' "When I first started doing work on how the Internet is affecting commerce, like a lot of people, I was really excited by this nearly perfect market," said Erik Brynjolfsson of the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

His early research found that prices on the Internet were 6 percent to 16 percent lower than prices off-line.

But when he thought about how people actually shop online, and what they find valuable, he realized that low prices are not the big story. Selection is. The Internet offers variety that is simply impossible in traditional stores.

When I wanted a contemporary light fixture in copper, I used Google to find a specialty retailer that had one I liked. I recently did the same thing to find a particular brand of Velcro-sealed envelope that I use for receipts when I travel. I regularly turn to Amazon.com and Alibris for books I cannot find in local bookstores or even libraries.

Online shoppers are not just buying the same stuff for less money. They are buying different stuff. And they are much more likely to be getting exactly what they want than are off-line shoppers. Wal-Mart has low prices, but Walmart.com carries six times as many items as the largest Wal-Mart store, the article says. "Amazon's slogan is world's biggest selection, not world's cheapest prices," said Professor Brynjolfsson, who has done pioneering research on information technology and productivity.

All this variety could be overwhelming. But consumers do not have to sort through item by item. Online shopping includes tools like search engines and customer review sites, or Amazon's many referral services.

You are not only more likely to find what you are looking for online. You are more likely to discover something you like that you did not already know about, Professor Brynjolfsson said. Partly through links and referrals, the Internet increases sales of obscure products. In 1997 and 1998, in the early days of Internet commerce, The MIT Press reported 12 percent annual increases in sales of backlist books, thanks to Internet retailers.

"In effect, the emergence of online retailers places a specialty store and a personalized shopping assistant at every shopper's desk," write Professor Brynjolfsson, Yu Hu, and Michael D. Smith in a November 2003 article in Management Science. "This improves the welfare of these consumers by allowing them to locate and buy specialty products they otherwise would not have purchased due to high transaction costs or low product awareness." '

Editor's note: This is the twelfth in our popular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of other weblogs...


Blog for Business is a blog by Barbara Payne. Her blog's tagline is "Find your true voice...and grow your business."

And that's really what Blog for Business is all about: letting your true voice ring through in a business weblog.

You see, Barbara is a really good freelance writer. Really. I'm not exaggerating. That's her trade name and her domain name.

She says that a weblog can be used to grow your business, no matter what that business may be. To be successful at it, she says you have to "speak" in your true voice. By doing so, you let your unique skills and capabilities come out for clients, customers and business partners to hear.

Barbara herself has a special way of writing about business subjects and letting her personality come through. And since Barbara's forte is corporate communications, who better than she to show the rest of us to how to communicate in business?

Rather than talking about blogging per se, Barbara demonstrates how to use a blog to show off what you, the businessperson, can do with a blog.

One of the most valuable aspects of a business blog, Barbara says, is that it provides time for us to reflect:

"Blogs are places where we can stop and reflect. Filter out. Slow down. See a different side of an issue. Get the benefit of someone else's thinking, but in a personal way, not just as another place we have to absorb more information.

It's certainly not a new idea that reading enriches our lives. But blogs are a way we can incorporate reading without having to change what we're doing (sitting at the computer) and still enjoy some of the pleasure of conversation (most blogs allow comments if you have the time and the urge). And it's that personal touch that makes blogs different from all the other data we must take in."

" 'The boundary of the firm -- the definition of what is inside or outside the company -- has always moved back and forth,' said Nordstrom. 'What is happening now is that the boundaries are moving more quickly; and they are moving in a particular direction, with companies shifting more and more activities out of the corporation.'

The result is that companies, both large and small, are performing ever fewer of their traditional functions and becoming 'hollow'."

"...[T]he typical small business owner may not see a great deal of promise in these developments, just radically higher costs. Finding a balance between intelligent online advertising options and intergalactic online advertising costs will be a challenge for small business owners in the coming years."

• The owners are mature, with two thirds (66%) over the age of 45.



• A growing proportion of U.K. business owners are women, although women-owned firms are still in the minority.



• Home based businesses are becoming a significiant trend among U.K. small businesses. One fourth of firms surveyed are home-based businesses.

