Small Business Trends

Life in Research Land has been very, very slow for a few months now, but, for at least a few minutes, that’s going to change. The big story in this month’s research is that the Census Bureau has released the nonemployer data for 2009 (which I have been eagerly awaiting, even if nobody else has).

But first …

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Since a lot of folks (primarily policymakers) seem to think that small businesses don’t need anything at all but access to debt financing in order to thrive, it’s interesting that we have a couple of highly relevant bits of nongovernmental research on the subject this month.

But, if all small business owners need is access to debt financing, then it Read More

“Employee engagement” is a hot buzzword in the HR world today—but unlike some buzzwords, this is one every small business owner should care about. As the recession cut into salaries and increased workloads, especially at small companies, it’s become increasingly challenging to keep employees engaged.

The recently released Employee Engagement Report 2011 from leadership development firm BlessingWhite has Read More

Technology exists to help us leverage our resources and do more with less. In fact, one of the best things about technology is how it helps ushandle more business in less time (that thing that we can’t get back and always need more of). At first, new technology means a greater time commitment because there’s a learning curve.  But the Read More

You might be a little surprised to see how very little the recession affected the proportions of different-sized businesses. Or you may not … but I was. But the latest research does suggest that, whatever these trends towards smaller firms mean, they don’t seem to be going away.

New Firm Size Data

This month, we had one of my annual Read More

How does your small business’s use of technology compare to other SMBs? A new study of small and midsized businesses’ use of IT has sought to find out. Here are some results from Cloud Computing and the Role of IT Professionals in Small- to Mid-Sized Businesses, a just-released survey of more than 500 SMB decision-makers by Zoomerang Online Read More

The final Discover Card Small Business Watch survey of owners of microbusinesses (companies with no more than five employees) showed little improvement in business owner perceptions of economic conditions.  In March 2011, only 9 percent of microbusiness owners said the overall economy was good or excellent, as the chart below shows. This number has been stuck around the ten percent level since late 2008 and is well below the 50 percent level achieved in March 2007 before the recession hit.

Percentage of owners of small businesses with 1 to 5 employees reporting that the economy is good or excellent

Click for larger image

The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced the start of the Early Stage Innovation Fund, a program that will provide $200 million per year in equity funding “over the next five years,” to “early-stage companies [that] face difficult challenges accessing capital, particularly those without the necessary assets or cash flow for traditional bank funding.”

Ray Leach Read More

In today’s social media-focused economy, it’s become increasingly common to have long, complex and lasting business relationships with other people without ever speaking to them in person—or even on the phone. More of the average business’s sales support, customer service and other customer-facing functions are moving to the Web instead of being handled in person. And with cost-cutting foremost on Read More

March has been a rather exciting month, research-wise. But before we do anything else, let’s take a look at what has become our monthly check-in with the economy.

Jobs and Other Numbers

The jobs numbers for small businesses are either good or better, depending on whose data you look at.

According to Intuit’s Small Business Employment Index for Read More