If crowdsourcing can be used to improve product design, music promotion and sports team management—to name just a few of the examples we’ve written about—why not the process of finding sales leads?

That question is about to be tested through a new site that aims to put the crowds to work as a sort of community sales force.

LeadVine lets users post the types of sales leads they seek along with the referral fee they’re willing to pay; the community is then invited to earn that fee by making the desired connections. Fees listed on the site must be at least USD 50, but the range is considerable.

One listing, for example, offers a USD 100 referral fee for help in finding companies in need of online chat support. Another offers USD 50,000 for investors to contribute USD 2 million toward an Oregon real-estate development project.

Requests are listed by category, and buttons for each allow others to bookmark them, share them via e-mail or make a referral. The resulting transactions are conducted outside the site, but LeadVine facilitates the payment of referral fees via PayPal.

Community members can also rate each other on the site to reflect the quality of each transaction.

Photo by valkarie.

It all started when Juan Pineda was a victim of mail theft.

Valuable checks were lost in that theft, but Juan may have the last profitable laugh.

He’s invented a device that sets off an alarm if a mailbox is tampered with. He got a patent for his product and is seeking a manufacturer to handle the production and marketing.

It operates much like a car alarm that begins ringing when a car is bumped. A remote turns off that alarm. A card slider, like the ones used in store checkout lines, would allow a mailman to de-activate the alarm.

“Everyone works hard for a living. They should have peace of mind in regards to their mailbox”, said Pineda.

Photo by JP Designs.

There are all sorts of reasons to take notes, and it’s important to first look to these reasons in deciding which particular method of note-taking is best for us in the modern age.

Different note taking needs demand different note taking methods and the importance of each of these needs to each of us differs drastically. University students and freelance writers both tend to take notes for different reasons.

* Ubiquitous capture—digital is a winner when it comes to ubiquity, though you’ll need a few fancy—and often expensive—devices to make that ubiquity true.
* Retaining information from lectures—digital wins here. Most people can keep up with the presenter far more quickly with a laptop than with pen and paper.
* Problem solving—sort of. Problem solving often requires non-linear thought, and thus non-linear expression, but you can still flesh an idea out in paragraph or bullet form.
* Visualization—not really; you need specialist, expensive equipment such as a tablet PC or even a graphic artist’s tablet to make visualization as a function of note taking work.

Note taking is one of those things where the best course of action is totally dependent on what you need to do. Do you need to sketch ideas for your graphic design job? Go paper. Do you need to keep track of shopping lists, things you’ve got to do tomorrow and ideas for articles? Go digital. Need the benefits of both? Then go with both.

Photo by Zela.

Some small-business experts are offering advice that may sound counterintuitive in this slowing economy. Now, they argue, may be the perfect time to increase your marketing budget — and even your prices.

Here is the rationale, and some tips, for doing so, if you agree.

Zig when they zag “If your competition is busy nursing their recessionary wounds, then you should become aggressive in marketing yourself and your products,” argues Morebusiness.com, a Web site that describes itself as a “one-stop resource Web site for entrepreneurs.”

By increasing spending when your competitors are cutting back on theirs, you will have a chance to increase market share and be much better positioned to be profitable when the downturn ends.

Higher prices On her blog, smallbusinessboomers.com, Jean Murray, a small-business consultant, discusses the arguments on whether it is a good time to raise prices.

“There are two schools of thought on this one: One, it’s a recession. No one is buying. So in order to get new customers and keep current customers happy, you lower your prices.”

On the other hand, she writes, despite the talk that deflation — a period of declining prices — may occur sometime in the near future, most business are facing rising costs, especially if they purchase commodities. That, she says, gives them “every right to pass along these increases” to their customers.

Given recessionary pressure on one hand, and rising operating expenses on the other, Ms. Murray says she chooses raising prices. “If people see the value in your product or service, they will keep buying.”

Photo by svilen001.

Domnick Iwasyk, the owner of World Extreme Fighter, is a huge fan of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). Using his blog to share his passion with other fans of this fighting style, he has also taken this opportunity to work on building a source of income out of it.

How long have you been blogging? What inspired you to start?

Since May 2008. A friend of mine from work, Loyd Schutte, came in my office one day and asked me if I wanted a website/blog. I was like what the heck are you talking about? He said he had too many blogs to manage and wanted to give me “Homeandlivingblog.com” for free. I thought about it for a couple days and decided that it would be a good to get some web experience, so I accepted his offer.

