Today I spoke with a friend that told me he just see an entrepreneur we met 5 years ago. This entrepreneur was beginning a company to custom-made dress shirts for the wealthy executives.

So the business idea was to send nice looking girls to visit wealthy individuals to their offices and sell them custom-made dress shirts, and send the shirts to be made with tailors in Hong Kong. When he told me what he was doing, I said, well cool idea and fun to hire by commission all this beautiful girls to send to my friends offices… and also I hate to shop and it would be great to have my shirts sent to my office. But on the other side, I thought, what unsexy business with little scalability and low income potential.

5 years later… very different story… today he is closing his second round of financing by a prestigious group of VC´s, has over $10 million in sales and he is on his way to create the Amway for the rich executives!!!! Wow what a different story!!!! Imagine the potential of sales of having an Amway for the rich? Amway today has sales over $8 billion dollars!!!! An sells to the base of the pyramid an mid class.

This confirms my thesis that ANY idea with a good and passionate entrepreneur perusing it can grow significantly and bring great wealth to him and the ones that trust him at the beginning. So the first thing I like to see when analyzing an investment opportunity is who is the entrepreneur behind the opportunity… I believe if you have the right entrepreneur executing and running the company, you have at least 50% chances of success in your investment.

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Seven Investors To Avoid
Martin Zwilling, 12.08.09, 5:04 PM ET

In a tough economy, all capital is created equal, right?

Wrong. Even in a credit-starved environment like this one, the source of your money matters. A lot.

When it comes to courting angel investors–well-heeled individuals looking to put some of their stash in promising young companies that could yield juicy returns–entrepreneurs should take great care. Some angels can be a mild nuisance, others downright conniving and unscrupulous.

Here are seven types of fallen angels to avoid.

Suit Slingers. These nettlesome types look for any excuse to take you to court. Rather than try to help your company grow, instead they try to make money through intimidation, threats and lawsuits. They know you don’t the resources to fight them and most likely will cave to their demands.

In Depth: Nine Money-Raising Mistakes

Top Tips: Six Ways to Raise Cash–Now

Smart Guys. Successful business people who become angels often have a prodigious sense of superiority. They tend to be overbearing, negative people hypercritical of every decision you make. Their money may spend, but don’t let them intimidate you into bad decisions.

Control Freaks. This kind of angel starts out looking like your new best friend. Don’t be fooled. As soon as you hit a pothole, he’ll trigger a “gotcha” clause in your agreement that gives him more ownership and operational control of your company. Only your Board can save you here.

Hand Holders. The tutorial investor is not after control, but he wants to guide you on every niggling issue. What feels like benevolent mentoring before he writes the check becomes a painful nuisance soon after. Unless you have an overabundance of time and patience, keep your distance.

Has-Beens. These angels take to wing with every perturbation in the economy. Typical profile: former high-fliers with a liquidity problem. They are still at the country club every day, but now are running up a tab. They will meet with you, ask a thousand questions, but never get around to closing a deal.

Numb Skulls. Wealth is not synonymous with business savvy. You can spot a dumb angel by listening to the questions they ask. The more superficial the questions, the less value (and more potential harm) they will bring to your organization. (That goes for financial journalists too.) One caveat: Numb-skull angels may have important and much smarter friends, so don’t disregard them entirely.

Brokers In Drag. Deal brokers posing as angels (they may be lawyers or accountants by trade) have little intent to invest in your company. Their goal: to get you to pay them to introduce you to actual investors. Brokers may be worth their fees, but don’t mistake them for angels.

General rule of thumb for avoiding fallen angels: Eschew investments from private individuals and focus on credible, professional angel-investing organizations. Even then, do your own due diligence: Ask what other companies they’ve invested in and talk to the chief executives of those outfits to get their feedback. Finally, make sure your lawyer–not the investor–writes the initial investment document or term sheet. This should be a standard document and not negotiated on a one-on-one basis. Beware requests for last-minute clauses that could come back to haunt you.

Yes, money’s tight. But choosing the wrong angel could put you on the flight path to perdition.

