“After nine months of exposure to the overseas outsourcing market, I’m ready to give an update on the realities of outsourcing for small businesses. This is an emotionally charged issue for a lot of people in the U.S., so let me start by saying up-front that the results are mixed. Like a lot of larger businesses, I’ve discovered a number of hidden risks and costs. While I don’t think those issues will end the trend of sending jobs to cheaper labor markets, I do think the wholesale enthusiasm for outsourcing overseas is quickly waning.”

“XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) has been described as the universal business language, but so far, it’s about as oft-spoken as Latin. In essence, XBRL brings context to numbers by tagging financial data points with information about that data, in effect standardizing it. The idea: to enable businesses to prepare, exchange, and analyze financial statements and the information they contain.”

“Although brand equity is often used to calculate brand value, it has numerous shortcomings, including the lack of a common measurement methodology and value to customers. A well-known author and speaker argues that a better management tool is customer equity, or customer profitability.”