Posted by Paul Thompson on January 4th, 2012
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If you’ve ever been stuck at home during the day, The Price is Right has already come and gone, and you weren’t desperate enough to watch General Hospital, odds are you saw quite a few “As Seen on TV” ads. Some of these products seemed genuinely useful in the alterna-world of infomercials where people seem incapable of opening jars or hanging clothes without a specialized tool. Hell, some of us even bought one or two of these products (I love you, Slap Chop). But God help you and have mercy on your progeny if you were the type of person who impulsively bought these things that initially seemed useful, and then later you still thought were useful — because you are obviously mentally ill. The rest of us, however, should stay away from some of the worst of these products, things like:
Famously known as The Boob Apron, the Cami Secret is the only as seen on TV product that could potentially ignite World War III if it ever saw widespread use. This is due to the fact that oogling tits comprises somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-100 percent of a man’s daily happiness. Ask a (straight) man whether he’d rather live in a war-torn post-apocalyptic hellscape, or live in a world without boobs, and you will understand the fragile underpinnings that hold society in place that the Cami Secret is trying to make even more flaccid.
Fortunately for men, women and the future of humanity in general, the Cami Secret is not only a terrible idea, it’s a straight-up shitty product. In an Internet where the average rating is 4.4-5.0+++!!!!OMGWOULDBUYAGAIN, the Cami Secret nets a kiss-of-death three stars on average at Amazon. Browsing through the comments, it seems like the most common review consists of “This product works really well as long as I don’t do anything but sit perfectly still all day”. Though perhaps men shouldn’t hate on the Cami Secret so much, given its tendency to slip out with the slightest gust of wind. After all, experts speculate that the remaining 40 to 0 percent of men’s happiness that is not derived from boobs, comes from secretly rooting for nip slips.
Designed for people who hate their dogs and also like to kick kittens and small children (allegedly), the Barkoff emits a high-pitched whistle every time it detects a bark. Sort of like the canine version of Dr. Evil’s “sh!”, this is supposed to aggravate and annoy you
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Posted by Christina Lopez on January 1st, 2012
The British government’s plan to reduce its borrowings appeared to be on track in November, official figures showed Wednesday, even as the country’s economy remains threatened from the debt crisis in Europe, rising unemployment and weak domestic growth.
The Bank of England’s rate-setting body said it expects to see some economic recovery in late 2012, but warned that volatility in the 17-nation eurozone could dent Britain’s growth.
Minutes of the last meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee showed that all nine members voted to keep the benchmark interest rate at the all-time low of 0.5 percent and to maintain the monetary stimulus at 275 billion pounds ($433 billion).
The rate-setters, who are tasked with keeping inflation around the 2 percent level, said they expected price pressures to ease quite dramatically next year from 5 percent in October, largely because the factors that drove prices higher in 2011, including higher sales taxes and energy prices, drop out of the annual comparison.
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Posted by Paul Thompson on December 29th, 2011
If there’s one piece of advice I’d offer to any entrepreneur starting out, it’s this: Never discount—no matter how much you may be tempted to— always look instead to add value.
Many seasoned entrepreneurs discount as a way of doing business, without ever really looking at their numbers or the real costs of cutting their prices. They’ll point to “discount” success stories like Wal-Mart or complain that the competitive landscape forces them to cut prices. While Wal-Mart, one of the great retail success stories of all time, has built its brand on low prices, most business owners don’t see the very real distinction between “low price” and “discount.”
Related: Death by Coupon
First off, a company like Wal-Mart knows every margin to the “nth” degree and can deliver low prices because it has created scalability based on the huge volume of products it sells. But very few companies have s
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Posted by Samantha Martinez on December 28th, 2011
So what are the key points for small firms and what do they spell for real businesses?
The circus surrounding the new government has worn off and now they mean business, but while we wait for the emergency Budget on 22 June, there are signs that small businesses will greatly benefit from the new policies.
Last week we covered the expert response to the new government and how the changes could affect small businesses. Now, with the coalition deal signed, the future of UK business is looking more promising.
From the scrapping of the one percent increase in employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) to an increase in employer National Insurance thresholds, the proposals for small firms are coming thick and fast.
There will be cuts to regulations and a review all small business taxation to make it easier for people to start and maintain healthy businesses.
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Posted by Samantha Martinez on December 17th, 2011
With the New Year just a couple of weeks away, have you thought about where your career is going?
For many women, 2012 could be the year they break out and go into business for themselves.
Tired of the daily rigors of the 9 to 5 scene under someone else, they could be just a move away from taking over as their own bosses, setting their sights on accomplishing a long-held dream.
According to a recently released American Express study, the number of women-owned businesses increased 50 percent when comparing it to a similar report more than a decade ago. Numbers show that there are more than 8.1 million women-owned companies nationwide, with annual sales of $1.3 trillion.
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Posted by Paul Thompson on December 13th, 2011
« Office 365 Becomes First and Only Major Cloud Productivity Service to Comply With Leading EU and U.S. Standards for Data Protection and Security By marijana | December 15, 2011
Professional social networking site LinkedIn introduced a new feature on Wednesday created to boost participation in professional conversation within its one million Groups through polling. Polls within groups will be rolling out to all members over the next few days, the company said.
According to LinkedIn’s principal product manager Ian McCarthy, group moderators on LinkedIn have been looking for “easy, time sensitive ways to generate conversations within the group,” and features that have been available to them so far, such as article sharing or blogging, weren’t suitable for obtaining quick insights from group members. To prov
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Posted by Samantha Martinez on December 6th, 2011
Are you fully taking advantage of all the tax deductions that are available to small businesses? Whether you file your taxes yourself or hire just a bookkeeper, there are many deductions that go overlooked. Here are 10 helpful small business tax deductions that are often overlooked.
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Tax Preparation Fees
Did you know that the costs associated with preparing your small business taxes are actually tax deductible? This knowledge can have a big impact not only on your taxes, but whom you choose as your tax preparer.
Bookkeepers or tax preparers are often extremely busy during tax season and don’t often sit down to offer advice. While tax preparer fees may be cheaper, you could splurge for a CPA or even a Tax Lawyer/CPA who can better qualify your deductions and counsel you about smarter small business tax deductions.
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