Archive for February 2009
Top 10 Things that People Won’t Stop Buying in a Recession
photo credit: Darwin Bell STORES Magazine has just published an interesting article based on research by BIGresearch that details just which product and services consumers can’t live without as they tighten their belts and which are expendable. Here are the top 10 things that the research indicates that people will continue to pay for even [...]
photo credit: Mr.Thomas Wouldn’t it be great to be in business for self? You wake up in the morning, you get your cup of coffee, get your newspaper, put on your slippers and go into your office. All day long you work while relaxing in your pajamas and reclining office chair. What a great dream [...]
Just As The Economy Builds, It Also Knocks Some Businesses Down
SV Herald: When checking over a porcelain doll in competition, the first thing you do is check the ears. So says Esther Hill. “If anyone is going to misclean a doll, it’s going to be right above or below the ear,” she said. “Then you feel for all the little seam lines.” When porcelain dolls [...]
About To Do Time? Meet Larry Levine.
Los Angeles Times: Larry Levine is hard at work in a sketchy apartment complex in Canoga Park, a noisy and joyless place with an enclosed courtyard that resembles a prison cellblock. Upstairs in the back, behind a blanket blocking the light of day, Levine paces his cramped one-bedroom. Stacks of law books purchased on EBay [...]
Biz Poll: How Do You Stay Motivated?
Thanks to all those who participated in our latest poll. According to the numbers, most of you read inspirational material to stay motivated. Coming in second was picturing the future. Those who review their vision/goals and those who surround themselves with positive/accomplished people came in third in the voting. Scott says I use all the [...]
Little Features Make a Huge Difference
photo credit: furryscaly In business with so many others to compete against, you definitely need the up to date, most current and top notch equipment to work with. Right down to your telephone system. And don’t be fooled, the little features that your phone system can come equipped with are very important and sometimes make [...]
photo credit: i:tzharr Many new and young managers today truly want to be great managers as well as mentors to their team, the problem is that most of them feel they don’t know how to or don’t have the time to spend with each person. Don’t get trapped into thinking that leadership is an extra [...]
Body As Billboard: Your Ad Here
The New York Times: Terry Gardner, a legal secretary in California, shaved her head for an advertising campaign by Air New Zealand, which had hired her to display a temporary tattoo. She turned around and showed the message, written in henna on the back of her head: “Need A Change? Head Down to New Zealand.” [...]
Digtriad.com: Hard economic times are acting like instant fertilizer on an industry that had been growing slowly: home vegetable gardening. Amid the Washington talk of “shovel-ready” recession projects, it appears few projects are more shovel-ready than backyard gardens. Veggie seed sales are up double-digits at the nation’s biggest seed sellers this year. What’s more, the [...]
Crazy Aaron’s Toy Fair Round-Up
The Thinking Putty Blog: Crazy Aaron returned from the New York Toy Fair and thought some shout-outs were appropriate. The Cricket Toy – For those awkward moments, a keychain fob that chirps like a cricket. Its a gimmick, but a funny one. And Jeff Anderson, the creator, is a fun guy who knows how to [...]
Business Allows Consumers To ‘Defy’ The Middle Man And Save Money
During a time when people are looking to save money and companies are looking to make it, middle ground has to be made. By eliminating the middle man, DefySupply seems to have found the right formula. They offer the best prices on furniture around, back it up with their price guarantee and draw in those [...]
The Recession Has Also Hit The Virtual Wallet
Denver Business Journal: Olivia Omega Logan avoided calculating holiday season sales from her online baby clothes and gift store for the same reason a lot of people don’t look at their 401(k) accounts — the numbers wouldn’t be good. But the former marketing professional turned “mompreneur” recently opened the spreadsheets for her Aurora-based business, babycandystore.com., [...]
Mom Designs A Way To Lift Self Out Of Hardship
SouthtownStar: Most business people would scoff at the way Marilyn Johnson runs her business. At Digital Worxx Design in Chicago’s Beverly community, Johnson trains her competition. Besides the digital design and printing Johnson does out of her double storefront on 111th Street, the single mother spends time teaching design to other aspiring business owners. “I [...]
The Small Business Marketing Guide
The Small Business Marketing Guide is a one-stop, do-it-yourself resource here to help you grow your business. This guide is your source for tips, inspirational real-world examples and how-to articles by small business marketing experts as well as helpful resources for designing your brand identity, creating marketing materials, launching direct marketing promotions and building an [...]
How Captain Kangaroo Saved Play-Doh
Mental Floss: Back before it was Play-Doh, everyone’s favorite squishy clay was actually a wallpaper cleaner used to clean soot off of walls. But when people switched from using coal burning furnaces to oil fueled ones in the ‘40s and ‘50s, demand for the product evaporated. Kutol, a manufacturing company in Cincinnati, was watching their [...]
Springwise: Planning a wedding may be a time-consuming task, but any bride who elects to take her husband’s last name after getting married soon learns that the process of making that name change can be nearly as laborious. Enter I’m a Mrs., a new site that gives Canadian women an alternative to navigating the myriad [...]
