Open for Business

John Henry speaks with researchers to get to the bottom of the “entrepreneurial gene” and what it takes to start a business. Henry also hears firsthand from successful entrepreneurs about their own personal journeys and how they navigated the ups and downs of starting a business.

How you hire can make or break a business. John Henry talks with eBay seller Jordan Insley and other industry experts about their hiring horror stories and successful strategies for building a company culture and identifying the right people to grow a business.

What small business owners can learn from a Price is Right champion might surprise you. John Henry speaks with game show legend Terry Kniess, as well as Zoher Karu of eBay’s data team, about one of the leading factors determining small business success – pricing. Also, hear from an entrepreneur wrestling with how to price a new product and the factors guiding the decision-making process.

John Henry takes a look at the story of the Osborne Computer Corporation, one of the most famous examples of good PR gone bad, and how marketing has evolved over the last three decades since. Hear from marketing experts and eBay seller John Lawson, who helped launch his apparel company with the aid of a viral video, about what it takes to successfully promote a product and build a brand.

John Henry draws parallels between being an entrepreneur and the immigrant experience, and explores the ways in which so many new Americans are entrepreneurial by nature in order to work and establish a life for themselves. Henry also draws from his personal experience as a son of immigrants, to both reflect on the entrepreneurial mindset passed on to him, and broaden the mainstream concept of what it means to be an entrepreneur.

Everyone is talking about the rise of the gig economy, but few realize that before Airbnb and Uber, eBay was one of the first platforms for would-be entrepreneurs. Host John Henry looks at the past, present, and future of the gig economy -- who's participating, why, and what it all means for the future of work.

In order to survive, every small business has to be nimble. Successful entrepreneurs understand change and reinvention are a natural part of running a business. John Henry speaks with two seasoned entrepreneurs to find out the lessons learned when faced with external pressures which forced them to pivot and rethink their business strategies.

Host John Henry talks to entrepreneurs about the misadventures and sticky situations they’ve gotten themselves into while running an online business. These entrepreneurs share the lessons they’ve learned and how to get customer service right in a tech-savvy, rapid-response, on-demand world.

Venture capital. Seed funding. Angel investors. In today’s world terms like these are constantly swirling all around entrepreneurs and small business owners. But the reality is that only a small percentage of companies receive venture funding. John Henry explores how regular people find the money to get their businesses off the ground.

The world of business is unforgiving. One moment you’re on top of the world, and the next you’re struggling to keep your doors open. For every successful business, there are dozens of examples of failure. In this episode of OFB, we explore failure through the lens of two very different companies, and the lessons learned when things don’t always go as planned.

When you think of business hubs, big cities like New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago come to mind. But not every business starts in a big metropolis and, thanks to the Internet, not every business has to. In fact, every year hundreds of thousands of small businesses are born outside of these major hubs. In this episode John Henry talks with three entrepreneurs who leveraged their unique communities to create thriving businesses.

Every business owner knows how they make money each day. What’s harder to define sometimes is why? What motivates you beyond making a profit? In this episode, John Henry sheds light on how a mission statement can have a greater impact than you might realize; it can help provide the framework for personal and business growth.

When a business grows from 1 employee to 20 or more in the matter of months, how do you create a place where people want to work? How do you create a culture that reduces turnover? How can you be a better boss? In this episode, recorded before a live audience at SXSW, John Henry speaks to seasoned entrepreneurs about how the boss sets the right tone for the culture of an entire organization, no matter the size, and how to attract the right talent to drive productivity in the workplace.