The Richwood Report

According to this report, a British paramedic is encouraging a national program to have people store emergency information in their cell phone's phone book. According to the article most people do not carry anything to indicate whom to call in case of emergency, often leaving emergency workers like police or paramedics without the means to contact someone for them in an emergency.

“It’s difficult to know who to call. Someone might have “mum” in their phone book but that doesn’t mean they’d want them contacted in an emergency.

“Almost everyone carries a mobile phone now, and with ICE we’d know immediately who to contact and what number to ring. The person may even know of their medical history.”

The plan is simple: enter a number labeled ICE (for "In Case of Emergency) in your phone. That's it. If emergency personnel need to contact somebody without your help, they can look in your phone for the ICE number and call it. If you want more than one you can use ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 and so on. Sounds like a simple solution and I can't think of a down side yet.

Want to know how to save money on almost anything? Remember that there are two ways to have more money: make more (1) or spend less (2). Here is a web site where you can search for almost any subject or item and find an article about how to save money on it. I tried "insurance" and "shoes" just to try it out and got a list of helpful articles on each item. The front page would make a good homepage. You could start every session with a money-saving article like "20 Things that Can Alter Your Home's Value". Small business has a lot of articles, too. There is a master index here .

Excellent sales and shipments in belt cleaners and other conveyor accessories indicates very healthy conditions in the mining business. Just how healthy is summarized in this article from mineweb.net. As you might have heard, Chinese business has a lot to do with it:

According to data from the China Statistical Yearbook contained in mine*, Chinese demand for things like iron ore and steel has grown by 168% and 150%, while demand for raw materials like coal and alumina, have risen by an even more dramatic 544% and 246% respectively.

“Imagine a scene: hundreds of ships, fully loaded with a variety of minerals, heading towards the bustling Middle Kingdom every day. This is a snapshot of what is happening in the ancient country.”

The result? The profits of 40 mining companies, making up 80% of global market capitalisation, have doubled for the second year in a row. While net operating cash flows have also almost doubled to $41 billion in 2004.

In addition, the increased income has the mining industry looking to the future, particularly to exploration, since present reserves are limited:

"Much of the market value of reserves is derived from reserves and resources that are not recorded on the balance sheet.”

Canada’s Metals Economics Group (MEG) reported that in 2004 the budgeted worldwide exploration spend was 62% higher year-on-year at $3.6 billion.

“This significant increase, in part a result of currency movements, reflects the general boom in the industry coupled with the recovery from a low base of exploration expenditure back in 2002,” says PWC.

Ever wonder who said something first? Here is an article that gives the history of the expression, "The customer is always right."

Worn out trying to please an impossible client? Blame it on Harry Gordon Selfridge.


In 1906, Selfridge purchased a site in London, upon which he built the famous store that bears his name and thrives today. Selfridges opened doors in 1909, when women were beginning to enjoy the fruits of emancipation by wandering unescorted around the city of London.

A canny marketer, Selfridge promoted the radical notion of shopping for pleasure rather than necessity. His fashion-forward shop adopted the slogan now heard round the globe: "The customer is always right."

That century-old wisdom flourishes today, even while businesses run on real-time sales forecasts, preferred-customer databases, time-management applications and activity-based costing software — all of which can calculate to the penny how much each transaction costs you.

The rest of the article has some good points about keeping customer relations on the positive side. While you are there, there may be some other things on the site to interest you. Microsoft has created a really helpful site for small business.