Seeing him reminded me to write about an intriguing trend. Look at this photograph to the left and tell me what you see that is strange.

If you see that everyone in it is looking at some kind of digital device, you're correct.

In today's environment, savvy coffeehouse owners are offering wireless Internet service to accommodate technophile customers like these, who wouldn't be caught dead without their digital appendages (OK, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but you get my drift).

And most of these technophiles insist that wireless access be free.

The photo was taken by Valdis on a recent tour of coffeehouses in Cleveland that offer free wireless Internet (wi-fi) service.

Valdis and intrepid bloggers/wi-fi enthusiasts/coffee-lovers George Nemeth and Steve Goldberg spearheaded the tour, which was last week. It turned into an all-day event. Our intrepid bloggers were met along the way by other local bloggers who stopped and joined in for a cup. The whole event was blogged and podcasted and captured in digital photos posted to Flickr. And captured in print by journalist Chris Seper (himself a blogger although on hiatus), in a Plain Dealer piece:

"They strapped on their notebook PCs, iPods, digital cameras and mobile phones (complete with wireless earpieces) and blazed through a dozen cafes on the coffeehouse circuit...."

"Quality-management programs can't give you the kind of empathetic connection to consumers that increasingly is the key to opening up new business opportunities. All the B-school-educated managers you hire won't automatically get you the outside-the-box thinking you need to build new brands -- or create new experiences for old brands. The truth is we're moving from a knowledge economy that was dominated by technology into an experience economy controlled by consumers and the corporations who empathize with them."

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


George's Employment Blog covers employment law and human resources. The blog is written by George Lenard, an attorney from St. Louis, Missouri, and Michael Harris, a Human Resources professor and consultant, also from St. Louis.

Michael has written an account of how the two met over coffee, got to know one another and then started to blog together. It's also a good article about the benefits of blogging.

This blog manages to stay focused on a niche, yet covers a wide range of employment-related issues that appeal to both lawyers and non-lawyers alike. George is experienced in writing for non-lawyers, as he also writes a column for the Hiring Center on Monster.com.

I love the way this blog lets the personalities of the writers shine through. The tone is conversational. It often has humor interspersed.

The blog is not above the occasional civilized rant, either, as in this post where George takes on a very legal institution -- class action lawsuits -- and undresses them down to their skivvies:

"OK, this blawg is my place to speak my piece (and Michael his), so once in a while I can rant a bit about things I hate.

I'm not opposed to the very idea of class actions, and will even concede they theoretically can serve a socially useful function.

But how they work in practice stinks for a number of reasons. One of which we'll cover today." (You'll need to read the blog to understand what George hates about class action lawsuits.)

"Come on Anita, isn't it obvious? We are just so much smarter and more interesting. Seriously, many of us like to write and enjoy the freedom of writing whatever we want instead of what has to be written for our clients. Also, I wonder if many of us aren't more concerned with the need to develop independent professional identities. I suspect most of the blogging lawyers do not work for large firms, but are in situations where they are very conscious of the need to market themselves."

"Analysts at Wall Street brokerage firms who once tracked small companies in hopes of attracting investment banking business cannot do that anymore for fear of raising conflict of interest questions. Companies in turn cannot favor selected analysts in releasing corporate information. The end result is that smaller companies are having a harder time gaining analysts' attention.

All this has heightened the importance of IR professionals to companies that are seeking to be heard by investors over the crowd of other such companies also clamoring to be heard."

"...the Internet has benefited the entire industry, and retailing as a whole. It's just created an entirely new revenue stream and it's going to continue to grow.

We've found the transition into cyberspace pretty easy, because we've been doing a lot of remote selling, without any brick and mortar, for over 20 years. And I think that customers in general are getting used to buying things sight unseen. And we are working on improving the experience, the feel and texture of the product, through the use of images to help them even more."

Editor's note: it's time again for our weekly PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs. This is the fifty-seventh in the series.


Decent Marketing. The name carries with it all sorts of connotations. Not bad. Respectable and worthy. Kind.

Katherine Stone writes the Decent Marketing blog. And she wants us to take the name in different ways. She's making a statement with the name. She's demonstrating what's good in marketing by commenting on the bad, or as she says, "stuff I see that is simply silly, wasteful or lacking in strategy, and stuff I see that is clearly about making money regardless of its impact on people."

Katherine has a background in experiential marketing. She says experiential marketing is about creating fresh connections between brands and consumers out in the world (i.e., memorable experiences with products or services). So she tends to write about experiences and how companies create them.

