The “Wal-Mart” Effect

A sad look at just how much Wal-Mart is affecting all sectors of the economy–its giant chain has driven many well-known electronics stores out of business.

Big Box Watch

Big Box Watch is a site that tracks the opening of new megamarts across the country. They currently watch Best Buy, Home Depot, Ikea, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Lowe’s, Target, Wal-Mart. A nice little resource to get some idea of how these stores might affect your company and your local economy.

Kongo Gumi, a 1,428-year-old family business in Japan, has officially gone under. Business Week has provided an interesting article on the reasons for their success and ultimate demise.

To sum up the lessons of Kongo Gumi’s long tenure and ultimate failure: Pick a stable industry and create flexible succession policies. To avoid a similar demise, evolve as business conditions require, but don’t get carried away with temporary enthusiasms and sacrifice financial stability for what looks like an opportunity. These lessons are somewhat contradictory and paradoxical, to be sure. But if sustained success came easy, then all family businesses would have a 1,428-year run.

Simple lessons, to be sure, but all too often unheeded.

Call for Submissions

America’s Best is seeking articles ranging from 500-2000 words for inclusion in its quarterly publication. The first issue will be released some time in May.

WE WILL CONSIDER: previously unpublished articles of 500 – 2000 words with a focus on the promotion of small business, marketing theory and strategies, methods for cost savings, and (occasionally) small business success stories. We are looking for topics with a creative and innovative focus that will assist our member companies in achieving and maintaining their practical/competitive edge. We strongly prefer articles that incorporate concrete strategies for action, and that employ uncommon/progressive-minded applications (for example, Internet strategies) to business. Please include a short bio with your submission—with an accompanying photo (if possible) for inclusion in our contributors section. We are currently unable to offer compensation for submissions, although this may be remedied in future editions.

Please send all submissions to leifabc@gmail.com

Google unveils Power Point rival

Another potential milestone in the great shift away from desktop-based to Internet-based programs.

The presentations component will have import and export capabilities for Microsoft’s PowerPoint, the presentations application in Office, in the same way that the word processor and spreadsheet applications have those capabilities for Office’s Word and Excel, respectively, said Rajen Sheth, product manager in Google’s enterprise unit. In this manner, Google’s productivity applications give Office users the ability to share files and collaborate on them, Sheth said. In that way “we’re adding functionality to existing Office tools,” he said.

Sure, sure. One great aspect of this is that presenters will no longer worry (as I once did in a presentation on museum culture) about leaving essential files for their presentation at home. Despite the deference to Office, I think we’ll see that many users will start making their presentations exclusively on Google, although having a desktop copy of a presentation is always good since a stable Internet connection is not always guaranteed. This application will be next to flawless if they allow the user to download an offline file to their computer, and the need to design a presentation in Office would be eliminated.

Also, Google Apps has a special section devoted to small businesses. The standard edition of Google Apps is free, and a Premier Edition, which offers only a small upgrade from the Standard, can be used for free on a trial basis until April 30.

The IRS will also be going after merchants who sell goods on eBay. Via Slashdot.

The British, too, are worried about the high cost of starting a new business.

The New York Times published an article on the recent decision by the IRS to audit more people in the “middle class” bracket than they ever have before. One consequence of this is that most of the people who will be investigated by the IRS are involved in small business in some form or another:

Middle-class Americans most likely to have their tax returns examined under the new strategy are those who own a business, even a side business, or are landlords or have investment income. There is little or no independent reporting of such income; the I.R.S. has proposed increased verification and some withholding of payments to independent contractors to reduce cheating, but Congress has not moved on any of those suggestions.

Middle-class taxpayers who file a Schedule C — freelancers, consultants and very small businesses — are three times as likely to be audited as those in the same income group with no such business income.

What most surprises me is that this decision comes at a time when starting and maintaining a small business is a much more difficult undertaking than it has been in the past; this difficulty is the main reason why America’s Best Companies was founded. Strangely, they seem most eager to go after those who have the most unstable incomes.

Birth and Jubilation

Welcome to Optimum, an online journal from the editor of America’s Best magazine, the official publication of America’s Best Companies. I originally had planned to write an entire essay here, but now, sitting in front of the computer, I really just want to get started. I’ll just say that I plan to keep this blog as straightforward as possible without being distasteful. Here I’ll bring you the news and links that are relevant to modern small businesses and allow you to voice your opinions on them. So let’s get started.

The ribbon’s cut. The lights are on.

We’re open for business.