A briefing about how the federal stimulus is impacting small businesses in California. Also discusses stimulus opportunities. From our friends at the Small Business Administration.
Author: CBPS
Peter Mehit is co-founder and Managing Partner of Custom Business Planning and Solutions, a business consulting firm that provides problem solving, planning and process help. He has worked from private equity to the Fortune 100 at all stages.
He can be reached at pmehit@wbpllc.com or at 800-741-8444.
Statewide Small Business Stimulus Program Heads to L.A. | SBA
Business Matchmaking and SBDC team to help entrepreneurs access contracts.
LOS ANGELES — On Sept. 2 Los Angeles will be the fourth stop in a 15-city, California tour aimed at increasing small business readiness to access stimulus-funded contracts through President Obama’s Economic Recovery Plan.
The program, Stimulus Opportunities for Small Business, is free for participants and will be presented by California Small Business Development Centers and Los Angeles-based nonprofit Business Matchmaking, in cooperation with the Small Business Advocate in the governor’s office.
Continue reading “Statewide Small Business Stimulus Program Heads to L.A. | SBA”
Slipping off the Grid, or, How to Start A Revolution Without Even Trying | Peter Mehit
The sixth person we know personally is about to lose their home. We know a lot of small business owners and they are being crushed out of existence between unmanageable debt and evaporating customers. How far they will go down, since the number of jobs employing their college educated skills is trending to zero, we do not know, but they are no longer property owners. This is bad for all of us.
Continue reading “Slipping off the Grid, or, How to Start A Revolution Without Even Trying | Peter Mehit”
Men’s Underwear Will Lead Us Out of The Recession | The Consumer Warning Network
According to Alan Greenspan, who doubtless has lost some of his shine in the last few years, men’s underwear is the single most reliable predictor of the economy.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Internet Marketing: How-to | thinkingserious.com
Our friend Elmer Thomas of Thinking Serious has come up with one of the most exhaustive lists for anyone thinking about internet marketing that I’ve seen. It’s some nice work and you will benefit from reading it.
The 30 Free SEO Tools You Must Know | SEOptimise.com
If you’re struggling to understand how to optimize your website, this article discusses some cool tools (or to use the author’s phrase, ‘tools that don’t suck’) for improving your hits and click through.
Tip of the hat to Elmer Thomas for this great reference.
Social Network Marketing: What Works? | HBS Working Knowledge
This article discusses different approaches to viral marketing, from the Harvard Business School.
When marketers want to reach users of social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, or Cyworld, they have two choices: buy advertising or start a viral campaign.
New research by Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta suggests that viral may be the way to go in these connected worlds. But first it’s important to understand both who influences purchase decisions in online communities and which groups of users can be influenced.
Hidden gay slur, search terms, get campaign site blacklisted | Ars Technica
If you haven’t heard of the term ‘keyword spam’ this is a good example of it. Some web site developers that promote making your site more visible to internet search engines like Google and Yahoo use variants of the technique described in this article.
Some U.S. bank pay unmoored from performance: Cuomo | Reuters
Most people who know me know I’m a pretty optimistic guy. Then this comes along. There’s no fixing it.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bonuses paid to executives at nine banks that received U.S. government bailout money in 2008 were greater than net income at some of the banks, the office of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday.
I’m a PC, an Angry, Caustic PC. | Emails From Crazy People
An actual e-mail from Bill Gates to his crew about “Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame”. Cool. He even tells them he’s going to trash them in the Subject line.
Best Quote:
“The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind.” Turns out that Bill has had all of the same problems we have with Windows.
The take away is this, at a certain point, some businesses get so big, nobody can really control them and it’s up to the systems and culture that formed during its growth phase to steer it in maturity.
The same applies to governments too. We’re having quite a usability issue with ours.
It’s a great article. Read it here.
Dispatches From The Front 