapters in New York, Boston and London. Their next event on August 6 is on Local Business Models. More info here: http://ultralightstartups.com/newyork/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laurel Touby, MediaBistro Founder, Shares Insights on Entrepreneurship

Last week, I had the good fortune to attend a Q&A with Laurel Touby, Founder of MediaBistro, courtesy of the Columbia Business School Women’s Entrepreneurship Network.  Laurel is a total powerhouse, having grown her company from 1994 when she started hosting cocktail parties to meet people, to selling it for $23 mm to Jupiter Media in 2007).  So many great tidbits about entrepreneurship were shared.  Below is a sampling:

• On how to grow a business through networking: You can get someone who would normally not open an email to open an invitation
• On product: listen to your customers – they have the BEST ideas
• On funding: build an audience and a revenue stream before approaching investors
• On the CEO being the brand: if you’re too integral to your business, you can never sell it.  You can set the culture but the biz should live without you.
• On growing from local to national: let your customers do your advertising for you
• On hiring: Hire slowly.  Fire fast.
• On being a female CEO: A female CEO will always be the “mean mommy”.  You can’t please everyone all of the time, so don’t sweat it.
• On accepting who you are: There are 2 types of CEOs: inward-facing and outward-facing.  The former knows the numbers, the operations, the metrics.  The latter talks to press, customers etc.  Hire for whatever you’re not.
• On technology: don’t be afraid to ASK your tech people to explain in laymen’s terms how things work and demand that they come up with creative ways to solve problems.  There’s always a way. [ed. note: when I worked at IAC, the Expedia guys, who were really the Microsoft guys, would always say “it’s just software.” So true.]
• On surviving the recession: conserve cash. Show up at your customers’ doors to get paid. Come up with new products.
• On competition: once you get a foothold in your space, it’s harder than you think to knock you down.

Comments welcome!

Lauren  

The Recession Start-Up Phenomenon

Urban Interns is a recession start-up.  And according to the Kauffman Foundation study released in the middle of June entitled  “Economic Future Just Happened”, we are also part of a rich tradition of entrepreneurship that stems from down markets. 

From the release:

“more than half of the companies on the 2009 Fortune 500 list were launched during a recession or bear market, along with nearly half of the firms on the 2008 Inc. list of America’s fastest-growing companies…job creation from startup companies proving to be less volatile and sensitive to downturns when compared to the overall economy.”

While the perceived weakness of competition and unemployment are cited as factors contributing to the “recession start-up” phenomenon, we personally find the “why” to tell only a small part of the story. From our experience and our observation of others also in recession start-up mode, why we chose our current path is yesterday’s news. What’s much interesting is seeing how people are surviving these times and finding ways to thrive.

We’ve seen some businesses using this time to re-invest in themselves and refine their brand and positioning. Others are diversifying their revenue streams, while other are choosing this time to circle around an area of focus.  In other words, the strategies are all over the board. The common themes? Creativity, perseverance, resourcefulness and optimism.  And while the vast majority of us may not wind up on the Fortune 500 or Inc List (though believe us, the Urban Interns team is trying!) history teaches us that many of us that although somewhat counterintuitive, many of us can use these times to grow and prosper.  Additionally, the rapid growth in small business is a major driver in job creation.  Now that’s some good news we all can use.

What about you? Do these economic times have you reaching for the stars or burying your head in the sand? Leave a comment--- we’d love to hear from you.

Cari Sommer

Co-Founder

Urban Interns

Small Business Sentiment: Taking a Turn for the Better, or Will it be Doldrums for a Long Time?

Some data recently came out from the National Federation of Independent Business (N.F.I.B.) that the New York Times commented on, but we question the thoroughness of their analysis.  Since we have the ear of the small business community as well as job seekers, would love your input in the comments below, or if you don't feel comfortable commenting, send us an email at feedback@urbaninterns.com.  

Essentially, the Times writes that the outlook for small business owners is bleak relative to the last two years, with the percentage of SBO’s planning to expand in the next 3 months contracting from 16% in July 2007 to 5% in May 2009.  In addition, SBO’s expect sales to be down 5% in the next 3 months, whereas 2 years ago this number was up 16%; and hiring is expected to be down 5% in the next three months vs. up 13% two years ago.  In addition, consumer confidence fell in June after 2 months of gains, the Conference Board reported today and as part of the same report, the % of Americans saying that jobs are “hard to get” increased slightly month over month.  However, I don’t believe this data tells the full story.  In the SBO data, you have to look at the month over month numbers, and while the “screen shot” of it is bleak on its face, I am seeing ever so slight upticks and/or stability in May over April pricing plans (3% vs 1%), hiring plans (steady at -5%).  In addition, it’s not clear from either study whether this relates to just full-time work or part-time work as well.  Presumably, many SBO’s have cut full-time hiring plans but still need to hire hourly / contract workers or interns to keep the lights on.

