$40 Million In Sales From Snuggies - What The Heck?

I recently blogged about how well the video game industry was doing despite a struggling economy. Well, it appears that another industry has found similar success. That would be the blanket industry.

Likely by now, you have heard of the Snuggie™. It's nothing more than a blanket with sleeves. Yes, plain and simple. It sells at two for $19.95, and allows people to work on a laptop, eat, and use the TV remote while remaining under the comfort of a blanket.

I've seen the commercials a million times, but I had no idea how big this product is. According to MediaPost, 4 million of these blankets were sold in a three month period. That comes out to just under $40 million in revenue.

Allstar Marketing Group is the company behind the product. They are based in Hawthorne, NY, and make the blankets in China. They're product is so hot that they struggle to keep up with the demand, but are expecting even more in sales in the next three months.

I have to admit: If a friend of mine tryed to convince me to invest in this idea, I would have laughed in his face. But after $40 million in sales in just three months, I'd be feeling mighty stupid right now.

For more details about this product, visit:
www.getsnuggie.com

iPhone Vs. Blackberry

Don't worry. This won't be a long blog. I'll get right to the point. Blackberry sucks. iPhone rules. Hands down.

Before you react, please understand that I have had both phones. I'm not speculating, and I'm not just repeating what I've heard. I am speaking first-hand.

Blackberry is like having an Atari (if you know what that is), and iPhone is like having a Playstation 3.

Blackberry is like having a go-kart, and iPhone is like having a Lamborghini.

Blackberry is like having a small black and white TV with three channels, and iPhone is like having a 60 inch flat screen HD plasma with 1,000 satellite channels.

Put simple, Blackberry sucks. I don't know what the big hype about it is, but there is nothing about the Blackberry that is worth any hype. I'm thinking maybe it was the best phone around, until the iPhone was released. I don't know; I can't say for sure.

But I can say this for sure: If you try the iPhone, you will never go back.

Oh and yes, it is well worth switching to AT&T Wireless. If your network doesn't work with the iPhone, you're with the wrong network.

More Business Woes: Boeing and Starbucks Make More Cuts

With demand for commercial jets losing altitude, Boeing has reported a $56 million net loss for the fourth quarter of 2008. This forces them to increase their recent estimate of 4,500 jobs to cut to an astounding 10,000.

In addition, Starbucks who just closed 600+ stores last year, has to close another 300 stores and cut nearly 7,000 workers as it continues to stagger from overexpansion and a sharp sales slowdown.

Drinking coffee on airplanes may soon be a thing of the past. In the words of Captain Scully: "Brace for impact."

Post Office May Stamp Out Six-day Delivery

The Los Angeles Times reports: The nation's postmaster general says delivering mail six days a week may no longer be feasible for an agency facing deficits in the billions.

John E. Potter told a congressional panel that cutting mail delivery by one day a week may be necessary to curb a projected loss of more than $6 billion for this fiscal year. He asked a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee to lift the six-day delivery requirement mandated in 1983.

"It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable," he said.

But the proposal was not well received by some subcommittee members.

"I am very disappointed that Postmaster Potter would come before the committee and advocate, as a potential solution to this economic crisis, the elimination of the requirement of six-day-a-week delivery," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), ranking member of the Homeland Security committee.

Potter attributed the Postal Service's $2.8 billion debt at the end of fiscal 2008 to decreased mail volume and higher costs. The service has been hit hard by an increase in e-mail usage. Mail volume dropped by 4.5%, or more than 9 billion items, last year, to about 202 billion items, according to the service.

But lawmakers aren't convinced that reducing service days is the best solution.

"Rather than helping it recover, I believe cutting services would ultimately be a death spiral for the postal service," because business would look elsewhere, Collins said.

"Cutting back the days of postal service should be a last, not first, option to keep the postal service afloat during these difficult economic times," said a spokesperson for Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), who is the subcommittee's chair.

Potter also asked that Congress alter the postal service's payment schedule for funding retiree health benefits, which he described as a "crippling cost burden."

He said the agency had cut costs by freezing executives' salaries, halting new construction and reducing its workforce by more than 120,000 employees since 2002.

For the full article, visit:
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-post-office29-2009jan29,0,373829.story

When To Say When

How do you know when to give up in business? That answer is easy - never. Never, ever give up in business. But it may be reasonable sometimes to give up on a certain business idea. So, how do you know when this is a wise thing to do?

Well, when things are consistently moving backwards, not forward - this is a strong indicator that it may be time to pull the plug. Remember that its normal to lose money in the beginning, and perhaps feel like you are wasting time. But with a successful business, you should eventually start to lose less and less money as time goes on.

The key is to be honest with yourself, and honest with the situation. For instance, lets say you invested $1,000 into a business idea. You find that as time goes on, you have to keep investing $1,000 a month to keep things afloat. Over a 12-month period, not only have you not made any profit - but you feel that you need to start investing $1,500 a month. This, obviously, is a business idea that needs to get axed.

On the contrary, lets use the same scenario and say that you were seeing an increasing return on your investment each month. January - $100, February - $200, March - $300, etc. Well, this may be a idea to hold on to because by October you're going to break even and by November you'll be profitable. Even if your expenses went up, the pattern shows that you are closing the gap - and that is exactly what you want.

