The Art of Negotiating
Entrepreneur
Negotiating is a part of everyday life, but in business it's absolutely critical to your success. Poor negotiation can cripple a company just as quickly as losing key customers. While most negotiating strategies seem like common sense, it's not uncommon for people to get caught up in the emotion of the moment and ignore their basic instincts. Emotion, luck and magic have no place in a successful negotiation. It takes an iron gut, homework, street smarts and unblinking discipline.More

Three Ways to Get Rid of Office Equipment
Smart Money's Small Biz
They are the unattended items that get left behind when employees get laid off: desks, chairs, computer screens, even cars. Small-business owners looking for extra dollars in the budget should turn attention to those unused supplies or equipment gathering dust. You might bring in extra cash, or even trim costs if you're still carrying insurance or paying them off. Certainly, keep some items in storage if you expect business or hiring to pick back up soon. Otherwise, it's time to clean house.More

Social Network Automation and Why You Don't Want to Be Part of It
Everything PR
In the mad race for traffic and hits, how many online entrepreneurs stop to wonder about quality? Too many are mesmerized by their high stats displayed by the web analytics software employed for traffic analysis. What most of these webtrepreneurs fail to understand is that numbers are not relevant for the sales power of a site. They are not relevant for popularity either, and they are far from being relevant when it comes to quality.More

Tricks of a Master Motivator
Business Week
For Web-hosting service Rackspace, achieving greatness is every employee's job. They need each employee to give fanatical support to their customers. So they place a premium on employee engagement. More

Designing a New Experience and Putting Fun Back into Retail
Retail Customer Experience
Intuitively, you know that making your customer's experience better makes your business better. As every business person knows, word-of-mouth is the best advertising. As a retail leader you probably have first-hand experience of a customer who so loves the shopping experience you provided. What you may not know is how to focus on just the right things and make just the right changes to get customers consistently oohing and aahing about their experience of your brand.More

Can Social Media Be Measured?
Search Engine Watch
There is a lot of debate around whether social media marketing can be measured. There is also a cauldron of bubbling issues around exactly what companies should measure when it comes to social media marketing.More

Great No-Cost Software
Inc.
Free is a lovely word; unfortunately, it's often followed by a disappointing product. We have found 10 great free apps that will help you run your business. Some are so good, you might even be willing to spend money on them.More

Fed Says Economy Stable or Improving in Most of U.S.
Bloomberg
The Federal Reserve said 11 of its 12 regional banks reported signs of a stable or improving economy in July and August, adding anecdotal evidence that the worst U.S. recession in seven decades is over. Five districts "mentioned signs of improvement," the Fed said in its Beige Book business survey, published two weeks before officials meet to set monetary policy. More