Dashboard

A weekly roundup of small-business developments.

What’s affecting me, my clients and other small-business owners this week.

Must-Reads

Tim Duy explains what Japan’s growth means for the rest of the world. And here are the social media lessons from a Gordon Ramsay nightmare gone viral.

The Economy: Cash Is Not Safe

Retail sales rise and household debt declines, driven largely by lower housing and credit card balances. Corporate earnings are at a historic high. The latest small-business confidence index ticks up. Builder confidence improves, too. But April’s producer prices and industrial production both fell, and the latest business inventories and sales numbers continue to show little improvement. A forecast predicts a plunge in gasoline prices. Business conditions in the New York region (pdf) deteriorate, and the New York Federal Reserve Bank says tight credit is restraining small-business growth. David Rosenberg explains why cash is your least safe bet, and Rex Nutting is convinced that everything is overvalued: “No one’s sure when the reckoning will take place, but it’s likely to be ugly when it does.” Joseph Biden agrees with a 7-year-old’s suggestion to make the world a better place.

Washington: Sequestration Watch

The Congressional Budget Office says the deficit problem is solved for the next 10 years. Paul Krugman says the case for austerity has crumbled, but Keith Hennessey says it’s too soon to celebrate. Jared Bernstein submits the fourth installment of his “sequester watch.” The Federal Reserve, whose policy has pushed some start-ups to be valued at a billion dollars, may ease up on monetary easing this summer. Here are a few buzzwords to watch as the Fed plots its exit strategy. Joe Weisenthal reveals the real reason people bash Ben S. Bernanke and John Maynard Keynes at conferences. A bunch of economists offer advice to graduates.

Your People: Hourly Workers

Alex Befekadu lists seven employee types that you should fire. Joanne Sammer takes a look at what constitutes a healthy work/life balance and how companies can achieve that goal. A study finds that freedom is the top reason for quitting and that millennials want to be entrepreneurs (but that doesn’t always mean starting businesses). Here are four steps to hiring hourly workers this summer. Crispin Jones explains the benefits of having a diverse workplace. Here are five ways to deliver bad news to employees (and the best ways to open a beer).

Finance: A Trip to Mars

André Mouton believes that if venture capitalists aren’t interested in crowdfunding, maybe you should be (apparently, Donald Trump is interested). Jeff Hindenach explains why credit cards remain a viable option for small businesses. Kabbage expands its small-business financing (using QuickBooks data), and NASA is offering $9.8 million to small and midsize businesses for a trip to Mars. Joe Taylor gives advice for building a profitable banking relationship, but here are some alternatives if you cannot. And here are two helpful online valuation tools to find out how much your business is worth. Bayer HealthCare goes on a start-up hunt. Retiring baby boomers are driving the sales of small businesses.

Start-Up: Controlling Fear

Ken Oboh says start-ups should ditch their “go big or go home” mentality. Peter Thiel’s first investment in Europe has gone to a London-based start-up in financial technology. A life coach explains how to control the fear of starting a small business. Two start-up founders were not afraid to sleep in a van for months on end. Here’s how start-ups can get cheap office space and three ways to jump-start your dreams. Morgan Hartley and Chris Walker explain why your city needs a start-up scene. A venture capital firm is eager to invest in start-ups in Charlotte, N.C. A start-up “dream team” is looking for 45 young aspiring entrepreneurs from around the world to join a nine-week summer program in Silicon Valley. This is how one entrepreneur started three businesses by age 32.

Management: Go to Bed

Todd Wasserman explains key performance indicators. Julia Kirby says that if you want to change the world, you should get to bed by 10 p.m. Here are eight easy ways for your business to go green, and Jim Smith explains what your business can learn from the $1 cups at Starbucks. Communicating with energy is one of the five most important business skills. According to an American Express study, 70 percent of entrepreneurs say they purchase and source goods and services from other small businesses. A survey reveals the DNA of America’s small-business owners.

Marketing: The Ultimate Pitch

Here is how Lowe’s is making its customers smarter with six-second videos on Vine. Pamela Wilson has suggestions for getting customer testimonials that will convince even the most skeptical prospects. Mark Emond writes that there are four foundational elements of marketing analytics success. Suren Ter-Saakov explains what is important about competitive analysis. Diane Carlson warns not to make these business card mistakes. Jill Konrath says this is the ultimate sales pitch. A contract manufacturer shares eight marketing tips.

