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Dealing With Complexity; The End of the Oprah Effect

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:30:59 -0800

A long goodbye to Oprah (and the Oprah Effect). It's official. Oprah Winfrey will announce to viewers on today's show that she will be retiring from her long-running talk show at the completion of the 2011 season. No need to shed a tear for Oprah, who has amassed a fortune reportedly in the neighborhood of $2.7 billion. Instead, think of all those businesses who will no longer feel the benefit of the so-called Oprah Effect, a significant surge in business thanks to a product mention on Ms. Winfrey's show. Here's a look at some Inc. 500 companies who have felt the spoils of the Oprah Effect and will surely be sad to see her go.

How to deal with complexity. Leading a hyper-growth company means managing ongoing complexity. Venture capitalist Fred Destin asked ex-Match.com VP Joe Cohen, founder of Seatwave, Europe's largest ticket exchange, for his notes on how to do it well. Beyond the expected nuggets of wisdom--such as push your employees beyond what they think they're capable of and they'll feel empowered to deliver, or oversimplify and execute well--there are a couple surprises. For example, Cohen recommends ignoring the first request for anything. "If it's really important then they will ask again." He also suggests leaving the office each day with zero emails in your inbox and leaving the office once a week in the middle of the day to hang out with your family, even if only for half an hour. (Hat tip, peHUB)

Learning to live with the big-box stores. When the hardware giant Lowe's announced they were opening a new store in the Baltimore area, you would expect the normal outcry from the local mom-and-pops. Instead, as the Baltimore Sun reports, local hardware stores have taken a surprisingly calm outlook on the new development. The small-business owners interviewed said they believe that local stores and the big guys both have their niche customers and that the two factions can co-exist. As one hardware-store owner said, "Do I want a Lowe's there? No. Am I terrified of it? No. People will still find us."

The coming war for the web. In a blog post and a keynote speech earlier this week, Tim O'Reilly, the publishing entrepreneur and tech guru, warns of an impending "war for the web." O'Reilly observes that the dominant companies--Facebook, Google, and Apple--have made moves that attempt to wall off their offerings from those of other companies, which could make it more difficult for startups to gain traction and could eventually stifle innovation. "[I]t is becoming clear to me that we are heading into a bloody period of competition that could be extremely unfriendly to the interoperable web as we know it today," O'Reilly writes. He urges those developing new Web applications to "place your bets now on open systems" rather than cutting exclusive deals with the big players.

Goldman Sachs: the new Dear Abby for small businesses. Earlier this week we told you about how two icons of corporate America--Warren Buffet and Goldman Sachs--were teaming up to inject $500 million into the small business sector . In the wake of the announcement, the Wall Street Journal reports that the investment bank is quickly morphing into "a Dear Abby of small-business woe," with hundreds of inquiries from small businesses eager to get their share. The five-year gift will hardly buck the overall decline in small-business lending, notes the Journal. And not all entrepreneurs see Goldman's contribution as laudatory. Andrea Audibert, who runs Trinity Construction & Investment out of Slidell, Louisiana says, "Goldman Sachs was part of what the problem was," adding that any potential help would merely constitute "a little retribution." Goldman's been all over the headlines recently. Today its investors expressed their frustration over the size of its bonus pool, which is on track to be the biggest in the firm's 140 year-history (about $717,000 a person a person for 2009).

Black Friday bargains for small businesses. The day after Thanksgiving, lovingly coined "Black Friday," is historically known as the best day of the year for bargain shoppers. For small businesses, it's also a potential gold mine. USA Today offers several suggestions for making Black Friday a more painless experience, such as creating a list of things your business needs beforehand, shopping online for even better sales, and hitting up office-supply stores for all your business-related equipment.

Radical Twitter overhaul. Stop the presses! Twitter has changed its homepage prompt from "What are you doing?" to "What's happening?" Valleywag asks a linguist what this means and parses: "Twitter's new slogan reflects the microblogging service's evolution from a venue for self expression into a forum for conversation, according to Welsh linguist David Crystal." The gossip blog translates: "So Twitter's users have, at the very least, moved beyond mere navel gazing and into arguing."

Success in the mobile sphere. Some companies have definitely found ways to profit in the mobile market, but how many can say that one quarter of their users sign up on a mobile phone? Well, for one, Pandora can. The internet radio site, which has 38 million highly vocal users and counting, sees half of its first time users try it out on their iPhones, Androids, and BlackBerrys, according to GigaOM. Find out more about how to get your brand out to the mobile world.

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Is Imeem going to MySpace?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:00:40 -0800

Imeem is a start-up with a great service (free online music!), lots of users (15 million, according to Quantcast), and a compelling story. Unfortunately, it's pretty darn hard to make it in the online music business.

The start-up has struggled this year, because of a poor advertising market and high licensing fees owed to the record companies (these fees have been a perenial problem for online music start-ups and nearly shut down Pandora in 2007). Techcrunch reported in May that Imeem had, "risen from the ashes," by renegotiating with the record companies and raising several million dollars in additional funding. Now it appears that founder Dalton Caldwell may have found a home for the struggling music service--even if he probably won't walk away with a whole lot of money.

MySpace has agreed to acquire Imeem for the "fire-sale" price of $1 million, plus an assumption of debt, according to AllthingsD. Curiously, neither MySpace nor Imeem has confirmed the deal. A MySpace spokesperson called the reports "rumors." I haven't heard back from anyone at Imeem but will update when I do.

If the deal goes through, Imeem would join its erstwhile competitor iLike, which was acquired by MySpace earlier this year for $20 million. It's possible, of course, that the reports of an acquisition are false and that Imeem is still looking for outside funding or hoping to attract another acquirer.

How to Find the Right Partnerships

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:33:03 -0800

We just did something that some would say is crazy. We -- the company best known for making "worm poop" gardening products bottled in what were previously plastic soda bottles, and for turning billboards into messenger bags -- are creating products based on Huggies and Scott paper products from Kimberly-Clark.

Excuse me?

No, not used diapers and handy wipes, but the packaging that they came in. Oh. Yes. But you see where there might be a bit of a mental leap for people to buy products that are made from brands they associate with very unrecyclable things?

That is, until you look at what we're doing. In fact, what we're doing is tightly interlocked with the Kimberly-Clark brand. If we tried to use their stuff and make what we've made in the past (i.e. the gardening products we're known for), that just wouldn't have worked. Instead, we've directed all our energy into creating products that, as they say, don't fall far from the tree.

Case in point: We'll be making Huggies packaging into diaper bags and other baby/parenting-related products. A short step, not even a leap, for those who regularly use the brand. An organic extension of it, even.

As you can see, it's possible to do this with just about any brand. We're going to do it again with toothbrushes in the coming year.

Just think, how would what we create best make sense to the market that our partner has already established for themselves? But wait a minute here. Does it ever become dangerous to associate yourself with brands that don't target your core consumer? Or may outright alienate those who are your supporters and brand champions?

Turning the question on myself, I can say yes. Take NASCAR. Recently, they've been trying to put a green sheen on things, and wanted us to be a part of that. I'm sorry, can't go there. My aim for TerraCycle is to reach, deeply, into the mainstream of society, making sustainable choices an obvious, not an either/or proposition, or only for the most committed green individuals.

However, NASCAR going green is like driving a car with both feet all the way to the floor. They contradict one another, and cancel each other's progress out. I'm not one to tell people and businesses how they should conduct themselves, but any industry that is based on an activity that by its very nature amplifies waste, I can't play with.

What about you? Do you have a no-go zone when it comes to partnering and associating your brand? Is there a way you can reshape it that will work and for your customers to see it differently?

Tech = Memory Loss?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:00:53 -0800

I recently wrote about a man who is using technology to catalog and file every single memory and experience he has had. A new CNN article continues along these lines, reminding us that our memories are not foolproof but that technology can help us overcome this blind spot by remembering things for us. "Archives of your blog, Facebook or Twitter feed -- both in text and in pictures -- might reveal exactly what you ate on important occasions, the papers you were proud of and the outfits you wore."

But can these tools actually hurt us? We've all heard the old adage, "Use it or lose it," and this can apply to memory as well. A psychology professor at Dartmouth says, "The sedentary brain, just like the sedentary body, is going to atrophy."

There are techniques you can learn, consisting primarily of mnemonic devices, to associate faces with name, to remember lists and numbers. Although some of these, like Megamemory, fell into disrepute due to overpromotion - they still work to some degree.

Curt is the founder & CEO of a timesheet software company in Austin, Texas.

How to Test Your Start-Up Idea and Etsy Hits it Big

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:02:34 -0800

Steve Case's $300 million payday. It may not be much compared to that ill-fated, monster merger he presided over several years ago--the effects of which persist today--but Steve Case just won himself another big payday. His finance company, Revolution Money, will be acquired by American Express for $300 million. That's according to Revolution Money chairman and Case confidant Ted Leonsis, who blogged the sale. Though $300 million is a lot of money, it may not be the exit Case and Leonsis were hoping for, especially considering that they had raised close to $100 million in two recent funding rounds. Meanwhile, Om Malik is skeptical of the deal's merits: "Revolution Money has some kind of a next-generation payments technology that brings together offline and online worlds," he writes. "No one I know has either seen it or actually uses it. If there is one company that is going to do offline-online payments, that will be PayPal."

A wine company's bizarre ending. The strange tale of wine entrepreneur Marc C. Anderson came to an end this week when he pleaded guilty to setting fire to a wine storage facility he ran in Vallejo, California in 2005. As reported in the New York Times wine blog, Anderson was a bon vivant who ran Sausalito Cellars, a service that offered to store fine wines for wineries and private collectors. Anderson hasn't explained himself, but prosecutors suspect that he started the fire to cover up the fact that instead of storing his clients' wines, he sold them off to support his extravagant lifestyle. The fire destroyed some six million bottles, which had an estimated value of between $100 million to $400 million.

How to tell if your product is any good. Try the seven deadly sins test. Glenn Kelman, the CEO of the online real estate broker Redfin, says that if you can figure out which sin your product or service caters to, you'll know that your customers need, rather than merely want, what you're selling. Over at TechCrunch, Kelman outlines this test and seven others he has heard from venture capitalists, including "What's your secret sauce?" and "Why can't you grow faster?"

Starving artists? Not on Etsy. Etsy, the online crafts market, has hit the big time, with total sales of $133.1 million last month, according to our friends at Fast Company. (Those are merchant sales; Etsy, like eBay, makes money by taking a small percentage from each transaction.) How did the online auction company do it during a recession? "Etsy seems to have figured out that it only gets richer if the artists they highlight can actually earn a living." We picked founder Rob Kalin as one of the coolest entrepreneurs under 30 back in 2008. And earlier this year, we described how Etsy used its open API to entice a small army of developers to build apps for free.

Navigating Kenya's corrupt business climate After hearing an interview on NPR's Planet Money a new approach to development in Africa, an NPR listener wrote into the station with a story that illustrates the difficulty of doing business in Kenya. The listener, who lived and worked in Kenya, recounted the experience of Winnie Amada, a former journalist who decided to buy a restaurant in Kisumu. Powerful businessmen tried to outbid her. After the owner decided to sell it to her anyway, the businessmen persuaded her landlord to refuse to accept rent and then sue her for non-payment, and other business owners sued her for unnecessary disturbance. Only after using her connections with politicians was Amada able to reopen her business.

A entrepreneur's idea of closure. Longtime tech entrepreneur Steve Blank says he's always been a guy who "liked to fail fast, move on, and not look back." But today he writes about the one time he just had to get closure. It involved two semi-trailers, $45,000, and a computer that could design a nuclear weapon.

Gift giving during a recession. Although many business owners view giving gifts to customers as an expense, the Associated Press recommends looking at holiday spending as an investment. Holiday gifts, while they need not be extravagant, convey to a customer how much he or she is valued, and a valued customer will keep coming back to where they are treated well. Or, if your budget really is too thin for gifts, giving a customer face time is a great (free) way to show your appreciation.

The secret to getting on the Inc. 500 list. It could be effective use of social media. That's according to researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, who have completed the third installment of a study on the usage of social media among Inc. 500 companies. The most recent results showed a steady rise in blogging among Inc. 500 companies, with 45 percent of those surveyed now incorporating blogging into their business operations, compared to 19 percent in 2007, and 39 percent in 2008. This year's study asked respondents about their usage of specific social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace, and found that 80 percent were using some type of social networking site, while 52 percent were on Twitter. You can view the complete results of the study, Social Media in the 2009 Inc. 500, here.

Time For Launch 2.0

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:00:00 -0800

I was watching Marc Benioff from Salesforce.com launch Chatter (the social networking app for Salesforce.com).

No surprises here. The video features a scruffy Benioff on a James Bond slick stage in front of a presentation screen the size of an IMax screen. He works the audience like a rock star while a carefully orchestrated multimedia demo of Chatter unfolds behind him.

This is nothing unusual. This is how high tech has been doing business for years (other industries are just as guilty. But, I feel like picking on high tech today.).

Steve Ballmer from Microsoft does it.

Steve Jobs does it in a turtle neck.

Here's my open plea to the tech industry.

STOP!

Find a new way to unveil your products.

You are not rock stars. Mick Jagger is a rock star. Bono is a rock star. The Boss is a rock star.

You guys are really bright brainiac captains of industry who have bought your way into pretending you're a rock star with a lot of industry toadies enabling your fantasy.

There's something that looks slightly this side of meglomania about the CEO- focused launch presentation in front of a hand picked over- enthusiastic audience.

Find another way.

Where's the woman with the sledgehammer when you really do need her?

Why Online Marketing Collateral Matters

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0800

You'd be surprised just how many small to midsize businesses still don't leverage their marketing materials online. It's easy to let this one fall through the cracks. For a startup, there are so many other priorities in play just to keep things going.

Here's why you need to make this a priority, too:

1. More eyeballs. You can only press the flesh with so many or even hit so many clients through print, mail outs and trade shows. Those are all important channels, as well. But online proliferation has no borders.

2. They want video. Why read it when you can watch it. For example, a recent Eccolo Media survey of executives who influence technology buying decisions found a dramatic jump in preference for video just within the past twelve months. The same survey conducted in 2008 showed 28% of the respondents had used an online video to gather purchasing information. The 2009 survey showed that figure at 49%.

3. Buyers do their homework online. Decision makers and influencers still use trade magazines. But make no mistake, the Internet is the first stop when it comes to gathering information. Tracking down information about your company, products or services is part of the pre-sales process. White papers, videos, informational articles online, blogs, case studies, online newsletters and podcasts are all breadcrumbs that will lead potential customers to your sales department.

4. Access to free information is appreciated. Your marketing materials, of course, need to be more than a commercial for your company. Sponsor surveys, studies, research on specific topics and give it away. It will give your company credibility and position it as an authority.

Is IT Falling Behind?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:00:17 -0800

Gartner analysts recently presented at the IT Symposium in Orlando, Florida, asserting that “information technology departments are overloaded, missing the consumerization wave, and failing to use new developments to cut their budgets.” There is also the idea that the following 5 “amplifying developments” that will upset the balance of power between users and IT professionals:

1. Software as a service
2. Open source
3. Cloud computing
4. Web 2.0
5. Consumerization

The reason for this is that technology is moving too fast, while “ IT organizations typically spend six to eight years from initial conceptualization through selling, planning, testing and implementation of the first release.”

Is it the case that IT shops are trying to prevent users from bringing in their own iPhones, Netbooks, and SaaS applications? If they're trying they're methods are ineffective from my vantage point.

Curt's company has software that helps the accidental project manager.

Are you for real?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:07:07 -0800

When we meet people in person, there are often clues as to the person’s identity, and sometimes there are real life tokens of identification. But when we connect online, those clues often don’t exist, leading us to wonder if the person is really who they say they are? What makes a merchant or a connection online real?

There are some basic steps, like having your Facebook or Twitter pages link back to a page on your official company site that, in turn, notes your official presence on those social sites. But for some people, that’s not enough.

This is one of the problems that PeoplePond.com is trying to solve. When someone from a social network connects with you, how do you know that this particular “John Smith” is the John Smith who you met at the chamber of commerce meeting, or at college? PeoplePond http://peoplepond.com president Theron McCollough told me they have 2 products. “PeoplePond is a Brand and Identity management tool. There’s lots of noise on the net, this is a place where people can have their own jump-off point. It’s all the information that you want others to see, and a very robust living document for you.

Since People are acting like corporations, and corporations are trying to be like people (making one-to-one connections), CompanyPond http://www.companypond.com/ creates a profile for all company online presences, with links to all the people who are legitimately part of your company.” Follow the links and you can verify that this is Theron, who works for PeoplePond, and it’s confirmed on the company page.

Tools are also available to show this information on Facebook and blogging platforms. Here’s an example of Roderick Peterson, who has a verified profile. And, Fort Wayne Web Design lists Chad Pollitt on it’s company page as one of its’ employees, via his PeoplePond profile. McCullough told me the sites help startups and small businesses because “Having all your web presences listed in one place helps you manage them more effectively and helps you market and promote more effectively. If we look at building trust online – this helps show that you are who you say you are, everywhere you are online.”

If you want people to have a higher level of confidence that you are who you say you are, for a fee your information is run through a 3rd party verification process improving the odds that it’s you – though this verification is not as extensive as a credit check. PeoplePond provides a badge that shows you’ve been verified, and you can put it on your website. In the future, McCollough said, they’ll be “Pushing identity account ownership beyond the PeoplePond site."

Additionally, having this profile may help your search engine rankings as it aggregates information about you, and points to all the places you ‘exist’ online. This could be helpful for a new company starting out and trying to build their name and search rank, as well as for a professional trying to improve where their own name shows up on search results. What things do you do to show your customers you are really behind your own Facebook, Twitter, or Blog page? Share in the comments below.

When Tweets Go Wrong; Mobile Apps of the Future

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:49:50 -0800

Wall Street giving to Main Street. No matter the motive, $500 million is one solid gift for the 10,000 small businesses that will receive funding from two of Corporate America's most well-known names. So who are the big backers? They just may surprise you.

Small businesses team up to profit. Owning a smaller independent store or restaurant can be a double-edged sword. Your outlets have more personality than a major chain but they can't offer customers the sweet deals that come with economies of scale. Enter Original Restaurants, Fast Company reports, an umbrella organization that allows its member restaurants to reach out to consumers in their area through marketing programs, Rewards Card Programs, and customer satisfaction management tools. All these resources give the average participating restaurant a 2 to 5 percent spike in its bottom line, and the model can definitely work for other small businesses. See how restaurateur Danny Meyer saved hundreds of thousands of dollars through group buying and how other companies have pooled their resources to offer child care benefits.

Poor Twitter etiquette on display at Web 2.0 Expo. Techies have flocked to New York City's Javits Center this week for the Web 2.0 Expo, but apparently many of the conference's attendees need a refresher course in Twitter etiquette. Internet Evolution reports that during a keynote address given by Microsoft researcher Dana Boyd, a giant Twitter screen behind her was flooded with snarky tweets from the audience lambasting Boyd's delivery. The flow of tweets caused the crowd to start laughing and Boyd to stumble through her presentation. Ironically enough, Boyd's presentation was entitled "Streams of Content, Limited Attention."

The top mobile applications of the future. Amid the thousands of different apps for smartphones, picking one area for a profitable mobile start-up might be a daunting task. Fortunately, according to Read Write Web, technology research firm Gartner has compiled a list of the top ten mobile applications -- for 2012. While most of the categories are growing steadily, such as mobile music and instant messaging, Gartner predicts some newer technologies will see a huge jump. The user base of location-based services like Yelp or Loopt, for example, will surge from its current count of 96 million to 526 million. A noticeable omission from the list? This year's much-hyped virtual interface: augmented reality. "AR needs to grow out of being a technology you use 'because you can' to one you use 'because you have to,'" the post says. What area will you choose?

Teenage entrepreneurs hit the big screen. Young entrepreneurs are coming to an AMC theater near you and, this time, they are the stars. In the documentary Ten9Eight, high school students raised in low-income communities tell their stories as they compete for the top prize in the NFTE business plan competition. Former Olympian Mary Mazzio, the director and producer of the film, tells us why she thinks Ten9Eight can help inspire future entrepreneurs everywhere.

RIP to an RV entrepreneur. Anyone who has ever answered the call of the open road might bow their heads in a moment of silence for the passing of a man who helped revitalize America's RV industry. As the Wall Street Journal reports, Wade Thompson, who died last week at the age of 69, purchased the iconic Airstream brand of RVs in 1980 and turned it from a dying business to a money maker within a year. As one of the founders of Thor Industries, Thompson and his partner brought a dozen RV manufacturers under their company umbrella and eventually became the biggest RV manufacturer by sales. At its peak in 2006, Thor Industries had sales of $3 billion. When speaking of the prospects of the RV business, Thompson was fond of saying, "As long as there's a Grand Canyon, there will be an RV industry."

Obama administration to hear from small businesses. Bankers, policy makers, and business owners will meet with Obama administration officials today to discuss the collapse of small business lending. SBA head Karen Mills and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, among others, will be meeting in response to a recent Treasury report that found that the nation's largest banks have decreased lending to small businesses by more than $10 billion during the past six months, CNN Money reports. With some small businesses in a bind, owners are looking everywhere for lending. But if you're an affected business owner now looking toward your family for financial help, you may want to read this first.

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Why Won't VCs Tell You Why They Turned You Down?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:04:09 -0800

Foursquare releases its API in the race to dominate location. Foursquare, the suddenly white hot location-based social network, released its API to the public yesterday. And Mashable is predictably bullish about the results, making the argument that just as Twitter's meteoric rise depended on developer interest around its API to build things like Twitter desktop and mobile apps, so will Foursquare's API help legitimize the service and catapult growth. Foursquare, which has already picked up $1.35 million from Union Square Ventures, lets iPhone and Android users check in and notify friends from locations like bars or restaurants. Developers can use the API to visualize data generated by its users or create new ways to check into its service. What's more, argues Mashable, Foursquare's API and the real-time, location-aware nature of the mobile service, could help prove to the world that location really is everything. But GigaOm reports that Foursquare is hardly alone in the race to build a database of the world's coolest locations. Nextstop, a user-generated travel site founded by ex-Google product managers, also released its API. And Mozilla, uLocate, and Geodelic are steadily building their own databases.

How to pick the right idea. It sounds easy, but any entrepreneur will tell you that choosing the right idea for a business is often the hardest part. Here's a very interesting video of Josh Petersen, one of the co-founders of 43 Things, speaking at Seattle 2.0's StartupDay 2009, on how to come up with ideas and how to choose which of your ideas is the best one. Well worth the time. (Via A Sack of Seattle.)

Why won't VCs tell you why they turned you down? Most entrepreneurs find the lack of feedback that comes with a VC's rejection unhelpful at best. Foundry group co-founder Jason Mendelson tries to address the frustration by drawing from his own experience. If your pitch is too far afield from the firm's interests, he explains, all that's prudent is a quick email saying the fit doesn't work. Don't expect feedback on your business model when it's only taken a cursory look to see that it's not something his firm would invest in. There have also been instances where Mendelson's noticed something with his portfolio companies that might be relevant to a company's pitch, but he's elected not to share. The toughest scenario is "when the main issue with the company is the entrepreneur(s) themselves. It’s not easy for me to say 'I wouldn’t invest in you' and I try to stay away from that, because people change and improve over time." On the flip side, if the entrepreneur behind the pitch doesn't excite him, Mendelson adds, its likely he'll have less to say. (via peHUB)

Office Envy: Twitter's New Digs. Twitter recently moved its San Francisco headquarters around the corner to a larger space previously occupied by social network Bebo. TechCrunch gathered employee photos from around the web. Expect a lot of Twitter-themed art (think birds and @ symbols), as well as DJ booth, twee deer sculptures, and, ehem, vanity mirrors in the toilet stalls.

The dark side of developing apps. Reports of scrappy young software companies developing hit apps for smart phones have become the feel-good success stories of the past few years. However, as Wired reports, there are a number of pitfalls out there for small companies who place all their hopes on the whims of large corporations such as Google or Apple. One example is the software start-up Hello, Chair, which worked for nine months on an iPhone app called Appsaurus, which recommends other apps based on those you already own. Hello, Chair's hard work proved all for naught when Apple introduced their free app recommendation tool called App Store Genius. As one of the Hello, Chair developers explained, "That's one of the scariest things: If Apple moves an inch, they crush a bunch of little developers." While you can't fault companies like Apple or Google for developing their own apps, there has been a good deal of scrutiny over the somewhat arbitrary apps approval policy. In fact, today's ReadWriteWeb tells the story of three apps developers who have signed an online petition asking Apple to okay their apps, all of which have been awaiting approval for months.

The speed dating model of hiring Small companies looking to hire are buried under a mountain of resumes in the current employers' market, and making the wrong decision can be costly. I Love Rewards, a Wellesley, Massachusetts-based consulting firm had 1,200 candidates for nine openings but they narrowed it down to 68 in two easy steps, reports The Wall Street Journal. First they asked candidates to fly to an open house in Toronto which decreased the pool by 800. Then they held a series of speed dating-style interviews to locate the most enthusiastic candidates. Other companies have found success in tapping the talent pool by using applicant tracking software and video interviews or by asking hard-hitting questions like "How would you design Bill Gates's bathroom?"

Why accounting matters. It's not glamorous and it won't turn a bad idea into a good business. At the same time, all good businesses have it. Entrepreneur and New York Times small business blogger Jay Goltz delves into the paradox of accounting.

Using social media for giving. According to our friends over at Fast Company, Chase Bank is embarking on a crowdsourcing effort to raise money for charities via Facebook. The app, called the Chase Community Giving Program, allows users to pick from over 500,000 charities to receive money from Chase's philanthropy fund. The candidates range from a number of categories, such as healthcare and environment, with a $1 million prize going to the top charity ($100,000 for the top five, and $25,000 for the 100 finalists). The winners will be announced on December 15. A head count of 300 million Facebook users provides Chase with a pretty formidable crowdsourcing tool -- could this spur a trend in marrying social media with philanthropy?

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Word of the Year: Unfriend

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:30:00 -0800

The New Oxford American Dictionary has this quaint tradition of naming its "Word of the Year" from its list of new entries for the upcoming edition.

Nevermind your 300 million members, Facebook. You have arrived after inspiring this year's winner: unfriend.

That is, as in to "unfriend" someone from your Facebook list of friends.

It's actually more like a shunning. Facebook has it set up, of course, so you can drop a friend from your list quietly without notification to the new persona non grata. The hope is that they won't notice the sudden absence of your wall postings, etc. from their live feed.

Facebook has become enormously popular and for those 300 million folks, enormously mainstreamed into daily life, very quickly.

It remains to be seen how social networking and social life will ultimately sync up.

Lingering mysteries include:

1. Longterm effects of mixing business and personal contacts.

2. Figuring out how many "friends" are too much or too little. I think there's a been a rush to "friend" without thinking just to build up lists. I anticipate "friend" layoffs at some point, when enough sticky professional and personal situations arise.

3. Is the new transparency, interpersonal transparency? Keeping our private lives, private, is getting increasingly difficult. At what point do we all just say "screw it"? Employers will just have to understand that their employees sometimes get drunk in the Bahamas with their old college buddies, some have alternative lifestyles, some make inappropriate jokes (but they know not to do it at the office) and some occasionally complain about you among their friends. With 300 million blurring the lines and going strong on Facebook, it seems inevitable that weeding out people for any of the above will eventually leave you with a very small talent pool.

Last year's word of the year, by the way, was "hypermiling". Hypermiling is action taken to improve gas mileage; like inflating your tires or empyting your trunk to lighten up the vehicle.

Blogging for Coin

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0800

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In my last few posts we covered what a blog is, and the benefits of blogging as a technique to boost your business. For any blogging initiative you'll need at least three things:

what are you going to blog about (covered in my last post)
how will you set up your blog (software & hosting)
how will you market your blog

Last time we began the discussion of blogging software, focusing on ways you can build and maintain your blog for free using services like WordPress.com, Blogger.com, or Blogher.com. The key with free blogging software is knowing what you're getting.

Here are some explanations these companies have provided outlining the features they offer:

WordPress
free features: http://en.wordpress.com/features/
premium (paid) features: http://en.wordpress.com/products/

Blogger
(all free) http://www.blogger.com/features

Blogher
features http://www.blogher.com/using-this-site

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But as anyone who has experienced "buyer's remorse" would know, equally important is knowing what you're NOT getting with these services. Since we all tend to be rather shy about broadcasting our deficiencies, I'll respectfully let you in on some of the downsides. These services do come with some caveats, namely, that you have to abide by their Terms of Service, the details of ownership can be somewhat nebulous, you have limited control over the look and functionality of your blog, a free service (because it's hosted separately) will limit the SEO value of your blog and you cannot, as of this writing, place ads on your blog.

For those who want design control, functionality control, clear ownership of content and want to be able to generate advertising revenue -- installing your own blog is probably the ticket. If that's you, let's talk about the two other options for how to build your blog – paid upgrades and downloadable version.

What ponying up will get you

Most blogging software have more or less the same features. Google owned Blogger really surpasses in terms of what it offers for free, but if you throw a little coin into the game you can get everything you need. The two options when you're considering upgrading from free are:

pay the blogging company directly for an "upgraded" version. Still hosted by them but with access to more features, or

pay a hosting company. Have someone download a copy of the blogging software for you and install it on your own hosting account.

These two paid options give you more control over your blog, your brand, and your content. Here is a chart showing who offers each option from least control to greatest:

	Free Software Free hosting	Paid Software Free hosting	Free Software Download Paid hosting
WordPress	x	x	x
Blogger	x
Blogher	x
TypePad		x	x
B2evolution			x
Expression Engine			x
Moveable Type			x

Free Software Free Hosting
With a completely free tool like WordPress.com, WordPress owns the server, provides you the software to build your blog and hosts it for you, all for free. They can generate advertising revenue off of the blog you build but as of this writing you cannot. Note also that this version most likely means your Web site and your blog (if you have both) are completely separate hurting your SEO and possibly weakening your brand with very different designs.

Related Articles by Maisha:

Build Your Blog

Blogging's 11 Big Payoffs pt 2

Blogging's 11 Big Payoffs

To Blog or Not to Blog

Paid Software Free Hosting
Here again, the software and hosting are both provided by a company like WordPress but you can get more by paying a one time or periodic fee. For example on WordPress you can pay to use your own non-WordPress domain, to get extra hosting space, to customize the blog's design, to upload & store video, or to turn off advertising on your blog. Note that as of this writing WordPress still does not let you post your own ads or upload a completely custom theme even if you pay for an upgrade. Also note that Google-owned Blogger, although far less popular, lets you do all of these things for free.

One other note on either free or paid software hosted by the blogging company, if you ever decide to move your blog beware. The process of moving the content itself could be a little challenging but more of a concern is your links. Each post you create will have it's own "permalink" or a permanent link that people can share, bookmark etc. If you move your blog it may be difficult or impossible to re-create the same structure on your new blog as you had on your old blog, meaning all of your links will no longer work.

Free Software Download Paid Hosting (by your hosting company)
This is the most flexible option. You get a hosting company (like HostGator), get your own domain name and have a developer download your own copy of WordPress or other software and install it into your hosting account for you. The options for customization are unlimited, you can use whatever design theme/template you like or hire someone to create one from scratch. You can install whatever widgets or tools you like to add to your blog's functionality, you of course own all of your content, you can post whatever you like (within the terms of service of your hosting company), and you can sell ads on your blog as a revenue stream. Just like the "paid software" version above, you pay a monthly fee but it goes to your hosting company. This version can be set up just as quickly but usually with the help of a development company. Basic hosting will be anywhere from $5-$15 depending on what you need.

How to choose?

Generally I suggest the free version if you don't plan to generate advertising revenue, and don't need sophisticated customizations or a custom design. Also if you're not planning to generate a lot of traffic to your blog in the beginning, you won't be as concerned about moving it (and breaking the links) later.

The paid upgrade gives you a bit more but it doesn't eschew the limitations and restrictions that are inherent in working with the blogging companies.

If you are ready to invest I generally recommend the downloaded version which will give you total control over your content, your design, your features and maximum SEO benefits if you have an existing site you want to integrate the blog with.

I hope this has helped you understand a bit better how the world of blogging software works and how to decide which path is right for you.

If you're still wondering which version is right for you, post your question below. I'd like to hear from you.

Two important notes:

I will be highlighting a variety of companies as examples in upcoming posts.
If you've had success with your Blog and can describe results/back it up with real data, you can submit your Blogging strategy here.

Even in a bad economy there's a silver lining. I'm giving away a free Web site!
If you'd like to be the lucky business owner tell me about your business and why you should win here. I acknowledge I'll be choosing the winner purely based on my own discretion. Heck I may even choose more than one. I look forward to seeing your entry!

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Small Businesses Speak Out on Healthcare

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:08:38 -0800

There’s been a lot of talk in the news about how important the small business community is to the economy as they are the source of 65 percent of all new jobs created in the U.S. in the past 15 years. This week is set to be another important one for small businesses. Reuters says the Obama administration will hold a small business forum with lenders, lawmakers, regulators and business owners this Wednesday, November 18. The aim is to “define a new initiative to boost lending to smaller firms and help reverse U.S. job losses.”

I usually try to leave the politics at the door in my small business VerticalResponse, but when I noticed just how often small businesses are being included in political debates, I decided to investigate more.

So we set up a quick survey to ask our customers what they think. We also partnered with the Small Business Development Center, which helped us to reach 831 small businesses across America.

For me, one of the most concerning things reported in this survey was the difference in healthcare offered by small business of various sizes. A whopping 71.8 percent of businesses with one to 10 employees do not offer healthcare to employees, versus the 69.4 percent of businesses with 11 to 100 employees who do offer healthcare to employees. Some people may not be surprised by that statistic, but that’s no comfort to the small businesses that are currently unable to offer healthcare to their employees.

Seeing the huge disparity between small businesses on providing healthcare, you may think that we consistently saw differences reflected across all of our questions. This was definitely not the case. When we asked whether small businesses would cancel their current employer-provided coverage if given a public offering, only about 16 percent of respondents in both the one to 10, and 11 to 100 employee range said they would.

In the longer answer section, we saw that many of our customers chimed in with passionate opinions on this particular question. So we asked some of our local customers to elaborate on their survey results, and got two notable opposing views.

Theron Kabrich, CEO of San Francisco Art Exchange, had great reasons for supporting a public healthcare offering: “A public offering of healthcare unburdens small businesses and entrepreneurs alike, as it allows them to focus on core parts of their business such as innovations and new products. It also removes an unfair competitive advantage for small businesses when trying to attract the best employees, and levels the playing field.”

However, Leslie Hennessy, owner of Hennessy's Wines and Spirits, was on the other side of the fence for this one: "I don’t believe government-sponsored health care is a good thing for small businesses. Americans don't want socialized medicine, we want a free market."

Both of these VerticalResponse customers have between one and 10 employees, and completely different points of view. I’m not a policymaker, and I don’t profess to have all of the answers. However, I think the large difference in opinions between small businesses of different employee sizes highlights the need for the current government to consider the diversity of the small business community when deciding on public policy.

Regardless of whatever new initiatives are decided in the small business forum on November 18, I am happy that small businesses are front and center in the ongoing political debates. I know I’ll be watching them closely to see how VerticalResponse and our customers are affected. What are your feelings about healthcare? Please share your thoughts below.

Snoop Dogg Speaks to Young Entrepreneurs

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:50:04 -0800

To kick off Global Entrepreneurship Week, I spent the morning at the New York Stock Exchange at an event called “Mentoring Madness,” sponsored by NYSE Euronext and the Kauffman Foundation. A roomful of eager, aspiring college entrepreneurs soaked up advice from a panel of inspiring veterans, including Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes, Barry Sternlicht, chairman of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Stephen Hanson, founder of B.R. Guest Restaurants, and rapper/entrepreneur Snoop Dogg (no wonder every seat was filled!). CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo interviewed the group and extracted some pearls of wisdom, relevant to all entrepreneurs, young and not so young alike:

1. Some Rules Are Not Meant To Be Broken. Blake Mycoskie talked about how thrilled he was when Nordstrom’s first started carrying TOMS Shoes. He stubbornly refused the retail giant’s request for the shoes to be packaged in traditional shoeboxes rather than the environmentally friendly canvas bags that Mycoskie was so proud of. Nordstrom relented, but the bags were a stockroom disaster: they couldn’t be properly stacked, their drawstrings became tangled, and they caused frustration among the sales staff. The result: “We got kicked out of Nordstrom and it almost put us out of business,” Mycoskie says. “Now we put our shoes in boxes.” Lesson: choose your battles wisely; compromise isn't a dirty word.

2. Admit That You Don’t Know It All. Stephen Hanson grew his restaurant empire from one location in New York (Coconut Grill) to 15 locations in three cities. But he didn’t do it alone. Hanson relied heavily on experienced mentors in the industry. “I used to pick up Michael Weinstein every day at his home and drive him to work so that I could talk to him about the restaurant business,” says Hanson. Weinstein is the founder and CEO of Ark Restaurants, which owns and operates fifty food-related businesses. Hanson’s advice: seek out successful people who you admire and respect and don’t be shy about asking for their advice.

3. Customer Research Is Overrated. According to Barry Sternlicht, when hotel guests were asked to name the ten most important factors to consider when choosing a hotel, bed comfort didn’t show up on the list. “But when we asked them how much extra they would pay for a great bed, the answer was $20 a night,” he said. And so began Starwood’s successful campaign to differentiate itself to consumers through the quality of its beds. “Sometimes people don’t know what they want until you offer it to them,” says Sternlicht. He also offered the audience my favorite piece of advice of the morning: “People lose their fortunes when they lose their humility.” Hear that, Wall Street?

4. “It Ain’t Nothin’ Y’all Can’t Do.” Those are direct words of encouragement from Snoop Dogg, who made my day when I got a great profile shot of him on my iPhone on the floor of the NYSE right after the opening bell. You can see it here. Snoop’s advice: be original and creative and don’t let lack of money discourage you. “I had to hustle from the ground up. I had no money, so I went to DJs and to parties until I met Dr. Dre,” he says. And learn from failure, he adds, because “it teaches you what you shouldn’t do.” What did he learn? “I didn’t understand when I first started out that I had to be a role model. I brought everyone up with me – the homies from the neighborhood and the criminals. But then I realized I had to change my whole environment.” Now, he says, his most important project is The Snoop Youth Football League, which he founded to help keep inner city youth off the street. “It teaches them how to win,” he says, “and how to lose.” Biggest surprise about Snoop: he took calculus because “if you stop at general math, you’re only going to make a general math salary.”

So what's your advice to aspiring young entrepreneurs? What do you know now that you wish someone had told you when you were first starting your business?

A Slam Dunk!

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:01:01 -0800

On Wed, Nov. 11, the one and only Norm Brodsky joined Inc. Business Owners Council for an unforgettable evening. Brodsky, who's known to many Inc. fans, sat for a discussion with company owners at historic Madison Square Garden.

The folks who run The Garden, the site of some of basketball and hockey's greatest achievements (not to mention a few of wrestling's golden oldies) hosted Inc. Business Owners Council: Greater New York along with some thirty entrepreneurs. And boy, did they put out the red carpet: luxury suites to watch the Knicks play the Hawks, a fine spread of food and wine and some of that ol' Knick magic, John Starks, the legendary basketball player himself, joined us for some fun.

The evening began in the MSG "presentation center" where we luxuriated in a stunning replica of a soon-to-be-built luxury suite with fireplace, fine finishes and a living room that's bigger than mine at home!

Then we moved into a main presentation hall where Norm answered the question on everyone's mind: What's business going to be like in 2010. For an hour, he shared with us his keen sense of strategic thinking along with a healthy dose of wisdom and more than a healthy tablespoon of sass.

Norm, who, as most Inc. readers know, is going through some challenging business times of his own, gave us his perspective on the kinds of businesses that make sense in any market:

First, the business sector should be at least 100 years old. Like his storage business, he doesn't want to have to teach people why they need his product. He wants to sell into an existing marketplace.

Second, find a business sector that sits on the edge of technology. Then go about using technology to differentiate, find a competitive advantage and win business from competitors.

Third, find a niche within your business. In other words: don't follow the crowd. Norm shared his own telling example where--a year and a half ago, during the height of $4 per gallon gasoline, Norm sent a letter to all of his customers telling him why he WASN'T adding on a fuel surcharge. He then went on to send a copy of the letter to all of his competitors' customers to give them a glimpse of what was like as a customer of Citi-Storage. The new business he won with that campaign more than compensated for the losses created by the rise in gasoline prices.

Norm was full of pearls of wisdom about the future but perhaps his most staunch and comforting revelation was this: the bad economy will eventually end. Perhaps not in 2010 but soon. The business environment will improve. Credit and confidence will flow again.

In light of that, Norm encouraged all the business owners in attendance to refine and sharpen their business skills, focus on developing talent within their organizations and treat their customers like princes and princesses.

Norm, if it's royalty you want, then you got it: you are the king! Thanks for sharing your perspective and being generous with your time.

Getting Colleagues on Board with Collaboration Technology

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:00:09 -0800

WebWorkerDaily has published an interesting post on resistance to collaboration technology and how to overcome it. This kind of technology has made life easier for so many of us, especially those who are spread out across the globe, but you cannot reap the benefits without first taking the plunge. The blog writer lists the following as reasons why collaboration technology is worth it, to help you convince those who are unsure:

* Cost – Travel, when not impossible, is often more expensive than videoconferencing or IMs.
* Convenience – Technology allows you to communicate at any time through Twitter, text messaging, email, IMs or calls.
* Workplace pressure – The more your colleagues embrace this technology, the harder it will be for the others to stubbornly resist.
* Productivity benefits – Studies show that this type of technology helps you to get more done.
* Support – Offer support to colleagues who might be uncomfortable trying it out.
* Personalization – People think that face-to-face is essential, but the truth is that they can often be more informal via chat, tweets, etc.

When I was a kid people dreamed of videophones. Witness Dick Tracy as just one example. Now that everyone has the capability built into their computer, why is it that nobody seems to use it?

Curt helps people improve business execution.

A Battle Over Pigs Raises A Stink; India's R&D Explosion

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:42:56 -0800

Lessons learned from a million-dollar mistake. Entrepreneurs are forever learning from their own mistakes, so once in a while it's nice to learn from someone else's for a change. Tech entrepreneur Neil Patel shares the story of his million-dollar mistake made while pursuing a web-hosting start-up. Patel lists a number of things that went wrong with the businesss, poor money management and a lack of communication between the principals were among the key missteps. But perhaps the biggest mistake Patel made was not knowing when to say when. Patel and his partner kept on throwing good money after bad until the situation finally came to a crashing halt. Patel has since recovered and has gone on to further success with new ventures. As he explains, "What separates the true entrepreneurs from the phony ones is that the true entrepreneurs don't give up."

Battle in Butchertown. There's a small-business feud brewing in the trendy Louisville, Kentucky neighborhood of Butchertown. And the cause comes from the very things that gave the area its name: pigs. The Wall Street Journal has all the dirty details.

How to break bad work habits. For those in the professional world, it's easy to fall prey to bad habits -- procrastination, poor time management, and impatience are all examples of behavior that can affect the productivity of one's work or business. Fortunately, says Web Worker Daily, training the brain to adopt good habits doesn't take as long as most people think. Citing recent scientific research in the field of neuroplasticity, or the brain's ability to reorganize itself, the article says new habits (or "neural connections") can be learned within 30 to 60 days, if new information is presented every day. To combat consistent unpreparedness or tardiness for meetings, for example, set a computer or phone alarm 30 minutes before each meeting to look over notes and agendas. "A habit is an involuntary, unconscious action," said Larry Tobin, co-creator of Habitchanger.com, where customers can join a 42-day habit breaking program. "They are something we have taught ourselves to do, so it is possible to unlearn them."

Twitter nixes suggested users list. Once a quick way for a company or individual to gain as many as 370,000 new followers within the first 30 days among its ranks, Twitter's suggested user list is finally being laid to rest. Co-founder Biz Stone told the press that the controversial list will be replaced by "something that is more programmatically chosen, something that actually delivers more relevant suggestions" (via Read Write Web). See how one CEO is making Twitter work for his company.

Silicon Valley watch out: India's transformation into a global R&D hub. In one of the most talked about stories on TechCrunch, entrepreneur-turned-academic Vivek Wadhwa reports that "while the West was sleeping, Indian IT morphed into a giant R&D machine." That outdated picture of a nation of call center workers and low-level computer programmers is now a preferred outsource provider of crucial R&D in sophisticated, higher value-added fields like semiconductor design, aerospace, automotive, network equipment, and medical devices. Both the Palm Pre and the Kindle have key components designed in India and Indian multinational firms like Tata and Reva are now poised to tackle U.S. and European markets. What's missing, however, is early stage venture financing and that pillar of American capitalism: grassroots entrepreneurism. In that department, India's lagging behind China, which boasts savvy start-ups making the most of government incentives and recruiting talented Chinese returnees as its CEOs and CTOs. But that doesn't mean that startups there aren't smart and hungry, cautions Wadhwa, who spoke to a 100 different young companies during a recent trip. "Many of them are solving problems that U.S. companies have thus far failed to solve and doing it with fewer resources," he writes. And U.S. VCs, like DFJ, are following the innovation trail. There isn't yet enough momentum to incite an explosion in venture capital. But Wadhwa says it will happen "sooner than you realize."

An eBay for the non-tech savvy. There's one major demographic that remains untouched by e-commerce: the technologically-challenged. Glyde, a Palo Alto, California-based start-up conceived by Simon Rothman is counting on its ease of use to win over that demographic and help it compete with stalwarts like eBay and Amazon. According to the New York Times, Rothman's target market is people who had never sold items on the Internet because it was too difficult. "We want the middle-aged Midwestern soccer mom to easily be able to buy and sell her stuff," he said. "It's a pretty straightforward ambition."

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Cyber Monday A'Coming

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:00:00 -0800

It's two weeks until Cyber Monday. E-tailers are you ready?

Cyber Monday is, of course, what is touted to be the busiest day of the year for online sales. It comes the Monday after Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving that kicks off the holiday shopping season at bricks and mortar stores).

With a sour economy, retailers are bracing themselves for lackluster holiday sales.

Here's where, you, the online seller, have a distinct advantage over your storefront counterparts:

1. You don't have to worry about overstocking or understocking inventory, especially if you use drop shipping.

2. You don't have to worry about hiring up a bunch of college students to staff your stores that don't earn their keep if business is slower than you hoped.

3. You aren't limited to the economic limits of your locale. Some cities and towns are clearly more harder hit than others. A one company town that loses its one company; well, you get the idea... Selling online gives you access to markets allover the world.

4. You can use your site analytics to make you more nimble responding to what's moving and what isn't.

5. You have more ways to nudge shoppers to close the deal; online promotions, e-mail coupons, Facebook, MySpace, Google ads, mobile marketing, etc. It beats the hell out of the hometown Wednesday circular.

Feel encouraged? You should.

The Way We Were

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:00:37 -0800

Facebook allows users to post photos of themselves and others, and some people are embarrassed by what their friends choose to share without their permission. TechNewsWorld recently published an article that focused on users who post very old photos from high school, for example, in which their friends are sporting bad hair and bad outfits. Some people can have a good laugh over such photos, but others do not share the humor, especially considering that a photo can hang around the internet long after it has been deleted. Facebook is not the only venue for such embarrassment – another site mentioned in the article is AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. However, the owner of the site recommends making sure all people involved consent before submitting any photos.

I have some examples of my own out there .... that I'm not going to show you.

Curt works for Journyx, which has solutions to help improve business execution.

How to Market on Facebook; Win a Franchise

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:57:02 -0800

No health care reform, say most entrepreneurs in Congress. The New York Times has the breakdown, showing that eight of 11 entrepreneurs in Congress voted against the recently-passed health care reform bill. Four of those who voted against the bill? Democrats, all of whom represent districts won by John McCain in last year's presidential race. Here are the stories of the most recent entrepreneurs to reach Capitol Hill, as well as the CEO of last year's No. 1 Inc. 500 company on how to fix health care.

How to market on Facebook. Building online communities of fans, and capitalizing on demographical information are just a few of the ways that more and more businesses are finding Facebook to be an indispensable marketing tool, The New York Times reports. Creating a web presence for your company with Facebook can be a piece of cake, by using features such as fan pages, which allow you to build a deeper relationship with current customers while targeting potential new ones.

CEOs miffed by lack of VC operating experience. A new survey conducted by VentureSource shows that while most start-up CEOs are happy with their VC board members, a common sentiment was that less experienced VCs, or the "investment banker types," are a burden to have on a board (hat tip to The Wall Street Journal). One anonymous respondent phrased it bluntly in response to an open-ended question at the conclusion of the survey. "Two things kill companies the fastest, bad management and bad boards. We have too many VC board members who have never run a company and have no idea how to help management." Want to avoid this kind of problem? Check out our resources for advice on building a great board.

Love yogurt, win a franchise. Well, it's a little more difficult than that. But the TCBY yogurt chain is indeed giving away a franchise to an aspiring entrepreneur, 21 years of age and older. Click on the link above, fill out the entry form, and create a two-minute video that makes the case for you being the chosen one. Twenty-five semifinalists will be notified by the first week of January.

Obama stepping up broadband stimulus funds. The good news for small business owners, especially those in the hinterlands, is that the government is speeding up plans to dole out broadband stimulus cash. Many small businesses are being stifled by the current broadband arrangement and to that end, $4 billion in funding will be dispersed, though seven times that amount has been requested by 2,200 grant applicants, according to Ars Technica. Here's one company that's trying to make it easier for customers to find a broadband service that works for them.

Nine states with money trouble, California-style. Entrepreneurs need to be attuned to the financial health of the states where they set up shop and a new study by the Pew Center on the States charts all 50 states according to their "fiscal peril." States were scored on six factors: "high foreclosure rates; increasing joblessness; loss of state revenues; the relative size of budget gaps; legal obstacles to balanced budgets," and bad money-management. After the Golden State, Arizona, Rhode Island, and Michigan were closest to the brink. As we wrote the other day, though, a floundering government can be a golden opportunity for entrepreneurship. Just look at some members of the Pew's endangered list that were Inc. 500 hotspots.

How to deal with your boss's negative feedback. While everyone reacts differently to criticism in the office, there are ways to respond calmly, without flying off the handle and becoming argumentative. The Associated Press offers several suggestions on how to take the criticism in stride, such as putting your emotions on hold, first and foremost. Then, you can approach the situation with more positivity, and work to improve the feedback for next time.

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Microsoft Admits Mac Inspiration

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:00:00 -0800

The Apple faithful will never, never, never, never, never,

never,

let Microsoft live this one down.

One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it’s very graphical and easy to use. What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it’s traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics.

- Simon Aldous, Microsoft Group Manager

Thank you, Mr. Aldous, for saying out loud what we've known to be true for decades now.

Internet Addiction in Children

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:00:12 -0800

A recent research study done in Taiwan has raised questions about internet addiction and its negative impact on children. The study sampled over 2,000 boys and girls in 7th grade and found a connection between mental health problems such as depression, ADHD, social phobia and aggression and internet addiction. Yet some people are unconvinced by the results, arguing that they are based on self-reported symptoms which are not always accurate. At the very least, it is opening up a dialogue about the paradigm shift this new generation is experiencing thanks to technology, and how to responsibly manage it.

There are programs available to help people get rid of drug addiction, but who's got predictable methodologies in place to eliminate online addiction (because sometimes I think I might need to give them a call myself.)

Curt works for Journyx, which has solutions for project management and execution.

India's Entrepreneurs Unleashed; Google's New Language

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:58:26 -0800

From the annals of world domination: Google launches its own programming language. One of the pillars of Google's success has been efficiency, whether that's serving search results or processing data, says Mashable Ben Parr. On the heels of launching its mobile operating system, Android, which Motorola has already adopted for its Droid phones, and collaboration tool Google Wave, the search giant is now "looking to tackle the underpinning code that runs the web," reports Parr. Go, as the language is called, is an open source development code that the company hopes will reshape web development and software in its favor. Go is based on the C programming family, but it incorporates elements of Python (the development language of choice at Google) and the Pascal/Modula/Oberon family that Mashable says makes speedier and more dynamic programs. Get your programmers ready.

While the government dithers, India's entrepreneurs step in. Governments are notorious for getting mired in their own bureaucracy in the face of public needs, which is where entrepreneurs often step in. Harvard Business Review has a piece that profiles some up and coming social entrepreneurs who are stepping in to fill the government gap. One example is Harish Hande, who runs SELCO, a solar energy distribution company. Fifteen years ahead of any similar government initiatives, SELCO has sold over 100,000 highly customized lighting systems by accommodating urban and rural poor with a flexible "power-by-the-hour" business model. Picking up government slack could be an easy model for U.S. entrepreneurs to follow. Any takers to fix health care? For more news about the Indian entrepreneurial scene check out Inc. India.

Google's Gift to travelers. It's free Wi-Fi! From now until January 15th, the search giant is giving away free wireless internet access at 47 airports--including Las Vegas, Boston, and Miami--and on all Virgin America flights. The full list of airports is here and CrunchGear has the news.

How much is Twitter really worth. "Less than you think," writes Om Malik, citing a new research report. Of course, "less than you think" is still pretty darn high. NeXt Up estimates that Twitter is worth roughly $600 million, thanks to its substantial user base--some 70 million users--and high potential for revenues and profits. The firm estimates that Twitter will generate more than $100 million in revenue by 2013 and close to $150 by 2014. But the valuation is a lot less than the $1.1 billion figure Twitter received from its latest investors, Malik says. The reason? "We believe that most revenue generation options available to the company have the potential to alienate at least some of Twitter‚Äòs user base," according to the report. "Twitter may not have adequate time to revise its models before it loses its critical mass and reputation," it adds. That helps explain why the company has been so hesitant to try to make money.

Tech start-up acquisitions signaling better times? Some big-name companies embarked on early holiday spending sprees this week, such as Google, who bought mobile ad start-up AdMob for $750 million, and Logitech, who acquired LifeSize, a video-conferencing start-up, for $405 million. According to the New York Times, the high-profile purchases could indicate a renewed interest in M&A, which, in turn, might point to a recovering economy. Jeff Brody, a founding partner of Redpoint Ventures, which was one of the backers of the LifeSize deal, told the Times that although the number and value of acquisitions has been down, the improving economy has forced companies to increase their offers. "As the I.P.O. market has started to come back and as public company stocks have recovered, we have seen a surge in M&A interest and prices." Click here< for Inc.'s take on what an uptick of merger activity could spell for the business community.

Seven pioneers are helping to diversify the Motor City. After decades spent at the mercy of the auto industry, Detroit is branching out. Entrepreneurs looking to build more efficient batteries, develop artificially intelligent robots and make more eco-friendly clothing are bringing jobs in technology, medical research, and design to revive Detroit's workforce, reports CNN Money. Despite the fact that green has never been the Big Three's forte, Ann Marie Sastry, whose company Sakti3 is developing lithium-ion batteries, sees opportunity in locating her start-up close to potential collaborators and customers, "There is a wealth of knowledge and understanding of vehicles, and a wealth of people who store this knowledge." Other entrepreneurs, like eco-design start-up Guffly.com, came for the funding ($300,000 worth) and support. Says CEO Chanell Scott, "It's been great for us to have a community that's so receptive. People are excited to have new businesses here."

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When Mars And Venus Call Tech Support

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:00:00 -0800

Gadget Helpline took some 75,000 tech support calls between September 25th and October 23rd of this year. Typical numbers for them, no doubt. What they did with them is unique, however.

They analyzed (or should I write "analysed" since they are British) every call along gender lines breaking down trends.

Here's what they found:

Male callers: 64% didn't bother to read the instruction manual before calling for help.

Female callers: 24% didn't bother to read the instruction manual before calling for help.

Male callers: 12% just needed to plug in their gear to "resolve their issue".

Female callers: 7% ditto!

Female callers stayed on the phone with tech support 32% longer than male callers.

66% of tech support operators said they preferred dealing with female clients, anyway.

There are so many punchlines I could throw into this posting right about now. But, I'm going to take the high road. You can fill in your own.

Biz Tips from the Boston Celtics; When to Dump a Client

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:39:21 -0800

Filing for customer divorce. Some small business owners are finding it difficult (and expensive) to maintain relationships with delinquent or discount-hungry customers, according to The Wall Street Journal. Shedding those clients, which was the option chosen by Kishau Rogers, owner of Richmond, Virginia-based Websmith Group, can often make it easier to endure harsh economic times and turnaround sagging profits. By dropping her late-paying customers, Rogers, whose firm develops websites, was able to reallocate 20 percent of her time to other clientele, and put the business's 2009 revenue on track to rise 10 percent. While dropping customers can be risky, "to continue to have a customer that's losing the company money with every transaction is not a good strategy either," said Valarie Zeithaml, a marketing professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For more tips on giving difficult customers the boot, click here -- and be gentle.

Customer Appreciation 101 from the Boston Celtics. With a record of 7-1, and perennially sold-out home games, the Boston Celtics have developed a fiercely-loyal fan base. To help keep that fan base energized, and to show their appreciation, the Celtics have become one of the most social-media savvy teams in all of professional sports. As the Boston Globe reports, the team posts exclusive locker room footage on YouTube, has an interactive stats game on their Facebook page, and regularly sends Twitter messages to their 21,000 followers. A smart move from a team who realizes that while a sold-out stadium is a good thing, it is important not to forget about those fans who couldn't get a seat. As the Celtics president, Rich Gotham, explains, "Now that we're at this sold-out state, it's more difficult to get into the game and fans can't get tickets. We want to make sure we don't forget about those fans. We want to keep them interested and keep them loyal."

The evolution of start-up ecosystems We've covered various start-up hotspots in the past, but Fred Wilson has an explanation of how a start-up ecosystem evolves over time. He says it's important to think of the infrastructure for start-ups, whether in Boston, the Valley, or the next nexus, as growing and developing over decades. The first decade is largely trial and error, decade two is when VCs and companies have firmer footing and a network of resources, and in the third decade, Wilson says the ecosystem is fully formed. Wilson then applies this trajectory to "new startup ecosystems developing in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. It can happen and it will happen. But it takes time. And you can't fast forward because we are talking about experience which can't be manufactured."

Mark Cuban has some advice for Rupert Murdoch. Screw Google! The Dallas Mavericks owner, HDNet founder, and prolific blogger weighs in today on the future of newspapers. He recommends that News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch should simply prevent Google's bots from indexing its papers and instead rely on Twitter and Facebook to get the news out. "TWITTER POSES NO THREAT to any destination news site," Cuban writes. "140 characters does not a story make. Find it on twitter, link to a story on say, FoxNews and everyone is happy...Having to search for and find news in search engines is so 2008." Meanwhile, Cuban seems to be interested in buying the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Things to know before starting a website. Web designer Erik Parkin takes a turn as guest blogger on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's business blog to talk about the four questions you should ask before building a website for your small business. As he explains, simply telling a designer to "make it look cool" doesn't give the designer nearly enough information about what your company does and how you plan on using your website. Parkin's four questions should help any business owner stay focused on the purpose of the website, which is to enhance the business, not detract from it.

A more professional tweet. The big-name partnerships just keep piling up for Twitter. First were the deals with Microsoft and Google to include tweets in search results. Now, as The New York Times Bits blog reports, Twitter has a struck a deal with professional networking site LinkedIn. LinkedIn users will now have the option of sending status updates to their Twitter feed, while also showing their most recent tweets in their LinkedIn profile. The payoff for Twitter? Increased exposure and added revenue, though, not surprisingly, the financial terms of the deal are undisclosed.

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Ho Ho Ho Says Google

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Free WiFI! It's the new black, apparantly. Starting today, Google is offering free WiFI at 47 airports nationwide for the rest of the year.

Naturally there's a marketing angle to all of this.

The splash page when you sign on will come with two fever pitches:

1. A plea to give to three charities of Google's choosing (Engineers Without Borders, Climate Savers Computing Initiative and One Economy Corporation).

2. A "chance" to sign up for a plethora of Google services and to make Google your homepage.

While Google is schilling to air travelers without wings on the ground, EBay will be doing the same for Delta fliers (the splash page will take you to a special holiday shopping page on EBay - so much for the air mall magazine next to the barf bag in your seat pocket). As mentioned on this blog last month, Lexus just hosted a one week promotional for free WiFI on American Airlines.

Interesting! As traditional ad-based free content old media "dies" a little more each day, new media borrows a little more from their business model.

Are You to Blame for IT Failure?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:00:58 -0800

An article in ComputerWorld recently explored the effects a major tech project failure has on IT. Unfortunately, IT usually takes all of the blame for such failures, even if it is not all their fault. CIOs who put their name on a major project that then fails can even expect demotion. Chris Curran of Diamond Management & Technology Consultants says that “CIOs who enter into $200 million Oracle ERP projects know the stakes. These large programs- the multi-hundred-million-dollar, multiyear projects-they just create such a peak to fall from.”

The funny thing is that many of these companies can have their needs met by less complicated solutions that pose significantly lower risk in money and resources. Too many decision-makers rush straight into the arms of large vendors like Oracle, only to be disappointed and potentially put their jobs on the line.

Curt works for Journyx, a time and project management solutions company.

Playfish Sells Out and A Plan to Save Detroit

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:50:06 -0800

Playfish sells to EA for $275 million. So it turns out that there's a lot of money in virtual goods. Playfish, a London company that makes Facebook's Restaurant City, just sold itself to video game giant Electronic Arts for $275 million in cash, with the prospect of an additional $100 million in earn-outs. Techcrunch says, "Social games are increasingly popular and Electronic Arts needed to buy one of the top players: Zynga, Playfish, or Playdom." Playfish has revenue of $75 million a year.

How to save Detroit. This month's issue of Inc. spotlights one good idea: An entrepreneurial ecosystem built around the electric car. Of course, if that doesn't work out, we can always turn the city into farmland. That's the nutty plan floated by a group of architects and reported in the New York Times. "[T]he sheer size of Detroit — a largely vacant urban prairie bigger than Manhattan, Boston and San Francisco combined — makes it a prime test case for the 'shrinking cities' movement. And so an American Institute of Architects study imagines Detroit reduced into a metro core surrounded by green belts, 'urban villages' and banked land," the Times says. It gets weirder: "Even raccoon- and pheasant-hunting is not unheard of within the protein-poor city’s limits. Yes, a retired truck driver reportedly shoots raccoons and sells them as food, at $12 per carcass to feed a family of four."

The Netflix model hits the runway. According to a story by the New York Times, it will soon be as easy to rent couture dresses as it is to rent Netflix DVDs. Fledgling start-up Rent the Runway, founded by Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Carter Fleiss, plans to allow customers to rent, via mail, thousand-dollar dresses for less than $200 each. Hyman came up with the idea after watching her sister shell out cash for a dress she'd only wear once to a wedding. After solidifying a business plan with Fleiss, the duo secured seed financing from Bain Capital Ventures to build its inventory of 160 styles. Although the article questions the long-term viability of the company -- "No one wants to rent last season's dress," quipped one fashion blogger -- Rent the Runway's current customers seem pleased with the service.

Small business owners play Scrooge with holiday bonuses. Small-business employees expecting a holiday bonus may end up feeling a bit like Bob Cratchit this season. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on a recent American Express survey that reveals a significant drop in the number of business owners who are planning on giving their workers gifts or cash. This year, only 31 percent of owners will dole out an end-of-year bonus. That's much worse than last year when 44 percent of owners planned on giving bonuses. Even worse, of the owners who still plan on giving bonuses or gifts, 42 percent said they'll give fewer or cheaper gifts to their employees. As an American Express adviser explained, "Business owners are still feeling pinched cash wise." In other words, "Bah humbug." For a look at how some businesses deal with having to cut employee bonuses, check out this story from the Inc. archives.

Fred Wilson on Valuations and Option Pools. Fred Wilson breaks down one of the trickiest negotiations in early stage financing: Whether to put aside stock to issue to employees at a later date. Although setting aside an option pool is about nominally about compensating employees, it's also a negotiation tactic, or, as Wilson concedes, a way for the venture capitalist to lower the price. Wilson advises VCs to be upfront about that and for entrepreneurs to research the market value of their business with and without an option pool. Spark Capital's Bijan Sabet follows-up on Wilson's post with recommendations on how to structure terms and rights associated with option pools, including vesting and change of control.

