Welcome to this week's edition of the Carnival of the Capitalists.
It's Carnival time again!
Grab your popcorn and cotton candy and sit back and enjoy Carnival of the Capitalists: The Greatest Business Show in the Blogosphere.
That was a little long for a tag line. I'll have to work on improving that one. After all, a bit of creative thinking can't hurt, now can it?
One of the truly exciting aspects of hosting Carnival of the Capitalists is the wide assortment of bloggers who enter. Many of the entrants to this hosting of Carnival of the Capitalists are here for the very first time, while many familiar faces are continuing their regular appearances.
This is my third hosting of the Carnival of the Capitalists, and as usual my hosting is for the same week every year. I hope you enjoy the show.
Got your refreshments in hand? I'll wait while you get some peanuts and popcorn, a hotdog, and a cool beverage.
Let's join the midway where the fun and games are already underway.
Marketing
Josh Cohen at Multiple Mentality presents Not So Rewarding asks the universal question that's on everyone's mind. Just how much have you got out of your "rewards" card lately?
David Maister thinks about The Battle for Marketing posted at David Maister's Passion, People and Principles. David expresses some concerns about large consulting firms entering the marketing field.
Jim Logan waxes poetically about The Workhorse Of The Letter, The Opening Paragraph posted at Direct Response Works. Jim writes that most sales letters start with a story of some sort, an attempt to catch the reader’s attention and engage them with intrigue. The thought is you quickly paint a picture for a reader, grab their attention, and hold interest to read further. This is often done in the form of a problem – the common formula is problem, irritation, solution. Jim believes this is generally a mistake.
Evelyn Rodriguez at Crossroads Dispatches sends Bake Cause Marketing Into Product. Evelyn writes on the heels of this past week's Cause Marketing Forum. She challenges companies to do their good works from the inside-out, as a primary function, rather than merely a portion of revenues. She cites companies such as Honest Tea, Soneva Resorts, and Theo Chocolate as examples.
Wordlab presents Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt Baby T-shirt posted at Wordlab. Wordlab says the Kingsley brand T-shirt with the words "The Pots & Pans Band" across a skull and crossed spoons with a "pots and pans" drum kit, worn by Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt in her first official photo op, is all the rage.
Becky McCray shows us some Simplified marketing plans for the real world posted at Small Biz Survival. Becky points out that while every business needs a marketing plan, not every company has one. She provides some handy and practical tips for developing a successful marketing plan for your organization.
Entrepreneurship
Marcus Markou presents Being a Successful Business Owner posted at BOB - Business Opportunities Blog. Marcus presents a review of Michael Gerber's book The E Myth and relates how the book's advice is similar to his own business experience.
Yaro Starak at Small Business Branding presents You Will Be Successful…In 5 Years where he advises business owners to stick with what they believe in to be the right product or service. It will pay off in the end.
Jim writes about Sensible Diet And Exercise posted at Bizinformer. Jim concludes there are no shortcuts to business success; just hard work, dedication, honesty, and service.
Jeff Cornwall at The Entrepreneurial Mind describes in The Danger of Short-cuts in Writing Business Plans how tools to help write a business plans can be found in books, software programs, and on-line sites. While many of them have some good features to them, for many entrepreneurs these aids become a short-cut that leads to an inferior plan.
Yaro Starak at Entrepreneur's Journey asks the question Has AdSense Gone Too Far?. Yaro expresses concern, that gearing site content for Google AdSense, is having a negative effect on the value of website information.
Greg Manter of Retail Store Blog says that $1400 a Day from a Simple Website. Greg asks can a net entrepreneur make money. He asks how much money can you make from sharing your knowledge on the Net? Greg points out that Tim Carter makes $1,400 a day.
Steve King discusses an age old adage in Location, Location, Location (Part 1) posted at Caboodle! Toys ~ Blog. Steve advises when thinking about where to locate or relocate your new or existing business, one should first and foremost consider the current and future business model. This post lays out a theoretical framework for thinking through various location options. The author seeks feedback on ways to improve the work-in-progress framework.
Laurie Bluedorn presents PRMAMA: Marketing to Go! - This week's Feature Friday is Pete and Maribel Hernandez of APMFormulators. - Homeschoolblogger.com posted at PRMama. Laurie writes about a successful business startup company and the reasons for their prosperity.
