Risky Business
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Tim Ferriss Says: Business Advertising Taking A Dive in 2009
Continue reading… 4 CommentsJohn Jantsch's cool post featuring some 2009 predictions from some of the top entrepreneurial gurus has an especially interesting tidbit from Tim Ferriss.
Tim Ferriss, author of the Four-Hour Workweek said . . . "get advertising at 70-90% off. Recessions mean budget cuts for larger corporations, which means advertising cancellations, just as in 2001 and 2002. There will be fire sales on remnant advertising, whether print, TV, radio, or online."
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Business Predictions For 2009, Part 2
Continue reading… 7 CommentsOne question that everyone wants answered: "Just how long and severe is this credit crunch going to be?"
Business Week has a great roundup of some expert answers to that question as it pertains to small businesses.
In general, the experts interviewed give us the predictable answers that getting loans will be harder, and standards of credit-worthiness will continue to tighten, etc. But here's one bit of counterintuitive thinking from Matthew Parente of Aperio Marketing in Austin, TX:
For 2009, as long as small businesses do apply for credit while their businesses are still in good standing, it will be a relatively easy thing to do. But I'd say that small businesses need to get to it in the next two to three months. If they wait much longer, people are going to start to get much more nervous by the middle of the year—when it will be the darkest before the dawn—and it might not be until the end of the year before credit begins opening up again.
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Happy New Year--Now Did You Realize Alcohol Can Make You Drunk?
Continue reading… 1 CommentJust in time for perhaps the drunkest night of the year, the Obama administration is coming under pressure to be stricter with those libations you'll be consuming tonight than the Bush administration has been.
The Washington Post's Cindy Skrzycki writes that four major pro-alcohol-regulation groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the National Consumers League recently sent a letter to incoming Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asking him to beef up labeling of alcoholic beverages.
Specifically, these consumer groups want the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to require an "Alcohol Facts" label on every beverage:
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Top 10 2009 Small Business Trends (Steve King's List)
Continue reading… 11 CommentsI highly recommend checking out the top ten predictions for 2009 related to small business and entrepreneurs from part-time US News blogger Steve King of Emergent Research.
A sampling:
4. The Number of Small Businesses Will Increase in 2009: With job losses high and traditional employment options limited, many will turn to self-employment and small business in 2009. The prior three recessions have seen small business formation rates increase. And with it easier and cheaper than ever to start small or personal businesses, we expect a strong year for small business formation – especially personal businesses. Failure rates will also increase, but not enough to offset the number of new small and personal businesses.
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6. Baby Boomer Retirement Problems Will Lead to Increased Interest in Small Business: We’ve long forecasted that baby boomers will stay in the workforce past the traditional retirement age. Current economic turmoil makes this trend even stronger. Baby boomer retirement has taken a series of major blows. The value of their homes, retirement savings and inheritances has all declined substantially. Many have lost or will lose their jobs. Boomers will have to extend their working years and small and personal businesses will be their best, and in many cases, only option.
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Business Predictions for 2009, Part 1
Continue reading… 13 CommentsSmall-business experts have speculated that in a recession, more business will outsource work they used to do in-house. That creates new opportunities for smaller companies. I've agreed with this prediction--so much that "outsourcing manager" is one of US News' hot small businesses to start.
But according to outsourcing-advistory company TPI, the number of outsourcing contracts was down in the third quarter of 2008--way down. In fact, it was the worst quarter in six years for outsourcing contracts.
A Wall Street Journal article reporting these numbers interviews one manager of an outsourcing company about another possible trend:
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Bjork The Venture Capitalist
Continue reading… 0 CommentsThrow this story in the category of "least likely headlines."
I don't know what to think of this, other than to say: I am fairly confident that she will be the most successful Icelandic-pop-star-turned-venture-capitalist of all time.
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British Cabinet Minister Says Internet Restrictions Needed To Protect Children
Continue reading… 2 CommentsIs Internet censorship something that could become commonplace in the West? I've written about the possibilities before, and I admit that it seems like quite a leap for a politician to go from mere criticism of the often unseemly content on the Internet to actual laws.
