Nelson Davis

I was fortunate enough to know Dick Clark and receive the benefit of him sharing a number of his experiences as a business owner. Like so many others, I first became aware of Dick as the host of American Bandstand and a Saturday night show sponsored by a chewing gum...

If ever a business buzz word has been mashed and hammered into something unrecognizable, it is "networking." Some people see a networking event simply as a hundred-yard dash to give and receive as many business cards as possible in one hour or less! And then they wonder why no meaningful...

Right now political discussions are like so much confetti that seems to be dropped on us every day whether we want it or not. This is the season when political aspirants show their love and attention like no other time. However, in the lives of most small business owners there's...

A few days ago I read an interview with the famed Russian ballet dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and one of his comments sent me into an hour of business thinking. It may be the first time that a person often seen in public wearing tights has given me a business lesson!

I love the hopeful feeling of having a new calendar and fresh plans laid out in front of me. But of course the New Year doesn't wait long before euphoria subsides and it begins testing your resolve, persistence and plans. Whether your goals for 2012 were written in indelible ink...

In response to a recent email question regarding how to succeed in a small business venture, I began to distill what I've learned from over one-thousand business owners of all sizes, categories and ethnicities. They are people whose television stories I've presided over as executive producer of the Making It!...

Many thousands of words have been written about Steve Jobs as a visionary and titan during the past week. They are well deserved. Today however, I'm looking in on his life as an inspiring story for the small business owners of today and tomorrow.

Like many other people, I was...

A motion picture titled The Help is proving to be a surprise late summer box office hit and after watching it recently, I wanted to know more about the author of the book on which the film was based. Among the things I found in the book, the film and...

It will probably surprise most people to know that small business actually has a week of its own, officially declared by the president of the United States. On one hand, Mothers Day doesn't get the presidential proclamation, but Small Business Week doesn't get the publicity or the spending...

Just when you think that you've heard everything about Donald Trump, there's another chapter being written in the semi-fictional book of his life. Last week, I was in New York, the place where he has marked out his most prized territory with tall, expensive buildings. Though his recent dust-up with...

If there is or was a favorite "first business" in America for the past one hundred years, it is probably delivering daily newspapers as a newsboy. Now, that business has shifted from eager youngsters on bicycles to less enthused adults in pickup trucks. I think that's too bad. Every young...

In the world of small business, a large percentage of owners are sole proprietors who operate with minimal full-time staff or the trappings we often associate with larger businesses. Whatever brand equity these individuals have is connected to them in very personal ways; often they have to be the brand...

My TV screen, like yours, has been filled with images of chaos and anger from the streets of Cairo. I think that many Americans feel a kinship with Egypt because we've heard about the country's history since childhood. Since the nation's small business history stretches thousands of years, I expect...

I'm writing this on Martin Luther King Day which is a widely celebrated holiday but my office is open for business today. Like many national holidays, ML King Day is anticipated by many as a day to sleep in a bit, putter around the house, perhaps a parade or just...

Conflict is what I feel about the current plight of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder. I'm an advocate for small business and believe that he is a fellow small business owner. On the other hand I'm not sure that his pursuits are business driven.

Looking at the various reactions...

We are in that hazy netherworld that seems to sneak up on us near the end of every year. We wonder where the time went, what the New Year will hold and how we can take our enterprise to what we euphemistically call the next level. This year there is...

I must admit that the word entrepreneur never crossed my lips until I was an adult with a subscription to Forbes Magazine. You see, I grew up in a family of four children and two parents living in the Center Court public housing project in Niagara Falls New York during...

I've long wondered when I'd find a kindred spirit who publicly recognized that a large swath of the American business and political landscape is based on leveraging fear. When I heard that the television satirist Stephen Colbert was planning a "Keep Fear Alive" march on Washington, I smiled a big...

With a handful of primaries now behind us and the November elections barreling toward us like a dry tsunami, I've been thinking about the challenging place we find ourselves in as a nation. There may be a movement that is bringing business people to elected office while sending old guard...

I'm feeling a bit sorry for Dr. Laura Schlessinger right now as I gaze at the wreckage left behind after an indulgent and misguided five minutes of spraying the N-Word across the airwaves. She obviously shattered some important relationships with her listeners, advertisers and radio stations. Every small business owners...