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The Kurt Cobain Guide to Startup Success
Source: http://lateralaction.com
It may seem a stretch to call Kurt Cobain and Nirvana entrepreneurs. After all, Cobain was so disturbed by fame that he ultimately took his own life to escape the pressure. The success of the album Nevermind was an accident of creative genius by punk rockers who reluctantly hit it big, right? Not exactly.

Submitted By: Robert
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Being Branson
Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com
At first glance, Richard Branson is an enigma. Look a little deeper, though, and he's somewhat decipherable. At his core are traits that are good predictors of entrepreneurial success. We asked experts in the fields of psychology and entrepreneurship to share their thoughts on what makes entrepreneurs succeed. Through their answers and our interview with Branson, we shed some light on what makes him such a notable individual.

Submitted By: Darryl
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The 12 Concepts Of The Business Brickyard
Source: http://businessbrickyard.com
Howard Mann is a speaker, author and entrepreneur. He is on a mission to get businesses to thrive in every way, in good times and bad, by relentlessly sticking to their basics. He sums the basics up in 12 points.

Submitted By: Robert
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Prospering During Times of Economic Turmoil
Source: http://www.imediaconnection.com
Generally speaking, those companies that not only survived but also thrived during the Great Depression were those that continued to act as though there were nothing wrong and that the public had money to spend. In other words, they advertised. These are industries that didn't wait for public demand for their products to rise. They created that demand even during the most difficult of times.

Submitted By: Heidi
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How Do You Charge for Your Time?
Source: http://webworkerdaily.com
How to charge for the work you do seems to be a constant question on every Web worker's mind, and I think we all come up with our own formulas on how to handle pricing issues.

Submitted By: speeditonline
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Double Down or Batten Down?
Source: http://www.businessbrickyard.com
To read the papers, blogs and listen to TV news is to get lost in a sea of contradictions. "Now is the time to double down!" some will say as they name the great businesses that were born in past turbulent times. "Batten down the hatches!" others say as they insist you must cut costs anywhere and everywhere to survive the doom and despair that is in front of us. Are either a true strategy? Bet it all or hide in the corner?

Submitted By: Robert
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Small businesses optimistic - is economy bottoming out?
Source: http://www.smallbiztrends.com
For the second month in a row, the Small Business Optimism Index has actually gone up, signifying that small business owners are feeling more optimistic about the economy and their own business prospects.

Submitted By: thejenn
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Improving Opt-In Rate On Landing Pages
Source: http://thesneakpeekblog.com
Simple tip that can be implemented in minutes and may dramatically improve your opt-in rate.

Submitted By: CathyStucker
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A Marketing Tool That's Obvious, Overlooked and Cheap
Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com
While many entrepreneurs are scrambling to attract new business, some have discovered one of the easiest (and least expensive) tools to keep their sales engines humming: holding on to current patrons through superb customer service. When you weight the cost of attracting new clients vs. the cost of keeping the ones you have, superior customer service will beat most any ad campaign on ROI.

Submitted By: Darryl
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Sales Lessons Learned At Panera Bread
Source: http://blog.rebarbusinessbuilders.com
Selling can be difficult for professional service providers. This post reviews some lessons learned that others may find helpful for improving their sales skills.

Submitted By: bbrelsford
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Sins of Commissions
Source: http://www.inc.com
Call it the sin of commissions. Employees will always game incentive plans -- because the geniuses who design them don't anticipate how employees will respond. How to avoid a similar fate.

Submitted By: Darryl
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Sales Tip of the Day: Don't Hang Up
Source: http://sellingsherpa.typepad.com
When Kim calls and a prospect answers the phone, she begins the call with, "Hi, My name is Kim Pouncy and I am a web designer for Pouncy Designs and this is a sales call. Do you want to hang up now?"

Submitted By: Robert
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Business Blogging and Content Marketing Campaign Tips
Source: http://copywriterscrucible.com
Tips for creating a content marketing campaign to build relationships with prospects, improve your Google ranking and (hopefully) make more internet sales.

