Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

   Axios also covers this topic in their article Remote Work Won't Kill Your Office.  Surveys conducted in the six months  since most people started working from home show that less than 10% of Americans actually want to work remotely all the time, according to a new Barclays analysis.

AT&T 213

AT&T Environment UPS 213

Small Business Labs

JUNE 1, 2017

  According to the CBS News article Pedestrian deaths on U.S. roads spiking; cellphones eyed : Pedestrian deaths are climbing faster than motorist fatalities, reaching nearly 6,000 last year - the highest total in more than two decades, according to an analysis of preliminary state data released Thursday.

Phones 170

Phones 170

Small Business Labs

MARCH 18, 2019

" They say this is important because if you do the analysis based only on in-house data, you're likely going to miss important information that can be learned from other, similar projects. These are some of our least read articles. This is what we do in our forecasting projects here at Small Business Labs. . 

AT&T 146

AT&T Learning 146

Small Business Labs

MAY 31, 2018

He sums up his analysis by saying the U.S. As the article chart below shows (click to enlarge), the 9.9% The article is not positive about this group (which the author says he's part of). " About the same time Haque's essay came out, The Atlantic's cover story was The 9.9% is the New American Aristocracy. The

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2016 Expenses 2014 2017 145

Small Business Labs

MARCH 9, 2015

Strategy & Business , one of our favorite publications, has a good article on trend analysis.   The article provides a primer on identifying and using megatrends. When Megatrends Collide is written by a trio of partners from the giant accounting and consulting firm PwC. 

AT&T 100

AT&T 100

Small Business Labs

MAY 4, 2015

According to analysis by Deskmag, global interest in coworking is booming and at all time highs. Key quote on from their article on their study of Google Trends data related to the search term "coworking": The worldwide searches for the term “coworking” on Google have reached their current peak this March.

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Google International 100

Small Business Labs

MARCH 8, 2018

The only problem was their analysis was flawed, something they conceded this week.  For more this, see The Rideshare Guy's article on the study. Their finding that the ridesharing drivers working for firms like Uber and Lyft have median earnings $3.37 per hour was widely covered in the press. But even they got it wrong. 

Expenses 155

Expenses Policies AT&T Confidence 155

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 29, 2017

Spend Matters analyst Andrew Karpie's article Upwork Launches Talent Services Division to Enable Enterprise Use of Online Freelance Workforce provides an excellent analysis of this new effort. Please refer to Andrew's article for more details.

Agencies 145

Agencies Skills International AT&T 145

Small Business Labs

JULY 28, 2011

News article : "Employers have significantly cut many of the benefits they offer to workers over the past five years." " The article goes on to list 21 workplace benefits that are going away, with reductions in retirement and health care benefits leading the way.   According to a U.S. but benefits matter. 

Retirement 100

Retirement Health AT&T 100

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

Their analysis shows an estimated 75% of the US drinking age population resides within 10 miles of a brewery. At the same time, the article points out that "shipment volumes declined for 16 of the top 36 craft-style U.S. According to the Brewers Association, large brewers acquired micro brewers that produced roughly 1.2

2016 180

2016 2015 180

Small Business Labs

JULY 16, 2014

Also released recently was Business Insider's analysis of the amount of venture capital flowing into the Bitcoin industry. It shows that despite setbacks and negative press, the Bitcoin industry continues its rapid expansion. They point out it's similar to the amount of money raised by Internet startups in the mid- 1990s.

2014 100

2014 UPS 100

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

These profiles were developed using cluster analysis to group ODE workers who share similar motivations and attitudes.    As Intuit VP Alex Chriss points out in his article The Future of Work Doesn't Look Like You Think it Does , these groups are not fixed. Key quote: The data shows five different faces.

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Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 30, 2014

According to several recent articles the financial problems of millennials is leading to changing behaviors and purchase patterns as well as broader societal shifts.   For example, the New York Times article No Picket Fence: Younger Adults Opting to Rent focuses on the shift away from home ownership and towards renting by young adults.

2008 100

2008 2014 Retirement Health 100

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 28, 2014

The Harvard Business Review article Where to Find Insight provides a good primer on how to spot trends and create business insight that can drive innovation. The article defines insight as: an imaginative understanding of an internal or external opportunity that can be tapped to improve efficiency, generate revenue, or boost engagement. 

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2007 International 100

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 25, 2016

Technological advances such as machine learning are taking the complexity out of data analysis, providing small businesses with the ability to make faster, better decisions.  The report chart below highlights the forecast that the number of U.S. small businesses will increase from roughly 30 million today to 42 million by 2026.

2020 100

2020 Learning UPS 100

Small Business Labs

APRIL 14, 2015

  The Harvard Business Review article Work-Life Balance Isn't the Point covers this shift. But it's clear from our preliminary analysis of the results that work/life blending is common among coworking members. Replacing it is a new normal where work, home and life are much more seamlessly blended.

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Interviewing AT&T Stress Management 100

Small Business Labs

APRIL 10, 2013

Greg Lindsay's NY Times article Engineering Serendipity is a fascinating look at how companies are trying to increase the amount of serendipity that happens at their firms. Lindsay's article points out the promising areas of serendipity research, with social network analysis likely the best way to attack this problem.

