At BradsDeals, I've been on a multi-year quest to find us a service that provides easy and affordable integration of payroll, 401k and health care. I'll be chiming in shortly with a more thorough review of my experiences but let me give you one example of why my quest has been so futile.

Despite being two products of the same company, here's how "integration" works between SurePayroll and Sure401k, who, incredibly, remains one of the most attractive options:

1) Employee signs into Sure401k.com and adds or changes a contribution. (At this point, we should be done but it won't be that easy!)
2) Employee prints out totally redundant paperwork and submits to employer.
3) Employer logs in to Sure401k and confirms the change.
4) Employer is then instructed to login separately to SurePayroll and manually transpose (in 2009?) the figures because Sure401k is unable to pass this data to SurePayroll. This wastes a ton of time and exposes the process to an unnecessary margin of error.

There is no excuse for this not being a one-step process.

As I just mentioned on the Black Friday Facebook Fan Page for the new BradsDeals Black Friday 2009 website, if you're looking for a great deal on a really, really good laptop, HP has their HDX 16t Premium Series Notebook for $599.99 after $300 off code NBML34309. It's loaded but be sure to select the free hard drive and memory upgrade. This will likely last only 24-36 hours since the code will only work 800 times!

I've mentioned the recent price drops in LCD monitors but Dell's 20" S2009W LCD has just cracked the $100 mark! It is currently $99, the lowest price yet, after a $50 instant discount at Dell.com. I do not currently have an end date for this pricing so it may not last long.

Dell's 20" LCD Monitor is a staple at businesses of all types - I use 3 myself at BradsDeals.

I recently needed a projector. It was a one-off thing so I first looked at renting. Even if you can get the "from $99" rate, you're still talking more like $134 after shipping for one day of the simplest, most basic projector in existence. If you up the quality of the projector, you're quickly at $175 to $200, or more.

So I bought this Infocus Projector from Amazon for $399 (the price may only display at right under "More Buying Choices"). It is much better quality than the rental, I can use it for more than one day and I get to keep it forever. I anticipate using it at least once or twice more and that is all it takes to justify the cost!

Anne D'Innocenzio at AP just put out a story about slow back-to-school sales through July. We're seeing this at BradsDeals. Our traffic numbers are well above expectations as more shoppers are focused on coupons and discounts. But they are hesitant purchasers: we are seeing smaller order sizes and more of a focus on discount stores (think Target, Overstock.com, Kohl's).

There is a very interesting point here:

The uptick in car buying spurred by the government's "cash for clunkers" program might siphon away sales from other categories like clothing and home furnishings

Might? I can guarantee it. The American consumer has no more money now then they did a few months ago. If 250,000 people just stretched to spend approximately $5 Billion in hardly a week on new cars via the Clunkers program, back-to-school retailers will certainly have to settle for a smaller piece of a very finite pie.

If you're looking for a desk (or 10) that doesn't bore you to death, won't fall apart by the end of your fiscal year and won't break the bank, tear a page out of the BradsDeals office playbook and buy a few of the trig desk from CB2. At $149, the compact (read: space-saving), attractive (tempered-glass top) and sturdy (steel with titanium finish) trig is a relative bargain.

Some assembly is required but it is modest - the desk comes mainly in-tact. In-store pickup as available in NYC, Chicago, San Fran or LA but shipping starts at a reasonable $21.95 if not.

See it in action at BD headquarters at right!

Or do I?

So be it. After arguing with the poor folks on the phone, all I can do is laugh at the irony and take my business elsewhere. Time to find a new card to love! Stay tuned...

I jumped on the American Express Plum Card the moment I first heard about it and have used it religiously since. It has two great features that make it significantly better than your average card:

1. You get 1.5% cash back if you pay your bill within 10 days.
2. If you don't pay your bill within days, pay 10% of it and the rest gets deferred for 2 months at 0% interest.

The 1.5% straight cash back (no points, no gimmicks) is good by itself. So is the "trade terms" financing ability. The 2 months option may spare you a receivables line of credit, for example.

It's a good, solid American Express card otherwise with features like no pre-set spending limit, free extended warranties, emergency services and the always-underrated OPEN Savings.

I also like the fact that when I signed up the cash back was 2% and they're continuing to honor that despite cutting back slightly for new signups.

So what's your favorite business card?

A follower of mine on Twitter sent me a tweet this week:

I'm in need of a killer entry level PC deal...got any recommendations? $350max

And I thought my reply, which I'll take more than 140 characters to break-down, might be relevant to fellow small business owners needing a "killer entry level PC deal."

Laptops:
eMachines for $349.99 at the *new* Circuitcity.com
Toshiba for $379.99 at Newegg.

Desktop:
Compaq for $259 at Newegg plus this 19" Acer LCD for $99.99 from Buy.com.

If you're on Twitter, come join the conversation:
http://twitter.com/bradsdeals
http://twitter.com/IncMagazine

No, but they are getting close. Prices of large flat-screen LCD computer monitors have fallen off a cliff, allowing even the barest-boned start-up to afford a few while they are waiting for their government loan to materialize. Once-huge 20" models are going for $150 or less and 24" to 26" sizes are creeping below $200. This is less than half the price of the best deals 2 years ago and $100 to $300 less than 6 months ago.

I use three at BradsDeals.com and couldn't be happier or more efficient. Many studies show that productivity increases with multiple monitors. Think about it: multiple monitors will save at least 15 minutes per day and 50 hours per year, which is likely at least $1,000 in wages and other costs, per employee. So take my word for it and buy at least two.

Best bets:
-19" Acer X193wb for $99.99 at Buy.com plus possible $5 off coupon
-20" HP 2009m for $139.99 at Newegg
-24" Dell S2409W for $199.99 at Dell

As Max has mentioned, Facebook is beginning their highly-anticipated launch of personalized URLs (www.facebook.com/yourname) at the strike of midnight EST tonight. This has incredible importance to small businesses for search engine optimization (SEO) reasons.

For a small business owner, your name in a Facebook URL will help that page rank higher when people are searching for you. The same goes for your business name if you have a Facebook Fan Page. Controlling your identity and your online presence is an important, valuable and money-saving endeavor. Perhaps most importantly, if you're in the business of selling, say, golf balls and you can snag facebook.com/golfballs for your Fan Page, you are practically guaranteed to receive a ton of traffic from people Googling for "golf balls."

See full details here.

After midnight, chime in with your own experience.