US Finance World

What’s affecting me, my clients and other small-business owners this week.

The Big Story: The President Sings

In his annual State of the Union address, President Obama cranked up the populist pitch. The G.O.P. responded. Representative Sam Graves outlined what he thought small businesses wanted to hear but small-business owners were split. A small-business owner in West Virginia was excited. One study finds small-business owners are dissatisfied with all of the presidential candidates. Joel Kotkin says “this is Americas moment if Washington doesnt blow it.” Your cellphone can now sing like the president.

Davos Update: An Intern Is Bored

As the sun bombards Earth with radiation, billionaires occupy Davos and bemoan the inequality of incomes. Their outlook is gloomy. Haley

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For Nanette Vaughn, tutors have become like that proverbial bag of potato chips — she can’t stop at just one. When her son, Ryan, needed help prepping for a private-school admissions test, she reached out to a tutoring company called Club Z, which sent over Alan, a newly minted fifth-grade teacher Vaughn calls a “wonderful communicator.” Later, when Ryan needed a leg up in math, Club Z dispatched a succession of “delightful” and “helpful” graduate students who, unfortunately for Vaughn, kept graduating. And when Ryan’s sister, Olivia, needed intensive reading help, Vaughn drove her eight miles each way — twice a week — to a veteran special-ed teacher they learned about via word of mouth. “Loved that woman,” says the Atlanta-based stay-at-home mom.

Shouldering more of the work hasn’t reduced Vaughn’s tutoring tab: She says she has spent close to $8,000 over the past few years, on top of two hefty private-school tuitions.

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We often think of hobbies as expensive, and some are. If you want to raise horses, collect antique cars, take up drag racing, or own your own plane to indulge your passion for flying, you’re going to pay a lot of money. However, there are plenty of hobbies available that are free or inexpensive. With almost any hobby, there are ways to make it less expensive. You can shop the used market, borrow or rent supplies, or trade supplies with other hobbyists. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that, just because you are on a tight budget (or don’t want to spend a lot of money), you can’t have any hobbies. Here are some ideas for inexpensive hobbies:

Reading

There are a lot of places that you can get reading material on the cheap if not for free. Use the library, shop used book stores and sales, hit thrift stores and yard sales, and read free eBooks.

Metal Detecting

Who doesn’t have the fantasy of stumbling across hidden treasure? You can b

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The Daily Beast has an article by Barry Schwartz (author of ) that serves as a nice compilation of various psychological and behavioral economics findings about money and happiness.

The first main topic is hedonic adaption. When things are awesome, we eventually get used to it (celebrities, lottery winners). When things are really awful, we tend to get used to that as well (disabled persons). This is why it’s hard for people to achieve a constantly higher level of happiness. We get a nicer car/house/toy, we get used it, and then soon we want an even nicer car/house/toy, never getting anywhere as if we are walking on a treadmill.

Simply knowing that the good feeling from that purchase is only temporary may help you cut back on your spending. In addition, author Dan Ariely suggests you by pacing yourself when it comes to experiencing pleasure, and (when needed) making painful cuts all at once. F

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The economy is improving in baby steps. But that may not have had an impact on your business yet.

If your small business is still struggling with cash flow, never fear, there are some quick and creative ways you can improve just by making a few tweaks in your  business.

I have recently published a new quick read book that can help you solve some of those cash flow problems. Its available in Amazon Kindle format (you dont need a Kindle to read it just get the free Kindle reading app).

In this book, you will learn eight creative tactics to get your cash flow moving in the right direction.

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Author Shawn Achor says that the happiness advantage, Asks us to be realistic about the present while maximizing our potential for the future. I love this statement because it encourages us to realistically acknowledge our present circumstances without allowing them to predict our future ones. In other words, we do not have to put on rose-colored glasses in order to feel hopeful about the future, and most importantly to act on that hope to produce the results we want.

Last week, we read about Principle #1: The Happiness Advantage and Principle #2: The Fulcrum and The Lever. So lets get started. What are the first two principles Achor says can help us leverage happiness to our advantage?

1. Principle No. 1: The happiness advantage? This section of the book is filled with proof that the happiest people perform best in many areas of life, and in particular, in workplace productivity.

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My desperation to be at a football match meant I almost played into the hands of a scammer.

I nearly had a disastrous start to 2012, when my desperation to be at a football match meant I almost fell victim to a scammer.

Tickets for the game had sold out weeks in advance, and for various reasons I’d missed out on them. I’d even entered competitions to win some, but no joy.

So I thought I’d take a final punt and put an ad on the local sections of free classified ad website Gumtree.

I said I was looking for two tickets in the home end (although I support the away team) as I reasoned the odds were better. I put my mobile phone number on the ad and asked for people who couldn’t attend the game for whatever reason to call me.

To my surprise and delight, within 20 minutes of the ad going live on the site, I had a text: “Hi. I have two tickets for the game. I have ha

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What’s affecting me, my clients and other small-business owners this week.

The Big Story: S.B.A. Gains Clout?

The Small Business Administration is invited back to the grown-ups table (but reaction among small-business advocates is mixed).

Trade Shows: C.E.S. Loses Clout?

This year’s annual International Consumer Electronics Show had lots to offer for small business, and Startup America firms converged on the event. And there were plenty of models — and Justin Timberlake, too. But many feel that the show is losing its clout. Matt Ryan explains why you should be glad you didn’t go: “Only a handful of companies are very good about keeping secrets, and they don’t typically announce products at C.E.S.” But you could have seen these 12 quirky gadgets on display. Or checked out some really strange laptops. The Neat Company introduced new scanners aimed at small businesses. Tom Simonite says there were three gems hidden in Steve Ballmer’s final keynote speech. Apple had 250 n

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