Archive for January 2010
Mom Takes Passion For Cookies Into The Business World
The Taunton Gazette: In the fall of 1979, current Thornberry Road resident and professed cookie-lover Deb McWade was in a cookie crisis. Back then, McWade’s humble abode was situated in New York City — her husband was taking graduate courses at New York University — and her kitchen was, one might say, minimalist. “We lived [...]
photo credit: bb_matt In today’s economy and market, companies big or small need to be aggressive in looking for all types of ways to extend their global reach. The upside for small businesses is that they are already a step ahead of larger companies as they are more personal and know all of their customers [...]
NY Mag: “In his new book, Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It), author William Poundstone dissects the marketing tricks built into menus—for example, how something as simple as typography can drive you toward or away from that $39 steak.”
For eBay Sellers, A Holiday Hamster Hangover
With toy store shelves and television commercials chock full of eye-popping video games and fancy tech playthings, it came as a surprise to many that some of the hottest toys this holiday season were inexpensive, relatively low-tech battery-powered hamsters imported from China called Zhu Zhu Pets, according to a story at CNet.com. For avid eBay [...]
That Hobby Looks Like A Lot Of Work
QUIT your day job? To some craft enthusiasts that is just the name of a popular blog on Etsy, the fast-growing Web site that serves as a marketplace for crafts and vintage goods, according to a story at The New York Times. But to Yokoo Gibran, it was an epiphany. Gibran, who is in her [...]
Services Tailor Apps For Small Bizs
Barbara Heinrich says she isn’t computer-savvy, but last month the owner of Local Motion, a clothing boutique in Minneapolis, went online and built her own mobile-phone application, reports The Wall Street Journal. It was worth a try, she figured, considering how cheap and easy it was to do and how addicted to iPhone apps young [...]
Entrepreneurs Seek Ways To Draw Out Workers’ Ideas
When Andrew Schuman bought Hammond’s Candies in 2007, the nearly 90-year-old candy company was operating in the red. Schuman, who says he knew nothing about the candy business, soon learned that an assembly-line worker, rather than an executive, had dreamed up the design of the company’s popular ribbon snowflake candy, reports The Wall Street Journal. [...]
Free Or Cost Effective Biz Tools
Greg Fry over at Bloggertone shares his favorite business tools he has used this year. I am amazed at how many amazing products for business are very inexpensive or often completely free. The only challenge is to find them in the first place. 1. Animoto – Allows you to make really impressive videos. You can [...]
Computing Resolutions To Make For The New Year!
The new year is here, and it’s time to make some resolutions! I’ve got plenty of habits that need some reworking, so here’s what downloadsquad.com has resolved to do in 2010: 1. Back up my important files regularly. I’ve always sucked at doing this, and it’s time to change that. With so many good online [...]
Child Safety Is Mom’s Business
MarcoNews.com: Kelly Martin is more than a mom on a mission, and she’s making it her business to be one. A mother of two, Martin is a local representative for Child Shield, a national business program intended to combat the ever-present threat of child abduction. “It’s out there,” said Martin, who asserts the program aims [...]
It’s Pancakes In A Can And It’s Made $15 Million
In 2001, Sean O’Connor was a co-owner of a San Francisco club that served up punk bands alongside yak burgers and bear-meat chili, reports Fortune Small Business. When the dot-coms collapsed, he pared down the menu to focus on cheap, creative snacks. During an experiment with whipped cream canisters and funnel cake — a project [...]
Have You Started Planning For A Successful 2010?
The New Year is here. Do you have a plan for your business? Do you know what you’re going to do for 2010 to make your business grow and see your income dreams realized? If not, use these guidelines from Susan Baroncini-Moe at LifeHack.org to plan ahead, so you can make 2010 your year of [...]
According to Dustin Wax over at LifeHack.org there is no better personal productivity tool than the humble to-do list. Just the ability to put down and visually scan everything you’ve got on your plate offers a huge benefit – as anyone who’s ever reached for a sheet of paper and started listing tasks when they [...]
Making A Resolution And Keeping It
Are you keen to reinvent yourself in 2010? Or at least use the new year as a long overdue excuse to get rid of bad habits or pick up new ones? Don’t set yourself up for failure by vowing to make huge changes that will be hard to keep. Instead follow these seven steps from [...]