But then we have this story coming out of England:
A British cabinet minister says the government is considering a plan to work with President-elect Barack Obama on a new ratings system for Internet Web sites, according to The Telegraph in London. Andy Burnham, above, who is secretary of state for culture, media and sport, said in an interview on Saturday that he hoped to work with Mr. Obama to implement a set of standards for English-language Web sites in order to protect children from inappropriate material.
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Don't Let "Green Jobs" Be Obama's Patriot Act
Continue reading… 6 CommentsMy worry with Obama's planned environmentally-friendly infrastructure projects has been that it will another case of failed industrial policy: the government trying to artificially prop up programs that are not viable in the market, instead of helping entrepreneurs produce what is efficient.
Today's Washington Post story on the internal debate going on about the stimulus bill makes me more concerned:
But the green-collar proposals have also come under fire. Hill, the incoming Blue Dog co-chairman, said he opposes including these proposals and the medical technology project in the stimulus plan, suggesting that "somewhere down the road" they be considered under the normal legislative process.
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Will Obama Kill Silicon Valley?
Continue reading… 1 CommentIn the Wall Street Journal, Michael Malone makes that provocative suggestion. Read here.
First, he attributes the decline in venture capital activity mainly to Sarbanes-Oxley and mark-to-market accounting. For more on the role of Sarbox, click here.
Malone goes on to say that Obama's capital gains tax increases will erase the gains for Silicon Valley made by cuts under Reagan:
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Give Thanks To Innovative Capitalists This Christmas
Continue reading… 0 CommentsAmidst the hustle and bustle of Christmas, it's easy to forget that all those gifts you're putting under the tree came from somewhere. Before the mall, somebody had to dream up those toys, video games, and iPods. The Heroes of Capitalism blog has been cataloging the inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs who produced many of the goods we take for granted, and today they are writing about one who is particularly apropos for Christmas: Ole Kirk Christiansen, inventor of LEGO. Read more here.
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Two Afghan Entrepreneurs Find Success Post-Taliban, But Face Conservative Islamic Opposition
Continue reading… 0 CommentsDon't miss David Ignatius's column from yesterday telling the story of two Afghan brothers who have created successful media ventures in Afghanistan. The opposition they have recently faced might be some more evidence of a creeping re-Talibanizaiton of the country.
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Obama's Small Business Administration Pick, Karen Gordon Mills, Hints At Agenda
Continue reading… 3 CommentsAfter Obama solidified his victory over John McCain, I wrote that promoting "green jobs" would be one of the major thrusts of his policies as they pertain to the entrepreneurial sector--for good or bad. Friday's announcement that venture capitalist Karen Gordon Mills will head the SBA makes it more clear where Obama's priorities are.
Mills does not come from the "mom n' pop" small-business world. As Dawn Rivers Baker wrote on her blog, she represents the "high-growth gazelles." She co-founded New York's Solera Capital LLC, which makes late-stage investments in companies, and was there until 2007. As explained in one profile,
"Our operating philosophy is to invest about $15–20 million in each deal and take a controlling interest," notes Mills. "We like to be the capital that comes in to grow the business to the next level — build the next plant, make an acquisition, or expand the brand."
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Will Obama Be A Free Trade President?
Continue reading… 2 Comments2008 has been a year when U.S. exports acted as a "shock absorber" for the economy, and there are signs they might be back on the rise after a dip in the latter months of the year. So will the Obama administration enact policies that promote more access to foreign markets for U.S. exporters?
The Wall Street Journal reports how the president-elect's selection of Ron Kirk as U.S. trade representative and Hilda Solis as labor secretary might show an attempt to court both pro and anti-free-trade wings.
