Business Blogs: Trends, tips, and real-life anecdotes from industry experts.

On the heels of us featuring a recent article about business ethics in the newsletter, I was struck by a post from Seth Godin about the dreaded "wet fish" handshake. We deal with ethical dilemmas in business every day, and while the internet is a huge boon to small businesses everywhere, it’s hard to [...]

When it comes to celebrating the Holiday Season and the close of another year, I like to recognize all of the people who have made the year a good one. I’m always searching for unique and creative ways to reach out to these folks. I thought it would be interesting for us to share Holiday [...]

Courtesy of our friends over at lifehacker, there’s a call out for real world advice on how you managed to narrow down your career options and chart a course for your future. I know we’ve got a posse of driven and decisive folks here, so if you have a chance, and you have got [...]

My new company’s business plan went from beta to final release today. I’m very proud of the final product, and am excited to circle back to to prospective investors.
In my opinion, Jeff and Rich have written the definitive "how-to" on business plan authorship. But how do you plan to write a business plan? [...]

…and it is not a good feeling. A month ago I received a letter in the mail from one of our manufacturing partners that informed me that they have decided to resign our account. The letter went on to give us 90 days to find and move to a new facility. It turns out that [...]

Knowing that a market exists for your product or service is an important first step when launching a new venture, and who better to tell you about the market than your future competitors?
You can start with their websites, web searches, and the Dunn and Bradstreet reports. But if you really want to learn about [...]

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Mine was fabulous! We went to a friend’s home and enjoyed a great day and a feast of turkey with all the trimmings. This is our fourth year to get together with these friends, and each year we divide up the menu among the families. I always pick the [...]

I had a tough week! On top of the normal stuff - we had some inventory issues at our warehouse, we’re being forced to find a new manufacturer for one of our products, and my son was sick. When Spencer is home sick, my husband I become expert jugglers. We tag team who is going [...]

How tuned into this internet thing are you really? Ok, so just by being a blog reader you’re at a certain level of internet savvy-ness (is that even a word?). But do you take it to the next level?
I’m talkin’ about actually introducing yourself to people for the express purpose of doing some business together. [...]

My sister tells a great story about her daughter Jordan. When she was about five years old, she loved to watch infomercials. One morning she came running into the kitchen, very excited and blurted out – “Mom! Mom! we need to buy a Mr. Omelet pan, the eggs won’t stick, it makes turning easy, and [...]