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

What investments will give you the biggest pay off in the long run? Experts weigh in on where to spend in your annual budget.

Thanks to credit crunches and slow sales, experts say the key to budgeting for 2012 is being prepared for the worst. Here are the simple steps to building a bulletproof budget.

So you've found a business partner to help make your idea a reality. Be sure to ask yourselves these eight questions before incorporating. Given the unstable job market, and the risk of going it alone, many people are currently seeking to start businesses together.

You can plan a relaxing summer vacationeven if you're the boss. Here's how: Fifty-four percent of American adults say they won't take a vacation this summer, according to a Rasmussen poll taken in May. And it can be particularly tough for entrepreneurs who are the lifeblood of their businesses.

Good managers know that happy employees are loyal, productive employees. Below are seven areas to improve employee satisfaction. Employee attitudes typically reflect the moral of the company.

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The environment in which a business must grow is an unpredictable terrain. Rises and dips in markets, sudden technological breakthroughs, and a finicky consumer base can all render a company's original business model obsolete.

One location, for a growing business, is typically not enough. With enough personnel and capital, many businesses prefer to set up multiple offices to attract different regions of customers. With separate offices how can your business install a network so all the locations can work, communicate, and share information easily, instantaneously, and effectively?

When the topic of business plans comes up, it tends to polarize people into two separate camps: those that think business plans are worth the effort to put together and those that think that unless you're trying to raise money, writing a business plan is a waste of time . For Ellen Rohr, a business consultant and founder of Bare Bones Biz , the answer lies somewhere in between. "The primary purpose of a business plan is to help you gain clarity and hold yourself accountable for moving in the direction of what you want," she says

Next time you're shopping online , be prepared for a chat. As live chat technology evolves, e-commerce sites are finding that virtual clerks are becoming crucial to customer support and sales systems. Earlier this year, Bold Software, a live chat and click-to-call service based in Wichita, Kansas, polled 200 of their customers—mostly online merchants who use the software to interact with customers browsing their sites—to see just how effective live chats really were

Personality tests – also known as behavioral assessments and predictive tests -- have come a long way since "Miracle on 34th Street." That's the film where a nice old man who maintains he's Santa Claus is fired from Macy's after flunking a dubious applicant quiz given by a self-styled shrink. Good tests today are about more than qualifying a candidate for a slot, says Dr. Todd Harris, director of research at PI Worldwide , Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, which has furnished testing to organizations of all sizes around the globe since 1955.

European tech start-ups are eyeing an early move to the U.S. West Coast, lured by the deeper pockets and stronger track record of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.