Home | TrendTracker | PowerBlog Reviews | The Experts | Newsletter
ABOUT
SMALL BUSINESS TRENDS brings you daily updates on trends that influence the global small business market.
Anita Campbell, Editor
Past life: CEO, corporate executive, tech entrepreneur, retailer, general counsel, marketer, HR ... (more)
email me
free business magazines
FREE BUSINESS MAGAZINES
Trade publications FREE to qualified professionals. No hidden offers and no purchase necessary.
On Wall Street
The Deal
Computing Canada
 CIO
Employee Benefit
Oracle Magazine
100+ additional titles. Click to browse.
ARCHIVES & SEARCH
Previous Small Business Trends articles can be found at the links below:
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
Or, use the search box below to find a
specific post:


NEWSLETTER
Sign up for our FREE Small Business Trends newsletter. (View Current)

We publish regularly and promise we won't share your email address with anyone. (Privacy Policy)
SMALL BIZ INFO & RESOURCES
BLOGS TO READ DAILY*
* Don’t have time to read several dozen blogs a day? Pick two or three. Your brain will thank you for it.
ONLINE COMMUNITIES
BLOG DIRECTORIES
THE BUZZ

SPECIAL RESOURCES
Small Business Trends Radio
Tuesdays, 1:00 PM Eastern U.S. time
on Voice America network
Click to listen

November 1st: Torsten Jacobi, CEO of Creative Weblogging, joins host Anita Campbell. Sponsored by Six Disciplines. Show details.
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Hot Documentary Film Trend: Serial Killers
Apparently there isn't much money in documentary films these days -- except when they are about serial killers.

"America as a whole is utterly fascinated with serial killers," says Julian P. Hobbs, director of Collectors, a documentary film about two guys obsessed with serial killers. Read more here.

That understanding of the market demand is partly what's driving all the film attention being given to serial killer Aileen Wuornos. A newly-released Hollywood film "Monster" starring Charlize Theron, as well as two documentaries are based on Wuornos' life. Listen to the audio report on NPR here.

Small, independent, documentary film makers have found what seems to be one area where they can make money: following the lives of serial killers (and even their groupies).


By Anita Campbell | Permalink | |
Monday, December 29, 2003
Top Small Business Software in 2003
From the folks over at Small Business Computing comes this list of the top 10 software products for small business during 2003 (all prices in US dollars):

10. Google Toolbar and Deskbar - The free toolbar gives all-the-time access to Google, the Web's most extensive search engine. With the toolbar you can see the page rank for the site being surfed. It also includes a pop-up blocker and a highlighting tool to highlight your search term right on the page -- and lots more. The deskbar is a small window that pops up when you want to search the Internet and don't want to launch an Internet Explorer browser window.

9. System Mechanic 4 Professional - During 2003 Iolo Technologies added Panda anti-virus and firewall software to its $70 system optimization and housekeeping package. The combination offers an alternative to Symantec's SystemWorks, Personal Firewall and other utilities.

8. Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8 - This digital photography and image editing software offers a $109 alternative to Adobe's $649 Photoshop.

7. Intelligent Spam Filters - This category refers to a new breed of spam filters that perform intelligent, on-the-fly content analysis. This new type of spam killer includes Outlook add-ons such as InBoxer, to freeware programs like spamihilator.

6. Adobe Photoshop Album - The $50 Photoshop Album offers an easy, friendly way to organize, search, touch up, print or e-mail your collection of digital images.

5. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 Preferred - Version 7 of this pioneering speech-recognition package is called "simply remarkable" by Small Business Computing. It costs $200 and with just a half an hour's setup, "you can truly dictate to your PC, rattling on in your normal voice and enjoying versatile shortcut commands.... If Microsoft bought this software, Time and Newsweek would be running cover stories about a new millennium in human/computer interfaces. It's that good."

4. Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 - Microsoft's second-generation operating system for multimedia-optimized computers. It's a "classy, attractive way to manage your digital photos, music files, TV and radio favorites, and more."

3. Activewords - The $50 ActiveWords Plus is an interface that reacts when you type words on the keyboard. ActiveWords is "an exemplary power tool for quickly performing repetitive tasks, launching favorite programs or Web pages, and applying the idea behind Word's AutoComplete to customize and optimize your whole computing environment."

2. OpenOffice.org 1.1 - OpenOffice is a free, open-source, Microsoft-file-compatible word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing suite. Interchanges for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, along with a PDF export and a macro recorder are also included.

1. Microsoft Office 2003 - "It's somewhat anticlimactic or obvious, but it'd be foolish to deny that the new editions of Gates & Co.'s ultra-dominant software suite are the most significant of the year. *** ...Outlook 2003's reorganized reading layout and built-in spam blocker, as well as the Small Business Edition's impressive (but unshareable or single-user) contact manager, are a real help to end users...."

Read the full text of the article here.


Although the article is directed toward small business, the top ten choices are equally applicable to home users and even large corporations. And it's clear that Microsoft still rules -- yet interesting that the runner-up for top software choice is an open-source entry.



By Anita Campbell | Permalink | |
Sunday, December 28, 2003
Flaws in Italy's Small Business Sector
The collapse of the Parmalat food giant in Italy has revealed a flaw in the Italian system: the lack of effective financial control over its family-owned companies.

Parmalat is not a small business. But it is a family-owned company that started out as a small business and then grew large. The issues facing Parmalat are the same kinds of issues facing Italy's small business sector, just on a larger scale.

