Everyone loves getting something for free, right?  Of course you do.

So we’ve decided to implement a new feature here at Small Business Trends.  Each month we plan to hold a drawing and give away stuff to you.

There will be something different every month.  Whatever it is, it will be something of interest to entrepreneurs and small business leaders.

This month, we have 8 copies of the book, “Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur” by Scott Cooney.  We’ll hold a random drawing and choose 8 people.  Each will receive a book.  This particular drawing is open to anyone anywhere in the world.  The deadline to enter is February 24, 2010.

To learn more: Visit the Small Business Trends giveaways page.

Bookmark the  giveaways page, where we list each month’s contest or drawing.  We’ll also include discounts and special offers.  Check back often to see what’s new.

From Small Business Trends

Win a Copy of “Build A Green Small Business” Book

Why Many Businesses Fail Bizinformer I've been thinking today about business, life, and both professional and personal achievement. Why do some people continually succeed and others seem to continually fail? Is it their background, upbringing, socio-economic status, quality of friends and ...

Infomercials captivate. That’s their job. If they hold your attention long enough, you might find yourself picking up the phone and ordering that tomato peeler, talking dog collar, or remote-controlled bathroom caddy.

Yet some infomercials leave you scratching your head in amazement. Are they really trying to sell this stuff? We collected 25 of the worst-ever infomercials, for your viewing pleasure.

25. The Shake Weight for Men

If you hate working out for hours at the gym, the Shake Weight for Men can get you, um, ripped in just 6 minutes a day.

24. The Potty Putter

There’s no place like the toilet to become a better golfer.

23. Flea Market Montgomery

Flea Market Montgomery is so much like a mini-mall that they created a rap about it.

22. Stretch Tubing

An innocent enough infomercial, until the exercise tube bites back.

21. Slap Chop

Vince Offer, otherwise known as the ShamWow! guy, is brilliant in this infomercial. “You’re gonna love my nuts…”

20. Get a Grip

I can see how this product is actually useful. But the infomercial deserves a cheeziness award for the slip at the beginning.

19. Richard Simmons

Men shake their booties in this Richard Simmons infomercial. Simmons is, as always, wearing disconcertingly short shorts.

18. Wearable Towel

Why not a robe? Oh right, they slip.

17. Extenze

Scientifically proven to increase the size of a certain part of the male body.

16. Car Credit Superstore

What makes this generic infomercial horrible is the singing at the beginning. “If you need help with a loan, baby just pick up the phone…”

15. Booty Pop

Sexy curves and the ultimate lift for your girl-booty. Perkalicious.

14. Windows 7 Party

It’s Friday night. You’ve had a long week at work. How about hosting a Windows 7 party?

13. The MagneScribe

Tired of dropping pens? The MagneScribe offers you a simple, stylish solution: Just wear one around your neck.

12. Loud & Clear

How about a personal sound amplifier for your inner eavesdropping pervert…er, ear? It even looks like a Bluetooth.

11. The Double Chin Toner

Look like you’re stabbing yourself in the throat for a firmer, younger jawline.

10. Kush: A Natural Rest for the Breast

Proper alignment for those pesky boobs. And, yes, it’s $55.

9. The Gazelle

Tony Little shows off his good piece of equipment.

8. The Snuggie

This blanket with sleeves is now a gag classic.

7. The Butt Sculpter

If you need a little pick-me-up, why not try this humptastic exercise device? (Note: This video doesn’t have audio.)

6. The Nads Bearded Lady

This woman’s pre-Nads beard and mustache makes you forget everything else in this infomercial.

5. Comfort Wipe

Extend your toilet wiping arm a full 18 inches in this first toilet paper improvement since the 1880s.

4. Great Looking Hair

Why use Rogaine when you can graffiti out your baldness with a spray?

3. The Tiddy Bear

Finally, a way to prevent seatbelt burn on your chest.

2. UroClub

Have problems controlling your bladder on the golf course? The UroClub is designed so that you can discreetly pee into the handle.

1. Hawaii Chair

Take the work out of your workout by swivelling your butt around on this bizarre chair. As seen on Ellen.

$2 million cognac. Source: Most-expensive.net.

While some people scramble for free khakis, others are indulging in high-end indulgences like designer perfumes and $5,000 coats. The Financial Times has more:

More prosperous American shoppers seem to be defying continuing high unemployment levels and economic uncertainty to renew their spending on luxuries such as jewellery, fashion and cosmetics. That is the picture emerging from the current round of US earnings and sales reports.

Tracey Travis, chief financial officer of Polo Ralph Lauren, said last week that the fashion brand and retail company had “slowly begun to see the gradual return of our core luxury customer”, including buyers of couture dresses that sell for more than $4,000.

Fabrizio Freda, chief executive of Estée Lauder, has said that sales of its beauty products at “prestige” stores – such as traditional department stores – had grown faster than at “mass” drugstores and discounters during November and December, reversing the trend seen earlier in the year.

“We view this as a return of the aspirational consumer,” he said.

The evidence of greater readiness to spend comes in spite of continuing high unemployment, with about 20 per cent of the US population unemployed or working casually or part time. Richard Hastings, retail strategist at Global Hunter Securities, said that roughly half of the 80 per cent of Americans fully employed were not affected by the depressed housing market and were now more ready to spend as they had become less concerned about their own jobs.

I’d like to know what industries and businesses those 40% of Americans work in.

Many small businesses continue to experience cash flow problems – the majority, in fact, according to a survey by the Discover Small Business Watch.

That cash flow is an issue right now for small businesses might sound obvious to most of you that run your own businesses, but a worsening trend might not be. So here’s a chart that shows what has been going on with small business cash flow over the past three years.

The figure plots the percentage of respondents to the Discover Small Business Watch monthly survey of a random sample of 750 small business owners who answered “yes,” they are experiencing temporary cash flow issues. Although there has been a slight down tick over the past two months, the chart shows a (noisy) trend towards an increasing share of small business owners experiencing these problems. (The thick blue line is the actual data; the thin black line is the linear trend plotted from it.)

I tried to see whether other patterns fit the data better than the upward linear trend. Unfortunately, they don’t. An increasing share of businesses experiencing temporary cash flow problems is closest to what has actually happened over the past three years.

Many economists believe that the Great Recession has ended and the economy is now growing again. While that might be true, it doesn’t appear that the recovery is strong enough or broad enough to have fixed the cash flow problems in the small business sector, at least not yet.

From Small Business Trends

Small Business Cash Flow Problems Still Not Declining

Many webmasters repeat the mistakes made by their predecessors. Take a look at these Top 10 most common web design sins. Have you fallen victim to any of these?

Top 10 Web Design Sins

Here's a real shocker:

In a survey of 3,300 senior managers and human resource professionals reported by Rob Lebow in his Washington CEO magazine

• 75% of all organizational change programs fail

Why is change so hard?

Most organizations say their most important assets are their people, but few behave as if this were true. Change initiatives typically devote most budgets to structural issues such as technology and processes, not staff issues. There is still a whole notion of focusing on tangible assets and their impact on the bottom line, rather than the intangible assets, which are people. Organizations don't adapt to change; their people do.

Constant change in the organizational environment mean that leaders must not only learn about change and its impact on people and systems, leaders must be able to master the process of implementing change, just as their employees must learn to accommodate change.

Why do most change efforts fail?  Here's an analogy: As with a transplanted flower, it initially wilts after the transfer. However, in time with proper care, it stands upright again. With continued good care, it blossoms. The same holds true with the introduction (transplant or transfer) of a new system (a new idea, business-building method, best-practices, business improvement processes), the productivity curve drops (wilts) - but given proper support and care, the productivity curve loops upward on a continuous positive trend.


Transition trauma is little understood by business leaders, but it is a fact of organizational change.

Some misread the downward curve (wilt) as failure, often triggering inappropriate actions; rather then understanding it as transition trauma that is a normal readjustment, realignment and adaptive phase of change that requires trust, patience and on-going support.

In his book, Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions, author Gary B. Cohen proposes a "radical practice": 

......replacing annual performance reviews with monthly ones. Monthly! The heart stops at the thought. And yet...take a look at the process the author describes. The reviews are conversations about the best way forward, not critiques of the past. Look in particular at the issue of timing. Might not this approach, if practiced regularly, lead to a whole different way — a much more mutually appreciative way — of looking at the job and the task at hand?

Sorry - but from my standpoint, regular reviews of performance need to be conducted even more frequently than monthly.  How about weekly (just a progress/synch meeting - but it's still better than monthly!)

An excerpt of chapter 2 of this book is pushed here at Strategy + Business magazine. 

Here's a profound observation from management guru, Gary Hamel:

"If you want to understand the real strategy, look at what people are doing!”

Indeed, more often than not, there are disconnects or gaps between the strategy that is formulated by the senior leadership team, and how the strategy is executed by the rest of the workforce.

Why the gaps?

Could be for a number of reasons:

• The strategy is not accessible/available to the workforce
• The strategy is not sound
• The strategy is not well understood

Most likely, the recognition and reward system that drives the daily activities and behaviors of each person in the workforce is not aligned with the strategy of the organization. How to combat this situation?

1. Make the strategy as transparent as possible. The mission, vision, values and strategic position of the organiztion MUST be transparent and available to everyone within the organization.
2. Establish Vital Few Objectives (VFOs). Most organizations have 2 to 5 times as many projects and initiatives going on than they can possibly address. Reduce the number of key objectives. Keep the VFOs simple - financial, customer, production, people - and let everything else go. Be very focused on a few things, and do them well.
3. Make the VFOs measurable. Define measures, targets, and create a small number of initiatives that support the VFOs. Assign responsibility and accountability to someone for each VFO.
4. Define an Individual Plan for each person. On a quarterly basis, develop a plan for every individual, assigning activities from each initiative. Have each person track time and progress toward achieving the stated outcomes. Measure progress and update status weekly.
5. Align recognition and rewards based on the achievement of outcomes. Recognition and rewards systems are not to be based on activities, but results.

BOTTOMLINE: What people spend time on should be based on how well your strategy, goals and initiatives are articulated. Reward and recognize workers based on how well goals were achieved (results), not on how much activity took place.

Inhabitat: Here’s a source for gift wrap paper that is as beautiful as it is eco-conscious. Known as The Local Paper, these couture coverings are based on unique themes that are inspired by the designers’ travel, nature, and life. Each elegant wrap comes in 24×36 inch sheets that are Forestry Stewardship Council certified, made with papers that are 30% recycled post-consumer fiber. Additionally, all of the packaging used is recycled, recyclable, and biodegradable. You can purchase The Local Paper at the Contemporary Arts Museum Shop in Houston, TX or online.

The Local Paper Makes Gorgeous Eco Gift Wrap [Inhabitat]

Entrepreneur magazine's Young Entrepreneur contributor Scott Gerber has a cool book in the works called Never Get a Real Job (Wiley, 2010). Scott's an energetic entrepreneur himself and he's looking for stories to include in his book and blog--success and especially failures--so others can learn how to become business owners. He's also got a daily web video show in the works coming this Spring and will be featuring interesting entrepreneurial stories. Worth a look!

How to Never Get a Real Job originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 11:42:30.

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Iconoculture: It’s hard to speak pretentiously about terroir with secret sauce dripping down your chin. Los Angeles-based Learn About Wine’s Blind Date tastings pair a variety of respectable reds with beloved In-N-Out Double-Double cheeseburgers.

