Be dependable Favre played in 275 consecutive games. It takes more than physical durability to achieve something like that. It takes dedication, determination and sheer will. Even if you don’t get hit for a living, find ways to make sure your customers and employees know you’re willing to do whatever it takes to show up for work every day and be there for them.

Be loyal Favre spent 16 of his 17 seasons with the same team and, in a climate dominated by lucrative free-agent comings and goings, never once even flirted with the idea of leaving the people who gave him his shot at greatness. It’s no different in business - take care of the people who take care of you.

Be fearless If there’s one thing people will always remember Brett Favre for, it’s his ability to make something out of nothing one play and nothing out of something the next. Call him reckless. Call him “gunslinger.” But never call him afraid. He did it his way and did it well more often than not. Be confident in yourself and in your vision, make even the failures your own, and you can’t go wrong.

Be adaptable Late in his career, while never fully relinquishing his free-wheeling persona, Favre continued to be successful because he proved himself to be coachable and versatile. Be willing to take a new course with your business if the market changes or if the nature of your product changes, and you can see the same kind of long-term success.

Have fun Every time Favre took the field, there was a sense that he’d play the game for free. There’s no substitute for taking that kind of joy in your work. It’s contagious in sports and it’s just as contagious in business. Your employees will follow suit and pass it right on down to your customers.

entrepreneur.com

Producers of the Internet-video serial “lonelygirl15″ — once thought to be an amateur project but later revealed to be the product of professionals — have raised $5 million from prominent technology investors to expand and introduce new online shows.

The new funding for EQAL, the Los Angeles company behind “lonelygirl” and another popular Internet drama, “KateModern,” illustrates Silicon Valley’s continuing push to move video onto the Web and find better ways to make money from it. Though the online-video industry got a big boost after Google Inc. bought video site YouTube for $1.6 billion two years ago, many companies are still struggling to come up with viable revenue models.

Todd Dagres, a partner at Spark Capital, the Boston-based firm that led EQAL’s round of financing, said the studio understands that “the Web is not TV, and you can’t advertise like you do on TV.”

Instead, EQAL, formerly known as LG15 Studios and led by Chief Executive Miles Beckett and President Greg Goodfried, plans to weave advertising into the content of their shows, Mr. Dagres said, and also to interact with its community of viewers.

Other investors putting cash into EQAL include Silicon Valley’s Ron Conway, who backed Google in its early days; Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of browser pioneer Netscape Communications; Conrad Riggs, a Hollywood producer involved with TV shows such as “Survivor” and “The Apprentice”; and Georges Harik, a former Google executive.

wsj

Sam Houghton, of Buxton, Derbyshire, was just three when he came up with a double-headed broom to collect large debris and fine dust simultaneously.

Sam, who was inspired by animated inventors Wallace and Gromit and Archie the Inventor from TV series Balamory, said: “I saw my Daddy brushing up and made it. There are two brushes because one gets the big bits and one gets the little bits left behind.

“I don’t know if I want to be an inventor when I grow up but this was fun.”

Sam had been watching his father at work in the back yard, swapping between a large broom, for leaves and twigs, and a small one, for finer particles, when he came up with his idea.

BBC UK

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.

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.

Each potential merger scenario could affect the future of your Internet ad dollars.

Most analysts believe Microsoft will prevail in its bid for Yahoo, and while that may seem on the surface to mean higher prices for ads because there will be less competition, think again.

“Heaven would be if Microsoft purchased Yahoo, kept Yahoo intact under the Yahoo brand, and used Yahoo search and Yahoo Search Marketing to power Microsoft Live,” she says.

MSNBC YourBiz

Jordan’s computer savvy has really paid off. Not only has he been able to tuck some cash away, but it’s earned him attention with the McElvy Foundation. They awarded him $40,000 for college!

Jordan- “I had no idea that you could get scholarships just from being a business owner at such a young age.”

But “Dotcomer” has been a lot more than a paycheck for Jordan. It’s taught him several aspects of running a business including how to conduct himself in a professional way.

Jordan-”It’s taught me to just be aware of how you act when you’re out in public or when your with people that could bve your potential clients in the future. You never know who you’re going to be workign with.”

kxmc.com

According to the new policy, all items listed for sale on eBay.com.au on or after May 21, 2008, must offer PayPal as one of the payment methods. Beginning June17, all items appearing on eBay.com.au must be paid for using PayPal or pay on pick up. Visa and MasterCard are accepted only when processed through PayPal.