Feds Warn Small Bizs About Online Banking
A rising swarm of cyber-robberies targeting small firms, local governments, school districts, churches and non-profits has prompted an extraordinary warning. The American Bankers Association and the FBI are advising small and midsize businesses that conduct financial transactions over the Internet to dedicate a separate PC used exclusively for online banking, reports USA Today. The reason: [...]
Fox21News: There’s a woman living the Town of Lakeside who has found a way to balance work and motherhood. She snaps Christmas photos of a young family, helping preserve memories that will last a lifetime. Janelle Roe has been a photographer for the past 8 years. Her first studio was set–up in her living room. [...]
Biz Poll: New Year Resolution?
What is Your Top 2010 Resolution? Lose weight Increase sales Hire more staff Learn social media Manage personal time better Stop smoking, drinking or other bad habits View Results Your resolution not listed? Tell us about it in the comments. Poll results Friday. Photo by rizeli53.
Phone Apps Coming To Radio’s Rescue
Those high-powered smartphones that can access the Web from virtually anywhere may be the best thing that’s happened in years to one of the oldest and most beleaguered of traditional media: radio, reports USA Today. Local stations are racing to create software applications — called apps — and appealing talk and music programming to help [...]
Restaurant Lets Patrons Make Their Own Pancakes
For those in the mood for pancakes there’s now a restaurant in Portland, Oregon, that lets patrons create and cook their own pancakes, right at the table according to trendspotter Springwise. Slappy Cakes is a full-service breakfast and lunch restaurant that features a variety of dishes made from fresh and organic ingredients. It chooses local [...]
Inventor Hopes To Collar Dog Market
Stephen Noble is hoping to scoop the coveted John Logie Baird Award for his innovative Latch-a-Lead. If successful, Stephen, 28, will win a £20,000 business support package for his unique design dog lead which allows dog walkers to let their pets off the lead from the handle, instead of the collar, according to a story [...]
Inventor Takes Swing At Major Leagues
Don’t call it a bat or a toy. It’s a Water Training Device. Dale Winger, a licensed massage therapist and personal trainer, has a patent pending on the Water Training Device. His invention is meant to strengthen muscles in the wrist, arm and shoulder, reports JCOnline.com. He said people stand in water up to their [...]
Elementary My Dear Watson….It’s Called The Public Domain
The new Sherlock Holmes movie opened Christmas day and has made over $93 million US. A small part of the reason why Holmes is still so popular is that he is in the public domain and new and varied stories are created about him daily according to a story at TechDirt. Yes, he has always [...]
10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010
Today, it is impossible to separate social media from the online world. Facebook reached 350 million users last month — 70% of whom are outside the US — and it accounts for 25% of the Web’s traffic, according to Pew nearly one in five people on the web use Twitter or some other service to [...]
Entrepreneurs Who Never Let You See ‘Em Sweat
New-product innovation tends to be 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, reports CNNMoney. Here’s that 1% that led to the creation of a hot little company called Sheex: One afternoon in the summer of 2007, Susan Walvius, then the head women’s basketball coach at the University of South Carolina, was at practice and wearing a pair [...]
Start Your New Year With A Digital Cleanse
Musician John Mayer wants you to step away from the laptop and desist with the texting: Mayer is undergoing a digital cleanse, and he wants you to join him. Mayer says on his blog: I’ll be defragmenting my mental and psychological hard drive during the first seven days of the new year, and I invite [...]
Kelowna.com: What is your business? I teach a series of writing classes and workshops to moms who want to write down their stories of motherhood, before they forget. The classes are aimed at moms of all ages and stages, and are for moms who want to write just for themselves or for those who want [...]
Catchphrases and buzzwords can tell us much about a year past — what resonated, what stuck, what the year revealed about the sensibility of the nation, whether you’re a wise Latina woman, a mini-Madoff, a teabagger or Balloon Boy, reports The New York Times. But if ever there were a year to put buzzwords before [...]
Can’t Find An App For That? There’s An App For That…
In a remarkable display of recursive app development, app review site Appolicious has unveiled its own iPhone app that offers on-device iPhone app news and reviews, reports AppScout.com. The Appolicious app recommends other apps based on user ratings, plus comments from the Appolicious community. It also includes an app advisor and a database search for [...]
