Home Wealth Project
Extensive Research On How To Build Wealth From The Comfort Of Your Own Home.
Attention Authors, Publicists, Book Lovers: Small Business Book Awards Now Open
Jan 13th
Nominations are now open for the Small Business Book Awards. Go on over and nominate your favorite business book. It’s easy and doesn’t take long.
This is the 4th year we are holding the Awards. They recognize business books of special interest to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Last year there were 106 books nominated and 41,000 votes cast by the community.
This year, over 100 books have already been nominated with over 2 weeks to go.
Books published between November 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011 are eligible.
You can nominate one book – or as many books as you like. Anyone can nominate. Authors, you are encouraged to nominate your own book. Publishers and publicists can also nominate books.
Or if you just happen to be a fan of a book and would like to recommend it to the world, please nominate it and make some author happy.
There are no fees to nominate — it’s completely free. See Official Rules.
Click on the “Nominate a Book” button and fill out the form. It’s short and takes just 2 or 3 minutes. You’ll need a link from Amazon or some other Web page dedicated to the book, along with a couple of sentences’ description (just look it up in Google to find the Amazon page). That’s all you need. If you have more information fine, but it’s not necessary.
We will be reviewing all nominations to make sure that they are eligible. We may also edit book descriptions to make sure they are informational in nature and to eliminate obvious sales hype.
Nominations first, then voting later
Right now we’re in the nominations phase. You have through January 31, 2012 to nominate small business books.
The second phase is voting. Voting will be from February 1, 2012 through February 16, 2012.
Picking the winners
Winners will be picked by popular vote. The top ten vote getters overall will be the Best Business Books of 2012. In addition, the top five vote-getters in each category will be the Category Winners. And what do the winners get? Lots of recognition!
The Book Awards are an outgrowth of the weekend business book reviews we do.
Each weekend we review at least one small business book. We’ve been doing in-depth book reviews regularly since 2007, and have over 250 in-depth reviews in the site. We started the book reviews because most small business books don’t get the recognition they deserve and get lost among the popular best sellers or the “Wall Street type” business and finance books. Our goal is to bring to the attention of small business owners those books that provide practical information to help them run their businesses better.
Follow #BizBookAwards on Twitter
Want to know which books are being nominated? Be sure to follow the Small Business Book Awards hashtag on Twitter #BizBookAwards.
Attention Authors, Publicists, Book Lovers: Small Business Book Awards Now Open
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Open conversations (or close them)
Oct 11th
A guy walks into a shop that sells ties. He’s opened the conversation by walking in.
Salesman says, “can I help you?”
The conversation is now closed. The prospect can politely say, “no thanks, just looking.”
Consider the alternative: “That’s a [insert adjective here] tie you’re wearing, sir. Where did you buy it?”
Conversation is now open. Attention has been paid, a rapport can be built. They can talk about ties. And good taste.
Or consider a patron at a fancy restaurant. He was served an old piece of fish, something hardly worth the place’s reputation. On the way out, he says to the chef,
“It must be hard to get great fish on Mondays. I’m afraid the filet I was served had turned.”
If the chef says, “I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy your meal…” then the conversation is over. The patron has been rebuffed, the feedback considered merely whining and a matter of personal perspective.
What if the chef said instead, “what kind of fish was it?” What if the chef invited the patron back into the kitchen to take a look at the process and was asked for feedback?
Open conversations generate loyalty, sales and most of all, learning… for both sides.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
Open conversations (or close them)
Oct 11th
A guy walks into a shop that sells ties. He’s opened the conversation by walking in.
Salesman says, “can I help you?”
The conversation is now closed. The prospect can politely say, “no thanks, just looking.”
Consider the alternative: “That’s a [insert adjective here] tie you’re wearing, sir. Where did you buy it?”
Conversation is now open. Attention has been paid, a rapport can be built. They can talk about ties. And good taste.
Or consider a patron at a fancy restaurant. He was served an old piece of fish, something hardly worth the place’s reputation. On the way out, he says to the chef,
“It must be hard to get great fish on Mondays. I’m afraid the filet I was served had turned.”
If the chef says, “I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy your meal…” then the conversation is over. The patron has been rebuffed, the feedback considered merely whining and a matter of personal perspective.
What if the chef said instead, “what kind of fish was it?” What if the chef invited the patron back into the kitchen to take a look at the process and was asked for feedback?
Open conversations generate loyalty, sales and most of all, learning… for both sides.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
Open a Massage Parlor
Aug 18th
Great ebook on how to open a massage parlor and get more sales for your massage business.
Open a Massage Parlor
My Door Is Always Open
Aug 6th
Shortly before I was downsized out of one of my last day jobs, the company I worked for hired a new manager. I don’t remember exactly what his title was or exactly who it was he supposed to be managing, but he was a new higher-up and of course everyone was trying to figure out the new office dynamic.
When he was introduced to us in the morning meeting, he suggested that his “door was always open,” so after giving him a few days to settle in I stopped by to say hello and introduce myself.
“Um, hi, can I help you?” he said after I knocked on the aforementioned open door.
“Hi, I’m Mark and I just wanted to…” I said politely.
“Yeah, Mark, is it? Mark if you could make an appointment with Cathy, I’ll be glad to help you with whatever it is you need. OK? Thanks.”
Needless to say, I never tested his open-door policy again, but I did get a nifty cartoon out of it!