The only exceptions to the policy will be for listings in the categories of cars, motorcycles, aircraft, boats, caravans, trailers, trucks (commercials), services, real estate and businesses for sale.

Holly Suttmann, a former schoolteacher, started the Black & Light Candle company. Holly really understands word of mouth. She’s proof that every business can master these inexpensive techniques.

Lessons from Holly:

1. Cultivate key talkers. She’s sent me two personal notes and really built a relationship with me.
2. Use samples. People can’t talk about a product they haven’t seen.
3. Make it easy to spread the word. Holly sent me a stack of postcards to forward to friends.
4. Make your talkers look good. She gave me a discount code to share.
5. Add remarkable features. Sometimes you need a reason to talk that is more than the product itself.
6. Create a fantastic product.

The lesson: High-touch, high-quality word of mouth is effective and inexpensive. Are you spending more on cold sales letters and glossy flyers than it would take to get real word of mouth?

“This is something that’s been needed for a while, but no one has been able to do it successfully,” said Greg Sterling, of Sterling Marketplace Intelligence, an online consultancy. “With these new services, there are a lot of circumstances where it can work quite well for both the business and the consumer.”

When Jennifer Brinn opened a practice in massage and Reiki (a Japanese stress-reduction technique) in San Francisco in 2003, she relied on a day planner and lots of “e-mail and phone tag” to book appointments. Last year, she began testing HourTown, an online booking service started by a former product designer for PayPal, Ryan Donahue.

HourTown, like its competitors, BookingAngel and Genbook, is an online calendar tool, with a twist. Users fill the calendar with personal and business appointments, but they can also transmit to the Web any blocks of time they would like to make available for business appointments. Customers can book a time directly from the service provider’s Web site, or, in the case of Ms. Brinn, they can reserve a slot and wait for her to confirm the appointment with an e-mail. Either way, it is free for customers.

Last year, Ms. Brinn started buying text advertising on Google around the same time she added the HourTown booking technology to her site (www.jbrinn.com), and since that time her client base has doubled to more than 200. HourTown, she said, helps her attract more impulse buyers.

It doesn’t sound like much: an elongated stainless steel frame, connected to an aviation cable with a batting practice ball bolted to the end. But with one person swinging the device in a circular motion, a little wrist action and the resulting centrifugal force can provide a whole lot of practice cuts for a batter in a short period of time.

In the summer of 2006, five years and some $70,000 in research and development later, Chambers and Kost, the engineer behind the bataround, finally put their invention on the market.

Lodi News-Sentinel

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone.
2. Get and stay out of your comfort zone.
3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think.
4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be.
5. Focus on what you want to have happen.
6. Take things a day at a time.
7. Always be moving forward.
8. Be quick to decide.
9. Measure everything of significance.
10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate.
11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing.
12. Never let anybody push you around.
13. Never expect life to be fair.
14. Solve your own problems.
15. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
16. There’s always a reason to smile.

bobparsons.com

1. Coaching and Teaching
2. Communications/Information
3. Direct Sales
4. E-tailing
5. Event Planning
6. Parenting Services/Products
7. Personal Services
8. Virtual Assistant
9. Website Consultant
10. Work-at-Home Support

Mompreneurs Online

Every business can find a way to extend some form of gift certificate to clients and prospects. Think about the marketing factors at play with this tool. You allow others to pass your marketing message or gain some additional benefit from the relationship they have with your firm - service and product businesses alike can benefit from that way of thinking.

No matter what your firm offers, you can create gift certificates, with real value, and offer them to your clients to buy and use as gifts.

What about as a referral tool?

Two or three times a year send a mailing to your clients and strategic partners and enclose several gift certificates for your products or services (don’t call them coupons, coupons are for yogurt.) Ask the recipients to pass these along to anyone they know who might want to take advantage of the value they offer. And, tell your client that for each one of these that comes back in the door, they will receive some amount off of their next purchase. There is a little tracking involved in this tactic, but the instant rush of new business will make it worth setting up a simple process to accomplish this.

