Entrepreneurs-Journey.com: A common small business start-up formula today is to offer a product or service and sell it online. If you are reading this blog chances are that describes your situation now. Perhaps you are a freelancer with skills to sell, or you decided to have a go at selling a product online, maybe through eBay or directly from a website. Maybe you quit your job or downgraded to part time work to have time to start your business, or you even attempted to do both at once - work a job and start a business at the same time.

Whatever the scenario, we all start at the same place - the beginning - and it’s at this point that we begin to take action to drum up business. Once you have something to offer, you brainstorm ideas for how to market what you do and then, finally, you go out there and “get in the face” of your target market.

During the early days you tend to do a lot of work yourself, and until you actually make sales, you are very pro-active (or at least you should be!) at chasing up more work and more sales. Generally, because the pressure to establish cashflow is so great, this stage of your business involves rapid action and you do a lot of activities that move you forward. I call this swimming.

Are You Drowning, Treading Water or Swimming? [Entrepreneurs-Journey.com]

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About.com: Buying a franchise is a dream for many aspiring small-business owners.

There are conflicting opinions as to whether franchises tend to be more successful than independent small businesses, but this much is clear: Franchises are expensive to buy, carry the same risks as any startup business and require plenty of sweat equity to make them profitable.

"Buying a franchise is a serious, serious business, and one should contemplate the downside," says George Naddaff, chairman of the KnowFat! chain of restaurants, who created franchises including Boston Market and Sylvan Learning Centers. "The danger … is that every franchise is a startup."

Franchising allows entrepreneurs to take advantage of a proven business model and do business under a brand name that already enjoys market recognition and a loyal customer following.

As a franchise owner you will probably get support from your franchisor, which is one advantage over owning an independent business.

Buying a Franchise is Serious Business [About.com]

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Inc.com: Anyone who does business online worries about how to boost Web traffic. But traffic is only part of the story. Equally important is the conversion rate - the percentage of customers who actually buy something. On average, companies report that only 3 percent of Web surfers actually buy, according to a survey by Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation.

Fortunately, there are new tools that can help companies convert browsers into buyers. A company can design several versions of its website and use one of many new software packages to track how each design affects the conversion rate. It's called multivariate testing, and many consulting firms specialize in it. But free tools also are available, including Google's Website Optimizer.

Below, we look at how two companies boosted conversion rates. Stamps.com, which allows users to print postage and shipping labels from any computer, redesigned its website after testing 12 versions of its site with consultancy OTTO Digital. The company's conversion rate rose by 20 percent. Vitamin maker Jigsaw Health tested 10 different designs, with help from consulting firm Future Now. The result: The conversion rate rose from 10.3 percent to 19.6 percent. Take a look at the lessons both companies learned from the process. The changes on display may seem small and subtle, but the effect on conversion rates has been anything but.

Turning Browsers Into Buyers [Inc.com]

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BusinessKnowHow: Cash. Most people want more. When running a small business it's particularly important to monitor how cash is coming in and how much cash is going out. This month, I'd like to take a few minutes to share some ideas on cash flow management as in how you can keep more cash in your business for a longer time.

Periodically re-evaluate your expenses. If you are anything like me your business changes and shifts every 4-6 months and this prompts a necessary re-evaluation of the products and services you are using to run your business.

Hold off on electronics and other purchases for as long as reasonably possible. If you need to invest in a new computer or printer or copier you can save money without sacrificing quality if you can wait a few months to purchase.

Use credit responsibly. If you have access to lines of credit you can use these to finance business purchases rather than paying cash outright. This, in many cases, can give you 20-30 extra days on your money enabling you to save or invest it for maximum return.

Watch out for hidden fees. Yes, there are some "costs" of doing business. However, at least once every 6 months, review what you're paying for services like office cleaning, credit card transactions, long distance calls, liability insurance, etc.

Get paid more. Another way to manage your cash flow is to charge more for what you do. Institute planned increases in your payment rates over a year or two. Raising your fees as a cash flow strategy only works, though, if your spending remains less than your earnings.

Buy in bulk. This applies to physical products/supplies as well as non-physical ones (such as services). You can often realize a significant cost savings on items bought in bulk especially if you were going to buy them anyway.

Keep track of your discounts and other rewards. We are inundated with special offers, promotions and discounts. Use these wherever you can.

Give special consideration to your customers who pay early and in full. Customers who routinely pay their bills ahead of time, and who are rewarded for doing so, are more likely to continue this behavior which results in more cash inflow for you.

Invoice before, or soon after, performing a service. Don't wait to send out bills just once every 30 days. This can delay cash inflow for months.

Invest in the growth of yourself and your business. Spend money to market your business, invest in your own learning and get help as soon as possible. The more you put into your business, in a thoughtful and measured way, the more you will get out of it.

Cash Flow Management [BusinessKnowHow]

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Small Business Trends Radio: Sometimes it can be hard to determine which of the many small business podcasts will provide what you need. So much audio, so little time.

So we have taken the guesswork out of it for you. We narrowed it down to 100 informative podcasts for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Most of the following podcasts specifically target a small business audience. Others have a broader business focus. All, however, are relevant to business owners and entrepreneurs. Explore and listen, and see what you think of this list.

100 Small Business Audio Podcasts [Small Business Trends Radio]

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Management has always been a fashion horse incorporating the latest 'new' inventions. They are dreamt up by business-seeking consultants sweeping away the last lot of expensively-bought solutions. Fortunately, business managers have a good deal of common sense and resist the more outlandish offerings in favour of prudent finance, disciplined control and measured risk-taking.

But management really is changing this time because the people being managed have changed. Their education, aspirations, life expectancy, pension needs and knowledge of the options open to them have all developed dramatically in the last ten years.

The 'Marketing Era' of the seventies and eighties gave way to the 'Balanced Life Style Era' of the nineties. With the dawn of the new millennium we entered the reality of the long-heralded 'Global Village Era'. You may applaud it, you may deplore it. It is here to stay.

Impose 'Global Village' on 'Balanced Life Style' and you get a mighty clash of cultures. In the Global Village we all have to compete as never before for our sales. That means more work. In our Balanced Life Style we want to make work only a part of our lives. We expect family, home, leisure, further education and travel to play their part in creating the 'rounded' and fulfilled person we all aspire to be. So we want less work. Hence the clash.

John Bittleston blogs at TerrificMentors.com, a site that provides mentoring for those who wish a change in career or job, wanting to start a business or looking to improve their handling of people (including themselves).

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The Global Village is driven by technology.

It began with television, telecoms and travel. Gradually, stumblingly we learnt about other people - not just where they were on the map but how they lived, what they thought, what they needed, what they aspired to. At first it was a peek at their quaint, sometimes bizarre, lifestyles, customs and practices. Mother T and Bob Geldorf brought us down to earth. Mother T talked for over fifty years about the poorest of the poor until we began to realise they demanded more than an odd coin in the collector’s tin. Geldorf held The Concert and began a massive, serious movement of giving.