After messing with the home and living blog for a while, I decided that blogging was a long term gig and would require passion to keep going. I decided that I was much more passionate and excited about Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). That is when I decided to abandon homeandlivingblog.com and start World Extreme Fighter.

What styles of advertising do you use?

Right now I am using adsense. I am just getting started so my clicks are pretty low. However, I am seeing good growth. I started out making about $0.18 a month, now I am making more like $3. While that is not a lot of money to make per month, my income on the site is just about doubling every month. That is a decent growth rate. If it keeps up, I will be doing just fine in a couple years from now.

I have a couple other ways I am attempting to monitize my stie. I have Bodog Fight, which is an online casino where my readers can join, make bets on fights, horse races or other sports. They can also play cards, roulette, craps or any other online casino games. I get a cut of the casino’s profits if people go from my site to their site and open an account.

I also have designed some WEF shirts that are for sale on the site and have an Amazon widget where folks can buy other MMA gear or whatever else they want.

Out of everything you’ve tried, what has been the most successful?

So far the adsense is getting the most action. However, I did sell $100 worth of MMA books from Amazon a few weeks back. Other than that, the Amazon stuff has been slow so far. I just got the WEF shirts and the casino up, so it is too soon to tell if those will work. I am just throwing stuff out there. Time will tell what works.

What do you think it is about your blog that keeps your readers coming back for more?

I don’t know for sure, but my guess is my personal spin on things. They can read MMA news all day long, but I talk about different things and say it in a different way. Personality counts on blogs, or so that’s what I hear.

How does your life tie into your blog?

I am a big MMA fan. Like I said earlier, it would be difficult to blog about something I have no interest in. Blogging success does not come over night, so you have got to be able to hang in there. My love for MMA helps me to keep going. MMA is something I enjoy.

What do you enjoy the most about keeping a blog?

Seeing it grow and being apart of an industry I love. I am business minded and enjoy seeing my traffic grow, my ad sales grow and my return visitors grow. I feel like I am gaining ground and can see my progress. People are now, after a few months of working hard on WEF, starting to recognize my site and take it seriously. That is a good feeling.

How long have you been interested in the world of MMA?

I have always loved martial arts. I took Karate as a kid. I was into ninjas, Bruce Lee, Steven Segal and just about anything that had to do with Martial Arts. If you ask my parents they will tell you that I was the kid with a huge imagination who would spend all day in the back yard fighting armies of imaginary ninjas. I guess that love for martial arts never left me. As I grew older, I lost some of my childhood imagination and those things became less important to me. I guess and got consumed with work, success and all the other grown up things life throws at you.

Then the UFC got big and I was exposed to the real life side of Mixed Martial Arts rather than the Hollywood side of Martial Arts that you seen in ninja movies. It’s almost like I picked up where I left off as a kid, only from a more adult, realistic perspective. I guess now MMA provides me with that same thrill that I had as a kid, only it is real. Real people, real fights and real knockouts. I love it.

Have you ever fought professionally?

I have not competed in MMA professionally and doubt that I will. While I am considering joining a MMA gym to get in shape and become even more ingrained with the sport, at the end of the day I am just a fan. While some people may think this is a short coming for someone running a MMA website, I see it as an advantage. I am a fan and I write for fans. When I have a question, I know my readers have a question. When I think something needs to be said about a fight or a fighter, my readers think something needs to be said too. If anything, I am in touch with what it’s like to be a MMA fan and I write accordingly. That’s why a lot of times I take time to write educational articles. MMA is relatively new in the mainstream sports world, and there are many new fans out there who are beginning to like MMA, but do not fully understand all aspects of the sport. I am in the same boat as they are. I try to write so that as I learn more about the sport, my readers will learn with me. My readers and I are on a journey together, to learn about, hear about, and enjoy the sport of MMA. It’s as simple as that.

Do you have any advice that you’d like to share with any of the beginner bloggers that might be reading this?

First I would again stress the importance of picking a topic or a niche that you enjoy. Next, I would say that it is not for people who give up easy. It takes effort and dicipline to write every day, even when you aren’t seeing any traffic growth. You have got to be persistent and keep writing.

Customer service is more important than low prices when it comes to luring and keeping loyal customers, according to a new survey by Accenture.

