This Week in Small Business: The Van Halen Principle - NYTimes.com

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A weekly roundup of small-business developments.

What?s affecting me, my clients and other small-business owners this week.

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Tom Chiarella says he believes that in business the little things are really the big things. Jordan Weissmann says America?s technology-talent shortage is a myth. And Ezra Klein explains how the Van Halen Principle applies to government.

Washington: Paying Down the Debt

The Treasury will pay down debt for the first time since 2007, and the Federal Reserve decides to keep its stimulus plan in place, saying recent tax increases and spending cuts have hurt the economy. These slides show why taxes should go up. In this video, Allan Madan explains how the federal budget affects your small business; these business owners have ideas for how Washington can help. Here are five sequestration cuts that have not happened. President Obama?s relationship with GOP congressional leaders hits a new low. Small-business contracts with the federal government worth more than $2 billion will open for competition in the coming months.

The Economy: Down, Flat, Surging

Small-business owners are more optimistic about their companies? prospects and are picking up the hiring pace, according to one report. But the April 2013 SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard showed that month-over-month hiring was down 0.2 percent and the average paycheck was flat. Personal income and spending both increased, pending home sales reached a three-year high and home prices are surging. But home ownership fell to its lowest level since 1995. The University of Michigan said consumer sentiment fell to a three-month low, but the Conference Board?s index picked up. Positive same-store sales pushed the Restaurant Performance Index higher. Overall manufacturing activity declined last month. The unemployment rate fell and job-creation was solid in April. Heidi Shierholz reminds readers that adding 175,000 jobs a month won?t make us whole until 2020. The American auto industry has its best performance in 20 years.

Management: Don?t Be Available

An Office Depot study finds that nearly four in 10 business owners believe having a mentor would boost their business. Sharon Melnick, a business psychologist, offers five ways to be productive when the pressure is on, including ?Don?t always be available.? Barbara Austin says you should shake things up if you?re stuck in a creative rut. Jaclyn Mullen believes you get back what you give. Here are five inspirational women business speakers. Brad Lomenick suggests six ways to be a more courageous leader. Here are seven outsourcing lessons. The chief executive of Liquidnet says goodbye to titles. Jason Matthews shares a gutsy story.

Cash Flow: He Won A Banana

Jose Pagliery explains what?s behind the all-cash?legal marijuana business. Here are three ways that having working capital can spruce up your business. Even though it has enough cash to buy Facebook, Hewlett-Packard and Yahoo, Apple plans the biggest debt offering in corporate history. Small businesses cut borrowing for the third month in a row, and an online small-business lender has locked in $17 million more in financing for itself. Dun & Bradstreet Credibility kicks off its 2013 Access to Capital Tour on May 22 in Chicago. A Fidelity small business analysis shows that balances for small-business retirement plans increased an average of 20 percent between 2007 and 2012. A man loses his life?s savings on a carnival game (but wins a banana), and here?s why professional liability insurance is helpful when collecting money from customers.

People: Get A Tattoo, Get A Raise

Richard Finger says American Airlines employees loathe their management. Alexandra Levit says there are six ways you may be sabotaging your company?s culture. Richard Branson offers tips for keeping your most valued employees happy. Heather Huhman suggests what to do when employees quit. Yahoo now offers 16 weeks of paid maternity leave, and a New York City real estate agent offers employees a pay raise for getting a tattoo (of the company logo). More employees are seeking training as they manage their careers, but 41 percent of college grads are overqualified for what they do. Here are a few steps to improve the way you give performance reviews. Here are the top 10 tech companies to work for, the 100 jobs that bring the highest salaries and the 23 signs that you?re the Stanley of your office.

Entrepreneurs: Do You Have What it Takes?

Mohul Ghosh says that ?love for wealth? is one of nine unmistakable symptoms of entrepreneurship. In a radio interview, an author shares his entrepreneurial journey. Sinead says today?s geeks are the new rock stars. These are the top 10 billionaires who dropped out of school. Kenny Chesney explains why he?s a no-shoes entrepreneur with a taste for the rum business. And if you take this entrepreneurial quiz you might find out if you have what it takes to make it big.

Start-Up: Omaha

It appears the new must-attend start-up conference is in Omaha. This 18-slide pitch just landed a payment start-up $16.5 million, while another start-up creates a marketplace for the curious and those who teach. TechCrunch Disrupt discovers some exciting new companies in New York. Martin Zwilling suggests seven essentials to finding the right start-up mentor. Here are the top 10 reasons to start up in college. Sam Biddle shows what it looks like when you lose all of your start-up money.

