Do you know the muffin men?

They invested in the bakery during the low-carb craze, weathered the storm and now expect to catch the next wave, a renewed interest in healthy whole grain breads. Owners Kent Woodman and Jim Shettel, both 52, have even added gluten-free bread for the health conscious. The result is a growing base of customers such as Jill Formanek of West Bloomfield, whose daughter, Lexie, 4, has celiac disease and cannot tolerate gluten.

“The bread is just delicious,” she said. “The gluten-free products out there take some getting used to. They are dry and not very tasty, but this is moist, tasty and a bit sweet. It’s the closest to real bread.”

Woodman and Shettel’s story of entrepreneurial success should resonate in Michigan, where many are dealing with unemployment. Both were laid off from office jobs and were forced to start new careers from scratch.

Through family connections, they discovered the owner of the Breadsmith franchise in West Bloomfield was looking to sell and purchased the business last summer.The Wisconsin-based chain has eight franchises in Michigan and is looking to open a ninth in Grand Rapids.

“Our mission was to find something that could provide economic stability to our two households,” Woodman said.

READ: Laid-off workers build new careers in baking

I love traffic! (Ask me why…)

For most of the past quarter century, Aaron Nayer has caught a bus from East Brunswick, N.J., before sunrise each weekday and been transported to Manhattan’s fumey Port Authority bus terminal. From there, he walks clear across town to his office.

It’s a routine that Mr. Nayer wouldn’t give up for the world, even when he ends up sitting next to a smelly person or a blathering cellphoner. “I lose myself in that commute,” says Mr. Nayer. “I don’t mind if it’s 50 minutes, which is the norm, or four hours. I become more serene on that bus.”

The trip lets him shed the tensions and responsibilities of both home and work, including his “wonderful but needy” greyhound, Fleetwood Macabee, and his loving but occasionally demanding wife. “I’m married to three or four personalities,” he says, chuckling, “and you never know which one is going to greet me at the door.”

Long reviled as a hazard of the modern world, commuting has become for some a joyous asylum from the stressful rigors of the day. Occupying a netherworld between the home and office, it’s governed by neither realm. That gives practitioners time to engage in learning (Mr. Nayer reads as many as three books a week), spiritual enlightenment or fantasy.

“That everybody dreads their commute and it’s hell on wheels is not necessarily supported” by the data, confirms Alan Pisarski, who’s currently writing the third book in his series “Commuting in America.” In fact, he says, “there’s an immense section of the public who are driving over hill and dale and smiling at the sunset and birds.”

READ: Why Some People Cherish Their Difficult Commutes

Jobs and “The Jetson Generation”

EVEN THOUGH SOME IT jobs will continue to move overseas by 2010, the United States will still have a sizable population of IT professionals doing high-level work on strategy, implementation and design. By the year 2010, Intel CIO Doug Busch envisions himself managing an IT staff that’s all over the map, literally. Not only will his employees be working in places ranging from Rio Rancho, N.M., to Parsippany, N.J., in the United States, they’ll also reside in Beijing, Leixlip, Haifa, Penang and a host of other locations Busch has never even been to. Each spot will specialize in a particular area of expertise for the company’s IT department

What if my family is my career?

When it works well, the family in business together can be a powerful force

Are we back in the black yet? (Hope so!)

Stocks surged Thursday, with blue chips posting the sharpest gains as investors focused on the positive news in the latest economic reports: a drop in unemployment claims, a rise in exports and a narrower U.S. trade deficit in December.

After an earnings season that produced better-than-expected results for most companies, investors have been looking for a reason to buy, and the day’s economic news offered some incentive, analysts said. Weekly jobless claims fell to their lowest level in four years, while the Commerce Department announced a decline in the trade deficit in December; the two reports combined to produce a positive feeling in the stock market, analysts said.

“We started the day with very upbeat numbers … and I think momentum has taken over,” said Hugh Johnson, chairman and chief investment officer of Johnson Illington Advisors. “It doesn’t take much to get the ball rolling, and once you do, you start to have a lot of investors, particularly active investors like hedge funds, jump on board.”

