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

A few questions to start: What are the keys to franchising? How do you (or I) know if franchising is right for me? And the frequently asked, “What are the hot franchises right now?” Most of these questions will be covered in the articles and resources section in the upcoming Franchise Center and while I [...]

Last week was a tough week. Hundreds of people lost their lives in the escalating war in Iraq. The Virginia Tech massacre left 33 students and faculty dead and 29 others injured. A neighbor of mine was killed in a car accident, leaving behind his wife and three young kids. So much tragedy. So much [...]

(This entry’s by Rich)
So many times I’ve heard the term "muse" referred to in interviews I’ve witnessed with cool musicians, writers and other artists.
A "muse" is defined by the Merriam Webster online dictionary as, "a source of inspiration; especially: a guiding genius."
Mannnn!!!!, as an entrepreneur, doesn’t that sound like a good thing to have?!
Along these [...]

In the late 90s when the majority of web surfers used Prodigy, CompuServe and AOL, every email was formatted as plain-text. AOL 5.0 brought rich-text messages that allowed a user to bold or italicize text. However, AOL 5.0 and contemporary email programs lacked the ability to display full HTML messages.
Today, most email programs have the [...]

In virtually any business on the planet, to stay ahead of the curve you constantly have to reinvent yourself and your business, and an eBay business is no exception.
In fact, the eBay environment often times changes faster than most industries and traditional retail (except for technology of course, which seems to change every five minutes).
For [...]

I’m going to the Detroit Tigers baseball game tonight with my bride Suzanne. Section 144, Row L, Seats 8 & 9. The reason we’re going to this particular game is that the Tigers starting pitcher is Chad Durbin. Chad is a StartupNation community member and is preparing for life after his major league baseball career [...]

Last time I talked about using a consistent ‘From’ name and address for your messages. I explained the importance of maintaining a recognizable identity with your customers. In my experience, doing this has often made the difference between whether I open the message or not.
Once you’ve established a consistent and respectable identity with your customers, [...]

Here in New England we were hit with a rare spring nor’easter the other day. Everything was fine until the power went out causing our sump pump to stop working. For those of you who don’t have basements or flooding areas, a sump pump is a pump that sits in a hole in your basement. [...]

Last evening I went to a networking event organized by the StartupNation community members from northern California. I had no idea what to expect.
I had spent the day in and out of meetings with hotshot techophiles from Silicon Valley, and had heard more references to "Web-2-dot-0" and "agile" and "offshoring" to make my head spin [...]

How’s that for a brand? Well, if you’re a southern rock, blues, country musician in Nashville it works nicely. Type that phrase into Google and you’ll come up with Stacie Collins’ MySpace page. (While you’re there take a listen to her song “Baby Sister” for an illustration of what SouthernRockin’ HarpHowlin’ TwangBangin’ means. You’ll never [...]