Week1

Business Notes by Daniel

3.21.12

Business Search Interface (Ebsco) is designed to help users research items such as economic or country analyses, investigate market trends or potential, and find current competitive information or landscape analysis information

What I'm not liking about the tutorials is that there's no instruction of "have this link open as you watch".  Just watching isn't enough to familiarize myself with this item.

Clicking on the box labeled Start-Up Information, Browse by State, I tried the Small Business Reference Center State Small Business Start-up Guides.  It very clearly says, "To learn more, click on the state of interest below."  However, you can't click on the blue highlighted "link" - it's a pdf of the page.  Even trying to get the PDF Full Text button to work wasn't an option.  The only way to access Alaska was to click on the menu bar "download pdf".

Also, what shows up is 2008 info (Small Business Start-Up Guide: Alaska.) with comparisons to 2007 and 2000.  Since state information is much more current, I think this is poor information because it is so dated.  There are links to Alaska, which is helpful, but I would think EBSCO would have much more current info, since the 2010 census results came out some time ago.

I tried Business Basics and went to the link of Doing Business on EBay.  Again, dated info, starting with 2008 stuff.  It's 2012.

Interviewing a Candidate - 2008 articles and books.

Is this the best stuff out there, or just no updates by Ebsco?

Going on, at Alaska Local and Regional Information, that's only 2010 info.  At least for the major cities/boroughs, there is more up-to-date info through ACRA or through the borough/city website links.


Discovery Exercises 1

1.Since 2009, Peter Klein has been CFO of Microsoft. From 2006 to 2009, he was the Corporate VP and CFO of Microsoft's business division (MBD).  He joined Microsoft in 2002.  Prior to his working at Microsoft, he worked in the Seattle area, primarily with the communications and technology sectors in corporate finance (senior roles at McCaw Cellular Communicaitons, Orca Bay Capital, several startups including Homegrocer.com)

2. Handicrafts (522 articles, book chapters in Small Business Reference Center search)
American Craft Oct/Nov 2011 article by Meribah Knight; looks at impact that online craft marketplaces like Etsy have had on handicraft industry (brand marketing, developing online presence, kinds of products selling)
Souvenirs, Gifts & Novelties, Jan 2011 article by Julie Ritzer Ross about market for Native American-made products at National Parks, but with special emphasis to a few stores and on specifically jewelry, tipi & pottery.
Leisure Market Research Handbook; Jan 2012; only ch 24 is given which looks at the 31 billion dollars spent for crafts and hobby supplies in the US, looks at top craft stores like Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Jo-Ann's.

American Craft; Dec2011/Jan2012, Vol. 71 Issue 6, p15-21, 4p, 2 Color Photographs; article has a calendar of events in the US in 2011 and 2012 where a person might be able to sell his/her stuff.

online selling handicrafts
SCOTT, GREGORY J.

American Craft; Feb/Mar2011, article by Gregory J. Scott.  Interviews Sarah Sweet and Angela Lessman, who own the urban craft store I Like You in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Points:  why they think handicrafts have become such an important part of popular culture; their approach to selecting merchandise to stock in their store. "When asked about the role of a retail store when so many craft items can be purchased online, Sweet comments on the need to see and feel what she's buying and Lessman comments on the social aspects of shopping."

Search: Handicrafts Internet Selling
Etsy brings handmade crafts closer to home.
Marketing Week (01419285); 2/19/2009, Vol. 32 Issue 8, p29-29, 1p
Older but informative article on the website for handmade goods.


Sharon L. Cohen wrote 199 Internet-Based Businesses You Can Start with Less Than One Thousand Dollars: Secrets, Techniques & Strategies Ordinary People Use Every Day to Make Millions; 2009, p223-229, 7p
Chapter 17 "focuses on Internet crafts businesses which include unusual yarns and handmade candles. It discusses the business overview, skills, tips, and sources of information on each business. It also presents the success story of New England Birdhouse and its proprietor Bill Askenburg."

Under the icon Industry Information by Small Business types, there is a listing for crafts, with links to articles and industry information.  Much of the industry information is 2009 reporting, and what I'd consider crafts doesn't include things like ride-on toys, leisure travel, growth in ad ages, or parties or events, but that's what shows in the 58 sources between 2010 and 2012 .

In the articles links, if someone was looking for crafting beer, there were several articles that seemed applicable, if not to Alaska.

By clicking on the Business Area, business and the Internet, there were links to a wide variety of aspects to using the internet to buy, sell, advertise a craft product, and how to market using the Internet.

The Business Basics icon takes one to links that also seem applicable to someone trying to start a craft oriented business, especially the starting a business from home and with less than $1000.