Check out: Wall Street: Stocks rise as investors digest deficit data, eye lofty oil

10 Ways To Develop Confidence In New Situations

Do you enjoy one-on-one networking, however, the thought of walking into room full of people you don’t know horrifies you? You’re not alone. Yes, even a social butterfly, President of the Social Committee in High School and avid networker knows how you feel. Here are some of my tricks. And they have all worked!

A great way to network at a conference is to volunteer at the registration desk. Why? You get to say hello to everyone who registers in your line and everyone who registers gets to see you behind the registration table. At the event, you’ll feel more comfortable talking with people because you’ve “met” them already. And if those aren’t enough benefits, people will “recognize you” from the registration desk, and be more likely to come talk with you.

Once you join a new group, ask the Chairperson what volunteer opportunities are available. Take on a small or large task, based on what you like to do and/or do something that may quietly help you market your business.

READ: 10 Ways To Develop Confidence In New Situations

I would like to thank God for making me possible…

Back in the day, when I was younger and still had that minty-fresh smell, I had a boss who turned me on to the “yay-me” file. I still keep one, and it works so well I encourage my direct reports to do the same.

The basic idea is simple: you just keep a file of good stuff you do. When you figure out some trick new process that saves hours per week, you make a note about (don’t forget to datestamp it) and drop it in the yay-me file. When you finish a project on time and under budget, you make a note that points to supplementary project files and you drop it in the yay-me file. Since it’s only your eyes on the yay-me file, you can feel free to drop in even the most trivial bits good cheer. Did you cover Eleanor’s phone while she went to lunch? Goes right in the yay-me file.

The reason for the yay-me file is two-fold. First, when you feel like you need to patch your personal suck you can crack open the yay-me file for a blast of good vibes from the past. The yay-me file reminds you that you aren’t always lame and that you make good decisions and you do good work. And gosh darnit, people like you!

READ: Yay-me! file

Happiness is… work?

What do we want out of life and work? What makes us happy and drives us to do our best? For centuries philosophers and social scientists have pondered these questions. Finally one of them seems to have hit upon the answer.

Dr. Steven Reiss, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University and author of Who am I? The 16 Basic Desires that Motivate our Actions and Define our Personalities, has found that happiness and life-satisfaction stem not from experiencing pleasure and avoiding pain, but from a sense that our lives have meaning and fulfill a larger purpose. He calls this “value-based happiness” and says we experience it when we satisfy our intrinsic desires.

Take the quiz here: Finding Happiness at Work – Career Advice Article

Blogger Beware!

Under the pseudonym of Sarcastic Journalist, Rachel Mosteller wrote this entry on her personal Web log one day last April: “I really hate my place of employment. Seriously. Okay, first off. They have these stupid little awards that are supposed to boost company morale. So you go and do something ‘spectacular’ (most likely, you’re doing your JOB) and then someone says ‘Why golly, that was spectacular.’ then they sign your name on some paper, they bring you chocolate and some balloons.

Rachel Mosteller blames her firing from a newspaper on her Sarcastic Journalist blog.

“Okay two people in the newsroom just got it. FOR DOING THEIR JOB.”

This post, like all entries in Mosteller’s online diary, did not name her company or the writer. It did not name co-workers or bosses. It did not say where the company was based. But apparently, Mosteller’s supervisors and co-workers at the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun were well aware of her Web log.

The day after that posting, she was fired.

Bill Stagg, managing editor of the Herald-Sun, said he could not comment on a personnel matter. But Mosteller, 25, said the blog was one of the reasons she was given for losing her job, and she is still in shock. “Considering I treated the blog as a smoke break, I didn’t think of it as a problem.”

READ:Free Expression Can Be Costly When Bloggers Bad-Mouth Jobs (washingtonpost.com)

How to Tie a Tie for an Interview

If someone asks you “what’s the most important part of your job interview attire?”, what would you answer? The suit? The shirt? The shoes? Perhaps. But did you know that the tie, to your outfit, is what the focal point is to a picture?

The shirt is the canvas and the suit is the frame. Change the frame on a picture and no one notices, change the picture in a frame and you can change the look of an entire room. That’s why it’s important for your tie to enhance your look, not detract from it.

READ: How to Tie a Tie for an Interview