NCET

What do you do when everything in your industry turns upside down? When your consumers dramatically change? When new technology pushes out traditional business methods?

Now is a time of great transformation for most industries. Some changes have been brought about by economic conditions; some by technology; some by new competition.

This week, I went looking for some answers at the Tools of Change for Publishing conference in New York, run by O’Reilly, a publisher of technology information. The conference’s mission is to help those who create content embrace the new technologies of this fast-changing industry. It’s no surprise, the conference sold out.

After all, book publishing is in the midst of a revolution. In the course of one year, the e-book finally has taken hold, consumers are changing how they buy books and how much they’re willing to pay, traditional book retailers significantly dropped their orders from publishers. All this on top of the devastation that already eliminated so many small, independent bookstores. Read more:

Technorati Tags: O’Reilly,Arianna Huffington,Huffington Post,Rhonda Abrams,Reno Gazette-Journal,business,NCET,Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

There are many ways to guide a business through a period of expansion, including geographic growth, growth through acquisition, and franchising. Here’s how to select the best strategy for your company.

Turning a small business into a big one is never easy. The statistics are grim. Research suggests that only one-tenth of 1 percent of companies will ever reach $250 million in annual revenue. An even more microscopic group, just 0.036 percent, will reach $1 billion in annual sales.

In other words, most businesses start small and stay there.

But if that’s not good enough for you—or if you recognize that staying small doesn’t necessarily guarantee your business’s survival— there are examples of companies out there that have successfully made the transition from start-up to small business to fully-thriving large business. Read full story:

Technorati Tags: Inc.,Keith McFarland,entrepreneur,The Breakthrough Company,McFarland Partners,Express Employment Professionals,Fastenal,Chicos,business,NCET,Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

Daniel Obrist, Ph.D., DRI Associate Research Professor in the Division of Atmospheric Sciences is one of this year’s recipients of the NSHE Rising Researcher Award. Obrist uses multi-disciplinary approaches to characterize mercury pollution and chemistry. He’s successfully developed a major research program in this area at DRI, with external research funding totaling $3.3million in the last four years.

Obrist’s research interests include atmospheric chemistry, transport, and biogeochemistry of pollutants and quantification of surface exchange processes of atmospheric constituents between soils, plants, and the atmosphere. A special emphasis includes cycling of mercury in the environment and how global change and disturbances affect these processes.

One of his current projects focuses on the mercury at the Dead Sea-which has implications regarding mercury deposition across the oceans of the world. Through a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, Obrist and Menachem Luria, Ph.D., professor at Hebrew University and an adjunct professor at DRI, are currently working to answers important questions regarding the chemical compounds and pathways responsible for mercury oxidation at the Dead Sea.

Obrist is also working on an EPA STAR grant – highly competitive grant with most proposals having less than a 5% chance of success – to evaluate the impact of climate change on mercury levels and sequestration. In collaboration with DRI’s optical physicist, Hans Moosmüller, Ph.D. he also received a NSF Major Research Instrumentation grant to develop, a novel, state-of-the-art sensor to measure atmospheric mercury at high temporal resolution.

Obrist earned a master’s degree in plant ecology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and a Ph.D. in hydrogeology from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Technorati Tags: Daniel Obrist,DRI,DRI Division of Atmospheric Sciences,NSHE Rising Researcher Award,National Science Foundation,Menachem Luria,EPA STAR grant,Hans Moosmüller,University of Nevada,Reno,business,NCET,Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service will extend a moratorium on penalties until June 1 for failing to report transactions considered tax shelters.

The rule applies to individuals or other taxpayers that fail to disclose transactions the IRS deems as potentially tax evading, such as employer contributions to post-retirement benefit funds. The levy is as high as $100,000 a year for individuals and $200,000 for all other taxpayers, according to the IRS.

It is assessed each year a transaction is not reported and may be charged to both a business and its owner. The department will also “hold off” filing new lien notices on amounts owed, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman told Congress yesterday.

“The penalty has ended up snagging small businesses that weren’t advised of their responsibility to disclose,” Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, said in a statement last month. Read full story:

Technorati Tags: Business Week,Internal Revenue Service,Doug Shulman,Senator Ben Nelson,Kathleen Pakenham,White & Case LLP,Senator Charles Grassley,U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy,Alexis Leondis,Margaret Collins,business,NCET,Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

Join the Nevada Black Chamber of Commerce for “Breakfast with Fran Tarkenton,” a Small Business Breakfast Club Event (via conference call). At this Breakfast Club Networking Event, you will be able to expose your business to other local businesses and acquire new prospects and customers. Fran Tarkenton, a master of marketing, will share fundamentals on business strategy, customer service, leadership and optimum performance.

March 18, 2010 – 7:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Cost:  FREE!

Address: C4Cube, 300 E. 2^nd Street Suite 1405
RSVP: Patrice A. Boyakins  775-786-5515
Don’t Wait. Seating is Limited!

Technorati Tags: Nevada Black Chamber of Commerce,Fran Tarkenton,business,NCET,Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology