Land of Opportunity

Vegrandis LLC, a Fayetteville, Arkansas based technology company has received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award from the National Science Foundation for $500,000 to develop technology to rapidly detect pathogens in the water supply. There is also the potential to receive an additional $500,000 in Phase IIb funding for a total of up to $1 million. (more…)

Mad Vlogger Christian Brower offers a video clip of business marketing gone bad — very, very bad. In this clip an oriental restaurant attempts telemarketing. How Chris kept a straight face during the video I’ll never know.

If you’re looking for something different for your next marketing blog post, chinese restaurant telemarketing is it.

After you’ve watched the clip and had your laughs, ponder this: How could business harness the technology of video blogging.

I see useful vlogging applications for (more…)

Betsy Martin, Research Specialist at the Arkansas SBDC, announced recently that she had acquired three new books with demographic data on Arkansas. What an excellent idea for a blog post! Several times each year, I teach a database marketing class, which covers the basics of analysing a customer database and segmenting the data with both Census data and commercial segmentation systems.

What follows is a mini-compendium of FREE demographic sources for small businesses. (more…)

Dr. Jeffrey R. Cornwall at The Entrepreneurial Mind points out an article on professional organizers. The article by Mark Hendricks in the Wall Street Journal’s StartUp Journal describes the opportunity to start a small business as professional organizers for homes, businesses or both.

Mark writes, ” Entrepreneurs who start businesses as professional organizers report unusually high levels of satisfaction, and many say they earn more than they did as corporate employees.”

Mark quotes Barry Izsak, president of Arranging It All in Austin, Texas, as saying, “My life is so good. I never dreamed I’d be doing something that is so easy for me, and making so much money.”

Sure they make good money. The article states that most organizers charge between $45 to $55 an hour. One organizer charges between $85 to $100 per hour simply for organizing data on a hard disk drive! (more…)

Jim Hopkins in a recent USA Today article reports that American senior citizens over 50 are the new entrepreneurs.

“Call them grandma-and-grandpop businesses. New research shows 5.6 million workers age 50 and older are now self-employed, a 23% jump from 1990. The numbers are expected to rise further as baby boomers seek more job security, Americans get older and cheaper technology drives down start-up costs.” (more…)

Patrick O’Rourke, a CPA in Washington DC, has posted a list of Safest & Riskiest Small Businesses on his BizStats.com website. Patrick compares relative percentages of profitable and loss for businesses in a given industry. A high percentage of profitability is defined as “safe.”

“Surveyors (# 1) came out on top for the second year in a row … while hunters & trappers came in dead (no pun intended) last. (more…)

Several hundred Arkansans took their first steps in starting their own small business in Arkansas this past Thursday, January 20, 2005. The Arkansas Small Business Development Center sent the business consultants from their seven statewide centers out to fourteen Arkansas cities. This year’s attendance broke attendance records in several cities. (more…)

Governor Mike Huckabee has proclaimed January 20th as “Arkansas Entrepreneur Day”. The Arkansas Small Business Development Center is offering their popular “Starting a Business in Arkansas” seminar on Thursday, January 20th from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in 14 cities throughout Arkansas. Teams of business consultants, bankers, and training specialists will conduct all 14 seminars simultaneously. Admission is only $20 and includes a wealth of valuable, high quality handouts. If you made a New Year’s resolution to start a small business in 2005, here’s your chance to make good on your resolution. Locations and registration