More than two thirds of over 4,000 consumers surveyed worldwide said they’ve switched businesses as the result of a poor customer service experience, the New York-based management consulting firm reported this week. By contrast, just over half said lower prices lured them elsewhere.

The difference was even more dramatic among American consumers, with nearly 75 percent saying they’ve switched service providers due to poor service, compared to 47 percent who were drawn by lower prices.

The survey also found that customer loyalty continues to erode as consumer expectations rise.

Most respondents said they demand more from businesses than they did a year ago, and many said they will demand even more in the years ahead. Twenty percent of respondents said they would immediately leave a business as the result of poor service, up seven percent from a similar survey last year, the firm reported.

Photo by thadz.

They look like pumpkins in the field, and the end product is marketed as “pumpkin seeds,” but technically they are squash and squash seeds.

Despite the elastic terminology, Autumn Seed Inc. has firmed up its grasp on the market in the past 60 years. Howard Ropp’s father started the business back in 1943, producing 100,000 pounds of seeds. Now Howard and his son Greg oversee a company putting out 2.5 million pounds in a good year.

“We’re the only ones in the U.S. doing this,” Greg Ropp said. “Our only competitor is China. And they can’t match us for quality.”

“We build our own harvesters, which handle up to 60,000 pounds a day,” Howard Ropp said. “We’ve got nine of them, and run six at a time, but we don’t sell them.”

“The Chinese would love to have these machines,” Greg Ropp added.

“Our harvest runs from September through about the second week of November,” he said. “We’ve got about 15 full-time workers right now, and four full-time year-round - two full-time fabricators and two in the warehouse. A lot of retired guys come work for us during harvest, driving and whatnot.”

The dried squash seeds are shipped to several roasters, “David and Sons being one you’d recognize,” Greg Ropp said. Once the seeds are roasted and ready for market, then they can be called pumpkin seeds, he said.

Photo by ecstaticist.

Attention, online shoppers! This may be the last holiday season you can dodge sales taxes by buying presents on the Web. State legislators, retailers and lawyers say 2009 may be the year Internet taxes finally come to pass.

The idea, which would levy sales tax on most goods bought online, has been tossed around for nearly a decade. A perfect storm of factors, including record state budget deficits, a new Congress and continued e-commerce growth, appear likely to rekindle the issue. Experts say that cash-strapped states view this revenue, estimated to be several billions of dollars, as money left on the table.

“States are coming up with huge deficits and looking for places to make money,” says Eric Menhart, the principal of CyberLaw, a Rockville, Md.-based law firm that concentrates on technology legal issues. “All of a sudden, Internet taxation appears a lot more viable.”

Spotting an opportunity, legislators and other proponents of Internet taxation are renewing their efforts. Scott Peterson, executive director of the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, a group that oversees states’ efforts to simplify and modernize sales tax issues, says legislators from Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas and Virginia, among others, have recently contacted him about the issue.

The plan: to reintroduce legislation as early as January when the new Congress takes office. The legislative route is necessary because the Supreme Court ruled in the 1990s that states can’t require out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax on online sales. Proponents believe that making their case to Congress would be faster and more practical than wending their way through the courts.

Photo by enimal.

In the fall of 1972, when David Galenson was a senior economics major at Harvard, he took what he describes as a “gut” course in 17th-century Dutch art. On the first day of class, the professor displayed a stunning image of a Renaissance Madonna and child. “Pablo Picasso did this copy of a Raphael drawing when he was 17 years old,” the professor told the students. “What have you people done lately?”

It’s a question we all ask ourselves. What have we done lately? It rattles us each birthday. It surfaces whenever an upstart twentysomething pens a game-changing novel or a 30-year-old tech entrepreneur becomes a billionaire.

The question nagged at Galenson for years. In graduate school, he watched brash colleagues write dissertations that earned them quick acclaim and instant tenure, while he sat in the library meticulously tabulating 17th- and 18th-century indentured-servitude records.

Now, however, Galenson might have done something at last, something that could provide hope for legions of late bloomers everywhere. Beavering away in his sunny second-floor office on campus, he has scoured the records of art auctions, counted entries in poetry anthologies, tallied images in art history textbooks – and then sliced and diced the numbers with his econometric ginsu knife. Applying the fiercely analytic, quantitative tools of modern economics, he has reverse engineered ingenuity to reveal the source code of the creative mind.

What he has found is that genius – whether in art or architecture or even business – is not the sole province of 17-year-old Picassos and 22-year-old Andreessens. Instead, it comes in two very different forms, embodied by two very different types of people.

“Conceptual innovators,” as Galenson calls them, make bold, dramatic leaps in their disciplines. They do their breakthrough work when they are young. Think Edvard Munch, Herman Melville, and Orson Welles. They make the rest of us feel like also-rans.

Then there’s a second character type, someone who’s just as significant but trudging by comparison. Galenson calls this group “experimental innovators.” Geniuses like Auguste Rodin, Mark Twain, and Alfred Hitchcock proceed by a lifetime of trial and error and thus do their important work much later in their careers. Galenson maintains that this duality – conceptualists are from Mars, experimentalists are from Venus – is the core of the creative process. And it applies to virtually every field of intellectual endeavor, from painters and poets to economists.

Read more.

Photo by sfjalar.

With the economy struggling, every business is trying to cut costs to make ends meet. Small businesses, which have fewer resources, especially feel the burn.

Not to fear. We’ve come up with a mega-list of ways to trim the fat off your enterprise so you don’t become a casualty of the latest economic downturn.

• Switch to open-source software

• Reduce your variable expenses.

• Take advantage of member rewards.

• Communicate on online forums and message boards.

• Re-evaluate your insurance coverage and policy costs.

• Shop for discounted fares online.

• Get an “executive suite.” You don’t have to run your office full-time from an executive suite to benefit from its services. Many home-based entrepreneurs find executive suites meet a range of needs, including access to a private mailbox and a receptionist to answer or forward calls to your home office.

For 71 More Ways for Your Small Business to Save Money in this Economy,go here.

Photo by ShellyS.

As the economic crisis grows, Americans are paying less attention to new product launches, posing a serious challenge for emerging businesses, according to a recent survey.

Of 1,000 consumers polled in September, 69 percent could not recall a single product launch this year. About 22 percent said they remembered when the Wii Fit hit the market, while 16 percent remembered the iPod Touch.

The survey was conducted by Mintel International and IRI, two research firms based in Chicago, along with Schneider Associates, a Boston PR firm.

Lynn Dornblaser, Mintel’s trend insight director, blamed the decline in interest on the souring economy.

Photo by PieterMusterd.

Here is a cool new tool from Hubspot, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company that helps small business build their online presence. Now you can have an expert double check your press release at no cost!

Cut and paste your press release into the window, complete the form and click on “Grade Press Release.”

In a few seconds, you will see your score and a list of suggested improvements.

A giant remote-controlled ant is crawling across the conference table at Uncle Milton Industries Inc. in Westlake Village.

Frank Adler, vice president of marketing, works the controls with a crystal skull device that hints at its branding as a licensed toy from the “Indiana Jones” movie.

“Who better to do ants — a remote control ant?” Adler asks.

It’s a good question, since Uncle Milton is built on a business that traces its success back to the original Ant Farm sold in 1956. President Steve Levine is the son of the company’s founder and Ant Farm inventor, Milton Levine.

“This started it all,” Steve Levine said, holding up an Ant Farm box.

But since then, the company has grown — a lot — and expanded to include new toys that stick to science and nature themes.

Going forward, Uncle Milton continues to invest heavily in research and development for creating toys.

Recent growth is coming from toys tied to big names, such as the “Indiana Jones” line of science and learning toys. In 2009, the company is introducing a line of “Star Wars” science toys.

Photo by Uncle Milton Industries Inc..

One night in 1966, “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson and a guest, the lovely Eva Gabor, were on the studio floor as they giggled and groped their way through a new game that was destined for tens of thousands of U.S. living rooms.

The agile Johnny attempted to slide one foot to a color destination under Ava’s arched back and lean back to plant his hand on another color, before they collapsed to the floor in laughter, delighting the in-studio audience of what was the country’s favorite late-night show.

The happy inventor of Twister in 1966 was Reyn Guyer, a 31-year-old promotions pitchman at his father’s St. Paul creative shop, who conceived the game in 1964.

“Believe it or not, I was working on a promotion for a polish for kids shoes when I got the inspiration for a game that uses people as playing pieces,”

Guyer, who is also the guy behind the Nerf Ball, continues to run a small company that invents toys and children’s learning products. And at the Chicago International Toy and Game Fair Guyer, a guy who doesn’t like croquet, will introduce another toy concept: KingsCourt, a kind of team-oriented croquet.