Famine, earthquake, flood - all the natural disasters - became the real on-line drama of life. So did the media-monitored terrorist attacks. We went to look but we also went to help. We rounded on our religious superiors for their patronising, 'heaven next' approach. As the final notes of our evening prayers resonated through the great Cathedral, Mosque or Temple we began to feel that to follow them with a slap-up, four course dinner washed down with a good hearty drink was not always the best response to those without shelter, food and medicine.

For business, the Global Village offered markets beyond the wildest dreams of our fathers and grandfathers. We were now selling finished goods to people some of whom were beginning to have enough in their pockets for more than the bare essentials. It seemed as though growth was guaranteed forever. Expansion was the name of the game.

People who achieve a little discretionary spending soon want a little more… and a little more. They are willing to work for it at rates that make the present producers look very expensive. 'Lowest cost' drives production – and, increasingly, services (call centres, for example) - to where it can be done most economically, leaving in its wake a trail of redundancies, bankruptcies and capital shortages.

All this will shift unemployment - gradually, at first - from the destitute to the well-off, the very people who are seeking a Balanced Life Style.

John Bittleston blogs at TerrificMentors.com, a site that provides mentoring for those who wish a change in career or job, wanting to start a business or looking to improve their handling of people (including themselves).

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We notice other people’s personalities. Usually we come quickly to a view about them. First impressions are important - and seldom wrong. Another’s personality is his or her culture. It reflects their background and character.

When you are thinking of joining a company you do your due diligence, finding out about it from its web site, its published accounts, its press reports and the views of anyone you think knows it well enough to be worth listening to.

How much can you learn about the company from these sources? Quite a lot, actually. But if you stick only to the hard data you will miss the most important consideration in deciding whether to join it – its culture.

Culture is the way a company behaves, the way it treats its customers, staff, suppliers and its other stakeholders. Every company has a culture. It is the only truly Unique Selling Proposition (USP) it has. Every other advantage it claims over competitors will be matched by their claims. Their culture is unrepeatable.

Where does a culture come from? The founder(s) of a company give it its original culture. The current bosses decide today’s culture.

How does a culture manifest itself? It is the sum of everything it does but it can be seen in the smallest individual act. The greeting by the receptionist, the treatment of suppliers who have not been paid promptly, what happens to staff when they resign – all these emanate from the culture of the business. If the faces of the staff are pinched and tired and look like scared rabbits you’ve got a Genghis Khan culture. If the staff smile, appear open with each other, cooperate, know their products, help but don’t hassle, you’ve got a good CEO in charge – and a good culture.

There are many simple ways of testing the culture of a business. One that I employ is to deliberately turn up at the wrong reception area and see how the staff there handle it. I don’t have to tell you the difference between the supermarket where they take you to the shelf of the product you are seeking and the one where they point in a vague direction and let you find it for yourself.

So it is with companies; some are helpful, some are not. A company that doesn’t help its customers or its suppliers won’t help its staff either.

A friend of mine recently resigned from an MNC after a fairly short career with the company. My friend came to the wholly reasonable conclusion that all-night working on the odd occasion was acceptable but when it was regularly four nights in a row, it wasn’t.

If you had been the boss what would you have done in that situation? Not, I hope, what the MNC did.

They harassed, attempted to bribe the person to stay, and finally openly bullied their departing employee – especially when two more employees walked out for much the same reasons.

What did they achieve?

Massive alienation by a significant number of people who will never touch their products again. That’s the sort of PR you don’t need.

What should they have done?

Talked a little, listened a lot. They could have learnt a golden lesson, had a well-disposed ex-employee, achieved good PR. They might even have kept the employee they feared to lose. Most of all, they might have understood the problem they had created.

But their culture didn’t allow them what they saw as a soft approach so they took the only one they knew. Trouble is, blowing out the brains of departing employees isn’t actually a very clever way to keep them – or anyone else – on side.

I wonder if they’ll learn that.

John Bittleston blogs at TerrificMentors.com, a site that provides mentoring for those who wish a change in career or job, wanting to start a business or looking to improve their handling of people (including themselves).

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Business Oppotunities: Every company should have a mission statement, which encapsulates in one sentence your business’s core aims.

An example of a mission statement is Levi Strauss’s: “We will market the most appealing and widely worn casual clothing in the world. We will clothe the world.” Or Wal-Mart’s: “To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people.”

Unable to think of any more, I thought I’d see if I can guess a few others.

Subway
For every man, woman and child to never be more than five yards from a Subway sandwich.

Nike
To spend more on advertising than the GDP of several small countries put together.

Wetherspoons
To make a lack of atmosphere a proviso of a cheap pint.

Pizza Express
For new customers to be pleasantly surprised at the standard of décor and food in a restaurant which has ‘Express’ in its name.

Statement of Intent [Business Oppotunities]

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Business Advice Pro: It’s writing down your goals with specific deadlines, writing down your goals like you have already achieved it all. And then rewriting them twice a day, or even if not rewriting them then at least reading them again twice a day with thought.

Why? You’re a 9-5 worker or you’re not doing very well. It’s very hard to imagine and actually start believing that you can earn a million dollars a year. It is, I know. So somehow you need to put that thought to your unconsciousness and that’s why you need this written list and that’s why you need to read it again and again and again and again. Yes, I know, I used to think this was really stupid as well. But it ain’t.

There’s also certain things you need to think of, certain things you need to achieve in order to become successful. You need to have a positive mental attitude, sound physical health, you need to be free from fear or at least be able to use it to your benefit, hope and belief in future achievements, open mind, self-discipline. Riches start with a state of mind.

Keeping your goals in mind [Business Advice Pro]

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USATODAY: Now my friend was going to a social event, but in business, every entrepreneur needs to have his or her "elevator pitch" ready. Whether you're networking at a business function, exhibiting at a trade show, trying to raise money, or meeting a prospective client, the first question they're going to ask is "What do you do?"

You've got to have a clear, concise way to answer that question — and that's your "elevator pitch."

It takes quite a bit of thinking to decide which aspects of your business to mention. Even more frustrating, you have to decide which parts of your company to leave out. Often these can be the things you're most excited about — a new technology, a great location, the fact you get to go to Europe on buying trips. But if they're not central to the core of your business, then they don't belong in an elevator pitch.

The biggest mistake most people make when answering the question "What do you do?" is that they take that question too literally and start describing exactly what they do. I remember one woman who sold advertising who described in detail what she did: came to the client's office, picked up their ad copy, went to the printer, sent back proofs, and on and on.

Your elevator pitch must not only be short, it must be clear. Unless you're in a highly technical field, your neighbor or grandmother should be able to understand your business well enough to be able to describe it to someone else. After all, you want Grandma out there marketing for you too, don't you?

Your elevator pitch should touch — very briefly — on the products or services you sell, what market you serve, and your competitive advantage.

