| What Partners Not To Choose For Your Start-Up Posted: 30 Jun 2009 01:30 PM PDT 
 photo credit: kunalmehta
When making the decision to take on a partner for your start-up, one needs to remember to choose wisely. This person should be considered as your right hand man, someone that you will be involved with for the long hall. I recently read an article on Entrepreneur.com that gives some examples of the people to stay away from when choosing your partner that i couldn’t agree with more. Mr. College buddy is never a good choice for several reasons. Remember his behavior in college? Unless he’s made a drastic transformation i wouldn’t suggest choosing him. He also is the one who is most likely going to forward you his new expensive address so you can mail his 50% to him every month. Mr. Spender can't possibly survive without a six-figure salary, lavish office and an in-house cigar roller. Price is no object when it comes to entertaining a client or flying first class.
Mr. Vacation is another one pretty similar to Mr. College buddy, they are NEVER around especially when you need them the most. Mr. Personal issues, this is the guy who has a personal reason and or excuse for everything in the book. He has a built in way out of everything that you need him to do for the company. From Business Opportunities Weblog. 
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| Working For Yourself Means Freedom — But It Doesn’t Come Free Posted: 30 Jun 2009 11:11 AM PDT 
The Wall Street Journal:
Perhaps the greatest advantage of hanging out your own shingle or making that consulting business full-time is the independence that comes with being your own boss. But higher expenses and other costs come along with your newfound liberty. You may not be able to sock away as much pretax for retirement, and you may have trouble refinancing your mortgage. Your higher tax bills may shock you, too. All in all, if you go out on your own, you may need to bring in up to 20% more than before just to break even, especially if you can’t piggyback on your spouse’s health insurance, says David Strege, a financial planner in West Des Moines, Iowa. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. There are few more gratifying accomplishments than making it on your own. But here’s what you should keep in mind as you figure out what to charge for your work and how to budget for your future. As an employee, you will pay 6.2% of your earnings (up to $106,800 this year) for Social Security and 1.45% of your income (with no limits) for Medicare, while your employer will pay an equal amount. But when you say goodbye to the Man, you will pay the whole 15.3%. The good news is that the taxes apply only after you deduct your expenses, and your “employer” half is deductible from your federal taxes. But if your expenses aren’t especially high, your total tax costs will go up. Continue Reading: “Working For Yourself Means Freedom — But It Doesn’t Come Free” Photo by cvukom.
From Business Opportunities Weblog. 
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| Making Your Website Mobile Friendly Posted: 30 Jun 2009 10:30 AM PDT 
photo credit: William Hook
In the day and age where people are constantly on the go, it’s no wonder that technology is making it possible for people to do so many things from a cell phone, as that is generally the device people are using most often. Is your site mobile friendly though? Look below for some ways to ensure your site is mobile friendly for your clients, recently published on SmallBizTechnology. Review your competition. Take a look at what your competitor's sites look like on various devices. This may be an opportunity for you to create a competitive edge!
When setting your site up for mobile users, think about how they will be using their device to look around your site, this should help you design it in such a way that it makes things easier for them. Test your site before completing the final steps. There are many sites that allow you to see exactly what it will look like from a mobile device. Most mobile devices will not see flashes very well, so when designing your website make sure you do not include a lot of these flash programs. From Business Opportunities Weblog. 
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| Niche Biz: Ficklets Posted: 30 Jun 2009 10:10 AM PDT 
For most kids, wearing eyeglasses for the first time can be a traumatic and unpleasant experience. Further adding to their anxiety is the limited selection of frames available for today’s youngsters in the marketplace; the frames are basic, standard, uninteresting, bland and lack personality, and leave very little to the imagination. As any stylish mom knows, plain and ordinary is just not an option, and for kids and ‘tweens, the “cool” factor is a must in any accessory. Introducing Ficklets. No more boring, cookie cutter frames. Ficklets offers a more customized, versatile and unique look, fusing function and fashion. More importantly, Ficklets can help make the transition for the novice eyeglass wearer a more positive and enjoyable experience. Ficklets are interchangeable eyewear charms, easy to attach and remove, giving you "eye-popping" options to mix-and-match depending on your interest, outfit or mood. Ficklets was founded and created by Ros Guerrero, a mother and an entrepenuer. Ros is the mother of a 13-year old beautiful "special needs" little girl and decided to start Ficklets as a way to add color, fun, and personality to her daughter's eyewear. She also wanted to find an inexpensive way to update the look of her daughter's glasses without having to change the actual eyeglass frames often. Photo by Ficklets.
From Business Opportunities Weblog. 
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| Managing Customer Reviews Posted: 30 Jun 2009 09:30 AM PDT 
photo credit: Mindsay Mohan
In business one of the things that needs some attention often is that of customer reviews. While this may not be every one’s favorite part of their job, it is a part of their job that will always be there. I recently found some helpful tips on managing your companies reviews located on Small Business Trends. First things first, you have to know where the customers are leaving their reviews about your company. Try looking for the reviews in search engines such as Yelp, Google, City search and Yahoo local search. Write a few thank yous to the people leaving you exceptional reviews, this will encourage more feedback for you in the future. If you happen to receive a bad review, take a step back, breathe deep and calm down. Every company is going to get a bad review once in a while, it is not avoidable, you can’t please EVERYONE. Address the complaint. Calmly: Apologize for their bad experience, invite them back for another go and restate your commitment to making things right. It will very often appease the angry reviewer, but more than that, it shows anyone else who stumbles upon that review that you care.
In the end, always make sure that you take the high road when dealing with a bad review. Never respond in a negative manner, this only worsens the situation and potentially makes it a bigger deal than it needs to be. From Business Opportunities Weblog. 
