Small Business Labs

APRIL 20, 2021

The Washington Post's recent article T he hybrid office is here to stay. For example, PWC's study It’s time to reimagine where and how work will get done found that "less than one in five executives say they want to return to the office as it was pre-pandemic."

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Small Business Labs

JULY 20, 2021

   Key quote from the article: "From its garden-studded outdoor space and rooftop pool to its cozy-yet-luxury indoor bar and club, Soho House Austin has arrived." " The article picture below shows the pool area.   Drinks at the Austin location, for example, run $14.  

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Networking 192

Small Business Labs

JULY 26, 2021

The New York Times article More phone calls, less shopping: how the pandemic changed American lives, down to the minute examines data from the American Time Use survey to show the changes in how Americans spent their time last year.     This is likely an example of people not telling the truth on surveys. 

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2019 2020 Phones UPS 167

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 31, 2020

  But the TechCrunch article mentions several other examples, with our favorite being Pivot Bio.   Another interesting example is Bolt Threads. .  They use plants and bioengineered additives to create plant-based food that looks and tastes like meat. 

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UPS 196

Small Business Labs

APRIL 1, 2019

CreditUnions.com's article 3 Ways to Connect Through Coworking Spaces provides an excellent example of how coworking is spreading across industry verticals and niche markets. The article highlights 3 credit unions that have opened coworking spaces. And they continue to be member owned non-profits. 

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Small Business Labs

MAY 13, 2019

Their recent article Redefining work, workforces, and workplaces is a good example. In a relatively short article, it nicely synthesizes and explains "multiple converging trends and how they are already fundamentally changing all aspects of work." With this article Deloitte has done an excellent job simplifying it. 

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 15, 2021

  As we pointed out in our article The Wannabe Digital Nomads , most people saying they're interested in becoming a digital nomad won't do it.     And survey questions about becoming a digital nomad are a good example.   .  Key quote from the report: " 54% of respondents (U.S.)

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 21, 2021

The article chart below, which shows the 7 largest companies in the world by market capitalization, really jumped out at us.  McKinsey's Ecosystem 2.0: Climbing to the next level summarizes ecosystem 2.0 as: In the emerging world of Ecosystem 2.0,   They are also important end customers for these firms. . 

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 23, 2021

.   And according to Crunchbase News bad pet pun infused article Pets Became Purrfect Pals During Pandemic While Startup Funding Didn’t Lay Down , 55 pet startups raised $281 million in venture funding in 2020 (chart below). Pet startups now even have their own venture accelerator programs. million U.S. households own dogs.

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Small Business Labs

JULY 19, 2021

Sometimes we post articles on topics few people are interested in.    This is such an article.     For example, there's still no solid government data on independent workers and most government data on small businesses are too old by the time it's released to be of use.

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Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

There's been a recent flurry of articles on retirement, mostly focusing on older people staying in the workforce longer than prior generations. An examples is Harvard Business Review's When No One Retires. It covers the fact that the world is rapidly getting older, as is shown in the article chart below.

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Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

Chamber of Commerce article The K-Shaped Recovery and the Cost of Inaction.  " The Chamber article illustrates this by pointing out that "the financial services sector, for example, has already recovered 94% of its pre-pandemic employment. ." " Another factor is remote work.

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 1, 2021

   Natural gas, propane and gasoline powered backup generators are good examples.   As the Bloomberg article title implies, going the full solar route is still a bit expensive. Microgrids are localized power generation grids that can disconnect from the traditional grid and operate autonomously.  

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Expenses Forms 260

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 23, 2018

The chart below, from her article  Shades of green: What gig economy workers can learn from the success of romance writers,  shows how romance writers have seen their income increase even as the income of other authors have declined. The article has been picked up by a wide variety of publications including Slate and the BBC.

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Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 23, 2021

  Examples include personal trainers, wealth managers, dog walkers, mow and blow services, sports, music and education coaches for kids, and many others.      Fora is also tapping in to the long-term growth in personal services companies. 

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Travel 2008 Management UPS 200

Small Business Labs

JULY 16, 2018

The title of this post is a quote from the NY Times article  Sorry, Power-Lunchers. The article covers Spacious , a startup that transforms unused space - especially restaurants outside of meal times - into shared workspaces. This Restaurant Is a Co-Working Space Now.   Coffee shops  are co-working spaces. 

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Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 25, 2019

"  Key article quote on the technologies: One day soon an emerging technology highlighted in this report will allow you to virtually teleport to a distant site and actually feel the handshakes and hugs of fellow cyber travelers.   For example, it's not hard to predict that AI will improve and have a big future impact.

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Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 16, 2019

Quartz’s members-only article (meaning you have to be a paying subscriber to see it) The stars, teams, and investors turning esports into big business nicely covers the rise of esports. Esports is an excellent example of how technology is creating societal change – and new businesses and opportunities.  