Martin Zwilling is the founder and chief executive officer of Startup Professionals, a company that provides products and services to start-up founders and small business owners. Check out his daily blog at http://blog.startupprofessionals.com or contact him directly at marty@startupprofessionals.com.

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By: SUE SHELLENBARGER/The Wall Street Journal

By economic yardsticks, Roger the Plumber should be feeling pretty low. Roger Peugeot, owner of the 14-employee Overland Park, Kan., plumbing company that bears his name, is part of a sector hit hard by shrunken credit and slumping sales. He has been forced to reduce staff and is battling new competition from other plumbers fleeing the construction industry.

So why is Mr. Peugeot so happy? He genuinely likes fixing plumbing messes, for one thing, and despite the worst recession he has seen, “I’m still excited to get up and go to work every day,” he says. He relishes running into people at the local hardware store whom he has helped in the past. And in hard times, he says, his fate is in his own hands, rather than those of a manager. “Even when things get tough, I’m still in control,” he says.

In the broadest, most-comprehensive survey yet of how occupation affects happiness, business owners outrank 10 other occupational groups in overall well-being, based on the landmark survey of 100,826 working adults set for release today. Defined as self-employed store or factory owners, plumbers and so on, business owners surpassed 10 other occupational groups on a composite measure of six criteria of contentment, including emotional and physical health, job satisfaction, healthy behavior, access to basic needs and self-reports of overall life quality.

This puts Roger the Plumber well ahead of movers and shakers typically regarded as the top of the heap in society—professionals such as doctors or lawyers, who ranked second, and executives and managers in corporations or government, who came in third—according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a collaboration between Gallup and Healthways, a Franklin, Tenn., health-management concern. This is despite business owners ranking below those more-prestigious occupations in physical health and access to basic needs, such as health care.

The findings, psychologists say, reflect the importance of being free to choose the work you do and how you do it, the way you manage your time, and the way you respond to adversity. Regardless of occupational field, the survey suggests that seeking out enjoyable work and finding a way to do it on your own terms, with some control over both the process and the outcome, is likely for most people to fuel satisfaction and contentment.

“Despite the recession, it still pays to be your own boss,” says Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll. The survey, adds John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, “reaffirms my view that the more control you have over your work, the happier you are.”

Smaller studies have shown links between certain kinds of stress and particular job roles or employment groups. But the huge size of the Gallup-Healthways project, which conducts 1,000 telephone surveys a day, makes it possible to draw detailed, reliable distinctions among a large number of occupational groups. “I know of no other survey of this size” on the subject, says Humphrey Taylor, chairman of the Harris Poll, a competitor. The 11 occupational categories surveyed also include farmers and sales, clerical, construction, installation and service workers.

Unlikely Winners

Business owners may seem unlikely winners. About half of the nation’s full-time small businesses typically fail within five years of start-up, and the rate has risen in the recession, says William Dennis, a senior research fellow with the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation. They are more likely to work extremely long hours than people in any other occupation group, other Gallup research shows.

The findings likely reflect declining quality-of-life in some professions, Dr. Howard says. Rising cost controls in medicine, for example, and mounting pressure to chalk up billable hours in law, have curtailed doctors’ and lawyers’ flexibility to control their work.

“Where professionals may have had greater freedom 20 or 30 years ago, many are now experiencing loss of control, erosion of satisfaction and increased stress,” Dr. Howard says.

At the bottom of the heap, transportation and manufacturing workers scored lowest on well-being. These occupations tend to foster conditions Niosh has identified as contributors to unhealthy stress: lack of control or participation in decision-making, conflicting or unclear job expectations, and hectic tasks with little inherent meaning.

Management and executive jobs have gotten tougher, too, during the period the Gallup-Healthways data were gathered, the first eight months of this year. Beset by cost cuts and layoffs, corporate bosses at all levels now share more of these stress-inducing conditions.

