When eBay Talks . .
.
In reference to your September 2003 issue, and the article
"Let the Bidding Begin," my thanks to you for [helping]
"eBayers-to-be" get their feet wet in this undertapped
marketplace. The majority of netpreneurs are still not using eBay
to their full advantage, so there is plenty of room to grow.
One resource you forgot to mention is [using] audio on
auctions-we are one of the few companies currently augmenting
listings with audio introductions, allowing our bidders to hear the
descriptions while eliminating apprehensions and potential
buyer's remorse.
The name of the service is www.audio generator.com, and it has
increased the "stickiness" and final bid prices by
literally 100 percent. Bidders can now get another sensory
experience by listening to the listings, as well as reading them.
Another feature of the service is the ability to make audio
postcards to e-mail to past bidders, so we can alert them of new
listings. (These talking postcards have tripled bid count
totals!)
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I recommend Audio-Generator.com and hope the readers will give
it a glance. Just don't tell my competitors! Keep up the great
work.
Dave Bernstein
Owner
Prism Entertainment
Phoenix
The MEP
Generation
As president of [The Modernization Forum,] the national trade
association of Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers, I
was stunned to read in your August 2003 "Smarts" article,
"End of the Road," that "over the past 12 years,
numerous Fortune 500 companies have received millions from the ATP
[Advanced Technology Program] and the MEP."
I challenge you to name a single Fortune 500 company that has
received any funding from the MEP. You won't, because MEP
customers pay for the services they receive. Moreover, MEP serves
small and midsize manufacturers almost exclusively.
A more important question is: What is the federal
government's return on its investment? For its $105 million
investment in fiscal year 2001, MEP clients completing projects
that year reported new and retained sales of $2.2 billion and
another $441 million in cost savings. Furthermore, these results
are based on survey responses from only one-fourth of the 21,000
companies receiving services that year. An independent review
conservatively estimates that the federal government receives four
times its annual investment in MEP through personal and corporate
income taxes resulting from the projects.
Two-thirds of all MEP clients have fewer than 250 employees.
They are small entrepreneurs like Timber Tech for whom $35,000 in
cost savings is "tons of money." Congress and the White
House received more than 20,000 letters from these small
entrepreneurs in the last two years, urging that MEP be fully
funded. I venture your readers would miss MEP.
Michael Wojcicki
President
The Modernization Forum
Livonia, Michigan
Editor's Note: The sentence should have read " .
. . numerous Fortune 500 companies have received millions from the
ATP." The MEP should not have been included. Entrepreneur
regrets the error.
Labor
Pains
In your August 2003 "Staff Smarts," Chris Penttila
writes: "Some industries, including engineering and nursing,
are already suffering from a shortage of talent."
I strongly disagree. I am a one-stop technical solutions
provider who has an M.S.E.E. and over 10 years experience working
at the silicon-software interface. I help companies ship reliable
products by developing and implementing innovative and
cost-effective solutions for hardware and software design issues
discovered early in the design cycle, yet I have had only a handful
of interviews since my most recent company reorganized and have yet
to find steady work.
[Penttila] should tell that to the 124,000 electrical
engineers who are out of work while there are 294,000 foreign
noncitizen, non-immigrant guest-worker engineers in the United
States (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
www.ieee.org). These guest workers are mostly H-1B and L-1 visa
holders. Tell that to the California Economic Development
Department, which is almost bankrupt because so many engineers have
exhausted their benefits. Tell that to any company's HR
department after they post an engineering position [online] and are
deluged by resumes.
There is no shortage of engineering talent in the United
States. There is, however, a shortage of companies willing to pay a
reasonable wage for engineering talent. They prefer, instead, to
take advantage of and abuse policies allowing companies to bring in
cheap foreign labor at the expense of U.S. citizens.
Richard Pottorff
Owner
RMP Enterprises
Sunnyvale, California
Author Chris Penttila replies: While I appreciate your
viewpoint that companies are outsourcing to foreigners for cost
savings, some surveys do indicate a shortage of well-trained
applicants in fields such as engineering, and especially in niche
fields that require a great deal of specialized training. Although
there may currently be a surplus of workers in some areas (such as
Silicon Valley), the Department of Labor is predicting a labor
shortage of 10 million skilled workers by decade's end.
This "Staff Smarts" tried to show why and how
employers should strive for something that's become a tenuous
concept with modern-day employees-long-term loyalty-to keep them
happy as the job market heats up. Greater employer loyalty,
especially to American workers, can't be a bad thing.
A Family
Affair
We are new at owning a small family deli business. I have looked at
a lot of places for help on issues regarding hiring family but
could not find anything that just answered in layman's terms .
. . until now! Entrepreneur.com has done more than enough for [us].
Thank you.
Vicki Ross and William A. Ross Jr.
Owners
Ross's Junction Deli
Carmichaels, Pennsylvania
Destination:
Inspiration
After explaining to my manager that I'd like to move on to the
next step in my career path, he looked at me and said, "Be
happy you have a job." I decided the poor state of the
industry I was in (telecommunications) was not going to slow my
career down. I looked at everything from opening a nightclub to
operating a network of ATMs.
Finally, I read an article in Entrepreneur that made me
realize I should do what I moved out to San Francisco for in the
first place: Start a dotcom. My friends and colleagues could not
believe I was leaving the security of a job at a Fortune 100 and a
great paycheck to start a dotcom! That article was "Price
Check, Please" by Melissa Campanelli in the August 2002
issue.
We are now about one month away from our unofficial launch date.
We will represent a new breed of dotcoms that deliver products,
services and information both online and offline. I appreciate the
inspiration.
Charles Blanchet
President
Improve Safely Inc.
San Francisco
Hot or Not?
I am a junior in college and am trying to figure out what to do
after I graduate, because I know I don't want to work for
someone else. I've loved playing computer games for years and
have always dreamed about somehow making money at it.
I have been working on an idea for a business that would involve
online games. My parents think this idea is doomed [no pun
intended] to failure, so they suggested I ask what you think.
J. K. Dibble
Lakewood, California
Editor's Note: Tell your parents to relax: We believe
online gaming is indeed a hot business for 2004 and beyond.
For more advice on how you can get started in this
industry— for our other predictions for the best business
ideas for the coming year— sure to check out our December
issue.
Contact
info:
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2445 McCabe Wy., #400, Irvine, CA 92614; fax (949) 261-0234; or
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keyword: Entrepreneur Magazine. Letters may be edited for brevity
and clarity.