post # 134 — Monday, July 17, 2006 — a General post

Carnival of Business #13: July 17th 2006

Today, I'm hosting this week's Carnival of Business. Numerous submissions were made, from which I have selected what I thought were the most interesting (presented here in descending order, starting with those I liked most.)

I LOVED Small Business CEO which describes how a Japanese company is redesigning barcodes to have appealing visual elements, to help with branding. There's a neat video to watch, too! I'm usually a "function over design" type of person, but this one got through to me.

David Lorenzo's Career Intensity has a thoughtful Top Ten list for Superachievers (and actually, for everybody else.)

The Business of America is Business contains an excellent discussion of the ongoing debate about whether the extradition by the US of the three UK bankers connected to the Enron affair is valid. Whether you are new to the story or have followed it all along, there's good analysis here.

Matt Inglot has a really useful post (for beginners) about how to process online payments. I found it very helpful.

Getting Out of Debt has some creative ideas about running a home-based business, especially on turning weaknesses into strengths.

Christine Kane (a musician) writes about having an Adventure Day - doing something unpredictable and fun. She took the idea from a business context and applies to personal life, but it translates back very easily. A fun and stimulating post.

Money Thinking presents a list of eight questions to ask to determine if your new business idea is a good one. Not the first time I've seen these thoughts, but a good concise list.

Small Business Trend Radio has a 60-minute audio on search engine optimization for small businesses. I would have preferred the information packaged in a way that didn't take 60 minutes of my time, but there was useful information there.

Debt Free explores the issue of the number of visas issued to allow foreign tech workers to come to the US, making the argument for protecting domestic US employment. Vehemently argued, with supporting statistics - but he didn't quite convert this naturalized citizen who has a bias for open markets.

Blogtreprener describes how, every Friday, he and a group of friends get together to discuss ethical issues. This post, on ethics in entrepreneurialism, is a bit lightweight but could stimulate some interesting discussions in any group you may have.

Sequence Inc reports on the lawsuit against insurance companies by those damaged by Katrina. Does hurricane damage cover flood damage? There's not a lot here that's not been in the newspapers, but it's an interesting topic.

Nubricks.com referring to a US site, talks about (some pretty obvious) good and bad reasons to cash in on the equity in any real estate you own.

RadicalHop.com makes the simple but effective point that ther is no such thing as time management - only self management.