When Being Open Is the Benchmark…

…Then you can count on having waffles.  In a great case study of sorts from the Wall Street Journal A-Hed column, writer Valerie Bauerlein extols the virtues of the Waffle House, a humble fast food diner that has carved out a niche by being ahead of the game for quickly reopening after major natural disasters.  Where other restaurants may take weeks to reopen, Waffle House is differentiating itself on a model in which nothing save for total facility destruction will prevent it from being the first restaurant back in business in a devastated community. The planning and effort that goes into reopening so fast has earned the Atlanta-based Waffle House chain its own index from FEMA (yes, the FEMA), much loyalty from its occasionally desperate customers, and money for its pocket books so it can keep doing what it does best.  Take a few minutes to read Bauerlein’s story, and if afterward you find yourself re-thinking your own disaster preparedness plan, then below are some resources with free materials to make sure your business is in ship-shape for weathering storms.

1.  Though their design looks a bit like an old dental office website, Stargazer.org has among other things, a free organization safety kit of downloadable PDF forms that you fill out and save “to organize critical information needed in an emergency”.

2.  The Sunshine State has fielded its fare share of hurricanes, so it comes as little surprise that provides a rich Business Disaster Survival Kit with scads of info, including an interactive Disaster Planning Wizard.

3.  It's good for Uncle Sam when business bounce back after disasters, so the Ready.gov website has a page where you can download all of their preparedness publications, including useful things like a list of costs and a sample plan.

Casual Friday: A Celebration of "Fridays"

Since this isn't just any ordinary Friday, but the sacred Friday before a holiday Friday, we thought we'd celebrate Fridays. If you'd like to take a sip of your adult beverage of choice every time we say "Friday", that might be fun. According to the Interwebs, Casual Friday has been around since 1965 as "Aloha Friday", when employers in Hawaii would allow their employees to wear "Aloha Shirts" on the last business day of the week a few months out of the year. Word spread to California and eventually it became known as "Casual Friday".

The only thing we love more than Friday is pop culture. And pop culture, as you know, loves Friday. Friday Night Lights. SNL wannabe Fridays. The Cure's Friday I'm in Love. His Girl Friday. Below you'll find some of our favorite video clips about Friday.

T.G.I.F.

A Study on Spending

Once again academia has pretty much confirmed one of life’s truisms.  In the 2006 Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, authors Epley, Mak, and Idson, in an article titled "Bonus of Rebate?: The Impact of Income Framing on Spending and Saving," drew on previous research in mental budgeting & accounting, which has demonstrated that where our spending behavior can be predicated on which account we pull money from.  They took another step along this line of research and conducted four experiments, each of which supported their hypothesis that when we spend, we do so with a consideration of how we acquired that money to begin with. Basically, if we receive money that is presented to us in the form of a “bonus” to our absolute wealth, we are significantly more inclined to spend it than if we are told that the money is couched in the form a rebate, or “a return to a prior state” of our wealth.  This behavior, in their words, has important “ implications for the consumption of other commodities, assessments of risk, and government tax policies.”  For example, our government has in recent history (2001, 2009) given Americans rebate checks with the hope that Americans would spend them to stimulate the economy.  Unfortunately for those officials the numbers cited (at least for 2001) reflected that nearly only 22% of us spent that money, and as we know, we still have yet to recover lickety-split from 2009.

UT Business Librarian YouTube Channel

Check out the new UT Business Librarian channel on YouTube. These videos aren't as cute as the surprised kitten or as funny as the talking dog, but they do contain tips and tricks to help you navigate business databases. The short, 2-3 minute videos detail how to use some of the business subscription databases from the UT Libraries Business Information Center. Feel free to use the videos on your website or direct your users to them. And, visit often. More videos will be added each month.

Casual Friday: Everything Ebook

Just like last week’s post about all things concerning green autos, this one features a site that is all things ebook.  If you want to keep on the front lines of the ebook market, then bookmark TeleRead.  This site is packed with blog posts of qualitative industry-related insights and kernels of interesting market news. For example, you can read about efforts to further monetize the ebook market with soundtracks in the Ereader Tab, glimpse into the various international ebook industries through the Around The World tab, and find out the scoop on the latest legal brouhaha in the Copyright tab.  Happy reading!

