Online Business Blog

A few years ago, I received an iPod touch as a Christmas gift. It was a very fun toy to play with and I did find a few nice uses for it, such as a quick tool for jotting down notes, but I mostly used the thing as an mp3 player.

In the end, most of the non-music uses for it were replicated by my run-of-the-mill cell phone, so there was no real need to pay extra just so I can have two devices for those little extra tasks.

Right now, I cant name a genuinely useful thing that an iPod touch can do that my run-of-the-mill cell phone cant really do.

So often, we hear about some new technology or new product line that will enable you to do things that you havent done before or allow you to do things in a completely new way or at least the promotion of the product tries to convince you of this idea.

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Small businesses ranked Idaho as the friendliest state to set up shop, according to a survey released Tuesday.

Other states in the top 5 were Texas, Oklahoma and Utah — all of which scored an “A+” — and Louisiana which scored an “A,” according to the poll by Thumbtack.com and the Kauffman Foundation.

Overall rankings were based on how firms rated their state’s support of small businesses, how easy they think it is to start a new business there, and whether they’d encourage others to do the same, according to Thumbtack.com, an online matchmaker that connects service professionals, including accountants, freelancers and electricians, with prospective customers. Read Full Post…

If youve checked out the thrift stores, outlet stores, and consignment shops in your area and still havent found the clothes youre looking for, you can still save some significant money on your clothing bill by just planning ahead a bit with your clothes shopping.

Ill use my oldest son as a shining example of what Im talking about here. When he was five, he went through a growth spurt, causing him to jump from shirts sized 3T (which still fit him) to youth small shirts in about three months, which meant he blew through two sizes in that period.

We were simply scrambling for clothes that were appropriate for him.

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After a stellar first-quarter performance, investors are hoping the stock market can maintain its momentum into the holiday-shortened week ahead.

The major indexes all posted gains last week, closing out a blockbuster quarter.

In the first three months of 2012, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 8.1%, the S&P rose 12% and the Nasdaq advanced 19%.

It was the biggest first-quarter gain for the Dow and S&P 500 since 1998, while the Nasdaq logged its best first quarter since 1991.

If history is any guide, April will be another strong month.

The S&P 500 has risen every April for the past five years, according to Schaeffer’s Investment Research. Read Full Post…

WASHINGTON – If the Supreme Court follows its usual schedule, by the end today nine people will know the fate of the Affordable Care Act and the individual mandate. It will likely be nearly three months before the rest of us know how the Justices voted today.

That said, there can be little doubt that those looking to strike down the individual mandate are heartened by the performance of Paul D. Clement, the attorney representing the state of Florida and the other petitioners. His delivery was more polished compared to Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who at times during Tuesday’s arguments appeared to stumble in his defense of the law.

But observers of the Court say people should not read too much into that. “Mu

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ST. LOUIS – The projected shortage of primary care physicians in the coming years, along with a relatively high turnover rate among physician assistants and nurse practitioners will challenge medical groups as they look to embark on new collaborative models of healthcare according to a new survey by Cejka Search and the American Group Medical Association (AGMA).

Their 2011 Physician Retention Survey shows that the turnover rate for nurse practitioners and physician assistants is 12.6 percent, more than twice the combined, adjusted physician turnover rate of 6 percent.

As medical groups turn to new, collaborative models of care, such as patient-centered medical homes (PCMH), finding effective means to limit employee turnover and keep care teams intact will take on even greater importance.

“Recruiting and retaining physicians and advanced practitioners is more critical now than ever,” said Lori Schutte, president, Cejka Search, a physician, allied health and healthcare executive search firm. “In t

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Over the years, Sarah and I have used two different approaches to cut down on the cost of baby wipes. Both of them save significant money over buying wipes at the store.

Our first approach involved doing almost exactly whats depicted in the picture above. We simply took a roll of paper towels, cut them in half in both directions (so we had four pieces of the roll of equal size), and removed the roll in the middle. Then, we put one of those quarter-rolls into a baby wipe container.

After that was done, we mixed together 2 cups hot water, 2 tablespoons of baby bath soap, and one tablespoon of baby oil.

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