small business Archives

Newsletters – Don’t Miss Out On This Cost-Effective Opportunity

Do you really need a newsletter? Well, if you don’t have one, you are missing out on a cost-effective way to attract new business and provide loyal customers with valuable information. Here’s how it works...

byMelanie Rembrandt

July 13, 2009

Small Business Profile: Padosa.com

To follow up on a previous post requesting feedback on topics and offering to highlight members of the community, I learned of Padosa.com. Their goal is to provide the public with innovative and practical ideas that...

byChristine Haskell

May 22, 2009

Small Business Profile: Heinz Marketing

To follow up on a previous post requesting feedback on topics and offering to highlight members of the community, I learned of Heinz Marketing. Matt has held positions at companies such as Microsoft, Weber Shandwick,...

byChristine Haskell

May 20, 2009

Incorporating Mini Movements Into Your Business Model

When you consider your business model (which includes your marketing efforts), you generally concentrate on these core components: Why will people pay you? (money, votes, donations) What does it cost you to sell your item…margins?...

byChristine Haskell

May 13, 2009

Diversify Your Revenue Streams: Spin What You Got

I picked up a book in the airport recently: Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher. It's a fast read and has enough tabloid photos to keep you interested. Her come-sit-by-me-and-dish point of view is disarming and...

byChristine Haskell

May 11, 2009

What three independent businesses would you miss if they disappeared?

I just learned about the 350 Project and thought I would share it out and ask everyone's opinion: 3 - Think about which three independently owned businesses you’d miss most if they were gone. Stop in...

byChristine Haskell

May 4, 2009

The New-New Store Front

Interesting article in this Sunday’s NYTimes about vanishing store fronts. …[Store fronts signs] are artifacts of consumer culture before commercial branding and environmental signage (as signs are now called) became so self-conscious — when sign...

byChristine Haskell

April 8, 2009

Just to lighten things up a bit,

Reprinted from tensionbreaker.com: How the Recession Affects Sesame Street After its expenses come under increased government oversight, the number 4 pulls its sponsorship. Cookie Monster being replaced by his cousin, Ramen Noodle Monster. Elmo's World...

byChristine Haskell

March 31, 2009

Innovative Idea: Give Tours

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...

byChristine Haskell

March 26, 2009

Show Customer Love: Be Eco Positive

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’...

byChristine Haskell

March 17, 2009

Giving is the new taking….

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...

byChristine Haskell

February 27, 2009

Creative Business Model: Knitting Grannies

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...

byChristine Haskell

February 26, 2009

Robert Kiyosaki Interview-Part 2

On Tuesday, you heard from Robert Kiyosaki, investor, entrepreneur and author of The New York Times, international bestselling book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” with 26 books in the Rich Dad series. Here is the continuation...

byMelanie Rembrandt

February 5, 2009

Exclusive Interview with Rich Dad’s Robert Kiyosaki

Recently, I met Robert Kiyosaki, and he agreed to offer his advice to the StartupNation audience. Robert is the author of The New York Times, international bestselling book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” with 26 books...

byMelanie Rembrandt

February 3, 2009

3 Steps to Quick Start Your 2009 Publicity Success

Welcome back from the holidays! And if you're like most entrepreneurs, you have a lot of work to do right now, and PR tends to fall to the bottom of your list. Well, it's time to...

byMelanie Rembrandt

January 6, 2009

The Forgotten Secret to Startup Success

It's 10:00 a.m. in the middle of the work week, and your website just went down, a client wants a document in the next twenty minutes, the shipment you were expecting didn't arrive, you spilled...

byMelanie Rembrandt

December 11, 2008

Important Contract Terms, Part I: Indemnify this.

One of the mainstays of my practice is writing, or reviewing and revising, contracts for my clients. Often, I am revising contract terms written by my client or another business person, and so, understandably, key...

byJessica Eaves Mathews

November 12, 2008

Hay Hotels…Anyone?

Interesting article in the NYTimes: Leave it to the Germans to combine livestock with lodging. In the last decade, hundreds of farms throughout Germany have transformed old barns and potato warehouses into heuhotels, or hay...

byChristine Haskell

October 22, 2008

Gone Missing

Several years ago we had our house remodeled. Immediately after, we “flipped” another house. In both cases, numerous subcontractors, both experienced and inexperienced, did the work. Linda was the interior designer. I was the general...

bySam Carpenter

October 22, 2008