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

Ravenous. That’s how I describe the scene today at SouthPark Mall in Charlotte, NC. My wife and I were goofing around and thought we would check out the Apple store. Bad idea for my sanity but a great example of branding at its best. So when I got home, I checked YouTube & Digg.com to [...]

It seems that every time there is a reduction in the number of 50+ managers at a large corporate employer, a rash of new "consultancies" spring up.
This makes sense, because many individuals can start successful consulting companies with just a Rolodex or Blackberry address file and a set of business cards. The time and cost [...]

Having trouble keeping up?
Can't remember if that important meeting was happening this week? Or was it next week?
Sleepless laying in bed at night, roiling over the 14 other things you were supposed to finish but didn't?
Then you'll appreciate what happened to me this morning.
Woke at 6a. Bleary. Rose. Dressed for a run in the 50 [...]

I've spent some quality time talking with Seth Godin over the past
couple of days. We focused our conversations on his new book, The Dip,
which is all about slogging through the adversity of growing a
business, and making your way to the other side where the glory is. And
it's his "dip" concept–the part of your business you [...]

Last week I talked about the pros and cons of double opt-in. Today I want to
talk about Microsoft's Sender ID system.
Sender ID is the method Microsoft uses to check whether an email is actually
coming from the company that they headers say it is coming from. This is
especially effective against phishing (an email that uses fraudulent [...]

Just venting about a bad business practice…
There are all sorts of business practices that don't make sense, and here's one minor, but very annoying one to illustrate the point: Price or info labels that are adhered to the product you buy and don't come off without ripping and leaving tears of backing and stickiness behind.

Three [...]

Since 2001, people age 50-62 have been the fastest growing group of new entrepreneurs in the U.S. In fact, according to the U. S. Small Business Administration, as of the end of 2006 53% of all American small businesses are run by an owner who is age 50 or over.
Now, a good number of the [...]

Last time I talked about some guidelines to help you reduce email
bounces. This time I'll talk about the pros and cons of using a double
opt-in process.
Double opt-in is a process that requires new
subscribers to confirm their subscription by clicking a link in an
email. This ensures that your customers are humans and truly want to
receive your [...]

I've made some vendor changes lately for StartupNation and have made some key purchases for the business.
For example, we decided to move our ad-serving service from Atlas to Doubleclick. We also found a much less expensive way to produce our radio program by reviewing our procedures and relationships. And as an example of a purchase, [...]

While there is much to benefit from, the best thing about eBay Live is being able to connect with some of the greats in the business. I had the opportunity to talk with guys like Adam Ginsberg, Jim Cockrum and Randy Smythe.
I wrote about this a little in my other blog, but I have to tell [...]