A good 'elevator' pitch will lift your business [USATODAY]

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The Johnnie’s Dog House Franchise is the newest addition to the growing fast-casual restaurant franchises. Over the past three years, Johnnie’s Dog House customers have enjoyed the best hot dogs brought to them from around the world, and a variety of menu selections of “The Foods You Crave!” Their food, coupled with a comfortable-nostalgic atmosphere has made Johnnie’s Dog House a destination restaurant for friends and families of all ages.

With an eye towards the future, Johnnie's Dog House has developed multiple business formats that compete in the booming fast-casual restaurant business, both locally and nationally. The fast-casual restaurant is a natural fit in Residential Business Districts, Town & Lifestyle Centers, and Beach & Shore Communities. The Fully Self-Contained Mobile Kiosk Solution is well suited to locations such as airports, college campuses, malls, retail outlets, hotels, tourist attractions, shopping centers, transportation centers, and casinos. Starting in August 2007, Johnnie’s Dog House will begin taking franchise applications from their newly re-designed website.

Johnnie’s Dog House

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SmallFuel Marketing: I was recently at a rather large expo, and I decided to keep track of the many different mission statements I came across. I also kept track of the responses we got at our booth with our mission statement. Out of all the data, there was one glaring trend.

Mission statements are so common place and so exaggerated that no one even listens to them. What went wrong? How do we fix it?

1. Mission statements are too long

If you want anyone to listen until the end of your statement, it needs to be short and sweet.

2. Mission statements are too complicated

With everyone telling small businesses how to write a mission statement (me too, evidently), they have become filled with gibberish as each writer tries to satisfy every condition of a successful mission statement. Your mission statement should be focused to the point, which brings us to the next bullet.

3. Mission statements are too much about companies and not enough about customers

Many companies have mission statements that get into company heritage and history—can you think of anything more boring? The entire point of your mission statement needs to be about your customer. What are they going to get from you. Repeat after me: “My mission is about my customer.”

4. Less mission, more mantra

Company mission statements are generally just a paragraph of exaggeration that is brought out in front of customers, only to disappear before getting back to the office. Your small business needs to live and breath your mission. Everything you do and say should reinforce your mission.

If you don’t live by your mission, people will know immediately that you’re not being sincere. In a world of sensationalism, you need your mission to be as sincere and trustworthy as possible.

Mission Statements Don’t Work, Get Something That Does [SmallFuel Marketing]

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Inventor Resource: The initial funding for independent inventions normally comes from ‘friends family and fools’, but once this is exhausted, and you need to progress to the next stage of development, you will need to find other funding.

Grants

There are a number of publicly funded grants available for innovative businesses, some of which can be applicable to inventors. There are two levels of grant suited to independent inventors, and each will require some funding commitment from the applicant, aside from the grant. ‘Micro projects’ are described as ‘simple low-cost development projects lasting no longer than 12 months’. With a maximum grant of £20,000, this is probably the most appropriate for inventors starting out with the development of a new product. ‘Research projects’, lasting 6-18 months, can receive a maximum grant of £75,000, with the aim being ‘to investigate the technical and commercial feasibility of innovative technology’. For more radical inventions, perhaps using new materials or advanced technology, or involving external partners, these are appropriate.

Loans

Do not re-mortgage your house in order to pay for your invention, no matter how brilliant it may seem. If one piece of advice comes through clearly time and time again from inventors who’ve ‘been there’, it’s this.

Small business loans are suitable, however. By presenting yourself as an entrepreneur — a businessperson looking to involve the bank in a mutually profitable relationship (even if you think of yourself as a ‘garden-shed-in-your-spare-time’ inventor) — you stand a good chance of receiving a favourable loan. If your business takes off, quite apart from the interest on the loan, the bank will want to have you as a customer, since business banking charges are a significant proportion of banks’ income.

Venture Capital

Venture capital is most often appropriate for inventors who have made significant progress with their invention and are well on the way to turning it into a successful business. In this sense it should not be seen as a first option for funding your invention. Venture capitalists, or private equity financiers, are looking to make significant returns on the money they invest — which typically belongs to others, as part of a fund — and clearly want to maximise the upside of the risk while minimising the downside.

How Do I Raise Money for an Invention? [Inventor Resource]

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Mind Petals: Business brochures and commercials that ridicule their competition, insult customer intelligence. I don’t want to buy a car from a guy who tells me why everyone else in his field is unworthy of my patronage. I do want to support companies who state examples of why their “unique” strategies work better. We’re not stupid consumers. We don’t expect companies to endorse their competition. So, as entrepreneurs, we need to advertise as consumers.

If there’s something you don’t like about what your competition does – set yourself apart by showing how your system exceeds their quality. Nothing portrays this better than testimonials from satisfied clientele. Your customers are more apt to believe in your product if they see results from their peers.

Post testimonials on your site and brochures. Beat your competition without spitting a negative word their way. New businesses successfully beat the veterans all the time. Just remember that how you choose to run your company now – sets the tone for your permanent professional image.

Dis-count the Competition? [Mind Petals]

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BusinessKnowHow: Press exposure can significantly impact a small businesses' success. Press releases are not just for big businesses; many small businesses find press releases to be an inexpensive way to gain exposure and attention. It is not uncommon for reporters from magazines, newspapers or blogs to scan press releases as a means to locate content.

Here are some tips to enhance the exposure and quality of your press releases:

1. Relevant
First and foremost, it is important to decide what information should be included in your press release. Information that is newsworthy and relevant will have the best chances of gaining the attention of an editor.

2. Customize
Giving your press release a personalized touch, especially for bloggers and online journalists, can be helpful in gaining attention.

3. Summarize
By creating a succinct summary of the announcement, editors will not need to reword, or condense a lengthy release. The first paragraph or two should clearly state the announcement, so that if an editor's space is limited, they can simply use the summary in their publication.

4. Swag is Good
The press loves freebies, and by offering them, there is a chance potential customers will keep your name in their mind.

5. Thank You
If you are interviewed or receive an especially complimentary review be sure to thank your press contact. As strange as it might sound rarely are the editors thanked for the coverage they provide.

6. Honesty
The more truthful the release the more likely that it will get ink. Avoid using superfluous adjectives that inflate the use of your product or service. Keep your press release factual.

7. Keywords
Be sure to use keywords and keyword phrases in the press release so that it will be easily located by reporters looking for specific material.

8. Demand Attention
Carefully select the title for of your press release so that it attracts attention. The title should contain key points related to the announcement. A good title is critical. If the title does not gain the interest of the editor, it will not matter what the body of the release says.

8 Steps to Positive Press Exposure [BusinessKnowHow]

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Forbes: Big video-rental chains have been kicking small shops in the teeth for years--which makes Christine Min's feat all the more impressive. Last month Min celebrated the first-year anniversary of her store, Get Reel Video, in Brooklyn, N.Y. Better yet, she is already in the black.

Carve out a niche. If you don't have the muscle to go head to head in a given product line, try another. While the big chains generate roughly 85% of their revenues from new releases, Nolan Anaya, owner of Amherst, Mass.-based Captain Video, aims for more like 50%.

