Archive for July 2004
Microsoft Says “Blog is a Four-Letter Word”
Microsoft: “What do George Bush and John Kerry, IBM, and thousands of small businesses have in common? They all use a Web log—or ‘blog’ for short—to reach potential customers and get them interested in their products. But not all do so with equal success.”
→ spaghettiicecream.com Spaghetti Ice Cream is a derivation of a traditional European dessert, served at many European ice cream shops. There is no actual pasta in Spaghetti Ice Cream, just vanilla ice cream (the spaghetti), blended strawberries (the sauce) and grated white chocolate and grated almonds (the cheese). If you are looking for an inexpensive [...]
Choosing an Attorney That Understands Entrepreneurs
Jeff Cornwall: Understand the advantages and disadvantages of large vs. small firms. Large firms have specialized expertise that can become critical as you grow. Small firms can offer a more personal touch and can be more efficient. Most entrepreneurs need something in between. Understand your needs (e.g., intellectual property, environmental law, employment law, etc.) and [...]
Paul Boutin: “Ok, ok, so a few of my bloggerati pals saw Dave’s post below and went: Whoa, are you saying there were 100,000 clickthroughs to Dave’s blog from one MSN article? Yes, it’s the norm. The msn.com domain pulls something like 10 million unique visitors every day. Sure, some of that is due to [...]
J.C. Penney’s Performance Clothing
You thought they just sold clothing, but J.C. Penney has their own research and development facilities! From the New York Post: ” J.C. Penney is at the forefront of an explosion in so-called performance clothing, a category dominated by wrinkle-free and stain-resistant fabrics that slash dry-cleaning bills and appeal to time-strapped consumers.” It gets better: [...]
Fred Wilson, the venture capitalist, explained valuation today on A VC: The question is what is the fair value of the business? This supposedly establishes how much of the company the venture capitalists will own for their investment. But I think the concept of valuation is often misunderstood by the people engaged in this process. [...]
Free Loaner Cars for Reapir Shops
Listen up, car dealers! Ross at Strategize has an idea, that I think, will sell cars! If I was a car manufacturer, I would find the non-dealer body shop that did the highest volume business in fixing cars manufactured by my main competitor — if I were BMW, I’d go find the high volume Mercedes [...]
Small Business Trends: “The Kiplinger Letter, in its latest edition (subscription required), reports that small towns in the United States are attracting more college graduates. Kiplinger says that is ‘good news for small-business employers in those areas. Young adults are shunning metropolitan areas for quieter towns and cities that offer cheaper housing, easier commutes, good [...]
Evelyn Rodriguez: Did you know in spoken conversation or public speaking, people respond to you more than the words (and therefore concepts) you mouth? Professor Albert Mehrabian of UCLA’s research determined which factors influenced listener impressions the most and they were: 55% non-verbal (facial expressions, body language) 38% voice (quality, tone, pitch, variation, volume) 7% [...]
Steve Pilgrim pointed me to James Lileks’s entry today about his trouble with a DirectTV installation: One service call turned into seven. One three-hour wait window turned into 21 hours. I can still see the original installer who screwed everything up — scrawny, nervy, tar-stained teeth, a lummox associate whom you expected to say “I [...]
Slate: “When you look at the business of professional sports — in both Europe and the United States — American sports are virtually all socialistic while the European soccer leagues more closely resemble the entrepreneurial capitalism we Americans fetishize.” via Kottke.
Jeff Cornwall: “Rob at BusinessPundit suggested a post at The Occupational Adventure about failure. It is worth a look. Failure, or the fear of failure, is what has kept many a potential entrepreneur on the sidelines. Failure is something we all have learned from along the way if we let ourselves take some risks. It [...]
This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists is up at pc4Media. Note to host, Peter Caputa: Check the definition of carnival.
The Gong Show for Billion-Dollar Dreamers
NY Times: A 33-year-old engineer from Salt Lake City, promoting a company that would mass-produce flying cars with retractable wings, was among the lucky finalists in the “Pitch Tim Draper on Your Billion Dollar Idea” contest, held Wednesday in the offices of the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Another finalist was a San Jose, [...]
David St Lawrence: This is sort of an advanced concept for some people. They may have such difficulty staying ahead of the game themselves, that they find it hard to conceive of sharing the best bits of their business with others. Others I have known were able to share their game without losing control of [...]
Atmaspheric | Endeavors: “Instead of just offering an option to have the number dialed, why not send the information as an SMS or even an email with vcard so you could save it for future calling from your phone/device. Landline calling would require a simple registration to identify where you want the information sent. I’d [...]
An Amazon reviewer: “If you are a biz start-up novice and aren’t sure what you need to do to get your thoughts out of your head and onto paper in a logical, well-organized manner…you need this book. If you have a business plan to write and think you might get hung up on the finance [...]
The 2000 Franchise Annual: ‘The Original’ Franchise Handbook and Directory
Amazon: Since 1996 The Franchise Annual Directory has been the largest and most complete franchise directory available. Known as the “Bible of the Franchise World” the directory gives all the information you need to investigate before investing. It’s guaranteed accurate at date of publication. There are separate American, Canadian, and Overseas sections as well as [...]
Chad Everett: It costs 4.2 cents to produce a dollar bill. That dollar bill lasts for 18 to 22 months. Meanwhile, it costs 12 cents to produce a Sacagawea Dollar – but the coins last for thirty years. The cost of keeping a dollar bill around for thirty years is somewhere between 69 and 84 [...]
Libertarian and Justice For All
Fortune Small Business: “If you want to become a florist in Louisiana, a state law requires you to take a licensing exam. Your flowers are evaluated by licensed florists on subjective criteria such as whether they are ‘spaced effectively’ and have the ‘proper focal point.’ More than half of the applicants fail. Do unlicensed florists [...]
→ primerestaurants.com Fionn MacCool’s are part of a family of fine Irish pubs that serve traditional Irish fare made from authentic recipes that have been developed over generations. Their pub interiors offer a warm and friendly environment and many pubs feature furnishings that have been imported directly from Ireland. Enjoy our welcoming Irish hospitality while [...]
I don’t know how I would be able to keep up without Bloglines. Happy birthday to my favorite web service.
Robert Murphy: “I personally like to use a reductio ad absurdum when it comes to international trade, and the widespread fear of ‘cheap imports.’ When arguing with someone along these lines, I first ask, ‘So are you saying that it would it be better for the US if foreigners shipped us expensive imports?’ This usually [...]
What It Really Means To Work for Yourself
Someone at CareerJournal is desperately afraid of setting out on their own: There used to be a sharp division between self-employment and working for someone else. Today, with the erosion of the traditional employment contract, those differences are increasingly blurred. After all, everyone today has to take responsibility for their own employability and financial continuity. [...]
Todd recommends Bullseye on CNBC: I want to give a recommendation out to Bullseye, a CNBC program that runs from 6pm to 7pmET. It is hosted by Dylan Ratigan, who gives the program a distinct personality. I think he asks great questions and gets to the point quickly with his interviews. The segments are also [...]
