Fall, Football, and Figuring it Out.

I love September. When the calendar flips to September, it means a lot of things to a lot of people - it’s the arrival of Fall (Fall is the best season, by the way), students begrudgingly returning to school to the delight of their parents, and for a lot of Americans, its marks the return of their favorite sport, FOOTBALL.

About 72% of Americans identify as football fans, that’s more than 241 million people. Football is big business. The NFL generated roughly $20 billion of revenue in 2023 and during the Super Bowl, companies paid $7 million per 30-second commercial. College Football TV rights alone accounted for roughly $4 billion in 2023. That doesn’t include College Football’s merchandise, ticket sales, sponsorships, or any NIL deals, including the recent deal with EA Sports to use the Name Image and Likeness of current College Football players in their new videogame, “creatively” named (in a generic way my trademark colleagues would hate) “College Football 25.” Football is America’s favorite sport, but its also becoming the favorite business of many Americans too.

To Do or Not to Do: That Is No Longer the Question (at Least in 2024) – Time to File Beneficial Ownership Information Reports (BOIR) Under the Corporate Transparency Act

For those familiar with the beneficial ownership information (“BOI”) reporting rules under the Corporate Transparency Act of 2021 (“CTA”), you may be aware that on March 1, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama issued a ruling in the case of National Small Business United, d/b/a the National Small Business Association (“NSBA”) v. Yellen. The court concluded that the CTA exceeds the Constitution’s limits on Congress’s power and issued an injunction against the Department of the Treasury and FinCEN, preventing them from enforcing the CTA against the plaintiffs. The Justice Department, representing the Department of the Treasury, filed a Notice of Appeal on March 11, 2024, and the litigation is ongoing.

Michael Lewis, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (W. W. Norton & Company, 2010)

As summer begins to wind down, and as we begin to anticipate less of the happy and carefree and more of the autumnal nose-to-the-grindstone vibe, may I suggest a beach read that has enough substance to satisfy even the most focused entrepreneurial reader?

You may know this author from some of his other books, including The Blind Side and Moneyball, also movies. You may know this story from the movie of the same name. If you don’t, skip the movie. The book is far more enlightening and entertaining.

A Post for National Pickleball Day (August 8, 2024)!

As frequent entreVIEW readers know, I am among the legions of people who became pickleball enthusiasts over the last several years, many of us (present company included) spurred on by the global pandemic. The statistics show that pickleball remains the fastest growing sport in the US, with about 50 million people in the US having played in the last 12 months, an explosive annual growth rate (over 85% in 2022). Contrary to popular perception, the average age of these players is 35 years old.

Minnesota Enacts Comprehensive Data Privacy Law

On May 24, Governor Tim Walz signed into law the Minnesota Consumer Privacy Act (H.F. 4757) (the “MCPA”), which takes effect July 31, 2025.

Minnesota joins the many other states who have now passed laws similar to the California Consumer Privacy Act, granting enhanced data privacy rights to individuals. In the absence of a comprehensive federal privacy law, businesses and organizations that handle personal data must comply with multiple federal, state, and sometimes global data privacy laws.

States with data privacy laws now include California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

Lessons from the Roadside: Embracing Failure in Entrepreneurship

I identify as an entrepreneur - more accurately, a failed entrepreneur - but an entrepreneur, nonetheless. My personal experiences have taught me that failure is not a destination, it’s that strange, potentially intimidating rest stop you may be forced to visit during your entrepreneurial journey through the start-up desert, inching toward the oasis on the other side. Failure is that detour that makes you go “huh…” once its finally in your rearview mirror. In my younger years, I have had the opportunity to stop off at three of these less-than-ideal roadside attractions, each teaching me something new.

Women Who Mean Business

In previous posts, we’ve talked about the unpleasant but inescapable reality that an entrepreneur needs money to get a new business up and running, and to keep it running. Friends and family, crowdfunding, Shark Tank—all good possibilities.

Today, though, I’d like to remind all the women entrepreneurs out there of the numerous resources available to women-owned businesses. And out there you are! The 2023 Annual Report of the National Women’s Business Council estimates that women own more than 14 million companies, around 39% of privately held businesses, representing an increase of 13.6% from 2019 to 2023. Check out these: