Source: Mi6 Films Facebook Page

Russ Freeman of Mi6 Films was running a wildly successful aerial photography and video company in Hollywood, California.  That is, until the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) shut him down.

Why was he grounded?  Freeman’s company was flying “unauthorized” and unmanned drones across the sunny skies of Southern California taking aerial photographs and videos for real estate agents selling mansions, music videos, movie scenes, documentaries and car commercials.

Freeman originally flew small planes and helicopters to capture the aerial photographs, but the cost of renting aircraft became prohibitive so he turned to a much cheaper option, drone photography.

Source: Mi6 Films Facebook Page

The FAA allows hobbyists to fly radio-controlled drones in unpopulated areas below 400 feet.  The drones used by Freeman’s company are radio-controlled from the ground, have a blade wingspan of about 4 feet and are about the size of a small dog or basketball.  The difference?  Freeman was violating the FAA’s rules on flying an unmanned aircraft for commercial purposes.

It’s not just the FAA that’s crying foul.  Commercial airlines are complaining that the drones will cause havoc in the airspace potentially crashing into airplanes, unlikely considering the drones fly between 50 to 250 feet off the ground.  Meanwhile, police departments such as the LAPD are worried about the drones crashing into buildings and police helicopters.

A Police Drone

Of course, there’s always more to the story.  While Congress passed a bill through both houses ordering the FAA to integrate unmanned drones into airspace by 2015, the FAA approved 295 special permits for law enforcement, the military and researchers to use unmanned drones in the U.S.

As another opportunistic small business falls victim to government regulation, is big brother writing its latest movie script?

Read more at Bloomberg Businessweek >>

GoPro

The BARE score is calculated by the number of Facebook interactions (likes, posts, comments, etc) divided by the total number of Facebook page likes (formerly known as fans).  The Facebook interactions metric is known as “Talking About This” and can be found on any Facebook fan page under the number of likes metric.

How is it possible that a small business started in CEO Nick Woodman’s parent’s house is the company with the most socially engaged customers in the world?

GoPro cameras are used by reality-TV shows like the Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel, ESPN’s X Games, Lucasfilm movies and were even mounted on the rescue pod during the Chilean Mine Rescue.  That’s some amazing footage, but the real secret to GoPro’s success are the exciting adventure videos customers upload daily to social networks such as Facebook and YouTube.

Check out these ridiculously viral videos filmed with GoPro cameras:

Mountain Biker Gets Taken Out By a Sprinting Red Hartebeest Antelope in South Africa

Seagull Steals GoPro Camera and Drops It on a Castle Ledge

Skier Sets Off an Avalanche in the French Alps

Read more at Inc. >>

If you would like to feature your product, service or small business innovation success story on Firmology, please fill out our submission form.  

CEO Nick Woodman might be a laid-back surfer dude at heart, but he certainly isn’t lazy.  Frustrated that he couldn’t easily capture his thrill-seeking passions of surfing, racecar driving, mountain biking and motorcycle racing on camera, Woodman spent two years working 16 hours days to build a prototype of a wrist strap and camera.

After getting the idea to design and manufacture mounts for its cameras allowing thrill-seekers to point the cameras at themselves, sales exploded landing Woodman and GoPro accounts at Dick’s Sporting Goods, REI and Best Buy. GoPro now holds 90% of the wearable camera market and is carried in 10,000 stores including action sports enthusiast shops, REI and Amazon.

Read more at Inc. >>

There are dozens of apps that would be great for business people. Evernote and Dropbox are great examples, but those are the basics. What are some of the other apps out there that could be beneficial? Keep reading to find out what apps are out there that could make your work like a lot easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable.

Application: My Eyes Only™ – Secure Password Manager
Price: Free

Security is a huge aspect of business — it’s always a priority to protect company information. Because of this, you probably have a ton of passwords to remember, and it’s too risky to simply write them down somewhere where some random clown can get a hold of them. Instead, this app lets you store secure passwords using advanced encryption and password protection.