Management
Pawel Brodzinski at Software Project Management offers a post on How to Communicate Information . Pawel describes the importance of maintaining good communications channels between management and staff.
Kevin Hillstrom of Mine That Data sends us a Business Review: Regal Cinemas. Kevin asks if you ever wonder why popcorn and a diet soda cost $9.00 at a movie theater? Without this high cost, the movie theater probably wouldn't be in business. Kevin's posting illustrates how expensive it is to run a movie theater.
Michael Wade of Execupundit writing in The Anti-Personnel Department tells us why employees view the Human Resources Department with so much suspicion. Michael also tells us how the HR Departments earned their bad reputation.
Mark at SportsBiz reports on The Ultimate Fantasy Team. Marks says the Schaumburg Flyers, a minor league baseball team in suburban Chicago, has decided to turn over management of its games in the second half of the season, to its fans. Marks believes this should be a fascinating exercise in both group management and marketing.
David Foster of Photon Courier tells us that ICU Monitoring Goes Remote. David says some hospitals are adopting a system, that allows the monitoring of ICU patients, to be done by specialists who may be hundreds of miles away. Both cost and patient-care benefits are claimed.
My own entry from Blog Business World is Negative people: Find the positive where I discuss that instead of avoiding the negative person in your company, use their natural talents for criticism in a productive and innovative way. Let them help you avoid the pitfalls that await some hastily developed plan.
Economics and Public Policy
Brad Warbiany at The Liberty Papers enters A New Paradigm Replacing the Old. Brad believes that the internet has changed the way people do business. As a result, formerly profitable business models are being left behind, and replaced by online e-commerce.
Henry Stern, LUTCF presents A Slick Operation... posted at InsureBlog. Henry asks "Did ya hear about the guy who needed neck surgery? He went to Thailand! He says that'Medical tourism' is big business. The question, however, is will it save you or your company any money.
Michael McCullough at Stingray: a blog for salty Christians presents Al Gore and some inconvenient truths about global warming. Michael believes that if Al Gore had his way on global warming, we would lose capitalism in this country, and have to live under socialism.
David Tufte from voluntaryXchange writes in Business School Lunacy that business schools are starting to promote "peace through commerce". David says the curriculum sounds like it is very heavy on politically correct peace studies, and very light on anything that would help a business major.
James Hamilton of Econbrowser is seeking a real New Direction For America. The Democrats call it a New Direction for America. But to Econbrowser's James Hamilton, it looks like the same old same old.
Leon Gettler from Sox First discusses Business and climate change. Leon asks some provocative questions. How well prepared is business for climate change? How well prepared are insurers? It's going have a massive impact on bottom lines everywhere, warns a new Lloyds of London report. Leon warns everyone to get ready for some places being simply uninsurable.
Jack Yoest presents Kill Big Bird, Buy a Raptor posted at Jack Yoest. Jack says there's a war on. It's been in all the papers, and we all have to pay for it. Sacrifice somewhere. But Jack says not the liberals at National People's Public Radio. They demand continued tax payer funding...for Big Bird. When should entertainment have claim on the public purse?...That's Jack's tough policy question.
Stock Market and Investment
RJH Adams at Capital Chronicle isn't really being spooky discussing Triple witching, 16 June 2006: what does the historic data say?. The problem is the third Friday of March, June, September and December are all "triple witching" days. This post looks at how market indexes behave on such freaky Fridays, with Germany's DAX serving as an example.
Trent presents Don't hold your breath or GLW waiting for LCD panels to recover posted at Stock Market Beat. Trent suggests that you may want to hold off on buying that big-screen TV... or shares in Corning.
Einzige presents John Burley's 7 Levels of Investor posted at Die Eigenheit. The post is a critical examination of some of the promotional material used by "prosperity trainer" and real estate investment "guru" John Burley. Einzige compares Burley's 7 investor levels with advice from other financial advisors, and concludes that Burley's advice doesn't amount to much, in the end.
Byrne Hobart of Byrne's MarketView shares his thoughts in Peg Ratios: Nonsense is still in style. Byrne is firmly convinced that an unhealthy fraction of the financial innovations that experts share with audiences exist mostly to give them something to talk about. There isn't always something to talk about or something to recommend. When there is, Byrne tells us he'll say so. When there isn't, Byrne will complain about people who say otherwise... As a matter of fact, Byrne does just that.
