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Baby boomers have changed the landscape of the home, and now they are changing business in America. Read the rest of this entry »

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Better late than never when it comes to business good news. For a year that felt like it was slipping backwards into another recession, the data coming from the Federal Reserve shows a reason for optimism. Major industries like the auto and travel sectors experienced significant growth at the end of 2011 and brought needed revenues to these areas. Read the rest of this entry »

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The recession has been over for a while, but people looking for a job wouldn’t know it. Unemployment remains persistently high in many states, and federal jobs programs do not appear to have done much to help. While large corporations were the first to shed numerous jobs and outsource their positions, small businesses merely laid off hoping for better times to rehire. For Americans, the hope that the job market is really recovering lies solely with small business, which is now leading the surge to reduce the unemployment rates.

December Hits a High

Small businesses job openings surged in December of 2011 to the second highest level since the recession officially started in 2007. Small businesses tend to add their workers back faster when the economy turns around than large corporations. They tend to be typical of the small neighborhood businesses that reduced their staff to keep their door opens and survive while business is bad, but are eager to hire again once demand increases. The number of jobs added in December were enough to lower the unemployment rate from 9.0 to 8.6.

Numbers Don’t Lie

Of an estimated 325,000 jobs added to the economy, only 37,000 jobs came for large employers who have over 500 workers. The rest came from small businesses that are staffing up, which is a very good sign that the recovery is well under way. Some industries are doing better than others. Government and financial services are not as lucky as other sectors of the economy. They were the first to be hit during the recession and are expected to struggle as other sectors start to come back.

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New Businesses Add Hope

In addition, the recession had the unique characteristic of having more established businesses fail faster than new ones could be created. In 2010, that trend finally reversed itself and new businesses are being started a rate that surpasses the failures that take place the same year. The new businesses come with a whole new set of skills with hiring focusing on some global skills like being multilingual or technological knowledge. Being a world travel with experience in different cultures is also something that businesses see as a positive now.

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Businesses partnerships and alliances have long been a great way to expand services, and airlines offer the prime example of alliance building. In the last few years, three major alliances have formed to dominate the airways: Oneworld, Star, and Skyteam. The alliances have managed to provide some benefits to their customers while making it easier for airlines to operate in areas restricted by governmental regulations. If you are a person that likes to accumulate sky miles, it also helps to find carriers who will honor that arrangement in a wider network. Read the rest of this entry »

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Yes, Virginia, there is a jobs Santa Claus and his name is Gov. Bob McDonnell. States tiring of looking to federal programs for a reduction in their unemployment rates are starting to initiate their own growth agendas and Virginia is at the forefront. A two-year budget proposed by the governor includes almost $37 million in funding to spur economic growth by creating jobs in the state of Virginia. Since being in office, the focus has been on reducing the state’s unemployment rate from 7.2 percent initially to a current 6.2 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

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The advertisements during halftime at the Super Bowl have become almost as legendary as the games themselves. With television advertisers finding it more and more difficult to grab air time that isn’t fast forwarded through later on replay, the Super Bowl halftime spots remain the one shining moment in advertising. People want to want the halftime advertising spots as much as they want to watch the game. It has become a sport in itself. Read the rest of this entry »

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Forget about jobs and housing as potential indicators of economic recovery; think theme park attendance. Read the rest of this entry »

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The rest of the world may be looking forward to a great new year unfolding, but the Eurozone may be dreading the coming of 2012 in which it will face some of its toughest challenges. At the height of its economic struggles, the specter of a new recession is also top of their list of worries. The past may have seen record bailouts for some members of the European Union, specifically Greece, Ireland, and Portugal, but these economies are tiny in comparison to Italy and Spain. The events of 2012 will no doubt be historic, with some being key to the final resolution of the European Union debt crisis. Read the rest of this entry »

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Finding a venture capitalist can be like hunting a white buffalo in a dessert environment. At first, you might think that the legend that venture capitalists are extinct could be true, but then you realize you just may not be in the right environment. Unlike albino buffalo, however, venture capitalists have no notable physical characteristics to give them away from the herd. Ultimately, it can be tough to spot a venture capitalist even in places where they congregate, unless a friend knows one and makes that introduction. If you don’t move in those circles, it has been quite difficult to get an introduction to a venture capitalist just through offline networking. Now, social networking may be helping people with good business ideas and a little bit of social networking savvy to finally locate their angel investors.

Online Friends Can Help

Social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn allow people expand their social contact immensely, even going beyond their limited geographical footprint. This is especially important when trying to meet a venture capitalist, as these people generally live in the same area and fund projects within their community or only on the recommendation of someone they know. If most of the venture capitalists that fund a web startup are in Silicon Valley, California, and you are an entrepreneur that lives in Chicago, it can be a long wait to find someone willing to fund your idea. However, if you hop online, you can make friends quickly with people who live in the right areas and through their contacts end up meeting a venture capitalist you might not have met otherwise.

Special Websites

There are even special websites set up for business owners trying to make those essential business contacts to help take their business to the next level. A site called Meeteor.com will use the friends and followers already established in sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to generate more data mining on which contacts can reach a potential company or connection. Once you have a good idea how to reach that key person, you can ask that contact to introduce you online through Meeteor.com.

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Another website that has a similar payback is called. Favo.rs. This site is mostly used by people looking to expand their audience by getting favors like retweets and re-posting blog articles. Users of the site gain points for the favors they do for each other and this will lend towards more social credibility. Someone with a high social credibility might be able to request an introduction from one of the people in their network who is a venture capitalist. In fact, such types of online introductions are working for some people now even though data mining for social networking sites is still in its infancy.

Potential Hurdles

It won’t be as easy as just finding a mutual friend online, however. To reach your target venture capitalist your own social credibility will be weighed before they will agree to speak with you. If you are not in the same industry, have few credentials, or the person making the introduction also has low social credibility, it is likely that even locating the capitalist will not be enough. Like all forms of social networking, it isn’t just who you know, but who you are and what you can offer that will eventually seal the deal.

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Branding in the United States may be difficult, but add in a foreign language and a global brand in another country may end up meaning something it shouldn’t. Worried manufacturers hire linguists to help their companies market their brand in other locations to avoid being a laughingstock even before they can open their mouths. Classic examples throughout marketing history indicate that its always better to change a name that has a phonetic misinterpretation in another language, particularly when that old name isn’t too complimentary.

To Rename or Not

As companies move their brands to new countries, even the largest companies like the search engine Bing can run amuck with language faux pas’. If they had just assumed that since Bing sounds Chinese, that it would be okay. However, the phonetic word “Bing” in China actually means defect or virus. No one would be tempted to use a search engine that already warned them to beware how it works. In cases like this, a company can choose to rebrand with a whole new name that carries a different association or it can use something closely sounding like the right word, but one with better associations. Bing was renamed Bi Ying for Chinese consumption.

Other Classic Examples

Sometimes a company can luck out with the phonetic translation for their original name. Ke kou ke le in Chinese means tasty fun and it is the phonetic equivalent of Coca Cola. Mr. Muscle, on the other hand, is a cleaning solution that means chicken meat in Chinese. Manufacturers chose to rename it Mr. Powerful, instead. Some companies are warned by their linguist, but refuse to heed their warnings for e reason or another. Peugeot decided to keep their name, even though in Chinese the name closely resembles the slang word for prostitute. Rebranding is a serious choice and many companies opt to simply add new associations in the new language to make sure there is no mistake about what qualities they want associated with their product.