Application: MetroFax Mobile (that’s us!)
Price: Free*

If your company moved past the use of ancient fax machines and instead uses MetroFax, there’s an app that can extend the convenience of their service. You can actually send faxes to a physical fax machine while on the road and receive faxes no matter where you are, so you’re not limited to being in the office anymore. The app even optimizes images taken from your phone’s camera and forms a fax-friendly quality document. Get the Metrofax Mobile app, and you’ll be ready for business while on the go!

*Note: This free app can be activated through a free service trial available on their website. Try-out this app before signing-up for the paid subscription.

Application: Online Payroll
Price: Free**

That’s right — even a lot of payroll services can be done on-the-go these days. With this app, you can view paychecks from earlier pay periods, access employee information, create paychecks for contractors and employees, and even pay (either by using a paper check or direct deposit).

**Note: In order to use this free app, you must have an Intuit Payroll account: Intuit Online Payroll, QuickBooks Online Payroll, Intuit Full Service Payroll, or Intuit Online Payroll for Accounting Professionals. If you do, the app will sync with your account.

Application: Genius Scan – PDF Scanner
Price: Free

Ever have that terrible moment in which there’s tons of great information in front of you, but you don’t have your laptop with you, or there’s just not enough time to jot it all down? Genius Scan lets you capture documents with your phone. Why is it better than a camera? It corrects perspective, emails the scanned documents as JPGs, creates PDFs, and allows you to export the PDFs to any app capable of reading them.

Application: GoToMeeting
Price: Free

Now you don’t even need a computer to join GoToMeetings and view presentations. As long as you’ve got your iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, or iPhone 4S on hand, as well as signal, you can “attend” a meeting by clicking on your email link and view spreadsheets, reports, presentations, and anything else shared on the presenter’s screen.

Application: DocuSign
Price: Free***

If DocuSign is a part of your professional life, make it a mobile part of your life! With this app, you can send documents out that need to be signed, track the status of documents, and even sign documents that have been sent to you through your iPhone. Ah, the joys of living in the 21^st century.

***Note: The app is free, but a DocuSign account is required. You can link to an existing account, sign up for a paid account, or create a free account that allows you to send 3 envelopes per month.

Application: PDF Reader Pro
Price: $5.99

There’s already an app on this list for capturing and sending/storing PDFs, but this app fills the role of the next step: reading and marking them up. You can scan and send PDFs, but what makes this app awesome is that you can add annotations like text boxes, sticky notes, arrows, and more.

Application: Google Translate
Price: Free

If you ever work internationally or have clients in other countries, this app could be incredibly useful. This app will not only translate text — it’ll also translate words you speak and convert it into text. An article in The New York Times included this app on its list of the best iPhone apps of 2011, so it’s not one to overlook!

Application: Ambiance
Price: $2.99

Inc.com featured Ambiance in a list of iPhone business apps, probably because silent offices aren’t the best work environments. If you’re looking to take nothingness and fill it with soothing sounds, this app is perfect for you. Now you can even record your own sounds to keep in the app!

Application: GoToMyPC (Remote Desktop)
Price: Free****

With a GoToMyPC subscription, you can get to your computer no matter where you are. This is fantastically convenient for businesspeople who may need information on their computers but can’t exactly sprint back to their offices. Now work can be always accessible, which helps you decrease stress and reduce the hours you spend in the office.

****Note: The app is free, but a GoToMyPC subscription is required on the computers you plan to use using the mobile app. You can get the paid version or get the trial for 30 days.

Countless apps can benefit your professional life, even if it doesn’t seem obvious that they would contribute to efficiency. Sometimes there are mobile tools like these that can help with your daily office processes or simply make your working environment more comforting. The next time you see an app, think about whether it’s possible to apply the app’s capabilities to your work routine, and you might discover more than you would have otherwise!

If you would like to feature your product, service or small business innovation success story on Firmology, please fill out our submission form.  

@WalmartLabs, Walmart’s social, mobile and retail eCommerce innovation division, has launched an online contest called Get on the Shelf, where small business owners and entrepreneurs can enter their product for the opportunity to literally get on Walmart shelves.

What’s the prize?

• Spot on Walmart store shelves
• Featured placement on Walmart.com
• Marketing support
• Advise on scaling up to meet Walmart demand

The submission process is simple.  All you need to do is fill out the product entry form on Get on the Shelf with your email, company/your name, product name, a short description and link to your YouTube video.

I need a YouTube video?!

YouTube video?  Yep, you heard that right.  The public is voting for their favorite products, so this is a huge opportunity to get free visibility for your creative small business product, even if your product isn’t one of the three winners.  The best part is that Walmart is accepting videos that you’ve already used in the past, so if you have an awesome product tour or commercial, you are golden!

If you don’t have a video, don’t stress as Firmology has you covered!  Check out how Orabrush used ridiculously viral YouTube videos to successfully get on Walmart shelves.

Don’t forget to tell us what your innovative product is in the comments below and leave a link to your video, so we can see your “winning” product in action.

-To contact the writer on this story: Philip Nowak in Chicago at philip.nowak@firmology.com.

If you would like to feature your product, service or small business innovation success story on Firmology, please fill out our submission form.

BizSugar’s infographic celebrates the entrepreneur and their contributions to the global economy.  In 2005, entrepreneurs contributed 9.9 billion hours of uncompensated time to launch their businesses.  Think that’s a waste?  Think again.  Between 1977 and 2005, startups contributed an average of 3 million jobs per year, while existing firms lost 1 million jobs per year.

Three key points we found interesting:

• 110 million people between the ages of 18 and 64, from only 59 countries studied, were in the process of starting their own business
• 65% of startup entrepreneurs did not obtain a 4-year college degree
• 86% of startup entrepreneurs create their business not out of economic necessity, but for freedom of time, potential for greater wealth and respect

What kind of startup entrepreneur are you? If you don’t see one that fits, tell us your startup management style in the comments below.

-To contact the writer on this story: Philip Nowak in Chicago at philip.nowak@firmology.com.

If you would like to feature your product, service or small business innovation success story on Firmology, please fill out our submission form.

Get Firmology on Your Amazon Kindle

Great news!  You can now get Firmology on your Amazon Kindle.  Whether by Kindle, email, RSS feed or the Firmology.com homepage, our goal is to deliver Firmology content anyway you want to receive it, so making Firmology available on the Kindle was an easy decision. Firmology content will be available on the following Amazon Kindle devices: Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle DX, Kindle (1st Generation) and Kindle (2nd Generation).  Firmology isn’t available on the Kindle Fire yet, but we’re sure that Amazon will activate our site [...]

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Firmology content will be available on the following Amazon Kindle devices: Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle DX, Kindle (1st Generation) and Kindle (2nd Generation).  Firmology isn’t available on the Kindle Fire yet, but we’re sure that Amazon will activate our site on that device in the near future.

As you can see in the screenshots above, Firmology content is delivered to your Kindle just like any other book, newspaper or magazine.  You can select an article in the table of contents or start flipping pages to read each article in chronological order starting with the most recent post.  The best part is that Kindle blogs give you full text content and images, and are fully downloaded on your Kindle so you can read them even when you’re not wirelessly connected.

The Firmology subscription comes with a risk-free 14-day free trial and is auto-delivered to your Kindle.  After the trial ends, the monthly subscription price is $0.99 per month, which we have no control over and is automatically set by Amazon.  That’s just 3 cents per day, a fraction of the sales tax on your daily cup of coffee.  If you like to read blogs, magazines and newspapers on your Kindle, we hope you’ll consider subscribing to Firmology.

Subscribe to Firmology on the Amazon Kindle now or click on the Get Firmology on Your Kindle widget in the right sidebar.

-To contact the writer on this story: Philip Nowak in Chicago at philip.nowak@firmology.com.

If you would like to feature your product, service or small business innovation success story on Firmology, please fill out our submission form. 

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Here are 10 Black Friday Gadget Deals for Small Business Owners to help you get your business shopping list started:

Smartphones

1) $.01 smartphones at Amazon including the brand new Motorola Droid Razr, Samsung Galaxy S II and Blackberry Torch

2) AT&T has several smartphones for $.01 or even free with a two-year contract.

