Every Company Needs Viable Online Presence
from The Richmond Times-Dispatch
If your business does not have a presence online, better get with it. Every business should have a Web presence, experts say. Increasingly that's where shoppers, competitors and prospective business partners can be found. For $1,000 to $5,000, you can put your company online, either by yourself if you're savvy or by hiring a professional Web development team, said Hardy Koska, a counselor at Richmond SCORE, which advises small businesses. More

National Retail Federation Asks for Sales Tax Holidays in Obama Economic Plan
from The National Retail Federation
The National Retail Federation today asked President-elect Barack Obama to incorporate a series of national sales tax holidays into upcoming economic stimulus legislation as an important step toward rebuilding consumer confidence, saying short-term gains from consumer spending and long-term growth from job creation are both needed to achieve economic recovery. More

January Issue: Retail Owner’s Institute Newsletter
from ROI
The January Issue of the Retail Owner’s Institute Newsletter is available, and contains some useful information. Of special interest is the articles on benchmark performance metrics for the retail sector and identifying your most profitable customers. More

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Early Data Shows Holiday Sales Fell 2.3 Percent
from The New York Times
The latest numbers in a slowly unspooling string of gloomy holiday shopping data show that customer traffic during Christmas week fell 4.9 percent compared with 2007, according to ShopperTrak, a research company. ShopperTrak is still compiling numbers from the holiday season, with its final report expected Jan. 14. Releasing interim data on Wednesday, ShopperTrak said the full report would most likely show that customer traffic for the full holiday season plummeted 16 percent, and that total retail sales sank 2.3 percent. More

Seven New Year’s Resolutions for Business
from USA Today
This time every year, people draw up lists of New Year's resolutions: lose weight, exercise, quit smoking. New Year offers us a sort of "restart" button. Sure, we're not cleaning out our mental or physical hard drives entirely. None of us change ourselves completely. But we can use this time to "reboot"- take a pause and, hopefully, perform somewhat better going forward. That's why in business, too, it's a good idea to commit to New Year's resolutions. Here are some for 2009. More

Slideshow: 8 Ways to Boost Morale During Tough Times
from Inc.
Many cash-strapped employers are putting a freeze on pay raises, bonuses, and holiday parties this year. But while the economy is down, staff morale doesn't need to follow, according to Ed Hess and Charlie Goetz, the co-authors of So You Want to Start a Business? 8 Steps to Take Before Making the Leap. Here are their tips on how to keep employees happy. More

WWWD? Disney-style Marketing in 2009
from BusinessWeek
Walt Disney, the man, was equal parts technological genius and ancient story teller. He drew upon stories that reverberated with our humanity and told them in sizzling new ways that shaped memorable experiences. Simultaneously he knew how to leverage every powerful method of engaging the consumer and he swarmed them with multiple modes of his message always reinforcing the central stories. More