Monthly Archives: June 2008

Square Watermelons?

Posted on June 30, 2008 by randyalletag

Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for pointing us to this story from Dave Knox’s Hard Knox Life blog.  It seems that Japanese grocery stores had a problem selling watermelons.  It’s not that the Japanese don’t like the melons.  They do.  The … Continue reading →

Posted in General Business | Leave a comment

Affording Health Care

Posted on June 27, 2008 by randyalletag

No one can argue that the cost of health care (and gasoline, and heating oil, and natural gas, and bread, and beer, and on and on and on) is getting out of hand. Health care costs are expected to rise … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Resources | 1 Comment

Without the Chairs It’s Just a $5.00 Cup of Coffee

Posted on June 26, 2008 by randyalletag

Jay Ehret at The Marketing Spot has an interesting take today on Starbucks’ efforts to regain some of their past glory by introducing new products including lemonade and the "perfect frappuccino".   As Jay points out, product differentiation wasn’t the … Continue reading →

Posted in Advertising, Marketing and Positioning | Leave a comment

Free Online Courses from the SBA

Posted on June 26, 2008 by randyalletag

Wow!  Two government posts in a row! "WASHINGTON ─ The U.S. Small Business Administration has introduced two new free online finance courses to help small business owners with the basic principles of finance and borrowing.    The new self-paced courses, … Continue reading →

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IRS Raises Standard Mileage Rate for the Rest of 2008

Posted on June 24, 2008 by randyalletag

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced an increase in the optional standard mileage rates for the final six months of 2008. Taxpayers may use the optional standard rates to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for … Continue reading →

Posted in Taxes | 2 Comments

What’s the Competition Up To?

Posted on June 23, 2008 by randyalletag

Mark Riffey over at the "Business is Personal" blog asks the musical question, "Are you paying attention to your competition?"  He points out that last week, when Mozilla released the new version of the Firefox browser, the Internet Explorer team … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition | 1 Comment

Are You Selling a Commodity?

Posted on June 20, 2008 by randyalletag

“You’re not selling a commodity unless you want to.”  Seth Godin It’s a short quote but it really says it all.  The Merrian-Webster Online Dictionary offers five different definitions of the word “commodity”.  Number 4 says:  “a good or service … Continue reading →

Posted in Advertising, Marketing and Positioning, Sales and Salesmanship | Leave a comment

The Search for Meaning

Posted on June 19, 2008 by randyalletag

Anna Farmery, host of the Engaging Brand blog and podcast writes today about the one thing that seems to be missing in many businesses…..meaning.  She writes:           “People want          Meaning to their work Meaning … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Resources, Motivation, Tacony Corporation News | 2 Comments

Hassle Not Thy Customersl

Posted on June 18, 2008 by randyalletag

It may not be one of the original Ten Commandments, but it should be high on the list for anyone who’s in a service business. There’s a company here in St. Louis called Metro Imaging that provides out-patient diagnostic testing, … Continue reading →

Posted in Advertising, Marketing and Positioning, Customer Service | Leave a comment

Free Photo Editing

Posted on June 13, 2008 by randyalletag

In a digital world, most of us need to edit photos from time to time.  LifeClever offers up a list of ten free tools that edit your photos on line.  There’s no need to download software. We tested one of … Continue reading →

Posted in Computers and Point of Sale | Leave a comment