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Week
Of Mar. 14, '10—Home-Business News From The Field...
A New Way to Advertise - INC: For the small business owner or entrepreneur, springtime often equates to conference season. From booking flights and accommodations, to finding out what's...read more
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THOUGHT OF THE
DAY
There is always room at the top.
-Daniel Webster
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| Book Of The Month |
March Magazine |
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 In Live Learn Lead to Make a Difference, Don Soderquist (retired Vice Chairman of Wal-Mart) in his passionate and intentional manner will help direct readers with valuable strategies to help them become better leaders with values of integrity and ethics to learn how to make a difference with those around them in the workplace and in other areas of their life.
(FREE TO MEMBERS!)
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 The only major business magazine edited exclusively to guide CEOs and owners of small-to-midsize companies to success. Get fresh, insightful analyses and the tools you need to excel. Each issue uses real life examples of strategies, case studies, and successes and failures edited specifically to illuminate new ways in which its readers can benefit. Big and small organizations alike turn to Inc. to make sense of ever-changing business world. (INCLUDED WITH YOUR MEMBERSHIP!) |
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| Business Finance Tips |
| Finding your way to the federal money... |
Free Business Training From SBA
Where To Find Federal Stimulus & Recovery Money
by Elizabeth H. Cottrell, IAHBE Writer & Editor
 Everyone who needs credit for any purpose, anywhere in the world today, is finding it difficult to find a lender willing to help. Government policies and official greed at all levels caused the housing market in all countries to blossom and finally explode, leaving banks holding assets with rapidly diminishing value. The result is extreme reluctance to make any loans at all. This is an example of what goes around comes around. I got out of the real estate agent business in 1995; during my years as an active agent, one of the most unpleasant things to do was tell a young couple just starting their lives to go to a lender, any lender at the time, and apply for a mortgage. To me, all the information required and the questions asked were a form of torture. Imagine my surprise when housing fell off the cliff last year and it was revealed mortgages were granted simply on the word of an applicant with no check of the facts. What a difference from just a few years earlier. Now, even with impeccable credit, most people are still having difficulty obtaining funds from conventional sources...
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Tool Review |
| Organize on a budget... |
File Managers And Note Takers
Reviewed by Yank Elliott, MBA & IAHBE Writer
 The programs discussed here are some of those found in searches of the most popular Google programs in the file management and note taking fields. Excluded are plans that can’t be used on the Windows operating system. Also excluded are a few systems that seem to duplicate features while providing nothing new. If you see similar programs, take a look at all of them. There could be something about one of them that appeals to you; it’s your choice. While most of the programs I found have a free version, there are a few with prices in excess of $100, an arbitrary ceiling price I set, feeling anything more is out of the range for many home-based entrepreneurs. Evernote is not discussed here because you will find a previous Tool Review about it; I’m using it myself, but one or two of the procedures in this article look interesting, so check these and see if you can use them in addition to Evernote, or whatever file management system you are using. If you are using your own personally designed system of management, I’m quite sure at least one of these programs will be useful to you. Here are some ideas...
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| Book Review |
| Business building in troubled times... |
reviewed by Yank Elliott, IAHBE Writer
 This book describes the author’s focus group findings on a deeply fractured America. It is an attempt to make some sense of all that is going on in order to form better strategies for moving ahead with our daily lives. To me, it is an essential reference work on how to formulate new product and service ideas, how to successfully pitch advertising to various groups, and ways to use emerging technology in ways never before tried. His group descriptions are sometimes troubling, but if you read the book with an open mind you will get many ideas. All you can do is try some of them—what’s to lose? At least, it provides a starting point for further testing of ideas. Perhaps you will decide, as I have, that it is a valuable resource for your business in these unsettled times...
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New To Business? |
| The time is NOW! |
Home-Based Business More Urgent Than Ever
by Yank Elliott, MBA & IAHBE Staff Writer
 Even though we have put many hours into our home-based or small businesses, and have assumed the associated risk, after a while we become complacent and tend to ignore things going on around us. Often, dangerous situations occur out of nowhere, posing calamity for our livelihood, but exposing opportunities, as well...
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| Expert Book |
Microsoft Windows Performance Boost
by James Peterson
 Why do all computer systems slow down eventually? How can I stop my system from crashing with out reloading Windows? What steps do I need to take to keep my system running great? If these questions sound familiar to you, download this 10-page free ebook and follow the simple steps. Your computer will be running great in no time!
DOWNLOAD THE BOOK (PDF)
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Software Of The Month |
| PC: |
MAC: |
Win 2000/XP/Vista/7
The blazingly fast browser from Google. Chrome's interface is a drastic departure from other browsers.
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OS X 10.5, 10.6
A very nice little program that compliments you as often as you need it. Enjoy Toady's colorful and cheering up icon in your dock.
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| Business Tools |
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Country Connections |
by Yank Elliott, MBA & IAHBE Writer
 The idea for this article originated while I was building my new laptop computer from Dell. Other makers have similar systems for putting together exactly what you want. My discovery was there were several mobile broadband portable devices that could be built in to the computer. The choices I had were AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon. I quickly found there would be no such simple fix for me. None of those companies provide any service to my area, so I contacted my local cell phone carrier and learned they had a USB plug in stick that could give me the same service as a built-in accessory. There had never been a need for this kind of mobility in my business plan, but the idea of being able to show a PowerPoint presentation to a customer in the middle of my swamp became more exciting. I gathered as much information as I could and decided to get the USB program from my cell phone service company. This article presents the things I discovered...
