Archive for April 2009
Which Work At Home Job Is Right For You?
Dallas Working From Home Examiner: You need only to look at what brings you enjoyment in order to find which work at home job is right for you. Of course everyone wants to make money, but if you don’t enjoy what you do you’ll be less likely to make a profit from doing it. Some [...]
Biz Trend: Local Ratings And Reviews
The New York Times: In separate announcements, MySpace, the social network, and OpenTable, the reservations site, said they would soon begin allowing their users to rate and review restaurants and share those recommendations with friends. When users visit the new service, called MySpace Local, and review the establishments, their activity will also appear on the [...]
TumbleBus is a gym on wheels filled with fun equipment — bringing the best possible physical education class to children at daycares, elementary schools, private schools, etc. Cheerfully decorated, the TumbleBus provides a unique and fun way for children to receive the physical fitness that is so important to their developement. Instructors “with a special [...]
No More Buzz Bites Vending Machines from Mad Dog
I’ve been asked to notify our readers that Vroom Foods is no longer associated with Mad Dog Energy Products. There’s more on the Vroom Foods website: As of September 12, 2008, Vroom Foods, Inc. terminated its relationship with Mad Dog Energy Products, Inc. If you are unable to obtain Buzz Bite® chocolate or mint chocolate [...]
If you’ve ever thought about spending money on direct mail marketing, you’ve probably wondered why some direct mail gets tossed immediately into the garbage. Pitney Bowes has an informative and entertaining video that shows why some mail gets opened, while others don’t.
Q&A With Franchise King Joel Libava
When it comes to franchises, Joel Libava is one of the brightest guys I know. He’s the president of the Cleveland, Ohio-based franchise consulting firm Franchise Selection Specialists. He blogs daily at The Franchise King and is an active Twitter’er. Here’s a snippet of an interview SmallBizResource just published with him: SBR: How much does [...]
Reader’s Mailbag: Protecting Assets
Susan writes: How to protect sole proprietor business assets from personal assets? Garrett Sutton at Resource Nation tackles this question. If you operate your business in the form of a sole proprietorship or as a general partnership, these businesses are not registered entities, which means that your personal assets are not insulated from those of [...]
photo credit: Ordinary Guy When you fail to keep your domain current, or you let it lapse, someone comes swooping and purchases your old name and then attaches it to a site that is loaded with advertisements and collects all of the hit’s to the new site. To avoid letting your domain lapse, I’ve included [...]
Franchise Expo and SoupMan Create Stimulus Package
More news from the Franchise and Business Opportunities expo: North America’s largest Franchise and Business Opportunities Expo and New York’s own The Original SoupMan, makers of the legendary soups of Al Yeganeh, who inspired the “Soup Episode” on Seinfeld, joined forces today to announce a stimulus package contest to help one lucky winner realize their [...]
photo credit: mudpig Today it is no surprise that business’ are facing uncertainty about their business all around. It is almost impossible not to face it at some point in a recession. However, maybe business’ are being held accountable for these uncertainties that are out of their control. Take for example the economy down turn, [...]
Bizop Show in Portland, Oregon
I just received word that the Franchise & Business Opportunities Expo will be in Portland, Oregon on May 2 and 3rd at the Portland Expo Center. Admission is $5 at the door.
photo credit: Joe ShlabotnikWhen anyone is first thinking about starting their own business, they want some cold hard facts regarding this industry. They want some facts on how many make it, how many fold, how many hit their profit goals and how many of them over shoot their profit goals, etc. So I have put [...]
Blogs As Your Search Marketing Investment
photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com A lot of business people tend to over look blogs as a great marketing investment. Think about all the times your personally go to search for something, you type in your keyword and up pops 100′s of related topics so you scroll through until you find something that catches your [...]
photo credit: Tracy O What a difference a few days can make to the trajectory of a transition. At the end of last week, I was prepared to give our new President an “A” for outstanding efforts to create positive momentum. Now I’m thinking he deserves a B-minus at best. Why the shift? In a [...]
Lobster Trap Rope Finds New Use At Your Doorstep
USA TODAY: Rope once used to connect lobster traps on the ocean floor soon will be showing up at people’s front doors. At a warehouse in this commercial fishing port, a steady stream of lobstermen arrived last week with pickups and trailers loaded with millions of feet of colorful rope — blue, orange, white, green, [...]
Springwise: There’s no doubt the internet has transformed the way people communicate; what’s less clear is that people are willing to let the old methods disappear. We’ve already seen companies that transform emails into paper letters; now, an Australian contender has resurrected none other than the classic telegram. Focusing on the role telegrams have long [...]