Customer service matters. Wu, a movie buff, says he can take a chance on stocking unusual titles because his customers value his recommendations. "I started recommending it, and it's become our No. 1 renter of all time.

Offer complementary products. To boost sales, some small retailers have branched into pizza, phone retailing and even fake tanning. "So many people put blinders on and think of themselves as a video rental store," says Ken Dorrance, owner of Alameda, Calif.-based Video Station, which also peddles pizza and, starting this year, cellphones.

Craft flexible payment schemes. When Blockbuster did away with late fees two years ago, Alan Milligan, owner of Memphis-based Marquee Movies, responded by letting his customers prepay for rentals and rack up points, similar to a credit card rewards program. "We had to become creative," he says. "We're all learning how to react to the changing market." The free popcorn doesn't hurt either.

The Rebirth Of The Small Video-Rental Shop [Forbes]

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GetEntrepreneurial.com is seeking original, well-written and informative content articles from young entrepreneurs to share with other entrepreneurs and small business owners worldwide. If you have some general how-to tips, small business best practices or insights that may benefit entrepreneurs, then feel free to submit your articles for publication on GetEntrepreneurial.com. Our categories include: Branding, Business Ideas, Entrepreneurship, Funding, Online Business, Sales & Marketing, Startups, Technology and more.

What's in it for you: You'll be able to establish your authority as a small business expert in our community and gain greater exposure for your business. Your article has the potential to be syndicated to our readers and appear in BIZNESS! - our biweekly newsletter which 11,000+ subscribers receive in their inbox.

Format: Your article should be from 400 to 1,500 words in length. Avoid lengthy paragraphs and provide the material in Web reading format where people tend to scan and read less. You may want to include sub headings to make reading easy and enjoyable. Provide additional links to web sites that a reader may explore the topic in greater depth.

At the end of the article, you can include a byline with links to your website/blog and email address for publication. Example:

Steven Teo blogs at GetEntrepreneurial.com, a site that provides small business tips, resources and ideas for the aspiring entrepreneur.

Topics: We are looking for original content on what small business owners and entrepreneurs needs to know, from starting up to raising funds to marketing and more. You can also provide book reviews, comparison reviews, and recommendations..

Editing: You allow GetEntrepreneurial.com to edit your content for clarity, style, and format.

How to Submit: Send your article to us with an email to contact@getentrepreneurial.com. Include your full name and title of article in the email. Please allow up to 7 days before your article is published. We'll inform you once we've decided to publish your article.

On behalf of our readers: thanks in advance! We hope to see your articles on GetEntrepreneurial.com real soon!

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Businesspundit: If you want to be an entrepreneur but need a business idea, consider renting ducks. It's apparently doing very well in Germany.

Germans are lining up to rent farm animals to help with the gardening as part of a new green scheme. Werner Kiwitt, who runs an ecological park in Schleswig-Holstein, is offering sheep to cut the grass and ducks to eat the slugs.

He said: "You get free fertiliser provided by the animals as well, so it's not a bad deal."

Who would have thought you could turn sheep and duck doo into a selling point? Now that's a good entrepreneur.

Weird Business Ideas: Rent a Duck [Businesspundit]

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Time Out

The same tasks that give you a mental buzz can also stress you out if you don’t take a breath and relax now and then. Before you know it, you’re fried to a crisp, which has a number of implications: You’re tired, exhausted, uncreative, unhappy, and maybe even sick. We don’t want you to lose the fun factor in your work, or your passion for what you do. This is why we strongly feel that it’s critically important for you to take mental time-outs...

Continued in BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 50 >>>

- Over The Limits
- Deliver That!
- Baggu
- Instant Beauty
- Big Green Egg Cooker
- Cheaper Together
- Sticar Statement

Continue reading these top stories in the BIZNESS! Newsletter >>>

- Wooing Angel Investors
- Are You Witty Enough?
- Online Marketing Power
- Build A Virtual Store
- I Am The Brand
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BusinessWeek: Startups scrambling for domain names—the shorter and catchier, the better—find themselves in negotiations with owners of desirable Web addresses. Andrew Frame had several criteria for the name of his VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) startup. It had to be universally pronounceable, memorable, and short—ideally, no more than four letters and two syllables. Of course, the dot-com domain name also had to be available.

Some of these quirkily named young startups—Bebo, the social-networking site, and Etsy, the online crafts marketplace, for example—have caught on. Yet the naming trend has also drawn considerable eye-rolling among Web denizens, inspiring tongue-in-cheek pages like Web 2.0 Name Generator and the quiz "Web 2.0 or Star Wars Character?"

Among these domain-name buyers is Steve Luo, a hardware engineer from California. Luo started buying up four-letter domains early last year after he noticed that the relative scarcity of four-letter domains meant that even random combinations like rmnd.com were selling for many times the $9 or so they cost to register. Luo now owns several thousand four-letter domains, which as of recently included peeb.com ($4,000), qurr.com ($400), and wwuw.com ($900).

The idea that shorter domain names are more memorable, more "brandable," and therefore more valuable has become so widely accepted that many entrepreneurs take it for granted. Domain-name reseller Sedo advises buyers that "a shorter domain means reduced risk of typo errors, easier memorability, faster type-ins, and more flexibility in promoting the domain. For these reasons, most businesses who can afford it buy a domain of five characters or less." But are those businesses really getting what they pay for?

Does Success Hinge on a Domain Name? [BusinessWeek]

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BusinessKnowHow: Everyone has to decide for themselves what level of sacrifice and risk they're willing to undertake in order to enjoy the satisfactions of working independently. Knowing some strategies for managing the risk will allow you to make a well-informed decision.

Of the seven strategies included below, the first two suggest ways to gradually transition from salaried to solo, instead of diving off the edge. The second two are ways to stretch the dollar; and the final three are ideas for getting started without stopping.

1. Continue to draw a (reduced) salary.
Asking yourself why and how your company will profit from retaining your skills and experience for a transitional period can provide the basis for approaching your employer. Be sure to do your homework first, however, and be able to back up your request with a solid rationale.

2. Develop another income stream.
If you need to leave your present employment, is there a skill in your toolbag that you can resuscitate and put to work without a significant expenditure of time or energy? Is moonlighting or freelance work an option?

3. Reduce expenses.
Doing a careful analysis of your expenses and choosing what you can forego for awhile can often save thousands per year.

4. Borrow.
It isn't necessary to wait to borrow for start-up costs until you have a well-documented idea to submit for a business loan. Refinancing a home or taking a line of credit are relatively low-cost ways of generating capital. Depending on your credit rating, you can also get time-limited low-interest loans from credit card companies.

Get started on your new business idea while you're still employed. Several of the all-important first steps (below) can be started while standing in the grocery line or running on the treadmill. They involve asking yourself some questions and doing some informal research to get crystal clear about your idea. This can take weeks off your actual start-up time.

5. Identify your niche.
Think about the services you're uniquely qualified to provide, as well as the ones you most enjoy providing.

