I was surprised to see a plea for donations from Wikipedia.  The plea stated that if every user would donate only $5, Wikipedia could operate for a significant period with no additional donations needed.  I was under the impression that crowd sourcing and open...

Guest post by Sara Mackey With commercial banks and other traditional lending organizations cutting significantly back on financing small business, other alternative and non-traditional funding has become a necessity when considering your business model. By exploring...

Earlier this year, Sears Holdings announced it will shutter three percent of its stores, or 120 stores.  Sears also reported same store sales decrease of 5.2%- 4.4 percent at Kmart stores and 6 percent at Sears.  According to the company: "Kmart's quarter-to-date...

by Joshua Monen The Internet has given rise to new kinds of business models while at the same time reinventing tried-and-true models. There are Internet business models that result in passive income and those that work through active income (exchanging hours for...

Netflix saw a meteoric rise in its stock price in 2010 after successfully weathering the devastating financial crisis that stifled wages, depressed consumer demand, and threatened just about every other retailer in existence. This was largely thanks to its relentless...

This summer, Blockbuster was full of glee. Titled “Blockbuster Rescues Furious Netflix Customers,” a press release in July promised to give Netflix customers an oasis after their upstart competitor blundered with its failed Qwikster service. The company launched a...

After allegedly losing money for the last 11 seasons the NBA decided to alter its business model. This led to a 149-day lockout that claimed the first 7 weeks of the regular season and cost the NBA an estimated $480 million. As with most labor disputes the issue at...

As we review 2011 we can’t help but look at Congress’ performance (or lack thereof) this last year. And while this is not a “political” blog I thought it would be interesting to assess Congress’ “business model” and ask the question, “Is Congress’ business model...

You have probably seen HR Block commercials on television advertising free tax preparation. At the same time, you have probably seen TurboTax commercials advertising free live assistance with their software. There seems to be a perfect storm brewing in the world of...

Last year, Wal-Mart dramatically reduced the number of products (SKUs) offered at all their stores.  This SKU rationalization plan was based upon the premise that consumers wanted clean-looking stores with just the major brands.  Known as brand fatigue, the logic was...