Noobpreneur is a mix of two words. The word noob which refers to newbie or a rookie, and the word entrepreneur, a person who takes risks to set up a business for profit. Although putting the word noob or newbie with a word that consists of taking risks do not usually sound good together, this blog makes it work.

Noobpreneur is a business blog that is full of information for people who are starting off as entrepreneurs or thinking about becoming entrepreneurs while being stuck at a different job. Articles such as Small Business Ideas for Budding Entrepreneurs really show how this website is meant to walk through from step 1 of being an entrepreneur to step 100 with you by providing you with articles that are full of knowledge. The blog is also fully interactive, provided with comment section that you can thumb up or thumb down which helps the new entrepreneurs to hear from other new entrepreneurs or different perspectives on a specific topic.

One flaw I have found with this website though is that it should try to minimize its advertisements as it pops up on inconvenient places such as middle of the page when you are trying to scroll down. Other than that, this blog is a great blog for not just new entrepreneurs but every type of businessmen.

Picture: Directly from noobpreneur.com

To sum up Maddie’s blog post, Wal-Mart has been underpaying its employees and their concern for raising the wages of the workers is the possible decline in stock from stockholders thinking that they are not getting enough value from the employers with the amount of money they will be paying them. However, a recommendation is shown that with a raise, Google had seen a 60% increase in stocks, the opposite of what Wal-Mart executives were assuming.

Although what happened during the increase of Google’s stocks (maybe a new Google program could have launched) is not disclosed, Google’s increased stock could be explained by using an example of another company. Zappos is famous for providing great care for their employees which includes covering for all of their health care which is a big sum of money to cover in the U.S. Zappos’s philosophy is that when employees are treated better, they will be happy and therefore being fully productive.

As much as raising wages for employees does not sound like a profitable decision for Wal-Mart on paper, looking at a company like Zappos can really give Wal-Mart a new perspective on what the impact of raising wages could be.

Picture:

(Web Photo). Retrieved from http://wpmedia.business.financialpost.com/2012/07/0717lululemon.jpg?w=620

Megan’s blog post on Chip Wilson’s recent comments have provoked me to wonder why big successful CEO’s such as Chip WIlson and Mike Jeffries (owner of Abercrombie and Fitch) put their companies at a significant risk by saying that a certain type of people (referring to people who may be obese or larger in figure than most people) are not fit to wear their clothing.

Then I realized it is because they have spent such a signifcant time trying to build brand positioning for their company that they do not want to take a chance to ruin it. Companies use brand positioning to create an image for themselves that they would like to be seen as for the general public. Since Chip Wilson had built its company to have the brand positioning of an athletic brand, him wanting to maintain that image probably provoked him to make a risky comment as such.

Although brand positioning is great to attract a target market, professionals such as Chip Wilson should know better to make comments that may be offensive.

Picture:

(Web Photo). Retrieved from http://www.mullen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/zappos-team.jpg

For smartphone owners continuously frustrated with having to replace the whole phone because of damage to a specific part of the phone, or consumers worried about the environmental impact of the smartphone waste, a solution has arrived.

Although this solution is not a reality yet, Phonebloks are smartphones that you can customize, upgrade, repair easily to fit your needs unlike the current smartphones in the market.

Dave Hakkens, the creator of Phonebloks came up with the idea of it and created a YouTube video that would present its concepts and gather interest from the viewers.

This video, which currently has almost 18 million views in two months has made it clear that an undoubtedly a huge number of consumers are interested, there are entrepreneurs willing to invest/help, and there are also many engineers who are willing to build prototypes for this idea. Hakkens has not just created a video that completed market research, but also established a way to move onto the next step for the idea and further develop it to satisfy the high demands of consumers. Although it is unclear whether Hakkens meant to do it or not, Hakkens has conducted a market research through this video.

References: Kremer, W. (2013, October 24). Phonebloks: the phone you can build like lego. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24490331

Picture: [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.thefoxisblack.com/blogimages//phonebloks-2-Copy.jpg

The Food and Drug Administration of the U.S. is taking actions to help its citizens by taking the necessary procedures to take out partially hydrogenated oils which are the major factor of trans-fats. Although there is a large demand for the trans-fat containing foods such as many types of pizza, hamburgers, potato chips, and other classic American foods, the FDA is putting a stop to trans-fat for the health of the citizens.

From a business stand point of view, this could hurt many businesses as the businesses who have used partially hydrogenated oils had no problem selling their products but due to the ban, they may have to find an alternative of the oil which could result in either a more expensive substitute or a substitute that would change how the food tastes or worst case scenario, both of those cases.

The article also mentions that a lot of food services had taken out trans-fat causing oils out of their products even before the FDA had announced the upcoming elimination of the oils. This could also be thought of as a business ethics problem. Does the producer use trans fat oils knowing it will be detrimental to customers but cheaper for them to produce or does the producer spend a little more to make a healthier product?

FDA’s actions will certainly have a significant effect on many businesses.

References: Mulholland, A. (2013, November 07). u.s. fda moves to ban artery-clogging trans fats, no timeline set.Ctvnews. Retrieved from http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/u-s-fda-moves-to-ban-artery-clogging-trans-fats-no-timeline-set-1.1532101

Picture: Markstein, G. (Photographer). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.tuscany-diet.net/lipids/trans-fatty-acids/

Sriracha sauce is one of the staples of many Asian restaurants and increasingly other restaurants as well. Some people can’t live without it, some Vancouverites even refer to the sauce as “Vancouver Ketchup” and smother all of their food items with it.

