A weekly roundup of small-business developments.Dashboard
The Economy 1: Small Isn?t Beautiful?
Both small-business and consumer confidence remain low. Jared Bernstein says the perception of small businesses as job providers is wrong: ?You can tweak the definitions, but even if you define ?small? as fewer than 500 people (as the federal government does, basically), you still find that half the work force is employed by large businesses.??James Surowiecki says big is beautiful. Felix Salmon says it?s start-ups that create jobs and that the lionization of small businesses is ?unhelpful.? Scott Shane says Occupy Wall Street is no friend of small business. None of this really matters to William Shatner.
The Economy 2: Here We Come
As recession fears begin to ease, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says world power will soon swing back to America: ?The American phoenix is slowly rising again. Within five years or so, the U.S. will be well on its way to self-sufficiency in fuel and energy. Manufacturing will have closed the labor gap with China in a clutch of key industries. The current account might even be in surplus.? New data shows that the United States grew the most of anyone, by a lot, between 1970 and 2010. The World Bank says the United States ranks No. 4 for ease of doing business ? but is not one of the top 10 countries for starting a small business (huh?). Third-quarter gross domestic product rises (pdf), and economists bump up their forecasts. The Fed considers more stimulus options. This chart shows what will happen if the deficit ?super committee? fails.
Data: Property Prices Up
Caterpillar?s profits are up. Durable goods orders rise. Truck tonnage increased but road traffic declined. Ninety-three percent of kids will be trick-or-treating tonight. The Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes and Moody?s Commercial Property Index rise. Worldwide steel output remains strong. Retail employment stays depressed. Banks are finding they have too much cash.
Start-Ups: Leo Dives In
Leonardo DiCaprio dives into the start-up scene. A California start-up says it will create 1,200 local jobs (in Indiana). A social shopping site that lets users follow experts and celebrities who curate products raises $30 million. A start-up that began last year as a collaboration between professors and students in a Yale computer lab gets $9.5 million. Two Arizona State student-run companies are up for an award. Start-up investments rise in the third quarter. Office Depot and Century Payments introduce a new payment-processing service for small companies. Kristina Dell explains why some entrepreneurs choose to go it alone. Sarah Rich writes about an unusual incubator in Chattanooga, Tenn. SXSW 2012 is seeking health start-ups.
Marketing: Show Your Face and Allow Pets
A blogger offers seven tips on how to add more personality to your business blog: ?Write as ?I? rather than ?our.? Sometimes small businesses want to make themselves look bigger than they are and run the risk of becoming rather impersonal. The use of the first person is friendlier and more personal.? A free survey-authoring platform is introduced. Chapstick creates a social media controversy. Here are a few useful hashtags for Twittering owners. Shel Holtz and Cassie P?an plan a webinar on how to produce a social media news release. Kenji offers some networking tips from 125 years ago: ?I?ve personally found that, to borrow a Japanese phrase, ?just showing your face? can often be enough to make the connections you need.? A report shows how much the recession changed consumer spending in the United States. Stores that allow more pets see more customers.
Around the States: There Seems to Be a Buzz
A truck carrying millions of bees crashes in Utah. Small businesses in Florida are cringing over a new increase in workers? compensation rates. The rural economy rises slightly. Chicago?s regional activity improves (pdf). Small-business owners are excited about a new Wal-Mart? in Amherst, N.Y. Several barbers in Florida?s Orange County are humiliated in front of their customers. Marcellus shale has been very good to Pennsylvanians. Here?s what they were doing in Atlantic City 100 years ago.
Ideas: Sell Your Family?
The National Small Business Association?s 2011 energy survey finds that over the past three years 82 percent of small-business owners have taken one or more steps to reduce the amount of energy their businesses consume. Admit it: you never knew these 13 punctuation marks existed. Noobpreneur finds three small-business trends to watch. Isabelle Mercier Turcotte shares ideas for making money online, such as, ?Sell your family.? Charles Mann explains how the potato changed the world. A truly brilliant idea: dress as a referee and start a brawl.
Your People: A Business Owner Changes 100 Lives
Zappos?s chief executive tells how he keeps employees happy. A small-business owner gives 100 unemployed women makeovers for their next job interview. Here are 50 motivational people on the Web. Johnny Depp gives Ricky Gervais a piece of his mind. I.B.M. embraces gaming to train and develop employees. Small Business Trends lists the 10 best management books for small-business owners. Some people did amazing things this year. But Chaz Bono got the boot.
