This week’s articles, blog posts, and news items include a warning about why you shouldn’t willy-nilly open up an email attachment (duh!), and a story about why you should think twice before running an office contest to give away an unclaimed food item.

IMPORTANT

• New Phishing Scam Hurts Small Businesses – In case you don’t already know, DO NOT open email attachments unless you are expecting them and are absolutely certain they are OK. That is, unless you wish to spend hours upon hours dealing with malware infected computers!

Customer Service

• Customer Service: 5 Rules for Handling Complaints – Every company is going to have its haters. Here are 5 ways to deal with them.
• How to Convert Unhappy Customers on the Internet – Like it or not, you have to have a plan to deal with unhappy campers online.

Email

• 5 Simple Tools That Make Email Suck Less – Anyone really in love with email? You may already know about these, but the rest of us need to check this out.
• Email Tips: 5 Ways to Get Action – I would like to add a #6 – Don’t be a dweeb when communicating via email!

E-Commerce

• Ecommerce Owner Sells the Business; Explains the Process – Nice interview about a guy (and his wife) who spent a decade building up a business and then selling it.
• A New Reason to Buy an Existing Online Business – Great idea if you have the money, but BE CAREFUL so that you don’t get screwed!

Funding

• How to Run a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign – Crowd funding is a great way to get money when you can’t (or don’t want to) pursue traditional loans/financing. Stick it to the big banks by circumventing them!

HR

• Should You Shack Up With Your Start-up Team? – Get your mind out of the gutter! This isn’t about what you think it is.
• Paying Yourself When You Start a Business – Confused as to how you go about paying yourself when starting a new business? Read this!
• Swap Jobs With Your Receptionist – Why the low person on the totem pole should be respected as much, if not more, then the person at the top. And a lesson on why you shouldn’t give away that unclaimed sandwich.

Marketing

• How to Create Buzz on No Budget – Think that just because your biz has no dough that you can’t market your brand? Think again, grasshopper!
• Apple Retail Stores and the ‘Buying Brain’ – 3 things that any small business can learn from one of the best marketing companies currently doing their thing.
• 4 Ways to Get a Celebrity Endorsement – Most companies could benefit from a celebrity endorsement. Yes, even your organic lollipop line could use a boost.

Social Media

• 3 Reasons Listening Is Critical to Social Media Success – and How to Get Better at It – Are you a talker or a listener?
• 3 Ways Brands are Still Failing at Social Media – Just because your company/brand has a social media strategy doesn’t mean it’s any good, or the right one.

Startups

• 9 Deadliest Start-up Sins – Don’t make these mistakes when starting up a new biz. In other words, don’t think you know it all!
• 10 Strategies to Start a Business as a Teenager – If I only knew then what I know now…
• 9 Attributes of the Best Entrepreneurial Leaders – Many companies are more than a one-person show, which means the boss needs to have skills to lead. And being a dictator just isn’t going to cut it!
• Become an Entrepreneur–No Idea Required – A new start-up foundry in San Francisco that mentors people who have an interest in being entrepreneurs – no experience necessary. Very cool!

General

• Why You Need A Leadership Coach – Those at the top need someone to tell them like it is. Just say no to yes men!
• Entrepreneurs and Insecurity: A Perfect Match? – It seems that optimism and self-doubt actually can go hand-in-hand.
• Setting the World on Fire…With Hot Sauce – Great inspirational story about a 13-year-old who has started a hot sauce empire.
• Lessons in Influence from Stumptown Coffee’s Duane Sorenson – How to be an influencer in your industry, even if you aren’t one of the biggest players.
• What Does Your Company Look Like From the Outside? – A good article from earlier this year that explains why a business owner or CEO needs to step outside of the bubble they live in and see what the world thinks about their company.
• 7 Smart Things Donald Trump Told Me – You may not like the guy’s hair, but he might just know a thing or two about business and branding.
• Lessons in Leadership: How Lincoln Became America’s Greatest President – Learn a little from, arguably, the best president the US has ever seen.
• Daymond John on Engaging Young Entrepreneurs and Building a Better Business – Short Q&A with one of the Sharks and the man behind FUBU (not to be confused with FUBAR).
• Networking for Introverts: 3 Tips for Success – Would you rather hide in a corner or command the room?