Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

And, like Braintrust, the article argued that coops would provide workers with more income and control.  For those who want to learn more, Harvard Business School's Future of Work project has an excellent podcast interview with the founders of Braintrust. coop version of Task Rabbit.

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2016 2014 2015 Interviewing 205

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 19, 2021

   In the Barron's article Poshmark CEO Sees Huge Market for Used Goods.   Key quote: In a Zoom interview on Thursday with  Barron’s  from his office in Redwood City, Calif., .  It went public last week and closed its first trading day worth $3 billion.  

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 6, 2018

  Our recent HBR article  Coworking Is Not About Workspace — It’s About Feeling Less Lonely  focused on the loneliness issues coworking helps with. We also reviewed our coworking interviews and found many references to coworking reducing the social isolation of independent and remote workers.

Health 194

Health AT&T Interviewing Phones 194

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 15, 2018

The research was based on digging through the data at the knitting community site Ravely.com,  which is known as the "Facebook for knitters" Key quote from a Washington Post article on the study : analyzed almost 100 interviews and 403,168 profiles of knitters and crocheters.

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Networking 2009 Facebook Interviewing 152

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 8, 2017

The "Big 4" accounting and consulting firm Deloitte has released a series of articles, podcasts and videos on the future of work.  It includes an interview with Thomas Friedman, who also authored one of the future work articles. Deloitte’s not the only big company diving into the future of work.

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Policies Google Interviewing 140

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 22, 2019

First, the author of this article is in talent development. Based on our digital nomad interviews, the vast majority of job holding digital nomads have been allowed to do this outside of any official corporate policy.  And in this case, the signal is corporations are starting to consider creating digital nomad programs.

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2019 Policies Google Travel 113

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 30, 2018

  The quick summary of that article is the trends driving the interest in the FIRE movement are similar, and in some cases the same, as the trends driving the growing interest in independent work.   In fact, in the interview below she says: “I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.”.

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Retirement Interviewing Forms AT&T 110

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

These findings are why the Information Age article Rise of the IT Freelancer jumped out at us. We used part of the key quote in our article title: "As a freelancer my career is a constant classroom – unlike university though, it’s one where I can earn money for attending."

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 20, 2014

The New York Times article Working Anything But 9 to 5 covers the impact of erratic work schedules on low income parents. Our workforce surveys and interviews have shown a clear increase in the number of on-call workers over the past 5 years. In interviews they self-describe as independent workers who move from gig to gig.

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 1, 2015

But as HBR's  excellent interview  with Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee - faculty members at the MIT Sloan School of Management - describes, starting around 2000 the growth in labor productivity "decoupled" from job and wage growth. These 4 factors used to move more or less in unison.

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Small Business Labs

JULY 30, 2015

We did that based on our interviews with independent workers.   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 led to about a 4X increase in the number of survey respondents reporting multiple sources of income.

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2007 Interviewing AT&T 100

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 28, 2014

Every so often we run across an article that really catches the key themes of what we learn in our research on independent workers.   Minnesota Public Radio's  Life as a Freelance Musician: "Scary but a lot of fun"  is such an article. It It's nice to see articles that clearly articulate this.

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Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 6, 2012

As part of this project, Emergent Research conducted in-person interviews with 272 food truck customers. The team also interviewed 27 food truck owners or managers in person, by email or on the phone. All of these interviews were conducted in San Francisco or nearby suburbs.  billion in 2017.

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 11, 2014

Several good, recent studies and articles on Millennials and how they view kids, families and work. What is Work to a Millennial : Great article in Chief Learning Officer on how Millennials view work compared to other generations.   It covers a wide range of topics related to how Millennials are behaving now that they are adults.

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Social Media Interviewing Learning 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 19, 2016

  But the Fast Company article also points out something we've also seen in our research. Key quote on this from the article: " concluded from in-depth interviews with 146 blue-and white-collar workers that strong ties don’t matter as much when it comes to landing a job for two reasons.

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2016 Social Media Networking Interviewing 100

Small Business Labs

MARCH 4, 2016

Only a few articles point out that freelancing has a good side, a bad side and many shades of grey between the good and the bad.   The article does this by breaking the word freelancer into two parts - "free" (the good) and "lance" (the bad). When it's tough, it can be really, really tough.

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 30, 2014

In our interviews the primary reason given for feeling more secure is multiple sources of income. The article nicely describes this. Key quote: As long as I keep a good mix of clients, and don’t rely too much on any one for my income, I can never be fired in a devastating way.

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Interviewing 100

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 18, 2014

Two articles with very different points of view on work in the sharing economy were published this weekend. The New York Times article In the Sharing Economy, Workers Find Both Freedom and Uncertainty  presents an unflattering view.   So who's right? Both and neither, depending on how you look at it.

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Interviewing Stress AT&T UPS 100

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

 Key quote from the article: Organizational psychologists are finding that self-expression has deep links to productivity. In interviews people like this consistently tell us they are happy to trade off the benefits of a traditional job (predictable income, benefits, higher pay, etc.)

