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

Good evening Startup Nation visitors! Today we begin a 15-part, five week crash course that will help you decide whether or not franchising is the right thing for you. Starting your own business can be extremely daunting.

What is the right business for me?
How do I get financing (or do I even need financing)?
Home based? Retail? [...]

Whether you’ve established a small business, are in the midst of launching one, or simply considering it for the future, it’s certain you want at least one thing out of this investment: success.
Starting and running a small business isn’t a cakewalk. It’s hard to believe, but over 50 percent of small businesses fail in their [...]

I love to admit it, Rich Sloan is right.
Do all of your research diligently, assess the landscape of the market, finely define the project at hand, painstakingly lay out a time schedule, assign specific tasks to specific people, stay on top of the process with regularly scheduled meetings, set deadlines and gather feedback from team [...]

Kroger Co. shareholders rejected five shareholder-sponsored proposals — all opposed by the board of directors — at the company’s annual meeting Thursday in Cincinnati.

Kroger Chairman and CEO David Dillon that the company was already following or moving toward many of the policies promoted by the proposals but that the company disagreed with the methods proposed.
Cincinnati-based [...]

Similar message to my Fish Sticks post about people’s likelihood to do the right thing, if just given the right information….

WorldChanging book review:

“Authored by two Univeristy of Chicago heavy-hitters, Economist Richard Thaler and Law Professor Cass Sunstein, Nudge explores the policy implications of behavioral economics, a field describing the irrationalities of human behavior. Taking [...]

With hundreds of millions of registered users across the world, social networking web sites are among the most popular places to communicate and trade information. There are numerous reasons why people use these sites: to find colleagues, friends or classmates, read breaking news, or make new business connections. As social media continues to evolve, [...]

“Can you get me on Oprah?” That’s the first thing I hear from many new entrepreneurs. And it is possible. But before I give you a few tips for pursuing this popular television show, there is one thing you need to consider:
“Oprah” caters to a specific audience. Is this the audience you want to reach? [...]

Hi gang,
So, since we all know now that the current war between eBay and their sellers centers around Feedback, I thought I’d throw this idea on the fire.
As a seller,  what really upsets me about Feedback, when you peel away all the emotional and logical layers of how it works,  it that my business can [...]

Do-it-yourself publicity isn’t for the faint of heart, but it isn’t impossible either.  Over the past couple of years I’ve been able to secure several high profile publicity “hits” on my own and I’ve learned quite a bit in the process.  One of the things that I have learned is that you don’t have to [...]

“Sufferin’ succotash! What is the deal with that thing called an S-Corp and how do I get me one?”
Yes, in my last blog I told you about the many benefits of an LLC and why most small businesses would benefit from them. But now comes an interesting comparison. The LLC v. the [...]