This tool stimulates thinking about your brand and makes you easier to refer - both good marketing things.

ducttapemarketing.com

Whether a child is groomed to take over the family business or mistakenly pushed into it, problems often arise when family and authority mix.

“Being in an emotional relationship and a business relationship puts a different, more difficult kind of strain on relationships,” said Getzler, who inherited his consulting firm from his father.

Difficult-to-solve personality issues are almost inevitable in family companies, and without an exceptionally strong patriarch or matriarch leading the family business, problems can mushroom.

Despite whether a favored daughter was groomed for the business or a son was mistakenly pushed into a position of authority, a parent might not have the ability to select an appropriate heir.

“Once the patriarch or matriarch retires or dies, many businesses become a free-for-all - despite carefully laid plans,” Getzler said.

To that end, Getzler offers some tips to help business owners make rational decisions about their successors. These strategies can also help owners make other tough calls when family relationships are at stake.

1. Set up an advisory board.
2. Employ a family business counselor.
3. Manage egos and salary demands.
4. Stop the feeding frenzy.

“Everyone gets along generally when there is a lot of money to go around. The fights start when someone feels they are working hard and not making enough,” Getzler said.

In the end, he insisted, “there’s nothing magical,” to navigating through difficult family business issues. “It’s about getting people to focus on the end result.”

Two Minnesota men have found their niche in the travel market by taking groups to scary places.

Dave Schrader of Circle Pines and Tim Dennis of Burnsville are leading groups on trips to haunted hotels and spooky cruise ships.

The two started an online radio show called “Darkness Radio” in January 2006. Within a year, their weekly broadcasts had made them celebrities among fanciers of otherworldly mystery.

They began asking stars of TV shows about the supernatural to cohost weekends at haunted destinations. Among the locations are the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado — made famous by the movie “The Shining.”

Travelers pay between $180 to $250 for the trips — not including transportation or lodging.
WKBT.com

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
   
2. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
   
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
   
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
   
5. Let the other person save face.
   
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
   
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
   
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
   
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.
   

As the economy slows, this is a good time to take a closer look at the federal government, the largest buyer of goods and services in the world. The advantages are clear. The budget is set; the government typically lets vendors know where they stand throughout the bidding process; and, best of all, bills are paid on time, typically within 30 days.

Witcher says he has become a government convert. After hiring a consultant to learn how to navigate the complicated process of bidding for federal work, he shifted his inventory control officer to the full-time task of researching potential contracts and has amassed a database that tracks all the bids the company has submitted - won and lost - to learn from its history.

“The federal government is my No. 1 customer now when it comes to parts,” Witcher says. “It has been continually on a growth pattern for us.”

The government buys virtually everything the private sector does, from condoms to coffeemakers to the services of publicists, pest control experts to entertainers. Yet for some, the idea of doing business with the government raises images of can’t win backroom deals. That’s just not the case with contracts in the small business arena, says Malcolm Parvey, a marketing consultant who has coached Witcher’s company and others on how to win federal bids.

Most of the work is awarded electronically, he notes, through a rigorous procurement process that takes time to master. There’s a high level of transparency, too. The government even lets bidders see who their competitors were and how they priced once the job is awarded.

“I know that small businesses have a great interest in this market; they just don’t have the time and they don’t have the expertise to go after it,” says Parvey, co-author of a new book, “Winning Government Contracts,” due out in February from Career Press.

The book is the latest attempt to simplify what can look like an insiders’ game. There are many guides on how to get federal work, including the government’s own tutorials at the Web sites of agencies such as the U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. General Services Administration as well as popular sites for searching federal procurement such as FedBizOpps.

“With the Internet what used to take 10 days now takes 10 minutes,” he says. “There are more and more agencies that are allowing competitive bidding to be done over the Internet.”

reuters.com

The most important thing you can do before attending a trade show is to make sure you choose the right one. Be sure to make your choice based on the potential returns.

To choose appropriate trade shows, consider the following:

• Ask your best customers (or target customers) which trade shows they attend.
• Consider cost.
• Examine the nature of the attendees.

To find potential trade shows in your industry, visit tsnn.com, where you can search by industry, show name, date or state. You should also visit the website of the industry association related to your product; most sponsor trade shows for members and buyers to come together.

msnbc.com

The Geminoid was created by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro using a model of his body and hair actually from his head.

