Serial Entrepreneur Finds Success Using Social Media

GloryWorks! Family,

How are your business related social media efforts going? Swimmingly, I hope. If you need a little inspiration, I have plenty of examples of individuals who are using social media to boost their businesses and rake in some serious dough.

This week's inspiration: Mari Luangrath, founder, Foiled Cupcakes
taken from Crain's Small Business Forum Newsletter

Luangrath is currently working on her third entrepreneurial venture, Foiled Cupcakes, Chicago's only online-order and personal-delivery cupcake company. Starting the gourmet business with her own capital and using social media as her only form of advertising, Luangrath has proven her expertise in relationship building using online networks and word-of-mouth marketing: Foiled Cupcakes surpassed first-year revenue goals by more than 600%, entirely attributed to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging.

Luangrath's authenticity and passion for business strategy and networking has resulted in a client list that includes Bank of America, the Chicago Cubs, the Food Channel, Harpo Communications, Northwestern University, Wm. J. Wrigley Co. and more than 100 Fortune 500 companies.

Good News for GloryWorks! Biz Owners: Alpharetta Accelerator Launches August 9

With Georgia leading the nation in new business startups, a new kind of small business incubator will launch with ribbon-cutting ceremonies 4pm-6pm on Tuesday, August 9, 2011 to serve the need for more and better small-business growth and job creation throughout the state.

 

The Alpharetta Accelerator has been designed by its principals to offer multiple new services to its clients, unlike other small business incubators. The services include a 75-member Board of Advisors; access to the soon-to-be-established $10 million Alpharetta Seed Capital Fund; and preferred access to the Atlanta Gathering of Angels, a group of accredited investors that meets twice monthly. The Gathering of Angels group has found capital for more than 375 young companies since it was founded in 1996 by Tarby Bryant, one of the managing partners of the Accelerator.

The Accelerator will be located at 221 Roswell Street in downtown Alpharetta, Georgia, in what the principals call full service, state-of-the-art and best of breed facilities complete with unlimited free parking and neighborhood amenities. It will comprise the entire first floor of the building which is the headquarters of Staffing Technologies Worldwide, a privately-held $60 million international technological staffing company owned by Jim McNabb, another managing partner of the Alpharetta Accelerator.

LEARN MORE: Alpharetta Accelerator Launches August 9 | Atlanta Daybook