Your Biz

Staying off the Better Business Bureau’s bad-boy list

Eve Tahmincioglu — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:24:00 GMT

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?

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Who’s to blame for bacon ice cream?

Eve Tahmincioglu — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:50:00 GMT

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.

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Hospitals say, "no money, no care"

Eve Tahmincioglu — Tue, 06 May 2008 06:52:00 GMT

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

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Tough economy? Start a new businesss

Eve Tahmincioglu — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:48:00 GMT

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?

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Craigslist-eBay's David vs. Goliath battle

Eve Tahmincioglu — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:06:00 GMT

Craigslist is being sued by eBay because it claims it’s management team “unfairly diluting” its holdings in Craigslist.

The online auction site has had a nearly 30 percent stake in the classifed-ad Web site since 2004.

The two companies are essentially competitors, but EBay, with thousands of employees, dwarfs Craigslist, which only has about 20.

And it’s a whole different mentality over at Craigslist.

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Do real small businesses take venture capital?

Eve Tahmincioglu — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:15:00 GMT

If you are a small business owner who wants to land a government contract, you are not allowed to have venture capital dollars pumping into your company.

For some reason, that’s the way it’s been. Perhaps it was supposed to be a way to level the playing field, so small companies weren’t really deep-pocketed big companies in disguise.

But a bill that would eliminate the restriction, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Small Business Committee, was passed by the House this week. And that has some small business advocates up in arms.

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Do you need sex to sell a blog?

Eve Tahmincioglu — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:59:00 GMT

When blogs first came on the scene, they were basically online diaries.

I remember this freaky guy I worked with about nine years ago at a newspaper in Florida was writing this new thing called a blog. His posts were mainly about his sex life, or lack of it. And he also blogged about how he hated journalism and really wanted to be a musician.

What got me thinking about the origins of blogs was a story in the New York Times Friday about how blogs are now being used to air dirty laundry.

Duh! That’s why blogs were created. But recently, blogs have turned into little more than advertising sites for businesses and places where journalist can write shorter stories that are infused with a bit of opinion, and sometimes humor.

But alas, the best-read blogs are filled with personal musings, sex, and the more dirty laundry the better.

So what’s a small business owner to do if they want a blog that’s well read? Should they start writing about their escapades in the bedroom?

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Does the SBA have a dime to spare?

Eve Tahmincioglu — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:02:00 GMT

Richard W.C. Lin says he “ain’t Rockefeller, nor Gates, nor Buffet.”

So, when he passes his New York State property casualty exam, which he’s taking this month, he’ll need money to be able to set up his insurance practice.

Since banks are getting tougher when it comes to lending money, especially to budding, new small business owners, he figures his best bet would be a Small Business Administration loan.

Well buddy, it might not be that easy.

SBA lending is down, nearly 14 percent, and the answer for why is different depending on whom you talk to.

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Yahoo merger holds peril for small biz

Eve Tahmincioglu — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:31:00 GMT

It’s like we’re watching a scene from that dumb reality show, “The Bachelor,” and in this case the bachelor is Yahoo.

Who will walk down the aisle with Yahoo? Microsoft? Google? Time Warner’s AOL? Even News Corp. is getting into the act, considering a plan to team up with Microsoft in its bid for Yahoo.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

The Bachelor, aka Yahoo, has a lot of hot, crazy babes to choose from. If you’re a small business that wants to place ads on search engines to get people to click over to your Web site, you just may want to tune in.

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Store sign sparks free-speech debate

Eve Tahmincioglu — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:03:00 GMT

Two years ago, the owner of one of Philadelphia’s favorite cheesesteak joints, Geno’s Steaks, ended up at the center of the national immigration debate when it’s owner Joseph Vento put up this sign in his store:

“This is America: When Ordering Please Speak English.”

As you can imagine his sign got him in hot water including a two-year investigation by the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission that looked into whether the small business owner discriminated against any patrons and violated the city’s fair practices ordinance.

Well, the commission found recently he did not discriminate against anyone and now this entrepreneur wants payback.

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