Social Media: Do You Have a Policy?

Facebook is losing millions of users, and apps like this may be the reason. This is what the new YouTube layout and other Google updates mean for your small business. LinkedIn now lets you add photos, videos, and comments from others. A study finds mothers of young children are more likely than the general public to use social media. Kyle Nunes explains why you should consider blogging for your business. Debbie Thomson thinks your small business may need a social media policy. A Mexican restaurant?s privileged customer complains about the service and is the recipient of a social media firestorm. Twitter opens up a self-serve advertising platform to businesses, and according to Kealan Lennon, ?what today?s social retailers are getting right is that the most compelling content to consumers is the media created by the consumers.? Living Social is hacked. A reporter?s Instagram photo reveals a ?near-death? experience. According to an AT&T study, two-thirds of small-business owners said they planned to spend as much or more as they did last year on digital marketing (including Web sites, social media and online advertising).

Customer Service: Loyalty And Lady Gaga

April was Customer Loyalty Month and Shep Hyken celebrated. This is how to make customers come back even after they return purchases. A study shows that spelling and grammar errors in shop signs lose customers. Here are seven customer-loyalty lessons you can learn from Lady Gaga. And now it?s May, which is National Salad Month.

Health Care: Surprise!

The Affordable Care Act application form is out, and it?s actually quite easy. A Stanford professor says the Act will cause millions of Americans to pay more for health insurance. Meanwhile, other experts propose $1 trillion in savings. Ron Present and Bill Goddard give advice for controlling your health care costs.

Around The Country: More Oil in North Dakota

A survey doubles the estimate of recoverable oil reserves in North Dakota. The Chamber of Commerce names these the most enterprising states. Local pawnshops in Daytona Beach, Fla., are unfazed by the recent drop in gold prices. The UPS Store introduces a Main Street franchise model. A small-business conference is scheduled for May 17 and 18 in New York, and Philadelphia announces its first Small Business Week.

Around The World: The Pirate Party

Euro-area economic confidence falls more than expected, and Spain sinks deeper into recession after suffering 33 consecutive months of falling retail sales. Europe?s youth employment levels are called ?insane.? Germany accuses France of being ?Europe?s biggest problem child,? and France wants to woo foreigners with entrepreneur visas. Meanwhile, Italy is facing a shortage of pizza makers. Churchill will be on a new bank note. Japan?s manufacturing and hiring rises. In this video, the Russian president meets with small-business owners. The Pirate Party wins three seats in the Icelandic parliament. Obama?s comedy is anything but routine for the Chinese. Micro-breweries are bubbling over in South Africa. A small business expo is planned for Jamaica.

Technology: Google Glass

Bob Cringely says things are looking up for Google Glass, and Robert Scoble says he will never again live a day without wearing it. Here?s how to use it. Bring-your-own-device adoption at small businesses increased in 2012 but be careful: lawsuits may be looming. Here are 10 little-known apps entrepreneurs can?t live without, 21 tips for super-charging your cloud storage and a few helpful tech upgrades for the home office. A report from National Public Radio explains why, when it comes to productivity, technology can hurt and help. This is what the voice of Alexander Graham Bell sounded like. Blackberry?s chief executive believes tablets are doomed. Square updates its mobile-payments software for small restaurants. Boy, what a difference 20 years has made. This simple trick turns commercial polymer into the world?s toughest fiber. Supermarkets of the future will track shopper eye movements. And this men?s suit will turn transparent when the wearer lies.

Tweet of the Week

@jayleno ? A NH man says he was conned by a carnival, losing his entire life savings at the ball toss game. Well, now he knows how #Lakers fans feel!

The Week?s Best Quote

Jon Stow says that you must adapt and change, or your business will die: ?I hope I do not seem unkind, but this week I had one of those online petition e-mails from some booksellers who were petitioning for Amazon to pay more tax. Yet I am sure the reason for their knocking Amazon was because Amazon is eating into their business. I feel sorry for the booksellers, but we cannot run our businesses as museum pieces because we will make no money.?

This Week?s Question: Will you be able to live without Google Glass?

Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. You can follow him on Twitter.

Source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/this-week-in-small-business-the-van-halen-principle/

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