PowerBlog Review: Sardonic Views

Editor's note: This is the fourteenth in our popular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of other weblogs...





Check out Sardonic Views for a weblog with views that are, well, sardonic.



Sardonic Views is published by Chas Rich. Like me, Chas, is a transplant to Cleveland, Ohio from Western Pennsylvania.



And, as his Ryze profile indicates, Chas's views are sometimes sarcastic and cynical, and I would throw in, wry, intellectual and well-reasoned.



Chas is an attorney -- a legal researcher and writer, to be exact. Lawyers are usually very good with words, and Chas's easy ability with writing is pretty obvious.



Whatever you might be expecting, this is not your typical law blog, or blawg. Chas covers legal topics from time to time, but Sardonic Views is much broader in scope.



As the site says, it covers: "Anything from current events, campaign finance reform, sports (especially baseball), corporate/political/legal ethics, pop culture, confessions of a recovering comic book addict, and probably some overly indulgent discourses about my baby girl."



One of the things I like best about Sardonic Views is the way it dissects motives and examines them in the light of day. Motives for what, you ask? Well, any motives.



For instance, in one recent post he exposes the motives behind tax abatements that so many cities and regions use to lure businesses:

"I always find the cost of business to be the most frustrating thing when I hear people talk about wanting businesses and getting jobs in the area. Especially when it's the politicians, because they don't like to admit or mention that the taxes (and this includes the permits, regulations and inspections) are a major disincentive for even small businesses to consider going into the downtown areas. They are so willing to offer abatements and tax incentives to large companies and any developer talking about new buildings (and can make sizeable campaign contributions); but that just puts more pressure on collecting all the other taxes they can from the businesses and smaller companies that aren't so prestigious, big, or offer the big bang press releases if they opt to operate within the city itself."

Sardonic Views has been live on the Web since April 2002.





The Power: The Power of the Sardonic Views weblog is in its incisive, well thought-out opinions on everything it covers. It's a gem of a weblog -- definitely worth checking out and coming back.

We are "Blog of the Day"

Small Business Trends has been named "Blog of the Day" over at -- you guessed it -- the Blog of the Day weblog.



Thank you, Arthur!

We are "Blog of the Day"

Small Business Trends has been named "Blog of the Day" over at -- you guessed it -- the Blog of the Day weblog.



Thank you, Arthur!

Wharton Picks a Winning Business Plan

Eight finalists competed in the University of Pennsylvania's fourth annual Wharton Business Plan Competition last week. They presented their plans to a six-judge panel, hoping to win the $20,000 Grand Prize. Second place received $10,000 and third earned $5,000. Each of the three top teams also received $5,000 worth of legal services and $5,000 worth of accounting and strategy-consulting services.



First prize went to Infrascan, developer of a handheld device that it calls the HematoScope to detect brain bleeding. Second place was taken by CelfCure, which wants to harvest a patient's stem cells, dose them with drugs, and then put the cells back into the patient to treat neurological problems such as head and spinal-cord injuries and stroke. Third prize went to BioSpecrum, which has developed a faster means of screening proteins that have a role in diseases.



This year's competition involved almost 700 students from the University of Pennsylvania, including students in 10 of Penn's 12 professional schools. The eight finalists were chosen from a field of nearly 200 teams. Any team that included a Penn student could participate. Other finalists presented plans for businesses ranging from space tourism to renewable energy to computer animation. No dotcom company made it to the finals.



This years judges were Bill Cadogan, general partner St. Paul Venture Capital; Jack Daly, vice president Principal Investment Area of Goldman Sachs; Jim Furnivall, general partner Canaan Partners; David Kronfeld, founder an chairman JK&B Capital; John Osher, entrepreneur; David Piacquad, vice president business development Johnson & Johnson; Andy Raskin senior editor Business 2.0; Dan Skaff founder and managing partner Sienna Ventures; and Salman Ullah general manager Microsoft Corporate Strategy Group.



The Wharton Business Plan Competition is managed by the Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs and a management committee comprised of students from throughout the University of Pennsylvania.



One problem: the "and Then There Was One" link at the bottom of Wharton's web page announcing this year's results went to a run down of last year's winners at the time this was written.



There's something to be learned when one of the world's great business schools sponsors a business plan competition. Business schools are an often underused resource for those of us in the small business marketplace. Collectively, they probably have more active research underway on smaller enterprises than all the professional research firms and think tanks combined.

Bull Market 2004

"Bull Market is filled with people who will shake things up."



That's what Seth Godin says in his latest business eBook, Bull Market 2004.



And Dave and I are thrilled to report that Small Business Trends is one of the business blogs profiled in Bull Market 2004.



Seth, an entrepreneur and bestselling author, has this to say about business blogs:

"While there are a few good blogs run by employees of large companies, most of them are the work of dedicated freelancers and consultants (with a small "c") and the best of them realize that the more they teach you, the better they'll do."

And you want to know the best part? You can download Seth's eBook for free.



As an added bonus there are excerpts in it from Seth's bestselling print book, Purple Cow, and also from his just released Free Prize Inside.





Dave has been a huge fan of Seth Godin for some time. He often repeats bits of wisdom he's picked up from Seth's books. I am more of a newcomer to Seth's work, but I have since become a fervent fan. Thank you, Seth, for being such a supporter of entrepreneurs and small businesses. And thank you, Fast Company, for co-sponsoring the ebook.