How to get more from your LinkedIn account. Although there are many professional social networks, LinkedIn is still one of the biggest and most useful. Mashable writer Sharlyn Lauby offers advice, about seven ways you can get more from your account. For instance, she recommends including a photo in your profile, asking for recommendations, and using groups to expand your reach.

Succession planning for your small business. One of the most difficult decisions any family business owner has to make is who to pass the baton to when it's time to move on. The Wall Street Journal provides some tips, starting with planning a retreat away from the office to discuss the idea with all family members. You can also get some advice straight from successful family business owners featured in Inc., here.

Can you patent an idea? Business method patents have been around for decades--Clarence Saunders was granted a patent for the idea of the "self-serving store" in 1917 for his chain of Piggly Wigglys--but in 1998 a Supreme court decision produced a flurry of new patents for business methods, especially new types of software. Now the court plans to reevaluate that decision, and companies such as Google, Yahoo, and Symantec are weighing in, reports the Wall Street Journal. "Certainly, some of the more extreme positions that are being urged before the court could eliminate patents with hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in value," says Andrew Pincus, a lawyer who filed a brief on behalf of a software trade group. Check out Inc.'s article on filing a patent or guarding against infringement on one you already have.

The New Red State, Blue State Battle

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:00:00 -0800

This is not about Republicans and Democrats (Thank Gawd!).

It's about Verizon and AT&T, actually.

Verizon has got AT&T mad as H-E-double toothpicks over its new "There's a map for that" ad campaign.

Just see for yourself below:

Take a good long look. This ad may have a short shelf life if AT&T has its way in court. Quicker than you can download an iPhone app, AT&T has already filed a lawsuit in an Atlanta, GA Federal District court complaining that its false advertising.

We'll see if a judge makes Verizon yank the ads.

In the meantime, here's an excerpt of a leaked memo from AT&T outlining talking points for employees.
How should I respond to customers who ask about the lawsuit?

While we cannot speculate on the complaint filed, it is a great opportunity to remind customers of AT&T’s many advantages that over 81 million customers enjoy, including:

Best Network The best coverage worldwide (More Bars in More PlacesTM). The nation’s fastest 3G network and the only national 3G carrier providing simultaneous voice and data usage. The most devices that work in the most places including Japan and South Korea (3G 2100 MHz device required). The nation’s largest wireless and wireline broadband provider. The nation’s largest company-owned and operated WiFi network with more than 20,000 hotspots, including Starbucks, McDonald’s and Barnes and Noble, as well as access to over 120,000 hotspots around the world. The leading provider of local and long distance voice services.
Greatest Value – The fairest value with Rollover® allowing customers to keep their unused minutes month to month.

Are we getting a little prickly, AT&T.

Memo to both Verizon and AT&T. Settle your differences about the truthiness (as Stephen Colbert would say) of the Verizon ads in court. But for the sake of a partisan weary public, please pick some other colors for your branding identification other than blue and red. Especially if you're going to use it to color code a U.S. map.

9 Ways to Cut Energy Costs

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:33:00 -0700

You changed the light bulbs and lowered the thermostat and for a long time, that was enough. Reducing energy use was traditionally for environmental crusaders. But energy costs have been rising in recent years and new taxes are on the horizon, so every business has a reason to become more efficient. Here's how.

Pay Scales for 20 Different Job Descriptions

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:25:45 -0700

Talent may be cheap right now, but if your dazzling new hire proves successful, don't expect the bargain to last. That's because salaries rise, often steeply, as employees gain experience--human resources experts call it the maturity curve. Inc. asked PayScale, the Seattle-based salary and compensation data provider, to calculate the maturity curves for 20 jobs found at most growing companies.

10 Free (or Cheap) Tools for Start-ups

Wed, 27 May 2009 12:55:24 -0700

"As the head of a startup with no money, I use as many free tools as possible," says Chadd Bennett, founder of RetroRazor, a Seattle-based company that sells old-fashioned safety razors. Here are 10 free or inexpensive web-based tools that Bennett uses to save time, cut costs, and boost sales.

6 Great Touchscreen Computers

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:30:31 -0800

The computer mouse is nearing extinction, thanks to Microsoft's new touchscreen-friendly Windows 7 operating system. Since its release, hardware companies are racing to create the best touchscreen computers. Here are our favorites.

The Electric Car Ecosystem

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:36:43 -0800

As a new market for electric cars emerges, the automobile industry will change in several fundamental ways. Here are six key areas of opportunity in the electric car system in which entrepreneurs are taking an interest.

Reengineering the Human Body

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:07:00 -0700

Today’s biotech entrepreneurs are confronting medical conditions head-on with innovative technologies -- some changing the way new procedures are marketed, others looking to drive down health care costs altogether. From head to toe, here are some promising companies who are transforming the human body -- one organ at a time.

Company Contests: How to Foster a Little Friendly Competition

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:04:39 -0700

Want to encourage competition through a company contest? Here's how to get the most out of an internal rivalry–and make sure it doesn't get ugly.

Meet the Designers of the 21st-Century Factory

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:31:39 -0700

Ponoko is bridging physical reality and digital efficiency with a global, distributed manufacturing network that takes as much inspiration from Flickr as it does from a machine shop.

30 Under 30: America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:02:44 -0700

The honorees on this year's 30 Under 30 list are perhaps our most
dynamic group yet -- building successful companies online, overseas,
and in the skies above us (literally). Meet America's coolest young
entrepreneurs.

Fountain of Youth: The Under 30 Hall of Fame

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:12:08 -0700

Some of the biggest names in business got their start before their 30th birthday.

The Next Big Ideas: Cool Products from America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:08:01 -0700

Do you fantasize about doodling on your office walls? Want to host your own live TV show online? Are you craving truffle oil popcorn? The companies on this year's 30 Under 30 list might have just what you're looking for.

A Free Beer With Every Haircut

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:01:45 -0700

Birds Barbershop has tapped into the energy of Austin, Texas to build a $2 million business with four locations in just three years.

Business Advice from the 2009 Inc. 500 Conference

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:07:18 -0700

The speakers at the 2009 Inc. 500 conference, held in National Harbor, Maryland, share their tips and advice on how to run a fast-growing company. Among them: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, BET founder Robert L. Johnson, Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith, Tastefully Simple founder Jill Blashack Strahan, and author Jim Collins.

Start-up Secrets: Tips from America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:46:34 -0700

We asked the honorees on our 30 Under 30 list for the best business advice they had to offer other prospective entrepreneurs. Here's what they had to say.

How This Kid Made $170 Million in Two Years

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:46:31 -0700

Aaron Patzer launched Mint.com as a user-friendly alternative to Quicken and other personal-finance software out there. Little did he know that just two years later, Intuit, which makes Quicken, would fork over $170 million for his website. So how'd he do it?

It Takes a Community to Raise a Customer

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:16:24 -0800

A recent survey commissioned by e-mail marketing provider Campaigner found the top challenge facing small business owners today is customer acquisition and retention -- by a landslide. The 2009 State of Small Business Online Marketing Survey questioned over 250 North American small business owners with 20 employees or less. And customer acquisition/retention was the top business challenge of 50 percent of those surveyed. Growing revenue was a distant second with 15 percent, followed by improving cash flow and maintaining profitability -- at 9 percent and 8 percent respectively.

The numbers in this survey seems to be on point with other studies I’ve seen over the past year. While revenue growth, cash flow, and profitability are extremely important to any business, they are all driven by the most important asset businesses can have -- good customers. And many small businesses do not have enough of those good customers to fuel the other three top challenges they’re faced with.

Small businesses are looking for ways to build better, stronger relationships with customers. And many need to bring on new customers before they can even worry about retaining them. But with the rise of the social customer, this mean it’s critical to connect with them in a way that builds trust.

A recent EdelmanTrust survey found that trust is key to building and extending business relationships. But the most trusted people customers and prospects turn to for product information are not company employees or management -- in fact, these are among the least likely people tend they’ll turn to at first. Instead, people tend to trust academic researchers, industry experts, and people like them. They are also relying more and more on their social networks, industry bloggers, and opinion sites to determine what vendors to engage. And these interactions with trusted entities are creating organic communities that can help companies create good customers, and business longevity. Below are some ways for companies to communitize their efforts to engage socially-empowered customers.

Participate

Before we can really expect communities to form around our companies, we need to add value to the communities that have already formed around our customers and prospects. This means finding out what social networks they hang out on, what subjects interest them, which bloggers they listen to, and anything else that will help us understand what makes them tick. This calls for a lot of listening. Listening is a form of participating that gets overlooked by many, but is the most important step in engagement. Without listening and understanding what’s important to your target, your attempts to add value to the communities important to them will not be as successful, which in turn will sabotage your trust-building efforts.

Facilitate

Listening and participating in trusted communities can show customers and prospects that you are sincerely interested in them -- beyond the transaction. Showing a genuine interest in what’s important to these current or potential customers can help you facilitate activities that will help them find solutions to what’s currently on their minds. You may be able to help connect them to trusted resources -- and it's okay if these resources are not necessarily directly related to your business.

A great example of this is BatchBlue, a small business that provides an online customer relationship management (CRM) solution aimed at the small business market. They started facilitating a weekly Twitter chat called the SBBUZZ, which discusses topics of importance to startups and entrepreneurs. They bring in experts in different areas to interact with the people who participate in these two-hour weekly sessions. And they post the transcripts of these chats up on a blog for people who weren’t able to attend to access the content. They do not promote their product or service. Instead, they facilitate the opportunity for small businesses to share information, connect with experts, and to engage each other. So what started at the beginning of the year with no followers on Twitter, now has over 13,000 followers -- with hundreds of active participants each week. And this community of small businesses continues to sing the praises of BatchBlue for understanding their need for this type of interaction. It has helped the company become a trusted, valued company to small businesses looking for CRM services.

If customer acquisition and retention is important to you, than using online channels to build trust is key to the survival of your business. Customers are looking for much more than a transaction from vendors today. The customer experience has to touch them in ways that may not have mattered before, but are crucial in the Social Era we're now in. It’s too easy to switch vendors because your competitor is just a click away. So take the time to thoroughly understand what is important to the customers. And it’s growing more apparent that interacting with each other, influential experts, and other trusted entities are an important component to the customer experience.

So improving the community experience should go a long way towards improving the customer experience, which should help with the biggest challenge facing small businesses. Community can raise customers, and your business.

Brent Leary is a small-business technology analyst, adviser, and award-winning blogger. He is the co-author of Barack 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Business. His blog can be found at http://brentleary.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/brentleary.

Visibility: The Strongest Link in the Supply Chain

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:09:40 -0800

For many organizations, the supply chain is their very lifeblood. Its impact is massive, affecting business processes at every level -- from manufacturing to packaging, distribution, and customer relations. As companies grow larger and more global, their supply chains become more complex. Greater complexity leads to vulnerability.

The key to reducing risk and mastering supply chain management is visibility. It’s a complex, yet critical component that helps to reduce costs and improve efficiencies across the organization. The technologies to gain supply chain visibility are out there, but they must be chosen with great care.

The case for visibility

With today’s technology and ease of communication, the world certainly seems like a much smaller place. But for businesses, adapting their supply chains to a global marketplace can lead to sprawling networks where disruptions are common, along with waste, inventory build-ups and shortages. If you don’t know where critical sets of supplies are at any given point in the chain, it directly affects your ability to deliver products and serve customers.

It’s likely that most organizations already have some hardware or software in place to manage their supply chains, such as inventory management and barcoding systems. All are typically part of an overall enterprise resource planning (ERP) application suite. But why do so many of these IT solutions fall short of expectations?

The likely culprit is not the technology itself, but poor planning. When supply chain systems become too complex, it’s easy to lose focus. In an attempt to fix a problem or implement a new solution, organizations may implement too many point solutions and technologies without regard to how they fit together.

Integrating technologies

Any successful supply chain management solution today requires a holistic approach. It must be as simple as possible, taking into consideration all of the various systems that both you and your trading partners are using.

Look first at integrating your technologies. For a retail organization, that involves the order system, the warehouse management/inventory system, and the ERP system. Next comes the technology around scanning, such as barcodes and radio frequency identification device (RFID) chips.

RFID is an emerging technology that uses passive or active chips to tell you, at any given point in time, where pieces, parts, inventory components might be and how many you have. For a retail organization, it shows which items are moving the fastest and when you need to reorder or restock. A passive RFID chip is read by independent scanners and is often found in high-end retail items, computer components and drug supplies. This type of scanning is limited by distance, accessibility, and lighting.

An active chip, on the other hand, can send out radio signals which enable you to track items from a greater distance, even hundreds of feet away. This gives you good visibility into inventory without having close-up scanning capabilities. Consider the advantage from a warehouse perspective, particularly when these functions are automated and integrated. Someone unloading a truck can quickly find, offload, and ship a particular set of products. Improving efficiency this way reduces your inventory carrying charges, thereby driving up revenues.

RFID is a very strategic tool in terms of your ability to manage. Because of its relatively high cost, it is currently used on larger, higher value added items. But as the technology progresses, the cost per tag is coming down, which will soon make it a more universal technology.

When these systems all fit together, they help you develop a single book of truth which gives you insights into your inventory, cost structure, manufacturing and product availability. Many of today’s platforms promise a single solution for these functions, but they cannot deliver on that promise unless they are properly implemented and maintained. That includes the human element -- having the right people assigned to various projects and aspects of the supply chain to ensure success.

Collaborating with partners

An often overlooked aspect of a fully integrated supply chain management system is collaboration. Some organizations become so blinded by their own technology and so insular in their approaches that they neglect the critical aspect of sharing information and processes with supply chain partners.

Remember that partner suppliers may not own all of the supply chain, so some of their components may come from other sources. By working closely with supply chain partners you can access up-to-the-minute information such as when products, pieces, or components are shipping. You can also automate and accelerate invoicing and payments. Having access into your partners’ systems and allowing access to yours is a critical success factor for streamlining processes and minimizing risk and waste.

As you look to improve your supply chain management, remember that anything this complex and potentially rewarding is worth the investment in good planning, thinking and execution. As you review and select hardware and software, stay focused on the goal of improved visibility through integration and collaboration.

Mike Gorsage is a Partner and Leader of the Business Operations and Technology Practice for Tatum LLC. Tatum is the nation’s largest executive services firm, providing financial and technology leadership nationwide.

How to Live Stream a Meeting

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:34:15 -0700

Scott Kurtz was looking for a way to promote his 10-year-old Web cartoon business when he decided to broadcast himself drawing the strip, an ode to video games and the geeks who love them called PvPOnline.com.

After some initial experimentation, the 38-year-old Dallas resident hit on a winning formula: he draws the strip directly onto a touch-sensitive computer screen and live streams the video and audio over a website called Ustream.tv so fans can watch him work.

At first Kurtz was self conscious about sharing his creative process with the world. But once dozens and then hundreds of fans started logging on at any given time -- and sticking around to chat with each other and buy the strip’s merchandise -- Kurtz got a lot more comfortable with the concept. “They really are getting to know me, they’re getting invested, and that’s the X factor between a causal viewer and someone who might want to buy something,” he says.

Like Kurtz, small business owners are starting to use live streaming in all aspects of their operations, including sales, marketing, and customer service.

Broadcasting in real time

Live streaming is like podcasting with a few major exceptions. Both consist of an audio or video segment broadcast over the Internet. But while a podcast is recorded for future download and playback, live streaming happens in the here and now. Unlike the solitary experience of listening to a podcast, broadcasters also link live streams to chat rooms and other social networking features so viewers can exchange comments with each other while they’re watching.

Live streaming is taking off in and out of business circles because the equipment that’s required has become plentiful and cheap. It’s also been helped by a proliferation of Internet-based broadcasters such as Ustream, Livestream.com, and Justin.tv that small business owners can use to stream their feeds for little or nothing.

In many parts of the country, companies that would rather not take on the logistics of live streaming a meeting themselves can now hire a live streaming producer or consultant to do the work for them for hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on the length and complexity what’s being produced.

For do-it-yourself types, a basic live stream set up doesn’t cost much. Must-haves include:

A reliable high-speed Internet connection and some kind of video input -- a high resolution or high-definition video camera is recommended but even a PC’s built-in webcam will do
Audio from a video camera or stand alone microphone
A computer with enough processing power and memory to handle upload speeds of 500 kilobytes per second for normal broadcasting or 1 megabytes per second for HD pictures

Kurtz, the Web cartoonist, uses a free software program called CamTwist to stream what appears on his Mac’s monitor to Ustream, and Audio Hijack Pro, another free program that lets him stream audio from his video camera, Skype, iTunes, or another audio source.

