Say you have $20,000 to $100,000 to invest. You can put it in stocks, hope to make a 10% return over time, and if the market moves up, you could walk away with an extra $2,000 to $10,000 before taxes. Or, you could take that same investment, and put it into something that could generate far greater returns.

James Altucher, Managing Director of Formula Capital, says that a better way to reap big returns is to exploit your employer. (See video.)

Continue reading Exploit Your Employer for Big Returns (with Video)

Exploit Your Employer for Big Returns (with Video) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading An Interview with America's Sexiest CEO: Hilary Rowland

An Interview with America's Sexiest CEO: Hilary Rowland originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you take a look at a book on microeconomics, you'll see a section on bartering. Generally, it will say that the process is fairly inefficient. Hey, that's why societies have invented currencies, right?

This is all true. Yet, for those who are trying to run a business, bartering may be a good thing. Perhaps the biggest reason is that it saves on cash. It also can be a great way to build relationships and perhaps even get new customers.

Continue reading Entrepreneur's Journal: Save some bucks with bartering

Entrepreneur's Journal: Save some bucks with bartering originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Around for decades, SCORE is an organization that -- for free -- provides mentors for small business owners. Hey, even top entrepreneurs Bill Gates and Michael Dell got help from mentors. It's crucial.

Well, this week SCORE launched a social network to help with the process. In fact, they formed an alliance with PartnerUp, which has already built its own small business networking platform.

Continue reading SCORE Community: The Facebook for starting a biz?

SCORE Community: The Facebook for starting a biz? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 21 May 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As the dust settles from Google's $1.65 billion purchase of Internet video hub YouTube, serious questions remain. Such as: What on earth were co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen thinking when they had these silly photos taken? The same question could be asked of the founders of Google Inc.(NASDAQ:GOOG), PayPal, Digg and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) after their big payouts. Is it a symptom of striking it rich, or a carefully planned public relations scheme we just don't understand?

You decide: Check out our analysis of what went right with these promotional shots... and what went certifiably wrong.

After review, we must ask: What have we learned? Is it simply that young tech titans will forever be geeks at heart? Or could it be that -- suddenly rich and famous -- they feel the need for self-depreciation, to "keep it real" so-to-speak with the millions who obsessively use their products?

That may be unfair. Instead, we place the blame on the photographers -- these mysteriously esoteric people with an arsenal of bright turtlenecks, cargo pants and Jungle Gyms -- whose sole responsibility is to make sure that our beloved dot com billionaires look... well, not silly.

Then again, who are we to judge? Might one of us become unbearably silly in front of the camera, like Hurley and Chen did recently in front of a TGI Friday's, were we to find ourselves with the ability to purchase five -- that's right -- five Cadillac Escalade SRX Crossovers? Possibly. Though not in front of a Friday's.

B. Brandon Barker is the author of the novel Operation EMU.

Silly Valley Portrait Studio: What were these young billionaires thinking? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 25 Oct 2006 15:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.