According to the latest annual National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) Small Business Optimism Index, the greatest problem facing small businesses is poor sales.

North Carolina unemployment is 11.1%. There is one residential foreclosure filed for every 1,595 households. Forty-five percent of consumers believe the current economic situation is bad. We have discussed where people are cutting back and where they are not willing to scrimp, but as the recession lingers, more and more people will find it harder [...]

By now, the laser-like focus of the virtual world on the hoax video by two misguided Domino’s pizza employees and the effectiveness of Domino’s corporate response has dimmed. But for a few days last week this story was the train-wreck we couldn’t stop watching.

A recent post struck a chord with one of my clients, Dr. Bruce Wieland, a former PhD research engineer at Duke, who started his own company a few years ago. I thought everyone might be interested in his perspective, which I post with his permission:

The lead lifestyle story in USA Today is about the small luxuries people are using despite the sluggish and uncertain economy. Chocolate, 99-cent music downloads, rescue dogs. On my way to work this morning, I caught part of a segment on FM Talk 101.1 (WZTK) about what name-brand items people refused to give up, despite [...]