May 2008 - Posts
There I was, in my yoga class trying to get rid of stress and help my bad back, when the instructor decides to share a personal story.
She does this periodically as a way to make us think of things beside the things that got us coming to yoga in the first place.
Her daughter’s friend from college was working on an assignment, she told us, and decided to email my instructor Nancy McConnell to ask her “what motivates you in your career other than a paycheck?”
Nancy told us it was a hard email to get at that particular moment because she was having some trouble in her chosen profession, running a daycare and school for about 100 kids.
Turns out she’s not only my yoga instructor but a small business owner as well, and when she got the email she was in the midst of a challenging employee issue. She’s got about 30 employees.
The email also included one line that really turned up the pressure on Nancy: “please inspire me. I need it.”
How do you let down a wide-eyed college kid?
 |
| Jim McKnight / AP |
CONTINUED >>
Savvy consumers and small firms owners are increasingly checking the Better Business Bureau’s list of businesses before they make a purchase or decide to partner with a company.
That’s bad news for small businesses that some how end up on the BBB’s bad-boy list.
OK, it’s not actually called a bad boy list, but if your company ends up in the BBB’s data base with an unsatisfactory rating you can bet you’ll probably lose at least a few sales as a result.
The BBB has reliability reports on about 4 million businesses and of those about 24 percent have an unsatisfactory rating, says Alison Preszler, a spokeswoman for the organization.
So how do you keep from ending up with a “F” on your BBB report card?
CONTINUED >>
The ice cream king and entrepreneur Irvine Robbins died earlier this week and I couldn’t help but be sad a bit. I have fond memories of making trips to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop in Queens, N.Y., with my dad and ordering Pink Bubblegum ice cream.
Oh man, was that delicious. Well, delicious to a kid I suppose, among the many other flavors that ended up in that frosty ice cream case. Endless flavors were part of my reality as a kid. I couldn’t imagine how boring my parents’ childhoods must have been with just vanilla and chocolate.
Indeed, Robbins took some credit for opening up our horizons to wild flavors. He said as much in a New York Times article from 1976: “I think we’ve had a little bit to do with making it more acceptable.”
Which brings me to bacon ice cream.
CONTINUED >>
There are lots of small business owners out there that are living life on the edge: They have little to no health insurance.
They figure they're pretty healthy, so they can save money by paying doctors for routine visits out of pocket. But what if they get a serious illness?
Most of you out there figure you'll go to the hospital, get the treatment you need to get nursed back to health and then deal with the bills as they come in. Hospitals, especially nonprofits, have to treat people, right?
Think again.
 |
| Richard Drew / AP |
|
CONTINUED >>
It may sound crazy, but one entrepreneurial experts thinks a recession is a great time to launch a new business.
“The one predictable way to achieving financial success is to own a business,” claims Bill Bartmann, the author of "Billionaire Secrets to Success.” “The current economic landscape is a most opportune time to start a new business. It is all about applying basic common sense.”
Is this man just a nutcase or does he know of what he speaks?
CONTINUED >>