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Temping 2013 Interviewing Management 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 30, 2014

  Several articles this week provide some insight on some of these changes: 1. The New York Times article The New Instability focuses on declining marriage rates, especially among those with lower incomes. Another recent New York Times article, If Marriage Moves Beyond Our Means , reviews the book Marriage Markets.

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 22, 2013

One of the interesting things we found interviewing Big Data experts is how they define Big Data. 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.

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2020 Interviewing Forms Management 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 29, 2014

  As the article's title states, 87% of the surveyed freelancers reported having more than one source of income. We've known for some time from our interviews that side gigs and multiple income streams are becoming more common. The chart below shows the number sources of income reported by these respondents.

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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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Small Business Labs

APRIL 14, 2015

Instead, we started using "work/life flexibility" This term fit what we were hearing in our interviews and seeing in our survey results.   The Harvard Business Review article Work-Life Balance Isn't the Point covers this shift. We quit using the term "work/life balance" many years ago.

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Interviewing AT&T Stress Management 100

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 3, 2013

The Forbes article Why Everyone Needs a Business Plan covers what we feel is a very, very important topic - that most Americans, at some point, will be self-employed.   Also, as the article points out, our research shows that by 2020 about half of all Americans will have spent time as an independent worker.

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2020 Interviewing AT&T 100

Small Business Labs

APRIL 22, 2014

." Based on our interviews and discussions with freelancers who are contributing to Forbes for free, this description is accurate.  As the chart below from their article shows, page views have exploded since they started using this model.   This model has been very successful for Forbes.

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2013 Interviewing 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 24, 2013

.   PSFK's In the Future We Will All Be Home Gardeners is an interview with the CEO of WindowFarms , a company that makes vertical hydroponic platforms (pictured below) for growing food in city windows. PSFK considers this part of a broader trend they call Home Farming. 3) Better tasting ingredients for your cooking.

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Interviewing Health 100

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 22, 2013

Gallup's Creating the Job You Love  covers an interview with Shane J.   The article focuses on traditional employees, but I was really struck with how much this correlates with our findings on highly satisfied self-employed workers. Lopez, who has been researching people who love their jobs.

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Interviewing Environment UPS 100

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 10, 2013

As we pointed out in our 2012 article The Rise of Small and Micro Manufacturing , of the 330,000 U.S. We interview a lot of small manufacturing firms and people issues - especially around labor law and safety - are consistently problems for small and new manufacturing firms. And these numbers understate the number of small U.S.

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2012 Interviewing 100

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

  Forbes article G oogle Cabs and Uber Bots Will Challenge Jobs Below the API basically states that all sharing economy jobs will eventually be bad. Most of the providers we interviewed or surveyed like their sharing economy jobs, but a large minority don't.   There are now two opposing views of sharing economy jobs: 1.

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Legal 2013 Interviewing AT&T 100

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

We've been interviewing senior HR execs, HR industry analysts, consultants and others to try to understand if the use of contingent workers is considered a strategic part of their talent acquisition and talent management plans. We've gotten a clear no from the vast majority of folks we've talked to.

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Interviewing Management 100

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

Emergent Research's Deskmag article,  Profiling Coworkers in the United States , provides an overview of who is using U.S.   This surprising finding fits with what we've been seeing in our field work and interviews. .  coworking facilities.    The quick summary: the average U.S.

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Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

 We did this because almost everyone we interviewed described balance as having a flexible work schedule. About 5 years ago we quit using the term "work/life balance" in our work and starting using "work/life flexibility" instead. Today it seems it's all about flexibility. Companies want flexibility too.

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Agencies Salary Interviewing AT&T 100

Small Business Labs

JULY 21, 2011

State Street CIO Defends IT Job Cuts  from Bank Technology News is a really interesting interview with State Street's CIO.    The article covers State Street announcing the elimination of 850 IT jobs on the same day it reported strong earnings.    Corporate earnings are much less linked to U.S.

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Interviewing Skills AT&T 100

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 25, 2012

Salon has a good interview with the author of The Accordion Family - Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents and the Private Toll of Global Competition. Key quote from the Salon article: "According to the Census Bureau, the number of 25- to 34-year-old adults in the U.S.   This is not a new trend.

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2005 2011 Interviewing Skills 100

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 8, 2013

Another article on this topic is The "New Professionalism" from the oDesk blog. Over the last few years we've talked to, interviewed, focus grouped and surveyed more than 10,000 independent workers (freelancers, self-employed, etc.). Freelancing is often stressful, and sometimes downright scary.

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Cubicle 2013 Salary Stress 100

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 24, 2012

  Our explanation - which is based on our interviews and other qualitative work - is independent workers with the right skill sets and experience are thriving and are much more financially successful than those who don't.   In other words, income inequality among independent workers somewhat mirrors overall income inequality.

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Temping 2011 AT&T Interviewing 100