June, 2012

Small Business Labs

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The Rise of Artisan Distillers

Small Business Labs

The broader food movement, and in particular the local food movement (referred to as the locavore movement), has led to celebrity chefs, a rapid increase in farmers markets , the rise of urban farming and the growth of craft brewers. So it comes as no surprise that artisan distillers (craft makers of spirits) are becoming more numerous.  I attended a Commonwealth Club meeting tonight that focused on Bay Area craft distillers.  The description of the event was: Bay Area craft distille

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Why are There More Non-Employer Small Businesses?

Small Business Labs

Scott Shane's post Should We Count Non-Employer Businesses? raises a number of interesting questions related to the fact that a growing share of U.S. small businesses don't have employees.   He wonders whether or not these businesses should count as small businesses. He also closes his article by saying: Patterns like these suggest that we need to understand why fewer and fewer American entrepreneurs are starting businesses with employees.

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Is Going Public Obsolete?

Small Business Labs

An interesting academic paper (yes, that's possible) - Where Have All the IPOs Gone -  suggests that the main reason for the decline in initial public offerings (IPOs) is small, high growth companies are finding it harder to compete with big firms.   This is cutting their profitability, reducing their ability to go public.   As the graph below shows, the number of U.S. public companies has steadily decreased over the last decade.       The reason for

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Political Scientists Versus Dart Throwing Chimps

Small Business Labs

The New York Times has a good article on political scientists being bad forecasters.  Key quote: It’s an open secret in my discipline: in terms of accurate political predictions (the field’s benchmark for what counts as science), my colleagues have failed spectacularly and wasted colossal amounts of time and money. The article points out that dart throwing chimps have a better record of forecasting than political experts.  Alert readers will remember our article Dart Throwing Chimps

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More on Academic Freelancers

Small Business Labs

A Portrait of Part-Time Faculty Members is a report on the duties and pay of adjunct university faculty. Adjunct faculty is what colleges and universities call temp or part-time professors. According to the report, there are about 1.8 million faculty members working at two and four year degree granting institutions in the U.S.  Of those, more than 1.3 million (75%) are in contingent positions - meaning not tenured or on the tenure track.   For those not familiar with academic jobs, t

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Tablets Taking Over at Work - And at Home

Small Business Labs

Marketing Charts - one of our favorite sites - has an interesting post on tablet computers at work.  It covers an IDG Connect study showing that 71% of 3000 IT and business professionals they recently surveyed owned tablets.   And most of those folks, roughly 3 out of 5, use their tablet daily for work. Also, as the chart below from Marketing Charts shows, only 8% don't use their tablet for work.    The other interesting finding from the study is Android tablets

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Showrooming is Just Beginning

Small Business Labs

Showrooming is the trend towards shoppers visiting stores to see a product, but then buying it online or from some other store.  The reason they go elsewhere is usually price and they often use their smartphones to compare prices. There's been a number of recent stories on showrooming with varying points of view of it's impact. CNN's Will Showrooming Kill Businesses takes the view the trend is quite damaging to brick and mortar stores.