As confidence in military and White House leadership continues sliding, Americans are gaining confidence in the country’s small business leaders.

When asked how much confidence they have in leaders of a range of public and private institutions, 54% expressed a “great deal” of confidence in leaders of small business, a new Harris Interactive poll found. That put the small business sector atop the list of institutions in which respondents expressed the most confidence. The military came second with 46%, and major educational and medical institutions came next, with each sector notching 37%. The telephone poll of 1,013 Americans was conducted Feb. 6-12.

Though military leadership had the second-largest percentage of respondents expressing a great deal of confidence, that figure has slipped substantially from 2002’s high of 71%. Likewise, the percentage of those expressing a great deal of confidence in White House leaders has slipped from its post-Sept. 11 high of 50% in 2002, to 22% in 2007.

Confidence in the leaders from other public sectors has been slipping as well. The percentage with a great deal of confidence in the Supreme Court dropped from 33% in 2006 to 27% this year. Over the same time period, the support for leadership of organized religion shed three percentage points, going from 30% to 27%.

Outside of small business, the captains of corporate America and Wall Street also saw growing shares of respondents with a great deal of confidence. The percentage of those with a great deal of confidence in Wall Street leadership edged up from 15% to 17% between 2006 and 2007. And “major companies” gained three points, going from 13% to 16% during the same period.

startupjournal.com

Blackanthem Military News, WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Air Force’s new small business director, Ronald A. Poussard, looks to expand opportunities for small businesses and reach beyond goals to support the Air Force mission.

Mr. Poussard, who is a member of the Senior Executive Service, was selected as the director of the Air Force Office of Small Business Programs. He will be responsible for the leadership, management and oversight of the Small and Minority Business Program, the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Minority Institution Programs for the Department of the Air Force.

Mr. Poussard began his Federal government career with the U.S. Navy as a student trainee in 1982, and has held a variety of increasingly senior positions in the acquisition community. He has been a staff analyst supporting major systems such as the C-17 cargo airlift aircraft, as well as the Deputy Director of Contracting and the Small Business Director at the 11th Wing, Bolling AFB, D.C. He also served as the Director of Contracts and contracting officer establishing the first joint Air Force, National Reconnaissance Office and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency space-based radar program. Mr. Poussard has also served as senior business adviser to Air Force Program Executive Officers and field acquisition commanders for space and command and control programs, providing contracting and business analyses for the development of acquisition strategies and source selections. Additionally, he was the Deputy Director of the Defense Acquisition Regulations System Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Washington, D.C.

Mr. Poussard holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Northeastern University, a Master’s degree in national security studies from Georgetown University, and a Masters degree in National Resources Management from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He is also a graduate of several executive leadership courses.

Blackanthem Military News

Just over a year ago, we covered Ether, which makes it easy for (budding) entrepreneurs to sell spoken advice and support by providing them with a dedicated 1-888 number for customers to call, and taking care of billing and payments. Now, a massive player has joined the arena. Skype’s latest software release includes a beta version of Skype Prime. The service is very similar to Ether: sellers set a price, fixed or per minute, find buyers for their service, and Skype handles the rest. Of course, instead of using phone lines, both sellers and buyers use Skype’s voice over IP platform.

While Skype charges ‘call providers’ more than Ether does—30% commission versus 15%—Skype’s obvious benefit is its existing global user base. Skype has over 171 million registered users, is available in 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world. Which means a very large reach for minipreneurs who’d like to sell their services, whether they’re offering Spanish lessons, tax advice or something saucier. (Note that Skype’s guidelines state that call providers cannot offer any content or service that is adult, sexual, pornographic or paedophiliac.)

Other alternatives include BitWine and Wengo.

springwise.com

Things Scam Companies Don’t Want You To Think About

My editor, Owen Thomas, recently passed along to me an email that had found its way to his inbox about a stock called Xethanol (XNL), suggesting that I might be interested in looking into it. The email claimed that Xethanol was attempting to defraud investors. I wasn’t too familiar with the company, but I knew it produced ethanol and was often mentioned alongside companies like Verasun (VSE) and US BioEnergy (USBE). That was enough to spark my interest, and a quick search of the company name along with the word ’scam’ came up with this Sharesleuth article.

Read the article at Business2.0

“Try offering salespeople bigger commissions to offset the lower salaries you’re paying,” suggests Dave Lorenzo, a managing partner at the Gallup Organization, who frequently advises entrepreneurs. Or go beyond standard one-time commissions: One of Lorenzo’s recent clients, Brite Building Services in Dix Hills, N.Y., is a commercial-cleaning company that pays its salespeople relatively modest salaries but sweetens the deal with a percentage of any new business they bring in. The employee gets his cut over the life of the account, like an annuity. Very few big companies offer anything like that.

You might also ponder a reward that’s a little off the beaten path. “The only limit is your creativity,” says Lorenzo. One real estate firm he knows has a gym as a tenant and gives its own employees free memberships. (In return the gym owner gets a little break on the rent.) Whenever possible, Lorenzo says, entrepreneurs should “try working a deal that’s connected to your regular business. If you sell appliances, give your employees appliances at cost. Car dealerships routinely let them drive demo cars.”

Okay, so medical supplies may not lend themselves so readily to that kind of incentive - how many Foley catheters or artificial heart valves do most of us need? - but Lorenzo insists that you can find appealing alternatives if you try. “The hottest thing today is letting employees work from home. People who have been successful in traditional sales jobs, especially, love being free to set their own schedules and not have anybody looking over their shoulder,” he says. “And it’s a win for you too, because you don’t need to have office space for them.”

FSB 2.0

Thinking about starting a business? Follow these crucial tips and your company might just become the next big thing.

Starting a business is a complicated, risky, all-consuming effort. Indeed, just two-thirds of new small businesses survive at least two years, and only 44 percent survive at least four years, according to a study by the U.S. Small Business Association.

Taking the six steps below will help put you on the road to success.

1. Determine if you’re an entrepreneur or just a wannabe
2. Pinpoint an opportunity
3. Make sure there’s a market for your idea
4. Write a business plan
5. Determine your business structure
6. Look for funding

Fortune Small Business

As a business owner you may struggle with the question of how you will be able to get everything done. This is especially true for independent service professionals and solopreneurs. There are only so many hours in the day, this isn’t going to change. So something else has to.
To get started, make a list of all of the things you are going to stop doing, things that are not directly connected to the core of your business.

Here are some examples of things for a “to don’t” list:

• Don’t schedule meetings with everyone who asks
• Don’t check e-mail every 10 minutes
• Don’t spend hours thinking about small things like the best font type
• Don’t get lost surfing the internet
• Don’t keep doing things manually that you can automate

Once you have your list ready, keep it in a place where you can see it. As you begin each day, think about what you want to accomplish and remind yourself of what you will NOT be doing. As you take action throughout the day, be aware of your activities and check to see if something you are doing is on your “to don’t” list - if it is, stop doing it immediately! You can always add new things to your list as you become more aware of how you spend your time.

After awhile, you will automatically notice a “to don’t” and you will choose not to do it before you get lost in the activity and wonder where the last hour(s) went.

You can also use your “to don’t” list as a way to set stronger boundaries for yourself, and your business. Saying no to certain things makes the things you do choose to say ‘yes’ to, that much more clear and powerful.

businessknowhow.com