OESA: Auto Supplier Barometer

The Original Equipment Suppliers Association's (OESA) Automotive Supplier Barometer takes the pulse of the auto suppliers' twelve month business sentiment. The bi-monthly survey of the top executives of OESA regular member companies provides a snapshot of the industry commercial issues, business environment and business strategies that influence the supplier industry. What is the overall sentiment of the suppliers? Are they positive or negative about the future? What materials do they think they will have problems getting? Do you they think they'll be able to get capital? These are some of the questions asked in the survey. The Automotive Supplier Barometer is distributed to vehicle manufacturers, financial institutions, governmental officials and the media to provide an on-going profile of the supplier industry. More Questions answer by the barometer:

• Identify your top three materials, commodities and/or services that have availability risk in in the next year.
• List the top 3 customers (in order) where your company is focusing personnel and financial resources.
• What are the top three actions your company is budgeting for to meet expected volume in the next year increases?
• On a per unit basis, indicate your expected yearly percent increase or decrease in your direct material costs for the following?
• Provide your anticipated North American light duty vehicle production planning volume (in millions of units).

Revving Eco-Friendly Auto Research

Cars in all shades of green are a red-hot topic for the automobile market, and (in my opinion) they make for seductive headlines.  Speaking for myself I’m constantly distracted by news articles featuring shiny auto show concept car images and stories touting the newest manufacturer’s plans to jump on the plugged-in-hybrid-nontraditionally-fueled-gazillion-mpg-bandwagon. If you want to delve beyond the occasionally distracting article breaking up your regular mix of headlines and more closely follow this market, then check out Green Car Reports which, as the name suggests, is a veritable hoard of relevant industry news.  Unfortunately the site is a bit cumbersome to browse, and it lacks an advanced search page, with only a lonesome Google custom search box at this moment, but considering the concentration of all topics related to the green auto business (the News section currently has 270 pages of articles with 15 headlines per page), it’s a forgivable sin.

Navigation tip:  type the keyword infographic in the search box and you can view a handful of reports and articles that include eye-catching high-resolution images of interesting data spreads, for example, people in which cities are spending the most on fuel?  Just like the industry its following, this site may need some tweaks and upgrades, but it’s definitely headed in the right direction.

bizologie Favorite Apps: Google Catalogs

Shoppers and Tech Lovers rejoice! Today Google has launched their  Google Catalogs app which allows you to browse all your favorite catalogs in one spot. I'm really excited to see this service as I recently downloaded the new Ikea catalog to my iPad and it's great to flip through and keeps my counters clear of catalog clutter. Google Catalogs has already partnered with several of our favorite stores including: Anthropologie, CB2, West Elm, Crate & Barrel, Nordstrom, Sephora and many more. And while it's obviously convenient to flip through your favorite catalogs without waiting on the mail, they've incorporated some pretty cool features. There are features you'd expect like the ability to zoom in on products and connect to the website or find them at local stores. But then there are some really cool features like being able to take the products you like all from different catalogs and create a collage of your favorites. You can share your collage with friends or check out collages other people have created. I think this is a great feature, especially if you're looking for design inspiration for your house. You can also search for particular products across all catalogs. Once you've added a catalog to your favorites, you'll be notified every time a new one comes out. So on the one hand, Google Catalog is "green" which is nice, but also dangerous for our pocketbooks!