According to a report by Agence France Presse, Italy's small business sector depends largely on a system of trust. That system of trust was rocked when it was discovered two weeks ago that Parmalat was relying on a 4.9 billion Euro bank account that did not exist. Banks refused to advance any more cash when the account could not be verified. Then, in a scenario reminiscent of Enron, Parmalat quickly collapsed.

Since then, former officers and directors of Parmalat have revealed a fraud at least twice the size of what was originally suspected. And they have revealed a web of fraudulent transfers of company money into private, offshore bank accounts owned by the controlling Tanzi family. The company is now insolvent.

All of which raises questions about the health of Italy's small businesses. The Italian weekly magazine Panorama asks how many small companies are out there like Parmalat?


As a result of Parmalat's failure, Italy's trusting way of doing business will come under intense scrutiny and likely result in reforms. The fallout will impact Italy's small business sector. Among the most likely impacts: funding sources for Italy's small businesses will become more restrictive; there will be greater regulatory oversight; and, of course, many small businesses, including the dairy farmers who supplied Parmalat, will never recover the money they are owed by Parmalat.

By Anita Campbell | Permalink | |
Friday, December 26, 2003
Employee Tracking Is Coming to Cell Phones
Ever wonder where one of your salespeople was -- actually making a call or headed for the golf course? Well, for better or worse, soon you will probably be able to tell. There is a big-brother aspect to the whole affair, but the ability to monitor where employees carrying cell phones are and whether they are moving or sitting is on the way.

GPS technology is being built into cell phones in response to the U.S. government's requirement that by late 2005 wireless carriers have the capability to locate callers who automatically dial 911.

The impact on businesses should prove interesting. Yes, knowing where a salesperson, repair tech, or other time-value employee can be found is tempting. But are you willing to deal with the ramifications regarding privacy and morale? Will you need to establish policies? And if your best salesperson regularly violates those policies, then what do you do?

By Dave Patterson | Permalink | |
Thursday, December 25, 2003
Top 10 Healthcare Predictions for 2004
Forrester is out with its top ten healthcare predictions for 2004. In order, they are:

1. Pharmaceutical companies will downsize.

2. More U.S. health plans will outsource claims processing, and it goes offshore.

3. Revenue derived from Electronic Medical Records (EMR) will surge past that from Practice Management Systems (PMS).

4. Pharmaceutical firms will begin providing product detailing via the Internet to nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

5. Enrollment in consumer-directed health plans will double.

6. Proscape will see a fourfold increase in use of its tablet PCs by pharmaceutical salespeople.

7. One-sixth of all U.S. households will purchase prescription drugs online.

8. Health plans will implement natural language search tools on their websites making it far easier for the average Joe and Joan to use them.

9. Health plans will take advantage of real-time copay connections to help manage individual patient care by providing real-time treatment recomendations based on patient records.

10. The growth in Electronic Data Capture (EDC) for clinical trials will slow to a trickle as skeptical managers await results of early adopters before committing.

It's unlikely Forrester will be dead on for all ten points, but if they are right about 3, 6, and 10, a good many smaller enterprises will feel the effect. EMR has the potential to have a big impact on the two-thirds of U.S. physicians who are in small group practices. Proscape sells its products to all sales people and dominance in pharmaceuticals will influence other industries. A number of smaller tech ventures are betting their future on EDC, and delays of a year of more could prove really painful.

By Dave Patterson | Permalink | |
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
In-Shore Outsourcing
As an alternative to offshore outsourcing, some U.S. companies are choosing in-shore outsourcing instead.

American companies challenged to cut costs are now outsourcing to cities within the U.S. where labor costs are lower than the national average.

Among the cities where salaries are below average are: Little Rock, Arkansas; Birmingham, Alabama; Asheville, North Carolina; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Omaha, Nebraska. Source: Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

If you simply looked at hourly rates alone, companies could save more by outsourcing overseas. Offshore hourly rates can be one-fourth the rates (sometimes less) of similar talent in the United States.

With in-shore outsourcing, however, companies feel they get the best of both worlds. They still can receive cost reductions, albeit less dramatic. But having a labor source located in the United States gives them better control over quality and communications -- something they believe offsets the smaller cost reductions.

Tech companies in particular can take advantage of this trend, also being called by some companies "best shoring."

Wall Street Journal subscribers, read more in the article by Kris Maher.


In-shore outsourcing has been a common practice among some large corporations. They've always looked at labor micromarkets within the United States and chosen to locate operations where labor costs are low. But the growth in offshore outsourcing has brought about significant market pricing pressure for tech and call center companies. This in turn forces more companies, including smaller businesses, to look at the in-shore alternative in order to reduce costs. Especially if they do not feel comfortable with offshoring.

By Anita Campbell | Permalink | |
Monday, December 22, 2003
China to Guarantee Property Rights
China is changing its constitution to guarantee property rights for individuals and businesses.

China's entrepreneurs have been lobbying for the change. The change will bring China's legal system in line with the emerging economic behavior occurring in that country.

Already millions of Chinese have started businesses, purchased homes, and bought stocks in Chinese businesses. Individuals already own property -- they now want it to be legally protected.

Read the article here for more background information. Tip of the hat to Eric Olsen at Blogcritics.org for raising this article.


A guarantee of private property rights will foster even more business startups and small entrepreneurial enterprises in China. And due to the trend toward globalization, a ripple effect will be felt in the United States and western countries. Import/export activity will grow. Foreign investment in China, and foreign sourcing of goods and services from China, will certainly increase as businesses expand with confidence knowing their investments are better protected.


By Anita Campbell | Permalink | |