The start-up kit and business plan are excellent, especially the sample business plans, which gives one an idea of what needs to be thought through before even getting started and understanding where one is planning to go with this "business" idea.  So many businesses fail or at least flounder because they don't have good business plans and they don't stay with them in the process of trying to run the business.


3.  The interface to this is very clunky.  It shows a PDF icon, which you normally would click on to open the resource, but it doesn't do anything.  Instead, you have to know to go up to the green main menu bar and click download PDF.

In the Employer's Legal Handbook, the explanations are simple and easy to understand for the various parts of a contract, but then it says there is a CD-ROM to print out the sample forms.  Finding the appendix where they are also shown was hard to get to because first I assumed the forms described would be at the end of a chapter, but since that wasn't the case, I looked for the appendices at the end of the book.  The "pages" to scroll to don't appear UNLESS one is at the top of the scroll bar.  Since I was at the bottom of the scroll bar, appendix didn't show until I'd accidentally figure out how to navigate.  Just another clunky way to navigate, and not the normal numbers, directional arrows.

Marketing without Advertising looked promising for a home craft start-up too.  Most of the others were too far along to be of much use for a start-up business, although certainly worth looking at if one got a business to the point where it was profitable and growing.

4.  I was surprised that Fairbanks doesn't have a Small Business Development Center.

I thought the Tools (right side bar) were great because the forms were generic enough that they'd apply to most situations very easily.  The FAQ section also had excellent questions and answers.

While all the workshops aren't available in all hubs, still, with some advance planning, a person should be able to arrange to attend any of interest.   Profit Mastery at $395 (limited time it's $200) is a 4 day workshop; Quickbooks and Business Bookkeeping were the more expensive at $195 and $110 for a day's session, but most are either free or under $25, quite reasonable!

One of my favorite businesses is Summit Spice and Teas, and thought the story of how Audrey purchased it from the employer was very interesting.

5.  Landlord responsibilities to a tenant:
• ensure that the tenant’s enjoyment of the premises is not disturbed;
• maintain a fit premises (See section titled “Property Maintenance,” pg. 9);

Frauds and Scams:
2 examples are

Advance fee fraud - want money up front to cover taxes or some other cost; if you send the check, you'll supposedly have the money you won

and

Phishing - an email arrives directing you to what looks like a legitimate organization's website, and it says there is concern about your account.  Never answer these because they're trying to get your account info, passwords, or other personal info.

Consumer reports can be filed through the Attorney General's office; there are forms on the site - choose the File Complaint button in the main menu of the Alaska Consumer Protection Unit.



5. female workers in Fairbanks North Star Borough:  18,669 (but adding men and women doesn't quite equal residents employed - so what else is there?)
top employer is the University of Alaska Fairbnks; I would have said the Hospital

6.  Stages of the business cycle:  think (business idea) / launch / grow / reinvent (going to the next level) / exit (selling the business)
checklist for starting a new business - Tools, right side bar in blue (alphabetically)

7.  Two publications done about broadband in AK in 2011
both by Heather Hudson
ID: 1447
Rural Broadband: Opportunities for Alaska
Heather E. Hudson
November 2011
35 pp.
presentation to the AFCEA ( Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association)
Available online (2.3 MB)

D: 1341
Broadband for Rural Development in Southwest Alaska
Heather E. Hudson
March 2011
28 pp.
Presented at WAISC, Bethel, March 24, 2011
Available online (1.4 MB)


Small Scale Modular Nuclear Power - option or not for AK?
ID: 1336
Small Scale Modular Nuclear Power: An Option for Alaska?
Ginny Fay and Tobias Schworer
March 2011
23 pp.
ISER Brown Bag Lunch Talk Presentation
Available online: Presentation (1.3 MB)
Basically, too much uncertainty;  Fairbanks was seen as most suitable to replace highest cost electricity generation; feasible though very expensive to put in place.

Education is an area of interest to many Alaskans, and ISER hosts CAEPR (Center for Alaska Education Policy Research)
Examines these areas:
Analyzing the supply of and demand for teachers in Alaska
Studying Alaska Native student high-school and college success
Assessing models for providing education in rural Alaska
Evaluating outcomes of grant-funded programs intended to improve teaching and learning in Alaska's schools

You look at ISER's mission:
ISER enhances the well-being of Alaskans and others, through non-partisan research that helps people understand social and economic systems and supports informed public and private decision-making.

It all can be of interest and be relevant.

8.  There's need for the information provided; the question is whether those who could benefit from it will learn about it, seek out information that's applicable.  I can see more publicity about what's available through Greg Hill's columns, if he'd write about it.





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