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Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 16, 2017

.  In the early years of the coworking, for example, the industry's tagline was "come for the space, stay for the community."  A good example is the all female New York city social club/coworking chain  The Wing.  They are becoming lifestyle brands. in early 2018. 

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Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 19, 2019

  As the article points out, this is already happening. Key quote: "There are already examples of a California backlash. Also echoing this comes from the LA Times article Opinion: California is making the writing life even harder. There are lots of examples of legislation that attempt to stop or turn back change.

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

  But some of them - Patreon and Substack, for example - provide mechanisms for creators to have more direct relationships with their fans and generate revenue a variety of ways (subscriptions, merchandise sales, etc.). Most of the creator economy platforms pay creators in some form of royalties or advertising revenue share agreements. 

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Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 19, 2017

Key quote from the article: “The world of marriage and family continues to shift, and the granddog represents the new reality,” said Mary Meehan, consumer strategist of Minneapolis-based Panoramix Global. We've long covered the trend towards pet humanization  - and this another example. There are three main reasons.

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Restaurants 150

Small Business Labs

MAY 12, 2020

There's been a recent flurry of articles suggesting that the economic recovery will not be V-shaped or quick.    Instead, the articles suggest it will likely take 2-3 years to fully recover from the pandemic induced recession.    Key quote: But in most places, it will be anything but business-as-usual.

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 6, 2018

There have been a number of recent articles pointing out that despite having to compete with several giant beer companies, the craft brewing industry has dramatically expanded over the past decade. We've long used craft brewing as an example of the rise of niche businesses. For example, The U.S.

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Small Business Labs

MAY 3, 2018

  This data comes the interesting HBR article  More and More Jobs Today Require a License. For example, our accountant is not a CPA but is more than qualified to do our accounting work. Examples include doctors, lawyers, electricians and others where you want to make sure the people providing the service are highly skilled.

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 4, 2019

The article starts by pointing out the long decline in the membership of traditional clubs. " The broader point of the article is that the new wave of clubs need to charge high prices because they are ventured backed, have lots of amenities and high costs. Fast Company's Social clubs died out in America.

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Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 8, 2018

" Another example comes from The Atlantic article  What Happens When Gig-Economy Workers Become Employees. " Both articles highlight the decline in flexibility associated with traditional employment as a reason many of the gig workers quit rather than become traditional employees. 

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Small Business Labs

JULY 14, 2020

And second, the PUA program is a successful example of a portable benefit that's detached from a traditional job.    See that article for more information on this topic.   Going forward, we need to create more portable benefits and make them permanent.  

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Policies Health 149

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 24, 2017

  Recent examples include stories about coworking spaces  offering of a year's free rent to prospective tenants , reports of coworking spaces spying on competitors and coworking spaces closing down due to growing competition.   WeWork also continues to lose a lot of money, although the article did not provide a figure.

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 29, 2017

As the article chart below shows, gum sales have declined substantially since the release of the iPhone.    The reason, according to the article, is we're now too busy looking at our phones in check-out lines to buy gum. There are no doubt many more examples. 

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Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 14, 2019

" The pros and cons of remote work are well known, but the article chart below nicely summarizes them.   While reading the Recode article we were struck that remote work is a great example of Amara's Law , which is: We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.

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Small Business Labs

JULY 24, 2018

According to the Reuters article 'Coworking' surge in Manhattan raises asset-liability quandary : "The amount of office leasing by “coworking” firms in Manhattan is nearing 10 percent of all new leases, a sign of growing demand for short-term contracts by companies seeking workspace." See our forecast article for details.

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Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

In a 2016 Harvard Business Review article on external talent platforms we said: We expect to see many other large corporations deploying independent external talent platforms and exchanges over the next two to three years, as 21st-century social, economic, demographic, and technological trends change the way we all think about talent.

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Small Business Labs

MAY 26, 2020

For example, the Global Workplace Analytics Work from Home Experience Survey found that "U.S.    The biggest reason for this is loneliness, which is why we wrote a Harvard Business Review article - Coworking Is Not About Workspace — It’s About Feeling Less Lonely - on this topic. . 

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 6, 2018

According to the Kellogg Insights article  How “Speed Factories” Help Companies Adapt to Capricious Consumers , speed factories are: a local-market facility designed to quickly pump out products with shorter life cycles and less predictable demand, like apparel sported by Kendall Jenner or LeBron James that suddenly becomes a must-have item.

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 11, 2018

" According to the article, the primary driver is skilled gig workers earn a lot more than traditional employees doing the same work.    This article caught our eye because it's an interesting example of how the war for talent is leading to more skilled professionals becoming independent workers.

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Skills 162

Small Business Labs

JUNE 8, 2018

For example, a recent Federal Reserve study found 31% of adult Americans engage in alternative (independent) work. For example: The CWS only includes people whose sole or main job is independent. They also found that only about 10.1% of Americans engage in alternative (independent) work. So what’s going on?

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2017 UPS 155