This game includes mallets for striking balls. But it’s simpler, involves teams and strategy and is more fun to play and watch.”

Photo by Star Tribune.

Michelle Goodman writes:

No one ever filled a gas tank or bought groceries with exposure. The 20.9 million Americans working as consultants, freelancers, small-business owners and independent contractors are not keeping a roof overhead by getting paid in exposure, or “PIE,” as I’ve taken to calling it.

But writers, illustrators and other creative types aren’t the only ones who routinely get asked to donate their time and talents to clients devoid of outsourcing budgets. Business consultants, virtual assistants, bookkeepers, programmers, publicists and all other manner of self-employed professionals get offered platefuls of PIE, too.

First, let’s consider when giving it up for nothing can work in your favor:

You have no clients or portfolio. If you left your staff position without any customer testimonials or work samples, you may have to do a freebie or three for a worthy small business to prove to paying clients that you’ve done this before. Pick short-term projects (several days, tops) so you’re not stuck working pro bono until the next decade.

Your dream client has shallow pockets. Writers, artists and performers are all too familiar with this phenomenon. Example: The indie magazine that barely pays its freelancers but, thanks to the power of PIE, has landed many of them agents, book deals and art shows.

You’re donating time to a worthy cause. When donating your services to your favorite nonprofit or charity, my motto is, “Give big.” Think high-profile auctions, galas and fund-raising marathons; the more PIE potential, the better. Although you’re doing the job gratis, send the client a short, informal contract clearly stating what you will and won’t do, and when.

Photo by mikehome.

Car shopping can be a tricky business, and that is something which DealerRater.com has recognized. Positive, as well as negative, car dealership experiences are welcome. Dealers who want to defend themselves against anything negative may also do so. Unlike many sites that only feature a one sided view to a situation, DealerRater.com has been able to give both sides their say, leaving the reader the ability to decide for themselves.

What good is an interesting story without sharing it with others? Chip has taken the time to answer a few of our questions about his website and tell us a little more about what they offer.

What inspired you to create DealerRater.com?

I love cars. I love driving them and I love talking about them. In 2001, when I went to purchase my first new car, I had two polarizing experiences with two different dealerships. One was an extremely positive experience and one was an extremely negative experience. I was so happy to have found a local dealership that made car buying fun and exciting, that I logged online to write about it. However, at the time, there was no forum to share this experience. I took the next few months and created a Beta version of www.dealerrater.com. My goal was to have DealerRater.com committed to providing a central collection point for informative reviews. This is still our most important business purpose.

Besides Dealer Reviews, what else can be found on your website?

Besides our collection of over 60,000 user generated dealer reviews, we offer many features for website users and car dealerships. Dealership may respond to reviews publicly for free. We offer free classified ads where anyone can post their vehicle to sell.. Our classified ads feed into the Google Shopping site as well as our partner car news site AutoSpies.com. We have offered this free classified ad system since 2005. In 2007, we added in the ability for people to write reviews about their cars. So now you can find out information about your dealership and the car or cars you want to test drive. Users may submit requests for vehicle searches. These leads are broadcast to dealerships in our Certified Dealer Program. In September 2008, we added the Car Recall Database. This feature offers DealerRater.com users the ability to search our database for vehicle recalls or service bulletins about their vehicle.

What changes has DealerRater.com seen since it was first launched?

The biggest change has been in the importance user’s place on peer generated reviews. Many of these changes are sited in a recent J.D. Power and Associates article http://www.autonews.com/article/20081016/ANA05/810160298

Dealerships have become more online savvy and many now have internal programs to encourage customers to write reviews, to have staff monitor all reviews, and to respond to negative reviews. Dealerships realize that third party review websites are a very valuable marketing tool to build their online reputation. This awareness by users and dealerships did not exist six years ago.

Do you have any specific goals you would still like to meet over the coming years?

We would like DealerRater.com to be the primary information source for car buying consumers. As we add more features to the DealerRater.com site, we provide a greater breadth of information that helps to inform the consumer. We have also built the website to support other English speaking countries and we look forward to expanding into these countries.

What do you think your visitors enjoy most when they visit the website?