Networking 100

Networking 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 23, 2014

The article goes on to compare 2013 with 2012. This analysis shows fewer part-timers for economic reasons and a decline in the overall percentage of people working part-time.   Go to the article for more details. Very cool chart and a great way to visually represent data.   Big Data Contingent Workforce trends'

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 17, 2013

.   It's beyond the scope of this blog to fully cover this topic, but there are two new books well worth reading that do cover it: Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data  does an excellent job of describing the basics around statistical causation and the limitations of statistical analysis in layman's terms.

AT&T 100

AT&T Skills Learning UPS 100

Small Business Labs

MARCH 5, 2013

Excellent article over on The Sleeter Group's site summarizing research on what small businesses think about their external accountants and what they want from them.   As the chart below from the article shows, almost 60% of the small business respondents said they want help from external accountants on technology issues.

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Interviewing Skills Learning 2020 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 30, 2015

  The Fusion article also says Kruger and Katz point to tax and non-employer business data as additional evidence the gig economy is growing. This is done by thorough data collection and rigorous analysis, both of which require a lot of time - often years in the case of the data. 

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2007 Interviewing AT&T 100

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 15, 2011

  I don't think Friedman covers new ground in the article.  " One theme we're constantly struck by in our trends research and analysis is how Darwinian the world of work and small business has become - and how it's likely to become even more Darwinian in the future. 

Lifestyle 100

Lifestyle 100

Small Business Labs

MAY 9, 2012

And He Is Us" is a damning analysis of Venture Capital as an asset class and the Venture Capital industry in general.   For more details on the industries woes, see the report or this summary article in GigaOm.  Another interesting perspective is provided by this article on A list VC Fred Wilson. .

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Expenses Collaborate Finance 100

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

We at Smallbizlabs are quite jealous of articles like this.    Because a key part of our job is data analysis, we don't get to be quite as uncluttered by facts as others.  .  It's obviously meant to be controversial and get others talking and writing about it (and in my case, it worked).

AT&T 100

AT&T 100

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 22, 2013

Most articles and studies define Big Data as: a collection of datasets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using traditional database management tools or data processing applications.   Also, the experts' usage of Big Data made it clear they include data analysis when they use the term.

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2020 Interviewing Forms Management 100

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

  According to the Pew Research Center's article Moonlighting is less common now, despite what you might have heard , moonlighting has been declining for years.   Key quote from the article: Both in terms of raw numbers and as a share of all employed people, fewer Americans are working more than one job than in the mid-1990s.

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Elance AT&T UPS 100

Small Business Labs

JUNE 12, 2014

It's also leading to more timely and accurate analysis and deeper bahavior insights. .  We use ethnography on a regular basis and most large corporations use some form of ethnographic research. Intuit's revenue index is much more detailed and accurate than the surveys we used and much more timely than government data.

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2005 Travel Forms Phones 100

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently did an analysis of contingent work and found 85% of independent contractors are content being independent and would not want to be traditional employees. The majority like being independent and prefer being independent over having a traditional job. For example, the U.S.

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Temping Payroll Policies Salary 100

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 2, 2016

How coworking is defined is an important attribute of any coworking industry analysis. See our 2010 article What's the Definition of a Coworking Facility in our old Coworking Labs Blog for our definition.  A major recession could, of course, have a major impact on the industry - and potentially make this forecast too high.

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2020 2016 2014 2015 100

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 20, 2011

We get a lot of questions about what information sources we use in our trend analysis work.    Nice range of articles. .    Nice range of articles.   A couple of months ago we posted on our favorite trends sources.    Also nice is these sites are free (registration required). 

AT&T 100

AT&T Management 100

Small Business Labs

JUNE 22, 2011

  The New York Times has an article covering McKinsey getting hammered over their analysis of the new health care law.    This page also has links to their study article.  .  Our quick summary:  we don't know and we don't think anyone else does. 

2014 100

2014 Health 2006 AT&T 100

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 26, 2011

Journalism.org's How People Use Tables and What it Means for the Future of News has an excellent analysis of what it means for news and new organizations.    Key quote from the article: The revenue potential for news on the tablet may be limited.

AT&T 100

AT&T Networking 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 23, 2012

There's been a flurry of recent articles on confirmation bias: 1.  They're also more willing to challenge our assumptions and analysis. .  But if we had a 2nd favorite bias, it would be confirmation bias.  This is the tendency for people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses.

AT&T 100

AT&T Interviewing Goals Management 100

Small Business Labs

JUNE 9, 2014

Brookings Why the Best Path to a Low-Carbon Future is not Wind or Solar  provides a detailed analysis of why natural gas is the best choice for reducing carbon emissions associated with the production of electricity.  From the article: we estimate that at least 7.3 solar plants and 4.3

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 27, 2017

But the article getting the most attention is The New Yorker's The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself to Death.   It pushes against bureaucratic overthinking, analysis-paralysis, and excessive whiteboarding.  Most of the controversy comes from the print ad shown below. 

AT&T 100

AT&T Goals UPS 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 27, 2011

  We've also found cross discipline trend analysis is much more powerful and accurate than focusing on a single or small set of trend areas.    It's a curated list of article summaries and links.  If   It's a curated list of article summaries and links.  If

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Agencies AT&T Networking Skills 100

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

  The qualitative analysis looks OK: " a futurist specializing in workplace issues, says pressure on baby boomers wanting to retire will be so great that they will be pulled back into the labor market. .  .  We don't often get a chance to see how trend forecasts turn out.    Obviously a big miss.

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2003 Retirement 2010 AT&T 100