New York SBDC Research Network

Publication 910 (10/07). I have a peculiar interest in the fact that while some codes are well-delineated, others are cut off at the three-digit level.

The weather this week has been far too gray, which should not be the color of autumn. To get around this (if you actually want a little color), this page offers three links to cool videos of changing foliage in different parts in Maine. (You'll need Adobe Flash Player to view them.)

It seems the trend to be unique is gathering strength. We notice it in the types of requests we get and in the success stories that we come across. People want their wedding to be "unique" and "special" with personalized favors and cake toppers. Customized m&ms, ketchup bottles, hershey bars, cereal boxes, soda bottles, gift cards, soaps, design-your-own totes and jeans, it seems like whatever you can think of, you can probably personalize it. I enjoy my iGoogle page with all my own source choices grouped in one place - we've become accustomed to having our way and we want to express our individuality through the products we buy. We've been seeing ways to personalize your car or your kitchen mixer. "Gravanity" Trendwatching.com This is an interesting monthly bulletin and you can also read all of this sites well-considered trends. Pimp my KitchenAid Charles Perry for Los Angeles Times Aug 09, 2007 Soup up your kitchen mixer or fridge or toaster

This week I was trying to track down information on travel-related websites and found Consumer Report’s Webwatch . This site has been around since 2002 (and it seems most of their reports are from 2004-2005), with a stated mission to “Provide unbiased and practical research on Web site publishing and business practices; help devise guidelines for credibility; expose practices that are a cause for consumer concern; and recognize good practices” and to “Promote consumer awareness of important issues on the Web that relate to our mission.” Their reports focus on several industry areas, including travel, search engines, health, e-commerce and finance. They also offer these same industries guidelines for improving their web credibility. These five guidelines to promote Web credibility would be helpful for anyone working with a business website.

Joel Saltzman is a "speaker, facilitator, consultant, and creator of the 'Shake That Brain!' system - for innovative solutions and transformative thinking." He has an entertaining newsletter that one can subscribe to for free. It's from that website that the title article came from. It could have just as easily come from his Shake That Ethics Brain blog, which is described as "Business Ethics Made FUN, EASY and PRACTICAL."

I've posted about web-based directories for angel investors before, but here's yet another site that your clients can use. This one focuses squarely on angel groups by region within New York State, so it's right up our alley: "Angel investor groups across New York State" http://bianys.com/node/76 (Thanks [again] to the Business Incubator Association of NYS for pointing this out to me.)

Have you recently used the links we provide in the online resource center section of nyssbdc.org? If the answer is "no," you're not alone. I have to admit that I'm not familiar with all of them. The list is available here . Do you have any favorite links that we haven't included? Are there things here that just shouldn't be? (The answer is yes, but which ones?) We try to keep up with broken links, but we haven't evalutated for the quality of the sites in a while. I don't feel that we have to offer our visitors the world, but a quick glance at some important resources would be great. What do you think? Feel free to comment here, or send me an email .