It's Entrepreneurship Week: Ideas for Becoming Your Own Boss
Editor, CNBC.com
Whether it's finding a job or making a career move, it's rough out there. A new survey finds that 75 percent of employed people who applied for a job during the past year never heard from at least one potential employer.
So if you're fed up and always imagined striking out on your own — this week is for you!
In honor of the seventh annual National Entrepreneurship Week, the U.S. Small Business Administration is hosting a series of webinars for entrepreneurs on everything from crowdfunding innovation to starting an urban farm.
(Read more: Youngstown's Story: Rust Belt Turns to 'Tech Belt' in the Name of Jobs)
Crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter have gained momentum as a platform for startups to raise cash.
How Crowdfunding Works
Crowdfunding broadly allows founders of nonprofit, for-profit, artistic and cultural ventures to fund projects by collecting relatively small contributions from a large number of individuals — often strangers — through the Internet. Since Kickstarter's launch in April 2009, more than $450 million has been pledged by more than 3 million people, funding more than 35,000 creative projects.
(Read more: How Trendy Funding Puts Pressure on Startups)
Many small-business owners are finding ways to make crowdfunding work within the current guidelines, especially as traditional lending and credit conditions remain weak.
But opponents caution crowdfunding opens the door for businesses to get off the ground prematurely, or lure unsophisticated investors.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has delayed establishing new rules for the fast-evolving funding platform. The rules were supposed to take effect as part of the JOBS Act (Jump-Start Our Business Start-Ups), signed by President Obama last April. The SEC is being cautious on investor protections that have been in place for decades. (Read more: The Crowdfunding Crowd Is Anxious)
(Read more: Midwestern Startups: The Rise of Silicon Prairie)
Go here for web conference log in instructions. The next session begins at 3 p.m. ET today.
— Written by CNBC's Heesun Wee. Follow her on Twitter @heesunwee