Will Talk of a Depression Lead to One?
photo credit: mugley In a recent survey, it was shown that more than two thirds of consumers said they expect the recession to last for five more year’s! That is a long time when you think about our current situation extending to that length of time. With all of the talk about the recession turning [...]
Inc.: Green Mobile started in 2004 basically as an eBay hobby, when 24-year-old founder and CEO Brian Laoruangroch realized he could buy old phones and resell them for a profit. He soon built his own website to market refurbished phones; his brother Brett, like Brian a University of Missouri student, joined him and took charge [...]
photo credit: WTL photos Here’s an idea that I didn’t think would pop up in a small town Maine: a topless coffee shop. On Tuesday morning, a small sign hung in front of the log cabin-style building, listing the hours: 6 a.m.-6 p.m. The outside windows were covered with promotional posters for New England Coffee. [...]
Microfinance In USA About To Explode?
WalletPop: How would you like a couple thousand dollars to start your own business or keep it afloat? What if you have the idea for a business but lack a network of support and training to get started? If you have a business, or want to start one, with five or less employees then you’re [...]
Growing Up In Recession Can Shape Child’s Future
The Wall Street Journal: K. Esther Szabo was a small child when the recession of the early 1970s sent her family’s fortunes into a tailspin. Her father, an economist, struggled to find work, and her mother worried about paying the bills. The family eventually filed bankruptcy. The tensions at home put a permanent mark on [...]
Suburban Mom's Invention Debuts On Oscar Night
Daily Herald: Swag bags, those totes containing gifts for Oscar celebrities who really don’t need them, usually don’t inspire thoughts of green, environmentally friendly products. But Ann Foley has a different idea. Foley, a DuPage County stay-at-home mom, has invented the Dry Greening bag. Similar to reusable grocery bags, it’s a reusable garment bag for [...]
One Mom's Vision Became The Iconic Toy We Know Today, Barbie
Did you know that the Barbie doll was invented by a mom? As of 2009, the infamous Barbie is turning 50 years old. This is a toy that generations of mom’s had the benefit of playing with, saw their children play with, and even watch their grandchildren play with today. Ruth Handler, with the help [...]
Tony writes: “What do I do about protecting my assets when I am being sued? What are the pros and cons I should be looking out for? Please point me in the right direction.” When starting a business in the United States, you must decide what form of business entity to establish. The most common [...]
Inc.: Some college students schedule classes so they can sleep in as late as possible, but not Danny Klam. The University of Houston senior, who is double-majoring in entrepreneurship and marketing, often begins his day at 3 a.m., opening one of the three Simply Splendid Donuts and Ice Cream stores he owns. They all sell [...]
Is Anything Made In The USA Anymore?
The Associated Press: It seems as if the country that used to make everything is on the brink of making nothing. In January, 207,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs vanished in the largest one-month drop since October 1982. U.S. factory activity is hovering at a 28-year low. Even before the recession, plants were hemorrhaging work to foreign [...]
Inc.: Like many of his classmates, University of Southern California senior David Wachtel is crazy about college football and will follow the Trojans nearly anywhere. The only thing that dampens his enthusiasm for away games is the cost. He saw students paying exorbitant amounts of money for, say, a trip from Los Angeles to the [...]
Turn Your Biz Cards Into Valuable Online Database
Mashable: What do you do when you get home from a conference or networking event with a pile of business cards? If you’re diligent, you might go through them one-by-one, sending people a “nice meeting you” email and inviting them to connect on your social networks of choice. But if that sounds as miserable and [...]
Springwise: CrowdSprout lets groups of consumers interested in purchasing the same item band together to get a better price. Consumers begin by bidding on an item, thereby placing themselves in a buying group and committing to making the purchase if enough other buyers join. Product categories on the site include car seats, carriers, diaper bags, [...]
Gilbert's 'Mompreneurs' Redefine Business
azcentral.com: Patrice Derbas has an “emergency distraction kit,” a Tupperware box filled with new toys, hidden at home to divert her 4-year-old twin girls Hailey and Adison while she can sit at the computer. Shelley Valdez waits until her 2-year-old daughter Alessandra naps to catch up on her email. Tisha Marie Pelletier, whose baby son, [...]
Daily Mercury: The smell of success is sweet for Deborah Allan and Eloise Leary. The new mothers, who both live in rural areas, faced a challenge when they wanted to re-enter the workforce but maintain family priorities. As an outdoor education instructor, Mrs Allan knew when she fell pregnant with her first child more than [...]
Inc.: The idea for Lingt Language came to MIT seniors Scot Frank and Chris Varenhorst while they were sitting in Chinese class. The students, who were preparing for trips abroad as part of the MIT-China program, found that their professors had little problem teaching the written language but, with 30 to 40 students in a [...]
Get Ready For the Government Spending Spree
The Wall Street Journal: Ready, set…..go win that federal contract. The government is expected to spend monstrous sums in coming months, based on the Senate and House stimulus plans: $16 billion for construction and renovation of schools, $9 billion to increase broadband, $40 billion for the development of cleaner and more efficient energy, and on [...]
