Twitter Undignified?

Reading a recent article about how Ricky Gervais (He's a comedian, and starred on the ORIGINAL "The Office" on BBC.) said he thinks Twitter, and Tweeting is pointless it made me think about how, or why businesses use it at all as a way to talk with customers.

Gervais called the site being used by adults to be "Undignified". A total waste of time when you have many other ways to communicate, and more clearly.

While my own personal opinion on Twitter is very close to that of Mr. Gervais, am I missing the point from a business perspective? Clearly a lot of people use Twitter, and where there are a lot of people, there are a a lot of potential customers, readers, people to scam (whoops did I just say that?)...

While I can see the benefit of using it for certain business ventures, such as websites, communities, bands, celebs, posting torrents, etc. does it really have much value for a real world brick and mortar shop with tangible products?

That depends I suppose. I don't think that General Motors should be Tweeting. It WOULD be undignified for them to do such a thing in my humble opinion. What about someone who sells an all natural fat burner? Clearly this would be part of their target audience wouldn't it? People that care about appearances?

Twitter seems more or less like entertainment, but for business it is a way to mass market for absolutely free, to a ton of people that don't have anything better to do than slop up spam :D. Twitter is the easiest way today to SPAM. Bar None.

10 Emerging Financial Destinations

With the world financial markets in a free fall for the last decade it seems almost, things are starting to change at the top. New York and London being the big financial centers may be taking a bit of a turn as new markets start to emerge.

You can still get cheap hotels in orlando if you were worried about them making the list, but a few new ones are starting to creep up that you may have heard of before.

Of course, New York, London and other leaders aren't going away anytime soon. But as Western power declines, banks could increasingly favor Hong Kong and Sao Paulo, say, for their operations and investments.

These are in no particular order it appears, but here are 10 emerging financial centers.

9 Businesses You Can Start From Home

Who really wants to go to work everyday anymore? I know I don't. Other than getting something like health insurance, or even a 401 (k) you can probably do just as well at home. If not better. Doing less work, dealing with less people that annoy you, and answering to no one except your spouse :).

OK...that sounds like a sales pitch, but I completely believe it, and I have nothing to sell. It is simply food for thought. The way the world is now it is almost a certainty that you can't keep a job for more than 5 years in the same place. It changes too fast. You don't have to be going through a disability appeal, or be stuck at home to add to your income.

Even if you want to keep your job there are ways to add a few hundred dollars to your income by doing little to nothing with a bit of research.

Anyways, take a look at the businesses Inc.com says you can start from home.

Testing the Waters With a New Franchise

Unlike having the ability to get many a instant life insurance quote and compare, starting a newly formed franchise for the first time doesn't have such reliability.

Assessing the risk with a new franchise is harder, too: Much of the information about a franchise usually comes from existing franchisees, and with a new one, of course, that's hard to come by. On top of that, there are more new franchisors out there than ever before. In recent years, the number boomed, partly because of the growth of franchisor-packaging firms that help companies become franchise operations. In 2007, the trend's peak year so far, the International Franchise Association added 106 new franchisors.

How can you tell if you're looking at a great ground-floor opportunity or a shaky foundation? By doing much more research than you'd ever do on an established franchise. Here is what Libava and Gordon Dupries, a San Francisco franchise consultant with FranNet, would examine closely.

7 End oof the Year Tax Expert Tips

Taxes are a pain for everyone. Having to pay them is the biggest pain, but if you use anything other than just a 1040 and a W2 you probably have to spend a bit of time reading the laws, looking for new tax saving trends, and hopefully stumble a crossed some good tips. Taxes are a war, and you need all the weapons you can find to beat the tax man when you are in business for yourself, or you might just be seeking some new jobs philly.

Here are a few Tax Tips for End Year that might help you out before you get back into party mode on New Year's Eve. Nothing better than last minute tax strategies ;).

13 Best iPhone Business Applications

Since I got an iPod Touch recently, and basically screw off all day instead of work, I figured I would pretend that I actually do work and tell you what some of the best iPhone and iPod Touch business apps are. At least you can make it look like you are trying to streamline your work day with some of these apps instead of just surfing for games that Free People from the clutches of demonic overlords in fantasy land.

Here are the top 13 iPhone Business Apps currently available. Ones that you can actually use, and help you speed up some of your work. So...you can play more games.

Failing and Future Success

Yesterday we briefly mentioned that leaders sometimes had failed many times before they finally figured it all out. Failure is a big part of success for many people. Not everyone can get it right the very first time they go out on their own. Business isn't a sure thing. You can't possibly foresee every challenge that you will face, and many have found that some of these challenges have been very detrimental to the success of that venture.

You can look in any web directory and find businesses in there that have entries still, but have probably failed during the last release of the new listings. Owning a place like a restaurant may sound enticing, but most restaurant owners know how to cook, but have absolutely no idea how to run a business. This is the same for many people that have great skills they can sell, but not the business background to keep it afloat. So...they fail, but it is what they learn in that failure that decides whether they are able to bounce back and be successful on their next effort.

There are a lot of success stories out there, but there are probably a lot more stories of failings. People that have overcome the failures they ahve had to become successful are always worth listening to in my opinion and here are a group of "failures" that made themselves a fortune.

10 Skills of Successful LEaders

Are you a leader, or a follower? Do you even know? Sometimes leadership is just thrust upon you. Other times it is sought. In either case your success or failure has to do with a lot more than just knowing what is supposed to be done.

LEaders ned to have some special characteristics to really be successful and get others to follow them. Maybe a lot of failure in business has to happen before the Minka Aire lights finally go on? For some peopel it is true. Failing isn't always a bad thing, but it might be a sign that you lack the skills to be a true leader as well.

Not to discourage you, but not everyone is cut out to lead and tha tis OK. There are plenty of great ways to make it as a followrer, but today we are worried about some of hthe qualities that are apparent in many leaders. Take a look at 10 Characteristics of Superior Laders and see how you measure up, or if you agree with the list.

Does Your Marketing Suck?

Marketing is one of the most important aspects of running a business. Doing it wrong can not only cost you a lot of money, but it can make you look bad in the process. MArketing is the way to get people in the door so can can do whatever it is you are trying to do. Be it selling food, sell textbooks online, or make a doctor beome your next financial client.

Learning effective marketing techniques is always beneficial, but learning what you are doing wrong is just as benficial sometimes. It is time to take a look at 10 ways why your marketing strategies stink. If you can figure out why some of them are failing, you can figure out why your next one is going to work.

Top 10 Upcoming Business Trends

Ever wonder why there are so many top 10 lists out there? It's because you have no ability to pass them over withou looking. They are one of the best ways to get people to look at your article. They are a fantastic way to get your articles ranked up at places like Digg.com, show up in a free web directory and the search engines LOVE them. Why? People link to them non-stop. They give them something to write about and help them add content to their own sites.

For us top 10 lists aren't always about marketing, but they are about learning what to look at for future business ideas. This top 10 list of upcoming trends is no different.