Here are some of this week’s interesting news from around the web. Enjoy and have a great weekend.
Inspiring Stories:
1) Switching Careers at Midlife – NY Times feature on Marci Alboher, who is reinventing her career from law to journalism.
2) From No Job to Dream Job – CNN Money featured a similar story of Selena Einwechter, who started a stunning B&B in North Carolina (from the ground up) by saving 50% of her annual income when she was working in Corporate America.
3) Who Needs Y Combinator? - I liked this story more because of how the 2 founders worked to find their business fit and are being surprisingly successful with it.
4) 37 Signals CEO’s Inspiration Secret - Whether you buy it or not, it makes a great story and headline. But, I do think that Jason Fried is being honest about taking his inspiration from mom-and-pop businesses rather than tech due to the slash-and-burn mentality in the latter.
Small Business News
5) Travel jobs for Creative Professionals – So, say you’re a creative freelancer or independent professional. And, you love to travel. Don’t you wish you could combine the two? Now, you can.
6) Small Business Optimism Index – Yes, there are enough smallbiz stats for each day of the month. And, there are enough articles daily about the fate of small business. Oh well, take it for what it’s worth.
7) 2013 – The Year of the Small Business – If the Index above deflated you somewhat, let’s balance that out with this truly optimistic “Big Idea” from Farhad Manjoo, columnist at Slate, Fast Company and, now, Linkedin.
8) SEC and Crowdfunding Rules – While this is a tough one, and the many lobbyists, talking heads and self-appointed pundits are likely not making it easier, the SEC really needs to get their act together, don’t you think?
9) Planet SOHO – SohoOS re-brands. But, at the same time, offers some compelling new perks. If you’re SOHO, you should definitely check this out.
Food for Thought
10) Timing the Market - If you’re one of those investors who tries hard to figure out when to buy and sell, Rick Ferri provides a very useful explanation on secular market timing (really, the only kind that makes sense, especially in today’s economy). Ferri also explains technical aspects in a way that everyone can understand.
11) Redefining Customer Experience - A good set of questions from Fast Company to get you to rethink your customer’s needs.
12) 13 in ’13 - LifeHacker’s post on how to motivate yourself to learn 13 new skills in 2013. That might be a bit much, but it has certainly inspired me to think of a variation on this theme. Stay tuned to see a post on this site shortly.
13) The 24 Rule for New Ideas – Dan Pink is one of my favorites, as regular readers of this blog know. While this is not an original “Pink-ism”, it is one of those gems that he frequently finds and shares on his blog or Twitter feed. I encourage you to subscribe to both.
14) Fiscal Cliff – There are multiple discussions / articles across all media on this topic. I won’t add more here except for this funny limerick from Dr. Goose about the Bernanke speech this week (actually, a pretty definitive declaration from the Fed re. quantitative easing).
15) RIP Norman Joseph Woodland – Co-inventor of the barcode – one of the most ingenious technological inventions for businesses across many industries. About 5 billion barcodes are swiped daily across 150 countries.
Happy Reading.
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Reader: If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing for free email updates straight to your inbox – with additional tips and resources. Click here for easy signup. Your information will never be publicized, shared or used for any kind of solicitation.