GAS PRICES IN THE NEWS

Let's face it! Gas prices have fluctuated wildly over the last year. Budgeting for businesses, municipalities, families and individuals has been affected dramatically. Business plans have not anticipated the current $1 per gallon increase in gas prices from July 2007 to now. Last year in July regular unleaded gas was $3.079; today's price, $4.102. When you look at diesel prices, increases are even more dramatic. The current price is $4.926; last year at this time, $3.051. These prices are for Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Nationally, the prices vary little from Pittsfield, though they are lower. The national average for regular unleaded gas currently is $4.073; last year, $2.998 per gallon. Diesel nationally is $4.791 per gallon; last year, $2.895. Prices cited here are gathered on a regular basis by the American Automobile Association (AAA) and the Oil Price Information Service in AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report. AAA provides this report daily to the media and for public use. AAA also provides daily gas prices for Massachusetts metropolitan regions.

These tools are helpful to communities trying to gauge the impact of prices and to plan accordingly. One impact has been increased pressure on small businesses such as your local gas stations. A recent Business Week article, When Gas Stations Run Out of Gas, explores this problem in detail. For example the article notes the effect of credit card sales on stations. Margins are low and credit card charges amount to 5 cents a gallon to the owner. Last year 3184 stations closed. This year, on June 12, Exxon/Mobil announced that it is getting out of the retail gasoline business, that they will be selling their 2225 United States filling stations and convenience stores.

Trucking represents the chief engine of goods distribution in the United States. High diesel prices are showing their effects. Independent truckers (small businesses) are feeling the crunch as well as large fleet owners. Prices of crude, now at $137 a barrel affect the larger petroleum based economy. Everything from plastic bottles to polyester, lipstick to asphalt share petroleum bases. And, of course, energy costs, too, have increased and continue to increase.

Through its daily reports AAA is helping us keep our fingers on the ever shifting pulse of gas prices. It has also developed another tool, AAA Gas Price Finder. With this tool, you can find the cheapest gas prices in your community. Just put your zip code in and check radius of 3, 5, or 10 miles and AAA lists gas stations and provides a map locating the gas stations, with up-to-the- minute prices. Easy access to the AAA tools, the fuel price reports and Gas Price Finder have been provided In The Berkshires section of the About Business blog.

As library patrons at the Berkshire Athenaeum encounter these problems, there are frequent questions about cars, gas mileage, and prices. As patrons try to fathom what's going on, there are some library sources they can use. For example, there is a major reference book, Energy For the 21s Century : a Comprehensive Guide to Conventional and Alternative Sources by Roy L Nersesian. This puts the current situation in context with detailed discussions, as an example, of the 1973 oil and gas crisis. Other resources are the annual EPA Fuel Economy Guide. ( EPA does the mileage breakdowns, posted on new and used cars.) Other resources available in most libraries are the N.A.D.A. price rating books for new and used cars. It is a mark of the times that these resources are requested throughout the library day.

Gas prices are likely to continue to go up or at the least maintain the $4 rate. By using some of the tools discussed here, you'll be able to keep informed and up-to-date, and plan accordingly.

JACK WELCH PODCASTS -- THE WELCH WAY

There used to be a television ad about EF Hutton brokerage firm, "When E.F. Hutton talks -- others listen!", picturing people stopping in their tracks to listen to E.F. Hutton. Now there is no E.F. Hutton, or the brokerage firm, and you might be scratching your head trying to remember who this was!

Jack Welch is different. His long term success at General Electric as their CEO is still remembered and he is still consulted. Since 2006 Jack Welch and his wife Suzy have conducted a weekly audio podcast in association with Business Week magazine. The podcast, called "The Welch Way" can be accessed via the Business Week website. You need Quicktime to listen to the podcast on your personal computer. Quicktime is an application included with most Windows operating systems.

Jack and Suzy Welch have covered a wide range of business topics from "Whose company is it?", "What's right about Wal-Mart?", "Good boss versus bad boss", "The real verdict on business", to "Customer loyalty's new rules", "Trim the fat not the service", "Work-life choices", and "Is China for everyone?". Business Week is providing a unique forum and access to one of the main business leaders of the last 20 years. When Jack Welch speaks, others still listen.

The library has several books by and about Jack Welch. One, Jack Welch Speaks: wisdom of the world's greatest business leader, will be of interest as predecessor to the current podcasts.

START YOUR OWN BLOGGING BUSINESS(On our Bookshelf)

You're thinking about how to promote and build your business. You've heard about blogs. Can they be a serious way of generating business? Can they make money? How much time is involved? Where can I learn more about blogs, costs in terms of time and money, and how to start my own blog?