"We wear second-hand all our lives," said Alexander, a trader at the "field of wonders" market. "In the kindergarten we share common bed linen, then you wear your older brother's clothes and in prisons and armies even underwear is shared. So what's the difference if you wear your brother's clothes or your neighbour's or some Irish guy's?"

Editor's note: This is the eleventh in our popular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of other weblogs...


World is Green is "Suhit Anantula's Blog on Rural India." As you might expect, Suhit resides in India -- Mumbai, to be exact. That's the city we used to know as Bombay. Mumbai is the economic hub of India, located on the west coast of that large country.

World is Green has been live on the Web since December 2003. Yet, Suhit has a lot of experience in the blogosphere.

Prior to World is Green, Suhit published a couple of other blogs.

Perhaps more significantly, Suhit was inspired by another Indian blogger, Rajesh Jain, whose blog is www.emergic.org. Indeed, Suhit has managed what many people secretly or not so secretly aspire to -- he got a job through blogging.

Suhit now works with Rajesh Jain at Deeshaa Ventures. And he is doing what he loves, and using World is Green to carry forward his life's work and passion.

World is Green uses the term "green" as a metaphor for all that is good in the future of rural India. Suhit says of the term "green":

"It stands for growth, prosperity and also sustainability. It stands for nature and good things. So in many ways my professional and personal life of working in developing rural India matches with Green."

"A Frenchman, Jolly Belin, accidentally spilled some kerosene on a stained garment and discovered that the kerosene removed the stain. This led to a series of experiments to refine the process, and in the 1840's, Belin opened the first dry cleaning establishment in Paris."

• They are going to the customer. My local dry cleaner sent a person door-to-door in my neighborhood to sign up customers for free pick-up and delivery service. And when I haven't been in for a while, my dry cleaner calls and says "we notice you haven't been in for a while--would you like us to send out a truck to pick up your dry cleaning?" Of course, the call reminds me that I have a few items needing cleaning.



• My dry cleaner has a loyalty card program. After 20 purchases of $15 or more, I get $20 in free dry cleaning. It's a significant benefit that makes the card worthwhile, and keeps me coming back.



• The staff is well-trained and uses technology appropriately. If I forget my cleaning receipt, they look it up for me in the computer system -- willingly and with a smile.



• They offer special services such as off-season storage and alterations.

"The entrepreneurs who are successful in the US are often considered as heroes. In Europe, most of them hide themselves because success is not something you can show to the same extent, because many people around them start to become jealous.

The image of European entrepreneurs must change. They are creative, they take risks, they create jobs, they put their life and family at risk to start their businesses.

Europe needs more entrepreneurs."

"In Spain, the desired job is that of the civil servant: a job for life, without much risk. According to the monthly CIS surveys, one of the greater problems perceived by our [Spanish] society is unemployment....

The rates of unemployment in the U.S.A. are very low, and it is customary to move around and change jobs periodically. The Americans do not think that they will have a job forever and they always aspire to more, or at least to something different. American workers are dynamic. Due to the Spanish labor situation, I am convinced that the perception in this country is also changing in that sense, although the current situation is perceived as a bad one.

And due to our culture, the current situation really is a bad one: our way of life pushes to us to independence, to marry and to buy a house. In order to buy a house, aside from guarantees, the banks ask for a stable position. Without a stable position, there is no house, there is no family and there is no independence. In other countries the need to buy a house is not as great, and therefore mobility comes more easily.

Europe must change its thinking, not only about entrepreneurs, but about jobs."

"I fully agree with Loic, I think the key for more entrepreneurial activity in Europe is to raise the image of entrepreneurship and to build a society that rewards taking risks. For me this is the biggest difference between US and Europe. People in Europe have to deal with a much smaller risk exposure as they grow up. This is true for positive as well as negative sides of risks. Once people start a job the notion to change and start on your own is more limited. *** Another difference you learn from US is that many people you meet count business as a kind of hobby. Ask German or French folks and if you hear business or even economics you'll be a lucky one."