Business owners stand in stark contrast. Even in tough times, “you do your own thinking and no one can tell you you’re wrong,” says Edwin Locke, an industrial psychologist and professor emeritus of leadership and motivation at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. “You make your own decisions, and if you’re wrong, reality gives you the feedback,” he says.

Staying in Control

As a business owner, Mr. Peugeot says, “even when things are out of your control, as they are with this economy, you’re still in control of your relationships” with customers. Corporate managers and executives may “sit and wonder if they’re going to be laid off, or get frustrated with the inabilities of management,” he says. “If you’re the owner, you may have to say, ‘I screwed up,’ but it’s a lot better than saying, ‘I didn’t deserve that.’ ”

Other patterns among the self-employed help explain their psychological well-being. Entrepreneurs tend by nature to be optimistic, evidenced in their willingness to strike out on their own, psychologists say. Laura Street, of Pleasanton, Calif., isn’t making a profit in the handmade-jewelry business, Ampersand Designs, which she co-founded last year. But to her, the glass is half full: She says sales are rising, she expects to turn a profit soon, and she loves her work.

“Yes, the economy is bad. But we aren’t coming into a workplace wondering, ‘Are we going to get fired today?’ ” she says. “If you control your destiny, the well-being is something that just comes naturally.”

The freedom business owners have to control their schedules enables them to adhere more closely to their personal priorities, says Amy Neftzger, an organizational psychologist for Healthways. They have the flexibility to “make it to a child’s play, or spend time with family,” she says.

Golfing With the Mayor

Many also have community ties that feed a sense of well-being. James Barnard, chief financial officer of his family’s business, Barnard Manufacturing in St. Johns, Mich., didn’t have a great summer. He and his cousin Gary Barnard, president of the heavy-equipment parts maker, stopped drawing paychecks to help the company through a steep sales drop. They agonized over a decision to lay off dozens of workers, and Gary sat nearly alone in the plant for several weeks, answering phones.

But their company has a good image in the community, and “it’s a big deal to us to keep that going,” James says. He takes part in civic groups and enjoys golfing with the mayor and police chief. Pressed to describe the rewards of running a family business, he says, “It’s pride. Definitely pride.”

Another surprise from the survey: Farmers and other outdoor workers, from farmhands to forestry workers, scored No. 1 among all groups in “emotional health,” as measured mainly by the amount of smiling, laughter, enjoyment and happiness they report experiencing the previous day—despite the fact that farmers ranked near the bottom in access to basic needs.

Steve Swenka, a Tiffin, Iowa, farmer, had just finished mowing two fields of hay when I reached him by phone last week to discuss the poll. The results didn’t surprise him. Farm work, he says, is pretty trying. “When you’re out there in the heat and the dust, sweating, you may feel miserable,” he says. But over time, “you can see the progress, the fruits of your labor.

“And when the day is over and you see the loads of hay stacked, there’s something fulfilling about hard manual labor like that,” he says. “You forget your little troubles, and start to see the bigger picture.”

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By: Unknown author

Medford, N.J. — Local computer expert Anthony Mongeluzo’s company grew 414.8 percent in the last three years even after the start of one of the worst recessions on record, making it the 88th fastest growing IT company in the United States, Inc. magazine announced.

Pro Computer Service (www.procomputerservice.com), which provides both onsite and remote IT support for residential and business clients, also placed as the 11th fastest growing company in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, according to Inc.

It placed 667 nationally, among the 5,000 finalists. Inc. magazine charts the growth of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States.

“This award confirmed for all of us at Pro Computer Service that working together in a culture of energy and enthusiasm could only produce great results,” says Mongeluzo, company president. “I knew the only way to greater success for my company was to empower my employees with decision making on the job and provide an exciting work environment and an employment package that is among the most comprehensive in the industry.”

Pro Computer Service experienced a 414.8 percent growth rate between 2005 and 2008. Annual revenue was $404,000 in 2005 and climbed to $2.1 million in 2009. The average industry growth rate during this three-year period was about 50 percent, and the median growth rate among the Inc. 5,000 list was about 150 percent, according to Sageworks, a research firm.

