From Entrepreneur Magazine:

They contact you by phone, fax and e-mail. They’re ready with invoices for you to pay, services for you to order and PO boxes to collect your money. Modern scammers have thought of everything: The only thing that stands between them and your money is keen awareness on your part.

What types of scams are most popular these days? From overpayments that need a refund to inquiries about selling your business, the following “smart” approaches are luring even cautious entrepreneurs.

A “Heavy” Pre-Pay Shipping Scam
“As soon as the TTY operator told me the call was coming from Nigeria, while the woman had me on hold, I knew something was up,” notes Bruce Webber of Webber Floor Covering in Maple Heights, Ohio. Webber had received calls from TTY operators before, working on behalf of the hearing impaired. In this case, it was a call from a woman who wanted to order tile for a church in Alaska. But when she put him on hold for a few moments to try to send him an e-mail, Webber commented to the operator on the lengthy wait.

“I’m not sure if she did it on purpose or just let it slip…typically they don’t tell you where the caller is calling from, but she did” says Webber, who had read in a floor covering industry magazine that such scams were going on. The idea of using a TTY operator is to make the call untraceable and possibly to play on the sympathy of the victim, who believes he or she is helping someone with a hearing disability. When Webber told the operator he didn’t realize the call was from overseas, the caller overheard him and quickly got off the line. She never rang back.

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From PowerHomeBiz.com:

“Determined in helping small business owners successfully advertise online, AdsThatBounce.com has created an Internet first by building a site that puts online ads in full motion. Ads travel along and bounce within the website to maximize ad exposure.”

In trying to help small business owners succeed, AdsThatBounce.com has created an Internet first of putting online ads in full motion by bouncing them along the full length of their website.

The idea behind AdsThatBounce.com was to develop a website that would help small business owners successfully advertise their ads online. The goal was to have the ads receive continuous exposure for a simple one-time fee based on the size of the ad.

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Excerpt from Rockford Register Start:

Question: I would like to start my own small business from home. What’s a good idea for such a business?

Answer: As you have stated your question, that can be a tough question and in any case we really need more information. Such as, first we should establish the “Why” of your purpose in wanting that business. It might be a part-time business, and those part-timers can be the “hobby” type or maybe just a supplemental income type. Maybe you are unhappy with your job and think this will be a good way out of that situation. Or maybe it’s full-time and for all the marbles, that’s is, to make your living expenses. So what’s your purpose? Why do you want to own a business? Is there timing a factor? And such initial questions can go on and on.

The most important things to consider include your experiences, any special education or specializing courses, all your business experiences, maybe your hobby (s), your interests, perhaps available mentors, and maybe last but not least your passion. Sometimes in business, all that carries you through to the next plateau is persistence and passion.

Some people have personalities that are more suited to a particular home business. For instance, some people fail at the selling part because of the difficulty in handling and accepting rejection. Some fail at the ability to cope with the variety and moods of their customers. Financial controls are difficult for others. So how does your personality fit with the foils of business? Not how would you like to have them fit but how will they fit?

News from YahooFinance:

StagedHomes.com, creators of “home staging”, the most important new marketing practice for the residential housing market, reveals the next cutting edge opportunity for home based business owners. Introducing, Senior Stages, the new division of StagedHomes.com dedicated to serving the 55+ housing market.

Consistent with their ability to recognize career opportunity through trends in Real Estate, StagedHomes has partnered with experts in senior relocation and home modification to create the national “CRTS” training program, Certified Relocation and Transition Specialist.

Beginning with 3-day classroom setting instruction, the CRTS program is designed to educate home based business owners in the basics of how to identify and communicate with their 55+ clients and how to manage and coordinate a home transition. Whether learning to relocate a couple from their family home to retirement living or move an elder to a community setting or help a widow age-in-place, the CRTS program provides fundamental tools required to get started in the industry.

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From Forbes.com:

“There’s been a lot of talk about firsts in Washington: the first Democratic-controlled Congress in 13 years, the “first 100 hours” and the first female Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif). But what do these firsts mean for small businesses–and specifically the women who work for and run them?

No major “workplace flexibility” legislation has been signed since 1993, when President Bill Clinton passed the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), allowing up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in the event of a pregnancy, medical emergency or a sick family member. And with all the trouble in Iraq, it is little surprise that such issues have taken a backseat.

That may change on the Democrats’ watch. For instance, House Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velasquez (D-N.Y.) said she’ll push to enforce the mandated percentage of federal contracts for women-owned businesses, currently set at 5%. (Critics say the actual numbers fall short.) And while the FMLA does not affect firms with less than 50 employees, there have been some recent discussions about lowering the exemption bar to 25…..”

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