The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp

Seriously! What is the deal? I anticipated a bunch of blog posts yesterday and this morning about the release of the iPhone, but a “bunch” is not what I got. Instead what I found is that time has completely stopped still in the tech world. Apparently NOTHING else of any importance has happened in the past 24 hours.

The blogosphere has taken the iPhone story, beat it to death with a baseball bat, run over it with their cars, and then written one more story on it…just in case. This is just madness. Unless the new iPhone also doubles as a jetpack (like from “The Rocketeer”), and I can fly around Peter Pan-style with it, then I’m not interested in adding to the hysteria.

I said it before when the iPhone 3G was first announced, and I’ll say it again. I’m not writing one word about it.

I would absolutely LOVE to do an interview with someone from the Victoria’s Secret marketing department. Why? Quite frankly, they’re brilliant. No company knows its customers quite like Victoria’s Secret. They are always on the ball…with everything. They are the premier retailer of high-class, luxury lingerie, and yet they find a way to reach all women. For decades the chain has used intense branding to maintain an upscale image, making women feel glamorous and sexy, yet paired it with department store-like price promotions, making it an affordable luxury.

On top of knowing women in general, Victoria’s Secret marketers know their individual customers as well. Every year for my birthday they send me a gift card, which even though I’m sure was done by computer is still thoughtful. They even send one of my coworkers a gift card a few weeks before his wife’s birthday and send her a card before his. How do they even know to do that? It’s genius. The one that really suckers people in is the “one free panty” coupons that they frequently send in the mail. You go into the store planning to spend nothing and come out having racked up a $200 bill.

Small businesses can learn more about marketing from Victoria’s Secret than they could from just about any other company in the world. If anyone from the marketing department at Victoria’s Secret happens to stumble across this post, please, please, please email me at startupblog_at_partnerup_dot_com…pretty please! If you do, I promise to go on a huge spending spree. Just throwin’ that out there.

I love a good marketing promotion. I’m that consumer who gets sucked in by the prospect of saving a buck on something I don’t even need or possibly winning a million dollars. It’s sad, I know. I’m sure that I’ve wasted more money than I’ve saved in the long run. But I can’t help myself, and neither can many other consumers. So I thought, just for kicks, that I would highlight my three favorite promotions ever, why they were so awesome and how they kept (keep) me coming back for more. (more…)

About a month ago I shared with you my gripe about text messaging and emailing while driving. I think it’s stupid and dangerous, and now I have California and Washington to back me up.

Today marks day one of their statewide bans on use of handheld mobile devices in the car, according to a TechCrunch post this morning. Offenders will be charged a $20 fine, nothing too financially draining, which is a bit disappointing. I’d prefer to slap a steep fine on each and every one of them, particularly repeat offenders. On a side note, hands-free devices are still allowed.

These aren’t the first states to enact such laws; New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C. and Connecticut have had similar laws for years. But they are obviously the most recent, and they reinforce the need to focus on newer technologies. Perhaps a workable, voice-activated, in-vehicle system that translates text from emails, text messages or the Web in to sound, so you can listen to the information you need rather than read it.

Who knows what the future holds for such a technology, maybe we won’t need it because people will stop using their mobile devices in the car altogether. Doubtful. Either way, it’s just a matter of time before states and countries everywhere realize the danger hand-held mobile devices pose for drivers and start enacting laws of their own.

I’ve been a political junkie for a long time now. So when I come across a story like “More Regulation, Fewer Entrepreneurs”, from the U.S. News and World Report business blog Risky Business, I instinctively start considering the political implications, particularly where upcoming elections are involved.

The article highlights a recent study by Silvia Ardagna of Harvard University and Annamaria Lusardi of Dartmouth College, and the results basically say that the larger the amount of government regulation, the smaller the amount of entrepreneurial activity.

Not surprising.

The depth and breadth of the study, however, give these results some clout. They also give us a chance to reflect on the upcoming presidential election. (more…)

I try really hard to bring you useful, relevant content and as much of it as I can. But let’s get real, I’m not Wonder Woman (although that would definitely make my day, and my life for that matter). So if you’re looking for additional small business/startup content or any kind of content, I’ve got an awesome resource for you.

Alltop.com, created by the founders of Truemors (Guy Kawasaki, Will Mayall, and Kathryn Henkens), is a new site that highlights great blogs and news sites under 10 different categories and more than 100 subcategories. You can look under “Work” and find the “Small Business” category, or you can look under “Interests” and find the “Motorcycles” category. Once you’ve clicked on the area that interests you, the site will give you a ton of blogs and news sites to choose from, and it lists for you the last five stories on each. All you have to do is click to read them.

It’s super easy to use. I went on the site last week, and it sucked me in YouTube-style. I just wanted to see what it was about and ended up spending WAY too much time reading up on all of my interests. So I encourage you to check it out. It’s pretty cool. 

I first read about the big Cold Stone controversy early last week on Independent Street. Then Business Pundit added to the debate yesterday. Now I feel compelled to contribute my two cents as well.

So here is the gist of the story. A group of Cold Stone Creamery franchisees are attempting to file a class-action lawsuit against the parent company, Kahala Corp., claiming “potential revenue numbers were misleading,” among other things. Cold Stone, on the other hand, suggests the franchisees were not fit to run a business, and that’s why so many franchises are failing. So who’s the culprit, corporate or the franchisees? (more…)

I’ll level with you. I hate business jargon. It’s misleading, confusing, boring and, to me anyway, it can be gibberish. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t know what I’m talking about; I understand business concepts completely. It’s the lingo that occasionally trips me up. I realize that sometimes it’s perfectly OK to dish out words like monetization or amortization, like when you’re speaking with colleagues and those within your particular industry. In fact, it’s good to know the language for instances just like those. But when you’re speaking with clients, it sounds a little pretentious—or at least that’s the way I view it.

Part of the job of a business owner is to clearly communicate with clients, using words that both parties understand. If I walked into a place of business where the owners or some customer service representatives attempted to “wow” me with their mouthful of industry-specific terms, I’d give them an earful of my own and walk right out the door. Actually I probably wouldn’t go that far, but you get the point. I would feel like I was being manipulated or talked down to, as I’m sure many other clients would. To me it feels more like it’s about impressing people rather than helping them. (more…)