Though she can’t quantify exactly how many of Livestream.com’s 450,000 active channels are run by small businesses, the number is growing, says Deborah Kornfilt, the New York City company’s head of content and partnerships. Among them: Network Solutions, which streamed its recent GrowSmartBizConference on the network; Women’s Enterprise Network, an Ohio-based organization that runs a channel devoted to promoting women in business; and a retailer that streamed a fashion show to market its wedding dresses. “They had a contest to win a wedding gown and used live stream as an incentive to bring traffic to their site,” Kornfilt says.

Like several other live stream broadcasters, Livestream.com offers a free service that’s supported by advertising, as well as premium plans with lots of extra, including a white-label player companies can put on their own website. At Livestream.com, premium plans cost $350 and $1,250 a month for additional channels and storage as well as HD-quality video.

Hiring a live stream producer

Businesses that would rather not do their own live streaming can hire Internet broadcasters and live event producers to do the work for them. SLL Productions in Portland, Ore., handles everything related to designing, setting up, and broadcasting an event. The firm, run by husband and wife team Mike and Cami Gebhardt, also provide extras such as conducting interviews at a company’s event and broadcasting them along with the event’s main stream. “It provides a deeper online experience for people who can’t attend” in person, Mike Gebhardt says.

Joe Christiansen, owner of Blaze Streaming Media, also of Portland, thinks of himself as a virtual event coordinator, staging a client’s live stream, testing Internet access at a meeting space and capturing e-mail addresses from people who watch the live stream for the client to use for lead generation afterward. He also acts as the liaison between his client and the live stream broadcaster and provides extras that a Livestream.com or Ustream might not offer.

Such customization doesn’t come cheap. Christiansen’s fee for live streaming an event runs $1,000 to $10,000. His bill to live stream an Oregon soil company’s three-hour fall meeting, including running multiple cameras and live chat was $3,500. Christiansen’s fee also included statistics on exactly how many minutes each one of the company’s customers tuned in, information sales reps will use in follow-up calls. “Times are tough and their attendance was down” but the live stream gave the company a way to connect to customers anyway, he says.

Browser Wars: Does IE8 Change the Game?

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:26:07 -0700

Built into Windows 7 or available as a free download for other operating systems, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) offers a number of improvements and new features to go up against the likes of competing browsers such as Mozilla's Firefox, Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari, and Opera.

IE8 delivers Internet users stepped up security against cross-site scripting attacks, downloads of malicious code, phishing, and other security risks. At the same time, the new browsing platform provides businesses with tools to centrally manage and configure group policies for the office, streamlined browser management, built-in developer tools to help save your developers time, and backwards compatibility with the earlier browser version, IE7.

The question for businesses now is whether IE8 is a game-changer in the battle of the browsers and whether your organization should standardize on IE8 -- or any of its well-regarded rivals.

Browsing issues to consider

There are several ways small and mid-sized businesses use Web browsers. Employees often use browsers to look for information about customers, competitors, or products on the Internet. At the same time, a growing number of companies are using and/or developing Web applications that need to be compatible with Web browsers.

Deciding which browser is best for a small business "is like asking an Italian and a Frenchman which country has the best food," jokes Steve Hilton, vice president of small and mid-sized business research at the Boston-based Yankee Group.

The advice may depend on which computing platform your business uses, PC-based or Mac. "My advice for picking a browser is simple: Internet Explorer 8 is your default, but if you feel like experimenting consider Firefox or Chrome and you might find one particularly appealing from a user-interface point-of-view," says Hilton. This isn't the case for a Mac user, though, he adds. "Apple-heads should just stick with Safari."

So, does it really matter which browser you go with? Not really, say some experts. "For most companies it's the path of least resistance, so whatever is the default on the operating system -- Internet Explorer for Windows or Safari for the Mac OS -- is the first one to try," advises Michael Gartenberg, vice president at Interpret LLC, a market research firm based in New York and Los Angeles.

The launch of IE8 provides businesses with a safe bet for standardization -- sort of. "At the end of the day, you won't have an issue if you go with IE8 as it's secure and stable," Gartenberg says. "Microsoft has done an excellent job to move the product forward over the years, but honestly, any modern browser is going to work pretty well for you."

That said, Gartenberg says Microsoft's dominance of market share in the browser space means some applications might favor IE8 over others in the compatibility department.

A company involved in writing Web apps should also take a browser-agnostic approach, both Hilton and Gartenberg say. "Web builders need to optimize sites for all of these browsers, but at least make sure IE and Firefox work, and then pick-up the Apple-centric products," Hilton advises.

"If you're writing Web-compliant apps, you shouldn't play favorites," adds Gartenberg.

Windows 7's relevance

Gartenberg says IE8, which is bundled in every copy of Windows 7, gives Microsoft a "home court advantage" in the browser wars. But it's not without merit: "IE8 does work better in Windows 7, so the combo helps Microsoft -- and ultimately, its users, too."

But that doesn't mean there isn't room for competition. "While I have not tested all browser and operating system combinations, I can't imagine Microsoft would do anything intentional to impede the use of competing browsers in Window 7," says Hilton.

Referencing antitrust issues, Hilton adds "surely Microsoft, and their legal department, would follow that old adage, 'once bitten, twice shy,' when it comes to their operating system and browser issues."

Quick pros and cons

While some technology analysts take laissez faire approach to deciding which browser is best for your business, there are still some advantages and shortcomings to each of the big players. Here they are:

Internet Explorer 8

Pros: Most websites and plugs-ins work well with IE. Faster speeds and handy time-saving tools. Compatibility View helps see older websites easier. Available in multiple languages. Built into Windows.
Cons: Security holes still found. Market share leader means more susceptible to attacks. Some crashing.

Mozilla Firefox

Pros: Newest version is roughly three times faster than Firefox 3.0. Tabbed browsing works well. Convenient features, including location-aware browsing. Vibrant and passionate development community.
Cons: Some bugs and security issues that requires "patching."

Opera

Pros: Lean and fast. Secure. Mouse gestures and other extra features in Opera (including Opera Unite) are handy additions.
Cons: Doesn't fare as well on heavy multimedia sites. Not as much plug-in support than IE and Firefox.

Apple Safari

Pros: Good looking. Fast. Reliable. Minimalist design.
Cons: Close button on left side. Not much mouse functionality (e.g. middle button). No status bar. Not all plug-ins supported. Built into Macs.

Google Chrome

Pros: Clean and fast. Some nice features like shortcuts. Available in 50 languages.
Cons: Lack of add-ons; not all websites/plug-ins are supported. No support for Macs.

Track Comments about Your Business Online

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:17:57 -0700

A few weeks ago, a Twitter user tweeted that she was planning to try Zitune, a restaurant in Los Altos, Calif. David Auerbach, the restaurant's co-owner got an e-mail alert from a Web-based service Trackle, calling his attention to the tweet. As he often does, he sent a response thanking her for visiting Zitune and asking how she'd liked it. Soon, they had a dialogue going. Then she asked if Zitune's chef (and Auerbach's brother-in-law) would like to be interviewed for her video blog.

"The restaurant business has been tough for the last year and a half," Auerbach says. "Having a blogger or video blogger write anything about us, any extra PR we can get is a huge plus. And Trackle found it."

Trackle is one of a new crop of online services that helps you "listen" for keyword mentions on social networks and around the Web, and will send an alert when someone mentions your business or product -- or your competitor. Services like Trackle go way beyond Google Alerts and other news alert services because they monitor microblogs such as Twitter, social networks such as Facebook, and the blogosphere, as well.

"Increasingly, it's consumers, not news outlets, that are putting out information other consumers use," says Blake Cahill, senior vice president of marketing at Visible Technologies, which both tracks keywords and interprets the resulting data. "Consumers have as much impact on your brand as you do." The majority of consumers check user reviews before making a major purchase, he notes.

But if knowing what customers and others are saying about you online is absolutely essential, it can also be very time-consuming. "You can spend a lot of time doing searches on Twitter and Facebook and Google and so on to find out who's talking about your restaurant," Auerbach says. "It's really helpful to get a daily update where everything is all in one place."

For Veronica Sopher, executive assistant at Ben Bridge Jeweler, looking after the company's social network presence is only one part of her job. She uses Social Mention among other services to follow Ben Bridge, but also flag mentions of "ring shopping," so as to find and start conversations with brides-to-be under her Twitter handle @BenBridgeGirl.

"I talk with them in a girly fashion and find out what wedding dress they're dreaming about or ask them to send me photos of the ring they're considering," she says. "My strategy is not to make sales with tweets, but to raise brand awareness and present a more personable side of what is often perceived as a cookie-cutter jewelry retailer." The advantage of a service like Social Mention, she adds, is that it also flags the company's name all over the Web, so if, for instance, a non-profit organization thanks Ben Bridge for a donation on its website, Sopher can follow up with a friendly e-mail.

Picking the right service

Most every small business can benefit from some online tracking of its name and product mentions around the Web and in social networks, but picking the right service can be tricky. Services range from completely free to a minimum charge of $500 a month -- and most seem to fall at one extreme or the other. The pay services will aggregate thousands of mentions according to metrics like "sentiment" (whether people are mentioning you in a negative or positive light).

Here are some popular choices:

Social Mention, a free service, allows you to search the Web, as well as Twitter and Facebook for keywords, and can list them in a once-a-day e-mail alert as well or get a "Realtime buzz" widget for your website.
Trackle tracks keywords across the Internet and social media, but also tracks many other items, such as weather in your location, local news, real estate values, and even crime in your neighborhood. You can get email alerts, or any of the company's "tracklets" can also be used as widgets.
Viralheat alerts you to mentions with some analytics and a new option to filter results by location. It's a rare moderately priced pay option, with plans starting at $9.99 a month a month to track up to 10 keywords or phrases.
Visible Technologies has plans starting at $500 per month for up to 20,000 results and offers analysis to help you get the sense of what people are saying. "Small businesses can do a lot of tracking with free tools," Cahill notes. "But as brands get popular and the volume gets big, it becomes difficult to follow all those mentions."

Whichever service you use, experts agree, it's important to not only listen to what people are saying, but respond promptly. "Social networks can help bring a problem to the surface faster than it would otherwise," Cahill says. By letting users know you're working to solve the problem you may find some of your critics turn into defenders, he says. But, he adds, "Once you start engaging in a dialogue with customers on a social network, you have to be genuine, you have to be transparent, and you have to keep at it."

"I try never to go 24 hours without checking what people are saying about us and posting," Sopher adds. "Once you have a presence in social media, it's like adopting a puppy. You can't ignore it."

Should You Create an iPhone App?

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:11:34 -0700

Tripware, an online travel management company, recently started the design phase for its new iPhone application. The company focuses on business travelers, and many business consumers rely on BlackBerry smartphones. But, says Dean Wright, vice president of marketing and brand, “All the buzz says iPhone.”

Debbie Robertson Bialick, founder of Sweet Dog Organics, an online organic dog treat store, thinks iPhone apps are “cool,” but she’s not investing in development. She doesn’t see an app driving business to her company.

A ubiquitous iPhone commercial rattles off a list of functions, repeatedly telling viewers, “There’s an app for that.’’ And indeed, there’s a tsunami of apps flooding the market, with the count in the Apple iPhone Apps store approaching the 100,000 mark. And just as small and mid-sized businesses have had to decide what their presence will look like in social networking media, many are evaluating the value of an iPhone app.

While it might infer a bit of status at the gym or among friends and family, an iPhone app needs to be about more than buzz or coolness to add value to your business. Developers, advertising experts and small business owners who’ve gone through the process advise running through a checklist before you begin the process.

Know your customer

Wright, the Tripware vice president, lobbied for his company to develop a Research In Motion app first since so many businesspeople rely on Blackberrys. “I think people in Marketing are too iPhone happy,’’ he says. Understanding your customer’s online behavior is essential, says Dan Neumann, emerging platforms strategist at interactive advertising firm Organic. “How does your target use digital? Do they have iPhones or Blackberrys or a combination of the two? Do they spend their time on Facebook or in e-mail?’’

Define your goal

The vast majority of apps developed by businesses today are about marketing rather than function. Large companies might be able to afford to develop an app that is little more than a gimmicky marketing tool, but that’s a luxury ill-afforded smaller businesses. Your business will be better served if you develop a useful app, says Mohamed Alkady, CEO and founder of after10studios, an interactive media firm. “Please give a value to your user,’’ he says. “You’ll never see us doing an app for the sake of doing an app. Ask yourself ‘Is this an extension of your business to make your customer’s life easier?’”

While being able to order a dog treat with an iPhone might make life a bit more convenient for her customers, Bialick figured it’s not the sort of task people necessarily have to do on the go. “Once the novelty of a new app wears off, successful iPhone apps seem to be used regularly for recurring tasks, tasks that need immediate attention, tasks that you can’t do using the mobile function of the phone, or tasks that cannot wait until you get home or to your office,’’ observes Bialick. “Ordering dog treats does not fall into any of these categories.”

However, apps for both the iPhone and the Blackberry are absolute necessities for JumpForward, a company that assists college coaches and the athletes they recruit in managing the often byzantine recruiting rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Mobility is a way of life for coaches, so JumpForward needs to push its information from the web site to mobile solutions, says co-founder Adam McCombs.

Develop a budget

Demand for iPhone developers has sent costs skyrocketing. Big brands are spending as much as $100,000 to develop an app, says Chris De Vore, co-founder of AppStoreHQ, an app search/discovery site that also hosts a developer directory and a developer matching service. A custom app is likely to cost your business $20,000 to $30,000.

For a small business, it might make sense to take advantage of the burgeoning market of app templates. Services such as Sweb Apps allow you to build a basic application, even creating a virtual storefront that will accept PayPal transactions, with no technical expertise. Using what amounts to a cookie cutter app won’t generate buzz or excitement, but, says Alkady, the developer, “It’s a good way for a very small shop to test the water.”

Using a toolkit, you can likely get to market within 30 days, says De Vore. Plan on a three- to six-month timeframe if you’re developing a custom app.

Separate yourself from the crowd

If you’re using the app to generate new business, you face a big hurdle. “The phenomenon is huge, but how do you get eyes on your application?” asks De Vore. “With the flood of information, it’s very hard to make your information stand out. The biggest problem with the iPhone is discovery.”

That’s one reason Wright, the Tripware executive, thinks a presence in the BlackBerry App World would make sense for his company. With far fewer apps with which to compete, Tripware would stand out, he reasons. So, Tripware will likely develop a BlackBerry app next. Meanwhile, Wright will promote the upcoming iPhone app through Twitter, the company’s website, its listings on business directory websites and e-mails to existing users with a promotional offer for downloads and referrals.

At after10studios, Alkady says he’s a bit choosy when it comes to accepting clients. He’s looking for customers who understand the need to come in with a well-developed concept that will have appeal for their customers. He’s looking to create buzz-worthy apps that attract attention, such as the after10studio-developed Viper SmartStart, which lets you open and start your car from your iPhone with the use of an in-car receiver. “Everybody jumps on the wagon because they think they’ve got to have it,’’ he says. “An app has to be an extension of your business value.”

Discovering Your Advantage with CRM

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:00:10 -0700

You’ve heard the expression, “the customer is king.” In today’s economy, the customer is key to your future success. The right customer relationship management (CRM) strategies can give you insights that lead to increased revenue, improved earnings and solid competitive advantage.

Bill Gates once said, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Whether happy or unhappy, your customers are a vital, often underutilized source of business intelligence. Companies that take the time to understand their customers are better able to anticipate and respond to their needs. They also gain a distinct advantage over their competitors.

At this stage of the recession, many companies have lost sight of the competition, focusing instead on cutting costs and improving efficiencies. And they have succeeded; in fact, today’s companies are leaner and meaner than ever before. But now is the time to look outward – focusing on better CRM to grow top line revenues, improve earnings, and take market share away from the competition.

