Small Business Labs

JULY 23, 2020

But while consumers want to return to restaurants, they've also learned some new behaviors thanks to the shutdowns.    Because of this, they are interesting to watch and learn from.   .  Simply put, diners miss the experience of dining out - and especially the social side of dining out.

Restaurants 185

Restaurants Learning 185

Small Business Labs

APRIL 1, 2019

CommunityAmerica Credit Union ($2.7B, Lenexa, KS) has rented a chunk of the WeWork shared office building in a hip section of downtown Kansas City, MO, to use as work space for its own employees and for community lunch-and-learn and happy hour-style events. The picture below shows a lunch-and-learn session at the space.

Learning 213

Learning 213

Small Business Labs

MARCH 15, 2021

   In our work, we've learned surveys asking aspiration questions or questions on hot topics or things that sound like fun result in a large number of false positives.    And survey questions about becoming a digital nomad are a good example.  

2020 266

2020 2019 Social Media Travel 266

Small Business Labs

APRIL 22, 2021

We learned this interesting fact from the New York Times article Welcome to the YOLO Economy.   YOLO is an acronym for "you only live once", which was popularized by the rapper Drake a decade ago.

Learning 260

Learning UPS 260

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

You can learn more about the book and get additional tips and career resources at the book's website.  Identify the full value they bring to every new network so they can socialize with confidence. Leverage themselves as their own best assets. Think of Building the Business of You as a guidebook for the new world of work.

Confidence 243

Confidence Skills Networking Learning 243

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 26, 2020

In our work we've learned survey questions asking aspiration questions or questions on hot topics often result in a large number of false positives.  .   Instead, they will follow digital nomads on social media and treat the trend almost as a spectator sport. 

Social Media 272

Social Media 2020 AT&T Learning 272

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 10, 2018

It covers Chinese firms that have raised hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly to help Chinese kids with their homework or learn English. As we said in a recent article on this topic : On-demand learning platforms play an important role in helping independent workers (and others) build marketable skills.

2018 164

2018 Expenses Skills Training 164

Small Business Labs

MAY 18, 2020

For those interested in learning more, MBO Partners is holding a webinar this Thursday (May 21st) from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM EDT.    Click here to register for the webinar.      MBO Partners is an Emergent Research client.     

2019 253

2019 2017 2020 Skills 253

Small Business Labs

MARCH 14, 2019

The Opportunity to Learn and Build Skills. The quick answer as to what these skilled independent professionals want from their clients is: Being Treated as Part of the Team. Having Their Work Valued. A Positive Work Environment. To be Paid Fairly and Quickly. MBO Partners is an Emergent Research client.

2019 241

2019 Policies Skills Forms 241

Small Business Labs

JULY 15, 2021

We are seeing a new long-tail retailer learning how to make the internet work in their favor, enabled by social media and without the need to lean into a digital mass marketplace—they simply need a captive audience, which is easier to attract than ever.

Social Media 182

Social Media Purchasing Learning UPS 182

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 28, 2017

  The first thing we learned is real drone people don't call them drones, they are unmanned aircraft systems, or "UAS"   And every time we said "drone", they looked at us quizzically and asked "do you mean UAS?"

2018 175

2018 2017 Equipment Training 175

Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

And one of things we've learned from following pet trends is betting against the pet market has not been a good idea. We've also learned there's demand for pet products and services that we felt were very, very unlikely to be successful ( expensive dog parties being one of many examples).

2017 155

2017 2007 Expenses Learning 155

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

AUGUST 10, 2020

This is due to nomads learning the advantages of exploring a place and culture in-depth, countries increasingly courting digital nomads. .  Longer stays, less travel : At least as long as the pandemic lasts, digital nomads will likely choose to stay put more and travel less. 

2019 266

2019 Travel Social Media Time Zones 266

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

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. .  Maybe the same thing will be true with coop online labor platforms. We hope so. Alternatives are always good, especially ones that are worker-friendly.

2016 205

2016 2014 2015 Interviewing 205

Small Business Labs

JULY 20, 2020

So head over to their article to learn more. Hone Your Personal Brand. Take a Look at Your Finances. They go into detail on each of the 5 steps and we certainly agree with their advice. Longer-term, we think the growth of full and part-time self-employment will continue even after the country recovers from the current recession. 

Social Media 234

Social Media Finance Networking Skills 234

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).

AT&T 146

AT&T Learning 146

Small Business Labs

JUNE 11, 2020

" 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.  " The article describes the variety of systems the author has learned "on the job" as a freelancer.