We have worked really hard over the last six years making sure our website is as easy to use as possible. Search plays a major role in everyone’s online life, so we have spent most of marketing efforts making sure that when someone searches for a specific dealership on a search engine, our site is also listed at the top of the results page. This gives the consumer the ability to quickly research that dealership and other dealerships in their area. Once that consumer has hit our website, we make it very easy for them to find reviews, classified ads and car dealers.

Have you always thought you’d end up running a business related to the car industry? What do you enjoy most about taking the leap into this area?

I don’t think growing up I thought I’d be running a business in the car industry, but I knew back then I wanted to do something involving cars. Since Formula One never panned out for me, this has been a pretty good backup plan! Building a company from the ground up has been an incredible experience. Hand picking the best and the brightest to work next to you – and having them share the same goals - is amazing. What we enjoy most about the dealer world is how dynamic it is, especially as it relates to technology and the internet.

Although you are putting your full energy into DealerRater.com now, do you have any intention to expand or create any new startups in the future?

I have created six other websites, but I am most passionate and committed to DealerRater.com at this time.

Did you come across any problems during the startup process? If so, how did you handle it and what did you learn from the experience?

After I built the site, I realized very quickly that its success would be based on generating a large base of reviews. To promote the site, I used guerilla marketing tactics by asking participants in car forums to add in their own dealer reviews. This was a steady but slow process. The biggest leaps in building the DealerRater.com brand, came after I partnered with AutoSpies.com and became dedicated to the site’s search engine optimization. I really believe that businesses owners need to be dedicated to their business and to be patient as they build. The DealerRater.com community has taken six years to build, but has become more exciting over that time.

If you were to retire tomorrow, do you feel you’ve accomplished everything you’ve wanted to?

I can not even imagine retiring tomorrow. I love what I do and do not consider it work. I have many more ideas and I would love to see come to fruition.

Going by some of the things said on your site about some of the car dealers, what recommendations do you have for a dealership looking to offer the best for their customers?

Put your customer’s needs first, listen to your customers, and respond to their concerns in a timely manner. Many DealerRater.com users that give low ratings and unsatisfactory review to a dealership feel that they were not heard or respected at the dealership. They believe that businesses often take feedback more seriously when it is voiced publicly and in many cases, they are right. We see that dealerships are more likely to come to a faster resolution with customers, once a review is posted. In some circumstances, issues have not been properly escalated within the dealership organization to the right decision maker. Most dealers that are monitoring their reviews on DealerRater.com, have a manager overlooking the posting and have the power to resolve issues.

A Scottish cake maker is hoping to mix it with millionaires with a “revolutionary” take on the wooden spoon – which he insists is NOT a spatula.

Instead, “Spon” inventor Neal Robertson is sending his double-backed spoons to celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Nigella Lawson in a bid for the baking big time.

“Proud as punch” with his creation, Neal said: “It took me 12 years of making cakes to come up with this - I’m just annoyed I didn’t think of it sooner.

“It’s heavier than a spatula, so it’s not a spatula, neither is it a spoon – it’s a Spon.

“Scotland gets enough wooden spoons in sport – I’m just doing something useful with them.”

Fed up scraping cake mix out of wooden spoons, Neal’s Eureka moment came two years ago.

The Spon has two flat sides, and as well as solving the problem of clogged up cake mixture, its inventor says produces a smoother mix resulting in lighter cakes.

Now he’s got it patented and manufactured in China, and has 18,000 to shift.

Photo by BBC News.

Time to buff up your brain, to send your synapses to the spa. How about a couple of hours of sudoku? No? Well, fire up your Nintendo DS and pump up your neurons with Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training games — “Keep your brain sharp and in shape.”

“These games definitely work because you get better at playing them,” says Earl Miller, professor of neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “The big question is: do these skills generalise to normal everyday thoughts? That hasn’t been studied.”

But don’t despair: Susanne Jaeggi, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, may be able to help. She has devised a brain-training game that actually works. It’s a strange, complex game involving sequences of squares on a computer screen, and it definitely improves “fluid intelligence” — the part of your mind that deals directly with the raw newness of experience or, as defined by Jaeggi, “the ability to reason and to solve new problems independently of previously acquired knowledge”.

Read more.

Photo by PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE.

