Today in Small Business: No Tipping!

Best Read

• “I got rid of gratuities at my restaurant, and our service only got better,” Jay Porter writes in Slate. “I can hear your objection now: How could servers be motivated to do a good job without tips? This is a common question, but it is also a silly question. Servers are motivated to do a good job in the same ways that everyone else is. Servers want to keep their jobs; servers want to get a raise; servers want to be successful and see themselves as professionals and take pride in their work. In any workplace, everyone is required to perform well, and tips have nothing to do with it. The next time you see your doctor, ask her if she wouldn’t do better-quality work if she made minimum wage, with the rest of her income from her patients’ tips.”

Economy

• Philadelphia’s regional economy (pdf) improved.
• Consumer prices rose as expected in July.
• With consumers curbing spending, Walmart sales were disappointing.

Management

• Here are eight reasons you shouldn’t discount your freelancing rates (and four reasons you might want to).
• Dylan Matthews explains what “Breaking Bad” gets right, and wrong, about the meth business.
• Christopher Mims profiles InterDigital, America’s most profitable company per employee.
• Feeling uncertain in your business? Diane Gilleland says you should do a quick assets inventory: “Nobody starts out with all the assets they need – that’s the whole point! A small business gives you an opportunity to reach, strive, and conquer these things, and along the way, you get more confident and more skilled.”
• Glenn Muske says that “envisioning the future” is one of  the things you can get from that aha! moment.
• Jen Boynton explains why your company should get involved with the “shared value initiative” which is “the idea that a company’s financial health and the health of the communities around it are mutually dependent.”

Cash Flow

• Here are three key steps to getting a small-business loan.
• Here is everything you need to know about small-business insurance.
• Robert F. Wood lists his five steps to keep the Internal Revenue Service out of your hair, including, “Don’t ask for too big a refund.”

Red Tape

• The Small Business Administration shares insights about small-business exporting from National Small Business Week.

Retail

• Many businesses are already hiring seasonal employees for the holidays.

Marketing

• Here are nine promising new content platforms.

Health Care

• The Obama administration’ director of private sector engagement outlines five ways the health care law benefits small businesses.

Start-Up

• Baton Rouge, La.’s start-up weekend begins.
• More entrepreneurs should be eating magic mushrooms, one founder believes.
• Slava Akhmechet shares 57 start-up lessons, including: “Starting with the right idea matters. Empirically, you can only pivot so far.”

Around The Country

• An Oct. 28event in Sioux Falls, S.D., will help small businesses who want to conduct and commercialize health-related research connect with national experts and programs.

Social Media

• Rick Mulready suggests three strategies for finding customers with social media.
• Facebook may challenge Paypal with its own mobile payment system.
• Chris Hoffman says the way Facebook is used is changing.
• Restaurant customers are starting to look beyond Facebook and one index shows that Vine, Google+ and YouTube are gaining popularity.
• The venture capital industry may be losing interest in social media.
• This is what would happen if Disney princesses were on Instagram.

Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. You can follow him on Twitter.