Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, FedEx Corp (FDX), United Parcel’B’ (UPS), UAL Corp (UAUA), Small business

With airline traffic steadily increasing, more and more of us are faced with the same question; How in the world am I going to fit all these things in our luggage? Maybe it is time to begin thinking outside of the box, and instead of packing all our things, maybe we should just begin to consider sending our belongs ahead of time and stop worrying about packing all of our things?

As I read Joe Brancatelli’s (portfolio.com) article discussing airline baggage, I could not help think back to December when my girlfriend had her bags lost for over a week on a trip from Europe back to the says for Christmas. Inside this luggage we had all her clothes, as well as all of my family’s Christmas presents. Since she was flying into the says on Christmas Eve, and the airline lost her bags for a week, we’d no presents to give out on Christmas, and by the time they showed up, on New Years Eve, the Christmas magic was pretty much lost.

As we analyzed last week, airline delays last year were near an all time high, but as I mentioned in my article, the one thing that bothers me more than being late, is arriving without my luggage. While lost baggage rates stayed pretty steady last year, with 9 out of 1,000 passengers filing lost baggage claims, there are other reasons why we may should consider shipping instead of packing in the future.

For one, you have to worry about paying fees for having luggage in excess of airline guidelines. Returning to Europe after Christmas I felt the pain of that rule. I won’t mention the airline name, but let’s just say that they’d a 50 pound per bag rule, which I think is probably pretty uniform these days with major airlines. We’d 4 bags total, with two bags being over the limit. The result? $125 fee! I was definitely kicking myself for loading up on English books while I was home (which I still have yet to open)!

The point? For $125 I probably could have just shipped the extra baggage and had a much greater possibility of the articles actually making to my place on time. Not only will shipping your baggage ahead of time possibly save you money, it also has the added beauty of freeing you from having to lug all those heavy bags around with you as you travel.

On some airlines not only do you face the chance of extra fees for overweight bags, but you also have to deal with fees for taking more than two check-in bags. If you travel airlines that permit more than two check-ins, consider yourself lucky. Soon, passengers that are allowed two check-in bags might be part of the lucky crowd. Last week, United Airlines, UAL Corp (NASDAQ: UAUA) went so far as to lower the number of bags you are allowed to check from two down to one. Now, if you want to check a second bag, be ready to add $25 onto the cost of your flight. I have to state, United is definitely in my “no fly” zone from now on.

OK, so enough about the reasons why we should considering shipping our luggage, what are our options?

There are the usual names, FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS), which offer inexpensive pricing and a solid reputation for their services. But if you want something a little more personal, Mr. Brancatelli also points out that there are lots of new companies that specialize just in shipping luggage. These include Luggage Forward, Sports Express, Luggage Concierge, and The Luggage Club.

While FedEx and UPS typically come with a smaller price tag, some traveler prefer to use the luggage specialists because they feel they have a more personal connection with someone from the company when they need assistance. Brancatelli cites the case of airline traveler Andy Abramson, who is a fan of Luggage Forward, and states that they make it very easy for him in the event of last minute itinerary changes.

I, personally, have never shipped my luggage. I have lost luggage several times, and definitely fell victim to fees for over packing my luggage, which I have usually just taken in stride, and promised myself that I would be more careful the next time i packed up my things. But, for sure, the next time I get ready to take a trip I know I will definitely be looking into all my options.

What about you, our readers? Are you a frequent flier? Have you had bad experiences with your luggage in the past, and will you begin to take into account shipping in lieu of lugging your bags on your upcoming flights?

~ Here is another good article on traveling by Mr. Brancatelli, “What I Learned on the Road This Year” ~

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the on the web investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Next huge thing, Small business

While the mobile space is big, it’s still not easy to penetrate. Yet, with only $2 million in angel funding over the past couple years, Ringleader has done quite well. The company has put together a sophisticated online advertising network, which helps with mobile ads (as well as those on the desktop). Some of its customers include Ideal Western, Absolut and Blu-Ray.