Red Tape Update: The I.R.S. Is on Track
A government verification system for new hires backfires and hurts small business. The Internal Revenue Service is on track to enforce taxes and penalties from the health care legislation. Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony play in a Jewish league. Here?s a useful business tip: Don?t delay your payment of payroll taxes. Gallup finds government regulation remains the top concern among small-business owners. The withholding tax on government contracts comes back to bite businesses.
Around the World: Some Disturbing Numbers From China
The Europeans buy some time. Brett Jensen shares 10 disturbing numbers from China (while all attention is on Europe), including: ?1,400 percent. The amount of median family income in Shanghai it takes to buy an apartment. This is up from 600 percent 10 years ago. Other major cities show similar rises. This is a sign of a huge property bubble.? A new service connects American manufacturers to Chinese customers. China pours money into smart grid technology. Four ideas are shared at Beijing?s Startup Weekend. Jonathan Ortmans says Malaysia continues to transform itself from a producer of raw materials in the 1970s to an upper-middle-income country with a multisector economy. Business conditions improve for the Solomon Islands. A London retailer creates the world?s first farm in a shop.
Technology: Can It Make a Phone Call?
Bill.com adds e-billing to its billing and invoicing app. Joe Mandese says the latest mobile app is ? phone calls? Here?s how Netflix lost 800,000 customers. Citrix drives down the cost of virtual desktops. The iPad is killing our hotel Wi-Fi connections. Facebook is becoming an online payment provider. Apple joins Oreo and Capri Sun as the most popular youth brands. There?s a new app to deter bullies. Oracle aims to expand its cloud lineup. Not all of Google?s products have been successful. Cloud computing is projected to account for one-quarter of the Federal information technology budget. H.P.?s Meg Whitman joins the board of a mobile marketplace company. Ed Bott warns small businesses to beware the Office 365 fine print. Here are five iPad apps for remote workers.
The Week Ahead: An Unemployment Drop Predicted
Expect some volatility. The Institute?for Supply Management tells us how much purchasing managers are buying. The Federal Open Market Committee issues its statement and will have a press conference on monetary policy. ADP releases employment numbers for the month, and on Friday we?ll get the government?s new unemployment rate. Gallup predicts a big drop.
The Week?s Bests
Reason to Not Start a Company. Penelope Trunk suggests red flags for when you know it?s time to leave your start-up, including ?Marital exhaustion?: ?The dirty secret about start-up founders is they can?t keep marriages together. Part of the reason for this is they are crazy to begin with. And part of the reason is that you have to be married to your company to do a start-up. So divorce rates are high, especially among women, because they are much less likely to have a spouse who is willing to stay home and keep the family intact. So I got a divorce. It was on the cover of The New York Times. And all P.R. is good P.R., of course, but I realized, while I was going through the process, that I wanted a successful marriage more than I wanted a successful career. And then I thought, ?No. I want both.? And I became exhausted wondering how women get both. (Until I realized, oh, this is why women don?t do start-ups.)?
Reason to Not Start a Company With Your Spouse. Michael Idov opened a charming neighborhood coffee shop, ?then it destroyed my life?: ?Within weeks, Lily and I ? previously ensconced in an enviably stress-free marriage ? were at each other?s throats. I hesitate to say which was worse: working the same shift or alternating. Each option presented its own small tortures. Two highly educated professionals with artistic aspirations have just put themselves ? or, as we saw it, each other ? on $8-per-hour jobs slinging coffee. After four more months, we grew suspicious of each other?s motives, obsessively kept track of each other?s contributions to the cause (?You worked three days last week!?), and generally waltzed on the edge of divorce. The marriage appears to have been saved by a well-timed bankruptcy.?
This Week?s Question: Do you work with your spouse? How?s it going?
Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. You can follow him on Twitter.
Source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/this-week-in-small-business-the-backlash/
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This week?s release and death of more than 50 so-called ?exotic? animals near Zanesville, Ohio, is a tragic reminder that the laws protecting wildlife in the U.S. are full of loopholes that endanger not only the animals themselves but also people.