Thinking of opening your own business?

SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" is America's premier source of free & confidential small business advice for entrepreneurs. They offer email advice online, face to face small business counseling, low cost workshops and business templates to help small business owners.

Examples of workshops held at the Market St location in San Francisco:
www.sfscore.com

How to Start and Manage a Small Business is a one-day special seminar to help perspective and current owners of small businesses to succeed will be conducted by specialists from SCORE. Subjects include guide for seeking financial aid, writing a business plan, marketing, advertising, and sales promotion. Other topics: record keeping, taxes, insurance and legal needs.

Writing Effective Business Plans is a seminar for owners and managers of existing businesses and startups. Using lectures, videotapes and handouts, we lead you through the business planning process so that you can write an effective Business Plan for growth, profitability, and financing. We work hard to demystify the process.

Bad Brand Extensions

I wish I was a fly on the wall during the meeting when the idea for adult Barbie accessories was approved...

Bad Brand Extensions (view the slideshow)

Death by Caffeine

How many Red Bulls can you drink before it kills you? How many Cocaine Energy Drinks?

http://www.energyfiend.com

Anti-Globalization Cartoons (etc.)

Some interesting cartoons...

http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/JobDestructionHumor.htm

Prosper! SF based startup creates a new investment vehicle

Note: I wrote this blog before discovering an article from business week that says basically the same thing. If you'd like to read that instead: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060213_147523.htm



I stumbled across Prosper.com and found the concept very interesting. Essentially, it's an Ebay type marketplace where individuals can fund and obtain personal loans.

If you're trying to obtain a loan, you write a paragraph about who you are (and can even include a picture), what you're using the money for, etc. The site runs a credit check, rates your credit and lists your debt to income ratio. You then state the maximum interest rate you're willing to pay and the amount of money you'd like to borrow. All this information is posted on Prosper's website where individuals who would like to lend money can browse.

If there is high demand among lenders to fund a loan, lenders bid which drives down the interest rate. For example, if I have a AA credit score (over 720) and put 12% as my interest rate, there will be an onslaught of lenders vying to lend to me (since it's a really good return for a really low risk.) After I receive enough bids to fully fund my loan, every bid thereafter has to be a lower interest rate which bumps the first offer off. This lets the marketplace determine the going interest rates for each kind of risk.

If you're interested in funding loans for individuals, you browse the site, find someone you deem an acceptable risk for the return on your money (the interest rate they've posted) and can give them the money in $50 increments.

Proper charges a .5% annual fee for investors, and a one time 1% fee for borrowers.

I know there's a market for individuals who want to obtain loans but may not qualify for decent rates (or may not qualify for any loan at all) from banks, since their approval process is pretty uniform.

I know there's a demand for an investment vehicle for investors willing to take on risk for a much better return than any investment from a traditional bank, but am not sure whether the risk/reward ratio is worthwhile.

Borrowers give Prosper their bank account information which is verified prior to getting a loan funded. Prosper automatically debits the monthly payment from the borrower's bank account, and transfers the money to the lender. Prosper has an established schedule for delinquent accounts involving late fees (that the lender gets) and automatically sends unpaid loans to collections.

My impression is that investing in the stock market is safer due to the ability to dump your shares if things go wrong... but maybe prosper has addressed this issue?

Interested in Management Consulting, Investment Banking or Securities Trading...

..or if you would just like to learn more about the fields, I highly recommend reading "The Fast Track" by Mariam Naficy.

The format of this book is very accessible. Since sections are broken down and labled very clearly, this isn't a book you have to read from cover to cover; it lends itself to flipping through if you have a minute here and there

Here are a few examples of sections you'll find:

• "Insider Interviews" which range from first-year analysts to CEOs
• "A Good Day" and "A Bad Day" in the life of an analyst
• Case question, interview and resume hints from a recruiter's perspective
  
• Tips on how to negotiate and "How to evaluate the money"
• "Specific Skills" - how the skills required for each industry differ from the others
  

The content is very accessible; the book is geared toward students who have just started to think about these industries, so explanations start with the basics and industry jargon is defined in simple terms.

One drawback: Published in '97, the statistics and some specifics are probably outdated. I would recommend taking any figures (like salaries) with a grain of salt. I doubt the nature of the positions and the industries have changed much, and I found the information so valuable I think it's more useful than current books.

Note: Since it's almost ten years old, B&Noble doesn't carry it, but I found it on Amazon.