Privatization of the Space Business

Space travel is moving from being a government-led initiative, toward being driven by private businesses. NASA's role is shifting.

One example of this shift is SATOP. SATOP is a service of NASA designed to transfer know-how from NASA to the private sector.

Small businesses in need of engineering help may be eligible to receive up to 40 hours of free technical assistance from SATOP. Here is what the SATOP website says:

"The Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP) strives to transfer the knowledge and technology of the space program to small businesses. Any type of small business is encouraged to submit a technical challenge to SATOP. If SATOP is able to assist, the small business is provided with up to 40 hours of FREE technical assistance from a scientist or engineer in the Space Program."

But SATOP is simply one example of this new direction.

We wrote about this privatization trend a year ago, in a piece called The Entrepreneurization of Space.

Business ventures are popping up around the fledgling business of space. Now there will even be a conference revolving around the business of space and new opportunities on the horizon, as noted in a Florida Today article: "Central to this year's conference will be new business opportunities that will be created by the new direction NASA is taking and a new space tourism industry that is on the verge of becoming reality."

It will take years before we start to see regular space tourism travel, of course. But that does not change the momentous nature of the shift we are living through.

Internet is Transforming Rural Businesses

The Internet is transforming rural businesses and extending their reach. Some small rural businesses are now able to operate globally, due to being online.

The University of Minnesota in the Midwest United States conducted a series of case studies profiling how rural Minnesota businesses are using the Internet. Although these case studies profile U.S. companies, many of the same principles would apply to rural businesses in other countries.

Among the ways the Internet has transformed these small businesses:

• A Czechoslovakian pastry baker, Anrej's European Pastry (case study), is able to do business using the Internet, without even taking credit cards online. It sells its pastries by getting orders via the Internet and then putting the invoice in the box when the pastry is shipped to the customer.



• The owners of an organic fabric business, Wild Rose Farm (case study), are able to have the lifestyle they want, living on a farm, yet reach out beyond their local area. "[The Internet] gives us access to the world and gives the world access to us. But also we work hard at what we do, and because of how we live and where we live we were able to stay in business. We maintain a fairly low overhead by working here on the farm."



• A recycling container manufacturer, Pro-Tainer (case study), was able to pick up the federal government as a customer because of the Internet: "Without the Internet and without our web page, I don't think we could have done business with the United States government. That's probably what got us in the door. We were one of the frontrunners in getting involved with them (in the products that we supply). Not having that, I don't think we'd be in there today. It really is that important to them. They do everything that way."

It's case studies like these that cause me to be puzzled when I read that only half of small businesses have a website. Most of the websites of the businesses profiled are simple and straight forward. That's all that's necessary to conduct business.

There are 15 case studies -- read them all.

Upcoming PowerBlog Reviews

One of the trends we noticed in early 2004 was that of small businesses taking to blogs to gain Web visibility, serve customers and grow their businesses.

To understand that trend, we started a weekly feature back in February of 2004 called PowerBlog Reviews.

Each week we review notable examples of blogs that are being used for some sort of business purpose, with a concentration on "small business." We pick out a few key points about each blog that we think are powerful and serve as a "lesson" to other bloggers.

We've completed 67 PowerBlog Reviews to date, covering sites from seven countries. The businesses involved have included a 100-year-old jewelry retailer, a restaurant, a winery, a lessor of Federal campgrounds, a worker's compensation service firm, business school professors, a publishing company, three different law firms, a former homeless person turned entrepreneur, a metal job shop, two Microsoft MVP consultants, realtors, marketing professionals, business school students, several types of technology companies, authors -- well, the list goes on.

Here is the schedule of blogs we will be reviewing in upcoming weeks:

5 June 2005 - Blogging About Incredible Blogs
12 June 2005 - AllBusiness Blog Center
19 June 2005 - Small Biz Sense
26 June 2005 - New Millenium Minds
3 July 2005 - Innovation.net
10 July 2005 - Joseph's Marketing Blog
17 July 2005 - Kiger's Notebook
24 July 2005 - Landfair Furniture
31 July 2005 - AutoMuse

If you would like your business site reviewed, please email me.

Finally, I want to acknowledge and thank Lynne Meyer, who has been writing the PowerBlog Reviews recently and doing a great job at it.

PowerBlog Review: Notes from the World of Anger Management

Editor's note: We're back once again with the sixty-seventh in our regular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs. This week's review is being guest-blogged by Lynne Meyer. Lynne Meyer, APR, is president of A Way with Words.


By Lynne Meyer

Today we review Notes from the World of Anger Management.

Bet you're asking yourself "What in the world does anger management have to do with small business?"

Plenty, according to anger management expert George Anderson, who's president of global anger management training company Anderson & Anderson and a Diplomate of the American Association of Anger Management Providers (AAAMP). In addition to his impressive professional credentials, George also recently had a gig in popular culture. He was the technical consultant on the Sony Pictures movie "Anger Management," starring Jack Nicholson.

The contents and links George uses with his blog demonstrate many value-added techniques bloggers can incorporate in their own blogs.

He explains that his blog is designed "to promote professional anger management research, intervention, news and anger management provider information." George links his blog to both his own business's web site and that of the AAAMP.

In addition, the blog highlights and includes links to news articles on anger and anger management. The links are provided to educate readers about how anger is a significant problem in the workplace, schools, the criminal justice system, sports leadership and even politics.

Here's something that readers of this blog will find interesting and that can work for any field. In the March 23 post, he describes "A Typical Day in An Anger Management Practice." This is an excellent technique to illustrate what a particular field like anger management is all about, and it also personalizes the blog a bit giving us real life examples.

The postings also demonstrate how a blog can be used to take a stand on important policy issues and shape public debate on a subject. An example of this is the April 29 posting, "An Open Letter to Mental Health Clinicians." George points out that anger management is a legitimate discipline that should play an important role in society and needs to be included on multiple fronts, including the military, with soldiers returning from Iraq, and school yard bullies. This aspect of his blog nicely complements the work of AAAMP in this area.

Additional techniques George employs are reporting on trends and giving real-world examples. In his May 4 posting titled "Trends in Anger Management," he notes that there's a growing trend of more small businesses requesting anger management training for their staff:

"Some of our recent small business cases include a pediatric medical practice that referred an office manager. An animal clinic sent a technician, and we received a request for executive coaching for an important Neurologist whose bedside manner was problematic."

While the field of anger management may not be mainstream yet -- and is even somewhat misunderstood -- with the blog George is tackling the challenge of educating people and elevating awareness that this field exists, that it has applications in many settings and that it is has an important place in our world. Notes from the World of Anger Management is truly a purpose-driven blog.

Honored by a MarketingSherpa Nomination

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Please do me a big favor and show your support for this site. That way we can continue to provide content and resources to you.

Please go here to vote, and in category #5 please vote "excellent" for Small Business Trends.

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