Business News Gets Personal

July 30th, 2008

Gone are the days when Business and Financial news existed primarily to inform investors in near real-time how much money they’ve won or lost on their investments. Recently, business and financial news stories have crossed over to the mainstream and are making headlines in a big and bad way.

When I was in the US a few weeks ago, the evening news was dominated by lines of desperate people camped out in front of IndyMac in California to withdraw their money from the failed bank. Those images belong to another era, circa. 1929.

Last week in a suburb south of Boston, 53 year old Carlene Balderrama committed suicide just an hour and a half before her house was scheduled to be foreclosed and sold in auction. Her suicide note instructed her husband and son to use the life insurance money to pay for the house. Continue reading »

Filed under Corporate, Entrepreneurship, Unsolicited Advice | Comment (0)

Are you dressed for the boardroom or the beach?

June 27th, 2008

Corporate culture strongly influences the dress code for employees, but If you make the move to be your own boss, it is up to you to determine what is appropriate. Lately I have noticed that all entrepreneurs are not up to this particular challenge! The freedom to work barefoot from home some days may feel liberating, but don’t get carried away!

Believe it or not, the woman pictured was walking into a quarterly Business Breakfast Event for 250 people hosted by the municipality of The Hague. The program included a welcome by Mayor van Aartsen, followed by an annual award ceremony and a 10.000 euro prize for Business of the Year. There were no extenuating circumstances, the event was at 8:00 am, not an after work happy hour. The venue was a new office center, not an amusement park, and there was no theme such as luau or beach party, etc. Based on the facts, I can only wonder how a woman in her mid to late forties would choose a denim mini skirt, open toed espadrilles and a floral top with a plunging neckline for this business occasion. Women are scarce enough at these events; you don’t have to take such desperate measures to be noticed! Continue reading »