Want To Save Money? Shop Without Touching
Time: Turns out “Don’t squeeze the Charmin” might have been the worst marketing message of all time. According to a new study to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers who touch products in the aisles will pay more money for them than those who keep their hands off [...]
Hidden parking spaces which pop up from your drive have become a must-have home improvement in London.
Expanding Eateries Target Shuttered Sites
The Wall Street Journal: As restaurant chains go out of business or prune their store counts in the tough economy, competitors are jumping on the opportunity to move into the vacated locations as a way to expand quickly and cheaply. Restaurants can convert their competitors’ closed sites to their own brands at a lower cost [...]
Kiplinger: By now we’ve all heard one of the newest American complaints — all this stimulus and bailout money, but where’s mine? Like many individuals, most businesses won’t get much government help. But many savvy companies will find ways to make sure they benefit from the massive increase anyway. Here are three examples of some [...]
Make Money Promoting Infidelity?
There are dating websites that cater to every kind of desire, including it seems, those looking for an affair. Sad but true. NPR has more: AshleyMadison.com, which caters to men and women who are already in relationships and are looking for something more, is the largest dating service of its kind. The Toronto-based company has [...]
photo credit: krytofr We have all been there before at work, it’s that time of the month to sit down and review our data for our company. We sigh at the very thought of reading and sorting through all of that boring data, numbers upon numbers and statistics. However, today is a new day with [...]
photo credit: striatic Today with so many down spirals in the economy and work force, it’s no wonder that many employers feel it is too costly to offer employee benefits packages. However, it can actually cost your company more in the long run to not offer a benefits package to good employees. Heading the list [...]
photo credit: srqpix There’s a great post up on the Small Business Marketing site, of which I’m a contributor, about personalizing your brand: Vanilla is the most popular type of ice cream in the world. But consumers of vanilla ice cream don’t really care about which brand of vanilla ice cream they are eating. More [...]
photo credit: akaalias It’s natural to dream about working from home with your own business, cutting out the boss, expensive wardrobe and all that high gas money and day-care bills, but…do you have what it takes to do a home based business, are you truly ready for it. Ask yourself these few questions to help [...]
Search Result as a Business Card
photo credit: jeffmcneill Although Google might not like it, this is an interesting business card idea.
Habits You Don’t Want As A Boss
photo credit: laverrue David Silverman recently did an article on 11 different habits of the worst boss he’s ever had. We spend so much time concentrating on the habit’s and attitudes that we think a good boss should have, but what about their bad traits? Those should not go un-noticed, we should also work on [...]
photo credit: Milica Sekulic Today phone business is booming more then ever in terms of so many different options of systems, features, phones themselves and more. Technology has found a way to make even the phone a high tech device that creates a more simple form of communicating at home or in your office. So [...]
Make Your Marketing Market You
photo credit: Brian Lane Winfield Moore My newest post is up on the Small Business Marketing Guide. This one is about about creating marketing materials: Upon introduction, it only takes a split second before your customer has created their own impression of your business and what you do. Before you allow that decision to be [...]
Competing Against The Freemium
Website Magazine: Web entrepreneurs have a difficult choice to make with the release of every new service – should it be offered complimentary to bring in streams of users and make them aware (growing the service virally) or should we charge for it with an aim of shortening the road to profitability? While the former [...]
Biz Poll: Music & Productivity
Do you listen to music to make yourself more productive? Always Sometimes Never View Results If you have some favorite motivational music choices, share them with us in the comments section. Photo by jorgempf.
How “Gladiator” and Other Film Soundtracks Help Work Productivity
Modern Business Life: In the year 2000, Ridley Scott released an award winning film starring Russell Crowe entitled, “Gladiator”. Accompanying this film was a stellar and award winning soundtrack by one of the most popular film composers in recent times, Hans Zimmer. The soundtrack contains heroic anthems, soaring French horns, and sweeping strings that heighten [...]
Entrepreneurs Jump the ‘Shark Tank’
Entrepreneur: Mark Burnett, producer of CBS television’s Survivor, has teamed up with the rival ABC network to produce a reality show in which entrepreneurs pitch business ideas to multimillionaire moguls. The seven-episode series, Shark Tank, is based on a successful reality show in the U.K. of the same formula – Dragon’s Den, according to the [...]