Submitted By: Marketinghound9
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Anxious? Try to stop and think first for best results
Source: http://rembrandtblog.com
Whether you are anxiously awaiting a call from a media member, or you are worried about what to do with your money in today's economic turmoil, it's usually best to take a moment and think before acting. Not only will you make better, more informed decisions, but just a little extra time can drastically change circumstances so that you know exactly what actions to take, if any.

Submitted By: RembrandtWrites
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10 Ways To Explain Things More Effectively
Source: http://www.globalknowledge.com
In the course of your work, you may sometimes need to explain technical concepts to your customers. Having them understand you is important not only for technical reasons, but also to ensure customer satisfaction. The ability to explain things clearly and effectively can help you in your career, as well. Here are a few tips to help make your explanations understandable and useful.

Submitted By: speeditonline
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How to Grow Your Twitter Following (Even if You're Not a Marketer)
Source: http://www.searchengineguide.com
But I think it goes without saying that a lot of people (or should I say "peeps") would like to grow their Twitter following, and I think I've cracked the code. Whatever your social networking goals are, the following tactics will not only increase the number of people following you, but you will begin to experience that old fashioned thing called "community" right from your desktop.

Submitted By: sazbean
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Dealing with Negative Feedback in a Positive Way
Source: http://thecaffeinatedblog.typepad.com
It's challenging (to say the least) to read that negative stuff about the business you've worked so hard to grow; but that doesn't mean there aren't positive ways to deal with it. If you've found yourself in this situation, here are some steps to take.

Submitted By: gwkari
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The Crisis May Be a Boon for Some Small Businesses
Source: http://www.businessweek.com
From cheaper real estate to old-fashioned attention from banks, small businesses owners may see some good times ahead.

Submitted By: Darryl
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Back That Thing Up!
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com
Makers of storage devices for big businesses are trying harder to reach the home and small business markets. With only 10% of the U.S. population currently backing up their important information, there is obviously still a gap that needs filled.

Submitted By: Rachel
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What happened to the other 20%?
Source: http://www.lyrishq.com
In a perfect world, every email sender would reach 100% deliverability with completely relevant content and high opens and clicks. In reality, that's just not the case. Approximately only 80% of all emails sent will actually make it to the inbox.

Submitted By: Heidi
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How Sloppy Website Design Hinders Online Success
Source: http://www.creativesearchmedia.com
Do you ever wonder why your Website is nowhere to be found on Google, Yahoo! or MSN? If the answer is Yes then you must read on. Your problem could be the way your website design firm designed your site. Although many website design firms tout their design, marketing and search engine marketing expertise one look at the code behind their clients' sites tells a very different story.

Submitted By: Rachel
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Are You Driving Your Business Or Is It Driving You? - Benjamin Franklin
Source: http://www.youngentrepreneur.com
He was the fifteenth of seventeen children and his father didn't have enough money to send him to school, but that didn't stop Benjamin Franklin from becoming one of the most prominent figures in early American history.

Submitted By: speeditonline
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Man Sued For Leaving Negative Feedback on ebay
Source: http://www.money.co.uk
A man is being threatened with legal action after leaving negative feedback on an ebay seller's account.

Submitted By: digitalfever
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Today's lesson: your private conversations ain't so private
Source: http://everydotconnects.com
This is why so many people and companies freak out about the Web, and they SHOULD if they're just now figuring out that everyone is a potential recorder/journalist, and laptops have Webcams (so if a laptop is facing you, it might behoove you to consider whether you're being livestreamed.)

Submitted By: thejenn
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Small Business Goal Setting
Source: http://www.sohoblog.org
Sit with your wife/business partner and discuss where you want this business to be in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years to include: Financial goals, number of employees, products/services you want to offer, level of service, number of stores, profitability. These should absolutely correlate with what you want at home. If you are a family person, and don't want to work 15 hour days, don't shoot to be the next Microsoft.

