Having viewed several business plans over the years, a common (and very important) item missing from most plans is a breakdown of the company’s TAM, SAM and SOM in the marketing section of their plan. Wondering what these acronyms mean? Well you’re not alone – many entrepreneurs are not familiar with these terms. MORE >>

by Andrew Sobel, author of “ Power Questions: Build Relationships, Win New Business, and Influence Others ”. We’ve all experienced moments when we feel at a loss for words. Your boss criticizes your work. customer demands a discount. Your presentation gets off on the wrong foot and tempers flare. What should I have said? customer demands a discount. MORE >>

As an early stage investor, I meet MANY startups. Very often when I am talking to them about business model, growth plans, etc – they bring up white labeling. For many reasons, I think this is a bad idea for startups. As a young startup, its tough to build market share and leveraging someone else’s customer base is tempting. Period. MORE >>

The daily deals site tests tech tools for businesses. LivingSocial is moving beyond daily deals. Its next target? Your business. The company announced Friday it will soon introduce a line of tech tools to help merchants and small businesses with their digital marketing, customer loyalty, and point-of-sale operations. What kinds of tools? MORE >>

I had missed that the CBO's update to the Long-Term Budget Outlook has been released. Brad DeLong happened to mention it yesterday. If you are unfamiliar with the report don’t be shy; I find it to be more readable than many other government policy and budgetary documents. If you follow the extended-baseline, things look okay. Bold is my emphasis. MORE >>