Because of continued troubles at Sprint (NYSE: S), the company's CEO, Gary Forsee, essentially got the boot. In fact, over the years, the CEO spot has been pretty tough – as seen with companies like Disney (NYSE: DIS), Boeing (NYSE: BA), and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ).

So if big companies have trouble, what about small ones? Unfortunately, hiring a CEO is extremely difficult for any company.

"For an early stage company, the wrong CEO can be costly," said Gordon Gould, the founder and CEO of ThisNext. "Divorcing the executive can mean wasted time, money, momentum and possibly the company itself."

So, if you have doubts about a candidate, it's probably better to wait. "To get the right CEO, it takes time," said Dipanshu Sharma, the founder and CTO of V-ENABLE. "So allocate at least three to four months for the process." Actually, his company recently hired a new CEO.

Sharma believes it is critical to hire a recruiter. "A top-tier venture capital firm recommended a recruiter for us," he said.

And the process was strenuous: "We set up a weekly call with the recruiter and the board/management. Every week we would prioritize the candidate list. After a few weeks, we got candidates that we had initial conversations with. Of those we found that matched our selection criteria, we held several rounds of interviews. In the final process, we flew them to our offices and introduced them to a broader team before finalizing the candidate."

It was also important to spend time on creating a candidate profile. As for V-ENABLE, the company focused on a CEO with:

• Demonstrated success in previous CEO roles
• Team player
• Growth oriented
• Raised capital and has experience in M&A
• Worked in wireless and has relationships with wireless service providers

"Our board and management went through several iterations to make sure we were covering the short term as well as long term needs for the company," said Sharma.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

A recent study has found that employer efforts to cheer up employees -- getting them treatment, phone counseling, etc. -- makes sense for more than just altruistic reasons.

The research, conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health, found that, on average, depressed employees who receive aggressive attention from their bosses worked about two weeks more during the year-long study. Workers are also more likely to keep their jobs when they receive aggressive help, which can reduce the costs of recruiting and training new employees.

According to the Associated Press, "The researchers haven't finished a formal cost-benefits analysis but early results suggest savings from more hours worked averaged to about $1,800 per employee. That far exceeds the program's initial $100 to $400 per worker cost. The benefits also likely exceed other costs, including drugs and therapy too, the researchers said."

Hopefully this will change the way that so many employers perceive depression and its treatment. The productivity costs of depression can be just as real as a broken leg, and employers should provide aggressive treatment options, both for their own benefit and the benefit of the worker.

If you're tired of poisoning your kids with lead-painted toys from China or killing your pets with melamine-laced Chinese pet food, you may be wondering what you can buy that's made in America.

To its credit, China is trying to fix its reputation. Last week, according to CBS News, China's product safety chief Li Changjiang offered assurances that toys made in China would be "safer, better and more appealing. Before Christmas, we will certainly provide children safer, better and more appealing toys. They will certainly like them." To bolster that claim, on September 11th, China signed an agreement to prohibit the use of lead paint on toys exported to the United States.

As I posted in July, I expect that there could be a business opportunity to sell products to U.S. consumers that are made anywhere but China. Then I cited examples of an upscale New York grocery with no Chinese seafood and a New Jersey-based natural producer of premium dog food blended from meat and vegetables. However, I have not seen much in the way of new developments in the last few months.

So what are the choices for those who want to buy products made in the USA?

Early this week, I met with Michael Gregoire, who is the CEO of Taleo Corp. (NASDAQ: TLEO). His company is a leader in HR software.

Instead of talking about the fine points of his industry or tech gobbledygook, he spent most of his time talking about the look-and-feel of his software and website. "If you go to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) or Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), do you need a user manual?" he asked. "Of course not. It's natural. The technology doesn't get in the way."

In fact, over the past year, Gregoire has had a laser focus on improving his software's usability, and based on what I've seen so far, it's been well worth it. Interestingly enough, the system has the feel of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPod, not a boring HR application. "We think design and usability will be a key differentiator going forward and very important for growth," said Gregoire.

So how can a small business make sure its products showcase good design and ease of use? Some entrepreneur's I've interviewed recently told me how they have been able to follow what I would call 'the iPod way.'

Known for some of the best soup recipes on the island of Manhattan and immortalized in a famous 1995 episode of Seinfeld, the "Original SoupMan," may find himself in a soup kitchen of a different kind if his chain's financial troubles persist.

Al Yeganeh was reportedly the real-life inspiration for Seinfeld's uncharitably nicknamed "Soup Nazi" (portrayed by Larry Thomas), who refused service to George Costanza and Elaine Benes. Yeganeh was not interested in profiting off the Seinfeld name, however, discouraging employees from referencing the sitcom and frowning upon his supposed "nickname."

