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The Green
Launching a new business isn’t easy. There’s a lot of uncertainty involved as you invest countless hours and money developing your innovative idea. It’s exhausting.
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That’s why budding entrepreneurs should take occasional breaks to recharge their batteries. Popular distractions include:
Another great strategy? Watch movies, TV shows, and documentaries for entrepreneurs and startups. With this approach, you’re technically off the clock. However, you can still glean a lot of useful insights to help make your business journey easier and more successful.
Consuming entrepreneurial entertainment allows you to:
Streaming services, like Netflix or Amazon Prime, offer a huge catalog of on-demand TV shows and documentaries that is seemingly tailor-made for new businesses. Below are some of our top picks in no particular order.
Praised for its highly accurate portrayal of restaurant life, The Bear is a tense drama about a successful fine dining chef who is placed in charge of his late brother’s sandwich shop in Chicago. In addition to showcasing the chaotic energy of a working kitchen, the show deals with all aspects of small business life. From inventory issues to uniform disagreements, to plumbing — it’s a dramatized deep dive into the nitty gritty of entrepreneurship.
Learn more here.
This three-part docuseries takes you into the life of one of the wealthiest people in the world and Microsoft co-founder – Bill Gates. From his childhood and education to his Microsoft stewardship and his charitable foundation, you’ll learn about what formed him, what kept him going while juggling multiple complex projects, and what motivated him to succeed.
Interviews, biographical material, and candid footage showcase Gates’ intelligence, optimism, and determination. This is currently available on Netflix.
Factory closings are relatively common as more manufacturing jobs transfer overseas or are replaced due to automation. In this 2019 documentary from Netflix, a Chinese firm reopens a shuttered plant in Ohio.
Heartwarming, yes. However, due to culture clashes, political disagreements, and geography, things don’t go according to plan.
If you’re also struggling with hiring, training, or managing workers, give this documentary a try. It’s currently available on Netflix.
They say you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure. Yet, sometimes you don’t really have a choice when your entire family is driven by money, power, and greed. This is the plot line of HBO’s wildly successful “Succession” drama series.
As an entrepreneur, you probably won’t learn how to run a business from this series, but you can learn how to strike a deal, negotiate, and “work” with your friends and family members.
Available from Apple TV, this series is similar to “Shark Tank,” except the product pitches are all focused on developing apps. Instead of relying exclusively on tech CEOs or Silicon Valley investors to mentor contestants, the show uses four celebrity judges – Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gary Vaynerchuk, and will.i.am.
If you’re into technology in general, or apps in particular, this may be the perfect series for you. It’s currently available on Apple TV.
If you’re a business owner and you know who Warren Buffet is, then you already understand why watching this documentary is essential. If you don’t know who Warren Buffet is, he’s one of the most successful investors of all time – with a net worth of $60 billion.
Available on HBO Max, “Becoming Warren Buffet” pairs nicely with the first documentary on our list – (“Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates”).
Tony Robbins is a renowned life coach and business strategist. He leaves everything he has on the field.
This powerful documentary takes a deep dive into all of the behind-the-scenes preparation that goes into his extremely well-attended workshops. It also serves as the perfect counterbalance to another Netflix favorite — “FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” (2019).
If you feel stressed about your workload — especially when it comes to conference planning — this documentary will inspire you. This is currently available on Netflix.
If you’ve never watched a TED Talk, you should. Short for technology, education and design, each TED video features experts from around the world who cover topics about which they are most passionate.
The platform’s main website makes all of these videos free to the public — complete with powerful search features that allow you to filter topics based on their subject matter. Whether you’re interested in productivity, entrepreneurship, or design — you can quickly find it.
With so many videos already published, it’s easy to fall into the rabbit hole and never return. As an entrepreneur, time is one of your most valuable assets.
Fortunately, you’re in luck. YouTube has hand-picked some of the best content from these TED Talks and compiled them into a 9-part “Life Hack” series. If you’re looking for a crash course in business education that you can fit into a weekend of binge watching — definitely check out these TED Talks on YouTube.
Succeeding in a single business is tough. Starting several multibillion-dollar companies (including PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX) is nothing short of remarkable. You can learn exactly how Elon Musk accomplished this feat in YouTube’s 2014 documentary.
“Print the Legend” is an award-winning documentary that follows the rise of 3D printing and additive manufacturing. Most consumers don’t have 3D printers in their home. This 2014 Netflix documentary makes it clear that with increased R&D and falling prices, these next-generation printers will eventually become common household items. Lucrative profits await whichever manufacturer is able to establish market share before that happens.
Are you someone who dislikes wearing formal work attire, attending meetings, or dealing with stiff office culture? Starting your own business could be a good first step in turning things around. Available on Amazon Prime, this documentary follows the quirky, yet successful, management style of the guy behind natural beauty product line, Burt’s Bees.
Steve Jobs was a complicated man, but the impact of his contributions is outsized beyond measure. In fact, some of the shows in this list (such as “Planet of the Apps”) wouldn’t be possible if Jobs hadn’t introduced the world’s first commercially successful smart device – i.e., the original iPhone. This documentary is available on YouTube.
“Shark Tank” is to startups what “The Voice” is for singers, however in the former, contestants audition with a business idea rather than a prepared song. If chosen by one of the celebrity judges on the panel, that contestant then receives mentoring and financial assistance to help get his or her startup off the ground or create additional opportunities for an existing business.
All 13 seasons of “Shark Tank” are available on CTV.
The above titles are merely scratching the surface. You could spend hours (literally) watching tons of TV shows for entrepreneurs on Netflix and other on-demand services. Just remember that streaming services continuously update their catalog of TV shows, documentaries, and movies.
Also, don’t forget to talk to your tax advisor about reporting your monthly streaming subscription as a “business” expense. It never hurts to ask.
Happy streaming.
If you want to learn more about how Clover can help you accept payments, run your business and sell more, please contact your Clover Business Consultant. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
This information is intended solely for informational purposes and should not be interpreted as legal, financial, or tax advice. Readers are strongly advised to consult with their attorneys, financial advisors, or tax professionals to obtain guidance tailored to their specific circumstances.
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