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Dyan Machan
Smart Ideas
Websites Wooing Tomorrow's Thomas Edisons; Machan: An 'industry of failure,' flooded with folks trying to build a better spatula.
SmartMoney.comEveryone wants to be an inventor. So when I had the opportunity to test-drive an idea at Quirky, a company that helps people commercialize their product ideas, I jumped at the chance.
Can Billionaire Ron Baron Stay Afloat in Today's Market? Ron Baron could do no wrong as a stock picker in the '80s and '90s (and has a $132 million home to show for it). But can he regain his magic touch in this market?
SmartMoney.comA literature fan who met Ron Baron, the 68-year-old founder of mutual fund family Baron Funds, might be reminded of Voltaire's fictional character Candide -- the incorrigible optimist who lived "in the best of all possible worlds." Baron's ...
Small Businesses Go Solar; Machan: With the price of solar power dropping, some small firms are seeing the light.
SmartMoney.comInstalling solar power at their Shelter Island, N.Y., Ace Hardware store seemed like the right thing to do for the planet, say owners David Gurney and Meredith Page. But now that the brother-and-sister ownership team have the system, ...
Obscure Insurance That Hurts Small Businesses; Machan: If you can't get a so-called surety bond, you aren't invited to the party.
SmartMoney.comConstantly stuck between a rock and a hard place," is how Dominic Dunlap describes his business, DCG Roofing Solutions. Finding work isn't the problem: There are all kinds of government contracts to be grabbed near his Des Plaines, Ill., ...
Lessons From Failed Franchises; Machan: Franchise success stories get a lot of press, but one in 10 fails each year.
SmartMoney.comGetting info about how to start or buy into a franchise is easy. Finding out how many of the nation's 825,000 franchise units go belly up can be devilishly hard. The International Franchise Association doesn't keep such ...
How Food Fads Can Nourish a Start-Up; Machan: Going gluten-free may be good for you -- as well as for these companies.
SmartMoney.comShould you have wanted gluten-free pizza in the hamlet of Fountain Hills, Ariz., a little more than a year ago, you would have been out of luck. Now three pizzerias in town sell it. That's a reflection of the current antiwheat ...
Goldman Sachs + Warren Buffett = Not Many Jobs; Machan: Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs's joint program should be cranking out jobs by now. Why isn't it?
SmartMoney.comGoldman Sachs announced in 2009 that it would invest $500 million and partner with Warren Buffett to help small businesses grow and create jobs. The response was enthusiastic: Certainly with that much star power, business genius and ...
The Wishdom of Crowds; SmartMoney Magazine: Serial entrepreneur Howard Lindzon has tapped into the never-ending babble of the stock market. Should investors listen in?
SmartMoney.comGoing to meet StockTwits founder Howard Lindzon is like looking for a black-market arms dealer -- or maybe online-games dealer is more fitting. We climb steps in a San Diego building with the feel of a roadside motel. There are no signs on ...
Why an Ex-Con Could Be a Great Hire; Tax breaks and other incentives make felons surprisingly attractive for some jobs.
SmartMoney.comA few years ago, Dunkin' Donuts manager Luke Halloran had some tough jobs to fill at a store he ran in one of Chicago's sketchiest areas. It had been robbed several times, a body had been found in a nearby trash container, and ...
Small Business Spending Cuts That Won't Hurt; Quick tips for savings on shipping, credit-card fees and even the electric bill.
SmartMoney.comBelt tightening: In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, it's deja vu all over again. The good news is that, since the last startling economic dip, many small businesses have had time to figure out some great ways to slim down without ...
Lady Gaga, Small-Business Icon? A new business school case study says entrepreneurs could learn a lot from the over-the-top pop star.
SmartMoney.comShe's on track to earn $100 million this year, she's won five Grammy Awards, and she's the most-googled person of all time. And now Lady Gaga has earned another distinction: entrepreneurial icon. Her meteoric rise from NYC ...
Small Manufacturers Rethink 'Made In China'; Rising wages and quality concerns are leading some to bring production back to the U.S.
SmartMoney.comLike scads of other small American companies, Simple Wishes, a Sacramento-based maker of breast-pump bras, has been having its products manufactured in China. But lately, co-owner Joy Kosak has had second thoughts. The company's ...