Around the Country: A $50,000 Challenge

An Alaskan town will vanish by 2017. In tornado-hit Joplin, Mo., employees of local businesses chip in again to rebuild. A new Colorado law provides recourse for discrimination against workers at companies that employ fewer than 15 people. Constant Contact joins with Staples and Score to host free webinars. CNBC’s new small-business show introduces a $50,000 challenge. In Chicago, mothers are showing their children the real estate ropes. In Pennsylvania, four businesses receive energy-efficiency and pollution-prevention grants, registration opens for a small-business expo on government contracting and a small-business conference plans a summer debut in Philadelphia.

Around the World: Manufacturers Coming to U.S.

The euro zone recession continues into its sixth quarter, and the social mood darkens. The United States oil boom leaves OPEC sidelined from demand growth. Japan’s economy expands faster than expected. A youth hockey brawl breaks out in Russia. China’s industrial production grew 9.3 percent in April. Jeffrey Telep and Joshua Snead report that global manufacturers are moving production to the United States. The proportion of British-based small businesses targeting the growing international market for low-carbon products has doubled in the past two years.

Social Media: Exclamation Points

Amanda McCormick wants to know how you are using social media to market your business. Dan Zarrella finds that exclamation points get more retweets but fewer clicks. LinkedIn bans users from promoting prostitution and escort services, but this is not why the social media service annoys Benedict Evans. Christopher Null wonders if Google Plus matters for small businesses.

Red Tape: Deficiencies

The Government Accountability Office finds 60 deficiencies in the Internal Revenue Service’s internal controls, and Jon Stewart weighs in. The Obama administration announces three advanced manufacturing innovation institutes. A survey reveals a lingering uphill battle for the new health care law, but Emily Maltby and Angus Loten wonder whether the law may create new entrepreneurs. Sarah Kliff explains what will happen if you don’t pay the tax penalty, and a small-business owner explains the hard facts of the health care law to employees.

Online: Call to Action!

Seth Godin explains why they call it a browser: “Call it attention inflation. More time spent looking, less time spent clicking.” A company that provides legal services to small businesses is now accepting Bitcoin as payment (and Amazon introduces its own virtual currency). OpenSky becomes another “interesting competitor” in the online marketplace. Here are some keyword strategies to draw people to your site, and here is how to use calls to action in your next e-mail campaign. Roger Kohl tells you everything you need to know about “the scariest search engine” on the Internet. Here are Time magazine’s best Web sites of 2013, and here are 16 steps to hosting a successful webinar. Did you know that 70 percent of consumers trust online reviews?

Retail: Bike Lanes Are Good

Square unveils hardware for its point-of-sale iPad registers, Groupon officially introduces its own point-of-sale system, and PayPal unveils a program to compel small merchants to throw away their cash registers. Also, keep your eyes on these shopping-cart-mounted tablets that will detect nearby items and offer recipes in real time. Fred Lizza says cloud retail can transform your business, and these are the benefits of a cloud-based inventory management system. A survey finds restaurant sales and traffic improved in April. Restaurant marketers are waking up to a $50 billion breakfast opportunity, and millennials are propelling the growth of the sandwich industry. Bike lanes happen to be good for local businesses.

Mobile: Dead in the Water

Nearly 75 percent of all smartphones sold in the first quarter were Android-based, and this chart shows that the iPhone’s market share is “dead in the water.” It is now estimated that the mobile marketing industry may employ 1.4 million people by 2015. Tobin Dalrymple suggests five ways to publish content on mobile. Here is a guide to mobile productivity apps, and Brian S. Hall shares six mobile apps created by nontech companies. Jon Gold explains why everyone is still confused by mobile management. BlackBerry will introduce BBM for iOS and Android this summer. A coming webinar looks at small-business adoption of mobile.

Technology: Texting to Landlines

Google is offering free unified storage across its services along with a way to send money by Gmail. Here is everything Google announced at its developer’s conference (which is also where the company’s chief executive said he wanted to start his own country). A company introduces texting to landlines. Michael del Castillo shares the lessons learned from five huge tech flops. Megan Totka suggests five customer relationship management tools for small businesses. Windows Blue may leave customers seeing red.

Tweet of the Week

@dansinker – How long does a keynote have to last before it’s considered a hostage situation?

The Week’s Best Quote

Charlie Hamilton shares a few lessons from the lemonade stand: “Successful adults often worked when they were young. They mowed lawns, baby-sat, or had a lemonade stand. Learning how to work hard, provide good customer service, overcome challenges, ask for the sale, and understand the value of a dollar are invaluable life lessons that kids simply can’t get from a textbook.”

This Week’s Question: Would you buy a point-of-sale system from Groupon?

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.

Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/this-week-in-small-business-gordon-ramsay-calling/?partner=rss&emc=rss