Computers/Tablets

3) $101 off Apple MacBook Airs, Pros and iMacs; Example deal: the 11 inch MacBook Air will be $898, normally $999.

4) $61 off Apple iPads

Printers

5) HP Photosmart wireless all-in-one printer for $49.90, regularly $149.98.

6) HP Photosmart wireless all-in-one printer + fax for $99.90, regularly $299.98.

Accessories and Peripherals

7) 8GB USB flash drive for $7.99, regularly $29.99

8) Epson Projector for $299.99, regularly $449.99

Wireless Internet

9) Verizon Wireless 4G LTE mobile hotspot for $29.99, regularly $79.99 with two-year contract

10) FREE Verizon Wireless 4G LTE USB modem, regularly $50.00 with two-year contract

There are thousands of deals out there this weekend.  Tell us what you snagged and share your favorite Black Friday small business deals in the comments below!

-To contact the writer on this story: Philip Nowak in Chicago at philip.nowak@firmology.com.

If you would like to feature your product, service or small business innovation success story on Firmology, please fill out our submission form. 

From $100 in Free Facebook Ads to 10,000 Small Businesses to $1 Million to Shoppers on November 1st to Support Small Businesses, American Express has really ramped up their efforts and built several strategic partnerships for the second annual Small Business Saturday (By the way, this is an excellent example of lethal generosity).

Without further adieu, here’s Firmology’s Last-Minute Guide to Small Business Saturday 2011 (Don’t see a link? Click on the category title.)

Promote Your Business

One of the best things about Small Business Saturday are all the free resources that small business owners have available to them.  American Express did an admirable job making every step as easy as possible, thus eliminating any excuse an owner might have about participating.  Besides shoppers being able to receive a $25 statement credit for registering and using their American Express card at a small business, one of our favorite resources are the free marketing materials featured below.

In-store Signage

Posters (8.5×11 or 11×17): Print out Small Business Saturday posters for your storefront windows and walls.

E-marketing Materials

Shop Small Badge: Place the Small Business Saturday badge on your Facebook page, website, company blog or email signature.

Email Template: Speaking of email, AmEx even created email templates to send out to your customer list for those at a loss of words.

Facebook Posts: Still at a loss of words?  Try one of their pre-written Facebook posts.

Tweets: At 140 characters, you should be able to come up with something to tweet.  If not, don’t worry as they have this covered for you as well!

Create an Offer

Share an Offer: If you need offer ideas, check out what other small businesses nationwide are doing.  If you’d like to share the offer you’re running for your customers, leave a Facebook comment.

Create an Offer: Intimidated by the prospect of running and redeeming a deal on a popular social network?  AmEx has that covered with Go Social, their beta social media offer platform.  Register, connect your social networks to the platform and create an offer.  AmEx guides you through each step of the process and eliminates the hassle of offer redemption by automatically crediting customers on their statement.

Rally Your Customers

Create a Facebook Page: Don’t have a Facebook business page yet?  Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a business page for your small business.

Create a YouTube Video: Since you have your entire family over for Thanksgiving dinner, someone is bound to have a video camera.  Take a break from entertaining and film a quick video with your family members telling your customers about the family business.  Your customers will appreciate the authenticity and personal connection.

AmEx partnered with YouTube to create a step-by-step guide to filming, uploading and editing your business story.  Don’t be shy and don’t worry about video quality.  Hundreds of small business owners across the country have already uploaded their videos to the small business gallery.

Get a Twitter Follow Button: Wondering how to install a Twitter follow button on your small business website or blog. Wonder no more with AmEx’s step-by-step guide (notice the recurring theme here?) to creating a Twitter follow button.  

Bonus: if you’d like to return the favor to AmEx for all of their great resources, they give you the option to show the nifty message below to each of your new followers in support of @ShopSmall and Small Business Saturday.

Bonus Bonus: If you liked Firmology’s Ultimate Last-Minute Guide to Small Business Saturday 2011,

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Thank you, Happy Thanksgiving and have a very Merry Small Business Saturday!