Why Some Entrepreneurs Call ADHD a Superpower; Some small-business owners say they've been able to harness the strengths that come with their learning disability.
SmartMoney.comPeople who have it sometimes like to call it their superpower, but in reality, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a learning disability. Still, it's surprisingly common among high-achieving business founders, and ...
Bouncing Back With the World's Greatest Investors; Four money managers who trounced the market during the crash and recovery explain how they did it, and tell us what stocks they're buying now.
SmartMoney.comHistory and horizon. The challenge of investing is somehow to keep an eye on each: to read the often-shrouded lessons of markets gone by while simultaneously sharpening one's focus on the opportunities that lie ahead. One eye on the ...
History Lessons for a Pet-Food Start-Up; Pets.com may still be the most famous failure of the dot-com era; the founders of PetFlow.com are studying it closely.
SmartMoney.comIn the New York City offices of PetFlow.com, three Pets.com sock puppets sit prominently on a shelf. "A reminder," says PetFlow cofounder Alex Zhardanovsky, "of what not to do." Nearly a dozen years after the original ...
Mind Games: Lessons for the Irrational Investor; Behavioral economist Dan Ariely studies all the ways that our psychology disrupts our financial lives.
SmartMoney.comMore than a quarter century after the accident, Dan Ariely, 44, a professor at Duke University, still struggles with typing. In a laboratory in Israel, where he grew up, he was standing near a magnesium flare when it exploded, inflicting ...
U.S. vs. China on Small Businesses; What Uncle Sam could learn from its Pacific Rim rival about nurturing start-ups.
SmartMoney.comTime was, China followed our lead on matters entrepreneurial. Now, there may be a few things we can learn from China—especially when it comes to the government's role in channeling aid to start-ups.
The Market Vs. the Mind
SmartMoney.comIf investors were truly rational, as traditional economics says they are, they'd never get caught in bubbles—or pay 2 percent a year in mutual fund fees, says Dan Ariely. His research and that of other behavioral economists suggests ...
Do You Want Warren Buffett's Job? Heading Berkshire Hathaway after the Oracle of Omaha could be an unappealing gig.
SmartMoney.comAt this weekend's Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting, much of the buzz surrounded David Sokol's recent departure. But while visiting guests and the media hashed over the legal and ethical questions behind the former ...
Are Small-Business Credit Cards a Plastic Trap? Why entrepreneurs are getting stuck with higher rates and fewer consumer safeguards.
SmartMoney.comHave you noticed your mail's been heavier lately? Sharon Doherty has. The founder of Vellus Products, a Columbus, Ohio–based maker of dog shampoo, is getting swamped with credit card offers for small businesses, the entrepreneurial ...
Royal Caribbean CEO Steadies The Ship; Richard Fain's Royal Caribbean is filling up its big boats—and making lots of money.
SmartMoney.comAt a recent team-building event with employees, Royal Caribbean Cruises CEO Richard Fain tripped up—literally—when it was his turn to play the role of a cruise-ship waiter. While carrying a trayful of dirty glasses, he stumbled, only to be ...
Small Businesses, Big Exporters
SmartMoney.comShe may not know it, but Kentucky farmer Lanette Freitag, 63, is leading a pack—made up not of the alpacas, sheep and llamas she keeps outside Lexington, Ky., but of the small American businesses that are boosting their sales abroad. In the ...
How Small Businesses Can Beat Deadbeats
SmartMoney.comIt's a drag when your clients take their merry time paying their bills. But there's a solution that dates back to the Mesopotamians: selling your invoices and cashing in on the money you are owed by selling that debt to a third ...
The $100 Billion Foreign Currency King
SmartMoney.comMichael Hasenstab keeps an eye on markets around the world from his perch at Franklin Templeton. He may be one of the top managers in one of the hottest areas of investing, but Michael Hasenstab is refreshingly Clark Kent–ish. From Franklin ...
Can the Flower Industry Learn From Amazon?
SmartMoney.comBryan Burkhart and Sonu Panda are two of the least likely candidates to start a floral business. Both hail from the software industry, neither knew roses from ranunculus until recently, and Panda is severely allergic to flowers.
Medical Marijuana's Impact on Entrepreneurs
SmartMoney.comTIM SMALE SPENT MONTHS RAISING the capital to start his business—but he sees himself as more than simply an entrepreneur. For Smale, 51, making money is beside the point. He and his wife, Jennifer, were selected last summer by state ...
Woody Brock's Outlook for the Next Decade
SmartMoney.com“I’LL HAVE NO MORE QUESTIONS,” SNAPS WOODY Brock. “Can’t you see I am proving a theorem?” Brock, 64, has five degrees, from schools like Harvard and Princeton, in subjects like mathematical economics. When he’s exasperated, which seems ...
Q&A With Paul Volcker
SmartMoney.comBack in 1999, when Paul Volcker was lecturing at New York University’s business school, he asked students to raise their hands if they expected stock prices to rise at least 10 percent a year over the next decade. “Every hand shot up,” ...
Small Biz: Building Your Own Niche
SmartMoney.comWhen federal regulators drew up rules a while ago to create a new category called “light-sport aircraft,” aviation buff Kirk Hawkins saw an opportunity to create a plane for a new kind of pilot—the true recreational flier. The new rules ...
Should You Outsource Your Work?
SmartMoney.comIt’s a practice that most of us associate with big corporations, but outsourcing works on a small scale, too: Sole proprietorships and start-ups can tap skilled workers in low-wage countries. Not only can you hire someone to do your ...
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SmartMoney; Fundraising From Friends and Family
WSJ.comBank lending to small businesses is still in the dumpster, and venture capital investment remains way down. But even if times were flush, some entrepreneurs would rather get funding elsewhere. Business owners like Erica Duignan Minnihan and ...
Fundraising From Friends and Family
SmartMoney.comBank lending to small businesses is still in the dumpster, and venture capital investment remains way down. But even if times were flush, some entrepreneurs would rather get funding elsewhere. Business owners like Erica Duignan Minnihan and ...
CEO Interview: Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical
SmartMoney.comNot too long ago, Mad Money TV host Jim Cramer said Andrew Liveris might be the “single worst CEO ever to run a major company.” One could see the reasons why.
Your Business vs. Cyber Bullies
SmartMoney.comIn the old days, if you were mad at a merchant, you could muster an angry mob and have him tarred and feathered and run out of town. These days all you have to do is write a nasty report on a complaint message board. But it’s worse: The ...
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Is Start-Up Savvy in Your DNA?
WSJ.comRoss Staszak and Aksel Güngör have just graduated from Drexel University. Both want to start companies, and both are wondering whether to study entrepreneurship in grad school. But perhaps the question they should be asking is this: Do they ...
Is Start-Up Savvy in Your DNA?
SmartMoney.comRoss Staszak and Aksel Güngör have just graduated from Drexel University. Both want to start companies, and both are wondering whether to study entrepreneurship in grad school. But perhaps the question they should be asking is this: Do they ...
Q&A: Procter & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald
SmartMoney.comLike many CEOs, Bob McDonald has filled his office with family portraits, each bathed in white light, on clear glass shelves. First there is Crest, then comes Tide, then Gillette. McDonald has more than 60 products on display, and he has ...
Video Results ( of )
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Waiting for a Correction 5:33
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Distressed Investing: Part 1 2:40
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Distressed Investing: Part 2 4:21
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Distressed Investing: Part 3 1:09
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2008 Investor Roundtable, Part 1 2:15
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2008 Investor Roundtable, Part 2 5:08
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2008 Investor Roundtable, Part 3 2:11
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2008 Investor Roundtable, Part 5 2:49
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Spotlight: Ron Baron 3:39
Dyan Machan
Dyan Machan writes about small business and entrepreneurs for the monthly column Smart Ideas. She is also a senior writer of SmartMoney magazine focusing on chief executives of global companies and money management.
Prior to SmartMoney, she was a senior editor at Forbes magazine for more than a decade. Earlier in her career, she wrote for Financial World magazine, Institutional Investor magazine and Money Management Letter. Machan graduated cum laude from Kent State University.
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How to Pay for a Wedding
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How to Manage Your Grocery Bill
Your grocery bill is your biggest weekly household expense, so keeping a lid on it will go far to stretch your dollar.
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