Well, now Ringleader has some more juice. That’s, the company has raised $6 million from W2 Group, which is a global marketing services company.

“Growth is ramping in mobile ads,” said Bob Walczak, the CEO of Ringleader, in an interview with me. He points out that in 2005, the typical ad buy was a paltry $5,000 to $10,000 per campaign. But, as of last year, it increased to $50,000 to $100,000. “Going into 2008,” stated Walczak, “we are seeing proposals for seven figures.”

There are some big drivers, such as Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)’s Android platform and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)’s iPhone. But perhaps the biggest key is that mobile ads tend to get results. “We are seeing click-through rates of 2% to 3%,” stated Walczak. “This compares to a traditional web ad that gets 0.1%.”

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar On the web Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Next huge thing, Small business

In the marketing world, the concept of “1-to-1 marketing” gets lots of buzz. After all, with the World wide web, it should be easy to personalize marketing messages, right?

Not necessarily. If anything, it’s proven to be quite difficult.

Well, that’s something that Genius.com is trying to solve. In fact, the company recently snagged $19 million in venture funding. The lead investor was Accel Partners, with additional funding coming from existing investors Mohr Davidow Ventures, Emergence Capital and Walden International.

With Genius.com, you can put together compelling emails for sales prospects. From there, the system tracks the leads and what are they looking at on your website?

Something else that’s important: it’s simple to use. “There is no need for IT,” said David Thompson, the CEO and co-founder of Genius.com, in an interview with me. “It only takes two minutes to setup. We wanted to delight our actual users.”

The upshot: Genius.com’s customers often come from word-of-mouth. Of course, that’s perhaps the best 1-to-1 marketing system you can have.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar On the web Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL), Monster Worldwide (MNST), Small business

Back in 2000, a variety of dot-coms - like Pets.com, LastMinuteTravel.com, Monster.com (Nasdaq: MNST) and so on - spent gobs of money on Super Bowl commercials. Of course, it marked the height of the bubble. Since then, upstart companies have been mostly afraid of producing commercials.

Hey, take a look at this classic ad from Pets.com (now defunct), during the 2000 Super Bowl:

But don’t be afraid. While I’m not suggesting that you shell out $2.7 million for a Super Bowl ad, I still think things are different. After all, it’s fairly cost-effective to advertise on local cable channels. What’s more, on the internet video is also surging.

So how can you crank out a top-quality 30-second spot?

Let’s take a look:

Production: Technology is making it incredibly cheap to create commercials. “All you need is an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Mac laptop and the iMovie software that comes with the personal,” stated Rob Frankel, who is the author of The Revenge of Brand X and has his own marketing firm. “And just about any MiniDV camera can produce broadcast-quality video.”

That’s all he needed to create this spot:

To spice things up, you can use stock footage and music clips (which might even be free). “A easy Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) search will find a lot of stock content,” said Frankel.

Crafting the right message: It’s temping to be too adorable or cutting-edge when putting together a 30-second spot. Unfortunately, the result is that your audience ignores things - or is just confused. Some tips:

• Focus on one idea (that’s easy to understand). Clutter is your enemy.
• Avoid special effects and location shoots.
• Don’t star in your own commercials.

“Notice that some of the ideal commercials these days offer one central image or theme with even stark or simplified backgrounds,” Rachel Weingarten, who is the president of GTK Marketing Group. “It might be wiser to spend more on the concept and come up with a very clever and catchy phrase or theme or even sweepstakes or promo that can drive people to your website, retail location or some other call to action.”

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar On the web Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Small business

“It’s common for business owners to want to manage everything,” stated Fabio Rosati, who is the CEO of Elance, which is a web-based system to help businesses find, hire, and manage professionals. “But it’s now getting easier to outsource no-core functions, which is what bigger companies are doing.”

Basically, outsourcing can be cheaper and mean higher quality (do you really need to understand payroll?). More importantly, you’ll have more time to focus on the things you do best, which should help to grow your business.

So what are some of the things you can do?

Time audit: As a result, it’s a good idea to do a “time audit.” That is, where is most of your time being spent? And can some of these activities be offloaded — leaving you more time to make money?

Find qualified people: No doubt, there are many people who want your business — but, of course, they have varying levels of quality.

To deal with this, you might want to seek out prospects from your own network, such as by sending out an email to trusted friends or perhaps use your LinkedIn network.

Another approach is to use online platforms, such as eLance or RentaCoder.com (to hire programmers). These sites usually have community rankings of the service providers.

Baby Steps: Outsourcing can be tricky so be careful. “I advocate starting small,” stated Rosati. “Also, make sure you spend time defining the scope of the project. And since the communication is likely not to be face-to-face, make sure the communication is clear.”

Think out-of-the-box: Just about anything can be outsourced.

Look at Jonathan Fleming, who is a real estate agent. He outsources: sales letters, his blog, and his customer database. “The ability to have a corporation of people working for me without people on my day payroll is astounding,” he said. “You have your army when you need them.”

Interestingly, Timothy Ferris wrote a book on this topic, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. His virtual assistants help him with scheduling, reading his email and even on the internet dating.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Next big thing, Small business

I’m a large fan of LinkedIn, which is a social network for professionals. In fact, the service has helped me get sources for some of my stories.

But competition is starting to emerge, the latest comes from Hoover’s, a part of Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE: DNB). Hoover’s has acquired Visible Path, which develops an enetrprise-class social networking platform.

So what makes Hoover’s Connect different? Essentially, it’s a LinkedIn for individual companies and the system integrates with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)’s Outlook and other products.

Perhaps the biggest key, however, is privacy. After all, if you are a major executive (who has the power of the checkbook), do you want your contact information freely available?

Hoover’s can also leverage its large base of business customers. For example, it is possible to use the system to develop referral paths for various companies, making it to make it easier to make a connection. Actually, according to a study from the University of Chicago and University of North Carolina business schools, it is 16 times more likely to get a response from a trusted source versus a cold call.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Good news, World wide web, Google (GOOG), Amazon.com (AMZN), Next huge thing, Small business

Often, startups will issue a stuffy press release when announcing their venture rounds. But in the case of Etsy - an on the web platform to purchase and sell handmade goods - there is actually a detailed blog post from the co-founder Robert Kalin, which even includes a video.

In all, the company raised $27 million in a venture round. The investors include Union Square Ventures, Hubert Burda Media and Accel Partners. In fact, Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer is taking a board seat (keep in mind that he invested in Facebook in the early stages).

Kalin goes into lots of detail on the “use of proceeds.” Etsy is going to invest about $5 million in hardware and servers, and there will be huge improvements in the payment processing system, which is on par with Amazon.com’s (NASDAQ: AMZN). Oh, and the company wants to provide Google-like (NASDAQ: GOOG) search functionality.

Even without such things, Etsy is getting lots of traction. The community has more than 650,000 members and there are more than 120,000 sellers.

And as seen with its funding press release - which is one of the most transparent I’ve ever seen — Etsy certainly takes the concept of “community” very seriously.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Small business

It’s still not clear whether we’ll have a recession or not. But the Federal Reserve, Congress, and the president are definitely concerned — and are taking quick action.

In fact, Congress and the president are pushing for some tax breaks for small businesses. “The features are similar to the incentive tax provisions of the Reagan era’s 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act, which provided business investment incentives,” stated Mary Canning, the Dean of the Schools of Taxation and Accounting at Golden Gate University.

So, what does this all mean? What can you do?

Let’s take a look:

The proposal: The stimulus plan doubles the amount small businesses can write off for investments in 2008 — from $125,000 to $250,000. What’s more, the bill expands the cap for eligibility; that is, businesses making as much as $800,000 (the prior cap was $500,000).

The proposed bill also grants for accelerated depreciation on plant and equipment. Basically, you can write off as much as 50% of such investments in 2008.

