Michelle Leder: Editor, founder of footnoted.org

Podcast:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MichelleLeder

Home: Peekskill, N.Y.
What I do: Mostly read and report on SEC files, but some other stuff, too.
Previous life: Reporter for daily newspapers

My brand: footnoted.org
Hours worked per week: Lots
Annual sales: Thankfully, I’m not a public company, so I don’t have to disclose this.

What I wish I had known when I started: A bit more coding
Best business advice ever received: Don’t try to be all things to all people — do what you do best.
Best marketing tool: Me

Biggest business mistake: Giving away valuable information for free — leads to expectations that it will continue to be free.
My happiness on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being supremely so: Seven
Best part of being an entrepreneur: Getting to take hikes with my dog in the middle of the day.
Worst part: Working way too many hours.

Biggest professional regret: Giving away my best stuff.
Advice to would-be entrepreneurs: Find something you enjoy doing. and if it happens to be something that has the potential to make money, that’s even better.

About the Author

The Reynolds Center, created through generous grants from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation of Las Vegas and operated by ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is dedicated to improving the quality of business and economics coverage through training programs for business reporters and editors.