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.   ." The AMEX chart below (click to enlarge) shows the interest in being a digital nomad by country.

2020 266

2020 2019 Social Media Travel 266

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 10, 2018

  The article chart below (click to enlarge) shows some (but not all) of the bigger Edtech funding rounds in 2018. The article also references a prior Crunchbase article, China’s Education Startups Continue To Pull In Massive Funding Rounds. We believe they will continue to grow in importance in the coming years.

2018 164

2018 Expenses Skills Training 164

Small Business Labs

JULY 20, 2020

Last week we had an article on U.S. So head over to their article to learn more. And if they plan to become independent consultants, a good place to start is MBO's article.  Census data showing a big uptick in the number of Americans who are self-employed.   Use Social Media to Market Your Skills.

Social Media 234

Social Media Finance Networking Skills 234

Small Business Labs

MAY 18, 2020

And as we pointed out in last week's article Staffing to the Valley's, Not The Peaks , the demand for independent workers - and especially those with specialized skills - will likely grow even faster post-pandemic.   Click here to register for the webinar.      MBO Partners is an Emergent Research client.  

2019 253

2019 2017 2020 Skills 253

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 28, 2017

This data comes from The Consumer Technology Association via the Axios article Demand for Drones is Exploding. The chart below (click to enlarge) is from the article. Over 3 million drones are expected to be sold in the U.S. 2017, with 4.45 million forecast to be sold in 2018.

2018 175

2018 2017 Equipment Training 175

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.

2012 237

2012 Equipment Collaborate Learning 237

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.   Larsen's articel was originally published in The Conversation.

AT&T 180

AT&T Learning UPS 180

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

  According to a New York Times article on the funding round , a key reason Wag can raise this much money is the value of their data. Key quote from the article: "Data on the real-world comings and goings of internet users — and, evidently, their dogs — is a highly sought-after commodity among technology companies."

2017 155

2017 2007 Expenses Learning 155

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. We hope so.

2016 205

2016 2014 2015 Interviewing 205

Small Business Labs

JUNE 11, 2020

Key quotes from the Science Daily article Is your job killing you? " We learned from our work on the MBO Partners State of Independence study series that independents workers report being both happier and healthier working on their own than if they worked in a traditional job.

Health 204

Health Stress AT&T Learning 204

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

The opportunity the learn and build skills. They recently released a short video (below) that we think nicely captures 3 key things highly skilled independent workers are looking for in terms of assignments. These are: Access to diverse and interesting gigs. To be welcomed by the client and treated as part of the team.

Skills 177

Skills 2016 International Goals 177

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

One of the more interesting findings from the Intuit On-Demand Economy (ODE) study is the large number of people who say learning new skills is a key reason they work in the ODE.  These findings are why the Information Age article Rise of the IT Freelancer jumped out at us.

Skills 100

Skills Training Interviewing Learning 100

Small Business Labs

APRIL 22, 2019

Over 500 attendees showed up to discuss the state of the coworking industry and learn from one another. Allwork's articles GCUC 2019: What Coworking Members Really Want and GCUC 2019: Is the Coworking Market Saturated? The 2019 U.S. version of the Global Coworking Unconference Conference Series (GCUC) happened last week in Denver.

2019 214

2019 Learning UPS 214

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.   We learned about this approach early while working at a consulting firm (not McKinsey). These are some of our least read articles.

AT&T 146

AT&T Learning 146

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 26, 2017

." Key quote on earning Badges: Badges will be earned based on the same standards around the world – through world-class learning, fulfilling required experiences and making a contribution to the broader community, such as coaching colleagues, presenting to clients or publishing an article that educates others about the acquired skill.

Skills 150

Skills Learning 150

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 4, 2017

  They describe this in their recent article Forces of Change: The Future of Work. Off-balance sheet worker is the term Deloitte uses for contingent workers, such as freelancers, independent contractors and other non-employees. 

Learning 162

Learning UPS 162

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 9, 2017

Simply put, the article explains why coworking is working.  Workers in these spaces consistently report making more connections, learning skills faster, and feeling more inspired and in control than their cubicle-dwelling counterparts inside large companies.

Cubicle 100

Cubicle 2014 Networking Skills 100

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 29, 2016

ZDNet's Intuit plans big digital expansion into small business markets with apps and big data  covers a topic we find fascinating - the use of machine learning and big data to develop algorithms and "smart machines" that provide business advice. Intuit's not the only company working on these types of services. 

Learning 140

Learning Management 140

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 24, 2016

Two interesting articles caught our eye last week and both had to do with the gig economy and education. The Forbes article What The 'Gig' Economy Means For Graduates And Their Employers  covers an ongoing project called It's a Project-Based World from the learning design firm Getting Smarter.

Goals 100

Goals Learning 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 They also often tell us it's fun.

