Weekend Digest: The Business Start-up & Monopoly Edition

For our weekend business and political readers:

YOU WANT TO START A BUSINESS, BUT WHAT?
From virtual data rooms to online shoe sales, Forbes has posted some of its top “Fast Growing Sectors for 2013.”

The economy is recovering in fits and starts. Where are there unconsolidated, evolving industries with low startup costs that are seeing sales growth?

To find out, go here for a look at Forbes’ “Top 8 Industries with the Most Growth Potential for 2013.”

SO YOU WANT TO BE MORE EFFICIENT ONLINE?
Like most, your time on the web has probably steadily increased, but has your efficiency? Web site Buffer’s blogger has some solutions, in fact 100 of them.

As I now spend so much of my day working online, there are a heap of new apps being created all the time to help us all become more productive. Yes indeed, on top of Buffer, there are still dozens of amazing tools out there we use every day!

That’s why I thought of compiling a full list of 100 tools, tips and tricks for you to reflect a bit on your own productivity.

Things like “10 awesome music sites to get you in to the zone”, “10 great (and little known) tools to organize your online information”, and “10 beautiful and innovative apps to get stuff done.”

For all 100 tips, click on this link.

WANT TO REALLY ATTRACT ATTENTION WITH YOUR BUSINESS CARDS?
Try 3-D. Mashable has the scoop on the latest novelty business card called a CallingCube.

Some 10 billion business cards are printed in the U.S. every year, and yet 88% of them are discarded one week after they’re handed to a business contact, according to StatisticBrain.

Want to keep your business card front and center? Maybe CallingCube is right for you. To learn more, navigate this link.

WHO HAS THE BEST POLITICAL BLOG IN EACH OF THE 50 STATES?
That’s what The Fix wants to know and is running a contest to find out.

As of this morning, more than 1,000 nominations had been submitted — and that’s not including the hundreds more that have come in via our Twitter hashtag #fixblogs. That is awesome!

States with just ONE blog nominated: Arkansas, D.C., New Mexico, and Vermont.

So if you know of another political blog in Arkansas you would like to nominate, go to this link for simple instructions on the nominating process. Of course, we think TalkBusinessArkansas.com, TolbertReport.com and CooksOutlook.com are all pretty worthy of nomination (hint, hint).

THE PURGE AT FOX NEWS
After the 2012 election, both “Republicans and Fox News were damaged badly by loud, partisan voices that stoked the base.” Politico summarize the purge going on at the cable news giant.

One high-profile Republican strategist, who refused to be named in order to avoid inflaming the very segments of the party he wants to silence, said there is a deliberate effort by party leaders to “marginalize the cranks, haters and bigots — there’s a lot of underbrush that has to be cleaned out.”

Find out what underbrush is being cleaned out and what new strategies Fox News is employing to remain credible and regain ratings. Politico has the story at this link.

UPDATE ON BUSINESS-LABOR TALKS ON IMMIGRATION
“AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Thursday that immigration reform talks between union officials and the nation’s biggest business lobby, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are going well” reports The Hill.

One of the key issues in the talks is how to handle temporary worker programs. Disagreement over temporary workers helped scuttle the last major push for immigration reform in 2007, and if unions and the business lobby can unite on the issue this time, it would go a long way to securing passage of a bill in Congress.

What else do labor and business disagree on and what about Trumka’s proposal for an independent group to determine where temporary workers are needed?

Get the complete analysis and update at this link.

WARREN BUFFET’S NEW DEBT CEILING STRATEGY
With the philosophy of “When a game isn’t winnable, one should change the rules,” Warren Buffet revealed an idea this past Sunday on CBS “Sunday Morning” that offers a new strategy on the debt ceiling, according to The American.

The political game of threatening not to raise the debt limit is unwinnable — whether it’s played by Republicans or Democrats. So it’s time to change the rules.

What actually is the debt ceiling and what is all the debate about? How could Buffet’s “simple but elegant” solution fix the problem? For the complete story go to this link.

MONOPOLY GAMES GETS MAKEOVER
The public voted and Monopoly will be ditching one board piece and adding a new one. As in most elections, industry lobbying played a part.

A footwear company and a garden tool maker launched campaigns to protect the shoe and wheelbarrow tokens. Their fans prevailed.

But what was the big winner and what was the loser? And what are critics of the change saying?

Go to Marketplace for all the answers.

WHAT STATES WILL PEOPLE BE LEAVING IN 2013?
Is it the economy, the weather, or other factors?

Moving company United Van Lines released its 36th annual study of customer migration patterns, analyzing a total of 125,000 moves across the 48 continental states in 2012. The study provides an up-to-date, representative snapshot of overarching moving patterns in the U.S., and reveals a mass exodus from the Northeast.

Based on that report, Forbes has released its “Top 10 States People are Fleeing.”

For the complete list and analysis on why they are leaving and where they may be going, travel here.

TATTOO ARTISTS ON INSTAGRAM
Mashable reports if you really want to know how good a tattoo artist is you should follow their progress on Instagram, “the online photo-sharing and social networking service.”

Whether you’re a die-hard tattoo collector or just a casual fan of the art form, it can be hard to stay abreast of the work done by the best artists in the industry. Most tattooists’ websites are notoriously out of date. Facebook has made it easier for artists to update their online portfolio without the help of a web developer, but it’s not being used as a resource with any great consistency. The innately addictive nature of Instagram, however, has empowered and encouraged artists to share their work on a daily basis. This is very good for us, the enthusiasts.

And who does Mashable think are the 8 best? We won’t needle you any longer, just go to this link for the ink.