What do you all think?  What are your hiring plans for full- AND part-time / interns for the next 3 months like?  Please post your comments below! 

Warmly,

Lauren Porat

Co-Founder

Urban Interns

Building structure around an unstructured internship

Thanks to Shawn Graham of Courting Your Career for guest posting!  We hope to return the favor!

You approach a small company or start up who has never hired an intern before about the possibility of working for them over the summer. They are interested in bringing you on board, but they don’t have a formalized training program or even much of a position description.

If they decide to make you an offer, should you just accept it on the spot so you know you’ll have something on your resume? Possibly…but that’s a risky bet. To make the most of your summer, your internship needs to be meaningful. And the best way to ensure that it’s meaningful is for you to take the lead on giving it some structure.

First things first, you need a job description 1) because you want to know what you’re signing up for and 2) it gives you something tangible that you can refer back to throughout the course of your internship so you can make sure you’re getting the experience you need to position you for full-time employment and your employer is getting the help they need to grow their business. Because they’re a small company, it’s usually much easier for you to pull something together for them to react to than it is to expect them to come up with something on their own.

Once you have a mutually agreed upon job description, you can initiate a discussion about a midpoint and final performance review. Doing so will put you in a position to receive actionable feedback that you’ll be able to address before the end of the summer and see how you throughout the course of the internship--this is especially important if you think there might be a shot at them hiring you on full time as you want to make sure you’re meeting their expectations and performing at the highest possible level.

If they don’t have a formalized training program, there’s a pretty good chance that it’s going to be up to you to get up to speed on your own. Take time to familiarize yourself with their business including their products and services. Listen for clues from management and coworkers about the challenges they’re facing as they could give you an idea for a project you could help get off of the ground.

And, speaking of which, don’t forget to speak up. Managers get busy. A typical 10 week summer internship goes by pretty quickly. If you find you’re spending most of your time on busy work or no work at all, approach your intern employer with ideas of how you might be able to help out on specific projects. You don’t want to come across as telling them what to do, but you do want to offer to help.

Adding structure to an unstructured internship is the best way to ensure a positive experience for the company and for you as their intern. The more meaningful your experience, the more meaningful it will be on your resume as you search for a full-time job.

Shawn Graham is author of Courting Your Career: Match Yourself with the Perfect Job and a career expert blogger for FastCompany.com. For more information about Shawn, visit his blog at courtingyourcareer.com.

 

Women Entrepreneurs Rock the World!

We had the great fortune to attend Savor the Success's 2009 Women Entrepreneurs Rock the World event (event details here) today.  We were so psyched to be in a room of so many amazing entrepreneurs, and the speakers had volumes of advice and takeaways for small business owners everywhere.  Here are the highlights:

Melissa Cassera of Cassera Communications on story spinning: your business's story is as much about YOU as it is about your business.  In order to craft this, work hard to incorporate the EMOTIONS, DETAILS, and CHARACTERS into it.

Mike Michalowicz, serial entrepreneur and author of the best-selling Toilet Paper Entrepreneur: Here is his formula for success: YOUR BELIEFS + WHAT YOU FOCUS ON = APPARENT ACTION.  If you believe there is an opportunity, it will absolutely happen.  If you believe the economy will crush you, it absolutely will.  Changing your thought patterns will change your business.  Also, set your 10-year vision for your business.  Anyone can achieve anything in 10 years.  Your vision must be crystal clear and it must be big.  But you have to achieve your goal in a zigzag pattern...that is, set your 90 day plan and achieve it, then re-calibrate and set your next 90 day plan, and so forth, because headwinds change and you must adjust.

Ayesha Matthews on branding: Decide what your core values are and make sure every aspect of your user experience reflects those.  An awesome product is a necessary precursor to a good branding campaign.

Sydney Biddle Barrows - the infamous Mayflower Madame! - on creating a compelling customer experience: You need to understand what business you're really in, and create a unique selling proposition around that.  For example, as a madame she was not in the escort business but in the fantasy and the trust businesses.  (An interesting example, we know, but very effective as an example of a simple, well-branded business at the time - albeit an illegal one!)

Thanks to Angela Jia Kim, founder of Savor the Success, for organizing the event.  We look forward to connecting with all of the great people we met there soon.

Warmly,

Lauren & Cari