This is not just another marketing blog. There are so many of those now, that it is getting harder to distinguish between them. But Decent Marketing stands out, for two reasons. First, the topic -- experiential marketing -- is sufficiently narrow to go deep into the subject matter, but broad enough to be interesting. Second, the way Katherine executes and delivers the blog is fresh and genuine (an overworked word, to be sure, but one that truly fits here).

Katherine told me in an email that she created the blog more for herself than for her business, Engage Consulting. It seems that she simply wants to express herself. She doesn't write about the hot blog topic of the moment or try to ride the coattails of sensationalism; rather, she talks about what interests and engages her.

I've come to really really enjoy this blog after reading it off and on the last several weeks. I don't know -- maybe it's her distinct "voice" that comes through so clearly. Or maybe it's the picture of Katherine as a little girl that she has on her blog. It was so memorable, open, accepting and precocious, all at the same time.

I asked Katherine if there were an interesting anecdote she cared to share about her blog. She pointed me to this remarkable exchange -- I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it on a blog. Katherine wrote a post about Dairy Queen. Well, let me allow Katherine to tell the story in her own words:

"I was writing about a store redesign they plan on doing and why I didn't really like the concept. I ended up getting quite an emotional and detailed comment on the post from a gentleman who thought I must have some sway with Dairy Queen and who obviously had no other place to vent - he was angry because his local Dairy Queen failed to honor some coupon or special deal he wanted. THEN, the owner of that actual Dairy Queen outlet answered that comment with another comment about the incident trying to defend their decision to ask for full price. I was completely amazed."

"A new book is printed in the United States just about every 20 seconds, according to a company called R.R. Bowker, which compiles the Books in Print database. With profits in the publishing world pretty flat in recent years, big publicity budgets are largely limited to the heavyweights in the writing world, the proven novelists (such as Stephen King) or famous memoirist (such as Bill Clinton). Everyone else gets about $5,000 to $10,000 to promote their title, if they're lucky. Many get nothing at all.

"Publishers can't afford to support every title they release, and unless you're an author they've invested a lot in, you're on your own," says Jim Milliot, executive editor of Publishers Weekly. "Nearly everyone who publishes a book quickly realizes that if they want to publicize their work, they better take matters into their own hands."

Book publishing is changing before our very eyes. Because so many publishers do little to promote books, and because of advances in print-on-demand services, more authors are choosing to self-publish.

They are also using blogs to promote their books online -- it's a significant trend we spotted over a year ago.

David St. Lawrence is doing both with his new book, "Danger Quicksand -- Have a Nice Day." His book is about the changing nature of corporate employment and how to protect yourself (including a chapter on starting your own business).

He has chosen to self-publish his book. He's even run a 12-part series about his self-publishing experience -- must reading for anyone who wants to publish a book.

I'm proud to be part of these new and evolving trends by helping David promote his new book here at Small Business Trends.

• Zoning regulations are going to be stretched -- and possibly challenged -- to the limit. In many parts of the U.S., strong zoning regulations limit the ability to conduct a business out of home. While these regulations are often ignored or winked at, it's one thing for the business owner to work out of his or her own home. It's quite another to have employees showing up for work there each day. And in many communities, the members of zoning boards who are asked to grant variances from the rules may be the business owner's neighbors -- the very people most likely to object to employees showing up for work across the street everyday.



• Home builders, architects, interior designers and realtors may be pressed to meet new expectations by homeowners: living space that can double as places of employment. Needs such as separate entrances, working space that can be closed off from living space, and extra storage for business supplies, are probable outgrowths of this trend.



• Computer networking firms and other business services have to contend with combined living/work spaces that have more complex needs than, say, the single-room home office.



• Anyone selling to small business has to contend with that growing challenge: how do you find these small businesses, if you want to make sales calls on them? You won't find them in the typical office complex, industrial park or stand-alone place of business.

The agriculture industry is also being impacted. China is no longer the prime target of U.S. agricultural product exports. They've learned how to produce more using technology we gave them. Today, they are exporters of grain rather than importers.

I had an opportunity to visit with a friend who is a quality control consultant. He'd just returned from China where he was contracted by a Chinese automaker interested in entering the U.S. market with line of Chinese made automobiles. His job was to assure the maker that the quality of their product would be equal to the quality of Japanese automakers. He told me they have the technology and understand. He went on to say when their autos are exported to the U.S. they will sell for about 20 to 30 percent less and have quality equal to or better than that which is available from Japan.

Being in the powersports industry I'm aware of the impact being felt by retailers, as they are inundated by Chinese makers of ATVs, scooters, pocketbikes and motorcycles. Some of these products have reasonable quality; some don't.