When you poke its face, the robot even frowns like a real human, as it has 50 sensors implanted beneath its skin.

The robot also looks like it can breathe because compressed air is pumped around its body!

BBC

1. iPhone - which consumers camped out for prior to its June debut, is the obvious choice for any “Best of 2007″ list. Much more than a phone, it also features an iPod, a camera and the internet, all in one. The multi-touch display allows you to control everything with your fingertips. Zoom in and zoom out on maps to determine your driving route and use the Visual Voicemail to listen to your messages in any order you choose.
2. Kindle - Since it became available in November, Amazon.com has struggled to keep this new electronic reading device in stock. The revolutionary portable reader downloads books, blogs, magazines and newspapers. The Kindle features a high-resolution electronic paper display that looks like real paper. Readers can choose from more than 90,000 books available in the Kindle store, including new releases and New York Times bestsellers. Aside from the cost of books, which run around $9.99, there are no monthly wireless bills or service commitments.
3. ZPrinter 450 - This device can transform electronic 3D data into colorful, handheld physical models. It can be used to create architectural concepts, landscapes, engineering product designs, electronic entertainment objects and medical information. The ZPrinter 450 is the third 3D printer made by Z Corp. and is touted as the most compatible with contemporary office environments. The ZPrinter 450 breaks down 3D printing into seven easy steps. It also includes automatic setup, power loading and self-monitoring of materials and print status.
4. iRobot Looj Gutter Cleaning Robot - iRobot, maker of the Roomba, says it’s the first product designed to make gutter cleaning faster, easier and safer. The robot is controlled by a wireless remote that’s also a detachable handle. The Looj can clean a 60-foot section of gutter in just 10 minutes. It drives under gutter straps while dislodging and eliminating dirt, leaves and debris. The robot works with standard K-style, aluminum, copper, metal or vinyl gutters.
5. QwikGrip - After eight years of development, inventor Leonard Duffy has created the Velcro of the future–a fastening technology that snaps into place and slides into full engagement. His “slidingly engaging” systems are applicable to many industries, including apparel, sports, health care, safety and military. Duffy says his invention can bind a new plastic cast or even take the place of shoe laces. Right now, the fastening technology is on the market as a business-to-business licensing opportunity, though it’ll be available for consumer purchase in 2008.
6. GreenSwitch - Originally, the GreenSwitch system was designed for controlling energy use in hospitals and hotels. After reducing energy costs by 25 to 45 percent in those industries, the technology has now entered the consumer market. The wireless system can reduce home energy consumption by turning off all designated light switches, wall plugs and air conditioning with the flip of a switch. After flipping the switch back on, all plugs and systems return to normal modes. The system can be retrofitted in an existing home or added to a new home during construction.

Entrepreneur Dot Com

Michelle Harvey formed the Pittsburgh Town Shopper delivery service in September and works almost exclusively as a personal shopper and courier for Downtown residents who don’t yet have a neighborhood grocery store.

“There’s nothing here,” said Lopez, who moved here from Los Angeles last summer. “At one point, I didn’t even have a car, so that (Pittsburgh Town Shopper) was extremely convenient for me. I didn’t have to find a way to go out and get food or order from Dominos.”

Pittsburgh Town Shopper is hardly the first Web-based grocery delivery service, but there are few, if any, in the Pittsburgh area.

“I think I have a niche,” said Harvey, who declined to disclose sales figures or the number of customers she has. She said her services, which cost $39 for an average delivery, are in demand and she hopes business will grow to the point where she has employees to shop as well.

Pittsburgh Live

“Before I became a marshmallow king, I spent several years in the early 1990s as a banker in Hamburg. I was struck by how much my wife missed American junk food. She’d drive eight hours to Belgium and spend $12 for a $3 box of Oreos. It got me thinking that there might be a demand for American-branded products, not only among expats but among the locals.

“It took me 2-and-a-half years to land my first sale, to a German catalog company. Unfortunately it wanted small quantities of a lot of different items. Soon I was exporting almost 2,000 different American food products- Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Bisquick, cake mixes. “This wasn’t the most profitable way to do business- the margins were too thin, and we depended on the cooperation of major brands. It made more sense to develop our own versions of American food that wasn’t available overseas, selling the product instead of the brand.

