For many small retailers, the weeks between Black Friday and Christmas Eve are going to be the most critical they’ve faced so far.  For some, it will be the difference between a profitable year, a failed year, or an end-of-the-business year. 

When you wake up in the morning and walk past your treadmill, does it taunt you? Does it scream for you to step on board and walk around a bit?  Do you pass by it with a fleeting thought that you’ll exercise tomorrow?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you’re not alone.  Most people don’t like to think about being healthy, eating right and regular exercise.  It’s generally not fun.

What  happened? Each mark became so popular that people began using it as the generic name for the product it branded – cellulose sheets, powered stairs and sliding fasteners, respectively – and eventually the mark became the name for that product. In other words, the mark died and was buried in the "trademark graveyard."

As the calendar year draws to a close, taxpayers should review their potential tax savings and develop strategies that will pay off now as well as in the years to come.

“These are the times that try men’s souls,” wrote Thomas Paine, beginning 1776’s influential The Crisis.  It’s a sentiment painfully familiar to  both Landlords and Tenants, whose patience, good humor, and financial wherewithal have been sorely tested lately.  Despite everyone’s best intentions, in times like these, some Tenants can’t pay their current, contractual rents, based as they are on projections from an earlier, more robust economic environment.  As a result, a Tenant will sometimes seek to restructure his commercial lease, resulting for at least some period in a lower rent.  If a lease restructuring becomes necessary, how does a Tenant go about it, and what can he expect?  Should a Landlord agree, and if so, what should he require?  After all, a deal is a deal, trying times or not.

February 1980; Winter Olympics; Lake Placid.  Do you remember the big event that took place at these games?  A bunch of amateur hockey players — average age, twenty-one  — came together as the USA team and beat the USSR in the semi-finals. (The Soviet hockey team had been unbeaten in the Olympics for twenty years.) The USA team went on to win the gold against Finland in the final. As Al Michaels, the TV commentator yelled at the end of the game: “Do you believe in MIRACLES?!”

YOU’RE DRIVING ME CRAZY!  With those words my great prospect dispensed with me and dashed my hopes for a big sale……not really.  Well, she did say that, but fortunately I had no “hopes” as I’ve learned to live that cardinal rule of sales: Don’t get emotionally involved in a sales call – and also another one that says, You’ve got NOTHING until you’ve got a check in the bank, and even then, keep one eye over your shoulder.  Ultimately I had to admit to myself:  She’s just not that into me!

Branding and marketing experts may not want you to know this, but some of the most successful, profitable brands on the market today were built by entrepreneurs who didn’t have MBA’s in marketing, attend college or even have any business training.

We have all seen the headlines: plant closings; mass layoffs; reductions in force.  In the first month of this year alone, nearly 600,000 jobs in the United States have been lost.  In Virginia, nearly 6,000 jobs have disappeared during that same time period, hundreds in the Hampton Roads area.  To some extent, every business is looking for ways to boost the bottom line, but figuring out a way to maintain high levels of quality and service while controlling costs may be the ultimate challenge.

With the economy continuing to worsen and layoffs more prevalent, many people find themselves in the position to purchase individual health insurance.  Health insurance is like a warm blanket that protects you from frigid temperatures--you don’t want to get left out in the cold without it. There are more than 47 million Americans without health insurance coverage.