6. Create your marketing plan.
While what you need from a marketing plan will get more sophisticated as your business develops, for now it simply means answering the question, How is my business going to make money? What is the product or service you're going to sell? How will you describe it so people quickly recognize the value?

7. Manage fear!
For most people, anything involving money involves some level of fear. It's important to acknowledge to yourself and to others that you are taking a risk, and you've decided it's a risk you want to take. So consider the fear natural, and find ways to manage it.

7 Financial Strategies for Transitioning from Salaried to Solo [BusinessKnowHow]

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StartupJournal: For a young business, it can be alluring: Find an "angel" investor to swoop in and help fund your growing company. With millions of small businesses and only a few hundred organized angel groups, where do you begin?

WSJ.com spoke with Knox Massey, a longtime angel investor, about getting started. Mr. Massey, a former senior salesman at AOL, is executive director of Atlanta Technology Angels, a private angel group that invests up to $4 million each year in young technology-focused companies.

Here is Mr. Massey's advice on what a small-business owner should – and shouldn't – do when searching for angel funding.

* Research the investors
* Don't expect to get funding right away
* Network
* Treat your initial interactions as the first step in a long-term relationship
* Don't forget about your long-term plan
* Look at your investors as potential mentors.

Wooing Angel Investors: Some Do's and Don'ts [StartupJournal]

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Lazy Way: 10. You are unemployable. You can’t hold a job. You don’t want to hold a job. And you react to getting a job the same way a cat reacts when you try to give it a bath.

9. You are anti-authoritarian. You can’t fathom the thought of being anything less than Boss, President, Chairman, Don, and/or Emperor.

8. You have the uncanny ability to get other people to do all the work.

7. You are always looking for and/or seeing economic opportunity everywhere and in everything. While at a concert, you occupy yourself by estimating the evening’s take and its gross margins instead of listening to the music.

6. You spend more time and energy looking for easier, faster, cheaper, more effective ways of accomplishing something than if you just did the task outright.

5. You would enthusiastically trade a life-time pass to Disneyland for one ride in the Vomit Comet. In other words, you would give up a secure, even-keeled, bland existence for a life that whipsaws uncontrollably between exhilaration and terror.

4. You don’t see lack of money, lack of knowledge, and lack of experience as barriers to entry. You are also not deterred by the existence of formidable competition.

3. You favor multiplication over addition and you lull yourself to sleep by calculating price-earnings ratios.

2. You would happily invest your home’s equity and your life savings (and your mother’s life savings) in your start-up.

And the Number One sign you are made to be an entrepreneur . . .

1. When you project future earnings, your spread sheet shows that by Year 5, you can buy Argentina and sell it to Brazil.

Top 10 Signs You're Made to be an Entrepreneur [Lazy Way]

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Cobalt Paladin: The most important thing for the entrepreneurial spark to start is to have a unique idea which you passionately believe in. You do it because you believe in it; because it'll be able to help people. Least of your goals should be making money. Making money is good but it cannot be the ultimate and only goal. The problem with using making money as THE goal is when you don't make enough, you lose heart very quickly and it won't sustain your motivation and passion; when you've made enough, there will be just a sense of emptiness because you'll be asking yourself what's next and is that all?

The idea is usually inspired from daily experiences. It usually is just a way to solve a common recurring problem. It can even be a new way of solving the same problem. For me, I believe the idea has to be new, unique and useful. If the idea is not different, how do you expect your new venture to stake a position in the user's mind. If your idea is not new, not different and better, why would anyone remember or use it. They would be using what is already currently available. Till date, there is still only one Cola!

The Art Of The Start: Part 1 [Cobalt Paladin]

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Inc: Most working professionals think it's important to have a sense of humor around the office, a recent survey found.

Among nearly 500 full and part-time office workers surveyed, 97 percent said they preferred workplace managers who could make them laugh, while 87 percent said their bosses were pretty funny, according to Robert Half International, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based staffing services firm.

"Managers who can laugh at themselves or difficult situations are often seen as more approachable and in touch with the challenges their teams face," Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half International. He said a good sense of humor helped build rapport among staff and eased otherwise stressful situations.

Workers Prefer Funny Bosses [Inc]

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StartupNation: Business is at full-throttle. You love your work, which leaves you in an exhilarated, heady mood at the end of a productive day.

But you can have too much of a good thing.

The same tasks that give you a mental buzz can also stress you out if you don’t take a breath and relax now and then. Before you know it, you’re fried to a crisp, which has a number of implications: You’re tired, exhausted, uncreative, unhappy, and maybe even sick.

We don’t want you to lose the fun factor in your work, or your passion for what you do. This is why we strongly feel that it’s critically important for you to take mental time-outs. Even toddlers get a chance to simmer down in time-out, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t revert. Soothe your inner kiddie when things get out of hand. You’ll regain and be able to retain your inner strength and creativity. Work – and life – will be enjoyable again.

Business Growth Strategy - Don’t Go Mental, Take a Break

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Business 2.0: Two years ago the Wellington-based winery Stormhoek hired MacLeod to promote its products on his blog Gapingvoid.com, where he publishes advertising and technology commentaries and stream-of-consciousness cartoons.

CEO Jason Korman had seen the blog and thought targeting MacLeod's readers, many of them tech geeks, would be a natural: They shared the same single-minded passion as wine enthusiasts.

As Stormhoek's representative, MacLeod offered a free bottle to any blogger who asked -- as long as he or she was of legal drinking age and had been blogging at least three months.

Recipients didn't have to mention the wine, but many of them did; nearly 100 bloggers posted related items or comments in just six months. MacLeod then used his blog to organize more than 100 "geek dinners" in Britain, France, Spain, and the United States -- gatherings of tech workers and influential bloggers who were plied with Stormhoek wine.

A recent dinner in San Francisco, for instance, attracted local technorati like former Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble (Scobleizer) and RSS pioneer Dave Winer (Scripting News).

While the blogosphere's reviews of Stormhoek have been mostly good ("drinkable" and "pleasant," with the odd "disappointment"), MacLeod's results have been amazing. Stormhoek sales have jumped nearly sixfold, from 50,000 cases a year worldwide to almost 300,000. The winery expects to sell a million cases annually within three years.

How a small winery found Internet fame [Business 2.0]

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Inc.com: Small retailers who want to take their companies online can now build a store on the Web for free with a new service from FastCommerce.com. Business owners follow a simple step-by-step process to create a store template, and can have their online businesses up and running in a short amount of time.

FastCommerce.com provides business owners with a fully integrated package on the Web that allows them to run their entire operations -- from order processing to sales to inventory control -- without purchasing additional computer software. Online businesses can also customize their storefront with other applications available on FastCommerce.com, including order management and customer management, shipping rate calculator for UPS and FedEx shipments, and automatic e-mails for order confirmations.

The service is free for the first 250 products posted.

A One-Stop Shop for Setting Up Your Own Online Shop [Inc.com]

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CashBulge: 1. Comment on other blogs in your niche.
Probably one of the most powerful ways to get noticed early on and to establish ties & contacts with people that have similar interests. Make sure you post relevant comments.

