A former Entrepreneur employee and longtime friend just
became the editor of a popular decorating magazine. In her
inaugural editor's note she recalled her
"change-phobic" past and the day a co-worker (that would
be me) left a note on her desk simply saying, "Change is
good."
If you're a regular reader of Entrepreneur, you
likely have already figured out the reason I mention change. This
issue looks different--very different. Several months ago, I had a
fairly short conversation with Carrie Fitzmaurice,
Entrepreneur's publisher, and Lisa Murray, director of
marketing, about tweaking Entrepreneur's look, touching
it up here and there. But then I recalled the advice my grandfather
gave my mom many years ago: "If you're going to do
something, don't do it halfway." I realized that rather
than wade in, we should just take the plunge.
This isn't the first time we've redesigned
Entrepreneur and, given my penchant for change, it surely
won't be the last. But this time we undertook our makeover a
bit differently. In the past, we have turned to outside design
consultants for a new look. This time, we reasoned, Who better
understands our readers and how to address your needs than one of
our own--longtime creative director Mark Kozak? So in a
split-second decision, I returned to my office, yelled out,
"Kozak!" (a fairly common sound heard in our office), and
the process began. Being an entrepreneurial company, we're not
very patient, so Kozak went into overdrive and accomplished in 12
weeks what generally takes many, many months. As you read through
the issue, I think you'll agree that he (and the amazing
Entrepreneur art team: Richard Olson, Matt Samarin, Vandana
Devireddy, Raul Fernandez and Curtis Travis) did a masterful
job.
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There's a lot that's new in this issue (starting with
the Entrepreneur logo on the front cover), but a lot
that's familiar as well. It's more of a redecoration than a
remodel. We changed type fonts and color palettes, opened the
leading (the space between sentences) and updated the page layouts.
But we didn't stop at just the cosmetic. Entrepreneur
has always been (and still is) jampacked with constructive,
pragmatic information to help you grow your business, but we never
seemed to have enough space to feature business owners. Now each of
the main sections--Tech, Money, Lead (formerly Management) and Sell
(formerly Marketing)--kicks off with a new column, Snapshot,
featuring noteworthy entrepreneurs who are making a mark in those
fields.
In another change, the section formerly known as Smarts is now
Forward. Though the name (and layout) is different, you'll
still find the same excellent mix of news, trends and ideas to give
you a jump on what's new in the world of entrepreneurship.
Most people think all entrepreneurs automatically embrace
change. But the truth is, while some jump at the chance to
transform, others fear the unknown. As change advocates, we
strongly believe change should play a major part in all
entrepreneurs' businesses, for, as noted author Gail Sheehy
once wrote, "If we don't change, we don't
grow."