Small Business Minute: Marketing to women
By Brian Leaf
Every marketer knows that women have a huge influence on buying decisions. So why haven’t more companies figured out what motivates women to buy?
Women pull the purse strings. They have their hand in 80 percent of all buying decisions. Yet author Martha Barletta says that businesses tend to position their products based on “normal buying behavior.”
Unfortunately, that...
Tom Still: Wisconsin’s tax system must adapt to meet changing technology needs
By Tom Still
MADISON – The first study of Wisconsin's tax burden in 25 years was designed to answer one overriding question: Is that burden fairly distributed among the rich, the middle class and the poor? The conclusion, announced last week, was a mildly convincing "yes" -- but that won't be the end of Wisconsin's never-ending debate over tax policy.
The...
Doug Neilson: Milwaukee’s tourism industry made progress in 2004
By Doug Neilson
For Small Business Times
With the holiday season in full swing and the New Year almost upon us, I thought it would be an appropriate time to use this year-end column to recap some of the tourism-related highlights for 2004 and look ahead at what bountiful gifts 2005 promises to bring to Milwaukee-area visitors.
There were a number of...
Tom Still: Business Plan Contest fits with Wisconsin’s entrepreneurial push
By Tom Still
MADISON – At November's life sciences venture conference in Madison, three companies among the 21 presenters from seven states had something in common: BioSystem Development of Middleton, NovaScan of Milwaukee and Nerites of Sun Prairie were the top three finishers in their category of the first Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest. Just six months after competing in...
Jack Faris: Who’s Been Naughty, Who’s Been Nice?
By Jack Faris
With the Christmas season in full swing, holiday shoppers are in a mad rush to find just the right thing for that special someone on their gift list. For those who are ready to wrap the big gifts, how about a new armoire for the family television --originally priced at $425, now available for only $295....
WisBusiness: The weirder side of WARF’s patents
By Brian E. Clark
WisBusiness.com
Over the past eight decades, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, has helped patent and manage discoveries that have profoundly affected human health.
And, some might say, human history.
It started with research by UW-biochemistry professor Henry Steenbock, whose work in the 1920s lead to the eradication of the rickets, a childhood bone...
