People become consultants for a lot of reasons. They’re sick of the corporate grind. They long for independence. And for people out of work 2 years and more, it seems to be a viable option. Everyone seems to be hanging up a shingle these days.

But the consulting model is challenging. Small companies can’t often afford consultants. Big companies don’t typically hire sole practitioners. What is a consultant to do? Enter Berry Zimmerman, Founder & CEO of BizEnrich, a collaborative community of business consultants. He talks about what it takes to get companies to hire consultants.

Executive Coach, Ron Kranz of the Peer Leadership Exchange, also shares his insights about winning and working with clients.

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Even in this digital age, there are some toys that just last. Take Play-doh, for instance. Hear the story about how this product came about, tech toy clips from the 109th American International Toy Fair and scenes from the documentary Toyland. It's a movie about how toys are invented.

Susan Chace of HoopDelite and Kari Erickson-Valenzuela of Mama K's Aromatic Play Clay are crafty masters of reinvention, but on a startup scale. Listen to their stories of how they have made old products new again on this show about reinvention, repurposing and rethinking.

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Valentine's Day is almost here and you know what they say. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage. And after that, business ideas to help Moms with their little charges – at least for Mompreneurs like Sari Crevin. She's the inventor of a successful line of products to help parents make their lives easier.

She’s not alone. The market for infant and kids products has exploded. According to the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, U.S. wholesale revenue for prenatal through preschool items, not counting clothing and food, has grown to almost $3 billion. Hear Sari tell her story of how she is grabbing her share of the market, from when she bought her first sewing machine to selling into some of the biggest retailers in the country.

Also on this week's show, a new website from the SBA, the interactive media industry and the app economy in Seattle.

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About half of all Internet users read blogs. They're the most trusted as a source of reliable information, beating out Twitter and Facebook. But, according to Technorati’s 2011 State of the Blogosphere report, there are about 378 million blogs, with 14 million of those added since July 2011 alone. With so much material out there, it’s a wonder that any one blog achieves enough readership to make it worth writing.

On this show, we speak with Kimberly Gaulthier, the author of several blogs, including Through the Lens of Kimberly Gauthier, Adventures in Blogging, and Keep the Tail Wagging.

The show also includes a clip from Brian Clark of Copyblogger, a well-established figure in the world of blogging talking about what it takes to make a blog commercially viable. And a piece from Whitney Keyes and Rick Rochon answering the question, "Do I need a blog for my small business?"

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