2. Join forums & communities.
Same as before, join forums and communities that are in your niche. Some useful forums I always reference (for SEO and Marketing) are DigitalPoint and EarnersForum.

3. List your blog in directories and top sites.
BlogFlux is a great blog directory and free to submit to. Start out with this and then expand.

4. Promotion & SEO Blog Plugins.
Depending on which blogging platform you are using you should have an array of tools at your disposal. Get the plug-ins that you need and scrap the ones you don’t.

5. RSS Feed conversion.
Use FeedBurner, its the best in the RSS industry right now and used by all the top bloggers such as ProBlogger and others.

6. Use Technorati.
Technorati is a powerful resource for bloggers. You can see who has linked your story and how powerful your blog is compared to others.

7. Social Bookmarking - your powerhouse.
Getting to that front-page of Digg or Reddit is a gold-mine and will create a tsunami of visitors. A great social bookmarking plug-in is AddThis.

8. Traffic Exchange websites.
Sites like BlogExplosion are a powerful way to drive some new traffic. Basically you browse other bloggers blogs and earn ‘credits’ which you can then redeem for traffic or review posts. It’s good stuff.

9. Linkrolling.
BlogRolling is a link manager service that helps you organize and evolve your list of links. It also makes it easier for people browsing your site to add you with a quick button :).

10. Using Flickr to host your images. Save space.
Well that tag-line basically did it. By using Flickr to host your photos, you can save web space and bandwidth each month and even get a few incoming links depending on how good your photo is.

And many more...

33 Useful Ways to Promote & Improve Your Blog [CashBulge]

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Entrepreneur: It's a brand new work world. And I do mean "brand."

It used to be that only large businesses worried about branding. To thrive, they had to distinguish their company from the competition. This meant carving out a niche based on competitive advantages and specific corporate attributes. They crafted and maintained a strategic brand--a unique, useful promise to current and prospective customers--to gain brand equity and loyalty. This was business, after all.

But things have changed. The 21st century is the age of free agents and custom ringtones. Nike doesn't just sponsor Tiger Woods; Tiger Woods sponsors Tiger Woods (check out the personal logo on his cap). Today, branding occurs at the individual level. This is especially noticeable in service industries, but increasingly in others as well. Everything about you, from the type of cell phone you carry and the vocabulary you use, to the brand of coffee you drink, says something about who you are and what you can do for the rest of us.

In business today, your most important job is to promote yourself. You probably won't work the same job from graduation until retirement. More likely, your future depends on leveraging your strengths along a winding career path ripe with possibilities. To take advantage of these opportunities, you need to stand out in a crowd. You must become your own brand.

Know - and Brand - Thyself [Entrepreneur]

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Business 2.0: What could be more American than a recreational vehicle? How about an 18-wheel semi that, at the press of a remote control, "pops up" into a motel with room for nearly four dozen people?

Surprisingly, however, this supersize RV is being made not by a U.S. company, but by a Spanish one. Hotelmóvil is the brainchild of Fernando Saénz de Tejada, the 36-year-old CEO of SuiteMóvil. He got the idea three years ago on a pilgrimage to a shrine of the Virgin, where he and thousands like him had to sleep outdoors. "In the events sector," Saénz says, "the principal inconvenience is the lack of infrastructure."

A Hotelmóvil arrives at the site - campground, beach, woods, etc. - looking very much like a standard semi. You simply detach the cab and press "Play" on a handheld remote to start the 30-minute hydraulic unfolding process. Four legs lower to the ground to stabilize the structure, the second story rises to a height of 20 feet, and the first-floor rooms slide out, Transformer-like, to the side.

When all is finished, you have 11 bedrooms with private bathrooms and a second-floor outdoor terrace. The rooms come with hardy wood-and-metal furniture bolted down inside; bunk beds can be added to sleep as many as 44. The hotel includes perks such as heating, air-conditioning, flat-screen TVs, and Wi-Fi. The first five units will roll out of the factory in Italy in early 2008, and Saénz says he's already received inquiries from hospitals, travel companies, and even the Formula One racing circuit. The standard Hotelmóvil will sell for $500,000 or rent for about $8,000 a weekend.

New hotels start popping up [Business 2.0]

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StartupStudents: Today we’ll be discussing ways to gather intelligence on your competitors. This can be useful in a variety of ways such as identifying cutomer habits, picking up on competitor workflow processes, and so on. With such fierce competition in todays market along with ever changing consumer opinions, it’s imperative that you stay one step ahead of your competition.

Quickly, here are some things to think about when checking out your competition.

* Remember that your competition is not necessarily who you think it is
* Your customers determine who the competition is by patronizing those establishments
* Be sure to broadly define your competition at the start, and carefully move inwards through the industry to determine all competitors.

And now for a few pointers on checking out your competition:

* Pretend to be a customer
* Talk to the business owners and find out as much as you can from them
* Talk to their customer’s and get a feel for why they utilize your competitors service or product
* There are tons of great resources out there, so use them! Internet, public filings, local libraries, etc.
* Go to industry trade shows, seminars, and conferences
* Complete a competitive matrix

Checking Out Your Competition [StartupStudents]

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Lyro: Lyro is a service that helps people expand their individual-level professional identity on the Internet. In today’s global economy, it is more important than ever that each of us is discoverable online. Using technology, innovation, and user-driven features, it is the mission of Lyro to empower our customers through the formation and marketing of their personal-level professional brand, resulting in improved visibility and broader opportunities.

We provides an open, fully searchable, and user-driven tool for professional branding on the web. Some time back we had a thought - more of a question really. Why isn't basic business contact information internet searchable and controllable at the individual level? As we looked at the marketplace, nowhere could we find a truly "open" product that made this information accessible online and also put control of the information in the hands of the individual. As we played around with new ways of displaying people's basic contact information, the simple concept of an online business card emerged. After a little research, we realized that no one else was providing open, easily accessible online business cards. Although a web-based business card concept was novel, we questioned whether an online business by itself would be compelling enough to grow in popularity with millions of users. That more we talked with our customer base, the more we realized that they desired a product whose features were entirely driven by fellow users.

Lyro - http://www.lyro.com

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WhatIThinkAbout.com: 1. Since the point of a business is to trade things, we should start by thinking about what other people need. This is easily done by just thinking about the things you think “sucks”. Do you wish you can get from point A to point B without having to drive? Do you wish that it was easier to clean your bathroom? Are the current solutions for these problems really horrible in your opinion? There are just tons of things throughout the day that you wish were better. Make a long list of all of these things.

2. Go down your list of things. Is there anything in there that you are particularly interested in? For example, let’s say one of the things on your list if that you think people need to be hugged more and you happen to like hugging people. This would be a perfect business opportunity to consider because you understand why people want to be hugged and you already know how to solve that problem (by hugging them). Circle all of these opportunities that you are interested in and have some expertise in (or would like to spend the time and acquire that expertise).