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| Assetize: Buy & Sell Online Accounts Posted: 30 Jun 2009 09:09 AM PDT 
MakeUseOf.com:
As millions of people join services like Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Gmail… etc, good account names are becoming a rare commodity, and it certainly true that the right name on account can attract more followers and add value to online presence. Some people are already buying and selling their online accounts just like domain names, and Assetize helps them with that. It acts as online marketplace where users can buy and sell online accounts. The site currently allows to buy and sell online accounts of following services: Blogger, Facebook, Friendfeed, Gmail, Google Groups, Ning, Twitter, Wordpress and Yahoo. The process is similar to many other online auctions, users register and then list to sell items or browse listings of others to buy them. Buying and listing online accounts is free, the seller pays a certain fee only when the account is sold. Photo by Assetize.
From Business Opportunities Weblog. 
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| Why We Do What We Do Posted: 30 Jun 2009 08:30 AM PDT 
photo credit: e-magic
Throughout our adult life many of us wonder why we do certain things that we do whether it be in our personal lives or our business life. We rack our brains trying to figure out our own behavior and decisions we make. I read an article this morning on OpenForum giving some hints on why we do what we do that i found to make a lot of sense. It starts at an early age when we are kids. From the first day of school we begin training for life’s situations. Look at the times you studied for week’s for a test knowing that a week later you would receive a grade for those efforts you made. It’s the same principal in work, you work for three week’s knowing you will receive your salary check on the fourth week. All that we do appears to be governed by reward systems, and the most powerful reward systems are short-term. Short-term rewards are meant to sustain, to preserve the status quo.
Lets face it, it all boils down to the reward we will receive for the job that we did. The only problem with this is that many of us do a task or job expecting to get our reward in the near future, when we may need to wait it out for a while before seeing the rewards. From Business Opportunities Weblog. 
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| Cisco Says Telecommuting Saves Money and the World Posted: 30 Jun 2009 08:08 AM PDT 
Fast Company:
Good news for homebodies: A Cisco survey of 2,000 people worldwide has revealed that employees who telecommute experience higher rates of productivity, work-life flexibility, and overall satisfaction. As if that isn’t enough, the survey also showed that telecommuting saves the company money and drastically reduces carbon dioxide emissions. According to Rob Rolfsen, Cisco’s director of process, governance and sustainability, the survey was inspired by a British study that claimed working from home was worse from an environmental perspective than going into the office. “They made the untrue assumption that you turn everything off in the house when you leave,” Rolfson said. So Cisco decided to find out the truth about teleworking. Cisco’s workforce telecommutes an average of two dates a week, but many workers surveyed said they would prefer to work from home three days a week. That’s not surprising when you look at other results from the survey–75% of respondents said their work was more timely when telecommuting, 83% said their ability to communicate with co-workers was the same or better than in the office, and 67% claimed that the overall quality of their work improved. The vast majority of respondents (91%) said telecommuting was important to their overall job satisfaction. But telecommuting doesn’t just help employees. It also helps the company’s bottom line, saving Cisco approximately $277 million each year in time and productivity costs. And then, of course, are the obvious environmental benefits of not driving or taking public transportation to work. In 2007 alone, Cisco employees stopped 47,320 metric tons of greenhouse gases from being released. Workers also saved $10.3 million in fuel costs each year from telecommuting. Photo by clix.
From Business Opportunities Weblog. 
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| Hiring The Right Person Posted: 30 Jun 2009 07:30 AM PDT 
photo credit: yummiec00kies
Many managers and business owners today find hiring new people to be more of a hassle than they have time for. With so many out of work people at the moment, one ad in the paper brings in a ton of people wanting that ONE job for themselves. So to help out the managers and owners, below are a few tips on hiring new people that i read about recently on Entrepreneur.com. Always make sure to define your requirements as carefully and clear as you can. If your too broad and general than you could end up having to interview several non qualified people. Weed through the applicants and find the ones who have a long standing track record within whatever company or companies they worked for. It's still about the passive seekers. I personally recently hired a VP of Marketing for my company, but when I first came across him, he was already installed at another company. I courted him for months, persuaded him and eventually he came to work for me.
In the end always make sure that you are not settling in order to have the hassle be over with. It may be a challenging task in hiring someone new, but stick it out and make sure you find your company the absolute best out of everyone that applies for the job. From Business Opportunities Weblog. 
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| Recession Generation? Posted: 30 Jun 2009 07:07 AM PDT 
USA TODAY:
At age 26, Angela Trilli doesn’t think she’s one of those so-called materialistic Millennials she has heard about — young people who are absorbed with themselves and their consumption. She says she’s a saver, not a spender, but unlike many of her peers who didn’t have much to lose in this struggling economy, she says she lost $15,000 — about half of the savings she built up since childhood. “It’s a very insecure world out there,” says Trilli, of Kendall Park, N.J., who works in marketing for a non-profit. “It was a little shocking to the system. You think things are going in a certain way, but you can’t expect that things are always going to be the same.” The Millennial generation, or Gen Y, ranges from people in their 20s to those still in grade school. But what they all have in common is the knowledge that the recession has in some way shattered the world they thought they knew. And, depending upon how long the downturn lasts, historians, economists and psychologists say it could shape Millennials’ values and attitudes in much the same way the Depression shaped the attitudes of those growing up in the 1930s. “I call it the end of Disney World,” says Michael Bradley, an adolescent psychologist in suburban Philadelphia. But now, young people are reordering their values. Continue Reading: “Recession Generation?” Photo by USA TODAY.
From Business Opportunities Weblog. 
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