Category: Aspirations

Can vendor financing help thaw your frozen information-technology budget? If you need new technology but money is a problem, you might want to consider reaching into the deep pockets of cash-heavy tech vendors.

Time to invest in new technology? Photo credit: Flickr/gustav

As bank lending tightens, more small companies are expected to turn to manufacturer and […]

Keep your friends close. And keep your VC closer.
That’s part of what’s enabled Robert Langer, a scientist at MIT, to get so many of his ideas financed commercially. As Rebecca Buckman describes in her story today, Mr. Langer and his friend and business partner, Terry McGuire of Polaris Venture Partners, have launched 13 companies […]

Watch HBO’s popular show “Entourage,” and you can get posse envy. Read Hannah Karp’s story today about pro athletes’ real life entourages, and the business headaches they can cause, and suddenly doing-it-yourself doesn’t look so bad.

Photo from hbo.com/entourage

Ms. Karp describes how boxer Oscar de la Hoya is saving about $400,000 a year after giving the […]

At what point does it make sense for a small company to turn to executive coaching?
In this video, Reporter Paul Lin looks at a Bronx drop-cloth manufacturer that uses a coaching service that could cost up to $7,500 a year for four workshops and phone support.
It’s paid off: The company credits coaching with […]

It isn’t unusual for companies to send employees back to school for training or even hire coaches to hone communications skills. But help them pursue dreams of a singing career?
Seventh Generation, a Burlington, Vt., green household-products maker with about 90 employees, encourages employees to pursue their personal goals as part of its employee-development program.
The company […]

Never forget the little guys who help along you the way. That old adage is likely ringing in the ears of Wal-Mart execs this morning after reading Gary McWilliams story about how a tiny video-production company is giving the world’s biggest retailer a massive headache.
It’s the story of Flagler Productions Inc., a small firm who […]

Step one for succeeding as a small business: Find a niche.
But how can business owners in established markets set themselves apart from competitors?

Starbucks, once an upstart, sent larger competitors scrambling. Photo credit: Flickr/rudolf schuba

For Buttoned Up Inc., an organizational-products company I wrote about in today’s Enterprise column, it’s all about helping the confused […]

Buzzword Bingo at a Web 2.0 conference. Photo credit: Flickr/adactio

Blended learning, knowledge management, elearning, systems thinking. These are just a few of the buzzwords we had to decode when reporting on employee training for Small Business Link.
Learnativity.com, a training-industry site, provides this glossary with explanations of some terms, including the site’s name.
It’s enough to […]

Last week, the New York Times profiled a writer who is using an entrepreneurial tactic to promote public consciousness about rape. She’s helping sell a t-shirt.
The shirt, whose image is shown here, features a safe unlocking with the small words– “I was raped”–coming out. The writer, Jennifer Baumgardner, plans to sell the shirt via a […]

“It’s not my job.”
IÂ’ve been chewing on this phrase this weekend. Finally at the end of a year-long kitchen renovation, IÂ’m about to say good-bye to the cadre of workers who made it happen. Fortunately, I’ve been blessed with several “yes” people. For instance, my small-town cabinet makers, a husband-wife duo, don’t see problems they […]