Business Feeds

Google is continuing its late-year spending spree, today unveiling its agreement to purchase Teracent, a startup that specializes in algorithms to serve custom display ads.

The San Mateo, Calif.-based startup has developed machine-learning algorithms that mix and match different elements of an advertising creative to serve, in real time, tailored ads that boast far greater relevance than the traditional, one-size-fits-all banner ad.

“We think that this technology has great potential to improve display advertising on the Web,” Google Vice President Neal Mohan and Engineering Director Joerg Heilig wrote in a blog post announcing the deal.

The acquisition fits into Google’s plans to bulk up its presence in display advertising, a market led by Yahoo, and crowded with other online heavyweights such as AOL and Microsoft.

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As more and more small businesses are growing, so are the number of small businesses using computers and workplace emails. If you are one of the small businesses that are providing their employees with computers and work emails, be aware that you should have an explicit email internet policy with your employees available.

There are several important reasons for this. The first is that employees may claim an expectation of privacy with their emails if you don’t explicitly say that you may be monitoring their emails from work issued computers. The Wall Street Journal reports that courts are increasingly ruling that if companies have not explicitly told employees that they are monitoring employee emails, then they don’t have the legal right to do it. And the scary part? Th

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Learn the tips and tricks of creating sound financial projections and valuation for a business plan.

Entrepreneurs create business plans for a variety of reasons. Where a business plan is used to seek funding from business angels or venture capitalists, care must be taken to develop a sound financial plan. The financial section of a business plan is critical to convincing investors of a company’s potential and how the company will create a return on investment required. At the heart of a good financial plan lies the following:

· Income statement projections

· Balance sheet projections

· Cash flow projections

· Break-Even Analysis

· Valuation of the company

· Amount of funding required

· Return on Investment and payout to investors

It is convenient to assume that financial projections alone suffice but that may lead to the business plan being chucked into the trash bin by investors faster than one can say Jack Robinson. The key

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Here is a list of the most helpful online resources for women who run small and home-based businesses.

Women who choose to start their own businesses often face many more obstacles than their male counterparts- especially if they are balencing their new careers with motherhood. Fortunately, the Internet has a wealth of resources dedicated to helping women entrenprenuers get the information and support they need to run a successful business. One just needs to know where to look.

For any woman who is thinking of starting her own business,the following list contains some of the most essential and comprehensive sites directed at women entrepreneurs.

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Next year will begin a rapid transition to a new type of memory and it will require memory makers to be nimble financially and technologically to make the shift. This comes just as memory companies finally start to make money after years of bleeding red ink.

What that means is not all of the memory makers will be able to capitalize on this change, as some have found themselves in dire financial straights. Due to rampant overcapacity, memory was sold at a loss for almost a two-year period. As a result, many of the memory makers in Taiwan are in precarious financial health.

The Taiwan Economic News reports that many memory manufacturers have reached the limit of how much money banks will loan them.

For instance, the Bank of Taiwan limits outstanding loans to a single industry to 10 to 20 percent of its net worth and up to NT$230 billion (US$7.09 billion).

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Small business failure may not seem like an enjoyable topic, but for those about to invest both time and finances into a new business venture, having knowledge of the subject can keep you from becoming part of the failure statistics.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, less than half of all small businesses survive beyond the first 5 years. In 2008, there were just over 627,000 new business start-ups and approximately 595,500 closures. The numbers are equally distributed across sector lines and have remained the same since the early 1990’s.With these sobering statistics in mind, it’s important to discover the reasons why small businesses fail.

No Viable Market/Poor Sector Choice

Countless individuals have “great business ideas” and move forward without analyzing the market demand for their product or service. Researc

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90% of BT apprentices convert to full-time team members

With a large proportion of small business owners seeking specifically skilled individuals to expand and secure the future of their business post-retirement, modern apprenticeships are presently providing an adaptable solution.

But are small business owners fully aware of all the benefits an apprentice could provide? Overseeing a scheme that occupies over 700 trainees every three year cycle, Dave Walsh, head of apprenticeships at BT, seemed the perfect candidate to quiz on the merits of modern apprenticeships and their value to small businesses.

Dan Drage: How many apprentices does BT recruit across a 12-month period?

Dave Walsh: It varies due to business requirements year by year and also where our skill shortages are.

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One of the worst human resource decisions a business owner can make is to terminate an employee without having an action plan and access to reliable documentation.

The worst human resource-related decision a business owner can make is to keep unproductive, disruptive employees on the payroll. However, the second worst decision is to fire employees without developing and following a plan of action that protects the business from grievances and law suits.

Unfortunately, entrepreneurs often become intimidated by the fear of negative repercussions from terminating an employee. There is good reason to be concerned because terminations performed unfairly, discriminatorily, or without proper documentation can lead to formal grievances or law suits.

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The economy has left many small businesses in the dust when it comes to unfair trade practices. Bigger and more powerful businesses have started scalping the talent from smaller businesses. The scary part? Sometimes there is nothing that small business owners can do about it.

CNN  reports how one small business owner almost lost it all because her employees were stolen away from her by a larger rival. Ms. Debra Killian details how she lost 10 of her employees to her rival. Not only did her rival allegedly steal her employees, but it also allegedly stole her pending loans which were worth close to a $1 million dollars, her client lists, and her confidential files.

The worst part was that after fighting a lengthy legal battle that lasted four years, she ended up with a losing verdict on all counts. <

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