New Business Credit Cards: Chase Ink
http://www.allbusiness.com/banking-finance/banking-lending-credit-services-payment/13416558-1.html
Gerri Detweiler
Friday, November 13 2009
With fewer and fewer funding sources, it is great to see other groups step in with some reasonable options.
Soothing Anger-Management Techniques
Feeling like you’re about to boil over from stress and irritation? Here’s how to keep the lid on.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/23/stay-cool-at-work-entrepreneurs-human-resources-anger.html
Christopher Steiner
Forbes
Novemeber 23, 2009
Six tips for controlling your anger and diffusing tense situations. Something that I’m sure we can all use from time to time.
Twitter creator wants to give away Square, his credit card payment gadget
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/12/square.html
Mark Milian
Los Angeles Times
December 2, 2009
A plug-in device that, with some software, can process credit card transactions on the spot. Interesting concept for bringing the iPhone into more mainstream business applications. Or is that the small businesses that could use this are the ones that already have the “cool” iPhones? Chicken or egg, it will still be interesting to see how it works.
Work Less (It’s Good for Business)
Doctors told Brett Schklar to slow down – or else. That’s when he started his own company and learned that paying more attention to life off the job made him much better on it.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2009/december/204088.html
By David Port
Entrepreneur Magazine
December 2009
Sometimes all it takes is a slap in the face to make you sit up and take notice of what you are doing with your life. Brett’s story is an inspiring one. I think that I’m going to drop him a line and grab a cup of coffee with him, if he still drinks coffee!
Goldman Sachs teams with Warren Buffett on $500 million effort to help small businesses
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Goldman-Sachs-Buffett-to-help-apf-4204096467.html?x=0
Yahoo Finance
Tuesday November 17, 2009
Recognizing the lack of available capital for small businesses and that the recovery is tied to the success of this class of business, Goldman steps up and gets Buffett involved. Kudos!
Law and public relations firms drawing attacks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20091118/bs_ibd_ibd/20091118trends
Investors Business Daily
November 18, 2009
A disturbing trend against those firms that we trust with our most precious information. Attorney-client privilege doesn’t do much if the information leaks out of the attorney’s office. Managing a network on your own in a small business is increasingly challenging and cost-prohibitive to do it correctly.
Embracing lifetime value
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/11/embracing-lifetime-value.html
Posted by Seth Godin
November 19, 2009
Seth discusses a valuable topic for all small businesses to consider: How much am I spending to acquire each new customer (customer acquisition cost), and how much profit will I see from that customer over my lifetime contact with them? If you run a business that doesn’t generate repeat business, then you need to make sure that you recover all your costs on the first (and only visit). If you run a business that involves recurring monthly revenue, you need to consider the overall value of that customer (both in how you attract new customers, and how much you are willing to spend to keep existing customers). I was involved in a business that was spending $270 on average to acquire customers with a lifetime value of $176. Clearly, not a sustainable business model.
One of the best things about having started Insight is that I’ve taken a renewed interest in, and made the time for, learning about what is happening in the world around me. Specifically, the entrepreneurial and small business worlds. When I was focusing my time at Progressive, it was all about the housing market, home builders and home electronics. Now, I spend my time reading about marketing, leadership, social media and a handful of other topics and I feel like Rip Van Winkle just waking up from a long nap. There is so much going on around us, so many new and innovative concepts and ideas; I had forgotten how exciting emerging companies and technologies really can be.
But the reality is that you can’t read everything, or else all you would do is read newsletters and news websites and RSS feeds and never get any work done. So over the last year, I’ve narrowed down my reading to a few magazines, websites and newsletters that I’ve found to be the most helpful, informative and enjoyable for me.
I will mention that in addition to signing up and receiving this information, you actually have to make time to read and digest it. I spent years getting magazines that I “should” read, which were never even looked at, and subscribed to news feeds that I never reviewed. For me, I have found that I need to set aside 2 time slots weekly where I can catch up on email newsletters and articles, some daily time to read the paper, and I read magazines and other publications as time permits on the weekends or evenings. It is simply a matter of making the time (and for traveling often enough that I can “catch up” on the plane or in the airport).
So what do I read, how do I receive it and why is it important to me?
For me, it is all about the routine. If I don’t set aside the time for it, it either doesn’t get read or I feel the need to read it the moment that it comes in, which wreaks havoc on a day’s productivity. And the one thing that I don’t have a lot of these days is time.
Which newsletters, magazines, publications or websites work best for you? Have you found success in balancing out the desire for news and information with the demands of the day? What works best for you?
Research finds leadership skills inadequate to meet current and future demand
by George Ambler
The Practice of Leadership
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
No matter how good at leading we believe we are, there is always room for growth. George points out that a majority of business leaders only possess one of the seven leadership traits studied. One. How many do you have?
10 Ways to Make WordPress More Useful
John Jantsch – Founder, Duct Tape Marketing
OPEN Forum
December 2, 2009
With so many people, myself included, getting into the blogging world, the list of tools to make the blog experience more meaningful keeps expanding. Look for some of these new tools to show up on our blog in the coming months.
