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Tim Ferriss Says: Business Advertising Taking A Dive in 2009
Tweet Share on Facebook December 31, 2008 Comment (24)John 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
Tweet Share on Facebook December 31, 2008 Comment (19)One 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?
Tweet Share on Facebook December 31, 2008 Comment (1)Just 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)
Tweet Share on Facebook December 30, 2008 Comment (120)I 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
Tweet Share on Facebook December 30, 2008 Comment (29)Small-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
Tweet Share on Facebook December 29, 2008 CommentThrow 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
Tweet Share on Facebook December 29, 2008 Comment (3)Is 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
Tweet Share on Facebook December 24, 2008 Comment (6)My 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?
Tweet Share on Facebook December 23, 2008 Comment (1)In 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
Tweet Share on Facebook December 23, 2008 CommentAmidst 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.