The tastings are held on assorted Friday nights in a downtown loft and boast 20 one-ounce blind pours. Each night of the series features a different red: merlot, cab, zinfandel, pinot noir and Rhone. Afterwards the wines are revealed so that tasters can ensure they pair the right bottle with their next combo meal.

But you can’t get fries with that — wine tasting has to retain some level of class!

Californians, with their own lively vinoculture, know that wine is not just for snobs, and most oenophiles know the scene at the end of the movie Sideways speaks the truth: Wine goes with just about anything, including a hamburger.

Wine tasting gone wild: Pairings for the drive-thru set [Iconoculture]

Have you read the latest issue of the New England Medical Journal? If you're an executive who is thinking of going entrepreneur, you need to check it out. Turns out there's a newly discovered condition affecting entrepreneurs, and it's called ABF. Unlike Restless Leg Syndrome and E.D., there's no drug yet to treat it, so you will have to manage this condition without a prescription.

Oh, ABF stands for Accumulated Boss Fatigue. I first noticed I was developing ABF around five years before I left corporate America. I am glad to be able to share the details of my condition so that others may find relief.

Stage One - Independence Day: How do you know you may have ABF? For me, it happened like this: After years of dutiful service to various employers, I found myself forgetting I had a boss. I was routinely making decisions and taking actions that were contrary to what the boss asked me to do. Even worse, I often didn't bother letting the boss know I had absolutely no intention of following through on the ridiculous stuff she asked of me. This early onset stage is called RIS - Raging Independence Syndrome. It's curable at this stage if you get back in line, apologize, maybe take some time off to clear your head, and remember that in most companies, the nail that stands out gets hammered down. If that doesn't work, you're on your way to Stage Two.

Stage Two - Craving the Movie "Office Space": When it came out in 1999, I felt I was watching my autobiography. My job may have been bigger and less cubicle-bound than the characters in the movie, but I could relate. I must have watched it a dozen times that year. And whenever I had a meeting with my boss, I saw the face of Lumbergh in my mind and heard "Yeahhhhhh. Thannnkssss." That's stage two, and from there, you're pretty much a goner.

Stage Three - Anything but This Job: You know you've reached doneness if your juices run clear when you are poked with a fork; when any other type of work appeals to you more than what you are currently doing, like for instance, being a concessionaire at Yankee Stadium; and any face would be a refreshing change from your Lumberghian boss's. There's a danger here, though: when you decide to go it alone in business, make sure you're doing it for the right reasons, at the right time, and with the right support-and not just to run away from your battle with ABF.

A Mysterious Syndrome that Affects Entrepreneurs originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 09:11:00.

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Analytics from a Really Smart Guy

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Avinash Kaushik (Click to listen, right click and Save As to download – subscribe now via iTunes

Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0 is one of those rare people who can take a somewhat dry and mathlike subject of web analytics and make it sound easy and even fun. I got to spend a few minutes with Avinash for this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast for some tips about this important, but often overlooked topic.

Web Analytics can seem like a scary subject, but it’s essential, so like brushing your teeth, just do it. You’ll be so glad you did once you get the basic reporting tools in place. Once you have a baseline you can start to do what Kaushik calls “controlled experiments” to start breaking down everything you do with an eye on making it better and stop doing the stuff that your customers don’t like.

Analyzing how many people come to your web site and trying to figure out what got them there was the 1.0 version of tracking I suppose. What Web Analytics 2.0 attempts to do is also measure what they did there and why through the use of tools like surveys that engage individual users.

Here’s the Web Analytics tool set for the small business (there are paid tools for each of these steps, but these are free)

1. Google Analytics – install this free site analytics tool to get the base data collection going
2. 4Q – this is a free exit survey tool that asks people who come to your site four questions about their experience – this is akin to getting people to tell you why your site sucks – hello! – it’s the first step.
3. Google Website Optimizer – Another free Google tool that allows you to easily set up a/b tests to start taking what people tell you from 4Q surveys and start experimenting which of your changes is getting a better result.

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GoToWebinar is the presenting sponsor of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast.

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Analytics from a Really Smart Guy This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Analytics from a Really Smart GuyThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Avinash Kaushik (Click to listen, right click and Save As to download – subscribe now via iTunes Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0 is one of those rare people who can take a somewhat dry and mathlike subject of web analytics [...]

Most organizations suffer a major disconnect between strategy formulation and its execution.

And while it's more pronounced in larger enterprises because of complexity, smaller organizations need to make sure they do something (anything!) to remove the barriers to execution.

Unfortunately, the research doesn't bode well for most of us.  Consider the following:

• 90% of well-formulated strategies fail due to poor execution. 
• 60% of typical organizations do not link their strategic priorities to their budget.
• Two-thirds of HR and IT organizations develop strategic plans that are not linked to the organization's strategy.
• 85% of leadership teams spend less than 1 hour per month discussing strategy.
• Only 27% of a typical company’s employees have access to its strategic plan.
• 70% of middle managers and more than 90% of front-line employees have compensation that is not linked to the strategy.
• Most devastating, 95% of employees do not understand their organization's strategy.

BOTTOMLINE: Strategy must be managed explicitly, like any other major process in an organization. In most organizations, this process either does not exist or is incomplete. However, 70% of organizations that used a formal process to manage strategy out-performed their peers.  What formal process are YOU using?

A business that makes the decision to be environmentally-conscious will often promote goodwill among potential customers, while making the world a better place for future generations. Many businesses hesitate to adopt green practices because they fear it will hurt their bottom line and negatively impact profits. But many eco-conscious businesses discover that they can actually save money and bring in new customers who specifically patronize companies that actively make an effort to be environmentally friendly. Many customers may even be willing to pay a bit more for a product or service from a company that is green.

Steps to Make Your Business Green

More small businesses in Northern New York can receive low-interest loans once the U.S. Small Business Administration once again funds a regional microloan program.

The program, through the Adirondack Economic Development Corp., will receive a $750,000 loan from SBA. In turn, the corporation makes loans to small businesses in amounts ranging from $500 to $35,000. Most loans total about $13,000.

The essence of strategy is deciding what not to do. If your organization doesn't develop the discipline to do this, our wonderful free market system will.

BusinessWeek recently published an article entitled "Are You Losing Control of Your Business?" in which it advised: "No. 1 on your to-do list? Make a "stop doing" list"

BOTTOMLINE: As part of the annual strategic planning process, the Six Disciplines strategy execution program has, in Discipline I. Decide What's Important, a distinctive step called "Agree What To Stop Doing."

Chris Brogan's book (co-authored with Julien Smith), Trust Agents, should be required reading for all small business owners and entrepreneurs. As one of the top bloggers in the world (or the blogosphere, or perhaps both), Chris has mastered a medium that countless millions of people and companies are trying to figure out. He has leveraged his blog at ChrisBrogan.com into a platform for a bestselling book and a business, consulting with organizations that want to be better users of social media tools.

About.com caught up with Chris as he was battling Delta Air Lines to find his luggage in Minneapolis airport. Here's the link to our audio interview, where Chris addresses some important questions and issues for small business owners and entrepreneurs, including:

• Should all small businesses have blogs?
• How can small businesses use blogs and other social media tools to improve their customer relationships?
• Can older business owners get into blogging, or is it a young person's game?
• How to use search to find where your customers are hanging out;
• How can you manage 100,000 followers on Twitter;
• How to get the fullest possible leverage for your business from the Internet;
• The power of "nice" on the Internet;
• And why you might want to emulate P.T. Barnum, David Lee Roth or Billy Mays for your blog persona.

Listen to the audio interview here.

Social Media Tips from Power-Blogger Chris Brogan originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 09:40:16.

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