MySpace Meets World of Warcraft
Inc.: Justin Yan joined Yale’s army the week he arrived in New Haven, Connecticut, as a freshman last fall. He proved himself first as a spy, infiltrating enemy lines up and down the Northeast. Then he was promoted to commander. “It was all downhill from there,” Yan says. “I was sucked in.” Yan is one [...]
The Four P’s for Growing a Business
USNews.com: If you are looking to grow or expand your business, where can you look? Start with the Four P’s of Marketing. Product: What else do your customers want? Promotion: How can you grow your existing customers’ awareness of your products, so they help you grow? Place: What other geographic areas make sense to serve? [...]
March Will Be Recession’s Tipping Point
Time: In March, a number of actions will occur that will be critical to demonstrating whether the economic disaster will get much worse. The first is that the issue of the nationalization of the banks may well be resolved. The debate about the issue has already hit a fevered pitch and if the first quarter [...]
Twisted Limb Has A Firm Grasp On The Eco Trend
Before it was cool to be green, there was Twisted Limb Paperworks. Since 1998, Sheryl Woodhouse-Keese has been crafting and selling 100% recycled, eco-friendly paper bowls, stationery, holiday cards, announcements, invitations and fundraising products for schools. However, Sheryl does not do this alone. She also employs a team of 6 in her production studio that [...]
East West Essentials A Female Entrepreneurship Success Story
dBusinessNews: East West Essentials, a leader in optimal fertility supplements and health nutrition, is delivering results to their fertility patients with their expertise and successful product line, available online at www.eastwestessentials.com. That success is rooted in a family-run company with a deep compassion and understanding of infertility issues. East West Essentials was founded more than [...]
Larry writes: “What things should I be considering before going ahead with a towing service?” Before you open a towing business in your town, it’s a good idea to determine how many competitors you have. I’ve provided a link below to help you get a list of local competitors nearby. Complete the form by entering [...]
Nine Tips for Setting and Achieving Your Goals
The following guest post is by Scott Quitter of A Couple of Quitters. Do you set goals or at least a resolution every year, or do you avoid it because you never accomplish anything? Perhaps you’re setting the wrong goals; or maybe you’re taking the wrong approach. While there isn’t one perfect way to set [...]
Unique Logos for the Small Biz Entrepreneur
The following is a guest post from the guys at Logo Inn. At the end, I’m going to announce how one lucky reader can get a free logo designed by their professional logo design team. Contrary to conventional belief, in times of recession, when marketing budgets are slashed, it makes even more sense to spend [...]
How to Make Money with Site-O-Rific
Here’s an interesting new opportunity from a new advertiser: Do you know anything about the building trades? Do you enjoy the internet? If so, you might want to consider affiliating with Site-O-Rific if you: Blog about, or have a website about tools, or you’re a supplier of tools and parts. Offer Site-O-Rific websites to the [...]
Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling handmade things. As such, it’s the perfect place for crafty entrepreneurs to start their own little businesses. The blog Design Sponge has an in-depth look at how three small business entrepreneurs started their Etsy businesses: Starting An Etsy Business: White Elephant Vintage Starting An Etsy Business: [...]
T-Shirts With Great Word Of Mouth
Inc.: Caroline Rooney produced her first T-shirt design, with a “Peace and Love” theme, in her high school textile class. She wore the shirt throughout high school and then at the University of Michigan. Her friends wanted to know where she got the shirt, and when she told them, they asked her to make copies [...]
photo credit: Vlad the Impala Do you ever find yourself humming an old advertising jingle you remember from childhood? It’s a common occurrence for all of us. Some things just stick in our minds, seemingly forever. But what makes one marketing message stick while hundreds or even thousands of others are barely noticed or immediately [...]
New Biz Aims To ‘Mother’ New Moms
KARE11.com: At a hospital maternity unit all the babying goes to the babies. Rachel Swardson-Wenham thinks it’s time to start mothering the mothers. “It definitely was something that should exist, and I couldn’t believe nobody did it.” In June Rachel launched her new company offering in-hospital massages and spa services to new moms. Go Home [...]
Inc.: Zac Workman became a connoisseur of energy drinks at an early age. At the end of each day, after five hours’ practice for his high school swim team, he would choke one down. His drink of choice “tasted awful, but it gave me energy, so I just kept drinking it,” he says. Today, the [...]
Stimulus Law Aids Small Biz, But Benefits Not Easy To Find
The New York Times: The $787 billion recovery package that President Obama signed into law on has a little something for most small-business owners, though some complained that the law’s benefits were not easy to figure out. “Who has time to read it?” Ethan Siegel, chief executive of Orb Audio, a maker of home theater [...]
82 Million Content Creators and Counting
Mashable: More than 82 million people in the US created content online during 2008, a number expected to grow to nearly 115 million by 2013 according to numbers released by eMarketer. Looking inside of those numbers, it’s not surprising that the bulk of content creators are simply social networking users that do things like post [...]
Biz Poll: How Do You Stay Motivated?
Business conditions are making it harder than ever for entrepreneurs to stay motivated. Let us know how you keep it together. We’ll look at the poll results and how other biz people stay motivated on Friday. Hang in there! How Do You Stay Motivated? Read Inspirational Material Passion / Strength From Within Review Your Vision [...]