"Companies that have changed the global economy such as Intel, Microsoft, Apple, Dell, Genentech, FedEx, Cisco, Netscape, Google, ebay, and amazon.com were backed by venture capital in the United States. Is it any wonder that almost every developed country and many developing nations are striving to emulate the success of the United States venture capital backed industries?"

"Every one of us...knows that our economy is changing. More and more, it is being driven by small business and entrepreneurial activity. The nature of employment is changing dramatically as well, spawned by a huge shift toward self-employment, contracting, and consulting.

Contracting is an interesting phenomenon in employment. As firms responded to the recession by restructuring, they frequently replaced employees with contract workers -- often the same people doing the same job, just not on the official payroll. Or these highly trained workers took other work, again not as employees but as consultants.

For example, my brother was laid off two years ago from Reuters. He now "works" for Disney as a consultant with better wages and better terms. He gets a check from Disney; it's just not a paycheck. The significance of this is that this phenomenon is increasing dramatically...."

• Large corporations want to be leaner and meaner, and so they are outsourcing functions rather than staffing them in-house. The rising cost of benefits, especially health insurance, is part of what's driving this trend. Other factors include the difficulty and expense of terminating employees in our litigious society, and the lack of flexibility to reduce costs during lean times. And then there is the increasing complexity of business, requiring pockets of expertise that would be difficult or inefficient to staff internally.



• It's easier than ever to start your own company. Just about anyone who can afford the filing fee can become the CEO of their own limited liability company, thanks to the Internet. You can check whether a company name is available online, download the LLC forms, spend a few minutes filling them out, mail them in with a check and -- voila! You own a company. Blogger Bill Hobbs has been tracking the increase in LLC filings by state, and the numbers show record LLC filings in most states during 2003.



• An aging baby-boomer population is finding itself better situated to be self-employed or business owners. We could call the new millennium "the age of the consultant." As our population ages, many are at a stage in their lives when they value being their own bosses more than regular paychecks. And they have the financial wherewithal to become business owners rather than employees.



• Even small businesses are outsourcing. Think a one-person business is too small to outsource? Not so -- many small businesses are "virtual companies." Nearly every entrepreneur and small business that I know (and I know dozens) outsources something -- usually to another small business, consultant or entrepreneur. My own business is no exception. Last year my company outsourced to more than 11 small businesses/consultants. You can even find advice on how to outsource if you are a very small business.

Editor's note: This is the tenth in our popular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of other weblogs...


The tagline of Red Wheelbarrow says "So much depends on the details." And that's a pretty good description of Red Wheelbarrow's approach to blogging. This weblog is all about small details that make all the difference on an issue.

The blog is published by Jerry Ritcey, originally from Nova Scotia, Canada and now from Cleveland, USA. Jerry describes himself as a "Canadian-expat-trombonist-turned-tech transplanted to Northern Ohio."

Jerry says he is a bit of a news junkie, and likes to find out the motivations and deeper thoughts behind news stories. He started to blog because he found himself going to blogs to get most of his news from them. He believes that looking in depth at issues has moved from the realm of big media, to amateurs on the Internet.

Red Wheelbarrow covers a wide variety of subjects, including politics, art and, oh yes, business. On business topics in particular Jerry brings a common-sense approach that I find especially refreshing and insightful. For instance, I know he thinks overly-broad U.S. patents are a bad thing (shakedowns he calls them). And I know that as a customer he feels frustrated with outsourcing ("can I get someone to live my life via an outsourcing contract?" he wonders). Yet he avoids sounding politically polarized on any issue.

As a fellow blogger says about Jerry: "He's almost single-handedly threatening to subvert our lazy generalizations about geeks not being literate and well-rounded."

One of the things I like best about Red Wheelbarrow is that while it does not shy away from covering politics, it manages to do so without reverting to being 100% left or right. There's a balance that's refreshing in this day of polarized media.

Here's an example of Jerry's well-rounded, thoughtful approach, where he says in one post:

"After I moved here I still thought I might move back to Canada eventually. Then came September 11th. I think I'll stay here, to show support for the individuality, liberty, and freedom that many Americans don't even realise that their nation embodies for many of us.

• A dry cleaner offers pick-up and delivery service with next day turn around. The dry cleaner picks up from consumers' workplaces in the suburbs.


• Shoe shines are provided at local car dealerships and at Pepsico corporate offices.


• A massotherapist in California offers massages at workers' desks. Employees at Yahoo, for instance, can order the service online.


• An auto service firm offers oil changes and replaces wiper blades dozens of times a day for employees at local office parks, by going to them at work.

"There are a lot more small companies out there than there are big ones.

While many don't advertise jobs, you will find them in the business-news pages of the newspaper. Pay attention in restaurants and in movie lines. You will overhear talk about small companies because that's where most people work. ***

While one company may not be your cup of tea, its president (or receptionist) may introduce you to another that is. This chain of connections is how they do business with one another, and it's a great way for you to navigate through the small-company community."

"During the past ten years, the industry's cost structure has shifted as a result of Brazil's productivity-enhancing innovations (including the cultivation of less frost-prone areas, better mechanized harvesting, and increased irrigation) as well as competition from cost-efficient new entrants such as Vietnam. The increasing demand for coffee made from the cheaper robusta bean (a development driven by steam-cleaning technologies that can better mask its bitter taste) and rising consumption by price-sensitive consumers have also had an effect. Arabica beans, which roasters consider a better-quality product, are used in higher-end specialty coffees but have become a shrinking component of mass-market brands...."

"So, when you hear that a state requires all insurance companies to cover infertility treatments or acupuncture, it isn't the deep pockets of Microsoft or the Ford Motor Company that's paying for it. It's the self-employed small businesses, and their employees who foot the bill. That's why workers in small businesses nationwide pay on average seventeen percent more for health insurance than workers in large companies -- if their employer can afford to offer it."

Editor's note: This is the ninth in our popular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of other weblogs...


TJ's Weblog is all about "Technology, Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship." This weblog is an excellent source of insights into what it is like to be an entrepreneur in Europe. It is also a great venue for learning about some of the latest and greatest information technology products and trends.

The blog is published by Torsten Jacobi ("TJ"), from Hamburg, Germany. Even though he is German, Torsten blogs in English.

I think it's fair to call Torsten a serial entrepreneur, based on his bio here. In addition to being an entrepreneur, he also now invests in new ventures.

That experience as both a technology entrepreneur and an investor makes for very insightful observations.

One of the things I like best about this blog is the incredibly broad range of information technology developments it covers. You read his blog and think "Where does he find all this stuff?"

For instance, it was through TJ's weblog that I first learned about del.icio.us, a new online bookmarking service than I am experimenting with right now. I initially dismissed del.icio.us. I already had a way of saving my favorite sites. But Torsten's description of it made me take a second look. Especially when he said, "Now I get a decent amount of my noteworthy bookmarks everyday from del.icio.us. Indeed, it is del.icio.us. :)"

That kind of first hand, savvy insight is one reason weblogs are so valuable. Through weblogs such as TJ's, you can get information that is hard to find elsewhere. You might learn about IT applications that are so cutting edge or niche focused, that mainstream media doesn't cover them. And you get savvy first hand insights.

Also, as an American, I find it difficult to get much information about entrepreneurship in Europe from the mainstream media. Certainly I don't find much written in English. TJ's weblog provides excellent insights. With the globalization trend touching us all, it's important to be aware of what is happening in important commerce centers of Europe. That's especially true of Germany, which has one of the world's largest economies.

TJ's weblog has been on the web since June 2003.


The Power: The Power of TJ's weblog is in its unique insights. It examines issues from the perspective of both an entrepreneur and an investor, and gives you the benefit of both. The Power also lies in the global view it imparts to the blogosphere. And there is Power in this blog's coverage of new and unique technologies, that you can't find out much about elsewhere.

"In 1995 Mkama was barely scratching out a living for herself, her husband and her ten children by raising and selling tomatoes. With a $50 loan from the Foundation for International Community Assistance, she bought spare parts for her bicycle so she could get to the ferry that would take her to the market in nearby Mwanza [Tanzania]. With subsequent loans, she bought better seed and fertilizer. Now, on a good day, she can pull in a profit of $4."