GigaOm.com: Many businesses are cutting costs in hopes of staying afloat longer than the competition but there is one area where savings can be made that is often overlooked: paying rent! Alan Bernier posted a guest piece, 8 Ways to Hack Your Office Lease for Cash, that lays out some ways you can squeeze your rent for what could end up being a significant amount. For example, "7. Consider a buildout. If a landlord offers an allowance to build out a space to your specs, take the time to get a construction bid. Make the landlord pay for the estimate. Be sure the allowance can be used for architects, construction management, your moving expenses and data wiring. Most landlords draw the line at furniture and fixtures, but ask for it." You don't know if you don't ask, but don't expect every landlord to be amenable to your cost-cutting ideas. Bernier also has created a real estate resource for startups, Rofo.com, which should help you find the best space for the lowest cost, which in these times of reduced credit should act as a kind of bottom-line multiplier.

Entrepreneur.com: Neuromarketing is becoming more and more accessible to smaller businesses these days and some hold the truths behind the revelations of customer brain scans to be unreliable while others swear that by tapping into the limbic, lizard reactions of our primal gray matter, they can actually see the subconscious underpinnings that really determine why we buy what. Roger Dooley, of Neuromarketing.com and Dooley Direct, is one of the persons of note in Dennis Romero's Targeted Marketing Gets Intelligent. A few Dooley gems: "If someone asks why you purchased a particular car, scotch or soft drink, you would have a rational answer, but your brain is processing that information below the level of consciousness." And this one, "Neuromarketing," he says, "could help companies achieve those visionary breakthroughs." Join in the discussion over the potential for neuromarketing to revolutionize the study of human purchasing behavior and how best to take advantage of the data gained through its practice by reading the piece and leaving a comment on this blog.

Also from Entrepreneur.com, an interesting article on Lessons Learned at 'Harvard for Losers' that lifts up the spirits with its tale of second-chances and criminals turned doctor, lawyer or even cop. "Imagine a place where former drug addicts, ex-convicts and the homeless can go to find housing, employment and education. When they leave for the "real world" again, they've learned the skills to become successful attorneys, doctors, and yes, even cops. It may sound like a pipe dream, but it’s not. It's called the Delancey Street Foundation, a place founder Mimi Silbert has dubbed the 'Harvard for Losers.'" The Delancey Street Foundation started out in 1971 with a $1000 loan and an idea to change the rehabilitation model for recently-released felons. Since then, it has grown into a multi-regional operation that continues to have great success and relies on its charges to make the process work. "Silbert's organization, which operates five residential facilities in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, New Mexico, and North Carolina, employs no staff, charges no fees, and receives no government aid." Maybe there's the potential for a kind of franchise opportunity if you have plenty of patience, believe in the goodness of your fellow man, and are willing to put your trust in those who need it most.

TechDirt.com: Time for another episode of the Can A Moron In A Hurry Tell The Difference Between A Hershey Bar And A Couch?show, courtesy of Mike Masnick. From the Michigan branch of truth is stranger than fiction facts: "[A] judge has ordered a furniture store to stop using a design that shows a couch being unwrapped from a candy bar. Hershey's sued the furniture company, claiming it violated their trademark on unwrapping chocolate bars[.]" Masnick points out the judge''s own admission that there is no real basis for copyright infringement, but decides to put the kibosh on the whole "sofa-as-candybar-being-unwrapped" advertising campaign that hasn't even actually started yet. Where will the insanity end?

VentureBeat.com: Chris Morrison lays out the good news for concentrating photovoltaic solar panel (CPV) startup SolFocus in a recent piece. Morrison explains the tech behind this emerging cleantech trend: "CPVs [are] a type of solar power in which sunlight is focused by lenses or mirrors onto a small, highly efficient solar cell. Although other forms of solar power — notably solar thermal, in which focused sunlight turns water to steam — have landed deals running into the billions of dollars, this is the biggest single investment that CPV has received to date, by a significant margin. The technology is typically considered less proven than solar thermal and regular solar panels." However, due to the lower costs associated with focusing mirrors versus the complex and costly process of making highly-efficient photovoltaic panels, SolFocus stands poised to capture a significant portion of the CPV market with a recent round of funding at $103 million. Morrison calls this move, "a major first step for seeing the technology become a big renewable energy player" and we can look for SolFocus to continue to make progress in its homeland, Spain, in the months ahead.