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| MIT OpenCourseWare |
| Writing on contemporary Issues... |
Culture Shock! Writing, Editing, and Publishing in Cyberspace
 An introduction to writing prose for a public audience—specifically, prose that is both critical and personal, that features your ideas, your perspective, and your voice to engage readers. The focus will be American popular culture, broadly defined. You'll write essays that critically engage elements and aspects of contemporary American popular culture and that do so via a vivid personal voice and presence. You'll also read a number of pieces that address current issues in popular culture and address a great many subjects from the contemporary world to launch and elaborate an argument or position or refined observation.
Check out the entire course syllabus, assignents, and materials here. |
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| The Right Stuff? |
Top 10 Signs You're Made to be an Entrepreneur
by Fred Gratzon, lazyway.net
 Someone forwarded me a request for information put out by a USA Today reporter. He was writing an article about entrepreneurial personality traits. He wanted suggestions from "experts" in compiling his list. The idea was to help people decide whether they should seek self-employment or not.
I was intrigued by the idea so I submitted my list to him. He did not e-mail or call back so I assume either he was not amused or my submission was not his cup of chai. In any case, I thought my list was cool so I now present it to you and wait (with lazily suspended breath) for your insightful reaction...
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| Business Resources |
| Smart investments... |
When Is It Smart To Invest In A Business Coach?
by Elizabeth H. Cottrell, @RiverwoodWriter
 Typically non-athletic coaching falls into three categories: 1) personal coaching which focuses on self-development, self-image, personal motivation and fulfillment; 2) business coaching, which focuses on issues of starting, running and/or growing a business; and 3) executive coaching, which helps executives learn to build better collaborative relationships for more effective leadership. This article will focus on the second type since you readers—home-based entrepreneurs—typically would be most interested in business coaching...
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Business Ideas |
| Members only? |
Try Membership For Income
by Yank Elliott, MBY & IAHBE Writer
 There are many changes blowing in the wind everywhere in the world right now. The worldwide economic downturn is much more severe than anyone expected, and nobody knows when it will get better, or even if it will get better. Trouble in the housing market, caused by failed government efforts to provide housing to everyone, regardless of their ability to repay a mortgage, have resulted in serious disruption to the economy. Unemployment, the REAL figure, is headed toward 20%, and house prices are forecast to decline much more in the next two or three years. The banks are refusing to lend money for fear of adding to their already bloated bad debts, and we are told one quarter of homeowners in the US will soon have mortgages much higher than the constantly declining value of their homes. Nobody wants to spend a penny on anything...
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| Computer Q&A
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Biz Start-up Ideas |
 About Windows 7
According the PC World’s review, “Windows Vista offered a flashy new interface, but its poor performance, compatibility gotchas, and lack of compelling features made some folks regret upgrading and others refuse to leave Windows XP.” By all accounts, Windows 7 offers great improvement more seamlessly, with less fanfare—the way it should be... |
An infopreneur is a business person who sells information or information products, typically online, via downloadable ebooks, reports, videos, courses, audio files, or other electronic means. |
 Marketing Tidbits |
Quicktips |
 Image Selling, Influential Marketing, 4E's, & More
Get pointers on selling your products' image, take your marketing to a higher level, discover the "4 E's," and more...all in this month's Marketing Tidbits.
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 March Quicktips for your business...
• Change your writing style to suit readers
• Eye movement impacts your Site layout
• Focus=Productivity
• Census data more easily accessible
• Distractions can be insidious
• Does your blog make it easy for sales
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Business Tools |
| A silver lining for your business... |
by Yank Elliott, MBA & IAHBE Writer
 You may have heard the term, “cloud computing,” but maybe you paid no attention to it. In the beginning of the idea, in the ‘60s, well before the age of the PC, all the talk was related to use by large computing systems in big corporations. The idea then, as now, was to separate some computer functions from local systems and distribute them to remote servers in order to relieve stress and provide the most efficient use of computer ,assets. In those days, home-based entrepreneurs had no thought of using such services because cloud computing just did not apply to any small operator. Things have changed, and these changes are the subject of this article.
Your first question might be, “What is cloud computing?”... |
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YouTube EDU: |
TEDTalks |
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YouTube Education Video Tutorials |
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 In addition to marketing, business, and financial education from top academic sources, YouTube EDU includes a multitude of videos and channels from college and university partners. View thousands of free lectures from over a hundred universities across the country, including MIT, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, and more...
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 In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones. (YouTube: 18 minutes)
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| VideoLectures.net: |
Featured Tutorial |
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Top 5 Ways to Make Money on The Internet |
eBay - Searching, Finding, Buying, Selling: Story of a Long Tail Online Marketplace,
by Neel Sundaresan, eBay Research Lab
The Online Marketplace has all the characteristics of an Offline Marketplace and more because of the simultaneous anonymity and familiarity of the buyers and sellers. The long tail nature of the transactions combined with differing capabilities, motives, and trust leads to a vibrant Social Commerce Network. You'll discover interesting technical challenges and opportunities in finding, classification, merchandising, and reputation systems.
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Most of us leave the house every day to go to work and make money. But some people have found a way to run their own Internet business from home. You can do it, too. Some opportunities are best for part-time endeavors for those looking to make a little extra money on the side, while others can lead to full-time jobs and Internet success stories. Review this list of HowStuffWorks' top 5 ways to make money on the Internet, in no particular order... |
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Show your pride as an IAHBE member while spreading the word about home-business success on shirts, hats, mugs, bags, and more! 
