I am a big fan of the bootstrapping business approach. I am also a big-talker, since I was forced into bootstrapping by circumstances - investors weren't knocking down my door, and banks weren't handing me cash. I was a bootstrapper before I even realized that this approach had a name. At the beginning of my journey to business-dom, I took the MATI Small Business Course. This is a comprehensive course that covers the basics of running a small business, such as banking, financing, marketing, sales, and more. The teacher at that time placed a lot of emphasis on what were considered accepted business practices: writing a comprehensive business ...

Like many people, I use more than one computer for my work. Some people use their computer in their home plus an office computer, and some like myself, have a desktop and a laptop. My laptop allows me to be mobile and work wherever I like and take my material to meetings with clients, but laptops have their drawbacks. First of all, their processing strength is almost always weaker than that of a desktop. Users of heavy graphic programs may be limited by their laptops. In addition, you can't beat a 17 inch screen for readability and usability, and a real keyboard for preventing carpal ...

A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it. Bob Hope I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Thomas Jefferson You know the scene in Mary Poppins where Jane and Michael cause a run on the bank because Michael refuses to deposit his tuppence there? (If you don't, please hang your head in shame for a few seconds and run to your nearest video store to rent the movie.) Well, sometimes I wish that we could have some kind of symbolic run on the banks here that ...

If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Twelfth Night", Act 1 scene 1 Humans are creative beings with a strong creative impulse, and this comes into play in almost all realms of our lives. Even in business, a seemingly dry and uncreative pursuit, art and creativity play important roles. From logos to taglines, businesses use art to peak the interest of clients. In addition, managers of companies often get a "spark" of creative insight or inspiration that drives them to introduce a new product, feature or service for the ...

There are two exciting events coming up in the world of small businesses and bloggers in Israel. Small Business Day in the Knesset On January 9, 2007, the Knesset will be holding a Small and Medium Sized Business Day. A "marathon" of sessions and discussions will take place with representatives from the small and medium-sized business sector on issues such as financing, education, immigrant absorption, social issues, and more. There will also be a main panel discussion to analyze the situation of small businesses on the front lines that have been affected by the war. Avi Balishnakov, General Manager of the Knesset, claims that "it is no secret that ...

We have added two new features on illuminea blog. One is meant to improve your experience on the web, and the other will hopefully not hinder your experience, but will limit the amount of spam we receive through the blog. Subscribe to comments: Now you can easily follow the strings of comments related to posts on our blog. How it works: when you submit a comment for one of our blog posts, you will notice a new check box under the Submit button that says "Notify me of followup comments via e-mail." Select that option, and you will receive an email notification every time someone else posts a comment under that article. This way you can see if anyone responds to ...

Ben Yoskovitz at Instigator Blog initiated a Group Writing Project where people can share any lessons they learned over the course of 2006. So here's my lesson from this year: diversifying your marketing strategy can benefit your business, and it is possible to do this on a shoestring budget. Diversity is good People generally agree that diversity is a good thing. Not only is there a lot we can learn from cultural diversity among people, but diversity is praised in other realms as well, such as investing (diversify your portfolio), eating (diversify your diet), exercise (different types of exercise encourage you to continue), etc. And now I can ...

Like every year, the question arises as to what holiday greetings should be used so that people who do not observe Christmas will not be offended. While many people see the generic "Happy Holidays" as a solution, one blogger pointed out that this really just means "Merry Christmas to those of you who do not celebrate it." Even in Israel, we have our own generic version of Happy Chanuka – "Happy Festival of Lights." I guess Israeli businesses and municipalities want to avoid identifying the holiday by its name so that the many non-Jews in this country will also not be offended. But could it ...

I hold a lot of business meetings at a certain café on Emek Refaim. This particular café is great because it has wireless Internet, great food, friendly service, and ambience. And to top it all off, they have the Tav Chevrati, which is a kind of social certification indicating that, among other things, their workers get paid minimum wage and on time (in many places the workers have to depend on tips for their salary!), and they meet other criteria like handicap accessibility. Bibi (Benjamin Netanyahu) stopped by to grab a bite. Ok, it wasn't with me, and we were on either side of the restaurant, ...

Globes held its annual Israel Business Conference at the beginning of this week. The self-proclaimed "conference of the business elite in Israel" did indeed draw business leaders from all over the world. The grand opening was attended (via videoconference) by Donald Trump and his children, Donald Jr. and Invanka, both Vice Presidents in the family business. The Trumps are about to start construction on a new luxury 70 story building in the Ramat Gan area. Globes has a number of videos on their site from the conference, and the Trump video is ...