Know your customers and reap rewards

The key is capturing the right information about your customers. With effective CRM processes and technology, you can build a single “book of truth” about each customer. It’s a data warehouse that chronicles each customer’s history, including the products they typically buy, how often they buy, as well as their individual preferences and any problems they have had in the past. CRM delivers instant, company-wide access to valuable customer profiles and gives you the insight you need to turn this data into actionable information.

With a detailed customer history, you can easily segment customers, identifying which are your best customers and why. Is it their margins? Or is it their consistency of buying particular products and services? Linking your data warehouse or business intelligence system to your CRM process and technology can help you answer questions like these and gain an enriched insight that allows you to know how and when to focus on particular customers.

Profitable communication

Consider, for example, a customer who prefers doing business with your company over the Internet. If you don’t know that information, you may unnecessarily redouble your sales efforts by having a direct sales person call on that client. Had you known the customer’s preference, you could have eliminated the effort and cost of a direct sale and freed up your direct sales force to focus on generating new clients.

CRM is a great way to streamline and optimize your sales force. The information you gather in various systems can show you where to focus your efforts, directing your sales force to certain sets of clients. When implemented properly your CRM system will enable you to be more successful in attracting new customers, responding to new leads and closing deals more quickly. By improving your responsiveness to customers you also build loyalty and decrease customer "churn."

At the same time, you can identify the best ways to cross-sell and up sell to each customer, either through direct sales, telemarketing, Web marketing, or other sales or marketing activities. If your goal is to better enable your website for e-business activity, CRM is the ideal approach. It establishes a single point of contact with your company and enables you to capture vital customer information and put it into various applications. The result is a cost-effective and efficient way to communicate with and learn from your customers.

Creating your system

Practicing CRM does require discipline in the form of a more efficient and integrated internal business system. When it comes to developing a CRM system, it is important to remember that this is an “outside-in” approach that focuses on customer input. The most critical component is spending time with customers, learning what they find most valuable about doing business with you. By doing that, you are essentially identifying your main competitive advantages. From there you can design your processes and the supporting systems that will capitalize on that competitive advantage.

As with most IT initiatives, there is a wide variety of CRM hardware and software available from major vendors like SAP and Oracle. When choosing your CRM system, be sure to couple it with business intelligence capabilities that allow you to capture data in a variety of areas and organize it into a single book of truth about that customer. As you put that information into your CRM software in the right fields and capture all the types of transactions you do with clients, you now become very effective in the way to interact with them.

Keep in mind that CRM can only work to your advantage if you view as more than just a tool for getting more from your customers. It helps you do more for your customers. When you become more responsive to customers and understand the way they want to do business with you, you give your organization a head start over the competition and prepare for the impending recovery.

Tech Talk: Publisher Puts Kibosh on Spam

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:54:08 -0700

Hay House, a book publisher based in Carlsbad, Calif., was founded 24 years ago and has grown to become one of the largest self-help publishers in the world with 125 employees in the U.S. and locations in four different continents. The publishing house relies on e-mail for internal communication and for communicating with writers, often sending manuscripts back and forth. But employees were being deluged with spam – the company receives up to 10,000 spam messages per day – until information technology director Mike Fishell and his staff installed an e-mail security appliance.

Elizabeth Wasserman: What are the plusses and minuses of using e-mail in your business?

Mike Fishell: It's much faster for moving information around. Whether it's information for a book, fact-checking, public relations, or passing on quotes to be inserted into our books, we rely on our e-mail. We also have offices located in time zones that don't match up. We have offices in the U.K., Australia, South Africa, and India, in addition to the U.S. So if it's noon in London and someone e-mails us with something that has to be addressed that day, we can get back to them before they go home that night. We also may receive manuscripts via e-mail from our authors. Instead of sending a manuscript via FedEx, they can e-mail it to us directly.

Wasserman: What are the security risks to a business posed by relying on e-mail? Do you get a lot of spam?

Fishell: We get in the neighborhood of 10,000 spam messages a day.

Wasserman: What did you do about that?

Fishell: We were using software-based spam solutions in the past, but the spam problem was growing faster than our application could deal with it. I looked at appliances and Axway’s Mailgate was the first one I brought in-house for a trial. It worked so well that we couldn't even think of taking it out of production. The trial unit we were sent was kept in production for three years.

Wasserman: What does it do? How does it help you?

Fishell: It helps us with spam by using a context-based algorithm. Some of our books may deal with health and we may have the word Viagra show up in a book, maybe with someone giving medical advice related to it. It's not in the context of someone trying to sell it, because that wouldn't be delivered to the mailbox. Our users receive an e-mail every day at 5 p.m. showing everything that was quarantined by the filter. They have an option to release it to themselves or ignore it.

Wasserman: What have the results been?

Fishell: On the inbound side, the time savings is money savings. I do a report once a year for the directors explaining the cost savings associated with it. I have calculated out in the thousands and thousands of dollars in terms of man hours for our people not having to delete spam. The cost savings worked out to about $54,000 a year in terms of man-hours we would have spent deleting spam.

There are a lot of these e-mails being sent around maybe directing people to a website and it's not enough of an e-mail to be caught as spam or a virus. But it directs them to a website that may have malicious intentions. We're able to plug keywords into our filter and have it blocked in a matter of minutes instead of waiting for the virus companies to have something out there to block one. I don't have to worry about anyone clicking on the link.

It also allows me to set policies to prevent certain types of sensitive data from being e-mailed outside the office accidentally. Not only viruses, but personal information or confidential information, certain contracts we don't want leaving the building, or proprietary material we don't want leaving the building.

In terms of time management, it's nice having something in the business that doesn't require babysitting. I take a look at the reports once a day. If I skip looking at the reports once a day, I'm not worried. The box gets restarted once or twice a year. That and software updates a couple times a year and you can pretty much set it and forget it.

Tech Talk: Vehicle ID Firm Upgrades Internet

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:46:17 -0700

DLG Group, headquartered in Bedminster, N.J., started out in the 1960s inspecting vehicle and cargo at sea ports and handwriting reports for manufacturers and insurance companies. The Internet era allowed the company to issue those inspection reports on the same day from the field and use the data to help customers improve quality control. Upgrading to fiber-optic based Internet service today has let the business expand and offer online services for customers, CEO and President Andrew Vazquez Jr. tells IncTechnology.com.

Elizabeth Wasserman: What's your company's story?

Andrew Vazquez: The DLG Group started out as Automotive Visual Inspections (AVI) as a family business that began in the mid-1960s. My father started the business and I started working for it full time in 1980. It's an automotive inspection business that verifies vehicles for damage for insurance purposes for imported and exported vehicles shipped overseas.

Wasserman: How has your business evolved?

Vazquez: One of the shipping lines came to me in the early 1980s and wanted to automate statistical information on damage for claims settlement and to improve quality control. They came to me and asked if I would assist them in developing an electronic system to do that. They would give me the programmers and I would help them design a system. Later we needed our own electronic systems and started developing our own proprietary electronic system tracking inspections, warehouse management and vehicle tracking. Taking that technology around 2004 we branched out into the vehicle logistics side of the business and launched Vehicle Logistics Solutions, which is a logistics company that works with various vehicle manufacturers in the Midwest, starting in Michigan and Ohio. But we positioned ourselves to be flexible if a customer needed a facility for short-term or long-term use to keep vehicles until they were sold.

Wasserman: How did the Internet change your business?

Vazquez: We started inspecting in the 1960s and 70s with a typewriter and carbon paper. If our customers in Europe received a report to settle a marine claim two months later, they were happy. In the 1980s, we were one of the first companies to use hand-held computers in the field. It helped us basically save a lot of steps. It used to be our inspectors would go out in the field and record information on paper, transpose to type back in the office, and then the report would hit the mail. Now we are able to take that electronic data and upload it immediately to our databases and send our files electronically. It saved us a lot of time and gave our customers a lot of power. The customer did not just receive data to settle claims but could actually use data for quality control of service. The quicker they could act on either a problem on their hands or the factory where the vehicle was manufactured the better.

Wasserman: How did that impact your needs for Internet service?

Vazquez: Back then the files weren't as large and the bandwidth wasn't as big. Most of the handhelds we used were more like electronic notepads. Now that the bandwidth is here and the technology is state of the art and has much better coverage, we've upgraded our systems and now data with photos can be transmitted in real time. Our workers can upload data and photos out in the field which means they don't have to return to the office to file their report. Now our customers can have their report immediately. We can communicate with any employee by putting a cell phone in their hand computer equipped with a wireless card. You probably would have needed two or three times more people to do the same job we're doing today.

Right now, I have offices in seven different states and also do other projects that have to be in various states across the country. We've had projects in the past where we've had to be in 32 cities around the country each quarter. Having Verizon as our communications provider really helped. We've upgraded to Verizon FIOS Internet for Business, which enabled us to become an application service provider for our customers, as well. We started another business called Vehicle Inspection Network which allows our customers to use our electronic inspection and reporting systems. We give them a log on and password. We have a lot of traffic now in and out of our central office here so it's very important that we have very good, reliable service. You can't sell a service if your Internet is slow or weak.

Wasserman: What have the results been?

Vazquez: It gave me the confidence to launch the application service provider portion of the business. If I was having a problem with companies accessing our system, I wouldn't have been able to do it. We've also started another new company called Hybrid Intermodal Transportation. This business is a freight distribution company. What makes it unique is that we've developed these specialized containers that can be loaded with freight. Today, in the automotive industry, whether they are transported by truck, rail, or vessel, vehicles are being carried in one direction and being dropped off. Many vehicle carriers or assets go back empty. It's a waste of fuel. We've developed containers that we can load with freight onto these car carrier assets, creating the opportunity to fill the empty miles of the industry. We track these containers electronically with our systems.

The Real-Time Web and You

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:39:39 -0700

One of the biggest technology trends in 2009 has been the emergence of the "Real-Time Web." The real-time Web is a made up of technologies and practices that can inform users as soon as information is published, instead of requiring users to check for updates. The real-time Web discards the traditional notion of the more static “webpages,” and instead adopts the notion of dynamic “streams” of information. The real-time Web is also very conversational because it makes it possible to get instant responses across very large networks of people.

Action in the real-time Web started with companies like Twitter and Friendfeed, which built their own infrastructure for large scale delivery of real-time messages. By providing Web service application programming interfaces (APIs), these companies enabled many other developers to create applications based on the real-time Web. However, Anil Dash, a prominent blogger, points out that real time services need not be built on the back of Twitter and Facebook anymore. Due to emerging technologies, the pieces are falling together for creating a free, open and decentralized “pushbutton platform,” which makes it easy for websites to add real-time messaging services. With these developments, we can expect many more websites to jump onto the real-time bandwagon.

Growing importance to business

The real-time Web is becoming increasingly important to businesses in multiple ways. Firstly, as many webmasters and Web analytics companies have pointed out, the real-time Web is starting to rival search engines like Google as a source of website traffic. For example, Mark Cuban talked a few months ago about how his blog receives more visits from Twitter and Facebook than from Google. Secondly, the real-time Web opens up communication opportunities that the traditional Web could not have provided. For instance, if an airline wants to sell off its last minute tickets, the real-time Web provides a great outlet for advertising this very time-sensitive deal. Thirdly, by making information instantaneously accessible, the real-time Web can create, or erase, instances of information arbitrage. As an example, take a look at Skygrid, a service that provides high quality financial news in real time, giving its users an edge, but at the same time leveling the playing field between professional investors and amateurs in terms of the speed of access to reliable information. Finally, because the real-time Web is very conversational, it becomes a repository of people’s sentiment, and mining this sentiment can be very useful to marketers and others.

Taking advantage of real-time Web

Beyond creating an account on Twitter, how can you take advantage of the real-time Web? Here are some thoughts to get you started:

Engage with the real-time Web with tailored offers and content. Several companies are seeing success with time-sensitive programs that could not have been conceived without the real-time Web. Jet Blue’s “cheeps” and United Airlines’ twares are exclusive Twitter promotions for last minute fare deals. Another company that has encountered great success with offering exclusive deals on Twitter is Dell. A Dell blog post from June mentioned that Dell had surpassed $2 million in Twitter sales fro Dell Outlet, which sells refurbished items, scratch and dent items, and previously ordered new laptops. The real-time Web also acts as a place where people express their intent to shop (e.g. someone may tweet “thinking of buying an ipod touch.”) Selectively targeting such users, without spamming them, might also be a great way to help your customers make real time buying decisions. A service like Twitterhawk can be used to automate this kind of marketing.
Make use of real-time Web tools for business intelligence. The real-time Web is a great source of knowledge and sentiment about your customers, your competitors and your industry. You can use services like Firstrain to research the real Web for the news that matters to you. You could also use Twitter’s search functionality in simple ways to keep track of some of this information, or go to one of the many real time search engines. A recent article in mashable talks about the many tools that help analyze Twitter content.
Join in the conversation about your company. In one of my previous articles, I had talked about how companies like Comcast are using Twitter to understand their customers’ concerns and address them. The conversational nature of real time web can be very powerful in building relationships with your customers.
Create the infrastructure that allows your company to respond in real time. Real-time enterprise data integration has been around for a long time. However, with the emergence of the real-time Web and the opportunities it creates, it is becoming increasingly critical for companies to be able to access all their internal data in real time. In other words, “real-time data integration is no longer a luxury.”

Vijay Chittoor is the director of product management at Kosmix, an exploration engine that offers a 360 degree view of any topic on the Web. A former McKinsey consultant, Chittoor is a graduate of Harvard Business School and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He shares his thoughts on technology at his blog.

The Office: In Praise of Morning

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:56:59 -0700

For risibly unscientific reasons, I've concluded more CEOs are owls than larks. Over the years I've heard countless business leaders describe their 80-hour workweeks in last-car-out-of-the-parking lot terms. It's an existence of flickering fluorescents; take-out dinners, and the clatter of cleaning staff emptying trash. As these leaders sit nodding over their stacks of reports, the day's stresses, frustrations, and failures hang in the air around them like stale smoke.

If I owned a company I would work long hours too, but I'd burn my candle at the front end. That's because I love offices at dawn. I want to be there as pale light washes slowly over the utilitarian landscape of desks and computers. I enjoy the hush that plays prelude to the soundtrack of workaday activity.

Every place I have worked has had at least one great reading chair. It is soft and deep and broad; but it is often in the preferred spot for small-team meetings, so I'm lucky to steal ten minutes there. At 6 a.m. I can usurp that chair for a full hour and churn through the newspaper in comfort and quiet. Sometimes I take off my shoes or drape my legs over the arms without fear of being discovered in professional flagrante delicto. Night breeds similar solitude, of course. But by then my newspaper is reduced to relic, and all I want is to go home.

I like to make the first pot of coffee. I like to drink the first pot of coffee; then pretend I didn't and start another. Night coffee is queasy making: that burnt smell lingers no matter how thoroughly you rinse the pot. By morning—miraculously—it is gone.

The very early morning is the best time to go desk-browsing. During the day no one spares more than a glance for their colleagues' workspaces. Yet many cubicles are made over into miniature museums of collectibles, galleries of beloved images, scrapbooks of rich family lives. Such exhibits powerfully evoke their curators. As you peruse the idiosyncratic display on a desk, you find yourself looking forward to its occupant walking through the door.

If you walk by an office where a colleague or employee labors after hours, it seems natural to poke in your head and commiserate. But often commiseration devolves into passing the time; and after 6 P.M. another's time is not yours to pass. In the early morning, by contrast, no one is yet late for anything and so conversation is relaxed. During work hours I have argued and gossiped and traded stiff pleasantries with office mates. But my best true "chats" have been with fellow early risers, who usually start to trickle in before 8.

When I gaze out the window at night I see my face floating in dark pool. In the morning I see the world. And I am reminded that everything I do that day will contribute to it.

I'm sure that you know your company better than anyone, that you love it more. Still, try going in some day at dawn and wandering around in the silence. To watch the office wake up is to see it fresh.

Amazon Buys Zappos for More Than $900 Million

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:38:12 -0700

Zappos, the online shoe seller that has won renown for its stellar customer service and feel-good employment practices, announced that it was selling itself to e-commerce rival Amazon.com. If the deal gets the SEC’s blessing, Zappos would become a subsidiary of Amazon and Zappos shareholders would receive Amazon stock worth roughly $900 million.

