Archive for February 2005
Common Small Business Legal Mistakes
Rob Hyndman: “All Business has an article on common legal mistakes made by small businesses. It’s an interesting – though pretty basic – resource, though I am always quick to remind clients that while one doesn’t want to invite risk, one always has to take a hard look at the expected payback from spending your [...]
→ numarkets.com NuMarkets is an exciting new company dedicated to helping the average person harness the power of eBay quickly and easily to get the most for their items in the global marketplace. Customers simply bring their items to their local NuMarkets store, where they’re checked in, catalogued, photographed and warehoused in a matter of [...]
How Not To Fail as a Consultant
An anonymous computer consultant shares his tactics in this gem of a newsgroup post from 2003: I always take the approach that no problem or question is stupid. And I make sure the client knows this. I always give a verbal summary of everything I’ve done in as plain of English as I can when [...]
eBay Drop-off Store Industry Survey
Earlier this month more than fifty eBay drop-off stores completed a questionaire for AuctionBytes. The results are very informative for anyone interested in the business: 76% of respondents said they were independent eBay drop-off stores with one or more locations. 22% said they were franchises or chains with plans to go national within the next [...]
QVC Product Search on StartupNation Radio!
Joel Welsh, Chief Community Officer of StartupNation wrote in an email: Hear Ye! Hear Ye! This is a special announcement. We’re calling on all our inventors and entrepreneurs who have a great product to sell on QVC television! Marilyn Montross, QVC Director Vendor Relations, will join StartupNation Radio tomorrow to talk about the QVC Decade [...]
Peerspectives: It’s not enough to have a great product or service — copycats are always on the prowl. The key to surviving and thriving in a competitive landscape, entrepreneurs agree, is to continually differentiate yourself and add value. Strategies for adding value vary considerably, depending on a company’s market niche. Ask yourself: How is my [...]
Number Of Immigrant Women Entrepreneurs Has Increased 190% Since 1990
American Immigration Law Foundation: Immigrant women entrepreneurs are rapidly making their mark in the U.S. business sector, in every region of the country and across a large range of industries. Today, immigrant women of the post-1960s wave of immigration comprise one of the fastest growing groups of business owners in the United States. This study [...]
The All I Need: Everyone has passions and interests that they can cash in on, even if they don’t have the time to write an ebook. Where is this gold mine hiding? In your bookmarks, in your favorites file. Whetever you call it, there is money hiding there, just waiting for you to cash in [...]
Running a Business With Your Spouse
NFIB: Many people thinking of buying a business anticipate that their spouse will be involved in it. However, before you open your doors, it is important to think about how much – and what kind of help – your spouse will give you. It is also important to define your spouse’s role so the Internal [...]
Age, Wisdom, and the Entrepreneur
Business Week: Up until the mid-1990s, the conventional wisdom among business-school academics was that those who waited until their early 30s to start a business were most likely to succeed. By that age, according to the the then-current reasoning, individuals would have enough meaningful work experience to improve the odds of achieving success. Moreover, it [...]
I’m going to be interviewing a very successful eBay-based small businessman soon, and I’d like to offer you the opportunity to help me come up with questions to ask him. If there’s something you always wanted to know about running profiting from eBay now’s the time to ask. Please post your questions in the comments.
Government Fines Business Owner Thousands for Using Kids in Family Business
World Net Daily: A Washington state family is about to lose their home after the Department of Labor and Industries hit the father with thousands of dollars in fines for having his underage sons work alongside him in the family business – doing things the state believes are dangerous for young boys. In 2003, Jude [...]
I’ve been nominated for the Best VC/Entrepreneur Blog at the The 2005 Business Blogging Awards. Please vote early! Update: I won!
eBay Clarifies It Fee Increases
eBay: Recently, we announced fee changes taking effect on February 18th and affecting certain optional listing upgrades on eBay.com, the subscription fee for a Basic eBay Store, and Final Value Fees on Store Inventory Format listings. Based on Community input, we understand our original communication was a bit unclear. To clarify, no changes are being [...]
SimpleBits: I thought I’d poll the audience here — what do you look for in office space? What are the pros and cons? Finding something small and affordable enough seems difficult, but not impossible. And having dedicated work space outside the house seems to be of growing importance to me (and perhaps many of you). [...]
BusinessWeek: “Just how much appetite for risk do entrepreneurs really have? That’s the question Wharton doctoral student Brian Wu began asking himself while examining their behavioral patterns. He found the general assumption to be that entrepreneurs are risk seekers — but the empirical evidence suggests that, surprisingly, they weren’t.” via Business Pundit.
Grandma, What Big Ideas You Have
My Business: Growing up in the 1920s, Dorothy Holterman loved her mother’s unique homemade dressing served on salads and slaws. As an adult, Holterman tried to make the dressing herself but could never get it right—and her mother was of little help, since she never had an exact recipe. “She always made it with a [...]
If anyone wants a Gmail invite, my buddy Loyd has 50 of them. Post a note in the comments and he’ll send you an invitation.
Dan Sherman: In case you haven’t heard, ebay has upped their commissions to their affiliates. You earn commissions for signing people up as ebay members and generating bids on items up for auction. The low figure used to be $15 per sign up. Now it’s $20. The per bid commission has gone up as well. [...]
microISV: “Ian Landsman shares his experience of working with a graphic designer to create a new business logo for his company UserScape and his product HelpSpot. He documents each step of the process from the initial drawings by hand to the selection of the final colors.”
Entrepreneur: People are hiring tutors in almost any area in which skills can be taught and acquired: academic subjects and computer use, athletic skills and hobbies. While most independent tutors have students come to their homes, some go the clients’ homes or may be able to use space at the students’ schools, or if they’re [...]
Home-Sourcing and Demographic Changes
BusinessPundit: “[This post] made me think about whether or not an increase in working from home will have a significant impact on where people choose to live. There are still plenty of rural communities here in Kentucky. Many of them are very poor and as manufacturing and mining jobs decrease, the poverty level will probably [...]
Entrepreneur: John Osher has developed hundreds of consumer products, including an electric toothbrush that became America’s best-selling toothbrush in just 15 months. He also started several successful companies, including Cap Toys. He built sales to $125 million per year and then sold the company to Hasbro Inc. in 1997. But his most lasting contribution to [...]
Matchmaking – From The Front Seat of a Taxi
Canada.com: For the lovelorn who are burned out by the bar scene, fed up with personal ads or tired of scouring the Internet, there’s another place to look for that perfect date: the back seat of a taxicab. Specifically, Ahmed Ibrahim’s cab. The 50-year-old Egyptian immigrant sets up blind dates for his single passengers through [...]
Roger McNamee: Wake up and smell the coffee. This is not your father’s economy. And it’s not the boom that inflated our expectations and then exploded. But it’s also not the doom and gloom we’ve been mired in for nearly three years now! So, wake up. Pull yourself together. Get on with it. With what [...]
The Reality of Owning A Bed and Breakfast
Startup Journal: “I was friendly with a couple that left their corporate jobs to run an inn in the lake country of Wisconsin. They imagined themselves serving elegant breakfasts and shooing guests off to the lakeside. The unpleasant reality was getting up at 3 a.m. in frigid weather to jump-start an ancient furnace and an [...]
eBay Raises Commissions to Affiliates
AuctionBytes: “eBay is reportedly increasing commissions it pays to affiliates, people who drive bidders and buyers to its site. As of February 1, 2005, eBay will increase the rewards from the previous $12 – $30 range per new user to $20 – $45 for each new user. A new user, or ‘active registration,’ is defined [...]
