Hiring Diversity

Why hiring disabled employees is not only an ethical act, or a patriotic one, but a bottom-line benefit for small business.

What Business Structure Is Right?

Here's an infographic that you may find helpful, from Business.com.

At CUNY Grad School of Journalism learning about digital efficiency for business reporters and editors. Pretty cool stuff!

SABEW Conference starts this evening.

Women For the Nobel Win

I am so pleased and happy to see three peace activist women get the Nobel! Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is one of my heroes. And if you want to be inspired, put "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" on your Netflix list. It's the story of the brave Liberian women who crossed religious barriers to insist that their men stop fighting each other.

Chatty Cathy

The more things change, the more you stay the same. I don't know about you, but I am totally turning into my mother.

Last weekend I found myself chatting with cashiers at clothing stores and the girl making my chai latte at Starbucks. Then I stopped myself and wondered, "What in the world am I doing?"

Mom had a habit of telling strangers all our private family business. The clerk at the store, the person behind her in line buying groceries, the cute gas station attendant (this was in the days when guys in uniforms actually pumped gas for you): They all got an update on what we were doing and thinking, whether they wanted one or not.

It might have been fine in Portland, Oregon when my mom was growing up during the Great Depression, but this was 1970s L.A. and I assure you, it was weird.

The low point occurred the day after I had foolishly given in to the idea of letting my aunt cut and perm my oh-so-sleek, long, straight hair, parted-in-the-middle just like the cool older girls at school. It was one of my worst-ever decisions, but what can I say? Mom and Aunt Helen, a hair dresser, caught me in a weak moment and finally wore me down.

The result was a tortured few hours bent over the kitchen sink, nose plugged against the stink of a home-permanent kit. At the end, there was the horrifying realization that I had not only survived, but I looked like a cross between Shirley Temple and Phyllis Diller.

Surely my education had come to premature close; I could never show my face to the outside world again.

Smart Girls

Last week, I reported on a paper showing that women entrepreneurs start fewer companies than men, and their startups tend to be weaker financially.

That's the bad news. The good news is that there are a bunch of smart, determined women working to change that state of affairs.

One of them is called Smart Girls Way, a Seattle organization that describes its mission as: "A social venture dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs to create significant economic breakthroughs."

The aforementioned paper lamented the lack of female entrepreneurial role models for young women. Smart Girls is trying to change that with something called the 100 x 100 Project:

Each weekday for the next 20 weeks, the 100 x 100 Project will feature a different video interview with a woman entrepreneur who shares her experiences and advice firsthand. 

Sounds like a great first step to me. Check out some of the stories and see if you can find some inspiration!

Customer Service

Personal, friendly, go-the-extra-mile customer service is the secret weapon of successful small businesses. But you'd never know it by visiting stores populated by surly, unconcerned staff, whose standard response to inquiries seems to be "the shrug," combined with "the mystified look."


"Huh? Why can't you just leave me alone, dude!?"


So it was a pleasant surprise to get timely, helpful and friendly service last weekend at a new camera and photo shop I ventured into to have some old photos copied. 


The staffer noticed me walk in and approached me immediately with a smile. She helped me scan my photos, cropping and improving the quality for me, and then apologized that it would take her 10 minutes to get the prints done.


No problem! The finished products were beautiful, done in no time and cost less than $10. The staffer also pointed out the store's holiday specials (bring in a shoebox of old prints and get them transferred onto a CD for $39.99) in a manner that was informative, but low-pressure.


I'll definitely be going back and may even take them up on their special offer. What a great holiday gift for that relative who is tough to buy for!


Every small business owner should have employees so engaged and positive. "A company's frontline associates can be an organization's best competitive advantage and the 'secret' to securing repeat business," says Richard Shapiro, author of the forthcoming book, "The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business" (Feb 2012).

Take a look at Shapiro's Top 10 Tips for repeat business after the jump...