In some ways, the acquisition was like any company buying another. But when it comes to the purchase of a small business, the stuff that's important is often on a whole different plane.

Roark, for its part, needed to know the Pikes' business inside and out to be sure it had the brand reputation and customers to meet Roark's goals for growth, as well as the leadership to get it there. The Pikes wanted to be sure that Roark shared their business philosophy, that its other investments were sound, and that the family would still run the business.

"When you think of businesses being bought and sold, you think of lawyers and investment bankers, the highest price wins, and it's all very cold and canonical," says Neal Aronson, founder and managing partner of Roark. "In small family companies, all those conventional approaches many times go out the window. It's much more about really spending time, getting to know people, really building trust and rapport and a real relationship."

Editor's note: Can it possibly be the forty-first in our regular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs? Yes, it is!

This week's PowerBlog Review is about the blog Patent Pending.

Or, as the full title describes the site, "Patent Pending - Inventions and Technology Updates For Fans of Inventions and Technology, Startup Companies and Entrepreneurs."

The Patent Pending blog is the brainchild of Robert Shaver, an attorney from Boise, Idaho, USA who enjoys technology.

Patent law blogs are nothing new -- there are dozens already. But Patent Pending is different. It is so interesting.

Robert says he didn't set out to write a typical "blawg" or law blog. Mostly those are read by lawyers and as he says, patent law is "a boring subject even for me."

Instead, he wanted to write about things that were of interest to non-attorneys -- things that inventors or other people interested in inventions and technology would want to read.

Robert has always liked to read facts about inventions, such as the items that trivia columnist L.M. Boyd used to write. He thought that if he liked it, so might others. So he decided to write about what interested him, using L.M. Boyd for inspiration. He says he looks for "...information that is readable, interesting, and something that the average person would have a hard time finding. Patents are good for that, because there are 6 million of them to choose from."

What you will find at Patent Pending is not typical blog fare. For one thing, it is mostly original content. For another, it is often about events that were news a long time ago, instead of something that happened yesterday or last week. Yet somehow it all seems fresh and relevant. History, technology, inventions, historical patents and trademarks are all covered -- often with a sense of intelligent humor and wit.

Some of the historical patent posts are absorbing -- even when they're about subjects you'd think would be a snooze. Take for instance, the plow. There is a great post on the history of the plow, replete with diagrams of a John Deere patent for a plow. Boring it sounds, but boring it is not. A lot of interest is added by the different patent diagrams and images Robert inserts in the post.

The way Robert approaches his subject matter heightens the interest. One of the techniques he uses adeptly is to tell a story using background information about inventors. One of my favorite posts is about Thomas Edison's invention of the ticker tape. The post illustrates Edison's capabilities as a negotiator, and how he received over ten times the amount for the invention than he expected -- all by knowing when to ask a question rather than answering one. While the post is ostensibly about the ticker tape, it is really a vignette about Thomas Edison the entrepreneur.

In addition to all the invention and technology topics, Patent Pending also gives practical tips about patents for inventors. For instance, did you think getting a patent was expensive? Well, perhaps it's not as expensive as you think, as this post, Patenting Basics, Q & A, points out.


The Power: The Power of Patent Pending is in the content that is full of trivia, but hardly trivial. And it is also in the way the blog tells stories, covers unusual topics, and uses images and diagrams to make for fascinating -- even addicting -- reading out of what would otherwise be dry subject matter.

"Security tops buyers' wish lists, and nearly two-thirds of SMBs will buy new servers and networking equipment this year. Dell dominates mindshare among PC buyers, who on average expect to replace one in four PCs next year. The direct channel will receive the lion's share of PC and other hardware purchases by SMBs, but buyers are split on where they'll turn for hardware support. On the software front, many are in the market for finance and accounting software, and a surprisingly high number will consider hosted apps."

Q: If I do not have an IPO or acquisition as my exit strategy, will I ever be able to attract investors? Would investors ever be interested in making their return through profit sharing or a buy-out from the founders of the company in five to ten years?

A: Only if the investor is your mother. If the investors are professional investors, you can forget about raising money without a shot at an IPO or acquisition.

(a) most companies don't have a high growth business model with a potential market size of US$ 500 Million, and

(b) most can't show the VC that he or she will get a 10x return on their money in 5 years.

"Huang Youyi, deputy director-general with the China Foreign Languages Publishing and Distribution Administration, said the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Shanghai World Expo are golden opportunities for faster growth in China's translation industry.

By 2008, one out of every ten sentences spoken in Beijing is expected to be in a foreign language, a much higher rate than the current situation, Huang said.

The translation industry has witnessed an upsurge in the number of companies, with more than 3,000 currently operating in China. The number may actually be closer to 10,000, as many small companies that are registered as consultant agencies actually conduct translation business."

Wal-Mart's influence over shoppers "has peaked," says Zandl. Maybe consumers need to go to big-box retailers to buy toilet paper, cat food, and such everyday items. But shopping is about more than the necessities. And "more consumers today are looking for products and experiences that are more unique, more stylish, and more sensory than what Wal-Mart delivers." The retail giant did not return calls for comment.

Editor's note: Welcome to the fortieth in our regular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs.

We're very pleased that this week's PowerBlog Review is being guest-blogged by Wayne Hurlbert. Wayne Hurlbert is an expert on business blogging who edits the popular Blog Business World blog. He is also a writer who publishes online marketing articles. Wayne happens to be a huge fan of roller derby and exhibits his passion for the sport on his popular site Wayne's Derby World....


By Wayne Hurlbert

Business blogs and personal journals are two entirely different breeds of blogs, and never the twain shall meet. Right?

Well not always, as David St. Lawrence of Ripples is not your typical business blogger or personal journalist. He is both.

Blending business knowledge, gleaned from many years in a fast-paced high tech business career, with down home wisdom collected from a lifetime of studying people and nature, David St. Lawrence has a foot planted firmly in both worlds.

David's beautifully designed Ripples blog clearly illustrates that interconnectedness of all things.

There is no compartmentalizing of business on the one hand, and personal thought and contemplation on the other, in the Ripples world. Both are part of the same yin and yang of life, and richly described and shared with readers, from all walks and stages of life.

By interspersing a photograph-enhanced post on watching the deer grazing on the lawn of his rural Virginia home, with a discussion series on bootstrapping a small micro business, David has learned what is truly important in life. The sense of balance displayed in Ripples, so richly and generously shared with readers, is part and parcel with David's philosophy of business and life.

To David St. Lawrence, a successful business person is also a well rounded person, who takes time out to replenish the soul's energy through friends, family, and the beauty of nature. By taking time to see the wonders of life and the world, a business person is able to find the strength of character and wisdom necessary, to operate a successful company or maintain a rewarding career.

After all, David has learned those valuable lessons through some bitterly painful life lessons. He shares the joy and sad times of his eventful life freely on Ripples, in a business blog that truly is a conversation with his readers.


The Power: Ripples is a business blog that creates a lasting personal connection with its readers. The visitor is drawn back to the blog through the intensely rich conversation started and continued by David St. Lawrence.

A business blog should always be a vehicle of communication between blogger and the public. By combining freely given and unvarnished business advice from the real world, with intensely personal life experience, Ripples combines the best of both blogging worlds into one fully integrated whole.

When Mark Herold and his wife Erika Gottl climb out of bed in the morning, they carry their coffee cups from the kitchen of their modest wood- frame house on a working-class residential street near downtown Napa to a bonded winery -- their garage.

To a casual observer, that tin-roof structure seems suited to shelter a couple of dusty pickup trucks, maybe a lawnmower. To Herold and Gottl, it's the home of Merus Wines, where they produce less than 500 cases a year of one of the most sumptuous, coveted Cabernet Sauvignons in the country. Wine critic Robert M. Parker Jr. tasted it a few years back and fell madly in love. ***

Garagistes share a passion in their approach to winemaking that often trumps profit. Marketing and sales usually take the form of a basic Web site, a mailing list, local restaurants and possibly a few small distributors. Gottl parcels out Merus three bottles at a time to devoted customers willing to pay $105 a bottle. But most garagiste efforts retail between $20 and $50.

"Small-business employees should find more to celebrate this holiday season, according to the 2004 Small Business Monitor by OPEN from American Express. The survey found that more business owners are planning to celebrate the holiday season with their employees this year (82% vs. 78% in 2003). Among these business owners, 53% say they plan to hold a holiday party; 51% report plans to give year-end bonuses and 47% plan to give time off to employees."

"The movie 'Coyote Ugly' might have faded from memory soon after its August 2000 debut. Most people who saw the Walt Disney Co. film about a honky-tonk bar in New York's East Village couldn't believe the raucous place was for real, and the flick got terrible reviews. But then a funny thing happened: The movie became a cult hit, and fans started turning up at the dive bar, hoping to taste the Coyote Ugly experience -- bawdy, bar-stomping waitresses and all.

'What business ever anticipates getting $40 million in free national and international advertising?' says owner Liliana Lovell, who figured she had a hit on her hands. 'We decided to take advantage of it.'

Four years and 13 bars later, the woman who quit a Wall Street job at age 24 to open a dive bar is a millionaire."

Editor's note: We continue our regular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of other weblogs with this, the thirty-ninth Review ...


Walk into the average bookstore today and you will find shelf after shelf of motivational books. Motivational publications and aids make up a thriving market in the United States and many other countries.

And now they've arrived in the blogging world, too. One example is the Upgrade Your Mind success motivation blog.

Upgrade Your Mind aims to start you on a journey of success. Thomas Pierce is the leader of that journey. Thomas blogs from Accokeek, Maryland USA, which is located about 30 minutes outside of Washington D.C.

As a motivational blog it contains --what else -- uplifting posts. Some posts discuss extracts of motivational books. Recently the discussion has centered around a book called "The Power of Focus" by Jack Canfield.

Thomas believes that "you are one thought away from change ... one idea away from breakthrough." He sees his role as that of encourager. He encourages people to go after their goals and dreams, one step at a time.

I asked Thomas about why he started to blog. This is what he had to say:

"Reaction to my 'type' of blog has been interesting since it seems most people like to be able to quickly classify the type of blog they are reading. Apparently mine isn't quite 'personal' and not quite 'commercial' in the eyes of most although they find my content useful.

I consider it a business blog really because my product and service is 'success motivation' and 'accelerated learning.' My blog is helping me build content, communication and contacts with others that will allow me to promote relevant products for my market and will also aid in the launch of a learning-on-demand website for an eLearning company I'm working on."

• Community colleges are growing their market share. They are becoming more creative in partnering with business and provide practical training at lower cost. Apparently 2-year associate degrees in IT are a growing trend.



• Proprietary training schools such as DeVry and online universities such as the University of Phoenix now focus on IT training. They continue to grow.



• Traditional 4-year and graduate colleges and universities in the United States have seen a drop in IT program enrollment. The root causes: a precipitous drop in foreign student enrollment and growing market share by the upstarts and smaller institutions.



• Big winners are traditional colleges and universities in India and China. These countries are investing in their workforce education. Their schools are perceived as being as good as or better than U.S. institutions. Homeland security concerns, too, make it harder for foreign students to get U.S. visas.

"Thanks for writing in. Please be assured that we are currently working on addressing and fixing the issue that causes this problem with latency within the application. I apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused."

"As for the trade deficit, the U.S. grows faster than its biggest customers. So we import more than we export. However, exports are rising at a 13 percent pace; a great sign of economic health. Imports are rising even more by 17 percent. We are selling goods and services to China at a 37 percent rate. But the volumes are too small to dent the trade gap. This will change over the next decade."

"[band together] with other investors to buy other properties in order to shelter their proceeds from capital gains taxes. The exchanges take their name from the section of the federal tax code that allows them."

Editor's note: Welcome to the thirty-eighth in our regular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs.

This week's PowerBlog Review is about the blog ReachCustomersOnline.com.

The title describes the site as "an online magazine that offers free how-to internet knowledge for budget-minded businesses and the designers, programmers, and others who support them."

The power behind the scenes at ReachCustomersOnline.com is Tim Slavin, who along with his wife is a business writer and owner of Red House Communications, LLC. Tim blogs from Wilton, Connecticut, USA.

Tim says he started the site to help business people figure out no-cost and
low-cost ways to integrate the internet into their businesses. He says:

"When I publish anything, I have in mind 4-5 people I know first hand who are bright accomplished business people and yet they find the internet too expensive, too complex, and too difficult a place to find information.

However, they understand the power, for example, of sending emails to their customers who walk into their stores, restaurants, and offices. They just don't know how to harness that power. And they do not want to be ripped off. They want to start with a Hyundai or KIA solution then graduate to a Honda and beyond if they can justify the cost based on positive impact on their business."

"Posting items on a blog is simply one more way to convey information. Besides a need for long form content like articles and reviews, my audience also needs quick digestible content that helps them find good tools, services, and best practices."

Number 3: Over There -- and Staying

Once upon a time, the United States nurtured innovation and then exported it to the rest of the world. But American venture capitalists say that more and more technology is being developed abroad and marketed to burgeoning regions, bypassing our own shores completely. Partly it's because the United States lags in crucial areas such as mobile communications. And Asia isn't just a source of cheaper labor for U.S. companies -- it's a huge end market of its own, accounting for 22% of worldwide info-tech consumption. India, especially, is beginning to develop its own entrepreneurial culture. Leading Silicon Valley VCs from firms such as Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins are rushing over to hunt for deals. The risk is that the influx of talent that used to come to America, bringing with it great energy and innovation, will start to stay home.

Small business owners in the U.S. are pretty happy with their lot. The overwhelming majority of small business owners (86%) say they would do it all over again if given the choice to own a business. That is according to a recent Gallup/Wells Fargo survey of U.S. small business owners, as noted by the Startup Journal.

Interestingly, 76% say they are better off financially than they would have been if they had worked for another company.

That's a profound comment on the power of entrepreneurship. And it's a powerful statistic -- especially in light of my post from yesterday.

In yesterday's post I commented on an earlier column written in a Wisconsin paper. The columnist there had implied that 17 million small business owners' livelihoods weren't "jobs" and didn't amount to much.

Apparently somebody forgot to mention that to the 76% of small business owners who told Gallup they were better off financially than if they'd had "real" jobs workin' for the Man.

"I don't usually post here at status but I just wanted to drop by and say: Damn, Blogger is slow. We've been growing for years, but our relaunch last May blew the doors off all the numbers we had come to expect. Blogger activity is through the roof every day and increasing. As a team, we're elated, but as an individual user, I feel your pain.

We're fixing it right now. In addition to buying and installing a supernatural amount of brand new machines, and upgrading existing hardware, we're moving away from the last of some third-party solutions that have given us trouble. Blogger will be on an impressively scalable custom Google architecture which translates into much more than just speed. It means improvements, enhancements, and integration.

Thank you for being patient, we know slow sucks. Wires, boxes, machines, and all manner of gadgetry are being installed at this very moment."