Lesson 1 Business Resources

Overall I find Lesson 1 to be straightforward in that I have not had difficulties locating the information requested.  I am finding the lesson to be far more time consuming than anticipated.

1) Who is the Chief Financial Officer?

The Chief Financial Officer for Microsoft Corporation is Peter Klein. 

What did he do before coming to Microsoft?

Peter was in corporate finance with several companies mainly in the communications and technology sectors including McCaw Celluar Communications, Orca Bay Capital and Homegrocer.com in the Seattle area for 13 years before making the move to Microsoft. 

2) Where could a person sell their work online?
A search for handicrafts or crafts yields many pages of results in the Small Business Reference Center. 

The second result, an article "State of the Market" by Meribah Knight in the October/Nov issue of American Craft identifies several options for selling online including:

• online shop
• website
• Twitter account
• Facebook page

In Person?

• Craft Fairs 
• Brick and Mortar Shop.

Are there any books or book chapters on starting a crafts business?
Yes, the eighth result, Chapter 17: Crafts by Sharon Cohen is from the book 199 Internet-Based Businesses You Can Start with Less Than One Thousand Dollars: Secrets, Techniques & Strategies Ordinary People Use Every Day to Make Millions, 2009. 

Search using words from a small business owner you've worked with recently. 
Anything of value in the results?
Sticking with the craft theme, I searched for quilts or quilting.  Again, my search yielded 5 plus pages of results running the gamut from quilt patterns to art quilting to quilt shops to articles on those that started a quilting business.  I would narrow the search in the future to further refine the results.  Perhaps quilt shops?

3) Staying with the Small Business Reference Center, find at least one item using the browse by category.  What did you find?

Use the browse by popular resource to look at one or two books.
What did you find and did they look helpful to you and your patrons?

4) What are TWO responsibilities that a landlord has toward a tenant?
From the Alaska Department of Law Consumer Protection Unit site at http://www.law.state.ak.us/department/civil/consumer/cpindex.html I did a search for "landlord tenant act."  The first result links to a 46 page PDF of The Alaska Landlord & Tenant Act: what it means to you.  The complete document can be found at http://www.law.state.ak.us/pdf/consumer/LandlordTenant09_web.pdf.  On page 8 (page 12 of the PDF) this document is a list containing "The landlord's responsibilities" including:

• give the tenant a copy of any written rental agreement
• abide by the lawful terms of the agreement

What are two examples of frauds and scams?
A list of frauds & scams can be located at http://www.law.state.ak.us/department/civil/consumer/fraud.html including:

• Advance fee fraud
• Phishing

Where can you file a consumer report?
Interpreting the question to mean "complaint," the process for filing a consumer complaint can be found at http://www.law.state.ak.us/department/civil/consumer/cp_complaint.html along with information about how to handle your complaint and an online complaint form which is submitted to the State of Alaska Office of the Attorney General at the address indicated on the form available at http://www.law.state.ak.us/pdf/consumer/FORM_complaint.pdf.

5) How many female workers are there in your community?
The were 81,742 female workers in the Anchorage/MatSu area in 2010. 

Who is your top employer? 
The top Anchorage employer in 2010 was the Anchorage School District. 

6) What are the stages of the small business cycle?
Available at http://aksbdc.org/small-business-life-cycle/, the small business life cycle is:

• Think
• Launch
• Grow
• Reinvent
• Exit

Where can you find a checklist for starting a small business?

 http://aksbdc.org/tools/checklist-for-starting-a-business/

7) What are two publications done about broadband in Alaska in 2011?

• ID: 1341 Broadband for Rural Development in Southwest Alaska
  Heather E. Hudson, March 2011
• ID: 1350 Digital Diversity: Broadband and Indigenous Populations in Alaska

  Heather E. Hudson, May 2011

Has Small Scale Modular Nuclear Power been considered as an option for Alaska?
Yes, in ISER publication ID: 1336 Small Scale Modular Nuclear Power: An Option for Alaska? written by Ginny Fay and Tobias Schworer in March 2011

Do any of the Institute's research areas seem relevant to you?

All of ISER's research is of interest and relevant to me as a life-long Alaskan.  As ISER's mission statement indicates,  "ISER enhances the well-being of Alaskans and others, through non-partisan research that helps people understand social and economic systems and supports informed public and private decision-making."  

8) The business resources available trough SLED and Digital Pipeline will meet some of the needs of my community.