“We started with marshmallows. My manufacturer offered to develop a private label for me, and Rocky Mountain Marshmallows was born in 1996. We launched our pretzel and popcorn brands shortly after. Our marshmallow-exporting business grew so well - doubling in sales every year from 1996 to 2004 - that my co-packer, Doumak, purchased the Rocky Mountain brand from me on the condition that we continued to export it. In the past two years we have nearly tripled marshmallow sales.

“Politically the U.S. is unpopular abroad. But we see an almost unlimited opportunity for growth for our products. We recently shipped marshmallows, popcorn, and pretzels to new clients in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. American culture, at least as it’s manifested in food, is pretty bulletproof.” –as told to Alessandra Bianchi.

CNN Money

1. Your family & friends will always understand the time commitment, even when no money is coming in.
2. Your friends’ constructive criticism is never out of jealousy
3. Your college degree is all you need to secure the knowledge entrepreneurship requires
4. Your lack of a college degree will ensure your business fails
5. Anyone that has tried and failed automatically must be trusted because “they’ve done it”.
6. If the majority of your peers call the idea silly, it probably is.
7. You have to spend money to make money (this one is borderline, but a lot can be earned by charging people for your knowledge on something)

Personal Finance Advice

According to Donna, a company called Global Healthcare Inc.,out of London, sent her a contract asking her to cash checks and wire them the money. It was supposedly quicker than doing it overseas. Donna was promised 10-percent of the money cashed, “It looked legitimate I mean I went to paralegal school and I knew some contractual law and so the contract looked legitimate, but it wasn’t evidentially.”

After Donna cashed a check from a “so called” customer and wired the company more than 25-hundred dollars, she later found out the check was fake and she was the one who was stuck paying, “I was so devastated I cried so hard.”

Sgt. Kevin Smith of the St. Petersburg Police Department says, he gets calls like this one at least two times a week, “It’s heartbreaking because you really hate to see people out there trying to work, trying to sell something to be taken advantage of.”

Sgt. Kevin Smith says websites like Career Builder.Com are safe, but people need to be more aware of who they’re dealing with, “Unfortunately anybody has a right to log in and look at those resumes so you really don’t know who’s actually offering you a job.”

He says thieves are also targeting victims through the mail and even fax machines. . Sgt. Smith says it’s difficult to catch the thieves because of trying to coordinate with other countries. He says banks don’t take responsibility for these incidents, because it’s the account holder who’s cashing the checks, even though they’re not aware they’re fake.

Donna now believes if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is, “I’m really afraid to go on line anymore and even answer emails from companies.” While she paid an expensive price, she hopes others learn from her experience

First Coast News

University of Dreams uses its staff’s personal contacts at 500 companies to get students internships with employers they couldn’t otherwise get into, said CEO Eric Lochtefeld. For interns, that’s better than sending in a résumé and hoping, he said.

“Does any college student really, sincerely believe that their résumé will stand out or get better consideration than an actual introduction would provide?” Lochtefeld said.

In four years, the company has placed 1,800 students in companies such as Paramount Pictures or MTV Networks, both divisions of Viacom Inc. It has slots this summer for 850 students, he said.

Students pay from $6,499 to $8,999 to have the company find them an eight-week summer internship, plus housing in dorms at universities, some meals, transportation to work and activities for a summer. Financial assistance, including loans, grants and full scholarships, is available.

An admissions team reviews applications and makes an offer. Students who are accepted pay a deposit of $500 to $1,000. Then they work with a placement agent, who finds a matching company.

They’re guaranteed an internship in the field of their choice or their money back. Most of the internships are unpaid, but University of Dreams arranges for college credit through universities.

rockymountainnews.com

Adam’s truck reminds adults of their childhood - but with a twist. Ice Cream trucks have pretty much disappeared from the suburban landscape. What Adam has done is taken a good idea that’s expired - and reinvented the concept for a different time.

How does this relate to your business? You’re probably looking at something within your environment that you take for granted. That blends into the background. That has long been forgotten, or no longer useful. Examine your business - your marketplace, and your environment, and ask, what could we reinvent? What could we do differently than anyone else in our business?

Being different allows you to capture the interest of potential customers, retain the love of your evangelists, and stand out in your marketplace. And sometimes it’s as simple as reinventing the ordinary things right in front of you.