Submitted By: Robert
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13 tips for longer laptop life
Source: http://underpantsoffice.com
Steve Jobs' announcement last week of slick new Apple laptops plunged me briefly into serious hardware envy (Steve: you had me at "unibody enclosure"), but the economic upheaval of the past few weeks really has me thinking more soberly about how I can make the stuff I have last much longer - especially my laptop computer.

Submitted By: Robert
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3 Simple Steps to a Green Office
Source: http://www.askergoworks.com
Create a healthy and green office environment. The benefits can be endless and even ergonomic.

Submitted By: semagnets
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Brain Trust: 100 Ivy League Business & Entrepreneurship Courses You Can Take for Free
Source: http://www.bschool.com
Through open courseware programs, you can access course materials from a wide range of top universities. Whether you decide to take these courses on your own time or just skim through the information, follow these great business and entrepreneurship information.

Submitted By: sunnyspeaks
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Google Analytics 3.0 - Advanced Segmentation
Source: http://www.epikone.com
Advanced segmentation is a new feature in Google Analytics that lets you segment all data in a profile. Why is this important? We now have an incredibly powerful segmentation tool that we can use to identify which segments of our traffic are performing and which are not. This leads to more analysis on the under performing segments and (hopefully) increased site performance.

Submitted By: ijidak
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Content Research - What Is It, And How To Do It
Source: http://www.caroline-middlebrook.com
This is an excellent article that explains what content research is and how to do it properly.

Submitted By: TomLindstrom
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How to Make Schwag Work for You
Source: http://www.marketingpsychology.com
Dr. Gary Witt writes, "Giveaways are the most ubiquitous items at any trade show. Everyone has freebies, ranging from hard candy to expensive CDs. Yet, if you ask many regular exhibitors, they'll be hard pressed tell you if most of it works. From a Psychological Marketing viewpoint, what are the best types of giveaways? To answer that question, the exhibitor must determine what the giveaway should do."

Submitted By: Rachel
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10 Tips for StartUps to Survive the "Recession"
Source: http://weblog.techdad.net
If you are a bootstrapped company, a startup or a company in "stealth mode," right now you might be wishing that you had taken a more stable job at a large corporation. "Don't Panic!" There are methods to keep your company and vision moving forward, maybe in a different direction or perhaps a bit more slowly.

Submitted By: speeditonline
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Marketing In A Turbulent Economy
Source: http://blog.marketingtips.com
A nice article on marketing in a downturn. Its basically focused on using a survey to connect with your customers.

Submitted By: speeditonline
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Description from Amazon:

Sir Richard Branson is one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and his Virgin Group is one of the most recognised lifestyle brands, trusted and enjoyed by many millions of people.

Now, in his trademark charismatic and honest style, Richard shares the inside track on some of his greatest achievements over forty years in business as well as the lessons he has learned from his setbacks. In Business Stripped Bare, he discusses why he took on one of the world's biggest superbrands, how he built Virgin Mobile USA into the fastest growing company in history to reach a billion dollars in revenue, faster than Microsoft, Google or Amazon.com, and how Richard is the only person in the world to have built seven billion dollar companies from scratch in seven completely different sectors.

Richard tells the story behind the launch of Virgin America, his new airline in the USA, how Virgin Galactic is set to initiate a new era of space tourism from a spaceport deep in the Mojave desert, and what he has learned about business from a diverse group of leaders, including Nelson Mandela, Jack Welch, Herb Kelleher, Steve Jobs and the founders of Google. He also shares his thoughts on the changing face of the global economy and how businesses worldwide need to work together to tackle environmental challenges and invest in the future of our world.

Combining invaluable advice with remarkable and candid inside stories, Business Stripped Bare is a dynamic, inspirational and truly original guide to success in business and in life. Whether you are an executive, an entrepreneur or just starting out in the business world, Richard strips down business to show how you can succeed and make a difference.

Link to Book On Amazon.com (NOT an affiliate link)