Recently, I gave a Marketing 101 talk to a group of small-business owners in Austin, Tex., mostly principals at professional service companies like law firms. I’m a big fan of handwritten notes as an effective, inexpensive but surprisingly powerful tool and highlighted them in my presentation. Afterward, Gerald Blancett, a marketing representative with a cable [...]

Last week, I wrote about holding a succession-planning meeting with my family. While I am not planning to retire any time soon, I recognize that bad things do happen — unexpected bad things like sickness, disability, and of course the ultimate bad thing, death. These things are never fun for anyone, but when you own [...]

Last week, I told you about a business that wants to collect charity from casino gamblers. This week the social entrepreneurship theme continues, as pledge4good focuses on a micro-donation platform enabled by social sharing. You can view the video pitch and my review of the pitch below. I have also highlighted some takeaways in this [...]

 

Courtesy of Ridejoy.The Ridejoy team, from left: Seth Warrick, Margot Leong, Randy Pang, Jason Shen and Kalvin Wang I recently wrote here about Ridejoy, an online service that matches riders who need a ride with drivers who have space in their cars. The post looked at the company’s Web site and highlighted two crucial challenges: [...]

 

Jeffrey Braverman says his investment will pay off; it’s just a question of when. Last week, our case study looked at a decision faced by the Newark Nut Company, a family-owned nut retailer based in Cranford, N.J. Run by Jeffrey Braverman, the company employs more than 80 workers and has annual revenue of more than [...]

What’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys? How about owning an upbeat, high-margin online retailer with more than $3 million in annual sales? This cheeky e-commerce business offers an eclectic mix of merchandise, including gummy-bear lamps and flowers in a can and lots of other items, whimsical and practical. On occasion, Transaction highlights a [...]

 

Last May, I wrote a post about whether a green company, like TerraCycle, should partner with companies that make tobacco, firearms or alcohol. Our business relies on taking waste that has traditionally been considered nonrecyclable and finding ways to recycle it. We do this by running national collection and solution programs for specific types of [...]

 

Andrew Sullivan for The New York TimesMallory Kievman, inventor of the Hiccupop. To silence her stubborn hiccups during the summer of 2010, Mallory Kievman tried swallowing saltwater, making herself gag, eating a spoonful of sugar, sipping pickle juice and drinking a glass of water upside-down. Nearly two years and 100 attempted folk remedies later, the [...]

What’s affecting me, my clients and other small-business owners this week. The Big Story: What’s the Fed To Do? The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee says the economy is expanding moderately. A former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation warns that the Fed is fueling a financial bubble. The Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, [...]

This post is about cash flow. I have been thinking about it differently this year and trying something new. As I explained in a previous post, last year we slowly built cash through the year, then we had a gusher in December. We ended up with a lot of cash, I gave out big bonuses [...]

Recently, while wrapping up a meeting with a new client, Lone Star Overnight, the company’s chief executive talked about what he’s doing to shift his company’s culture. I’ve always been fascinated by company culture, but it’s especially interesting when someone is trying to transform a 20-year-old company with revenue of more than $50 million. Rick [...]

As I promised I would in a recent post, I have held a family meeting to discuss the long-term fate of my business. I have no plans to retire anytime soon, but I have just turned 56, and I don’t think it is too early — if it is ever too early — to plan [...]

 

Marilynn K. Yee/The New York TimesJeffrey Braverman switched domain names — and immediately lost Web traffic. In a just-published case study, we recount a complicated decision facing the Newark Nut Company, a family-owned retailer based in Cranford, N.J. Founded in 1929 by Sol Braverman, the Newark Nut Company began selling bulk nuts and dried fruit [...]

Last week, I told you about a business that wants to take the wait out of waiting rooms. This week, we’ve got a video pitch from the social enterprise Casino Patron Charities that wants to turn casino gambling into a charitable activity by making it easy for casino gamblers to donate the change on their [...]

In Monday’s Dashboard roundup of small-business news, we highlighted the experience of John Walsh and his Bethel Bakery, a Pittsburgh-area institution that found itself in the national spotlight last week when Mitt Romney compared his cookies to those at 7-Eleven. Mr. Walsh immediately responded by promoting a Cookiegate Special. We went back to him to [...]