What to do? OK, it’s not a good idea to make business decisions solely based on taxes. But, if you are wavering on something, then the tax benefit can be a key tipping point. In the case of the new tax bill, you should definitely think about the implications of buying equipment, such as personal, furniture, machines and so on.

Of course, it’s important to seek out your tax professional. “Business owners should plan out their 2008 finances in collaboration with their tax adviser and see if there will be opportunities to take advantage of the higher depreciation and Section 179 expensing opportunities,” said William Perez, who is a licensed tax professional in private practice and writes the tax section of About.com. “Profitable businesses might consider purchasing additional equipment, but they’ll need to review their current tax situation to make sure they’ll be eligible to take full advantage of these tax incentives.”

Record Keeping: Oh yea, make sure you keep a file for paid bills, canceled checks and other business items (and keep them in a safe place).

“At a minimum, put receipts in the proper categories throughout the year so it will be easier to total them up at tax time,” stated Fred Melton, who is a tax expert and an owner/operator of a TimePlus payroll processing service. “You are not required to keep records in a formal ’set of books’; however, you need to find the ideal record keeping system that works for you. Take record keeping seriously.”

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar On the internet Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Deals, Management, Marketing and advertising, Entrepreneurs, Small business

Monday-morning quarterbacking. Locker room speak about the best investment you’ve ever made. We all do it to some extent. How many of us would like to hit a true homerun?

Following up on a post I had earlier in the week on some of the changes in the music industry, I came across an exclusive on Bloomberg this morning. The article, titled “Want to Be a Movie Producer,” plays right into our fantasies about making homeruns with our investments.

The article profiles a new investment firm, called IndieVest, that targets movies. Individuals who pay an annual fee can select investments from a menu of films to be developed, produced, and distributed by the company.

Investors, wealthy individuals who must meet minimum net worth requirements, are guaranteed at least 50% of the profits after getting back their initial investment (along with a premium), with 40% going to the makers of the film and the remaining money, of course, to IndieVest.

Who knows, maybe you’ll strike it rich by going long the next Alvin and the Chipmunks?

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Citigroup Inc. (C), Merrill Lynch (MER), Small business, Recession

Lately, the headlines have been scary. Unemployment is increasing. There are concerns from the presidential candidates. Real estate values are sagging and foreclosures are skyrocketing. And, premier companies - like Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) - have raised billions of dollars to deal with heavy losses.

So, if the economy is slowing down, how can your business deal with things?

Let’s take a look:

Deal with hidden costs: When looking at expense items, some might seem small. But it’s often the case that these items - in aggregate - can turn into a huge deal.

According to Tom Sharples, president of Qorvus Systems: “Typical small- or medium-sized businesses that have been around for a few years can find duplicative costs: unused cell-phone contracts that continue to rack up charges, subscriptions to services associated with long-departed employees and often all sorts of legacy junk that no one even remembers ordering, but that you’re still paying for every month.”

He suggests looking at expenses for:

o. Telecom charges
o. Web hosting costs
o. Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) search marketing expenses
o. Facilities costs (utilities, janitorial services, and so on)

Establish a Credit Policy: Basically, you need to take preventative measures with customers. So before extending credit, make sure they are in good standing and up-to-date on all invoices.

“If you’ve signed credit applications and are authorized to pull credit reports and check with banks and vendors on someone’s payment history, now is the time to revaluate each customer’s credit and credit limits,” stated Michelle Dunn, who is the author of Become the Squeaky Wheel: A Credit & Collections Guide for Everyone (Collecting Money Series) and operates a credit advisory business. “Check for things such as late or slow payments, change or loss of jobs, changes in income, change of address, and divorce. Take immediate action if a customer’s mail is returned or the phone is disconnected. Speed is critical. The longer you wait, the less chance you’ve of getting paid.”

Work with your vendors: As a small business, it won’t be simple to get better terms from vendors. Yet, it’s worth asking for.

Or, it might mean dealing with smaller vendors, who might be more amenable for negotiation.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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