3. Who are your potential clients? Well, if we go back to the hugging example, it’s potentially everyone. Of course, people are probably not going to buy hugs for themselves, but someone can definiately buy it for someone else, kind of like a birthday card or a singing telegram. “Buy a Hug For a Friend”. “Buy a Hug For Your Sweetie on Valentine’s Day” (like if you’re far away or something). This step determines how big your market is and ultimately, how much money you can make.

4. How hard is it to get into the business? This is important to know because it determines how hard it is to get started, and more importantly, how hard it would be for other people to copy you should you become successful. The hugging business seems relatively low barrier of entry to me, since anyone can just make a website or list an internet ad (pretty easy to do). However, if you eventually establish a brand, like “Mom’s Hugs” or something, then that would become a barrier to overcome for your competitors.

How To Come Up With Good Business Ideas [WhatIThinkAbout.com]

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Marketing Idea Blog: Despite some companies’ best efforts, women are still hungry for products and services that address their needs and solve the problems that are important to them. Here are some things to remember - “What women want,” if Mel Gibson will allow me to borrow a phrase. Coincidentally, they all begin with the letter C. So let’s ditch the Four P’s and lay out the Four C’s: the Four C’s of marketing to women.

Community. Women want to belong to something larger than themselves. If you can create a place where we can gather, you’re ahead of the game.

Conversation. What happens when women gather? They talk. In addition to being part of a community, we want to contribute to the conversation going on within that community. We want to share our experiences, report our problems, offer encouragement and support.

Convenience. From stay-at-home moms to high-powered corporate leaders, from students to grandparents, we all want to recapture more of our precious time and spend it on something we love doing rather than on something we have to be doing.

Cost. Hey, we’re not stupid. We know when something’s a good value, and we know that “cost” isn’t just the price. So don’t just paint it pink and mark it up 20 percent - figure out a way to make it unique to women, or find a way to promote it that pushes our buttons - we’re smart, we’ll get it!

Four C’s of marketing to women [Marketing Idea Blog]

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StartupJournal: Start by figuring out what phrases people are typing into search engines when looking for your type of products online. Once you know that, you can buy paid search ads, such as pay-per-click ads, using those phrases and pepper your site with them to boost its search-engine rankings.

Showing up high in search-engine rankings is very important since most people use search engines to shop for products online.

There are some key-word suggestion tools that help identify popular search phrases, usually available free. For instance, Google Inc.'s AdWords Keyword Tool and Wordtracker.com let you type in words and see which related phrases get searched most often. Type "Made in America" into the AdWords Keyword Tool, for instance, and you see phrases like "clothing made in America" and "toys made in the USA" have been searched fairly often recently. But "toys made in America" was searched hardly at all.

You also can experiment with various search phrases by signing up for an advertising program, like Google AdWords. The programs let you bid on various phrases. The price you bid is what you pay the search-engine provider each time someone clicks on your ad. The more you bid, the higher an ad for your site appears on the right-hand side of a search-results page. These programs have monitoring programs that let you see what phrases are most effective in generating traffic and customers on your site.

Increasing Traffic To Your Web Site [StartupJournal]

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Teentrepreneur: Typical teenage entrepreneurs are not hard to come by. Indeed you may have inadvertently been one in your life already. In fact when you were between 13 and 18 there’s a 99% chance that you tried to make money in one form or another. I’ll give a run-down of the typical types of businesses that teenage moguls start up to make their first bit of cash, so maybe you can replicate the successes of the many!

1. Lemonade Stall - Its true, everyone loves lemonade, especially in the summer when you’ve been on a run or out at a stressful day at work, a nice cool lemonade increases the blood sugar and puts you in a feel-good mood!

2. Lawn-mowing - Again another highly popular business for young people with a love for nature (or for money for that matter). Here in the UK in the summer, the grass grows like crazy and I myself have to cut the grass once per fortnight.

3. Gaming Cards - When you were a young teenager, I bet you played with gaming cards at some point of your life. For me, just as I was approaching 12/13, Pokemon cards were in fashion. Some of the holographic cards could be found in normal packs and sold online for as much as £10 a card!

4. Sell Food At School - Unfortunately I never got a chance to try this one out as the schools I’ve been to have charged lunch meals to the end of term bill. But, if your school lunches are payable with cash, try going into class with some fizzy drinks or sweets.

5. Newspaper Delivery - This one is another teenager’s bread and butter of pocket money and income. Head down to your local Post Office or Depot and ask if they have any Newspaper or Magazine Delivery positions.

5 Businesses For A Typical Teenage Entrepreneur [Teentrepreneur]

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Growing A Winning Company

Scaling a company requires both the discipline to follow sound strategic processes and the courage to take bold, yet calculated, risks. If you are too aggressive, your company might make imprudent choices and go out of business. If you are too slow or cautious, you might miss an opportunity. Take, for example, a champion downhill skier: if he goes too fast down the slope, he risks crashing and burning. Too slow and he might lose the race. It’s all about striking the right balance...

Continued in BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 49 >>>

- Silicone Lemon Squeezer
- Secure Demo
- Kameraflaged
- Eat Without Your Sight
- Customizable Card Booklets
- Healthy Rewards
- Toilet Mobile Search

Continue reading these top stories in the BIZNESS! Newsletter >>>

- Survival Instincts
- Entrepreneur Profile: Ben Kaufman
- Going Local
- Video Viral Fever
- How To Soup Up Web Content
- Pick, Click And Pop
- A Good Idea?

Continue reading these top stories in the BIZNESS! Newsletter >>>

Can't stand your demanding boss anymore? Start your own business! Before that, be sure to subscribe to our free informative newsletter. BIZNESS! is jointly published by CoolBusinessIdeas.com and GetEntrepreneurial.com What you get in BIZNESS! - the latest new business ideas, small business advice, business tips and info and entrepreneur resources. Everything you need for your brand new business!

Free 145-pages PDF report (worth $75) - "2006's Best Business Ideas" - included with your subscription. Learn more here.

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Businessknowhow: Over the years, we have helped many companies grow profitably, using simple, common-sense tactics for cost savings that go directly to your bottom line! And it’s the little things that count - a ten percent increase in profit is more likely to come from twenty things that contribute one-half percent each than from one thing that gives you the full 10 percent.

1. Improve Collections. Rather than wait for a bill to be past due, call the customer the day before the payment is due.

2. International Payments. Payment is slower in other countries. So, if you do business there, you better adjust your prices to reflect these slow collections.

3. Accounts Payable. With each vendor, work out an agreement to delay payments or spread them out.

4. Improve Cash Flow. By improving cash collections and delaying cash payouts you have improved cash collections.

5. Save Pennies. Reduce costs wherever you can.

6. Reduce Cost Of Your Office Supplies. Go through your past invoices and highlight the office supplies that make up 80% of total dollars spent.

7. Telephone Control. Make sure you are getting six-second increment billing with no minimum per call.

8. Your 800 Number. Consider a toll-free telephone number for customer service or to tie locations together seamlessly.

9. E-Mail Rather Than Telephone. Use e-mail rather than playing telephone tag and incurring unnecessary long-distance telephone charges.

