10 Large U.S. Companies That Won't Cut Jobs

1. Cisco in the midst of a very rapid expansion into the server & data center business. That will require extra personnel and may involve acquisitions. Cisco is in several businesses which are nearly recession-proof and should continue to do well, including video conferencing which may actually grow as business people cut back on travel.

2. VISA is lucky. It does not offer consumers credit. It acts as an agent to transfer funds between buyers and merchants. Visa also handles transaction clearing and settlement services. Unlike large banks, when a customer defaults, Visa’s balance sheet is not at risk.

3. Apple will not lay people off because Steve Jobs would have to admit he had made a bad decision and the company would appear not to be perfect.

4. Apollo is a large education company almost no one has heard of.

5. Altria is doing well because people addicted to cigarettes smoke even during a recession.

6. Google fired a very small number of people last year. If the company wants to control personnel costs, it can simply stop hiring. Google has been adding employees at a dizzying rate for four years. Google, like Apple, has a tremendous interest in keeping its R&D, marketing, product development, and engineering projects going forward as rivals like Microsoft and Yahoo! falter. Google has a chance to pick up market share from both companies and improve its competitive position against Microsoft in the PC application business.

7. Colgate has “side-stepped the global slowdown” as MarketWatch recently wrote. In the most recent quarter the company’s profits were up 20%. It would be hard to pick a better time to sell toothpaste, pet food, and shampoo. Even in a bad economy, most of these are products will have stable sales.

8. Verizon is not growing as fast as it was a year ago. Cellular sales are not quite as good due to market saturation and the economy. But, the use of wireless devices for sending items like data and video over wireless networks is improving margins in the company’s cellular operations. Verizon has also made a major gamble that it can take home broadband and television services away from the cable companies. It will need to continue to market, service, and build the infrastructure out for that to get a return on its multi-billion capital investment.

9. Amgen is still growing rapidly unlike most Big Pharma companies. Its biotech business is producing novel medical treatments that have kept its' sales solid.

10. Corinthian College is another highly successful company in the education field which should benefit from the need of people out of work to develop new skills.

http://money.aol.com/investing/companies-that-wont-cut-jobs

Selecting & Supplying New E-Business

Idea Phase - First, you tell people about your great idea. They hear the enthurisam in your voice, nod their heads. They've seen you in this condition before and know how it usually turns out.
Decision Phase - Undaunted, you begin honing your plan. You ask questions & shop around until you find just the right tools and materials. When the project is starting you down in your own workshop, you may start to panic, asking yourself whether you're really up for the ask.
Aassembly Phase - Still determined to proceed, you forge ahead. You plug in your tools and go to work. Drills spin, sparks fly, and metal moves.
Test-drive phase - One fine day, out of the dust and fumes, your masterpiece emerges. You invite everyone over to enjoy the fruits of your labor. All of those who were skeptical before are now full of admiration. You get enjoyment from your project for years to come.

Mapping out your online business by
- Looking around
- Making your mark

• Pursue something you know well
• Make a statement
• Give something away for free
• Find your niche
• Do something you love

- Evaluating commercial Web sites

• A big commercial website: Get ideas from big business with big dollars for your own site
• A mid-sized site: Notice some features that mid-size companies use, such as FAQ
• A site that's just right: Different kinds of business can launch online goals for you

Flavors of Online Business you can taste test

- Selling consumer products

• Your products are high in quality
• You create your own products; for example, you design dishes, make fudge, or sell gift baskets of wine
• You specialize in some aspects of your product that larger businesses can’t achieve. Perhaps you sell regional foods, such as Chicago deepdish pizza or live lobsters from Maine

- Hanging out your professional services: Attorneys, Psychotherapists, Physicians, Consultants

- Selling your expertise: Search engines, Link pages, Personal recommendations

- Opportunities with technology or computer resources: Computers, ISP, Software

- Being a starving artist without the starving: Host art galleries, publish writing, sell music

Marketing One-to-One to Your Customers

- Focus on a customer segments

• Get your visitor to indetify themselves
• Become an online researcher
• Keep track of your visitors
• Help your visitors get to know you
• Make yourself visible
• Make your site an eye-catcher

- Boost your credibility

• Document your credentials
• Convince with must-have information

- Customer to customer contact: Everyone wins

- Be a player in online communities: Be a newsgroupie + be a mailing list-ener

- Add ways to sell and multiply your profits

Easyware (Not Hardware) for Your Business

- The right computer for your online business
- Processor speed
- Hard drive storage
- CD-RW/DVD±RW drive
- Monitor
- Fax equipment
- Image capture devices

Getting Online: Connection Options
- A second phone line
- Beyond dialup

Software Solutions for Online Business
- Web browser
- Web page editor
- Taking email a step higher
- Discussion group software
- FTP software
- Image editors
- Instant messaging
- Backup software

Technics and Tools for Web and Online Business

1. Specify your necessity
- Knowing marketplace: Find out the online culture, chat rooms, webboard
- Visit business website: eBay, Amazon, other online marketplaces
- Take note of ideas & approaches that you want to know
- Analysis 7C: Competitors, Customers, Culture, Cheap, Customized, Convenient, Content-Rich
- Visit indexes: Yahoo, Google to see how many same existing businesses.
- Define what existing biz don't do, set specialized goal for yourself.
- Realize how to do it better [Why later Google is popular than Yahoo?]

2. Specify your products
- Make a list of services/products you want to sale
- How to get that services/products? Create or purchase from suppliers?
- Don't try to do everything cuz medium biz do one thing well

3. Plan your strategies
- Note your business plan why you want to do, what you want to buy & what make you buy
- Note a brief description, draw up marketing plan & keep track of your finances

4. Gather supply & begin store
- Finding host to place website/blog
- Think of all equipment you need/don't need
- Using appropriate software: web editor, graphic, storefront, accounting

5. Look for experts to support you
- Hiring technician: designer, DBA, SA, programmer, etc
- Business partner who is abilities balance your own
- Gathering team members: Learn from case-study such as eBay, Maxwell
[John Moen found some retired teachers to help answer the geography questions that come into this worldatlas.com]
- Pick someone who already exhibits experience with computers/internet by résumé

6. Build up your website
- Choose web address [URL] that's easy to remember
- Make content-rich in the site, attract visitors & make them come back regulary
- Explain how the reader will benefit by click, link, explore
- Briefly & concisely summarize business & mission with page
- Establishing a graphic indentity

7. Arrange processing of sales system
- Providing a means for secure transactions
- Becoming a credit card merchant: get ID
- Put shopping cart, set pages "holding area" before purchase
- Provide online form, stating, payment area with SSL
- Safeguard customers' personal information & your business
- Keeping your books straight: record all financial activities that pertain to business
- Make backups: don't lose information you need to do biz

8. Assign personal service
- Share your expertise: other may think not like you
- Make site a go-to resource: not for sales only bu also share useful link/information
- Becoming a super e-mailer: Often check email & respond inquiries immediately
- Use any tools: Internet excels, mailing lists, newsletters but not spam

9. Alert the media & anything else
- Submit site with search engine services
- Reach the entire internet

10. Verify, edit and update
- Taking stock: redid the site, increase the number of giveaways, then traffic rose
- Entrepreneurs have more reasons than making money
- Update content: create contests, strick up cooperative relationships with other business