Bill Rancic, who was the first "Apprentice" winner, has come full circle -- from reality show contestant to host -- with a new reality television series, "We Mean Business."

Against a backdrop of layoffs, small businesses can be engines for job creation.

Is salary transparency a good thing for small companies -- and for independent workers?

If there is one thing that separates the self-employed from those employed by others, it is their preoccupation with health insurance.

This week, for my Shifting Careers column at nytimes.com, I spoke to Stan Halpern, who made one of those career changes that seem to happen when you face your own mortality. Halpern is now an evangelist for green cleaning, and like many who find religion, he spent the majority of his career peddling what he now sees as poison — commercial cleaning supplies that did the job, but probably hurt a lot of people along the way.

Here’s the story:
A New Way to Clean Up