Using Humor in Marketing
from Entrepreneur
Humor can be marketing gold if done right. If done wrong, it can make a business look desperate or mean. But even if customers think your unfunny marketing is a joke, some may award you points for giving humor a shot. So maximize your odds of coming out of a humorous campaign a winner by following these rules. More

Five Rules for Retailing in a Recession
from The Harvard Business Review
Hard times - even a deep recession - can be an opportunity to win the loyalty of more customers, increase productivity, and strengthen market position. In this article, The Harvard Business Review draws on a study of more than 50 major U.S.-based retailers and over 20 years of global consulting experience and research to show how retail executives can respond to a downturn in their business and emerge from it even stronger than before. By following the recommendations laid out in these pages, companieswill discover that a larger universe of growth and productivity opportunities is open to them than they might believe. More

Noted Economist Forecasts Recovery Starting Around March 2010
from Zibb
Vistage economic advisor Allan Beaulieu is offering a cautiously hopeful outlook for the economy's long-range future. As the recession leaves CEOs of small and mid-sized businesses concerned about the future, Beaulieu is sharing his expert insights in a series of economic meetings for Vistage-member business owners in major markets throughout the U.S. Beaulieu is a senior analyst and economist with the Institute for Trend Research (ITR) in New Hampshire. He and other ITR analysts believe that the national economic recovery will begin around March 2010. More

The $250,000 Small Business Tax Question
from BusinessWeek
New data released by the bipartisan Tax Policy Center show that most small business owners won't be taxed at higher rates under Obama's proposed budget. More

Thriving in the Downturn
from Forbes
It's plenty tough out there. All the more so for small businesses, which run on gumption and grit during the best of times and must embrace any imaginative means just to survive in the worst. In the following stories you'll meet a half-dozen remarkable entrepreneurs who are prospering in the depths of recession by offering unique luxury goods and services. Can these lessons be applied to your business? More

12 Cool Web Tools for Business
from Inc.
The Web boasts a wide (and growing) variety of services that can help your companies become more productive -- and save money. From organizing your calendar to arranging your next business trip, the Inc. tech team zeroes in on the best. More

Measuring Your Way to Market Insight
from strategy+business
As marketers move to a more varied, shifting mix of advertising and promotion, they are coming face to face with the lack of insight they have historically had about which media choices work well, why customers buy, and what returns will be generated by their spending. This lack of insight did not matter very much when marketers had no choice but to depend on television, radio, and print - the traditional mass-market media. Now, however, there has been an explosion of media vehicles, and data is much more complete, granular, and evocative of consumer attitudes and willingness to purchase products. More

Smart Leaders: Crystal Clear
from Smart Business Magazine
When Holly J. Mitchell took over as CEO of Crystal Stairs Inc. in 2003, she realized the organization needed to evolve. Smart Business spoke with Mitchell about how to turn your employees into leaders and how to focus your organization on performance. More