While he is known for his tight-ship practices and regimented way of doing business, he is also known for his exquisite varieties of soup. But even the best crab bisque, turkey chili or even Mulligatawny may not be able to save the Original SoupMan chain from angry franchisees and frustrated customers.

Most young companies dream of getting their first heavyweight customer -- a huge player, central to their industry, like Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), or better yet, a General Electric (NYSE: GE).

Snaring such a customer can change an entrepreneur's fortunes overnight. Of course. But how do you gain the attention and trust of a large and important company? It's certainly tough -- but there are some strategies to help out.

First of all, make sure you are in a niche that large companies don't consider core to their business, advises Steve Waldis, who is the CEO and founder of Synchronoss Technologies (NASDAQ: SNCR). The company develops software for the telecom industry and even powers the activation for Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. This was the result of a deep customer relationship with AT&T (NYSE: T).

Over the years, Mattel (NYSE: MAT) has built a portfolio of valuable toy brands -- Barbi, Barney, Dora and so on. In the highly competitive global economy, strong brands are extremely valuable. They act as a barrier to entry and allow for premium pricing.

Yet, brands are also vulnerable.

In the case of Mattel, the company has ordered a massive recall of 967,000 Fisher-Price toys manufactured in China because of high levels of lead in paint. There will be refunds as well.

It's a tough lesson for Mattel. And, I'm sure management will try to implement systems to prevent this from happening again.

But are there lessons for small businesses? Or are such issues (I think this case falls under a larger umbrella of environmental issues faced by businesses) mostly concerns for big companies?

Well, I think small business owners should pay attention. After all, Mattel has the resources to deal with a crisis. But, for a small business, the result of such a catastrophe is likely to be bankruptcy or a severe decline.

Some Lessons

First of all, it's a good idea to start understanding the environmental laws. Keep in mind that you may be liable even if you did not cause the problem. Basically, Congress has some strict regulatory requirements and may demand remediation – which can be costly and time consuming.

Call it creepy; call it vaguely unsettling; call it the worst thing to befall the current generation of adolescents, but social networking site MySpace, a subsidiary of News Corp. (NYSE:NWS), is here to stay, at least until the next-best thing comes along. And with the surging popularity of its comment feature, where one friend (or foe) can comment on another's pictures, blog entries, or profile, MySpace is teaching a thing or two to big business.

A recent BusinessWeek article notes that companies such as Federated Department Stores (NYSE:FD) are beginning to employ customer comments on their web sites, asking for product reviews, ratings, and even photos or videos.

While the "tell-a-friend" feature is old hat at web-based concerns such as Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) or Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), the practice is unexplored territory for some traditional brick-and-mortar consumer names. By the end of 2006, however, 43% of e-commerce sites gave consumers the option of providing comments; at the end of 2005, only 23% offered this service. I guess it is a smart risk if you stand behind your products and can guarantee many more "good" reviews than bad.

In the Small Business Connection at USA Today, Jim Hopkins notes that small businesses can also benefit from incorporating some of MySpace's tricks, soliciting customer comments and starting blogs.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Software for free from Microsoft? Now that sounded too good to be true, but it is. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) wants to tap the market of small businesses (under 25 employees) that don't use accounting software. It's giving them a stripped-down version of Office Small Business Accounting, renamed Office Accounting Professional 2007, which was first released in September 2005 to compete with Peachtree and Quick Books accounting software packages.

The free version will be called Office Accounting Express 2007. You can download now it for free or wait to get a copy in the 2007 Microsoft Office release, due out in early 2007. This 2007 release will include Microsoft Small Business 2007, Microsoft Office Professional 2007 and Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007. Microsoft's first attempt at accounting software in 2005 didn't do very well. Many thought its Internet interface was weak and stayed with their old favorite -- most likely Quick Books or Peachtree Accounting.

Microsoft had to get some version of its 2007 accounting software out there for people to see if it hoped to have any chance of capturing the market for accounting software. Upgrades for Quick Books and Peachtree 2007 accounting software packages are already available on their websites. Microsoft's Office Accounting Professional won't be available until early next year. By then it will be too late to capture anyone who upgrades to the latest versions of the two most popular accounting packages.

As the author of Bookkeeping for Dummies, I had to take a look. Free always makes me curious. After downloading, the first screen you get after registering is a screen recommending that you upgrade to the paid version. You're not even given a chance to try out the free stuff first. Not a surprise for Microsoft. I think it makes good business sense to give the user an introduction to the free stuff before asking them to buy something.