10. Do Your Own.

Improving the Bottom Line [Businessknowhow]

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YoungEntrepreneur.com: Most entrepreneurs who start a business will fail. The statistics vary but as many as 80% of people who start a business today will no longer have their company in 5 years. That is a pretty big failure rate.

According to the Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick:

“I started The Body Shop in 1976 simply to create a livelihood for myself and my two daughters, while my husband, Gordon, was trekking across the Americas. I had no training or experience and my only business acumen was Gordon’s advice to take sales of £300 a week. Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.”

What many new business owners fail to recognize is that entrepreneurship is first about survival, then about building a company. I have seen too many entrepreneurs to count who have grand visions of where they want to go but never even get to first base. They close down shop before they can execute any of their big plans because they run out of money.

If you cannot make enough to pay your basic bills then you will not be around in the long run to fulfill your dream. It takes a lot longer to get a company off the ground that most people think and in the beginning it is all about survival - do whatever you need to do to keep yourself, and your company, going.

Entrepreneurship Is About Survival [YoungEntrepreneur.com]

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Small Business CEO: Are you or your team stuck in a rut, new ideas just don’t seem to occur, everyone is almost zombi like in adherence to how things have always been done?

Do you need new ideas, would some fresh thinking be a booster shot for your business, then read on.

Here are Ten Actions you can take to Achieve Freshness Today:

1. Take a new form of transportation to work.
2. Read a new magazine or watch a new TV show.
3. Plan a lunch with people you never lunch with.
4. Get out of your normal work environment for a half-day per week.
5. Ask your family (especially your kids) to help solve a problem you are working on.
6. Allocate double the normal time you spend solving a problem, make at least three options.
7. Block out time for your whole team to do something new together once a month.
8. Take a walk in the park at lunch time.
9. Listen to the Pop Music charts.
10. Reinvent your personal job role at least once per year.

Stuck In a Rut - Ten Actions to Achieve Freshness Today [Small Business CEO]

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Inc.com: Ask Ben Kaufman if his company, Mophie, will still be making iPod accessories a year from now and he'll answer without skipping a beat: "God, I hope not!" And that's after his line of slick gear -- headphone splitters, FM transmitters, and remote controls, all of which function with a protective case -- won a Best of Show award in the innovation category at MacWorld last year. So what gives?

"The thing about this industry is that everything is the same," says Kaufman, 20. "So we set ourselves apart by branding." Sure, Burlinton, Vt.-based Mophie (named after the CEO's two golden retrievers, Sophie and Molly), makes cool products, but that clears just the first barrier to entry in a crowded marketplace. For Kaufman, the real key to his company's distinctive brand identity is the product-development process, which can be summed up in three words: open source innovation. It's a popular concept these days -- allowing communities of users to drive the product development process -- but one that can be tricky to execute.

Kaufman, who started his company as a freshman at Champlain College, decided to put all his cards on the table in January at the 2007 MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. "We said, 'OK, we can have a regular booth, or we could shake up the floor and say we're not going to have products today. We're going to build and develop.'" Mophie's team handed out pads and pencils to attendees, uttering one simple command: "doodle."

In four hours, they collected 120 new product ideas for iPod accessories. That night, they scanned the drawings, put them up on the company website, and asked the expo attendees to vote for the best doodles. The result of the process, which Kaufman calls Illuminator, was a line of three new products, the first of which is a combination iPod Shuffle case, bottle opener, and keychain called the Bevy. Its designer, 18-year old Jared Fiorovich, gets credit on Mophie's website.

The Innovator [Inc.com]

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FORTUNE: Lingerie retailer Bare Necessities spiced up sales by making it easier for women to find undergarments that fit online.

When we last met Bare Necessities, the lingerie seller, based in Avenel, N.J., was profitable but battling a personality problem: It lacked one. Enter FSB's Makeover artists - five experts from Frog Design, the product design and branding firm known for its work with Apple. The Frog team led company employees in creative exercises that sparked fixes, which CEO Noah Wrubel says boosted growth.

"Business is unbelievable," he says. The family-owned firm won't give figures, but an industry magazine pegged its 2006 web sales - now about 90% of revenue - at $26.2 million, bringing total sales for that year to around $29 million. In 2005, Bare Necessities had total sales of $21 million. This year sales should hit $35 million.

The Makeover revealed that many women find buying underwear tedious and ego-deflating. Guided by the Frog session, the company revamped its branding and website (barenecessities.com) to change that. Now the site gives advice on fashion, quality, and, most important, fit. To execute this work, the company set up a new web-focused creative department and hired Victoria's Secret veteran Jessica Jackson as vice president of E-commerce, a new post.

Move over, Victoria's Secret [FORTUNE]

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Sitepoint.com: Executives at large corporations and entrepreneurs in emerging companies struggle with the same question: "How do I write a strategic plan that actually gets implemented?"

A solid strategic plan delivers the following benefits:

1. You focus your time and energy on activities that are most likely to achieve your goals.

2. You know how to allocate resources.

3. You put a solid strategy in place to set your business apart from the competition.

4. You can communicate your plan to employees, and hold them accountable for results.

5. You can track the results of your efforts and make mid-course corrections to get back on track if you need to.

6. You can adapt your plan to create a second business plan to raise investment capital or get a business loan.

The process of writing the plan is often more valuable than the plan itself. That's because the process focuses your thinking, and challenges you to answer some fundamental questions about your business.

Start writing today. You can write the plan on your own, but it's better to work with other people to test your ideas. If you have a management team, you can work with them to write your plan. I know many entrepreneurs who spend a weekend with a colleague, and they work together on each other's plans, like a strategic retreat. Or, you can hire a consultant/coach to walk you through the process.

Remember that quote from Alice in Wonderland. Too many of us are like Alice at the fork in the road, not sure where we want to go or how we will get there. Stay out of the rabbit hole and write your plan today.

Write a Business Plan that Works [Sitepoint.com]

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Entrepreneur Daily: When you're designing your company's next marketing campaign, why not take a look at YouTube first? That's what McDonald's did, and the results are paying off. Since McDonald's has started airing a commercial featured on YouTube created by two Chicago men rapping about chicken nuggets, they've already seen increased sales in their nugget meals. "The buzz that has been generated has been substantial," said Ken Ebo, McDonald's Corp.'s New York marketing director. "I've heard radio station DJs chatting about it. You can't pay for that."

Before McDonald's found it, the video was a YouTube hit with tens of thousands of viewers. The men who filmed the skit, also aspiring comedians, said they put the rap ditty together for the fun of it. Somehow, the YouTube video got forwarded to Ebo, and the rest is history. This commercial is a good example of the advertising world catching on to the advantages of viral marketing. It definitely saves in production costs, and it's more of a sure thing. Before using the video clip, McDonald's knew it was already a hit with the very audience they were hoping to target.

McDonald's Viral Marketing Buzz [Entrepreneur Daily]

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