Let's take a look at some of these questions. Blogs are not new anymore. Many books have been written about them and are available at the Berkshire Athenaeum or your local library. One book, Start Your Own Blogging Business -Generate Income from Advertisers, Subscribers, Merchandising and More, written by Entrepreneur Press and J.S. McDougall, is an excellent resource for addressing your blogging interest. In a short 200 pages range of topics from what is a blog, why blog, through free and pay blog software, time and cost considerations, generating income from blogs, and day to day managing considerations are covered.

When considering a blog, you need to view it as a business and develop a business plan for it. Google's Blogger gives you a quick way of setting up your blog. The book covers other options as well. Your blog can be free of advertising or include advertising. Choices are clearly outlined and discussed. If you decide, after weighing your options, to create a blog, this book will get you started on the way. And you will want to reference it often once you've begun.

The number of business blogs are growing rapidly. Technorati, an organization dedicated keeping tracking statistics on blogs, counted 2276 business blogs recently(June 12) and well over 1 million articles referencing business on the internet. You can access these blogs by going to Technorati's Business Blog Directory.

Think of your library as a continuing resource on this and other business needs. Bookmark our blog if you find the information here helpful. We welcome your comments.

5 MINUTES!!

With the price of everyday expenses, food, gas, housing, fluctuating wildly, it becomes increasingly important to keep your finger on the pulse, to keep up with news that affects your business, your business plan, your life and your customer's lives. How to do this? How much time to allocate to keeping informed? These are important questions you're asking as you organize your day.

It's possible to keep up-to-date allocating 5 minutes a day, first thing every morning. How is this possible? Let's take Yahoo Finance as an example. Yahoo Finance gathers daily headlines and stories from major business and finance news providers. This is a free service. Providers include a wide range from Business Week, Wall Street Journal's Marketwatch, the New York Times, Financial Times, Inc and Entrepreneur magazines, the Associated Press and Reuters, Forbes, SmartMoney, Fortune, Morningstar, CNBC, CNN Money, USA Today, US News and World Report, TheStreet.com and the Motley Fool. Click on the headline of your choice and read the article. You can print and/or email the article. The Wall Street Journal and Barrons are included as a headline only service. You must be a paid subscriber to read their full articles.

How is Yahoo able to provide so much information on a timely, sometimes up to the minute, basis? This is done through an internet tool called RSS or "really simple syndication". It's a tool that allows instantaneous distribution of feeds to your desktop. Yahoo, through My Yahoo, allows you to pull together your own interests and feeds onto your own My Yahoo web page. This is a free service. You just need to register with Yahoo to use it. Or you can use the Yahoo Finance page to access these daily providers of business and finance news. Or, better yet, you can bookmark our blog and access your daily news through our Yahoo Business and Finance link.

By using a site like Yahoo Finance you can be up-to-date in 5 minutes and plan the rest of your day accordingly. Of course, you may find yourself spending more time than you want. The resource is there when you want it. As an aside not all the Yahoo providers may be up-to-date. The Economist and Entrepreneur feeds were outdated. All others were current. But, as a first stop resource for business and financial news from a wide range of sources, Yahoo Finance is an excellent starting place. Check it out!!

NOT JUST A MAGAZINE ANYMORE

So you thought a magazine was just a magazine -- flat, bound paper pages that you read and discarded. You read it at a library, bought it at a newstand or bookstore, or subscribed to it. If you wanted a back issue, you went to the library or bought it from the publisher, if they still had it. With the internet now the dominant source of distribution, that's all changed. This is true for all magazines, but in particular, it's true for Business magazines. Entrepreneur Magazine is a case in point.

Entrepreneur's target audience is small business, particularly startups. It is both a monthly print magazine and a daily online presence. (Click on the underlined link to access the site.) It provides support and advice for all aspects of starting up and maintaining a business It does so in a variety of formats including articles from the magazine and special online only articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos. It also features free access to full text archives of the magazine going back to 1998. As many libraries have cut backfiles due to space issues, this is an increasingly important service. (Unfortunately, Entrepreneur does not have a searchable index of their back issues.)

Entrepreneur also incorporates many web 2.0 techniques, such as interactive forums to build a community of like minded people seeking answers to questions about starting up a business, obtaining financing, sales and marketing advice and networking. You can link, share, comment based on your own interest or need. You may also subscribe to free email newsletters and alerts on your area of interest. There is also an extensive content area devoted to women entrepreneurs. (Click on the underlined link to visit.)

The Entrepreneur site is well organized, useful, and diverse. Entrepreneur also is a publisher of small business oriented books many of which are staples in public library business area. The internet has challenged the publishing industry to broaden its scope into the online world; that or perish. Entreprenur has risen to the challenge and has provided an ongoing useful site to the small business person. It is committed to providing the tools you need to succeed and prosper. In a future post I will focus on one of Entrepreneur's most promising tools. It's called Entrepreneur Assist. In the meantime check out the Entrepreneur site and let us know what you think!!
It's not just a magazine, anymore!