Never give up on an idea that is showing all the signs of eventually becoming profitable. Always remember that it is normal and common for it to take months or years to reach profitability.

There are no hard rules, however. Use your discernment and learn to develop entrepreneurial instincts. A true entrepreneur, although patient, is not stubborn - but instead, knows when to say when. If you find that you did make a stubborn mistake, don't become a repeat offender.

Are You A Serial Entrepreneur?

There are two types of entrepreneurs. Both are risk-takers, and both are driven. One, however, will start a business and quit if it fails. The other one will start business after business, until he finds one that works. The latter is called a serial entrepreneur. Does this describe you?

Consider this recent article from Entrepreneur magazine:

Clemson University professor Wayne Stewart has taken a close look at how serial entrepreneurs differ from their more novice counterparts. In one study, Stewart and his colleagues concluded that serial entrepreneurs were bigger risk-takers, more achievement-oriented, and had a higher preference for innovation. "The results," he says, "suggest that there is a psychological profile that drives serial entrepreneurs, predisposing them to multiple venturing."

As for whether serial entrepreneurs are born or made, Stewart tends toward the former. While environmental influences such as parenting, education and culture do affect behavior, innate characteristics like leadership and intelligence manifest themselves very early on in life, he explains.

But what is certain is that serial entrepreneurship is an extremely important economic and social phenomenon. "Estimates are that about one-third of new ventures are initiated by serial entrepreneurs, and their firms tend to be larger," Stewart says, noting that higher business success rates may be attributable to prior experience and the resulting ability to leverage a wider network of key customers, suppliers, partners and financiers--all crucial to business creation. The subject, he concludes, "deserves more research in order to provide better prescriptions for practice, and to facilitate policy that encourages entrepreneurial activity."

For the full article, visit:
www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/successstories/article199436.html

Sprint Nextel is On Its Way Out

A series of companies went out of business in 2008, including several airlines, banks, and retailers. Just one month into 2009, Circuit City was added to that list. Now it looks like Sprint Nextel will be next.

Here are some snippets from a recent USA Today article:

Sprint Nextel has announced 8,000 job cuts and other cost-saving measures that CEO Dan Hesse told employees in an internal memo kept the company from having to cut 3,000 additional jobs.

Sprint's decision to cut 15% of its workforce is the latest in a series of moves aimed at turning around the ailing wireless carrier. Sprint has been losing customers by the thousands, and the bleeding continues. The cuts will save $1.2 billion annually, the company says.

Despite major improvements of Sprint's two cellphone networks, many consumers still regard Sprint's service as substandard.

Rumors of a Sprint acquisition have been swirling for months, in part because the shares are so cheap - hovering around $2.49.

As part of its cost cutting, Sprint will freeze salaries and suspend matching contributions for its 401(k) — actions that saved the company from 3,000 more job cuts. The pay freeze also applies to Hesse, says Sprint spokeswoman Leigh Horner.

Sprint lost more than 1 million subscribers in the third quarter and is expected to lose as many in the fourth quarter.

Sasha and Malia Dolls - A Good Business Idea?

I'm sure by now that you've heard of the Sasha and Malia dolls that are being sold by Ty Inc., the company that makes Beanie Babies. The dolls were made as replicas of President Obama's daughters.

First Lady Michelle Obama recently expressed her discontent about this by releasing a statement saying: "We believe it is inappropriate to use young private citizens for marketing purposes."

In response, a spokesman from Ty Inc., released a statement saying that "the dolls are not modeled on the first daughters."

Obviously though, we know that they are lying.

Prior to this, plenty of companies have been profiting off of various forms of Obama paraphernalia - cookies, waffles, t-shirts, hats, watches, gold coins, etc.

Did Ty Inc. go too far by throwing the Obama girls in the mix? Or was this a great business idea?

My personal answer to these questions is: Hmm...I don't know.

2009 Blogging While Brown Conference

The annual Blogging While Brown Conference will be held in Chicago, Illinois on June 19-20, 2009.

This is the only international conference for bloggers of color, and its their 2nd annual event. Last year's conference was extremely successful.

Hosted at the high-tech University Center, the 2009 conference promises to bring the best of the 2008 conference with more opportunities to network and learn about the issues and concerns that face new media content creators.

Blogging While Brown was created in response to widespread dissatisfaction with the level of diversity in some of the largest blogging conferences.

One of the new features of the 2009 conference is the Beginning Blogger’s Boot Camp. This session is geared towards new bloggers or those interesting in starting a blog, providing training on the technical aspects of blogging.

More information about registration, housing, scheduling, sponsorships, and the conference location is available at www.BloggingWhileBrown.com. They also have plenty of photos and video from last year, including the official conference video.

I will personally be there, and hope to see you there as well.

New Service Helps Black Entrepreneurs Obtain Business Credit

There are a record number of new Black-owned businesses being formed every year. Unfortunately, very few of them have access to business credit. Many of them run on low cash flows, and as a result - most are expected to fail within the first 5 years.

Choice Credit Group, a Black-owned firm in the Detroit area, has recently launched a service specifically designed to help African Americans obtain what is needed to get business loans, business credit cards, and a business line of credit.

The service is available to existing small business owners including CEOs, home business owners, network marketers, and more. The service is not available to individuals who are running a non-profit organization, or who have not started a business yet.

For more details, existing business owners should visit:
www.BlackBusinessCredit.com