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JJ Ramberg

JJ Ramberg is the anchor of “Your Business,” MSNBC’s weekly show on small business. In addition to her extensive television reporting experience, Ramberg has a background as an entrepreneur and co-founded GoodSearch.com. She has an MBA from Stanford Business School.



Guest List -- Sunday, Feb. 15

Posted: Monday, February 09, 2009 9:31 AM by Andrew Littell

Small Business Newsmakers

Richard Murphy, editor of FORTUNE Small Business Magazine, and William Dunkelberg, Chief Economist for the National Federation of Independent Business, discuss the status of the economic stimulus package and what it means for small business owners.

Moving Forward

Despite the economic downturn, Grant Cleveland says he's going forward with plans to launch as many as 50 new products in 2009. His company, DuneCraft, produces low-cost, educational kits that sell at stores like Toys "R" Us, Borders and K-Mart. The company already has 250 items on the market, but Grant insists he's not backing down from his expansion plans. The Cleveland-based company sells its products to major retailers, catalogs, and online. Grant says his profits only rose about 6% in 2008. He says the number would have been closer to 200% if the economy hadn't taken a turn. Grant says there's a market for educational items especially when they're affordable.

Panelists

--Susan Wilson Solovic, CEO & Chairman of SBTV.com, a television network on the Internet dedicated to small business.

--Ben Terk, partner with Rho Ventures, specialzing in the information technology and communications sectors.

Profit Margin: Web site design

Tom Leung, Senior Business Product Manager for Google, provides some tips on how small business owners can build an effective homepage.

Elevator Pitch

Jason Olim, CEO and co-founder of Freshman Fund, a service that lets people give and get the gift of a college education, pitches his company to the panel. He is looking for capital to add more content to his growing site.

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Comments

Would like to know how my business can be featured. Creations by Carole created a truly unique product focused on getting children to read and loving it.  As an early learning literacy intervention specifically designed to encourage and reward reading, this product has won high praise from parents, but especially children, since it's mid-December introduction.  Thank you for consideration.

Carole Johnson (Sent Monday, February 16, 2009 12:53 PM)



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