PMA Extends Two-for-One Registration Offer into New Year
from PMA
If the holiday rush seems overwhelming, PMA aims to make it a little less hectic by extending the deadline for its two-for-one All Conference Connection Pass registration offer. Any PMA members bringing additional staff to PMA 09, March 3-5, 2009, can save $299 through this offer."With many PMA members serving the customers during this busy Christmas sales season, PMA is extending the PMA 09 registration offer as our 'holiday special' to members, so to speak," said Ted Fox, executive director for PMA. "Members can purchase their registration in the weeks after the New Year holiday rush. Bringing additional staff by purchasing the two-for-one conference registration will help business owners find even more new ideas at PMA 09 sessions and gather additional product information from our broad list of exhibitors." More

Five Ways to Reduce Product Returns
from Retail Customer Experience
In a recent study conducted by consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture, the product return rate for consumer electronics averaged between 11 and 12 percent during 2007. The cost to manage that returned merchandise reached $13.8 billion. But 95 percent of the merchandise returned had nothing wrong with it. Looking at the possible reasons for these types of returns and how those causes can be remedied can help retailers avoid a dip in the bottom line. More

Don't Be A Retail Recession Victim
from The Retail Owner's Institute
This recession is like quicksand for retailers. If you don't keep moving, it could take you down. Now is not the time to be on the sidelines, wringing your hands. Here are five essential steps you can take - right now - to strengthen your business and increase your chances of weathering economic downturns. More

How to Manage Twenty-Somethings
from About.com
The millennials joining your workforce now are employees born between 1980 and 2000, or 1981 and 1999, depending on the author. Unlike the Gen-Xers and the Boomers, the Millennials have developed work characteristics and tendencies from doting parents, structured lives, and contact with diverse people. Millennials are used to working in teams and want to make friends with people at work. Millennials work well with diverse coworkers. More

Deflation and the Economy: Lower Prices and Stimulus Could Create Rebound
from BusinessWeek
Is price deflation a sign of an accelerating economic downturn? History is not encouraging. Periods with falling prices - consider Japan in the 1990s and the Great Depression - have been unhappy times, economically. But there's another possibility: The fall in some consumer prices could be part of the "normal" adjustment to unprecedented economic circumstances. These price declines, combined with the coming "wall of money" - the enormous monetary and fiscal stimulus on the way in 2009 - could actually accelerate an economic rebound. More

A Business Owner’s Guide to Local Advertising
from Forbes
Many small businesses rely heavily on the love of local customers, and the Internet continues to make reaching them easier and cheaper than ever. For entrepreneurs who would rather not shell out (or simply can't afford) as much as $1,000 for an old-fashioned ad in the Yellow Pages, there are now a host of flexible, affordable alternatives for wrangling the locals--and even calculating the return on those marketing efforts. More

Best Business books of 2008
from strategy+business
Social critic John Ruskin once wrote, “Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.” Agreed, but that’s easier said than done when the production output of business books exceeded 7,600 titles last year. This annual review can help. It whittles the towering stacks down to three dozen books, covered in 10 essays written by a stellar group of commentators, including distinguished newcomers like Margaret Wheatley and seasoned veterans like James O’Toole. More

Bond, James Bond: 7 Business Lessons from 007
from Entrepreneur
Whatever images you conjure upon hearing those immortal words--world's most dashing spy, ladies’ man with a license to kill, secret agent man with the best gadgets--the phrase "successful product" probably doesn’t come to mind. But that's exactly what it is. Since 1952, when Ian Fleming published the first Bond book, the British spy has been the focus of novels, the occasional obscure radio and TV production, a few “unofficial” feature films, and 21 movies produced by EON Productions, spearheaded by Barbara Broccoli, who took over the business after her father, Albert ("Cubby"), passed away in 1996. And while Bond may be pure entertainment and a pop icon to most, at the risk of sucking all the joy out of one of Hollywood’s most enduring adventure heroes, he’s no different than Goodyear snow tires or Folgers coffee: Bond is a brand. More