Mongeluzo credits his company’s growth to the company’s ability to show the benefits of outsourcing IT functions. “We’re able to show companies outsourcing benefits they never think about, including support by qualified personnel, a team approach that eliminates sick or vacation issues and access to wider IT experience,” he said. “At a time when companies were cutting jobs, we were adding them.”

Mongeluzo started Pro Computer Service in his parents’ home at the age of 22, in 2002. Today, he has four locations and 17 employees and operates in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. His company has won numerous awards for being among the fastest-growing companies in the Delaware Valley during the past two years.

“The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy — America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs,” according to Inc. magazine. “Consumer electronics maker Vizio, Internet giant GoDaddy, rental car service Zipcar, and beverage maker Honest Tea are among the prominent brands featured on this year’s list.”

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By: Ron Dalby

Every country, every state and every region of the world offers some sort of rags-to-riches story, but only Alaska can claim the indomitable Walter Hickel.

He stepped off the boat in Alaska in 1940 with 37 cents in his pocket and is now one of the most influential and wealthiest people in the state, detouring along the way to serve as both the second and eighth governors of Alaska and the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

How he got here is a tale of youthful naiveté mixed with a lot of luck, grit, integrity and the history of construction in southcentral Alaska.

After winning the Golden Gloves boxing tournament in his home state of Kansas, he fought his way west, eventually beating the California champion. Afterward, he decided he wanted to go to Australia and went to see a travel agent. When asked for his passport, Hickel said, “Where do I buy one?” After it was explained that he had to apply for one and it would take some time, he asked where he could go without one. Among nearly a dozen options were the Panama Canal Zone, Hawaii and Alaska. He chose Alaska.

“I didn’t have any money,” Hickel said. So he ended up sleeping in a hammock in the engine room of a steamer bound for Alaska. Seven days out of Seattle he looked outside and saw Prince William Sound. He then looked up at the great Wrangell Mountains and said, “You take care of me, and I’ll take care of you.”

Ashore, “one guy gave me a sleeping bag,” explaining that it was cold at night. Another, who didn’t speak English, handed him $10. That was enough to buy breakfast and rail passage to Anchorage. The following year on a street in Anchorage, Hickel ran into the fellow who gave him the money and pressed a $20 bill into his hands.

Hickel did not simply leap into the construction business in Alaska. It was winter in Alaska, he was broke, and the first job he could find was washing dishes at Richmond’s Café for $4 a day. Later a newfound friend found him a position as the helper to the head boilermaker at the Alaska Railroad. In those days he slept on the floor of an empty cabin on 5th Avenue in what is now downtown Anchorage.

Construction
His first construction project was building a house for himself and his wife, Ermalee, on 15th and E in Anchorage. That went well enough that he built five more houses behind what is now Chilkoot Charlie’s, launching his career in construction.

Hickel believes you “win with ideas,” and he had to be pretty creative in finding the means to build the five houses. The land owner wanted $500 each for the lots, and Hickel agreed to the price, but only if the land owner would allow the houses to be built before being paid. “After I had the houses built, I could get a mortgage,” he said, and that’s how he put together the deal that launched his career.

He would later go on to build 250 or more houses in the Turnagain subdivision using the same means of financing the land purchases.

According to Hickel, “You’ve got to have a vision beyond tomorrow. Vision is more powerful than money.

“I’ve always believed that,” Hickel continued. “That’s why I built the Hotel Captain Cook after the earthquake.”

The decision to build the Captain Cook and its subsequent construction remain Hickel’s most cherished memory. As he tells it, after the earthquake there was total confusion bordering on panic in Anchorage, and people were running around hastily making plans to move the entire city. A couple of days after the earthquake, Hickel called a press conference in downtown Anchorage where the hotel now stands and stepped up to the microphone.

“I came down here without a plan and announced that I was going to build tower number one of the Captain Cook Hotel, and it will open in June of next year,” Hickel said. “And I built it, and that’s all there is to that story.”

Actually there’s a whole lot more to the story. His vision and willingness to risk his reputation on Anchorage’s first high-rise hotel in the days immediately following the earthquake settled things down a lot. The city stayed in place and rebuilt itself bigger and better than before.

Beyond that, Hickel also notes that people everywhere were willing to help him after he got going on the construction of the first tower. “I got started that summer and the world helped me out,” is how he describes it. “If I needed something, they helped me.” 

Politics
Within two years, his hat was in the ring for governor of the state on the Republican ticket. He would replace his longtime friend, Democrat Bill Egan, in Juneau in late 1966.

Describing why he ran for governor, Hickel noted that, “Alaska is a unique country.” He outlines how the state’s constitutional convention thought so and provided the governor with more power than any other state in the union. He believes he used that power for the betterment of the state and its people.

“I ran and got elected, and that’s how I got the owner state going,” he said.

All of the oil companies had abandoned the Slope, except Atlantic Richfield, by the time Hickel took office. The new governor flew to Prudhoe Bay with Harry Jamison, Atlantic Richfield’s chief exploration geologist. When Jamison said that his company, too, was going to leave the Slope, Hickel threatened him, “You drill or I will.” This got the attention of Robert O. Anderson, president of the company, and the drilling proceeded. That well hit the largest oil province in North America.

Halfway through Hickel’s first term term as governor, newly elected President Richard Nixon persuaded Hickel to become Secretary of the Interior by telling him he would never get the oil pipeline otherwise. In just under two years, Hickel launched dozens of programs to improve the national energy picture and address the awakening environmental movement. These programs were detailed in his national bestseller “Who Owns America?” He also laid the groundwork for the pipeline legislation that was ultimately signed into law in 1973. Construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline began in earnest the following year.

Commons
These days Hickel tends to direct his thinking at a more global level. He sees the resources of the world as held more in common than by individuals or businesses. He uses the term commons to say that most of the world, 84 percent by his calculations, is not owned by individuals or business entities but by governments, the political extensions of the people.

“Our economy should be developed for the region’s people,” Hickel says. “The whole Arctic is rich, but the reason they [business and industry] don’t want to develop it is that they don’t own it.”

In Hickel’s view, Russia and China “get it” because they view resources for the benefit of the whole, not for the health of a single company.

“If you manage the commons for the benefit of the region’s people,” he says, “you can eliminate poverty from this earth. The reality of who owns the world is in the commons, but the United States doesn’t understand it yet.”

In typical Hickel fashion, which almost always manages to upset some people, he also supports what Russia did a few months back when his friend Arthur Chilingarov planted a flag on the floor of the Arctic Ocean and claimed the land for itself. To his way of thinking, this woke up the world to the riches in the Arctic.

Hickel has never been too concerned that others might find his ideas a little strange, and he has on more than one occasion given his detractors cause to eat their words.

Not slowing down
Now 89, Hickel still bubbles over with ideas and energy … and a lot of frustration with the press because they “don’t get it,” and with the United States’ attitude toward business and the economy.

“I like business. I’ve made money in business,” Hickel said, “but you’ve got to understand the limits of business.” Here again he dives back into his belief in the commons and the actual ownership of the earth’s resources. He carries this thinking about the commons even farther and applies it to outer space as well.

He presents this view of the world at meetings of Commonwealth North, the organization he and the late Bill Egan founded decades ago to promote northern resources and ideas around the world. As governor, he also founded the Northern Forum in which membership is extended to people from any country with lands north of the 60th parallel of latitude. Hickel has a polar projection map on his wall highlighting that part of the world and is perhaps most animated when he discusses the potential of the resources in the Arctic.

As for himself and looking ahead to the next 20 years, Hickel says, “When I get to heaven, I’m going to tell St. Peter, ‘if you don’t have a spot for me, send me back. I’m not through yet.’”

