Biz Bits

The latest essential buys for business travelers

3M Privacy Filter

www.3MPrivacyFilter.com • $40-$150

Stop those wandering eyes from sneaking a peek at your computer screen. Using unique microlouver technology, the filter darkens side views so only those directly in front of the screen can view it. It also helps protect the computer from scratches, reduces screen glare, and improves screen color and contrast.

Samsung BlackJack II from AT&T www.wireless.att.com • $400 Sleeker, smarter and easier to use than the original (thanks in part to a front jog wheel), this mobile device features Windows Mobile 6, which provides access to a calendar, email and more; 3G download speeds; integrated GPS; Microsoft Office Mobile; a 2.0 megapixel camera; and more. It’s all you need to stay connected.

 

HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System

www.headplay.com $500
($550 including internal, rechargeable battery)

This portable visual headset and multimedia center delivers an immersive, high-resolution viewing experience for movie watching, internet use or gaming, perfect for that long flight when you’re too tired to work. It connects directly to DVD players, iPods, Macs and PCs, and the headset displays a virtual 52-inch screen.

Sony Reader Digital Book

www.sony.com • $300

You lug enough stuff around while traveling for business—computer, files, carry-on bag—chances are good you’ll leave the hardback books at home. Instead, bring along this compact reader, which stores up to 160 eBooks and has enough battery power for more than 7,500 page turns. Browse more than 20,000 eBooks on Sony’s CONNECT eBook Store and other participating websites.

OUT With the OLD

Advertising is all about selling an idea, and when three ad honchos write a book together, you’d better believe they have some important ideas on sale.

Death to All Sacred Cows (Hyperion Books, $22) is what it sounds like: a diatribe against some of the old rules of business. Beau Fraser, David Bernstein and Bill Schwab of ad agency The Gate Worldwide outline how going with your gut can bring enormous success and satisfaction, and how if some of the old rules seem counterintuitive, it might be because, well, they don’t make a lot of sense. The writing is sharp, witty and based on the principles that have brought their agency international success. It’s a fun and empowering read for people on any rung of the corporate ladder. Here are five lessons from the herd of sacred cows being led to the slaughter.

NUMBERS DON’T ALWAYS WORK

Research statistics, earnings, stock prices and other figures businesses depend on don’t always tell the whole story. If the numbers defy common sense, follow your instinct.

PEOPLE MATTER

Alpha personalities and herd mentality are both common and ineffective. Allow people to work together or individually as they need to, and don’t suffer bad behavior, no matter how talented the perpetrator.

CONSIDER MARKETING WHEN BRANDING

The market for most products is totally saturated. What sets products apart is brand, and marketing clues people into what the brand is all about. It shouldn’t be an afterthought; it should be a consideration during every stage of development.

TAKE RISKS

Many moguls got that way by making investments that were considered reckless. Follow their lead; crazy ideas, sometimes even bad ones, have value in the creative process.

THE CUSTOMER ISN’T ALWAYS RIGHT

Remember that you are in the business you’re in because you know something about it that your clients or consumers don’t.

TOP5 BLUE-RIBBON WINNERS

The following companies made the most Fortune magazine lists—including Fortune 500, Fastest-Growing and Best Companies to Work For—in 2007.

MAKING MONEY IN THE METAVERSE

BY LEE GIMPEL

How to profit from the virtual world of Second Life

Since launching in 2003, Second Life, the online virtual world, has grown from 64 acres to more than 65,000— about as big as the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. This “metaverse”—where people socially and economically interact with each other in cyber space—has more than 11 million registered Residents, and at any given time, about 50,000 people are logged on. Every day, Residents from all over the real world spend more than $1 million on Second Life.

While not an overwhelming economic opportunity, the so-called virtual world metaverse has tempted many big companies as well as smaller entrepreneurs. Companies like Pontiac and Ben & Jerry’s use Second Life to promote their real businesses as an alternative form of advertising. Some, like IBM, use it as a virtual conference room. Other entrepreneurs have made a full-time salary from the world.

Daniel Terdiman, author of The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Second Life: Making Money in the Metaverse, offers the following advice on building a business in a virtual world—with the caveat that the concept is so new, there is no model yet.
• Figure out what your business will be and what goods or services to sell. Second Life commerce falls into broad categories like real estate and fashion. As with any bricks-and-mortar business, don’t make rash decisions; Terdiman advises spending a few months looking before diving in.
• Except for buying land, expenses are fairly minimal. Space for a store may cost $5 to $20 a month, whereas an entire island will set you back $1,675, plus monthly maintenance fees of $295. Prefabricated buildings can be bought; a castle may cost $50 while more modest digs are cheaper. Custom “builders” (i.e. graphic designers) charge $15 to $60 an hour. Doing your own graphics work may require an investment of a few hundred dollars for a software program like Adobe Photoshop.
• More than money, the biggest investment to get a business going is time. Users spend more than 20 million hours on Second Life each month, and some business owners devote enough time each week to qualify as having a second job.

Terdiman says many businesses aren’t profitable for two to three months. While some vendors make tens of thousands of dollars, many subsist on meager sums that will not replace a regular 9-to-5.

Just because you build it or design it, avatars won’t necessarily knock down your virtual door to buy what you’re selling. Like setting up an e-commerce site or opening a store in a mall, profiting in Second Life requires marketing. Terdiman says word of mouth is particularly important. Post your wares on the forum inside Second Life or do a niche blog on the “regular” web that drives traffic to your virtual storefront.

It’s a brave new world out there, where the rules are still being written. But, according to Terdiman, there’s still a lot of opportunity.