Every town has a richest person. Do you know who the richest person in your town is?

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[Source: BusinessWeek.com -- Small Business]

Here at VerticalResponse, because of the nature of our low-cost, easy-to-use e-mail marketing solution, we tend to cater to a lot of small businesses. We have a pretty low risk product with a free online trial. Because of this, we attract all walks of life on the business front from the mom and pop shop, to a company that has 500 employees and umpteen thousand customers. Over the course of the eight years weve been in business, weve had to break up with a bunch of customers for various reasons, and you know what Ive come to terms with? Its OK. Not every customer is right for every business. Its really all about what type of company youre setting out to be, what your core values are, and how you handle the situation. It doesnt matter what your business is -- you could be an online software company or even a dentists office -- from time to time youll have to deal with an unwanted customer. Ive outlined a few break-up scenarios weve gone through over the course of our eight years that will hopefully shed some light on why its OK to walk away. Its Not You, Its Me Problem: A large retail company outgrew our services and wanted us to use our resources to develop features for them specifically, instead of giving our thousands of other customers the features they needed. Solution: I swallowed a tough pill (the loss was thousands of dollars per month) but decided to build features for the masses instead of the one big gun that might leave at any moment anyway. We did our diligence for a few companies that catered to larger businesses and provided them a three-month window to transition. You Dined and Dashed Problem: We had a customer who continued to use our service but wouldnt pay. I gave him five months to pay with a lot of notices, both e-mail and verbally. Not only did he not pay attention, but he also lied and every few weeks told us the checks had been cut. Solution: I gave him a two-week notice to find another provider and a harsh date of when wed cease service. This time I stuck to it. You dont want to send the message to customers and employees that its OK not to be paid for services rendered. It took me a while but I finally did it. Its Not Me, Its You Problem: Respect for customers, colleagues, and our company is at the core of our values here at VerticalResponse. So when a customer was berating one of the team members at all hours of the day and night for no good reason, obviously I had a problem with that. We like to think the customer is always right, but theres no sense in taking continued abuse and making morale diminish internally, even at the prices they were paying. Solution: I had a talk with the CEO of that company and gave them two weeks to find a new provider. I gave them my recommendations for a company with a more hands on feel so that they had a team of people to go to when they needed them and sent them on their way. You Dropped a Bomb on Me, Baby Problem: A customer was violating our Terms and Conditions. Solution: We always approach all of our issues with an open mind, but in this instance we found that a customer was obviously in violation and would never right their wrongs. In this case they were instantly terminated, but in a friendly way. Like I said, not every customer is right for every business. Taking on the wrong type of customer and chasing the almighty short-term dollar may or may not be good for your business in the long run. You should always think about not forfeiting the long-term growth of your business by focusing too much on what may be an unhealthy short-term customer.

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[Source: Inc.com]

I am currently very passionate about education. Our current system is massively dysfunctional by any objective standard and desperately needs fixing. It is an area that will yield greatly to technology, but there are significant market obstacles. It is the largest business in the world that is screwed up. I think the reason is that unlike other businesses that have to be constantly updated to stay in business, education is primarily a monopoly that is focused on teacher rights rather than student rights. The customers (students) are underserved, and they have no options or power, except to opt out into home schooling (which is difficult for many families) or private schools (which are very expensive.) Paying taxes for education and paying--again--for a child's private education seems very unfair.

I hate to complain without a solution. So here's my take: I think that games and software should replace much of the teaching function. I am working on a new school that I hope to open shortly that is jam-packed with a very new way of doing things.
When kids come to my school they will be met with a whole new world of opportunity and interesting experiences and fun. They will come out with a greater understanding of the world, technology and creativity. They will be fit and smart. Stay tuned.


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[Source: A Serial Entrepreneur's Perspective]

The federal minimum wage will climb 11%, to $7.25 an hour from $6.55, lifting the incomes of those who earn less than $15,000 a year

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[Source: BusinessWeek.com -- Small Business]