It's tough for a small business owner to take vacation. I consider it a small victory that I didn't use my computer or check voice mail for an entire week in August. However, I did monitor email by Blackberry since my phone has reception on Beaver Island and my husband's doesn't. As a realtor, he's always checking messages. The rule I imposed was that I could read but not reply.

"The fact that most small business owners will vacation again this summer may not seem so remarkable, until you factor in that 56% are experiencing cash flow issues and 86% are being squeezed by rising energy and gas costs," said Alice Bredin, American Express OPEN small business advisor. "For all of us and especially entrepreneurs, a vacation even if downscaled, is a necessity not a luxury; especially when times are stressful." More

The topic of newspapers and their decline has been -- no surprise -- a hot news item. I have grown up reading newspapers and still love them. I suscribe to several. My husband Tom could have been your Grand Haven Tribune paper boy many years ago. (Cute as I'm sure he was, this is not him.)

But as I told a journalist last night, I haven't read a print edition of the Wall Street Journal in years -- except in a waiting room. I subscribe to the online edition, and I'm probably missing many great articles I used to find when seeing the whole product. How has our reliance on newspapers for "social currency" changed? Ask Jack Shafer -- more.

In June, we obsessed over the appropriateness of bare legs, triggered by Michelle Obama's pantyhose remark. Now that it's August, we're on to more serious stuff. If business suits say, "I'm an outsider," then what are the more friendly fashion signs of authority? More on CEO Casual.

Thought for the day as we start August with a declining market and GM posts a huge 2nd quarter loss: "Some seem to think that the business of business is profits only. The smart ones know to first build trust and value, and money will follow," says crisis communications expert Gerald Baron.

Does our struggling economy affect this claim? Or is trust more important now than ever? More