PC World: Whether your boss finally gave you the green light to telecommute or you’re setting out to do business on your own, congratulations–and welcome to the wonderful world of working at home. Just one wrinkle: the kids. As in so many other areas of life, having a rugrat or two underfoot can make doing [...]
photo credit: roberlan While President Obama gives speeches on how our economy will turn around and we will come out of this recession with a more positive outlook, he should be adding other words to these statements. While he is painting a positive outlook, he still needs to be completely honest. This is where leaders [...]
Great Sales People as Sales Managers
photo credit: gcoldironjr2003 In your company when it comes time to promote sales people to the next level, it is not always necessarily true that a great sales person will automatically make for a great sales manager. Some people have managerial skill’s while other’s do not and prefer to remain on the sales floor where [...]
photo credit: Rob Gallop In business it is always important to speak with authority but also intelligence and some compassion to your listeners. Certain words and phrases not only make you look insensitive but also can make you look a little lower on the intelligence poll. Below are a few examples of words that one [...]
Contesting government regulations
photo credit: ChrisMoncusPhoto.com While there are lots of government regulations that small businesses have to follow, sometimes the government does make mistakes which lead to an unfair regulation. Most businesses feel there is nothing they can do at that point, however, there is a process in which you can go through to contest it and [...]
Smart Technology to do Dumb Things
photo credit: ralphbijker Okay, lets admit it, we have all been here at least once in our business life. We have an awesome piece of technology and use it against us or counterproductively. It happens, you have a “duh” moment or your sleep deprived and it’s 4:40 on Friday and all you can think about [...]
photo credit: Dano Today there are so many people embracing the negativity at work of our current economy. It seems as though everyone has their own supporting statistic that proves our world is going to come to an end, this only creates stress and panic throughout your office. Below are a few ways you can [...]
Google Wants To Give You Money
TechCrunch: Google finally announced the formation of a new venture arm called Google Ventures. It is where all smaller-scale venture investments from Google will now originate. A $100 million fund (that is the amount of capital allocated over the next 12 months). “We don’t have to invest $100 million this year,” notes fund co-manager Bill [...]
PR-Canada.net: Nancy Jamison, Co-Founder & CEO-MOM of Involution http://www.LiveInProsperity.net launched the latest YouTube video tantalizing the viewer into wanting more information about Jamison’s recession proof business model in the network marketing industry. Time, freedom, financial security, working from home & being with family are the top reasons motivated people are establishing their own home businesses. [...]
Designer Celerie Kemble Feels At Home Creating Rooms
The Washington Post: New York interior designer Celerie Kemble visited the Washington Design Center last week to promote her recent book, “To Your Taste: Creating Modern Rooms With a Traditional Twist” (Clarkson Potter, $45). The 35-year-old mother of two is known for her practical, fashion-forward style, and her clients include those with a clean, modern [...]
weeBgreen Brings Together East Coast Mompreneurs Into One Online Shop
The products are made by mompreneurs, the materials or products are locally sourced, everything is either recycled or repurposed, and Teresa is determined to make sure it stays that way. For entrepreneurial moms along the east coast, this is also an opportunity to help spread the word about their green products. It all started with [...]
photo credit: Sister72 When a business owner today is considering different marketing options, their two biggest concerns seem to be low cost and quick to implement and with good reason in uncertain times. Below are a few suggestions of some marketing options for small business owners that fit both those categories. Line of sight. This [...]
photo credit: With the economic downturn we find ourselves in today, there are many people looking for new jobs, which means that it may be time to update your resume. Below you’ll find a few tips that are sure to help you with your resume re-write. Make sure to proof read your resume for both [...]
Characteristics That Point Towards Entrepreneurship
photo credit: foundphotoslj Have you ever wondered if working under someone else is the right fit for you? Have you struggled with finding that perfect job that you can be happy with for more then a year at a time? You just may be built to be an entrepreneur rather than working for someone else. [...]
A collection of unique products to amuse and inspire. Cyber Clean – Keyboard Cleaning Slime iSnow – Make Your Own Snow Sprinkler Hide-A-Key Brush and Rinse Toothbrush Photos by Firebox/geekalerts/thinkgeek/littledivatoys.
Five Legitimate Work From Home Job Websites
Dallas Working From Home Examiner: If you need help in locating work from home jobs that are right for you, then try searching these sites. Ratrace Rebellion.com This website has been featured on BusinessWeek, CNN, USAToday, and even Fortune. All jobs are pre-screened for legitimacy. Jobs are updated daily. They even offer free products and [...]
Monday, we asked readers if they used Twitter in their business? 47 percent said YES they did use Twitter. Reader Andrew Smyth is a senior at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA. and has been doing web design projects for the past three years. He explained how he uses Twitter: I am trying to establish myself [...]