In 2007, Microsoft acquired Jellyfish, a social search engine that ultimately became the Live Search Cashback program. The company’s founders – Brian Wiegand and Mark McGuire – have since moved on, and are now working on a stealth startup called Alice.com that is announcing a $4.3 million financing round.

While the founders aren’t giving away too many details just yet, what they are saying is intriguing.

According to Wiegand, “The sale of consumer staples like trash bags, toothpaste and bathroom tissue is a huge untapped eCommerce market that is ripe for innovation. We are thrilled to be leveraging the Internet to change the way consumers supply their homes with these consumer staples.”

The company’s website promises “free shipping, saving you time, and making sure you never run out of bathroom tissue” and “[fewer] shopping trips, clipping coupons, and hauling a case-pack of laundry soap out to the car to save a buck.”

So, from that you can surmise that Alice.com is essentially some sort of subscription club for consumer packaged goods – you know, the one-offs that you’re constantly running out to the store to replenish when you realize you’re out of them.

Photo by Alice.com.

It might seem counterintuitive to start a new business when the economy is in the dumps. But a recession can actually be the ideal time for launching a company. In fact, many well-known and successful organizations were born during an economic slump.

The following major corporations made it big during recessions:

Burger King Corp., with its flame-broiled burgers, is another recession startup. The company began in 1954 when James McLamore and David Edgerton opened a Burger King restaurant in Miami, Fla. During another recession in 1957, the company introduced its successful signature burger — the Whopper. Today, the company operates more than 11,100 locations in 65 countries.

The Jim Henson Company was created by famed puppeteer Jim Henson in 1958. Henson’s business was responsible for some of the best-known puppet characters of all time including Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog and Elmo. Today, the privately held company is managed by Henson’s children and continues to thrive by creating popular kids-friendly shows and movies.

FedEx Corp. began operations on April 17, 1973 as Federal Express, a nod to the Federal Reserve, with whom founder Frederick W. Smith had hoped to get a contract. He didn’t, but the company that delivered 186 packages to 25 cities on its first night of operations now manages more than 7.5 million shipments everyday worldwide.

Microsoft Corp. wasn’t always the jaw-dropping enterprise it is today. In 1975, when it was created by Harvard University dropout Bill Gates, Microsoft was just a little company in Albuquerque, N.M. It dealt in rudimentary computing languages and began its climb to business stardom with the success of MS-DOS, which was sold and marketed to IBM Corp. and then-IBM clones. Today, the company is estimated to earn more than $60 billion in revenue per year and is branching into new areas including VoIP and CRM.

CNN might be a news giant now, but in recession-plagued 1980, it was a little-known station called The Cable Network News. It revolutionized how people received information when it premiered as the first 24-hour all-news channel. Today, 1.5 billion people across the globe watch CNN.

Photo by Various.

So, you thought the market for reusable bags was saturated? Having found a niche that has yet to be infiltrated, The Green Garmento hopes to help green up dry cleaning.

Introduced last month, The Green Garmento is a garment bag made from non-woven recyclable material that can be used as a duffel bag to transport laundry to the cleaners, or as a suit bag to protect garments on their return journey.

Unlike plastic bags, The Green Garmento ‘breathes’ and doesn’t trap chemicals, meaning garments can be stored in the bags without requiring airing.

The Green Garmento is currently offering its positive associations to dry cleaners (and consumers) at a cost of USD 9.99 per bag for orders of 10 or less, going down to USD 5.05 for quantities of 1000+. The bags are available in six colours, and can be Logos can be printed on the bags. It’s yet another nail in the coffin for single-use plastic bags.

Photo by Green Garmento.

During a time when people care about their own health as well as the well-being of the planet, Elevation Burger has found a niche in the restaurant world that previously went unnoticed. Hans Hess is the CEO behind this innovative new business and franchise opportunity. We were able to get in touch with Hans and ask him a few questions about this unique opportunity.

What is Elevation Burger?

Elevation Burger is a healthier take on fast food. We use organic, grass-fed, free range beef, cook our fries in olive oil and offer veggie burgers and fresh scooped milkshakes.

When did the company first launch?

September 2005

How long was it after the launch of your business that you decided to start franchising?

2 years

How long did it take to organize, then execute, your plans?

4 months

Did you have any previous experience that you were able to apply during the start up of your business, or in franchising?

From my real estate consulting background I became adept at seeing financial and market opportunities.

Do you have any specific goals you’d like to meet over the next year or two?

