"Forget Web sites and molecular imaging. The biggest fields of opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs are the same mundane ventures that have been kicking around for decades.

Think landscaping companies, child-care providers, janitorial services and nail and hair salons. In a generally buoyant market for low-technology businesses, those are four of the biggest winners by far."

"Starting today, we will be posting the latest review and continue on.

This is quite a good thing for BLOGthenticity and you, our readers. Anita's reviews are widely read and appreciated by so many. This adds to BLOGthenticity in many ways. I thank Anita for her contribution."

"Most online retailers want to make it as easy as possible for their affiliates to promote their sites, so they are usually very good about emailing them coupons and promotions an a regular basis. That is where I get A LOT of content for my blog from, directly from the affiliate emails. I'll usually wake up and find between 20 and 40 affiliate emails. If anything looks good, I blog it."

"A blog with an RSS feed drives more traffic to my website than anything else. The convenience that RSS offers my readers is unparalleled. But I have been bothered for some time with what I can do for my readers once they are at my site. Certainly a long list of retailers that require a reader to scroll so far down a page in order to find what he or she wants is not the answer. So I'm working on a model in which the blog will be the main feature, but it will be supported by an active database of coupons, deals, and products on sale."

"Rising gas prices are hitting small business people hard, especially taxi drivers, companies with small fleets, fast food delivery drivers and others, said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. Kyser said he has heard of at least one florist who has restricted its delivery area because of fuel costs."

Luis Martinez, for example, is paid 75 cents for every Domino's pizza delivery he makes in the San Fernando Valley, on top of his hourly minimum wage. And the delivery compensation hasn't changed, he said, which is a problem because of the hills his 1995 Toyota Tercel must climb -- and the gas that uses up -- to make some deliveries.

Jo Binanti was searching for a job Wednesday before heading to her job operating Binanti's Italian Restaurant with her husband, Salvatore.

The reason was simple: She needs a second job during the day to afford the natural gas costs needed to keep the couple's 10-year-old restaurant at 2411 Main St. in Caledonia open at night.

"I don't know how small-business owners are going to make it. How can you make it?" she said. "We are going to have to get jobs. There is no other way."

The Binantis are facing monthly natural gas bills as high as $1,600 in the winter and $900 in the summer to heat their business and power ovens that cook pizzas and other Italian entrees. Their 3,000-square-foot restaurant seats 100 customers.

(1) Local search is the future. Its importance can't be overstated. Local search is getting an increasing share of attention, not only from Yahoo, but from Google, which just last week announced that it was implementing keyhole map search into its local search, and that it is making local search available to mobile phones.

(2) Everyone wants to get at the small business market. Even though it already offers a Small Business section, Yahoo still looks for new ways to get the attention of small businesses. Whether the free listings in its Local section catch on remains to be seen.

Like this article? Read more by John Wyckoff:

Chinese Competition's Impact on the U.S.

Powersports Industry Trends for 2005

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

Editor's note: I am delighted to present another in our weekly PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs. This is the sixty-first in the series.

Today we are reviewing the Coyote Blog. The Coyote Blog's tagline is "Dispatches from a Small Business." The blog is written by Warren Meyer, a small business owner in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Warren is in the business of running recreation facilities (campgrounds and marinas) on government lands.

No, this blog is not about animals (even though a picture of a coyote appears on the blog). It's called "Coyote Blog" in honor of the state of Arizona, and as a reference to the cartoon character Wilie E. Coyote and that small business the cartoon made famous: Acme.

One of the beauties of a blog is that it lets the author give free reign to his interests. This blog very much reflects its author's interests, and Warren has a wide range of interests.

He says he got started blogging after buying his own business, when:

"...lots of people asked me to help them with buying a business of their own, and for help with small business issues, so I started the blog mainly to communicate some of my lessons learned. However, since I have the attention span of an 8-year old boy mainlining Hershey bars, my focus widened to politics and economics and sometimes sports and occasionally gadgets. In these areas, I blog for sanity. In college, I burned to change the world, and to argue with everyone who disagreed with me. And, given the political climate at universities, being a proponent of free markets gave me plenty of opportunities to argue. Now that I am older, arguing politics with everyone in sight is annoying, not to mention over-taxing. The blog has been about right, allowing me to vent my spleen from time to time without irritating my friends and family."

"...libertarians have never had a really good outlet for our opinions and it is a relief to have a channel to be able to express our views without distortion. ***One of the problems with communicating or branding libertarianism is that it is almost by definition an umbrella that covers a whole wide variety of stuff. Libertarians revel in differences and being different. Almost by definition, none of us have the same message, or even believe that we all should have the same message. Blogging is tailor made for us -- many diverse messages rather than one official one."

"Venture capital is risky business in the hands of professionals. When done by the federal government it tends toward the disastrous, as the Small Business Administration is now admitting about its decade-long attempt to outsmart Warren Buffett.

The SBA launched its Participating Securities program in the early 1990s on the dubious premise that there wasn't enough venture capital for small start-ups. The program guarantees loans to venture-capital funds, and it has backed a few winners. But it has also backed more than a few dogs, such as the $60 million Zero State Capital VI fund, which invested in "new and emerging technology firms," though apparently not "emerging" enough. The fund is expected to go into receivership in May, and the Boston Business Journal recently reported that company executives now admit the fund, which was launched in 1999, was an "unmitigated disaster." No kidding.

After 10 years the entire Participating Securities program has estimated losses of $2.7 billion, SBA head Hector Barreto told Congress last month. Of that, "$I.7 billion ... are realized cash losses," he said. Actually, it's worse: We're still years away from knowing the program's ultimate burden on taxpayers because venture-capital funds are given 10 years to repay the money. The government's total exposure as of last September 30 was $11.25 billion.

