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Take Note

 

READING, WRITING AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Those wondering where the next generation of business leaders will come from need not worry. There seems to be plenty of opportunities for America's youth to learn about starting and running a business.

• The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) is teaming up with Junior Achievement to bring SCORE's business coaches into 1,000 public schools to teach students about starting and running companies. Junior Achievement programs already reach 3.5 million students a year.

• An accent on young startup businesses is the focus in "How to Be a Teenage Millionaire" (Entrepreneur Press).

• The University of Arizona finds its entrepreneurship program winning over its standard business school. Graduates from the entrepreneurship program averaged incomes of $71,573 versus $56,500 for business-school grads, with 54 percent starting a business as against 17 percent of business-school grads.

POSTAL RATES UP SHARPLY IN JANUARY

Postal rates for most categories will rise sharply in January, led by a 15 percent boost for priority mail. Direct mail will be up nine percent, and first class mail will increase to 34 cents.

 

NEXT QUESTION: WHERE TO START A BUSINESS?

Fort Worth, TX, for large cities and Tacoma, WA, for medium-size cities lead the list of best places to own a business. Entrepreneur Magazine's seventh annual ranking of cities graded: ability to inspire business start-ups, encourage existing firms, and attract new jobs while limiting the risk of failure. Among the large cities, the top five were: Fort Worth, TX; West Palm Beach, FL; Raleigh, NC; Atlanta, GA; and Charlotte, NC/Rock Hill, SC.

The mid-size cities list included: Tacoma, WA; Charleston, SC; Baton Rouge, LA; McAllen, TX; and Wilmington, DE/Newark, MD.

I SPY

Now, in-store security cameras not only detect shoplifting, they are being used to study shopper behavior. Cameras can record traffic counts and even what shoppers looked at, picked up and either replaced or bought. Retailers like the idea of a real-time study of consumer behavior rather than relying on focus groups, but such spying on shoppers seems a little creepy.


DWCdesigNET | DWC Magazine | Index to Articles | Back Issues | October '00