Google Catalogs is currently available for iPad and coming soon to Android tablets--which seems a bit ironic. Check out the video below for an introduction:

bizologie Favorite Tools: MailTester

In the past we've talked about different tactics you can use to track down CEO email addresses. But unfortunately, sometimes they're just next to impossible to find. So when sleuthing doesn't work, it's time to just start guessing. And MailTester helps you confirm your guesses. If you know the format for a particular company's email addresses, such as [email protected], you can just plug in what you think it might be into MailTester and they'll let you know if you're right. If you don't know the format at all, go to the company's website and check their "contact us" page. From here, you'll at least know the @anycompany.com part and then you can use that to start testing various possibilities. Chances are, you'll eventually hit the right one. Common email formats I've had luck with include:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

MailTester works by looking up the SMTP server responsible for the e-mail address, and trying to establish an SMTP connection."It then tries to send several commands, almost as if an e-mail is going to be sent. When enough information is gathered, the connection is aborted."

MailTester isn't successful every time as "some servers only connect to the internet at specified times to retrieve the e-mails that are queued at a secondary SMTP server" and "some SMTP servers don't give any information about the validity of an e-mail address". However, I'd say my success rate using their service is at least 80%.

Happy sleuthing!

Venture More Than A Guess

Want to know which industry sandboxes the venture capital firms are playing in?  Then download a MoneyTree Report, a three-part match made in free-data heaven among PricewaterhouseCoopers, the National Venture Capital Association, and Thompson Reuters.  Every quarter Thompson Reuters surveys the VC institutions on their cash-for-equity investments in growing private companies, and then PricewaterhouseCoopers packages the data with a neat bow and puts it online for the enjoyment of all. You can download the most recent quarterly report which gives aggregate trends and analysis, and you can custom search historical data by factors including region, industry, financing sequence, etc.  If you want data from the current quarter at the company-name level, the site prompts you to cough up your information on a registration page, but that seems like a small investment when considering the potential for information return.

P.S.  It’s easy to overlook the News block at the bottom of the MoneyTree homepage, but it has a small selection of articles with exciting titles like, “US technology M&A insights 2011”.

Research on Main Street

Marcy Phelps the founder of Phelps Research just released new book Research on Main Street: Using the Web to Find Local Business and Market Information. Businesses need local information about their customers and competitors,  but that information is usually the trickiest to find. Research on Main Street is a guide to finding market information about places—including counties, cities, and even census blocks using free and low-cost online resources. Now those are the kind of resources that bizologie likes!

The book offers techniques and strategies for approaching location-specific research, including advice on how to tap local sources for in-depth information about business and economic conditions, issues, and outlooks.  The author also incorporates advice from her fellow business researchers throughout in the Tips from the Pros sections in each of the 9 chapters.

Be sure to sign up for ResearchNOTES a free monthly email bulletin with more valuable tips and sites for internet research and check out Marcy's blog at MarcyPhelps.com

Is Your Business Good Enough?

Does your business need a moral makeover? Or, are you trying to research issues in business ethics?  If so, then the Institute for Global Ethics (IGE) is a great place to start.  For those considering a makeover, the IGE has a branch devoted to corporations called (unsurprisingly) the Center for Corporate Ethics, which offers an array of services including  assessments, training workshops, consulting, and customized codes of ethics.

For those interested in researching ethical situations, (or if you want to see how your business stacks up), then there are two places on the site to visit:

1) The IGE’s Dilemmas page presents real-life scenarios, excluding their resolutions, to initiate pondering and deep water-cooler conversation.

2) We saved the best for last.  The IGE’s Publications page  includes many free in-dept analytical articles, book excerpts, Executive Briefings, and White Papers to help individuals and institutions gain valuable knowledge to augment their moral compass alignment.

bizologie Favorite Tools: PDFUnlock

So you've found the perfect report, article or chart in PDF format and you'd like to use a section of it in an email. Only problem is, the creator has it locked. To quote Liz Lemon, blurg. Good news! The folks over at PDFUnlock have you covered. Simply upload the PDF you'd like to unlock and they'll take care of it for you. Reports under 5MB are free to unlock. It won't work if the original owner has it locked and password protected, but it's been my experience that most locked PDFs I've come across on the web aren't password protected. PDFUnlock has made my life easier on several occasions. Know about a free tool that's made your work life easier? Tell us about it in the comments.