However, looking at the operations side of the high demand Sriracha sauce, they are not doing so “hot” as the sauce itself.

Complaints have been reported of odour coming from the factory that’s located in Irwindale, approximately 20 miles east of Los Angeles. The odour has been so pungent that some residents of Irwindale has started moving away from the city and has put in a formal complaint which has halted the plant from continuing production until action is taken.

It is the job of the person managing operations to make sure that an essential part of the business, the production, does not get stopped as it just did. The operations manager should have taken into account the odour that it will produce and taken actions for it. Now the high demand sauce will see a decrease because of a simple operations error. Nothing would hurt an owner’s greed more than having high demand but low supply because of a mistake.

References:

Huffington Post. (2013, October 29). Retrieved from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/29/sriracha-odor-lawsuit-stinging-stench_n_4172997.html

Hunt, K. (n.d.). 8 awesome rooster sauce tributes to help you cope with the Sriracha-pocalypse. Retrieved from http://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/huy-fong-lawsuit-sriracha-fan-art-to-cope-with-the-irwindale-city-lawsuit

As Twitter will soon go up on the stock market for various people to invest on, its future profits and growth must be considered. One of the most known ways for social media websites to make money is through advertisements.

As an active Twitter user, I have seen Twitter’s advertisement efforts for the past two years. Usually they have a sponsored tweet, which I assume shows up on everyone in the world’s timeline of tweets or a selected audience’s timeline, once every day or so as shown on my Twitter timeline in this picture:

And also advertisements can be done in trends which usually changes everyday or so as well shown in this picture:

If someone were to look into invest in Twitter when it goes public, I would be a little worried that Twitter only has two visible ways for a active user like me to see. Whereas its competition, Facebook, has 4 visible ads on its homepage that changes depending on the user’s interest and search history like on this picture: 

Although Twitter has promised new ways of advertisement as the Financial Times article reports, but whether or not their new strategies will work remains a question and new investors should definitely look into Twitter’s future growth regarding their advertisement value.

References:

Steel, E. (2013, October 7). Financial Times. Retrieved from Financial Times : http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e4b650f4-2f5b-11e3-8cb2-00144feab7de.html

Pictures: All the pictures are my own, captured from my own social media account.

LG, a Korean technology company, is known for their TVs, and appliances and are considered to be in the top line of competition in those markets. However, for the smartphone market, they are not even close to being in people’s minds as a leading smartphone company. To beat the likes of Samsung and Apple, LG has announced that they will be coming out with phones that have flexible curved screens which will be new to the market and especially different from Samsung’s curved phones. The curved phones are definitely an unexplored market in smartphones and LG could potentially succeed greatly through this venture but the answer of whether the curved screens will be a hit or not is vague at the moment. However, LG is showing the public that to get ahead and leap over the competition, you must explore the unexplored, and be innovative.

References: BBC. (2013, October 7). BBC. Retrieved from BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24426744

Picture: Silbert, S. (Photographer). (2013, may 21). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/21/lg-5-inch-oled-display-hands-on/

An article surfaced on the Globe and Mail which stated that popular punk band Nirvana, which was disbanded in 1994 with the death of the lead singer, Kurt Cobain, will be releasing a twenty year anniversary version of the band’s last CD, In Utero, now newly mixed. The article continued to talk about Nirvana’s history and stories of In Utero’s release back in the 1990’s.

However, reading from a business point of view, what I read was a marketing technique used by DGC Records whom own the right to Nirvana’s last CD. Kurt Cobain’s grunge appeal, a big fan base, and controversy around Kurt Cobain’s death all contribute to Nirvana’s popularity and DGC Records’s marketing department is taking full advantage of that by releasing the same album with slight modifications twice. DGC Records has already released a 20th anniversary album for the band’s 2nd studio CD, Nevermind. Since Nirvana’s CD’s were such a hit back in the 90’s, there is no reason that the huge fan base of Nirvana, the collection fanatics, and also the adults who spent their teens listening to Nirvana will hesitate to buy this product.

References: Wheeler, B. (2013, October 6). The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/in-utero-reborn-beautiful-warts-and-all/article14681110/

Picture: DGC. (Photographer). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.baeblemusic.com/musicblog/8-28-2013/Nirvanas-In-Utero-Anniversary-Reissue-Is-Massive.html

After successful years of being on top of the competition of the mobile phone industry, Blackberry Ltd has posted its biggest quarterly loss of a whopping 965 million dollars. After reading the article on Blackberry’s fall, I saw connections to the company’s decline and business topics studied in class.

One of the main reasons that Blackberry remained relevant throughout the competition between smartphones was because of its physical keyboard which appealed to businessmen not wanting to write extended emails on touchscreens. If Blackberry Ltd had done a SWOT chart and successfully acknowledged that one of their greatest strengths were their physical keyboards, the quarterly fall may have been prevented. Speaking of the SWOT chart, Blackberry Ltd has correctly assessed the opportunity section and went after the unexplored market of touchscreens. However, by doing so they abandoned their strength which was the physical keyboards. Not only that, they entered the market of touchscreens in 2013 when its main competition, Apple Inc, entered the market in 2007 and has been dominating in it. Blackberry Ltd had failed to assess its company appropriately through tools such as the SWOT which resulted in its downfall.

References:

Silcoff, S. (2013, September 27). Inside the fall of BlackBerry: How the smartphone inventor failed to adapt . Retrieved from The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?page=8

Picture: RIM. (Photographer). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://agbeat.com/gadgets/smartphones-gadgets/blackberry-z10/