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Once a month, eight New York area entrepreneurs cancel all appointments, power down BlackBerrys and cellphones and gather in a cone of silence. For three hours, they unload the triumphs, and more often, stresses, not shared with spouses, friends or boards: a marriage on the rocks, the pain of firing a long-term employee, depression that's usurped Read More

The goal of marketing promotions is to stimulate short-term sales. This dictum leads many marketers and small-business owners to reduce prices. However, as Michael Goodman explains, cost cutting is not always the best or most effective way to achieve this goal.

Sound counterintuitive? After all, if the goal is to increase sales, wouldn't cutt Read More

Just as large corporations are throwing their huge holiday galas, complete with orchestras, lavish meals and elaborate decorations and presentations of special bonuses and gifts, your small or home-based business can have its own end-of-the-year celebration. Indeed, you might choose to scale down the band and the buffet (perhaps, eliminate them fr Read More

How can small businesses not only survive, but thrive, in a slowing economy? Brad Sugars, chairman and CEO of business coaching firm ActionCOACH, gives specific ways to prepare for 2008. Read More

Here are eight trends to watch and capitalize on in the new year. Read More

Plans for the first Global Entrepreneurship Week were unveiled last week in London by Carl Schramm, president of the Kauffman Foundation, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. From November 17-23, 2008, the Week will engage young people everywhere in a variety of activities to learn about the possibilities of entrepreneurship. More than 30 coun Read More

In today's world of two-earner households, 1.87 children, and a myriad of obligations and scheduled activities, the average American's plate is already brimming with more than a fair share of time-draining responsibilities. An American Psychological Association (APA) 2007 poll shows that "one-third of Americans are living with extreme stress an Read More

Email is awfully invasive, no way around it these days, but it's also awfully effective for all types of communication and response. One of the ways that I've found to get a little bit of control over the beast, while also making sure that my responses are well crafted, is to pre-write email responses to many of the common requests I receive. The Read More

Every weekday at 9:30 a.m. sharp, the executive team at Bishop-Wisecarver, a Pittsburg, California, manufacturing company, files into the boardroom. They stand around the table; no sitting allowed. Then rat-a-tat-tat--each fires off a brief synopsis of the items on his or her frontmost burner. Ten minutes later all are back in the office armed wit Read More

Now that we're in the new era of consumer control, it's a good time to rekindle discussion of the role of emotion in marketing. Dan Hill, president of Sensory Logic, a Minneapolis-based research consultancy specializing in sensory-emotive strategies, just published a new book, "Emotionomics: Winning Hearts and Minds."

Feelings matter, Hill Read More