In Cash Flow We Trust

I saw a great article in the New York Times by Amy Wallace. The article is titled Whose Concept Was It, Anyway?  This is such a typical start-up story. It goes something like this:

Last month’s Prototype column about a company that makes reusable dry-cleaning bags-began: “Man or woman, every one on us has experienced the frustration that drove Rick Siegel to become an inventor”

The day it appeared, with a picture of Mr Siegel, his wife, Jennie Nogrosh, and their product, the Green Garmento, I heard from another Los Angeles inventor, Jane Wyler. She was plenty frustrated with Mr. Siegel.

It turns out that Ms. Wyler, whose company is called Reuseniks, met Mr. Siegel in 2008 when he and his wife approached her at a trade show. The couple told Ms. Wyler that they were blown away by her reusable dry-cleaning bag, the clothesnik. After buying two, they asked to meet to discuss investing in her company. Ms. Wyler opted not to team with them….and you know what happened next, right?

If you are an entrepreneur please read the entire article very carefully you will learn the merits of having folks sign a non compete agreement, some folks have different ethics than you may and most importantly; patent or no patent, market saturation is king!!

This particular product has no patent and perhaps Mr. Siegel was not completely honest with the author but he was able to get some massive publicity. In the end, the market will decide who has the superior product but there are great lessons to be learned by all of you budding entrepreneurs. Thanks for a great article Amy!

You know all about folks selling incense, herbs or whatever you want to call it-unless you have been living under a rock. It goes by different names such as K2, Black Mamba and others but the bottom line is some folks love it and in most states it is legal. That however is changing quickly in some states.

The reason I write about this phenomena today is to let you know that some folks have made money on this online trend. Take for example Legalerb. This company came online this year and their sales took off. They were one of the few that recognized a trend and jumped on it! That’s the beauty of an online business. I don’t make any judgements as to the moral issue of selling synthetic marijuana-I figure that if they had not done it someone surely would have. If you are going to be an entrepreneur you must move quickly and ride the wave of success. You should also be looking for the next wave-because this one will fade out sooner or later.

You can read the entire New York Times article on Synthetic Marijuana here.

Ben Huh is my hero and you should pay attention to his business model if you are serious about making money. Huh came across a blog a few years ago devoted to funny cat pictures. He saw that the site had good traffic and Huh was a cat fan!

He bought the site rather than trying to reinvent the wheel and today makes seven figures from advertising, licensing fees and merchandise sales. I love this guys keen business sense! When people ask me about making money on the Internet the first thing I ask them is; what are you passionate about, what do you really know?

It seems to me that Huh has been successful because he was passionate about cats and more importantly, he is a great business person. Rather than try to reinvent the wheel take a lesson from Huh and make millions! Here’s a big shout out to Ben Huh and one of his sites: http://icanhascheezburger.com/

Here’s  an interesting ad in the New York Times today:

Dear Tiger,

I want to personally apologize to you for the hypocrisy of our society and its media in regard to your present difficulties.

“Let he who has not sinned…”

Bravo for your skill, your achievements and your great charitable work.

Sincerely,

Eric Krebs, Producer
New York City

Eric, since I have never sinned…..I too appreciate the mans golf skills. He has always annoyed me because he is one of the whinniest people I have ever seen on the golf course. Let this be a lesson to all of those corporate sponsors who are convinced that an athlete will be a good endorser.

PS I’m so glad that I’m not responsible for his online reputation management

Ski season is in full swing here in Colorado and across the land. Thanksgiving Holiday is traditionally one of the best weekends for ski resorts and all of their out of town guests.

Part of skiing in Colorado and other ski resorts is the reality of becoming injured by other skiers or perhaps faulty equipment at the resorts. Check out this video if you have any questions about ski injury lawyers in Colorado.

You cal also read more about ski area accidents and Colorado ski injury attorneys at this site.

Forensic accounting has become more prevalent since the United States started tracking terrorists through the money trail! Who would of thought that forensic accounting is one of the ten hottest jobs for the next decade? I don’t know about you but I have taken accounting classes and I salute those who can keep up with all the changes in accounting.

Forensic accounting utilizes accounting, auditing and investigative skills to help in legal matters. This area of accounting is comprised of three main areas: litigation support, investigation and dispute resolution. Litigation support is the factual presentation of economic issues relating to existing and pending litigation. The forensic accounting professional quantifies damages sustained by parties involved in legal disputes even before the y reach the courtroom. In the investigation phase the forensic accountant may search for hidden assets in a divorce case.

Small business owners are the backbone of our economy and I’ve had the pleasure of working with Environmental Tree Care LLC, located here in Denver, Colorado. Ken Zuber is the owner and this Denver firm specializes in tree trimming, tree pruning, tree removal and stump grinding.

This Denver tree service is busy-and does both residential and commercial tree projects. It’s great to see that this family tree business is busy and leads me to believe that the economy may be getting closer to recovering. Check out their Denver Tree Service profile at LinkedIn!

More small business owners continue their migration from the yellow pages to the Internet. Denver attorneys have been a mainstay in the yellow pages but we are seeing more attorneys in Denver claim their stake on the Internet. One such company is Frankfurt-Trani. They are Denver criminal defense attorneys located in Denver, Colorado.

Denver has a very competitive market for attorneys and specifically for criminal defense attorneys. While not all attorneys are completely leaving traditional forms of advertising-the trend is clearly toward having a significant presence on the Internet and the categories that will most benefit them..

When the financial sector took a dive this fall many personal financial sites thought they were in for rotten times-just the opposite has happened. Burned by their banks and the stock market, more people are seeking budgeting help, saving and investing ideas online.

They are turning to sites like Mint, SmartyPig, Cake Financial, Wesabe and Credit Karma. Personally, I don’t care what consumers do to educate themselves-just do something! We have definitely become some major whiners when it comes to being financial savvy and I for one am sick of hearing the whiners. Here’s a big shout out to the new sites!

Companies in Denver, Colorado are finding a true resource when they need team building and training. Brenda Staab, founder of Mountain Peak team building and sales training is a professional speaker and licensed PEP ™ trainer.

One of Mountain Peaks most popular workshops is sales training. In this comprehensive training workshop; a sales force is taught how to speak the customers’ language. This powerful sales training allows a sales force to learn and implement these powerful tools. The results are happier customers and improved performance.

Brenda’s Team Building Events Cover:

• Increased productivity
• Higher morale
• Improved performance
• Decreased turnover
• Less stress
• Better hiring decisions
• Enhanced creativity and long-term growth

and more.

Whether your needs are team building or sales training the results will be dramatically improved by using the PEP ™ methodology. This personality profile is incorporated in all workshops and retreats. This transformational tool allows individuals to capitalize on their strengths. It also identifies any challenging areas. Armed with this knowledge, individuals can bring their strengths to sales teams and corporations.