Entrepreneur.com: Most franchise owners will tell you that they could have easily saved quite a bit of money from the costs incurred opening their first units. This begs the question: If this is such a universal truth, then why didn’t the franchise companies show them how to save this money as...

The Wall Street Journal: When 25-year-old Justin Rockwell was laid off from his job as a Web developer last fall, he began scrounging for freelance gigs. He also found himself spending a lot of time on Twitter, answering Web development problems for fellow Twitterers. Eventually, Rockwell realized t...

Digital Journal: The recession hasn’t negatively impacted chocolate sales. Folks will celebrate that. If we continue to act in our best interest, and eat more chocolate, its sales won’t slide; and we’ll be better off because of it. Consumer patterns of spending predict that chocolate c...

Mental Floss: Can you imagine if, instead of “TiVo-ing� the latest episode of Lost, you were “Bongo-ing� it? “Bongo� and “Lasso� are just two of the 800 possible names the marketing folks kicked around before settling on TiVo. The final name was cobbled together from “TV� and the...

The Miami Herald: As the South Florida real estate market disintegrated and the number of jobless rose, 40-year-old Jorge Gil Muela made a young man’s decision. The five-foot-seven, 235-pound property appraiser walked into a recruiting center in a Kendall strip mall to join the Army. He was to...

Wired: The iPod was not invented in 2001 in Cupertino, California. It was invented in England in 1979, by “serial inventor� Kane Kramer. This is not a story of intellectual property theft, or of big companies putting the screws on the little man. Instead, it is just the retelling of another old ...

Associated Press: For many of the millions of Americans who lost their jobs over the past year, the next step is starting a business. And many of these enterprises are being launched out of the entrepreneurs’ homes. Owners of new home-based businesses find there are pros and cons to running a ...

Thanks to all those who participated in our latest poll. According to the numbers, most of you read inspirational material to stay motivated. Coming in second was picturing the future. Those who review their vision/goals and those who surround themselves with positive/accomplished people came in thi...

Digtriad.com: Hard economic times are acting like instant fertilizer on an industry that had been growing slowly: home vegetable gardening. Amid the Washington talk of “shovel-ready” recession projects, it appears few projects are more shovel-ready than backyard gardens. Veggie seed sale...

The Thinking Putty Blog: Crazy Aaron returned from the New York Toy Fair and thought some shout-outs were appropriate. The Cricket Toy - For those awkward moments, a keychain fob that chirps like a cricket. Its a gimmick, but a funny one. And Jeff Anderson, the creator, is a fun guy who knows how to...