Entrepreneur.com Writers' Guidelines

1. Small-business owners who have been in business for several years. These readers are seeking innovative strategies to grow their businesses but are also interested in new business ideas and opportunities as well as current issues that affect their companies.
   
   
2. People who are either dreaming of starting their own business or have a business that's less than 2 years old. These individuals don't necessarily have a lot of money, so they're looking for shoestring startup ideas and low-cost ways to start and run their businesses. They need how-to advice, articles that keep them on top of business trends and motivational articles to get (and stay) psyched up.
   
   
3. Home based business owners. These readers need information unique to the home based entrepreneur. Like the entrepreneurs described above, they're seeking information that will help them run their businesses better.
   
   
4. People interested in purchasing a franchise or business opportunity. They want accurate, reliable, unbiased information from a source they can trust. They want to learn what they need to know before plunking down any cash--as well as where to find the cash to plunk down.

Before pitching a story to us, be sure to read a variety of the articles on our site so you can tailor your pitches to meet our content needs. We reject many of the queries we receive because the subject matter in no way matches what we're looking for.

We don't typically write profiles of specific business owners unless their story warrants it. There needs to be a compelling reason to write about an entrepreneur--it can't just be, say, that he or she is achieving record-breaking sales. We want to know--and our readers want to know--why they're achieving record-breaking sales.

We're seeking stories that we can't cover in the print magazine due to the time factor--if there's something to write about now, we can't write about it in a print issue that will hit newsstands in several months. That's the beauty of the web--we have the ability to cover things at a moment's notice. For instance, we can write about how a particular current event or trend is affecting small business now.

Submission Guidelines

• Please send all queries for online articles only via e-mail to pitches@entrepreneur.com. (All magazine queries should be e-mailed to our magazine's executive editor, Karen Axelton. All technology queries should be sent to our magazine's tech editor, Mike Hogan). Allow a minimum of six weeks for a response--no phone calls, please.
• Entrepreneur Media Inc. assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photos.

If You Receive an Assignment...
You will receive a contract outlining the terms of your assignment, along with any other materials that you might need in writing your article. Please sign the contract and return it as soon as possible.

Before you begin working on your article, read through the following guidelines carefully:

• We encourage our writers to make themselves the "authority" on a given topic, without talking down to readers or patronizing them. We want you to sound experienced, so you can point our readers in the right direction. At the same time, you should almost always--unless otherwise specified--talk to experts who can comment on an issue, trend or idea; this lends credibility to articles. Where appropriate, you should also interview real entrepreneurs, but always clear them with your articles editor first to ensure we haven't written about them before and that they're suitable for the article.
  
  
• Always include ages of any entrepreneurs in your article, and be sure to include a mix of men and women from different parts of the country. If the article isn't about a specific industry, include different types of businesses; don't just talk to retail businesses, for example.
  
  
• Use your best judgment when choosing and talking to experts--if one expert doesn't answer your questions satisfactorily or if you question their advice, find another expert to interview. Make sure your sources--expert or otherwise--know upfront that being interviewed doesn't guarantee they will appear in the final version of the article.
  
  
• Keep your tone informal and chatty. Be creative; it can be challenging to hold a web reader's interest, so you don't want to lose them before they've even scrolled down the page. Use humor if the article lends itself to it.
  
  
• Always include pull-out boxes, sidebars, lists of additional resources or other information that can be presented in a visually inventive way to break up the text. While writing, include bulleted/numbered lists where appropriate; this also helps keep the reader's attention.
  
  
• Write your articles in the second person and in the present tense. Include compelling quotes from your sources--key word: compelling. If you can say it better by paraphrasing, you should do so.
  
  
• Always include the following information: full names and titles of all individuals mentioned and/or quoted in the article; complete names, brief descriptions and locations (city and state) of all companies, organizations or associations mentioned (including Inc., Corp., LLC, etc.); the year a company was founded (include month if it was within the past year); current annual sales of companies; and street prices of any products mentioned.
  
  
• Include contact names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and website URLs for all sources used in the article. This includes any statistical information or information from studies or surveys. Always send copies of any backup material (press releases, reports, etc.) you used in researching the article. You should also factcheck with your sources: Doublecheck spellings of names, companies, dates, sales figures and any other factual information used in the article. You don't need to factcheck quotes (and you shouldn't); just check hard facts. When you turn in your article, include written evidence that you've factchecked your information (for instance, you can e-mail your source to factcheck and then forward the e-mail to your articles editor).
  
  
• Never send your article to a source.
  
  
• Proofread your article before submission. Please include a working headline and deck. These should be straightforward--for instance: Advertising on the Cheap: How to pump up your promotional efforts without losing an arm and a leg.
  
  
• Provide a brief bio (along with a website URL) for inclusion at the end of your article.
  
  
  

Acceptance, Rights & Payment
Entrepreneur.com buys first worldwide rights and electronic rights and pays on acceptance. Please e-mail, mail or fax an invoice with your article. Include a description of the article, your Social Security number, address, phone number and date of invoice. The invoice should be numbered (the numbering system is up to you)--we use those numbers to track your payment.

Articles are usually read within two weeks of submission. Your articles editor will contact you if any major revisions are needed.

Finally, if you have questions at any point during the writing process, feel free to contact your articles editor.