Smart Biz Blog

Facing bankruptcy can be a terrifying experience for a franchisee or small business owner. But it’s not uncommon - and it’s not hopeless either. Not everyone comes back from the brink, but Jeff McKeown is one entrepreneur who did. After four years in the staffing industry, he decided to open his own Express Personnel franchise in Racine, Wis. in 2000 at the age of 26.

In order to put the required $28,000 down, McKeown and his wife borrowed $15,000 and cashed out their 401(k)s and combined savings accounts to come up with the difference. Eager to get his business off the ground, McKeown said he accepted any and all clients, even those with bad credit and iffy documentation. He also felt that to compete, he needed to have the lowest price in town so he kept very small margins.

“Many clients did not pay their bills and several declared bankruptcy with huge payments to me outstanding,” McKeown explained.

By 2003 he owed the franchisor $120,000 and had maxed out all of his credit cards. Express Personnel’s corporate office even sent McKeown a 10-day letter that said the company planned take back the franchise.

That’s when he realized he was in trouble, McKeown said. So with the help of a consultant, he fired 30 percent of his customers, raised prices, and established minimum gross margins and strict credit terms. The business began to grow and by July 2006 he had paid off the majority of his debt. Last year, McKeown says he earned about $160,000 to $170,000 and is expecting to net $400,000 to $500,000 in 2007.

Climbing out of debt

If a franchisee or small business owner is nearing bankruptcy then “either their revenue is short or their expenses are too darn high, but usually it’s both,” according to Jeff Elgin, CEO of Minn.-based FranChoice, a franchise consulting firm.

Elgin suggests taking a good hard look at the expenses for starters, and making sure that all of them are absolutely necessary. “Take away the credit cards,” he said.

For franchisees, “usually, the fundamental issue is that they’re not executing the system,” Elgin said. And if it’s a good franchise company, then it has a proven and reliable system. “If you execute it, you will succeed,” he says. People just need to get “back to the basics of blocking and tackling.”

Indeed, many franchisors have consultants on staff tasked with helping franchisees grow their businesses.

“I thought I knew it all,” McKeown said. He now advises other young entrepreneurs to find a mentor or expert who can offer support and business advice.

By Jessica Dickler, CNNMoney.com staff writer

Most mainstream solutions on the market only address adult mosquitoes, he says. So, he focused on reducing the number of eggs, larvae and pupae.

Dancy’s trap is designed to be an ideal breeding spot for the Asian tiger and other container- or tree-hole-breeders. When the eggs hatch, the larvae and pupae will not escape. The trap itself is small, unobtrusive and easy to manage.

The trap requires a little water each week and the addition of a few dead leaves occasionally, and homeowners must be cognizant of other breeding areas around the home. Dancy’s trap has a patent pending and sells online at MosquitoSwallow.com. It will be released in some Austin-area garden centers in the coming months. The Web site also offers helpful information for homeowners to minimize the mosquito swarms this summer.

American-Statesman

“A mug shot is a couple notches below your driver’s license picture,” said Devin James, 41, dressed casually in sweat pants, sneakers and a ball cap. “And everyone takes a messed up driver’s license picture.”

In JAIL, the stars are the readers’ neighbors, charged with everything from drug possession to prostitution to murder. Thousands of arrests each week in the paper’s three-county distribution area provide plenty of material, all obtained free from police and sheriff’s departments.

James carefully chooses the mug shots on the front page — issues with attractive women on the front move fastest.

“Sex sells,” James said.

James said he got the idea nearly a decade ago after a three-month stint in the Orange County Jail after he says he got into a loud fight with a girlfriend and the police sided with her. He denies hitting her.

Using $600 he earned moving furniture, James started the newspaper in December.

“The timing is right for this paper now,” he said. “America is in the midst of a crime wave.”

Associated Press

Customized Evlove Intimates lingerie is sold primarily through private home parties. Invited guests sip wine while they select from a wide array of designs, samples, fabric swatches and decorative touches including ribbons, appliqués, rosettes and bows. Dombroski hooks up her laptop to a TV screen where guests view and revise their choices courtesy of her online design studio. Prices for a lingerie set run around USD 100, with prices for individual pieces USD 35 and up. Purchases are delivered in about three weeks. Dombroski recently launched a website to enable customers to design and place orders online. But most of her business is through home parties, with the number of bookings increasing each month, mostly through word of mouth.

Dombroski’s ‘customerization parties’ are an inspired idea that could work just about anywhere for all sorts of products, including t-shirts, home fashions, fragrances and cosmetics. The founder’s advice for other fledgling entrepreneurs? “Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. If you love the product, ask questions and network—a lot. And above all, be persistent.”

Springwise

Running a Web site that publishes reviews of camcorders sounds like a tame line of work. But I had a moment of terror when an executive at a major electronics manufacturer accused me of hacking into the corporation’s computer system to get information about a new product.

My site, CamcorderInfo.com, evaluates equipment for consumers. I started it five years ago as a senior in high school. While I attended Tufts University, my team and I built it to 20,000 visitors a day. Our major selling point is our reputation. Some reviewers in this field have damaged their credibility through cozy relationships with big manufacturers. We maintain our independence - and publicize it.

The executive’s accusation came after I published an advance look at one of his firm’s camcorders. I had found pictures and specs on the company’s Web site. He claimed that the review, which I considered to be neutral, had forced his employer to release a rudimentary version of the product early and damaged sales. He threatened to call the FBI to prosecute me if I didn’t reveal information about an anonymous source at the firm whom I had interviewed.

Complete story at FSB Magazine

Social networking sites are not only biting into workplace productivity — they can also pose a major security risk, new research shows.

In a national survey of more than 800 employees across a range of industries, more than half said they spent at least an hour a week accessing blogs, chat rooms, videos, and other social networking tools and services at work, according to Clearswift, a Redwood, Calif.-based Internet security consulting firm.

Clearswift COO Ian Bowles said that despite the well-known dangers of online viruses, bugs, spam, and scams, most business owners are still far too casual with the Internet.

He said the survey results should “raise a red flag” for employers about their susceptibility to data leaks over the Web.

Still, more than half of the employees polled said they felt entitled to use the Internet for personal reasons at work, the survey found.

In recent years, many businesses have included an “acceptable use” policy for workplace Internet use in updated employee handbooks — only 29 percent of the business owners surveyed by Clearswift outright banned the use of social networking sites at work.

Nancy Cooper, an employment law attorney with Portland, Ore.-based Bullivant Houser Bailey PC, advices employers to have policies in place for blogs, chat rooms, and other online activity. Though employers can’t necessarily prevent workers from accessing Web 2.0 sites, they can make it clear there will be consequences for sharing confidential business data, said Cooper, an Inc.com columnist.

Firing an employee for an online infraction is now common enough that legal experts refer to it simply as “dooced,” a term coined from a case involving the author of a blog named dooce.com who was fired for posting angry messages about her employer and co-workers.

inc.com

Each year, his company chops 1 million pounds of fresh ginger, enough to fill 28 big-rig trailers. In addition to sugared ginger candies and ice creams, he produces six ginger brews: Spiced Apple, Raspberry Ginger, Cherry Ginger, Original Ginger, Premium Ginger and Extra Ginger, the last of which packs 26 grams’ worth of the stuff.

In a business dominated by Coke and Pepsi, healthful soda sounds like a contradiction. But unusual beverage companies such as Reed’s are etching out a niche within the carbonated beverage industry, which sells about $28 billion worth of drinks annually to U.S. consumers, according to ACNielsen.

Natural sodas saw 36.5% sales growth in conventional food stores and 12.4% in natural food stores during the last year.

LA Times

Almost nine out of 10 small business owners surveyed said the current health care system is in need of change, with six of 10 saying a complete overhaul is in order.

The survey found 55 percent of small business owners do not offer any health insurance to their employees, citing high cost as the No. 1 reason. Of these business owners, 55 percent said they would be more likely to offer such benefits if the federal government provided some financial incentives for this coverage.

A third of small business owners said they were cutting back on noncapital investments so they could provide health care for their employees.

Results were based on telephone interviews with 603 small business owners nationwide conducted July 12-23 for the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index. The margin of sampling error is plus-4 percentage points.

Small business owners were asked what effect adequate health insurance has on a company’s employees. Eighty-four percent said that adequate coverage attracts the best qualified employees, and 81 percent agreed that it improves employee loyalty. Eighty-three percent believed it reduced an employee’s likelihood to leave a company.

Portland Business Journal