Today's Number: $750 million — What Microsoft Corp. says it plans to invest in China, with the money going toward education and training, manufacturing and strategic investments in software companies there.

Today's Career Talk

               Location of a business is one of the most important elements of a good ad, says Gary R. Dahl, author of Advertising for Dummies, but it is frequently the most overlooked component. How to find your company is another. “Although this sounds rather basic, you'd be amazed at how many spots wait until the end to mention it — or forget about it all-important information altogether,” he says. “Simpler is better: Repeat telephone numbers a minimum of two times.”
       — John Eckberg

Today's Money Tip

               When examining your asset allocation, don't forget to examine all of your accounts. The balance between stocks and bonds in just your 401(k) doesn't matter by itself — what your IRA or other accounts hold should be considered as well. You may save yourself the trouble of rebalancing needlessly, or you may find you're more over-weighted than you thought.
       — Amy Higgins

Today's Company

               MISSINGPETS.COM

        PRODUCTIVE VACATION: While on vacation in New Jersey in 1997, Curtis Esche found both a business and a calling. The family dog escaped and, while searching for her, Mr. Esche realized that locating lost pets was, at best, a hit or miss procedure. When he returned to his Ross home, the entrepreneur put his Internet programming skills to work and established Missingpets.com, a web bulletin board.

        BETTER THAN A TELEPHONE POLE: The web site provides a central location to which people can post information about lost or found pets. Missingpets.com is divided into lost and found dogs cats and other pets. Listings appear alphabetically by state and city, with a reference number assigned to each pet. Information is communicated via e-mail.

        A RISING PROFILE: Missingpets.com has been featured in magazines and on television. It is mentioned in the book, “300 Incredible Things for Pet Lovers on the Internet“ by Bob Vella and Ken Leebow.

        TRULY A WORLD-WIDE WEB: Pet information has been exchanged on a global basis. Once, a dog with Arkansas tags was found in Belgium. The owner's name was found in the U.S. and relayed back to Belgium, where authorities found him to be stationed at a military base in Brussels.
       — Jenny Callison

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IRS may allow insurance cost rollover
States face budget urgencies
Six Sigma program becomes business darling
WorldCom report will face scrutiny
WorldCom woes leave Clinton sad but determined
Making it
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