SMB

Big businesses often use big bucks to go green. Small businesses, on the other hand, haven't a dollar to spare even for a good cause like saving the environment. Shouldn't they just pass on the whole green scheme -- at least until the economy improves? Not necessarily. "Effective power management is...

Facebook, meet Facecard -- a digital-age marriage of e-commerce and social networking, and that's what the founders of Edo Interactive intended in 2008 when they came up with the idea of prepaid debit cards, or Facecards. In fact, if you ask Edo Interactive CEO Ed Braswell the classic Facebook statu...

On March 21, 2006, Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey sent out the first tweet: "Just setting up my twittr." A mere three years later, in February 2009, Twitter had approximately 4 million visitors. At that point, Twitter set an audacious goal of one day reaching 1 billion users and becoming "the pulse ...

It is rather challenging to hit a moving target when it keeps changing directions. That's a bit like how Cameron Brain, CEO of Open Box Technologies, felt when he set his sights on a particular business market while still in college. In 2006, Brain and a group of classmates at Rensselaer Polytechnic...

A rose by any other name can raise quite the stink, making the act of localizing Web sites to fit foreign cultures all the more thorny. Even if the product is as sweet as ice cream, it's possible to leave a bitter taste in consumer's mouths. "Ben and Jerry launched their 'black and tan' flavor of ic...

You might say that entrepreneur Alan E. Hall lives in two business worlds. Don't complain to him how challenging it is to grow a business in today's fragile economy. He knows those struggles firsthand as a business owner. He also knows how next-to-impossible it is for startup business owners to find...

You might say that entrepreneur Alan E. Hall lives in two business worlds. Don't complain to him how challenging it is to grow a business in today's fragile economy. He knows those struggles firsthand as a business owner. He also knows how next-to-impossible it is for startup business owners to find...

You might say that entrepreneur Alan E. Hall lives in two business worlds. Don't complain to him how challenging it is to grow a business in today's fragile economy. He knows those struggles firsthand as a business owner. He also knows how next-to-impossible it is for startup business owners to find...

Prior to the mid-1990s, the prospect of launching a globally minded company in rural America was, in a word, remote. However, times have changed. The Web now makes it possible for anyone to do business anywhere in the world. Small towns in America's heartland that have long been dependent on agribu...

Noting that more and more businesses are using Twitter to communicate with customers, the San Francisco social networking startup has launched a new sub-site to help companies learn strategies to leverage the service to their benefit. Twitter101 provides a quick overview explaining what Twitter is, ...

The initial success and rapid growth of cloud computing is attracting a "cloud rush" of players twisting the original concept to suit their proprietary purposes and confusing IT and business decision-makers in the process. This proliferation process is also accelerating the inevitable shakeout of va...

It seemed like a logical leap: If you already provide shoppers with coupons online, what's to stop you from offering them an online source for e-gift cards? So the founders of online gift card company CashStar pooled resources with online shopping coupon mogul Coupons Inc. to create an outlet for m...

He was into cloud computing before cloud computing was cool. Before that, he'd given the world its first real Web browser. He's a board member of eBay and Facebook, and he's invested in some must-watch Web 2.0 companies: Digg, Twitter, Ning, etc. So when Marc Andreessen announced on his blog Sunday ...

Microsoft said last week that designated PCs with premium versions of Windows Vista preinstalled will qualify for upgrades to the equivalent Windows 7 product once the final version of Redmond's next-generation operating system becomes widely available in the fall. However, reports that Microsoft is...

Lacing a shoestring budget with enough green to get your startup up and running takes some finagling. Still, it can be done. If you can't find investor backing right now, then turn to alternative funding routes. You may want to start with your own hidden assets to find the cash you need. One example...