Interviewing 100

Interviewing Stress Learning UPS 100

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 22, 2019

The key quote describes what she did when she finished her year as a digital nomad: A point of culmination of this experiment is when I had the opportunity to pitch my experience to the CHRO of GE and so I have presented my learnings about this aspect of the future of HR, painting an image of digital nomads and flexible work at GE.

2019 113

2019 Policies Google Travel 113

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

Interesting article on Bersin by Deloitte's site on corporate training.  As the chart below (from the article) shows, after a steep decline during the recession U.S. Mobile learning is now becoming mainstream. companies spending on corporate training has strongly rebounded.

Training 100

Training Forms Skills Learning 100

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. Jobs are merely opportunities to learn, experiment, gain experience and become more well-rounded.

Social Media 100

Social Media Interviewing Learning 100

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 5, 2015

If you're interested go to the study paper - Experimentation and the Returns to Entrepreneurship - to learn more. But the bottom line is self-employment allows experimentation and learning opportunities that lead to higher lifetime earnings.  And yes, I sent a copy of the article to my mother. 

Salary 100

Salary AT&T Forms Learning 100

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 16, 2016

  As the Your Story article Running an employee-free business without compromising on scale and quality  points out, you no longer need traditional employees to start and scale a small business.  Elaine Pofeldt's Forbes article Want To Create A $1 Million E-commerce Store? This is no longer true. 

2016 100

2016 Collaborate Networking Goals 100

Small Business Labs

MAY 20, 2014

We love new buzzwords here at Small Business Labs, so we were excited to learn of "botsourcing" According to the academic research paper Botsourcing and Outsourcing , botsourcing is "the replacement of human jobs by robots"        Botsourcing generally gets bad press for, well, replacing humans in jobs.

Learning 100

Learning 100

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

According to the article, 50 percent of the overall population have dogs, and 35 percent have cats.   But we've learned over the years it's easy to underestimate how quickly the pet humanization trend is growing. It also means millennials are much more likely to be pet owners than older cohorts.

Social Media 100

Social Media Clothes 2016 Expenses 100

Small Business Labs

MAY 22, 2013

.  And GigaOm has an interesting article on the expensive and difficult need to cool quantum computers to near absolute zero. Google says they are going to focus their quantum computing efforts on machine learning applications. Google says they are going to focus their quantum computing efforts on machine learning applications.

Google 100

Google Expenses Purchasing 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. Keep learning.

2016 100

2016 Social Media Networking Interviewing 100

Small Business Labs

JUNE 4, 2014

The article explains self-employed are worse off because they make less money.   Another article on the same study covered a different set of data.  The article then discusses how bad this situation is. To learn more about this, see the New York Times article Why You Hate Work.

Legal 100

Legal Goals Skills Learning 100

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

But despite its title, Coworking: A Transdisciplinary Overview  is one of the best and most interesting articles I've read on coworking. 

Collaborate 100

Collaborate Environment Learning 100

Small Business Labs

APRIL 22, 2013

Despite these problems, there's been a flurry articles on entrepreneurs partnering with foundations and grassroots organizations to rebuild the once great city.   My favorite quote from this article is: "Where everything's broken, anything's possible." " This article also provided the chart on the right.

Finance 100

Finance Learning 100

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 21, 2012

Interesting article from John Horton at oDesk  on the Digitization of the Supply Side of the Labor Market. This article also illustrates the growing role Big Data and analytics are playing.  The article's author - John Horton - is an economist with a Ph.D " I agree. " I agree. from Harvard.  

SimplyHired 100

SimplyHired Elance Salary Skills 100

Small Business Labs

MAY 11, 2012

  The article says pets in the office reduce stress and increase employee loyalty.   As proof, the article cites a study showing that "pets in the workplace reduce stress, absenteeism and turnover and improve morale." Examples from the article include:  - Home Depot Inc.

Medical 100

Medical 2011 Stress Learning 100

Small Business Labs

APRIL 7, 2014

You won't be surprised to learn their view of the future of work focuses on manufacturing.    The article and report focus on 3 major drivers of the new manufacturing economy: 1. The Future of Work Starts Now summarizes a recent report on the future of work from industrial giant GE.   2.

2020 100

2020 Training AT&T Learning 100

Small Business Labs

MARCH 17, 2016

The shifting view of gender is happening in part because the Internet makes it much easier for people to learn about and explore gender alternatives. Key quote from a Broadly article on the study: "I think the internet plays the greatest role in the self-discovery process today," they said. "Young

Clothes 100

Clothes Confidence AT&T Learning 100

Small Business Labs

MAY 22, 2012

The PhD Now Comes with Food Stamps is an interesting article on the struggles of adjunct university faculty.  According to the article, the average adjunct is paid $2500 per course taught, but it can be as low as $600. All of this adds up to situation like the one described in article - a women with a Ph.D

Temping 100

Temping AT&T Learning UPS 100