Skills 100

Skills Training Interviewing Learning 100

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 31, 2016

Machine learning and AI is their 1st trend, which is no surprise. What is a bit of a surprise is that 6 out of the remaining 9 trends are related to machine learning and artificial intelligence. For example, adaptive security systems (trend 10) are adaptive because of their use of machine learning techniques. 

2017 100

2017 2020 2022 Holidays 100

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

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

  For those interested in modern homesteading, there are a number of events you can attend to learn more. Instead, they will do things like raising chickens in their back yards  or spinning yarn.  We're going to try to go to the DIY Homesteader Festival , which is being held outside of Winnipeg, Canada this August. 

Lifestyle 214

Lifestyle Clothes Retirement Forms 214

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 29, 2019

Those seeking new skills : One of the more interesting findings of our gig economy studies is about 16% of online gig workers report doing this work to learn a new skill or expand their existing skills. including full-time traditional employees who are moonlighting to learn new skills that they hope will lead to career enhancement. 

Skills 178

Skills Expenses AT&T Learning 178

Small Business Labs

APRIL 22, 2019

Over 500 attendees showed up to discuss the state of the coworking industry and learn from one another. The 2019 U.S. version of the Global Coworking Unconference Conference Series (GCUC) happened last week in Denver. It was clear from the discussions and presentations that the state of the coworking industry is excellent.

2019 214

2019 Learning UPS 214

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 6, 2020

  Often workers choose to go independent to explore new opportunities, learn new skills or gain flexibility. .  Instead, many are doing both, developing their professional lives by shifting back and forth between independent work and traditional employment.  Later on, many rotate back to traditional jobs. 

Payroll 130

Payroll Skills Learning 130

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 21, 2017

For those wanting to play (or invest), Mashable has a nice learning guide on the game. .  It seems to us that investing in CyrptoKitties is unlikely to end up being a good idea. Older readers may remember how the Beanie Baby investment craze of the late 1990's turned out.

AT&T 170

AT&T Learning UPS 170

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 12, 2018

We met with Liveops last week and learned they have about 20,000 independent agents providing customer service and sales support to over 400 enterprise clients. Liveops provides cloud-based call center services that utilize an on-demand workforce of agents who live in the U.S.

Retirement 150

Retirement Customer Service Travel Skills 150

Small Business Labs

JUNE 25, 2019

Independent workers use them to fill in gaps in their work schedules, explore new markets, find new clients and learn new skills.  .  But online talent marketplaces have become important secondary and tertiary sources of work.   Going forward, the use of online marketplaces by independent workers will no doubt increase.

2019 132

2019 2012 Confidence Skills 132

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 9, 2016

 There simply is no longer the time to “learn while doing” or the margin of error to “learn by making mistakes” as in the past. They said they learned about coaches from other small business owners and they generally thought the use of coaches was pretty common. In fact, they were surprised we were surprised.

Interviewing 100

Interviewing Confidence AT&T Learning 100

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

JANUARY 22, 2018

Key quote from their website:  Our checkout-free shopping experience is made possible by the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning. When you’re done shopping, you can just leave the store.

Goals 201

Goals Learning 201

Small Business Labs

MAY 12, 2015

They are places where members work, network, learn and socialize together.  Learning related: 69% reported they learned new skills. But despite our research being focused on the work aspects of coworking, the social and learning sides of coworking came out loud and clear. To be honest, this surprised us a bit.

Networking 100

Networking Skills Learning 100

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 22, 2017

JP: Go learn how to build a loyal and trusted audience. Each one of those episodes provided some learning for me, and hopefully for you. The 200+ #ThisOldMarketing episodes provided some learning for me & hopefully for you. HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: This Goal-Setting Activity That Made All the Difference.

Purchasing 278

Purchasing Agencies Forms Goals 278

Small Business Labs

MAY 1, 2018

The top categories are big data (24%), natural language processing (17%), and machine learning (12%). In fact, 31% say automation will allow them to add employees, while 59% say there will be no difference, and only 1% say there will be significant job loses. Small businesses are adopting the leading edge of automation technology.

Customer Service 162

Customer Service Forms Learning Management 162

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 4, 2017

.  Key quote: As the alternative worker shifts to more rapidly evolving work, the way that work is done is likely to change, moving from short-term transactional remote worker to longer-term relationships that help to accelerate learning and performance improvement.

Learning 162

Learning UPS 162

Small Business Labs

JUNE 4, 2018

In addition to being a valuable source of information for policy makers, we think it will quickly become a key resource for anyone interested in learning about independent work, the gig economy and the future of work. We excited by the release of the Gig Economy Data Hub.

Equipment 140

Equipment Policies Goals Learning 140