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

I sign up for a lot of newsletters because I like to know what’s going on, what people I used to work with are up to, and it helps spark the Idea Mill.
I worked with Jerry Shereshewsky back in ‘97 at Yoyodyne and (among other interesting andecdotes) I remember then he mentioned a desire to [...]

William Sonoma and Pottery Barn are offering in store classes. Everyone gets the main need to do these: move product off the shelves. However, there is another reason why ideas like this are important. They are experiences, they make the shopping moment feel person, local and more communal.

According to Joseph Pine and James Gilmore (authors [...]

Part of a series in showing customer love…
Eco Positive| When companies move from merely neutralizing and offsetting their undesirable eco-effects to actually boosting the environment by going the extra mile.

London-based Ecoigo, a ‘green’ car service, aims to be carbon positive, offsetting double the emissions from every trip as well as from energy used by its [...]

I’m attending the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas this week. The show is known for its cult following for all things interactive, from business leaders to designers, gamers to artists, film makers and musicians- they are all here (at least virtually.) I came to SXSW to be the eyes and ears for new [...]

In a previous post (Giving is the new taking), I asked the question: What are some ways you are being kinder to your customers?
The terms social responsibility is often used synonomously with charity and volunteering with good causes. Over the last decade, there have been several innovative corporate donation programs popping up, and one characteristic many share is [...]

Grandmothers have many great qualities. This idea had a “Greatest Generation” ring to it: Capturing their ability to make the most of limited resources.
With just that talent in mind, Oxfam recently recruited a team of what it calls Green Grannies to offer advice to the UK public about everything from how to darn socks to how [...]

There are precious few examples of corporations ditching the greed and embracing generosity. President Obama’s speah highlighted a CEO who distributed his bonus across his workers (past and present) - who does that??? (a true leader) And what an incredible example for the larger companies to follow.
Countless individuals have already started giving, of course: giving is the new taking, [...]

Modeled after Swiss and Danish efforts which sell knit goods handmade by real-life grandmothers, French based Golden Hook is a company that lets customers design their own hat and then choose the grandmother they’d like to knit it.
The Concept:

Customers choose a hat—classic, long or Peruvian, with pompom or without.Â
Customer choose a blank hat or one of the [...]

According to the Domain Name Industry Brief by VeriSign, 24 million new domain names were added in 2008. A 16% increase over 2007’s numbers. In case you haven’t noticed, the web is getting crowded. Just imagine 24 million more websites out there all competing for a click-thru on Google. So how do you stand out [...]

Simple question: Does having a social agenda — a “cause” — attached to your business ultimately help you become more profitable (in a financial sense strictly)?

Vote and comment in this simple Poll at StartupNation.