Here's what I suggest you consider. There's no way any industrial nation can compete with a country whose workers average 61- cents per hour and whose engineers (who were educated in this country), work for the equivalent of $100 a week. With so many American manufacturers partnering with Chinese makers in order to control costs, the Chinese makers are gaining the advantage of technology given to them by their partners.

What to do? Look at what's available from China and determine if the maker has the necessary financial wherewithal, insurance, quality and warranty to meet your business philosophy. Understand that there will be a disorderly marketplace and a great deal of angst while the market changes.

China represents a freight train heading straight for you. Don't stand in front of it in an attempt to stop it. Instead, you would be better served if you did your research and then found a way to hop on. Accept the fact that it may be a bumpy ride at the beginning.

Keep in mind that Wal-Mart currently purchases more products from China than England and Russia combined. That's just one customer. Wal-Mart's success can be attributed, at least in part to their ability to buy Chinese goods at more than competitive prices.

Here's where I'll step out and make a prediction: I predict that China will, within five years, be the equal of Japan in providing quality products to the U.S. I'm not saying I like it but unless there are strategic changes in import regulations I don't see anything that will alter that paradigm.

Like this article? Read more by John Wyckoff:

Powersports Industry Trends for 2005

How Harley Davidson Lost its "Cool"

And be sure to check out his new book, Mind Your Own Business, 2nd Edition.

• A Crack in eBay's Facade? - Ezra Marbach at the China Stock Blog notes that eBay claims to be the number 1 online auction in China, but presents evidence suggesting that Chinese competitor, Alibaba's Taobao.com, is pulling ahead and may be gaining.



• The 3 R's of Business Plans - Rosa Say at Talking Story defines ROI, something you've no doubt heard of. But she also defines two new terms to consider in business plans: ROA and ROR.



• The Pun-Based Shop Name - For some light humor check out Wordlab's post about pun-based shop names. Small business owners are notorious for coming up with some of the funniest names for their businesses -- usually plays on film titles, famous lines or other phrases.

Editor's note: Welcome to the fifty-sixth in our series of PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs.


Security Awareness for Ma, Pa and the Corporate Clueless is a blog by the Security Awareness Company, headquartered in Seminole, Florida, USA. The company teaches computer users to combat security threats with personal knowledge and not to just rely on technology, by becoming "security aware" about avoiding viruses, managing passwords and protecting vital information.

The company views the blog as the central piece in their guerrilla marketing strategy on the internet. The company is in the training and education business. Having a blog to publish content is central to the company's business. Greg Hoffman, the Chief Marketing Officer of the company tells me:

"Our CEO, Winn Schwartau, is a legendary expert in the Computer Security Industry. For the last twenty years, Winn has written more than a dozen books and thousands of articles on topics ranging from Information Warfare to Internet ethics for kids. We needed to find a vehicle for all of this accumulated content and give computer users tips and tricks about how to protect themselves. The blog has become a central publishing house for security awareness content."

"The cliche 'watching a car wreck in slow motion' comes to mind. It's definitely fun in a sick sort of way. Welcome to the me too zone - I believe we just entered it for the RSS / blog world. There is a huge adoption (and innovation) curve ahead of everyone who is doing stuff with RSS / blogging - and there are plenty of good investments left to make and companies to create - but the noise and clutter is about to get really loud."

• Syndicate IQ:
  
  This service tracks the number of subscribers to my various feeds. It tells me how many readers have subscribed to my feeds, how many are actually looking at my content, when they look at it, and lots of other detailed information.
  
  The statistics I am showing here to the right are just a few of the many statistics it gives me. Those who are familiar with email marketing services that track reader statistics will understand the value of Syndicate IQ.



• Nooked: Nooked provides a hosted service to allow you to create RSS feeds easily for a Web page -- separate and apart from a blog page. That's valuable, since not every business communication fits neatly into blog posts. And I think Nooked's new directory for corporate RSS feeds is a brilliant idea. If you have a corporate RSS feed, I urge you to go over and submit it to Nooked's directory.

Markets aren't only for the rich. Certain kinds of information, however, convey advantages to those have the right data at the right time.

Until recently, only the relatively wealthy had swift access to relevant market information. The cost of technologies that connect people with economically useful price data has declined steadily, however, from the tycoons of the early 20th century with their home ticker-tape machines to the day-traders of recent decades with their desktop PCs, and now, to farmers in developing countries who are beginning to own mobile phones.

