February 2008 - Posts
Are you one of those entrepreneurs without a “sick boundary”?
That’s what Rich Sloan, founder of entrepreneurial website StartupNation.com, calls it.
A sick boundary is a common sense strategy all small business owners should have. Here it is in a nutshell: When you’re sick, stay home, don’t work, get better.
This is pretty simple, no?
“Most entrepreneurs don’t set the sick boundary,” he says.
I know, how the heck do you make money when you’re not working? That’s the entrepreneurial conundrum.
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Turns out, the Small Business Administration’s training budget went mainly to an inexperienced ex-Bush appointee.
The SBA has a budget of about $1.5 million to help provide advice to small business owners, particularly minority owned, who don’t quite understand the insanely difficult process of getting government contracts.
The SBA uses that money to essentially hire businesses that have an expertise in teaching entrepreneurs how to compete for government contracts to provide training to disadvantaged businesses on how to navigate the system.
But, for some reason, Vernon B. Parker, a retired administration official that Bush appointed, got most of the money, $1.2 million to be exact, even though he supposedly had no experience providing such training.
What the heck happened?
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There are far too many small business owners out there without a Web site.
Why? It’s too expensive. It takes too much time.
These are pretty lame excuses in today’s here’s-a-free-website marketplace.
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I love that scene from Monty Python’s “Meaning of Life” where a bunch of guys are tied to crucifixes, and suddenly Eric Idle launches into the song, “Always look on the bright side of life.”
Here’s one of my favorite parts of the song:
If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...
Who’s singing in today’s economy?
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You can’t ever make everyone happy.
President Bush’s FY2009 budget appears to be a boon or disaster depending on the small business advocate you talk to.
“This President is turning his back on small businesses at the very moment our economy needs them most,” says Nydia Velázquez, chairwoman of Congress’ Committee on Small Business.
"We think it’s a substantial win for small business," says Bill Rys, tax counsel for the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
Funding cuts here. Tax breaks there.
It’s like a bad Ginsu knives commercial from the 1970s.
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Just because companies shell out millions of dollars to advertise during the Super Bowl doesn’t mean you have to buy the products or services they hawk.
A Pepsi, okay.
But business owners should be doing their due diligence when it comes to deciding whether to plop down their hard-earned cash on something that’s going to cost more than a can of soda.
Take the Salesgenie.com ads. I’m sure many small business owners out there had never heard of the sales lead Internet company until the firm’s slick ads appeared during the battle between the Giants and Patriots.
The ads probably got a lot of people surfing over to their site. How could they resist a cartoon panda with a bad Asian accent?
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I recently visited a local Starbucks and I knew I was in trouble when the barista handed me my cup of coffee in three seconds.
OK, I pay $2.80 for a tall latte, so the least the barista can do is take some time frothing up the milk. If nothing else it would help me feel a bit better about the extravagant purchase.
To make matters worse, when I tasted the latte it turned out the coffee was very weak, and it didn’t seem to have that Starbucks kick of yesteryear.
By contrast, a latte at the local java shop around the corner from Starbucks, Brew Ha Ha, is always something special. The baristas even create works of art on the top of my hot drink, often a beautiful leaf.
So, where do you think I’ll be stopping by for my latte tomorrow?
Duh, Brew Ha Ha.
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| Andrew Gombert / EPA file |
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Who would have thought that putting an iPhone in a blender would mean big business for a small company.
But that’s just what happened.
Blendtec, a blender maker with a 190 employees, has become a sensation on YouTube, and it’s all because the firm decided to put videos on the video sharing site of a guy blending outrageous things in Blendtec blenders to show the world how well they work.
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