Open For Business

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Episodes

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Open For Business

Open for Business is all about who, what, when, where and WHY of entrepreneurs and successfully running a business today, in Connecticut, and beyond. Hosts Tom Russo and Ken Cook talk to the people in the trenches, the business owners, influencers and advocates that make the whole thing work. Come along for the ride. The exploration is well worth it. You can direct always welcomed questions or comments to Tom at tommy@onthehorn.com and Ken at kcook@onthehorn.com.

Episodes

OFB 39 | Covey Dies | Online Money Trick | Scams of Online Reputation "Defenders"?

Dr Stephen Covey passed away on Monday the 16th of July. We reviewed his "7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and the relevance today. Hear Tony Robbins reaction to the passing of Covey. Seth Godin recently was explored “Making money in the digital world!” Godin’s blog entry on monetizing digital attention explains the odd paradigm that has developed in digital content creation. It appears, says Godin, that most everyone wants a business where they sit at home, develop content, put it on the we...

Jul 23, 2012•Transcript available on Metacast

OFB 38 | Navigators of Bureaucracy | The McDonaldization of Banking

I sure hope we don’t need a bank loan soon, because last night on Open for Business Tom Russo, Brian Parker and Ken Cook dove deep into the lack of lending by financial institutions. Businesses want to grow and there are thousands of them across the country who could grow with a little more capital behind them. There are hundreds of millions of dollars on bank balance sheets that are not getting to these businesses. Why not? In a sentence, because banks don’t have to lend the money to make money...

Jul 11, 2012•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast

OFB 37 | Live From Vegas | Risk/Reward of Service

The latest edition of Open for Business focused exclusively on Customer Service; what does it look like, how do you deliver it, and what should be the expectations? Tom Russo, Brian Parker, and Ken Cook challenged assumptions, questioned the “unreasonable” expectations of customers, and wondered, in the end, whether great customer service is worth it. After an engaging 45 minutes the definitive answer is YES, great customer service is worth it. Jessica Davis and Duke Cajala, two of Zappos.com’s ...

Jul 06, 2012•Transcript available on Metacast

OFB 36 | Don't Be Lazy; Online Marketing Easy | Vanishing Veins Success

This segment of “Open For Business” features Dr. Bruce Stein speaking with Ken Cook & Tommy Russo. Bruce is the Executive Director of Vanishing Veins & Vivesse, both located in the greater Hartford area. Bruce shares with Ken & Tommy how he made the decision to retire from his practice as a Gastroenterologist and turn his focus and energies to the marketing of the two practices that he and his wife, Dr Lori Greenwald, co-own! Bruce shares in detail the conscious decision that he and Lori made, a...

Jun 28, 2012•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast

OFB 35 | Replace Your Website with an APP?

Guest Expert: Matt Service, owner of Service Internet Solutions Having a website is just good business sense, right? Ten years ago, we all questioned why we need a website. Now APPs are the fad. Do we need a website and an APP? To answer this (or just further grapple with) Matt Sevice explains the trend and score card of open vs close internet experiences. The "walled garden" days of AOL could be coming back. Does this add security? Does this diminish freedoms?

Jun 22, 2012•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast

OFB 34 | Why Over 90% of Businesses are Worth Nothing to a Buyer

When it comes to exiting from their most valuable asset, their business, 90% of business owners do little to no planning. Last night on Open for Business Ken Savino, Partner with North Star Wealth Partners, joined Tom Russo and Ken Cook to explore why. Ken Savino believes you should start your thinking and planning for an exit around 10 years from the date you desire to leave. Yet so few owners do. And there is an ever increasing number of baby boomers who own businesses, and they are all reachi...

Jun 15, 2012•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast

OFB 33 | Next Facebook Born in CT | Fipeo.com

Mark Zuckerburg, Tom Houge’s coming up behind you. Sean Parker, Tom Houge’s Fipeo.com is better than your Airtime.com, and Tom built it for less than 1% of the $33.5 million you invested to launch Airtime. [audio ] Tom Houge is the co-founder of Fipeo.com and he was Tom Russo and Ken Cook’s guest this week on Open for Business. Tom represents what is great and innovative about the start-up world. Fipeo is a video chat platform that takes Facebook’s 4.74 degrees of separation and reduces it to ze...

Jun 06, 2012•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast

OFB 32 | Get $10 Million for Your Business Idea!

It’s not alchemy. It’s not having a money tree. It’s crowdfunding – the latest means for entrepreneurs or anyone with an idea or project to get funding. Tom Russo and Ken Cook had as their guest this week on Open for Business Bob Metzler, an attorney and Principal with Cohn, Birnbaum & Shea in Hartford. Bob has looked long and hard at crowdfunding, what it entails, and what the roadblocks for it might be. Simply put, crowdfunding solicits “contributions” over the web. Using a portal such as kick...

Jun 05, 2012•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast

OFB 31 | Rags to Riches: Columbia Dental

You hear their commercials everywhere. A great rags to riches story, hear how Dr. Abbas Mohammadi, DDS started with only $200 in his pocket and sleeping in his car, learned some valuable lessons from unrelated businesses, and why working 7 days a weeks isn’t like working 7 days a week. Home Depot amazes the DDS: the scope of products available under one roof. Inspiration of Leonardo da Vinci saying “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Elegant design and clarity of Steve Jobs’ design of t...

Jun 05, 2012•Transcript available on Metacast