After the earthquake and tsunami, Japan has a rise in unemployment for the first time in six months. A record drop in was also felt in industrial production.
The twin disasters have already sent Japan’s economy back into recession and Moody’s Investors Service warned Tuesday it could downgrade Japan’s sovereign credit rating due to the faltering economy and massive public debt.
The jobless rate edged up to 4.7 percent from 4.6 percent in March due to job losses in the retail and wholesale sectors, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. Full Article…
Yesterday, my daughter competed in a regional cheer leading competition. Had they placed third or higher, we would be headed to Las Vegas in July for a national competition. Unfortunately, she and her team placed fifth. There were many tears this weekend, but the good news is that it provided opportunities for multiple teachable moments. Heres the video of their segment, which I streamed live to the INDIE FaceBook Page so her dad (who was out of town) could watch live!
So it’s Friday today, at least it is where I am. Let’s all pause and smile. We can’t always be about business planning and entrepreneurship and small business. Life matters too.
Amazing facts, all from the video embedded here:
How perfect are you? Are you above error, mistakes and missteps? I am—and of course I am lying. Who is above the need for a little grace, both in and outside of the business setting?
In “Are You a Fallible Human Being?” John Mariotti puts that question on the table. In his article, Mariotti discusses the grace factor when it comes to celebrities and other high profile individuals. All I have to say about that is, Humans are humans and grace is grace – until you do something that I really can’t tolerate. (Well, you know how we humans are: We have a lot of grace for our favorites and none for yours).
But Mariotti did make me think about the small business owner. What happe
This week, my life as a mom and as a CEO collided in spectacular fashion. The fact that my two lives collided is not unusual. In fact, it happens all the time. But this time is a little out of the ordinary. As you know, I planned to attend the 2011 Conference of Handcrafted Soapmakers in Miami this week. I was one of the first people to buy a ticket after last years conference and I was very much looking forward to it. My husband is there now, serving as the official vidoegrapher for the event, as he has done in the past. But events of yesterday morning confirmed that my plans mean little when compared to other forces at work in my life.
Job growth is slowly on the rise according to analysts. Recently the annual list of Best Cities for Jobs was release with some surprising results. Last year the reports showed a gloomy outlook when only 13 of 397 metropolitan areas experienced any growth. For this year’s list, which measured job growth in the period between January 2010 and January 2011, most of the best-performing areas experienced increases in employment increases.
Almost 400 metropolitan statistical areas are ranked based on employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported from November 1999 to January 2011. Rankings are based on recent growth trends, mid-term growth and long-term growth and momentum. Full Article…
For startups, patents are nice to have, but not if you trust them to really protect you. In that they’re like umbrellas. Good protection in a drizzle. False confidence in a downpour.
I write that because I’ve read about 50 real startup business plans in the last two months, and I’ve gone through at least two dozen pitch presentations, and I think it needs to be said.
Patents are usually better than nothing. I like it when a startup has a patent portfolio already issued, but also promises to keep trade secrets very tight and has a budget for patent defense. I like it more when they have a letter from a patent attorney talking about coverage and defensibility of the patents.