Jeanne Gray has a knack for turning small businesses into big ones.

While some entrepreneurs fantasize about cashing out and settling down, Gray finds pleasure in a business’s chaotic start-up phase, a time during which anything is possible. “I love that little period of time when a company struggles with where its full potential is,” she said.

She’s transformed businesses she’s owned and ones for which she’s consulted, and she seeks to impart good business sense to countless peers through a growing network of entrepreneur-targeted news sites that include NJ Entrepreneur, NY Entrepreneur, and others, all under the umbrella of U.S. Entrepreneur Today.

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Photo: Flickr/mick/Lumix

Gold watches were once the gift of choice for corporate employers bidding farewell to longtime employees.

But when downsizing cost Barbara Jones her IBM job in the mid-1990s, Jones received something far more valuable: an entrepreneurship class. The class forced Jones to assess her skills and think critically about where her passions lay, and she settled on opening a flower shop. “I wanted to do something different,” she said, adding that she relished the chance to design aesthetically pleasing arrangements and build a following of loyal customers.

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Photo: Flickr/401k

What’s the best way to finance your new business?

When I ask this question in front of a crowd, I get answers like “credit,” “loans,” “investors,” and “family.”

Good guesses, but they are all wrong.

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Last month, fans of Charles Dickens honored the 200th anniversary of the author’s birth with readings, remembrances and musings on the Victorian scribe’s contribution to Western literature.

Amid the celebrations emerged a useful lesson for small-business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs.

No, I’m not talking about Dickens’ exhortation against stinginess in the form of Ebenezer Scrooge. I’m referring to the manner in which the author created some of his most famous works: Dickens wrote and published many of his novels in monthly, chapter-length installments.

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