We look forward to becoming even more efficient in our operation and getting our prime costs down to about 51%. We’re very close, but as we open more stores, we should have more opportunities to push our costs down further.

What do you look for in a potential franchisee?

We look for people who understand the Elevation Burger brand. We sell organic burgers and cook our fries in olive oil because we want to offer a healthier product. Shopping at Whole Foods isn’t a pre-requisite for becoming a franchisee, but we’ve noticed that it helps if people have personal conviction about eating healthier.

How did you end up where you are today? Have you always wanted to be an entrepreneur?

I was always fairly unconventional, even contrarian, in my approach to life. At some point, I realized that this is an excellent trait in the marketplace of ideas. It allows you to see things differently. For example, when I first started experimenting with cooking french fries in olive oil, I was told by everyone in the food industry that it was a fool’s errand – “it can’t be done” was repeated to me over and over. But I was committed to a highly differentiated fry product, so I spent 6 months figuring out how to make it work.

What makes your burgers healthy? How is it different from other restaurants that claim to offer a healthy alternative?

We don’t claim that they are necessarily healthy. What we do claim is that they are healthier. We think the food is generally healthier because of the higher content of Omega 3’s and CLA’s in the meat (due to it being grass-fed) and the olive oil content in the fries. You can read more about it on our website. Go to www.elevationburger.com and click on the ‘Ingredients Matter” tab.

What is the first thing an individual should do before they contact your company for more information about franchising an Elevation Burger?

Know the basic requirements, which can found on our website under the “Our Business” tab.

Lea Redmond runs the World’s Smallest Postal Service, a teeny tiny letter transcription service.

She sets up shop in cafes and stores, and is now available online. Here’s how it works: You write a letter (up to 12 whole sentences!) and Lea transcribes it onto tiny stationary (1 x 1.5 inches) with a magical transcription device. It then goes into a tiny envelope which gets addressed, stamped, and sealed with a miniscule wax seal with your initial on it.

The letter then goes into a see-through folded coin case and is packaged up with a magnifying glass in a larger glassine envelope, finished off with a large “World’s Smallest Letter” wax seal. Lea can send your letter directly to a recipient of your choice, or to you if you would like to distribute it yourself.

Lea also offers some new products, World’s Smallest Birthday Cards, Winter Holiday Cards, Valentines, and cards from the Tooth Fairy! Or write a letter from one of Santa’s elves! Or to welcome a new baby into the world.

Photo by Leafcutter Designs.

Over the past few weeks, economic experts have introduced us to a deluge of statistics and indices to chart the current financial crisis.

As a microbusiness owner, however, I’ve found one reliable index that won’t show up on most economic forecasts, one I’m calling the Haircut Index.

In my small town in New York’s Hudson Valley, there’s a hair stylist who is known for his impressive talent with haircutting shears. Walk in with a shaggy head and after a brief time with Sean’s nimble work using scissors or razor, you’ll leave crisply styled. As a result, his appointment book is always full, often months in advance.

The other day I called his salon, hoping to snag one of his rare cancellations, imagine my surprise when the receptionist said, “next week Sean has an opening on Wednesday at 11, and two on Thursday at 2 and 4. Which do you prefer?”

It was then that it hit me: the economy had truly changed. For Sean to have three openings in the coming week signaled a major shift in demand.

What’s important is that we, as entrepreneurs, look beyond the headlines and traditional indices to frame our own understanding of this volatile economy. Peer deeper into your daily encounters and discover the creative possibilities.

Photo by Pancho’s.

Like all Americans, we in the small business community congratulate President-elect Barack Obama on your victory and are optimistic about the hope your election brings. Now we’d like to answer your call.

On election night, you set out your vision: “There’s new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.” You asked the American people to join you in remaking America “block by block, brick by brick, callused hand by callused hand.”

Well, Mr. President-elect, small businesses live on those blocks, have laid those bricks, and know what it’s like to have callused hands. Now we’d like to lend those callused hands to partner with you.

Entrepreneurs need their voices heard and can help you create a healthy American economy. We can:

• Create jobs.
• Create agriculture entrepreneurs.
• Identify and build industries of tomorrow.
• Devise alternative energy, environmental and social solutions.

President-elect Obama, call on us as you make your plans to restore the American economy. Can we be part of your solution? Yes, we can.

Photo by jmtimages.