If you’re like me, you spend a fair bit of time at SBX for business networking, relaxed client meetings or to “change your air” while working on a deadline. So, I was surprised to see that Starbucks felt if necessary to stop preparing pots of brewed decaf in the afternoons. Seems that tossing the unused brew when it’s a ripe 30 minutes old was getting...

Erik Deckers over on Twitter shared this link with me earlier today. Here’s a taste of the article (a quick and good read): Good news for marketing agencies, printers, and direct mail companies from B2B Marketing magazine. According to their “exclusive” survey, only 25% of all business-to-business marketers are going to cut their budget. But nearly one-third of them are actually increasing their marketing budget, while another 44%...

Just sent off a happy gram to the good people at Change.gov about small business. Here’s what I said: Small business is the engine that drives the economy, but the government has had little real focus on small business development in years. Multiple heads of the SBA in the Bush Administration, little in terms of money and talent. Little commitment. Now, we see the erosion of small business and the very agency tasked to support...

OK, now this was a little bit of a brain burner even for me (and we all know how much I like my noggin scorched). I asked the Hubs out of a cheap Sunday night date–books, computers, Kindle and coffee. So, I’m a cheap date. I already knew that. Anyway, the Starbucks was the now usual dichotomy–great service in a dirty store (with the nastiest stains on the upholstery). While there, I noticed that the 10 by 10 foot area rug...

I used to work for the world’s largest producer of Bibles. Curiously, they’re the same company that produced that Madonna Sex book book a few years back. There was a pervasive atmosphere of religiosity. But what there wasn’t was tolerance (got to find a better word than this) for other faiths or faith traditions. Like the sometimes maligned Chick Fil-A which routinely probes applicants on their family status and religious...

BEGIN RANT As I mentioned in my tweets, I was a speaker on a panel at Purdue. Wonderful program that connected minority and women-owned businesses with purchasing managers from Central and West-Central Indiana. Sure enough, after having dozens of business cards pressed into my hands (and passing out my share to people I’d like to stay in contact with), it’s started: The unsolicited subscriptions to email newsletters. In the old...