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By: Daniel Gross

Now that the recession is most likely over, it’s time to start looking at which companies, institutions, and individuals thrived during this grim period. In the harsh downturn that began in December 2007, success was redefined—flat became the new up, and muddling through became a triumph. In a recession that hit all rungs of the income ladder and ravaged the wealthiest consumer markets—the United States, Europe, Japan—there were very few safe havens. But some countries, such as Peru, managed to grow right through the global recession. And some companies arranged their business so that they resisted the contraction and benefited from trends affecting their industry. Some even managed to make decisions during the trough that brought in more business.

Chief among the Great Recession’s winners is McDonald’s. McDonald’s sales growth in 2008 was greater than in 2006 and 2007. While many restaurants scaled back, it opened nearly 600 stores in 2008. And the chain has notched same-store-sales growth in each of 2009′s first seven months.

In late 2007, an age of trading up, spreading food-snobbery, and rising health-consciousness, it was easy to write off the Golden Arches. Greasy, downscale, industrialized, aggressively unhealthy, McDonald’s was a ripe target for popular-culture agitators, such as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me). One couldn’t imagine Barack Obama stopping in for coffee and a Quarter Pounder, the way Bill Clinton used to after a jog. And yet, McDonald’s has done quite well in a very difficult period for large corporations. Over the last three years, its stock has handily outperformed the S&P 500, and the company’s investor-relations site proclaims that it is “firing on all cylinders.” McDonald’s success can be chalked up to a combination of luck—which is the residue of smart planning—and savvy moves.

In 2008, after a decade of relentlessly trading up to higher quality (read: more expensive) consumer goods and services, Americans began to trade down with a vengeance. McDonald’s, which has 44 percent of its 32,000 stores in the United States, was set up to profit from trading down in two ways. First, in a recession, people eat out less and at home more frequently. And when they eat out, they eat at cheaper places. McDonald’s is so cheap, efficient, pervasive, and convenient that it was a viable alternative to casual restaurants like Ruby Tuesday and to cooking at home. As this stock chart shows, investors, like diners, angled toward McDonald’s and away from Ruby Tuesday during the recession.

When discretionary spending plummets rapidly, as it did during the recession, firms slash prices—and hence margins—to keep customers coming through the doors. McDonald’s ran plenty of bargains and distributed gazillions of coupons. But it also spent money promoting a higher-margin good that could appeal to a new class of trading-down consumers: coffee. As consumers jettisoned their $4-a-day latte habits, Starbucks retrenched. But McDonald’s expanded its java offerings. The McCafé line may not be attracting coffee snobs (the real ones eschew Starbucks for Stumptown anyway), but it has impressed some, including Slate‘s tasters. In its 2009 second-quarter earnings release, McDonald’s cited the “national launch of the McCafe premium coffee line-up” as a contributor to solid results. Over the past two years, McDonald’s stock has ground Starbucks into a fine powder.

McDonald’s has also performed well outside the United States. In Europe, where stressed consumers are still pulling back, McDonald’s notched 6.9 percent same-store-sales growth in 2009′s second quarter. “McDonald’s Europe delivered strong second quarter comparable sales led by performance in the U.K., France and Russia,” the company said. The Financial Times Tuesday cited the company’s “tiered menu—which offers cheap, middling and expensive options.”

But the global story isn’t only about trading down. In the United States, McDonald’s may be a cheap source of calories and comfort food. In other parts of the world—parts where billions of people live—McDonald’s is an aspirational brand, identified with middle-class, Westernized consumerism. Much of the world—places such as China, India, Indonesia—remains virgin territory for the Golden Arches. Coincidentally, these are economies that have continued to grow during the global recession. While it faces operational challenges in emerging markets, McDonald’s has benefitted from a weakening dollar and rising incomes in Asia. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that McDonald’s “has opened 286 units abroad so far this year, compared with just 53 domestically.” The company plans to add 150 stores to its current total of 1,000 in China.

The question now for investors is whether McDonald’s can survive the recovery. When people feel more flush, will they still stop by? The growth in same-store sales in the United States has moderated a little in recent months—up only 2.6 percent in the United States in July compared with 6.1 percent in April. And there’s a rising chunk of the population that has grown accustomed to eating healthier and better; my 10-year-old won’t touch a McDonald’s burger. Going forward, McDonald’s may face larger cultural barriers in the United States than in China.

