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The Academy Awards are a good reminder to keep your thank-you speeches heartfelt, poignant, and--most of all--short. Or...cue the music! The 84th Academy Awards will air this Sunday to much fanfare

Let's do the weekly electric boogaloo through a menagerie of mechanical wonderthings. No humans required.

Amazon's gearing up a Brazilian launch for the Kindle this summer. Their strategy? Sell their product for far cheaper than the local competition, take a hit in import duties, and watch the profits roll in.

Find out why Matt Mickiewicz, co-founder of 99Designs, a graphic design marketplace, recommends website live chats.

In her sophomore year at Chicago's ACE Technical Charter High School, Kewauna Lerma had a 2.25 GPA. Yet when Jeff Nelson met Kewauna, he knew she was capable of getting into and graduating from a four-year college. Nelson is the cofounder and Executive Director of Urban Students Empowered ( US Empowered ), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to college preparedness and college persistence (keeping students in college once they have enrolled) for low-income high school students.

I spent last week in snow-plow position, trailing my 4-year-old daughter down ski slopes. On the lift rides up, while singing songs with mispronounced words (Frosty the Snowman has a “bucky” nose, by the way, instead of a button), my thoughts drifted to a struggle that occupies me today. I am negotiating a series of license agreements for my “ Outthink the Competition ” IP and I want to make sure I don’t get taken for a ride.

When showcasing your capabilities for a prospective business partner, three key elements could help you close the deal. A client our ours expressed that he was interested in building a new business in the healthcare sector. We agreed that to be successful, the company would need a strategic partner that has experience and capabilities in the healthcare space to complement the customer relationships the client has cultivated over the years.

We're not saying Pinterest won't help your business--it very well might, especially if you're in retail, design or travel. But make sure you're being smart about it. Have you heard about Pinterest, the latest social media darling

To rigorously evaluate a new idea, business plan, sales pitch, or product feature, be sure you ask these three simple questions. They will save you. Before you waste your time with a business case, sales pitch, or SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), put yourself in your customers' shoes

%excerpt% View original post here: CEO Responds to Ticketing Nightmare

Breaking news from your editors at Fast Company, with updates all day.

A recent survey found more than half of small business owners are ill-prepared for retirement. Learn what the most common misconceptions are. For many small business owners , focusing on immediate goals such securing lending or growing their business can leave little room to adequately consider the future and retirement plans–a situation reflected in a survey from Fidelity Investments that found 53 percent of the nation’s six million small businesses may not have the retirement plan best suited for their needs

Earlier this year, we met Moonbot Studios, a young digital animation firm based in Louisiana. Now it's up for an Academy Award. Here's how Moonbot got there.

By definition, “craft” is an art or occupation requiring special skill and, if my taste buds have any say in the matter, the craft beer industry exemplifies the word. The Boston Beer Company founder and chairman Jim Koch was a key pioneer of the craft beer movement; in April 1985, he debuted his Samuel Adams Boston Lager in about 25 bars and restaurants in Boston. While it didn't have the trappings of a company that was about to change the industry, Samuel Adams had two key qualities in its favor: a full-flavored quality beer, and an incredible passion.

Three of every four "small business" contracts awarded by the U.S. government go to the likes of Apple, Chevron and GE. In the last fiscal year, 72 of the federal government’s top 100 small business contractors were some of the world’s largest companies