On Employee Management

“There have been eight values each employee has been bound to live up to: Do the right thing, help one another, deliver raving service, produce quality always, exceed expectations, embrace change, accept social responsibility; and earn a reasonable profit.”

- Chris McMurry, CEO, McMurry Inc. (“The 20 Best Magazine Publishing Companies to Work For,” Publishing Executive, October 2007, p. 30)

“If you’re going to run a company like ours, with people everywhere, you have to be careful about who you’re hiring, because you have no idea what they’re doing all day.”

- Jimmy Wales, Founder, Wikipedia (“The Knowledge Maestro, Fortune, 17 September 2006, p. 36)

On Retailing

“Underlying all your planning is The Golden Rule: The Right Item, at the Right Time, in the Right Place, at the Right Price. The Golden Rule is the first rule - the cardinal rule -- the foundation, in fact, of good retailing."

- Dorothy Finell, "Specialty Shop: How to Create Your Own Unique and Profitable Retail Business," p. 9

On Ecommerce or Internet Retailing

“Conversion rates are too ambiguous. Rather than just looking at conversion rates, retailers should look more closely at the clickstream data and web pages that lead to conversions and page abandonment … The key is getting the consumer to trust the web site.”

- Ken Burke, founder of MarketLive (“Internet Retailer 2007: Report from the Conference,” Internet Retailer, August 2007, p. 40)

On Search Engine Marketing

“Just the act of making your pages’ title tags unique and descriptive can improve your pages’ presence in Google and even the number of click-throughs you get. Better yet – like most good SEO – such changes also benefit users directly; in this case, better titles lead to better browser bookmarks, more effective sharing on social networks or social bookmark sites, and so on.”

- Adam Lasnik, Search Evangelist at Google (“Luring the Spiders: SEO Secrets from the Experts at Google, Yahoo and More,” Publishing Executive, June 2007, p. 33)

“When it comes to optimizing paid and natural search engine marketing efforts, retailers are better off using three solid, relevant keywords rather than going for 100… Search engines will change their algorithms all of a sudden and the burst of traffic you get from 100 keywords will disappear. Smart and relevant keywords go the distance.”

- Mitch Liebermann, President and CEO of OneWayFurniture.com (“Internet Retailer 2007: Report from the Conference,” Internet Retailer, August 2007, p. 48)

On Balancing Your Business with Family

“If your husband doesn’t support the idea of your working at home, don’t make the mistake of assuming that he will change his mind after you start your business. He may come around if and when you start making money with your business, but there are no guarantees.

Make sure he knows how important working at home is to you and your children. When you’re first deciding whether to work at home, calculate together where you can cut expenses. Work together as a team on your daily schedules. These will change as you begin your business and as it grows.”

- Cheryl Dumas, "It’s a Jungle Out There and a Zoo in Here: Run Your Home Business without Letting It Overrun You," p. 132

On Becoming Successful

"To be successful you have to be passionate. You have to be smart in planning. You have to really know who your target market is and how you're going to get your product to market, says Madelyn Alfano, owner of Maria's Italian Kitchen, one of California's largest woman-owned restaurant chains. "You have to educate yourself and find people to help."

- Tamara Monosoff, "Secrets of Millionaire Moms" P, 56

“The essence of success is that it is never necessary to think of a new idea oneself. It is far better to wait until somebody else does it, and then copy him in every detail except his mistakes.”

- Aubrey Menen, “The 101 Greatest Business Principles of All Time”, p. 108