Government Business

Want to start a business in exporting or got a business that wants to export? Check out Export.Gov:

"Looking for a comprehensive overview of how to export? For more than 70 years, A Basic Guide to Exporting has been the resource that businesses have turned to for answers to their questions about how to establish and grow overseas markets for their products and services."

Silver Lining - Google Venture Fund

I noticed Google Starts Venture Fund from The Washington Post but have seen little mention of it elsewhere:

"Google Ventures will invest $100 million in its first year and mostly target young companies, Bill Maris, a managing partner of the unit, said in an interview. The fund will invest in areas such as consumer-oriented Internet companies, health care, robotics and nanotechnology, he said.

The unit may help Google tap technologies that benefit the company's business, said Rich Miner, also a managing partner of the venture.

The announcement comes at a challenging time for venture capital firms. Fundraising in the industry in the United States fell 71 percent last quarter, according to the National Venture Capital Association."

Aspiring capitalists may want to pay attention to this.

Lafayette firm snaps up state ESOP aid

Some interesting business news from The Indianapolis Business Journal: Lafayette firm snaps up state ESOP aid:

"Lafayette-based Radian Research Inc. is the first participant in a state initiative that helps companies become employee-owned.

Radian received $3.6 million in financing yesterday from the state to make the transition. State Treasurer Richard Mourdock created a program that has $50 million available to companies."

Especially on a day with these kind of headlines:

Pendleton sign of the times: “The economy won”

According to Town Manager Doug McGee, the closure of one Pendleton shop is to be expected in the downtown’s destination strip.

What’s less acceptable, he said, is the wave of closures seen across Pendleton in the past three weeks.

In all, five Pendleton businesses have closed or announced that they are closing since Christmas. They are Twigs, Daisy J’s, Mud Puddlz, Tadpoles and Evey’s Home and Garden.

On Thursday, Daisy J’s was still open but had slashed its merchandise by 40 to 60 percent hoping to liquidate and walk away without too many losses.

GM, dealers to discuss closing shops

NEW ORLEANS -- General Motors Corp.'s dealers, who've privately been making decisions about whether to try to stay open in the suffering economy or just close shop, will get their chance to meet with the automaker this weekend about its plans to slash dealerships by nearly 30% over the next three years.

GM plans to hold closed-door meetings with its franchisees during the annual National Automobile Dealers Association convention -- the first since the automaker received approval of $13.4 billion in federal loans that call for the company to make changes to several areas of the business, including its dealer network.

"There's a concern," said John McEleney, a GM dealer from Clinton, Iowa, who is the incoming NADA chairman. "No matter what, there's going to be change."

Toyota might cut 1,000 jobs: report

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. is considering cutting more than 1,000 full-time jobs in North America and the United Kingdom to cope with faltering global demand, a news report said Friday.

The details of the job cuts will likely be finalized by the end of the month, said the Nikkei, Japan's top business daily, citing an unnamed senior company official. Japan's top automaker could slash more jobs in other regions if global auto sales continue to slump, the daily said.

Toyota spokesman Yuta Kaga declined to confirm the report, saying nothing had been decided.

Hit by the collapse in demand for cars, Toyota is expecting to incur its first operating loss in 70 years. The company on Tuesday tapped Akio Toyoda, grandson of the Japanese automaker's founder, as president, paying homage to its roots amid a deepening global downturn.

More cuts for Wabash National

Honda supplier lays off 100

Here's An Idea for Indiana

Something to keep the Purdue grads busy? No, Ball State would probably have to set it up for the Purdue grads.

(Yes, that is a bit of humor, so smile if you are a Purdue grad. The Ball Staters are already grinning.)

Maryland sets up online database of intellectual property

The Maryland Technology Development Corp. has launched a new intellectual property database that streamlines the search process for innovation investors.

The Web-based resource, InvenioIP, was developed at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and allows free access to technologies available for commercialization from academic institutions, federal research facilities and private companies in Maryland, D.C., and Virginia, Tedco officials said.

A Business Idea?

Food with rooms is the idea. Could be done in Indiana: Britain's best restaurants with rooms? I would say you got to have the right cook, the right kind of food, and - of course - the right location. Still, we got these bed and breakfast kind of places.

An Indiana Business Goes Out into the Wider World.

A bit delayed in noting this article from the Indianapolis Star: Funeral care for pets grows into franchises.

"At a facility tucked into a Carmel shopping center, pet owners find urns to store their deceased animals' ashes and a chapel to say their last goodbyes. They're offered hugs and condolences and the chance to memorialize their pets by screen-printing their pictures onto plates or throws."

We can develop our own businesses in Indiana.

Something for the self-employed

Check out The National Association for the Self-Employed at NASE - About NASE:

"At-A-Glance: The Nation's Leading Resource for Micro-Businesses The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) is the nation's leading resource for the self-employed and micro-businesses providing a broad range of benefits and support to help the smallest businesses succeed."

Regulations not bad?

The Indiana Lawyer posted a a long excerpt from the New York Times' article Law - "In Turnaround, Industries Seek U.S. Regulation". Why the sudden change in attitude by industry towards federal regulation? The article gives several reasons:

The consequences for consumers, though, are not yet clear. The tactical shift by industry groups is motivated by a confluence of self-interests: growing competition from inexpensive imports that do not meet voluntary standards, and a desire to head off liability lawsuits and pre-empt tough state laws or legal actions that were a response to laissez-faire Bush administration policies. Concerns that Democrats could soon expand their control in Washington have also prompted manufacturers or producers to seek regulations that they consider the least burdensome, regulatory experts say.

As with much the Republicans have done of late, these moves have the appearance of draping wool over the wolf. That is, they present something that sounds beneficial to us all but in reality protects only the interests of their friends and not of the general public.

Even more interesting is this: does Big Business see the demise of Republican control of the federal government?

Since the New York Times requires payment for older articles, I suggest going over to The Indiana Lawyer to read more of the article.

Learning from Failed Political Leadership

Interview from the Harvard Business School regarding a new business book:

A major failing of current leadership models is the lack of knowledge, awareness, or even interest in life beyond our country's borders, a limitation of growing importance as the global economy expands. This is evident everywhere; our boards of directors have, on average, very few executives from other countries. Our presidential candidates have little or no international experience going into the job, a huge handicap that leads to poor foreign policy. Our leaders assume that the U.S. model of business and governance is ideal, with some small adjustments, for all countries and that our job is to go forth and remake the world in our image. This approach is naive and self-defeating.

That includes everyone running? I wonder about Obama's experiences outside of the country? The remainder of the interview is quite good.

Muncie- Speed networking event set at chamber

From today's Muncie Star-Press. Nothing says that we cannot cross over to Delaware County. It might good for our Chamber to offer such a thing. Then would the Herald-Bulletin run a story like this? Not much on the H-B's online business page.