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
How To Open A Boutique.
Apr 6th
This Hands-on, Step-by-step EBook(R) Course Gives You Everything You Need To Make Your Dream Of Boutique Ownership Come True.
How To Open A Boutique.
3 Companies Using Open Source
Mar 1st
It’s very interesting to note that a recent study revealed that approximately 85 percent of companies globally are using open source software. Not surprisingly, the main motivator for using open source software is cost. Other indicators point to the fact that this software provides companies protection from becoming locked into a single vendor.
However, major corporations and companies are also engaging in the open source development process. This process is known for its group collaboration efforts, with many different developers working on a single product or software. The end result is often much more successful than those with only a few developers working on a project.
Here is a look at some major corporations that have embraced this development philosophy with very successful results.
Procter & Gamble Co.
Imagine a world-renowned company changing the way it conducts its research and development processes. Procter & Gamble, one of the largest corporations in the world did just that. The company moved from a traditional research and development style to one that follows the open source strategy. Interestingly, Procter & Gamble calls this new strategy “connect and develop.” Following the lead of the open source initiative, the company is reaching out to the collective minds around the world. One of the goals of this new initiative is that 50 percent of the new products in development must come from sources outside of its own laboratories.
BMW
BMW Group embraces the open source development theory within its new car development projects. Team members, who can number in the hundreds, are gathered together from their home bases to work at BMW’s Research and Innovation Center. These team members include personnel from wide ranging departments including design, marketing, purchasing and others. These team members then collaborate, sometimes for as long as three years, to develop and create the new car’s prototype design. These sometimes disparate-thinking groups collaborate in an open source environment, trading and sharing ideas, all with the end goal of creating the very best new automobile design.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines recently gathered team members from across the company. These included employees in dispatch, operations, flight and crew members and others. This group was asked to come up with a set of changes that could be implemented to create changes in the airline’s operations.
Eventually the group came up with 109 ideas that were then presented to upper management. Tom Nealon, Southwest’s chief information officer stated that there was a diverse group of people working on this crucial project. He also indicated that because some group members asked questions that might seem rudimentary to others, the group actually had to do a much closer examination of their ideas and solutions. It made the group challenge themselves to look at the big picture from a different angle.
The idea of group collaboration has worked for many years with in the open source software community. Now more and more large and small corporations and companies are embracing this philosophy with some amazing results. By proof of these three examples, they are met with great success and acceptance.
View full post on Business Pundit
What’s Open and Closed on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day?
Jan 17th
In case you’re wondering, here’s the lowdown on whether banks, the US Post Office, and other institutions are open on Martin Luther King Day (from the Star Tribune):
POST OFFICES Most are closed.
BANKS TCF and U.S. Bank traditional and in-store branches are open normal hours. Wells Fargo in-store branches are open normal hours.
GROCERIES Major supermarkets are open.
MALLS Major malls are open normal hours.
MASS TRANSIT Mostly regular schedules.
PARKING METERS May not be enforced.
SCHOOLS Public schools and most universities are closed.
PUBLIC AGENCIES Local, state and federal offices are closed.
LIBRARIES Most are closed.
RECREATION CENTERS Call for hours.
Also:
THE STOCK MARKET Closed.
SKI SLOPES Extremely crowded.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Happy 81st Birthday!
View full post on Business Pundit
The open road
Dec 7th
I was driving on a very dangerous two-lane highway in India. More than eight hours of death-defying horror…
Our driver aggressively tailgated whatever car, truck or horse was in front of us, and then passed as soon as he was able (and sometimes when he wasn’t).
What amazed me, though, was what he did during those rare times when there wasn’t a car in front of us, just open road.
He didn’t speed up. In fact, it seemed as though he slowed down.
He was comfortable with the competitive nature of passing (I may not be fast, but I’m faster than you), and he was petrified of the open road and the act of choosing his own speed.
Of course, we do the same thing with our career or our businesses. Most of us need competition to tell us how fast to go.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
Rumor: Google Edition eBook Store to Open Soon
Dec 1st
Google plans on opening Google Edition, its own eBook store to compete with Apple and Amazon, this month, according to an unnamed media source. The Wall Street Journal has the story:
The long-delayed venture—Google executives had said they hoped to launch this summer—recently has cleared several technical and legal hurdles, people close to the company say. It is set to debut in the U.S. by the end of the year and internationally in the first quarter of next year, said Scott Dougall, a Google product management director.
In recent weeks, independent booksellers, which are expected to play a big role in Google Editions, began receiving contracts from their trade group. Several publishers said they were exchanging files with Google—a sign that it is close to launch, publishers say.
Google Editions hopes to upend the existing e-book market by offering an open, “read anywhere” model that is different from many competitors. Users will be able to buy books directly from Google or from multiple online retailers—including independent bookstores—and add them to an online library tied to a Google account. They will be able to access their Google accounts on most devices with a Web browser, including personal computers, smartphones and tablets.
Digital book sales are expected to more than triple to $966 million this year, according to Forrester Research, from $301 million in 2009.
The big potential I see with Google Edition is its revenue-sharing model. More authors will jump on board if Google makes that more generous than competitors. It would also help if Google’s reader wasn’t tied to Internet connectivity, so that users could read book anywhere. As with other Google products that sound juicy at inception, we’re going to have to wait and see how Google Edition plays out. There’s no guarantee of superiority, or even success.
View full post on Business Pundit
