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An article I wrote on social media for small business was recently published in the April 2009 issue of the Kansas City Small Business Monthly magazine. Click the image or link below to view/read the full article.

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First off, my Dad has been a Sprint/Nextel corporate sales rep for several years. Over the years, I’ve sat back and watched not only the company take a nose dive in the stock market, but also felt the ripple effect of numerous layoffs throughout the Kansas City metro, the locale of  Sprint’s Corporate HQ (I live there too).

So I get an e-mail from my dad this evening filled with a glimmer of hope. Despite my blog not even being ready for prime time yet, I felt strongly about throwing this post out there in the hopes that others may see the glimmer as well. Sprint has a tough climb ahead of them, but Malcolm Berko, a popular syndicated columnist from Florida, feels that they’re turning a corner. I hope so. My dad has a quota.

So read the article below. Buy some Sprint stock. Maybe you’ll thank me in a few years.

Malcolm Berko: New Sprint CEO Dialing the Right Number

Dear Malcolm, I’m a Sprint cell phone customer thinking about buying Sprint stock, which I’ve watched crash from $23 in mid-2007 to below $1.50 in November 2008. Now, at $2.10, I would like your opinion on buying 1,000 shares. I can’t lose much because it’s so low, and I have a feeling it could move up to $10 in a year or two. I dumped my Sprint shares in 2006 at $22 when you wrote it was a bad stock because it had a bad CEO and low employee morale. So, what do you think now? — T.P., Des Moines, Iowa

Dear T.P.: I think a 1,000-share purchase of Sprint Nextel Corp. (S-$2.10) could be a classy two- to three-year speculation. In fact, I think in the coming three to five years, Sprint could be a $10 to $12 stock. And yes, Sprint was hemorrhaging red ink and losing customers faster than an elm loses leaves in fall.

Sprint’s problem was former CEO Gary Forsee. Forsee is no manager. He is an engineer. Any fool knows that managers are supposed to manage while engineers are supposed to engineer.

In 2008, Dan Hesse became Sprint’s new CEO. This is the guy who will manage Sprint back to health, which he can do because he’s everything that Forsee was not. Sprint will probably lose 45 cents a share for 2008; free cash flow will tumble and revenues and operating margins have fallen more than 10 percent. However, 2009 should fare much better — but on lower revenues. In the process, Hesse has made sharp cuts in operating costs, reduced capital spending and wisely eliminated redundant administrative staff.

Meanwhile, Sprint recently closed its long-awaited merger with Clearwire Corp., which is building an advanced, fourth-generation wireless network across the United States. Customer service, which was an oxymoron under Forsee, has emerged from the Dark Ages. The Sprint network, according to J.D. Powers, is the fastest and most dependable in the country. In a recent data speed test, Sprint crushed competitors AT&T and Verizon, demonstrating that Sprint has the best network in the country. What’s more, Sprint’s family plans can save AT&T and Verizon users between $20 and $70 a month.

Hesse has pumped steroids into Sprint’s performance. His folksy TV ads are working and could persuade AT&T and Verizon users (both companies have become too comfortable in their britches) to switch to Sprint. Value Line thinks Sprint, in the coming three to four years, can earn $1.50 to $1.70 a share and that revenues will move up some 20 percent to $40 billion. David Reimer at Value Line thinks Sprint will trade between $13 and $20 a share in the next few years. I believe it’s a classy speculation.