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By: Amy Barrett

Entrepreneurs, already at the forefront of the environmental revolution with the products they sell, also are proving to be leaders of a less visible but equally powerful trend: the transformation of their companies into lean, green operations. Some say concern for the environment is their inspiration to go green; others are looking to cut costs or trim waste. Regardless of motivation, there are “countless thousands of small businesses out there greening,” says Byron Kennard, founder and executive director of the Washington (D.C.)-based nonprofit Center for Small Business & the Environment. “It’s a technological and cultural revolution.” According to an April survey by the National Small Business Assn., 38% of small companies surveyed have invested in energy efficiency programs in the past 18 months. Some 13% had invested in alternative energy sources, 6% had purchased or leased hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles in the past 18 months, and 18% had given employees incentives to cut back on driving.

Together, these changes have the potential to make a sizable impact. Small companies account for half the country’s industrial and commercial energy use, according to Energy & Security Group, a consulting firm based in Reston, Va. Because energy-efficient improvements typically reduce consumption by 30%, entrepreneurs have the potential to reduce their collective CO₂ emissions by 182.2 million tons annually—the equivalent of 36 coal-fired power plants—and to lop $30 billion off the nation’s energy bill.

Such gains don’t come easily. It takes a lot of work—and sometimes outside consultants—to figure out how best to reduce the environmental impact of a business. And while some green initiatives save money, tight credit markets can make it difficult to finance green investments. Some 52% of companies surveyed by the NSBA cited weak cash flow as the main obstacle to making improvements in energy efficiency.

In this slide show we highlight six entrepreneurs who have made great strides in transforming their companies into more eco-friendly enterprises, whether it’s by installing a major solar electric system or by finding new uses for sawdust and leather scraps. All would tell you that going green has been good to them.

To see all the elements of the special report, visit the related items box at upper right side of this story.

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By: Jeff Stibel

Blinded by mass layoffs and the financial follies of Fortune 500 companies, we have overlooked a smaller but more important transformation: the increasing importance of small businesses in our economic recovery. After all, small businesses employ more than half of our private sector workforce. And history, as well as the Small Business Administration, readily reminds us that the ability of small businesses to create jobs is a key factor in any resurgent prosperity.

That’s all well and good, you might say, but what difference does any of this make when the media keeps bombarding us with reports that many small businesses are going bankrupt? Well, you can choose to wring your hands in frustration or you can look to the facts. For every small business failure, dozens more are actually thriving despite the economic panic.
What are these small businesses doing to outperform the economy? Consider the following strategic approaches:

Action. This is an entrepreneur’s best weapon. Things happen fast these days and fluidity favors small businesses — you don’t need to sort through the layers of bureaucracy that can slow down, or even cripple, larger companies. Small businesses can adapt to any circumstance quickly. As every thriving entrepreneur knows, speed breeds success.

Planning is important. Plans aren’t. It’s good to have a strategy in place, but don’t succumb to analysis paralysis. With things changing almost hourly, can you afford to spend time following a bloated plan that was outdated almost as soon as it was completed? Spend your time with your ear to the ground and respond accordingly.

Innovative financing. There are a number of resources available to small businesses and innovative approaches that can have a positive impact on your bottom line. Diana Ransom touched on some of these tactics in a WSJ Smart Money column. She recommends offering upfront pricing, using seller financing, and switching from fixed to variable costs. She also recommends selectively discounting items. Although, I’ve gone on the record as saying discounting can damage your brand, the key word here is selective. Circumstances also come into play. If your business is based in a community that is particularly vulnerable economically (such as Detroit, let’s say) or your target audience is responsive to discounts, then by all means try this approach.

Give the people what they want. People are staying home more and they’re looking for value. Smart companies are tapping into that. For instance, Skinner Baking is giving people what they want: comfort food during hard times. And I’m willing to bet that the sales of that much maligned blanket with sleeves, the Snuggie, aren’t going to do too badly this winter either, what with people staying home and turning down their thermostat.

