As a business owner, retirement often seems like something that other people do. After all, you’ve got your own company — you’ve built it up from the ground, so why would you ever want to leave it? And, on the off chance that you decide to retire, you can always sell your business and retire [...]

Chad Furlong of D&B Digital TV heads to San Diego to ask smallbusinesses how they are prospering in tough times.

The Apple iPad won't support Internet Flash, just like the iPhone and iPod Touch before it, making the iPad have crippled web surfing and limiting video gaming options. As addressed on TechCrunch, Apple is hyping its Packager for iPhone product that allows developers to create Flash-powered apps. It's better than nothing. Unfortunately, if the user actually wants to visit a Flash-enabled website, such as The New York Times or the New York Post, he or she will be greeted by the same notice Steve Jobs got at the keynote: "Plug-in required". Why Mr. Jobs went to the New York Times website as an example is beyond me. Finally, as I addressed earlier today, Apple iPad gamers are again getting the...

Think you're a smart and savvy business person? Think you've got executive potential? Think you can make it as a management consultant or an executive coach? Then try your hand at solving one of these management dilemmas or send us one of your own and we'll solve it for you.

Expect a jobs tax credit in the State of the Union tonight -- but structuring it properly may be tricky, Catherine Rampell reports at the NY Times. Business owner and Times blogger Jay Goltz says it won't work.

A look at how the Equal Exchange worker co-op attracted outside stock investors with carefully structured stock, by Jenny Kassan at the Katovich Law Blog.

Advice on managing a distributed work force, from Becky McCray at Small Biz Survival.

EBay sellers seem receptive to the latest planned changes to fee structures, CNNMoney's Catherine Clifford writes.

Governments in the Persian Gulf are turning more attention to their countries' small business sectors, Robin Wigglesworth reports in the FT.

Also, did Apple do something today? VentureBeat's Paul Boutin says the much-hyped iPad tablet may have more appeal for business users than the iPhone.

I know I harp on this subject but I do it for a reason. I have seen far too many SMB’s (small and medium business) run out full speed and headlong into the brick wall of Internet marketing without a helmet. You know what the result of that is? Pain and confusion. Why put yourself through that? There are options to help make the move into effective online marketing activities that are best suited for the particular market and the SMB’s capabilities. These options require some things that are sometimes in short supply with SMB’s: patience, investment and planning.

read more

We hosted our second annual 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards event in New York City on Monday night, and want to thank everyone who attended. We’d also like to thank the good folks of The Shoreham Hotel who helped set us up for a great evening, and give a special shout out to the wonderful people [...]

According to NBC’s Olympic coverage, a Freestyle Mogul Skier races “down a slope with an average incline of 26.5 degrees over large uniform bumps called moguls.” Such a skier has to be able to use the bumps in the mountain to direct their path, effectively absorb impacts, and jump when the run calls for it. Sounds like many successful entrepreneurs. So it’s no surprise that former World Cup Silver Medalist and Current Freestyle Mogul National Champion Michelle Roark is returning to the Olympics with a successful business behind her. And just like the mountain runs she loves, there have been bumps in her path before. Roark has been on the US Ski Team for 16 years, placed 18th at Torino in 2006, and has qualified for 2010 at the age of 35 (making her one of the oldest skiers in Olympic history.) But she’s not just about the skiing. With a degree in chemical engineering, Roark saw a business opportunity to create something new – a line of natural perfumes made the old way – before today’s chemical synthetics and alcohol bases. In 2006, Roark launched Phi-Nominal, bootstrapping her way into the scent business. She was determined to have a business that would help support her desire to ski. Though she’s had sponsors, her career includes a time when she lived in a tent and on friend’s couches so she could train. Roark overcame this mogul and bought a house which turned into a very good investment. “I have an engineering background, and I’m a World Cup Skier, but there are a lot of marketing and business plan things I’ve had to learn,” says Roark. Her husband has an MBA and has helped her create marketing copy and design the plan to move the company forward. Her newest fragrance, “Inspiration,” is the one she wore to qualify for the Olympics at Deer Valley. “Humans develop a sense of smell in the first trimester in the womb. It is our most important and often overlooked sense. Inspire comes from the Greek root that means to inhale.” Roark wants all her senses aligned when she’s trying to win. She also wants to inspire others – a fan telling her she’s an inspiration is her biggest compliment. One recent bump that Roark took like a champ relates to her downtown Denver business space. She bought a building with room for her perfume creation on the top level, and room for a storefront at street level. There was enough room that she offered to rent out part of the space to a salon. Four days before opening, the salon owner’s financing fell through. Having built out the space, Roark took over and created the Voila Salon, Spa and Parfumerie. The spa has a lot of potential, and she’s learning about how to run that business while also training to appear at Vancouver in a few weeks. Her lessons for other entrepreneurs? Differentiate your products. Roark’s perfumes have “all natural ingredients, mixed in proportion using the Phi Number (or Golden Ratio) and they’re about the wearer and his or her relationship with themselves. A confident person is a sexy person.” Roark’s mission statement is to have Phi-Nominal make the scent for the first woman president. How does she make time to run a business and train at the World Cup level? “If you can’t make your passion work – what can you make work? I don’t own a TV, I don’t sleep very much, and I just make everything happen.” You can learn more about Roark’s skiing at her International Ski Federation profile or at the NBC Olympic site and see recent video of her run on YouTube.

In an effort to bring awareness to the wonderful work that Acumen Fund continues to do around the world, Seth Godin and 800-CEO-READ have created a special offer. We are going to give you a free copy of Jacqueline Novogratz’s (the founder and CEO of Acumen Fund) The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich [...]

Oracle announced on Wednesday the completion of its $7 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems. At a briefing on its plans, Oracle pledged to reenergize Sun's brand name, products and other assets. Further, Oracle said it will continue its commitment to open systems and Java. "We'll invest in Java One; it'll just go global," Oracle Copresident Charles Phillips said.