Handle Your Business

It’s time to knock some of those big ideas off your lists.  Let me tell you what I mean.  Thanksgiving is coming up, Christmas will follow close behind it, and then the New Year will be here before you know it.

The holiday season is upon us. This is the perfect time to tackle some of the big ideas on your strategy list for 2011.  It’s time for some fall cleaning.

What did you say that you wanted to accomplish in your business for this year? What were your sales goals, partnership goals, product creation goals, marketing goals?  Pull out that list and take a look. And then make a decision to address one of those items with your best ideas and support team. Don’t do

Read full post…

View full sizeAnne Saker/The Oregonian A man living in the Occupy Portland encampment downtown tells Police Chief Mike Reese that he is waiting for someone to help him secure a donated generator inside a fenced-in space at the southeast corner of Chapman Square. Reese met Friday with a contingent from Occupy Portland to discuss how best to help mentally and physically ill people who have settled in with the political protesters. Police Chief Mike Reese took his daily walk Friday afternoon through Chapman and Lownsdale squares. He cast his eyes over Occupy Portland’s infrastructure — the sea of tents, the kitchen serving a hot lunch, the engineering section with a fenced-off generator.

“People have the best of intentions,” Reese said, nodding with recognition at one camper after another. “I understand the impulse.”

Lots of people understand the impulse. Read full post…

BRUSSELS – European leaders yet again put off the tough decisions needed to save the continent from its debt crisis but promised Sunday that a comprehensive plan is still coming.

As they dawdled, the danger was rising in an already high-stakes game.

Leaders of the continent’s richest countries had unusually stern words Sunday for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, because many fear his nation could be the next dragged into the debt crisis if it does not make major budget cuts quickly.

That would spell disaster: Europe has rescued three small nations – Greece, Ireland and Portugal – but cannot afford to rescue Italy, the eurozone’s third largest economy. Analysts say EU leaders, known as the European Council when they meet in Brussels, have to act now to eliminate the possibility of Italy’s financial collapse.

“Between now and Wednesday, some members of the European Council have to convince colleagues that their country implements commitments fully,” EU President Herman Van Rompuy said after the day’s meetings, clearly referring to Italy.

Read full post…

I’ve worked with a number of website designers and developers over the years, many of them good people with a plethora of skills I couldn’t even dream of having. But one thing gets under my skin: when developers claim to know SEO when they clearly don’t.

Many developers do have a solid grasp and understanding of SEO concepts and some even dig in to become tried and true SEOs as well. Those that fit this latter group are few and far between, and those from the former group know as much about managing an SEO campaign as a community organizer knows about managing a country.

Many (but not all) developers know what it means to create a search engine friendly (SEF) website. But that is not the same thing as optimizing a website for top search engine ranking performance. Think of building a website as building a car. You may have created a high-performance machine, but it’s not ready to compete in the Indy 500 when it rolls off factory assembly line!

I don’t want to discount the developer’s role in the overall optimization process. This is crit

Read full post…

SMB and entrepreneur news and tips help inform the leaders of the future. The small business and entrepreneurship of tomorrow will create new jobs and new opportunities. Information is the key to building that future as effectively as possible.

Management

Companies are hiring-just not hiring you. With unemployment levels as high as they are, it is paradoxical that employers can not find employees to fill vacancies. This was known to be the case in many high tech job openings, but it is now being reported across almost all levels of employment. The main concern of companies is that applicants simply do not have the basic skills needed for the opening. It appears that our educational system and our training programs are not providing the skills required.

How to attract talent to a small company. How do you attract talent to a small business? Most likely you cant pay the high salary and offer the benefits that the large successful companies do.

Read full post…

Dear J.T. & Dale: I recently graduated with a bachelor of arts degree. During my junior and senior years, I was an intern on a research project at the university. I recently applied for a research assistant position for another research team. I thought the job was mine. My interviews were great, and I heard from a friend in the department that my references were amazing. I guess something bad happened during my second interview, but I didn’t get any weird vibes. On top of all this, the position was reposted. Why would they not choose me for a position that I was doing for the past two years (without the title)? How do I get over this blow to my self-esteem? – Meredith

J.T.: To repost it without even telling you that you weren’t selected doesn’t make sense to me. Perhaps there’s been some sort of mistake?

DALE: It doesn’t make sense to you because you’re a considerate and buttoned-up person who’s incapable of being rude or thoughtless.

Read full post…