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House Republican Leader John Boehner On The Detroit Auto Bailout
Continue reading… 2 CommentsHouse Republican Leader John Boehner released this statement in reaction to the $17.4 billion in loans for GM and Chrysler announced today:
“The action today is disappointing news for autoworkers and taxpayers, who deserve better -- particularly from their Congress, which essentially punted on this difficult issue and is gearing up to move radical environmental legislation next year that will wreak havoc on American jobs. The no-bailout restructuring plan House Republicans put forth this month, which relied on private funds rather than taxpayer funds, was the responsible way for Washington to respond to the troubles in the American auto industry. By declining to take the responsible approach, Washington has failed both autoworkers and taxpayers. The use of TARP funds is also regrettable, the latest in a growing list of TARP money uses that were not discussed with or envisioned by Congress when the program was authorized. Now that billions in taxpayer funds are being put at risk, it is more essential than ever that our Democratic counterparts back away from threats to impose extreme environmental mandates on the auto industry that will jeopardize millions of American jobs.”
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Federal Reserve Acts To Regulate Credit Cards
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Credit Crunch Intensifying For Small Businesses And Banks?
Continue reading… 1 CommentFor the past few months I've been writing about how the status of community banks in this financial crisis has been often overlooked. The story has been that they are not in nearly as much trouble as the big banks, and are still pursuing fruitful relationships with small businesses. But via Jeff Cornwall, I see some evidence that might not be true in some cases:
A NashvillePost.com analysis of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. third-quarter filings shows that four of the top nine banks based in Middle Tennessee or doing most of their business here trimmed their loan portfolios from July to September. Among them were No. 2 GreenBank and No. 5 Bank of Nashville, the latter of which chopped $85 million from its books during the quarter.
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Wynne Baker, member in charge of KraftCPAs’ banking practice, said that dichotomy sets up that group for further growth in 2009 while the banks cutting back will essentially be in a holding pattern.
“I don’t think this quarter will be any better,” Baker said. “I would imagine that regulators are telling them to take a hard look at their whole portfolio and see where they are.”
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Small Retailers Face A Cool Christmas Shopping Season
Continue reading… 0 CommentsAllison Linn at MSNBC has a terrific story profiling three small businesses--a bookstore in Seattle, a crafts store in Denver, and a consignment shop in Lexington, Kentucky--and how they are dealing with slower-than-normal sales this holiday shopping season. It's worth reading the whole thing, but let me highlight a few points.
This Christmas would be bad enough for businesses just with the overall economic environment alone. But this article points out that they also have to contend with a December that's colder than usual.
But the following Sunday, another roadblock emerged when temperatures dipped into the single digits, keeping would-be shoppers at home.
By Monday, as the temperature hovered below zero and the forecast called for bitter cold and snow for the rest of the week, Durst was bracing for Mother Nature to deal a blow. So far, she said, business for the month was down between 11 and 13 percent, and she wasn’t expecting shoppers who stayed home on the cold days to come in later. “They never come back, never,” she said. “If we have a snow day, it’s just lost.”
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5 Gifts For Your Entrepreneur Or Business Owner On Your Christmas or Hanukkah List
Continue reading… 0 CommentsIf you're like me, you still have plenty of present shopping to do, even though we're only a week from Christmas. If you're an entrepreneur or business owner, or know any, check out my list of a few gift ideas here.
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How To Get Started As A Global Entrepreneur
Continue reading… 0 CommentsEveryone in the U.S. is going to start thinking about exports soon, with the value of the dollar now sliding again, erasing all its recent gains. A global small business is in a good position to profit from economic trends. Fortuitiously, the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration, in conjunction with the Kauffman Foundation, has just launched entrepreneurship.gov, intended to be a clearinghouse of information for aspiring global entrepreneurs. Commerce Assistant Secretary for Market Access and Compliance David Bohigian, the brains behind the website, told me that he wants it be the starting point for entrepreneurs to find the resources that Commerce offers. If you need a business plan for reaching out to markets in China, Chile, or many other places, that's something with which they can help, for example.
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Finding The Next Great Social Entrepreneur
Continue reading… 1 CommentIf you're in your 20s, and hoping to change the world (and who in their 20's isn't?), check out this scholarship opportunity:
The I Will Teach You To Be Rich Scholarship for Social Innovation is an annual $2,500 award for anyone in their twenties who has demonstrated entrepreneurial excellence and is planning a socially innovative project. The award can be used for a special project, service initiative, founding a company, creating a community organization, or any other entrepreneurial venture that scales to help others.