***

The good news is that the SBA's Associate Administrator for Investment, Jaime Guzman-Fournier, is expected to recommend that the program be killed when he appears today before the House Small Business Committee. But no bad idea ever dies an easy death in Congress. And at today's hearing, Chairman Don Manzullo (R., Illinois) is expected to promote "reform" instead of mercy killing.

***

Republicans of all people should know better than to tax some Americans more so that the government can invest in businesses that couldn't raise enough private capital. Congress can't even balance the budget, much less pick a winning telecom or biotech stock. This one isn't even a close call."

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


This week I am reviewing a blog started by a friend of mine, Yvonne DiVita, and her fiance Tom Collins, along with Yvonne's sister Maryanne. Together the three of them run a business called WME Books.

A-ha! stands for "authors helping authors." This is a blog written by authors, focused on helping new writers, and existing writers, in their writing and publishing efforts.

It's a whole new world today when it comes to publishing books. More authors are self-publishing. And print-on-demand services enable books to be printed without a huge up-front investment.

WME Books is on the forefront of this new publishing trend. And the blog is helping to spread the word about how publishing is changing, and what that means for aspiring authors. As Yvonne says:

"We hope to show the value of self-publishing using print-on-demand -- without criticizing traditional publishing -- merely pointing out the differences, both pluses and minues on each side. With A-ha! we will be building a platform of useful information on publishing in a new age...including posts on how to overcome writer's block, why it's a good idea to HIRE an editor and proofreader (and not try to do these critical tasks yourself), posts about the importance of a good cover, and also why a writer might use an author's services company. Of course, we will discuss print-on-demand and how it will continue to grow...and perhaps, overtake traditional publishing."

• Eliminates mandated coverages that only add to our health insurance costs (can we all really afford Rolls Royce health insurance coverage, or is Chevy coverage more realistic?)



• Removes state regulations that serve to restrict free-market competition for insurers and the options that small businesses have for affordable coverage.

Dave Kusak, Vice President, Berklee College of Music, and Gerd Leonhard, "music futurist," have published a book titled "The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution." Kusak provided some mind-blowing statistics. Of 30 thousand Compact Disc "titles" that were released in 2004, only 400 "titles" sold more than 100 thousand units, and 25 thousand "titles" sold fewer than 1,000 CDs. The big recording companies lose money 98.7% of the time! Because of this frightful "business model," the few remaining mega-music companies are driven totally by the need to create monster hits, and a lot of otherwise good music never gets a chance in the marketplace.

He parked in front of my place wearing jeans and a button-down silk shirt--a dead giveaway that he was working a corporate job again.

He was almost sheepish when he came inside, explaining why he was in my neck of the woods.

"We had a training out here for my new job. Don't worry, it's only temporary."

We walked to a coffee shop and shared a cookie, like we used to. He seemed happy, if not cautious. He liked being married, he said, though he wasn't sure about the new job.

"What's wrong with it?" I said.

"Nothing, except that it's a job. A regular old job. I'm back in a cubicle, making phone calls and enduring a commute. I said I would never do that again. But I'm married now, and she's just out of grad school and not working yet." He pulled out a business card.

"What's this?"

"It's the company I'm starting on the side. If everything works out I'll be back working at home and running a business from my laptop."

"That sounds nice."

"I can't do this nine-to-five thing knowing that's it. That this is how I'm going to be living my life."

Editor's note: I am delighted to present another in our weekly PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs. This is the fifty-ninth in the series.


If you like jewelry -- even a little -- then you are going to love Genuine Gems for Pearl Girls.

I'm always amazed at the creative uses that entrepreneurs and small businesses put blogs to. And this blog is no exception.

This blog is written by Judy Isaacson. She writes it as a companion to her family's business, Maurice Goldman Fine Jewelry.

How many blogs "bedazzle" the reader? Not many, I'll bet, but this one does.

Judy says she started the blog to "...transmit the credibility and reliability of Maurice Goldman Fine & Estate Jewelry, and to bedazzle the reader with our unique, and often rare, precious jewelry." She goes on to say:

"As a newcomer to the family fine jewelry and estate jewelry business, I am constantly learning about precious gems, rare estate pieces, the difference between treated and untreated gems, pearl quality and how pearl luster affects complexions, to name a few areas. I thought that the blog format would be an excellent communication tool to pass on these new insights to people looking for quality jewelry. There is so much jewelry "out there" that making a jewelry purchase based on knowledge can only benefit the consumer."

I asked Judy if using a blog was an unusual step for the family business. Apparently not. Judy says the business was started by her grandfather in 1910 in Europe (how's that for a long-lasting family business?):

"His cutting edge approach, followed by success, was to travel the fjords in Scandinavia in search of discerning customers. My father and uncle traveled to Japan and the Far East soon after the second World War and developed a clientele in the U.S. that was hungry for the exotic and rare gems that they brought back. Some of their advertisements from that time were quite avant garde (see picture).

In the age of the internet, e-mail, blogs, RSS feeds, e-stores, my "cutting edge" approach is to combine our established bricks and mortar business with an online enterprise as its extension."

• Experts page - from time to time we have experts give us their insights on trends impacting the small business market. For your convenience, we've assembled an index of all the experts' insights on a single page: The Experts.



• Audio - at our sister site, SMB TrendWire, we offer audio recordings of small business experts. We now have 12 very substantive recordings, and we continue to add them regularly. You can listen to them online. All the recent ones are also available as podcasts that you can download to your iPod.



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