CEO Tony Hsieh, a serial entrepreneur who provided the company with its initial investment and who has led the company for most of its 10-year history, emphasized in a letter to employees that although Zappos would be a part of the larger company, it would preserve its quirky culture that focuses on keeping workers happy. He said that rather than describing the transaction as an acquisition, he’d prefer a looser formulation: “Zappos and Amazon sitting in a tree."

Hsieh has long shown an uncanny ability to navigate the new media landscape, and this announcement was no exception. The deal was kept secret from rank-and-file employees and from the press for months. Hsieh released the news to the world through his Twitter feed, beginning with “Big day!” He then directed employees and outsiders to view a YouTube video staring Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. “Zappos has a totally unique culture,” Bezos said in the video. “I have seen a lot of companies and I’ve never seen a company with a culture like Zappos’s.”

In his letter, Hsieh said that he would do his best to keep Zappos independent of Amazon. The company will maintain its Las Vegas headquarters and its management will remain in place. “[W]e are planning on continuing to run Zappos as a separate company with our own culture and core values,” he wrote. “And we're not going to be giving the Zappos discount to Amazon employees either, unless they bake us cookies and deliver them in person.”

Administration Committed to Innovation

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:47:28 -0700

Amid tumbling banks and bankrupt companies, small businesses may have cause for celebration. The Senate reauthorized the Small Business Administration's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs last Wednesday. In the House, Congressman David Wu (D-OR) shepherded the bill through, with a resounding 386-41 vote.

The bill will now head to the conference committee, where differences between the House and Senate bills will get ironed out, says Edsel Brown, assistant director for the Office of Technology at SBA. Congress has until the July 31st to conference the bill. If the revision passes, this legislation will reauthorize the programs for eight years, as well as add some much necessary fixes. One major adjustment includes allowing small businesses backed by venture capitalists to participate in the programs.

"The fact that we can move forward provides stability to the programs and gives small businesses an experienced program," says Brown, "not only for themselves but to move America forward in terms of innovation."

The SBIR program was established by Congress in 1982, while the STTR came later in 1992, to aid the government in research and innovation. Today, federal agencies with an extramural research and development budget of more than $100 million allocate 2.5 percent of their dollars to the SBIR program, while agencies with more than $1 billion must donate an additional 0.3 percent to the STTR program. With 11 different agencies, the SBA on average receives $2 billion annually for SBIR and $200 million for STTR programs.

"SBIR is fundamentally an innovation program. Given the current economic climate and growing global competition, we need a robust SBIR program that supports cutting-edge companies," said Congressman Wu in his floor statement. The SBIR awards have produced more than 85,000 patents and created millions of jobs, according to the SBA.

"We are here to make sure small businesses get their fair share," concludes Brown.

CIT Group Gets Last Minute Save

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:23:56 -0700

In a last-minute attempt to save the company from bankruptcy, CIT Group secured $3 billion in rescue financing from its bondholders late last night. CIT could not be immediately reached for comment, although an announcement detailing the intricacies of the arrangement is expected to be released later today.

The loan may strengthen the company’s financial position as well as assuage the pressure to pay the $1 billion in debt that's due from the company in August.

CIT is the nation's largest commercial lender, providing loans to roughly a million small and mid-size businesses. Last week, CIT received the bad news that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) would not provide the company some relief by granting access to its debt guarantee program.

"We have a comprehensive and aggressive strategy to restore stability to the financial system," the Treasury said in a statement. "Even during periods of financial stress, we believe that there is a very high threshold for exceptional government assistance to individual companies." Last Wednesday, CIT issued a brief statement announcing that there was "no appreciable likelihood of additional government support being provided over the near term."

For small businesses with loans from CIT this relief could prevent disaster despite the fact that some customers have already begun drawing on their credit lines, adding to an already mounting pressure onto the embattled company.

Dr. Kim Jones of the Stoney Brook Veterinary Hospital in Lebanon, N.H., took out a $1.3 million loan from CIT in June 2008. "I don't know what it will do to me," she says, "they have to do something, the money has been spent, the money is done."

Unlike the $2.33 billion taxpayer-financed bailout CIT received last December, CIT will likely pay interest rates 10 percentage points above the London Interbank Offered Rate, a benchmark interest rate index, for the bondholders loan.

Obama's 504 Loan Helping Businesses Expand

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:53:42 -0700

Dr. Lena Smith is not one to throw up her hands in defeat. She was facing mounting financial trouble a year ago, after she built a customized assisted living facility in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. She struggled to nail down a commercial lender willing to loan her money, and instead opted to apply for the Small Business Administration's 504 loan program. Although this program has been around for 51 years, now small business owners, as part of President Obama's stimulus package, can refinance any existing fixed asset loan as long as the amount is 50 percent less then the total expansion. In addition, most all loan fees have been eliminated.

"Quite honestly, I don't know if this facility could have gotten off the ground if all the elements hadn't coincided at the same time," Smith says. "It took close to $5 million to build this place." With over $30,000 in fees covered as part of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Smith was able to take that money and "green" her facility, adding eco-friendly insulation and air conditioning systems.

As of July 10, the SBA has supported $6.5 billion in small business lending with the approval of $4.8 billion in loans since February of this year. They received $730 million in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to galvanize the small business lending market. "It lowers the cost of capital," according to Eric Zarnikow, associate administrator for the Office of Capital Access. "It encourages small businesses; it's like we're putting our loans on sale."

John and Kimberly Henderson of Royal Window Films in Anaheim, California, received a $410,000 loan to purchase a new office building and expand their company, which sells and installs energy saving window films. "A lot of the fees went down," Kimberly noted. "The market has gone down, so it is a good time to invest." Without the 504 loan, the Henderson's would have had to put $205,000 as a down payment instead of $82,000, a price well outside their budget.

"I'm fortunate," adds Smith, "Those businesses that receive a 504 loan have great potential for success."

Auto Sales Bolster Overall Retail

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:25:55 -0700

Although department store and restaurant sales continue to wilt, automotive and gasoline station purchases are enough to account for a slight uptick in overall monthly retail sales, census numbers show.

In June, auto parts and vehicle sales climbed 2.3 and 2.6 percent, respectively, from the month before. Gas station sales rose 5 percent in June after increasing by the same amount in May. Total retail sales climbed just .6 percent, dragged down in part by general merchandise such as department and warehouse stores, which fell .4 percent from the month before.

Amid mostly negative news for the auto industry, this is a relative bright spot says Jack Plunkett, CEO of Plunkett Research, an industry research firm; relative being the key word. "It's going to continue to be a very difficult environment, he says."

Gasoline sales can rise and fall fairly significantly with a few pennies' increase or decrease in the price of a gallon, but auto sales can be more telling of the economic climate.

Plunkett says the time of year might be what has spurred sales more than anything else. With a new model year due out soon, dealers are more prone to making deals, he says.

For dealerships that have been forced to close their doors, they're also being pressured to make room for the next tenant. "The dealerships that are closing have been under a deadline to eliminate inventory," Plunkett says.

So while the initial reading of climbing sales might look good, Plunkett advises to stay wary of the broader ailing marketplace. "We're going to have bad back-to-school business," he says, "and a lousy Christmas."

Lights Out For Incandescents?

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:13:40 -0700

By 2012, incandescent lightbulbs - or "lamps" to those in the industry - were expected to be phased out because of updated energy laws. The brainchild of Thomas Edison, although serving the country well since the 19th century, isn't as energy efficient as its 1980s successor, the compact fluorescent lightbulb.

Facing industry extinction, incandescent manufacturers have charged ahead with research and testing to bring older lamps up to speed. But even post-innovation, efficiency has only increased by 30 percent, which means they still have far to go to catch up with CFLs' 75 percent efficiency lead.

Try as they might, Ellis Yan, CEO of Technical Consumer Products, doesn't think his competitors will ever catch up. Although his Cleveland, Ohio-based company strictly manufactures CFLs, his lighting industry involvement prior to founding TCP gave him experience with incandescent lamps.

"I think for everybody in the lighting industry there is an opportunity to innovate," Yan said. "You're able to achieve energy efficient lighting at different levels and in different ways. It's absolutely possible that incandescent bulbs can be made more efficient, but will it be enough?"

He considers the question rhetorical, but knows Americans would never rescind their comfort level with that familiar yellow light.

"Incandescent bulbs are the icon associated with the history of this country," he said. "People's consistent behavior is to pick up incandescent bulbs."

But the prejudice Yan said people feel toward CFLs is largely based on misconception. Even though upon their creation, CFLs gave off a slightly garish color, he said great strides have been taken in color correction thanks to the recognition of tri-phosphors.

"When CFLs debuted on the market, their manufacturers only knew how to mix basic red and blue phosphors," he said. "Now, give me ten days, and I can match any color you desire because we use these tri-phosphors."

Instead of spending time on developing newer incandescent lamps, Yan said small business research dollars might be better spent on LEDs.

"Everybody thinks LEDs are the future of lighting," he said. "We agree, but it won't happen today. There needs to be more innovation to bring down the price and increase efficiency."

Perception Isn't Everything to Shoppers

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:30:49 -0700

Slap the right price tag on a Timex, wax a little rubbing alcohol over the first several letters, etch out a few new characters, and voilà -- you've got a Rolex.

"Perception is everything," goes one marketing mantra; and according to accumulated economic data, the theory holds true in pricing economics. If consumers are told one apple costs $5 while another costs $2, they will often conclude that the $5 apple must be better than the other apple.

Before gouging prices to increase demand, however, economist Ori Heffetz is quick to warn that the higher prices also can decrease demand – maybe even more so in a recession.

"You have to know how this positive effect of prices on perceptions compares with the possibly large negative effects of higher prices on demand for a specific product," he says.

A recent study that Heffetz, a professor of economics at Cornell University, authored along with Moses Shayo, a professor of economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found that consumers' perceptions do indeed sway in accordance with prices, but their buying behavior doesn't necessarily follow.

In the study, volunteers in a lab proved that higher prices associated with different candies translated into an elevated perception of value. In a second experiment in which prices of entrees on a prix-fixe menu were altered, the researchers found that people pretty much stuck with what they liked. Because the price for the dinner remained constant, the diners (who were unaware of the ongoing, 14-week-long experiment) might have been expected to opt for whichever dish had the highest value on the a-la-carte menu, whether it be artichoke, pork, sausage, shrimp or a mullet fillet.

The results of the experiment found that increasing the prices of any of the options did not result in an increased demand, and the mullet remained most popular throughout the experiment. "It's one thing to show in a lab setup that I can manipulate you into thinking, feeling, and even doing something by manipulating prices. But it's quite another thing to think that such price effects will be large enough to matter when compared with other economic consequences of manipulating prices," Heffetz says.

It is possible that consumers aren't quite the rubes they were once believed to be, or maybe that placebo effect is finally beginning to wear off – or perhaps palates are just stubborn. Either way, Heffetz says, boosting prices can sink demand as much as it can raise it. "More expensive products might be perceived as more attractive -- which could increase demand -- but they are also more expensive, which turned out, in our study, to decrease demand by much more."

Middle America Coming Out of the Recession?

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:10:43 -0700

Although every metropolitan area has suffered job losses and a decline in gross metropolitan product, city centers in Texas and Oklahoma, among others, look as if they will lead the way out of the recession.

Judged by changes in employment, GMP, and housing prices, none of the 20 strongest overall performers extends west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. California alone is home to seven of the 20 weakest performers.

There's a "last-in, first-out" effect here, says Alan Berube, a senior fellow and research director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program and MetroMonitor report that assesses the nation's 100 largest metro areas. "This recession is battering the interior west, Florida, and the manufacturing parts of the Midwest." By comparison, areas that incurred softer recessionary blows are standing out as bright spots among the competition. The balance of the top 20 metro areas dot the Northeast, with the exceptions of Washington D.C. and Virginia Beach, Va. to the south.

All six large metropolitan areas in Texas – one of the few states where home prices are actually up -- are among the 20 top performers. Berube attributes the lone-star state's success to a combination of its insulation from the housing market crash and the industries that have taken root in major metropolitan areas there, such as energy.

Austin is increasingly becoming recognized as a high-tech hub says Robin Dommisse, CEO of Austin-based Austin GeoModeling, a company that provides 3-D geological interpretations to oil and gas companies. The technology industry, combined with an attractive environment and the University of Texas at Austin, Dommisse says, makes finding qualified employees easy. "There's a good talent pool available of highly-trained technical people," he says. "We never have a problem convincing people to move to Austin."

The full map can be viewed here.

7 Ways to Secure Your Email

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:32:22 -0700

E-mail just might be the most critical business application your company uses. Increasingly, businesses rely on e-mail even when it comes to sending sensitive information such as proprietary materials, private employee or customer account numbers, and confidential negotiations.

You depend on e-mail as a necessary form of communication. But is your e-mail really secure? “The important thing is for people to realize when they send an e-mail over the Internet, it’s the same thing as sending a postcard,’’ warns Bradley Anstis, director of technology strategy for Marshal8e6, an e-mail and Web security firm.

However, it is possible to shore up the security of your business e-mail communications. Here’s how to protect your business' e-mail privacy:

Encrypt e-mail and server connections. If you simply send e-mail without ensuring it’s encrypted, it can be intercepted and read by hackers. It’s important to employ e-mail encryption software and to also make sure the connection between servers is encrypted as well, using Transport Layer Security (TLS), says Antsis. If you’re encrypting business communications, then it’s up to you to make sure your clients are provided with the software needed to de-crypt it. “Some of the secure e-mail services will have a website where the person who’s receiving it can go to the website to unlock the e-mail,’’ says Matt Sarrel, an information security expert and executive director of the Sarrel Group, an information technology consulting firm. If expense is an issue, freeware such as TrueCrypt is an option.
Verify. There are two things you need to be able to count on when it comes to business e-mail, says Sarrel. It’s critical to know that the person who sent the e-mail is indeed the person to whom the e-mail is attributed, and it’s vital to know the data in the e-mail hasn’t been altered along the way. Look for software, such as the tools available from PGP, that let you digitally sign an encrypted document.
Be wary of Web-based e-mail. The experts advise caution when using Web-based e-mail accounts. “Web-based e-mail accounts are regularly targeted for attacks,’’ Anstis says. He should know. His personal Yahoo account was hacked and all of his contacts received spam, supposedly sent by Anstis. It was an embarrassing debacle for an e-mail security professional. If you are using a Web-based browser, you need to ensure the connection is encrypted with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protection. Check for https in the Web address. Providers such as Hushmail and NeoMailbox promise secure e-mail.
Educate employees. The best security technology in the world can’t mitigate one of the primary sources of risk for your business: human curiosity. It’s not just a matter of securing outgoing e-mail; your company’s data can be at risk with incoming mail as well. Not only is there a rise in malicious spam, there’s an evolution in delivery methods, says Anstis. Ever creative, the bad guys now use botnets, hijacking unsuspecting victims’ computers to unleash barrages of what is known as blended attack spam. “Forty-two percent of all spam is what we call a blended attack -- an e-mail with a URL in it,’’ Anstis says. The malware that will compromise your network is not in the e-mail, so the e-mail slips past security gateways. The malware is delivered when the curious recipient clicks on the URL in the e-mail to visit a website. “Educate your employees about not following unsolicited invitations to click,’’ advises Anstis. “We’re pretty good, but some of these attacks are going to get through.” It’s smart to show users examples of what a blended attack looks like. That’s why Anstis’ company, Marshal8e6, offers a sampling of different attack methods on its website.
Update software. Too often, says Sarrel, “a lot of businesses just set up e-mail and leave it. Stay on top of e-mail server software.” Understanding vulnerabilities and religiously installing updates and patches is critical. Make sure you’re receiving updates from the vendor when it comes to anti-spam protection software, says Anstis.
Scan e-mail for content. Anstis advises using a software product that will filter for content such as inappropriate language and images, both incoming to provide a professional work environment and outgoing to protect your company’s reputation. Content can also be scanned for information you don’t want sent externally, such as social security numbers and credit card account data.
Vet your vendor. Chances are you’ll turn to a third party for e-mail security. Anstis, whose company competes in this market, offers this blunt assessment: “Don’t trust vendor promises. Try all products. Get references from people you know and trust.”

For most small businesses, simply taking the time to question and to evaluate e-mail security is a big leap in the right direction, says Sarrel. “A lot of these systems get rolled out without thinking about security, and people just keep using them. A lot of people don’t seem to understand that email is almost by nature not secure.”

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