Test, measure, refine, repeat. Small businesses have another added advantage these days that they didn’t have in past recessions — social media and sophisticated online marketing tools. You can measure the success of your marketing and advertising and conduct all the market research you need in real-time with a click of the mouse. You can engage your customers online in a number of low-cost ways. And you can optimize your website so your customers can find you quickly and easily. Likewise, effective use of eCommerce capabilities can help keep you in the black with minimal overhead.

What tactics are you using to keep company performance up while the economy is down?

Jeffrey M. Stibel is an entrepreneur and brain scientist. He studied business and brain science at MIT Sloan and Brown University, where he was a brain and behavior fellow. Stibel has authored numerous academic and business articles on a variety of subjects and is the named inventor on the US patent for search engine interfaces. He is currently President of Web.com (NASDAQ: WWWW) and serves on academic Boards for Tufts and Brown University, as well as the Board of Directors for a number of public and private companies.

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By: Kate O´Sullivan

Investors Reward Guidance, Even if News Is Bad

Companies that provided early warnings when they expected to miss an estimate enjoyed better returns than those that failed to announce an earnings miss beforehand, a new study finds.
Kate O’Sullivan, CFO.com | US
July 30, 2009

During the first quarter of this year, as the Dow approached 6,500 and appeared to be in an endless freefall, many finance chiefs struggled with the impulse to hole up in their offices and not take calls. But those who fought that impulse were rewarded: a new study from investor-relations firm Sharon Merrill Associates and research firm eventVestor finds that companies that provide earnings guidance and preannounce earnings surprises realize superior stock-price performance compared with firms that don’t provide such communications.

The study, which analyzed stock-price returns for the S&P 500 and the Russell 1,000 in the 10 trading days before and 20 trading days after preannouncements and earnings announcements during the first quarter of 2009, found that companies that provided guidance performed better than those that did not, even when their actual earnings missed analysts’ estimates. When they exceeded analysts’ expectations, they outperformed other companies that also did better than expected but did not provide guidance.

Those that provided early warnings when they expected missed estimates experienced better returns than companies that failed to preannounce an earnings miss. “We were very surprised by that finding,” says Maureen Wolff-Reid, president and partner at Sharon Merrill, adding that many executives think their companies will be punished twice for coming out with an early report that they are going to miss analysts’ targets: once with a decline on the day of the announcement and again when they formally release the full quarterly results. “Because the first quarter was a pretty negative quarter, it could be that investors thought results were going to be a lot worse,” she says. “Getting the information out there right away put a floor in for people.” Sharon Merrill’s analysis also revealed that companies that promptly followed a quarterly earnings miss with a downward adjustment to their annual guidance performed better than those that let their annual number stand despite a disappointing quarter.

To be sure, many big-name companies — including Unilever, AT&T, and Gillette — have pulled back from giving quarterly earnings guidance recently. But Jeffrey Morgan, president of the National Investor Relations Institute, says the Sharon Merrill report shows how much today’s skittish investors value transparency. “The more you allow people to see what is going on in your company, the more you are rewarded, or the less you are harmed,” he says.

Wolff-Reid, whose firm works primarily with smaller and mid-cap companies, says her clients “have a concern that they won’t have anyone following them if they don’t have some type of guidance out there.” In addition to the loss of valuable analyst coverage, “they feel that if they pull back on guidance completely, they would really take a hit in the market,” she says.

Nevertheless, many companies are struggling to develop reliable forecasts of any kind. Some are issuing wider guidance ranges than in the past, while trying to provide more color around the numbers. Michael Shea, finance chief at Mac-Gray, an operator of laundry facilities for apartment complexes and dorms, says that while his management team “went around and around” on the question of whether to provide guidance this year, it decided to continue providing an annual revenue estimate.

The company also gives a wider guidance range than it did before. “I get some criticism that Mac-Gray gives too much of a range,” says Shea. “But then I get some credit for giving one at all.”

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