With more than 320 million mobile subscribers in China already, and 150 million mobile phones among the 200 million phones projected for India (where mobile phone use already exceeds land line use) by 2007, the mobile phone looks like tomorrow's most likely access device for agricultural market information.

One of the Internet trends we spotted over a year ago was that of business blogging. To track that trend, we started a weekly feature back in February of 2004 called PowerBlog Reviews.

Each week we review notable examples of blogs that are being used for some sort of business purpose, with a concentration on "small business." We pick out a few key points about each blog that we think are powerful and serve as a "lesson" to other bloggers.

We've completed 55 PowerBlog Reviews to date, covering sites from six countries.
I thought you might like to see the schedule of blogs we will be reviewing in upcoming weeks:

13 March 2005 - Security Awareness
20 March 2005 - Decent Marketing
27 March 2005 - George's Employment Blog
3 April 2005 - Genuine Gems for Pearl Girls
10 April 2005 - Media Advisor
17 April 2005 - Coyote Blog

• Small businesses ($10 million or less in annual revenue) bear 68% of the cost of tort liability each year in the U.S., but take in only 25% of business revenue. For a business with $10 million in annual revenue, the average tort liability cost is $150,000 per year.



• Very small businesses ($1 million or less in annual revenue) bear 26% of the business cost, but take in only 8% of business revenue. A small business with $1 million annual revenue pays about $17,000 a year in tort liability costs.

• Vetting small businesses - Small businesses now are being vetted to make sure they really are small businesses. Apparently ChoicePoint did a poor job of checking the credentials of the "small businesses" it sold data to, in the first place.
  
  That's rather ironic for a company that is in the business of checking people out. ChoicePoint is "re-credentialing" those small businesses.



• Limiting use of sensitive data - ChoicePoint has decided to limit data sales to certain purposes, including "consumer-driven" transactions.
  
  A literal reading of the company's announcement suggests that small businesses should still be able to obtain data for pre-employment screening, tenant-screening and other "consumer-driven" transactions. In other words, if the consumer wants a transaction to happen, and the screening is a condition to that transaction, the information will be given out.
  
  In my view those are probably the most common uses small businesses have for sensitive personal data of individuals, anyway. Typically a small business needs to conduct a background check when hiring someone or renting out premises. In these situations acquiring sensitive information serves a legitimate need.
  
  But here is the bigger question. If ChoicePoint is now limiting the use of data to certain consumer-driven transactions (and a few other needs), for what other purposes were they selling data before now? What were they doing before that they no longer consider legitimate?
  
  Was it for sales of direct marketing data? If so, why give out sensitive data such as social security numbers for direct marketing purposes, anyway?

Editor's note: Every week we analyze and review a small business blog, to demonstrate how small businesses are leveraging this new format. This is the fifty-fifth in our series of PowerBlog Reviews.


JSLogan is a blog by Jim Logan, founder and President of Accelerate Business Group, LLC. The company helps businesses increase their sales and revenues.

Interestingly, the blog is the company's sole web presence, with no other website. Using a blog as the sole Web presence is a trend I am encountering more frequently among small businesses. Jim explains why businesses like his are choosing a blog format over a traditional website:

"In a static site you get one chance to convince a prospect to engage with you. Once you read an About Us, Solutions, and Services page, why would you ever go back to a website? You get maybe 1000 words to convince someone you're worthy of earning their business.

A blog gives a reader reason to return time and again. Your posts give multiple views and perspective of your value and benefits."

For the more entrepreneurial, the site is a powerful new way to reach customers. The company estimates that at least 10,000 people in the UK now rely on eBay to make a living, having recast an established "offline" business as an internet-based "shop window", or turned a hobby into a commercial venture.

"For all the hullabaloo it's generating, podcasting is not even close to being a business yet. While startups such as Odeo and The Podcast Network are providing technological support and creating a podcasting network, right now Ibbott has barely enough ads to cover expenses, and most podcasters work for free.

EASIER ENTRY. Maybe a few will come up with a way to make a living doing it. Maybe not. Regardless, a trend is afoot that could transform the $21 billion radio industry. Consider the basics: With no licenses, no frequencies, and no towers, ordinary people are busy creating audio programming for thousands of others. They're bypassing an entire industry.

The digital revolution took its time getting to radio. Now it's exploding -- and the big bang goes far beyond podcasting. As radio shows are turned into digital bits, they're being delivered many different ways, from Web to satellite to cell phones. Listeners no longer have to tune in at a certain time, and within range of a signal, to catch a show or a game. As the business goes digital, the barriers to entry -- including precious airwaves -- count for less and less."