Rumor has it that later this year, Facebook will start charging its members to use the service. Although this may sound like an April Fool's joke, the rumor's more malicious than that. Using this ruse, pranksters and malicious hackers have stirred up angry tirades against the social media giant and convinced thousands of Facebook members to click links to websites that hijack their computers, blast them with offensive pictures and install malware on their systems.

Hot off the press!  The SBA has proposed a rule that (if passed) could open up federal contracting opportunities for women-owned businesses in dozens of industry categories. Listen in as I interview Ana Harvey, director of the SBA's Office of Women's Business Ownership. We cover:

Q1: iPad: April 3rd marks the debut of the iPad, Apple's new tablet computer. What uses does your business have for the iPad or devices like it, and will you be buying one or more within the next couple of months?

Q2: craigslist: As you may have read in Entrepreneur's recent article, it's been 15 years since Craig Newmark started craigslist as an online arts and events list. Does your company use craigslist? Why or why not?

Q3: First Quarter Results: For companies whose fiscal year follows the calendar (i.e., January through December), the first quarter is now behind us. How did your company perform during the first quarter of 2010?

Q4: Homeshoring: The Vermont Teddy Bear Company, J. Crew and JetBlue all homeshore (the transfer of service industry employment from offices to home-based employees with appropriate equipment). Does your company now, or is it considering, homeshoring? Why or why not?

Note:  After blogging for Entrepreneur over at Top Shelf Reading Picks for a few years, we decided to add my reviews to the Daily Dose.  So, I bid welcome to my new readers. Hope you find these useful and fun.

Last night at dinner I got the inevitable question any book reviewer gets:  "What should I read next?"  Fortunately, this group was a bunch of corporate rock stars who often get asked to speak to crowds, so it was easy to recommend Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun.

This is the first in a new series that spotlights startups and entrepreneurs at work. Every couple of weeks or so, I will select a small business and provide its owner(s) with a list of questions about their business, their reason for starting it, their vision of success, and how they use SEO, blogging and social media in their marketing. I'll present their answers along with commentary about what I think they're doing right and how they might improve their online marketing efforts.

This week, the spotlight shines on Funley's Delicious, an all-natural snack food business based in Westwood, Calif., and its owners, Ashley and Shawn Mendel, whom I met at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif. What I find most compelling about Funley's is that its business model is perfectly tailored for social media marketing. Funley's doesn't just sell all-natural snacks, it markets a totally fun experience for the Funley's community. The products are simply something to snack on while you're having fun.

Without further ado, let the Q&A begin . . .

Opportunity abounds in a recession, especially if you have the vision to see what others don't, or the money to buy when others are selling. Think of Warren Buffett buying the railroads.

This type of opportunity in adversity can also be found at the medium- and small-business level. So today I ask -- Have you spotted your recession-era opportunity?

There's one really interesting question raised by the freshly signed healthcare reform bill, but it hasn't been discussed much.

Once there's affordable insurance available through state-based exchanges for individuals and small companies in 2014, how many people will leave their jobs?

The gloom is still out there for small business owners. But they've hit the point where they're saying, "What the heck -- I'm going to start hiring and investing in my business anyway," a new American Express Business Monitor survey shows.

AmEx surveys more than 700 small-business owners twice a year to gauge their feelings about the business climate. This time, nearly half say they're making capital investments in their business, and 28 percent have plans to hire. Both measures were markedly higher than in the survey last fall. Most of that planned hiring is part-time, though, with 18 percent now saying they're planning some temp hires.

As a consultant who works with startups and small businesses, I often meet with partners who are launching a business together. Whether they're married couples, high school buddies or friends from a previous job, they're usually in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, all lovey-dovey and optimistic about the future.

But, occasionally, I'll meet with partners who have started their business already, and now their relationship is on the rocks. Last week, I sat down with two partners--let's call them The Visionary and The Money Guy--who came in for help with their business plan. Though they both still shared a passion for their business, The Money Guy had invested a boatload of his own cash into the venture while The Visionary was burning through money at an alarming rate and had yet to make a single sale. Before long, the consulting session turned into couples therapy with the "husband" lecturing his "wife" about all the money she was spending on "shoes" and the "wife" complaining that her "husband" was pressuring her and "just didn't understand."

Q1 - Confusion: Earlier this week, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as HR 3590 or the healthcare reform bill. To say people are confused is an understatement. When it comes to healthcare and your business, how well do you feel you understand the issues? 

Q2 - The Impact: Based on what you know or have heard about the new health care rules, how do you think the changes will affect your business either now or in the future? 

Q3 - Lobbying: According to the Center for Public Integrity, more than $1.1 billion dollars was spent in 2009 lobbying members of Congress on health reform-related issues. How did you or your business participate in the lobbying efforts related to the passage or defeat of the healthcare reform bill? 

Q4 - Your Turn: If you could ask an expert three questions about health care reform and how it relates to your company or entrepreneurial efforts, what would you ask?

If you've ever googled a geographical area looking for a specific product or service, you know that local business listings pop up near the top of the search results. Google "dentist" followed by the name of your city and state or your ZIP code, and Google presents you with a list of dentists in the vicinity.

If you do business locally, try googling your business in the area you serve. If your company doesn't appear in the list, click the "Local business results for..." link above the Google Map results to see if your business is listed there. Based on what you discover, you have two possible next steps:

Hidden in the recently proposed Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 are a few provisions that would make it slower and tougher for entrepreneurs to connect with angel investors. That's got some entrepreneurs and funders steamed, saying the changes could cripple angel investing at a time when traditional bank loans are hard to find and make it even harder for small businesses to pull the economy out of recession.

When your business establishes a presence on Facebook, you make a commitment to be a good neighbor, a trusted Facebook friend. The emphasis is on being a friend, not a store, a business, or even a customer service help desk (although these days, your customers are just as likely to ask you a product support-related question via Facebook as they are through your website, but that's really a topic for another blog post). As my co-author Joe Kraynak and I point out in our forthcoming book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Facebook, if you are not careful, social-media marketing, particularly on Facebook, can do more harm to your business or brand than good. To improve your chances of success, adhere to the following rules of business etiquette when launching and managing a business-related page on Facebook.

 

Not everybody was rejoicing at the House of Representatives' landmark approval of its long-fought healthcare reform bill. Business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Retail Federation and National Association of Manufacturers are on the stump to get the Senate to block the bill.

Venture Capital investment has tanked since the downturn hit. But some sectors are starting to see growth in VC funding again, recent data from VentureDeal shows.

Biotech stayed the biggest funding subsector in the world of technology with $1.9 billion in funding in the fourth quarter of 2009, flat with the previous quarter. Internet-sector companies leapt ahead 38 percent, the biggest gain of any sector, snagging $1.8 billion in funding.