Small Business Computer Support

Small businesses need computer support but can't afford to hire a full-time IT staff or outsource a full staff. According to Inc. Magazine the average cost of full-time tech person is $80,000 and it's much cheaper to outsource but that can still run $30,000 a year. What is an SMB to do? For just $15-$30 a month PlumChoice provides tech support for one Mac or one PC plus any connected devices like scanners, printers. Users can call in and get phone support and PlumChoice can login to their systems remotely.

Casual Friday: Swanson Vs. Food

Much like Tammy, the Pawnee Library Director, we librarians at bizologie have a soft spot for Ron Swanson. And what better way to start our weekend than with Swanson Vs. Food. You had us at "meat tornado", Ron.

Keen on CoStar

Today bizologie is spotlighting CoStar Group Inc., and no, we’re not talking about Hollywood.  CoStar is a publicly traded company (NASDAQ:  CSGP) that deals in commercial real estate intelligence.  CoStar bills itself as, “the number one provider of information, marketing and analytic services to commercial real estate professionals in the United States as well as the United Kingdom.”  We like them because they are a great resource for free industry news. Visit the Headlines page and you are automatically directed to CoStar’s national-level commercial real estate news, where you also have the option to browse for news stories from a wide range of cities across the US (point in case Las Vegas) via an alphabetical dropdown menu.

Don’t have time to visit the website daily?  Sign up for their free Advisor Newsletter where you can select your metro area(s) of interest and have a weekly update sent to your email inbox.

Casual Friday: Making You Mirthful- Part Two

TGIF again!  Now for the resolution of the comic cliffhanger from last Friday's installment of business themed comics.  Here's another series of five excellent suspects.  Bring on the PowerPoint fodder! 6.  Fat Cats by Charlie Podrebarac

7.  Joe Vanilla by Mark Litzler

8.  Retail by Norm Feuti

9.  Working Daze by John Zakour & Scott Roberts

10.  Working It Out by Charlos Gary

This one's from Retail:

What are the Analysts Asking?

If you don't have investment bank analysts reports at your fingertips, how can you find out what the analysts think about companies? Check out the quarterly analyst calls. These conference calls are held with the securities analysts covering the company. The company reports on their earnings and other developments. There is also a Q&A section so you will have the opportunity to find out what the analysts want to focus on and what questions they have for the C-suite. The SEC requires the calls be open to the public and companies post the recording on their investor relations pages. Sometimes the calls are linked from the events calendar. The recordings are freely available, but you will need a subscription if you want the transcripts of the calls so you can read them and search by keyword. LexisNexis has the transcripts in Financial Disclosure Wire (FDWire).

Looking for a new job? Maybe it's time to BranchOut

You've probably got a LinkedIn page for connecting with your professional contacts, but what about tapping your friend network when you're in the market for a new job? BranchOut is a new service that turns your Facebook page into a professional networking page by carving out only your professional information to make a business profile via Facebook that only includes information about where you and your friends (and their friends) work and leaves out non-job-obtaining information like the fact that you totally heart Twilight and that you've recently found a cow wandering on your farm. It will also automatically import your resume information from LinkedIn. Once it's set up, you can see how many degrees you are from the place you want to work by checking out not only where your friends work, but also where their friends work. I'll admit that at first I wondered why anyone would need this when we've already got LinkedIn but I can see how it would be especially helpful if you've got more contacts on Facebook than LinkedIn assuming you don't necessarily add all your friends to your professional contacts via LinkedIn. The video below is a pretty good explanation of how BranchOut works.

Casual Friday: Making You Mirthful- Part One

TGIF!  Because I’m in such an effervescent mood, I wanted to incite rampant mass happiness (Ok, maybe just a snicker or two) with business-themed comics!  Here are the links to five terrific titles to get you through the work day.  Stay tuned for the second installment coming next Friday. 1.  9 to 5 by Harley Schwadron

2.  Bottomliners by Eric and Bill Teitelbaum

3.  Business Casual by Joe Combs

4.  Dilbert by Scott Adams

5.  Farcus by David Waisglass & Gordon Coulthart

This one's from Business Casual: