Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Increased regulation of bank lending still needs to allow for measured risks that permit sound small businesses to receive funding needed to thrive. I self-financed Metal Mafia when I first opened it in 2004.

A series of graduate student conversations with leading women biologists, at the Women in Science Symposium at Cornell April 2-3.

The myth of identify theft allows banks to push the costs of effective credit checks on to you and your customers. Here's how to fight back. Last week there was yet another massive data breach at a payment processor.

Seven things you can do to convince potential customers your site isn't a fly-by-night operation. Nobody in the world hesitates about making online purchases from Amazon, iTunes, or Dell.

As announced this week, the new Apple TV brings a new UI, better internal specs, and full HD capability to the table. But there's the business equivalent of an Easter egg hidden in it for Netflix subscribers: From now on, if you want to join Netflix you can do it through your Apple TV, and Apple handles the payments via its iTunes back channel. Essentially it works like this: The Apple TV functionality hinges on your iTunes user account, the same kind that's powered 25 billion app downloads to date

They're small things--but they can completely change someone's day. I left the company years ago for another but I still run into former colleagues. Usually the ensuing conversation involves something along the lines of, “Hey, did you hear about the (latest management decision I think is really stupid) at the plant?” This question was different

Turns out you don't have to be a banker or a mathlete to get into the credit card business.

Look beyond patriotism: Veterans' technical skills (and the tax breaks that come with hiring them) make vets great small business hires.

Cash flow can be a real pain point for start-ups. These new solutions by young companies are helping start-ups scale quickly without cash infusions from investors

Take the time to discover which customers add the most value to your business. The CEO of one of our clients , a public company that provides credit card processing services to merchants, had a problem: The company had consistently delivered revenue growth rates better than most of its competitors, but its price-earnings multiple was lower than those companies.

Small businesses are always thinking about clever ways to save money, and cab drivers are no exception. Driving a taxi is a small business and a tough one, especially in San Francisco, where I live

Women-owned businesses start life with a third less capital than those owned by men. Some female entrepreneurs say it's partly the owners' fault. Money

Every money manager I interview is worried that Europe could blow any day now. Here's how to make sure your business survives.

The startup Womply recently brought us Groupon-like "effortless offers." Today it launches Loyalty Cloud, hoping to slice through the messy customer-loyalty market with the "simplest loyalty program ever for local merchants." Last month a new startup, Womply , launched to bring "effortless offers" schemes to local merchants--coming with an impressive pedigree because it's co-founder Brandt Squires was formerly GM and Head of Sales at LivingSocial . Just weeks later, Womply has an additional offering--Loyalty Cloud--that promises the same sort of effortless experience but for customer loyalty schemes, rather than Groupon -style "special offers." According to the new sitei, it's simplicity rests on the fact that, "Merchants create offers that reward customers for repeat visits and Womply handles everything else, from marketing and remitting offers to customers, to providing analysis and insight on the amount of revenue generated as a result." To this end, Womply's new Loyalty Cloud is trying to be a complete one-stop shop for local business loyalty schemes: Simpler even than stamping a rubber stamp on a collector card, and providing deep customer analytics that would be tricky to get any other way. It manages this by being seamless from a customer and merchant point of view, with the transaction happening "in the cloud" via "Womply's high-tech platform that enables the company to spot credit and debit card transactions at participating merchants and to push cash credits to customer payment cards." The whole thing is designed to be merchant-centric, rather than focussing on the deals or the end-user customers.

You may remember when credit card machines weren't so reliable, so stores sometimes used that little aluminum contraption with a roller over your card, and you had to sign the printed copy hard enough to ink onto the carbon paper. This is one of the reasons some cards still have those raised silver numbers on the front alongside your name and expiration date.