Ed at Daily Dose of Optimism describes Japanese Interest Rates and US Equity Market Volitility. Ed says for those of you wondering why US and global markets experienced such rapid declines over the past month or two, let him draw your attention to some information you may have missed. Basically, the Bank of Japan indicated back in March that it planned to end its zero-interest rate policy.
Taxation
Don Surber at Don Surber holds the view that Fat tax doesn't work . Don says they just happen to have a soft drinks tax in West Virginia that covers those sugary drinks. The state had the tax since 1951 with the proceeds going to the WVU Medical School. Don states after 55 years of this nanny tax that West Virginia ranks third in adult obesity and third in adult diabetes.
Steve Faber warns The AMT – If You're Not Scared, You Damn Well Should Be! posted at Debt Free. Steve sees the AMT as a trap that will snare many citizens leaving them with an enormous tax bill.
Joe Kristan at Roth & Company, P.C. - Tax Updates sends us Wither The Estate Tax. Joe says that an estate tax could make sense - just not the one we have now. Joe discusses his ideas about what a sensible estate tax might look like.
HMIL at Teapot Tantrums presents Death Tax Debate. About the Death Tax rate, HMIL asks, and yhen answers, why should it mean anything to you when it doesn't apply to you? Well, let's put a face on it and then see how you feel.
Tom Hanna at Tom Rants points out the Federal Deficit Dropping Without Tax Increases or Spending Cuts. Tom says the story that the national media isn't telling this week is that the federal budget deficit is dropping, and fairly rapidly, without tax increases. In fact, it's dropping even as Congress continues what Tom calls its drunken spending spree...
Personal Finance
FMF at Free Money Finance posts about a College Saving Reality Check. FMF offers A spirited post, complete with interesting follow-up comments, on whether or not kids should pay for part of their own college expenses.
Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade presents Legal Late Payments on Your Mortgage. Dan tells us that it's not in your best interest to be late with your mortgage payments, using the California laws as an example.
Blogs and Internet
Rob Sama at SamaBlog, in a post titled Gates Is Gone, speculates on what he believes may be the real reasons for Bill Gates' departure from Microsoft.
Jon Swift at Jon Swift presents The Retirement of Bill Gates from Microsoft Is No Big Deal . Jon says people seem to be making a big deal about the announcement that Bill Gates will be retiring to concentrate more time on his foundation and surfing the Internet, which he thinks might be really big in the future. Jon offers a few reasons why it really won't make that much difference, at least for a while.
Doug Mataconis at Below The Beltway talks about The Continuing Decline of Print Newspapers. Doug sees a day, in the not too distant future, when print newspapers could be a thing of the past.
Personal and Career Development
Adrian Savage at The Coyote Within sends us the advice to Lighten Up. Adrian suggests that most of us take our lives far too seriously, and set ourselves such ludicrously excessive targets, it's a miracle we aren't more anxious than we are.
Carmine Coyote from Slow Leadership says it's Time for Innovation. Carmine says haste, pressure, anxiety, tension and overwork are enemies of creativity or innovation. Paradoxically, the more hard-pressed people are, the less able they become to find new and creative ways to solve their problems.
Big Picture Guy at Big Picture, Small Office takes and deserves A Walk in the Dark. It seems that General Ledger is working late again. Because of the job's heavy demands, and his own incorrigible nature, he has missed holidays and birthdays. He has pretty well given up on the notion of off-days. Big Picture Guy attempts to be sympathetic.
David Lorenzo tells you to Face Your Fears posted at The Career Intensity Blog. Davis lists the most typical fears and how to overcome them.
Public Relations
Tam Hanna shares On unclear, long press releases posted at TamsPalm-the Palm OS Blog. Tam sends a little article on how one should NOT formulate a press release if one wants to do successful PR. He says they found a terrible example in their inbox. He decided to edit it, and post it online for all of you to use as a learning experience.
Nickel at fivecentnickel.com enjoys Hampton Inn's 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Nickel sings his praises for the Inn delivering on its Guarantee.
Next week's Carnival of the Capitalists will pitch the big top at Michael Cale's stock market news and investment blog known as Financial Methods.
Thanks for dropping by this week's edition of Carnival of the Capitalists. Be sure to take some time, have another hotdog and some more popcorn, and read the great posts on offer.
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