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Emergent Research

  • EMERGENT RESEARCH is focused on better understanding the small business sector of the US and global economy.

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Authors

  • The authors are Steve King and Carolyn Ockels. Steve and Carolyn are partners at Emergent Research and Senior Fellows at the Society for New Communications Research. Carolyn is leading the coworking study and Steve is a member of the project team.

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  • Emergent Research works with corporate, government and non-profit clients. When we reference organizations that have provided us funding in the last year we will note it. If we mention a product or service that we received for free or other considerations, we will note it.
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January 04, 2011

Comments

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Live Virtual Receptionist

This is an interesting list. The use of social media has played a big part in small businesses . A lot of different people use these services everyday and having different information being passed on or shared from one person or one place to another.

Andrew

Great list - manufacturers in particular need to see the amazing opportunities in front of them. Just this week three of our small manufacturing clients sold significant jobs in Germany, Taiwan and Brazil - all generated with inbound marketing and the Internet, set up by 'free agent' partners using the cloud to work collaboratively.

Supra Shoes

Check out the Power Lab if you want to be able to understand and deal with crisis like we're seeing in Egypt. It's an incredible & insightful experience to make you a better person. They usually have them in April.

Eric Myers

Great list. It is interesting to see how many small businesses are joining the social media team, and what they are doing there. I think its great that so many are using innovative tools like social shopping tabs to maximize their efforts there. I am excited to see where small business goes by the end of the year!

Me

The trend of going local also had support in the internet in the form of local marketing. Google's launch of it's local (now Places) service brought localism to the fore front of internet marketing.

invoice factoring services

Invoice factoring is has a long history in financial community but the service is not popular.

TweetRightOn

Number 2: Economic value added (EVA) business models are a great way for small businesses to maximize financial performance because it can simultaneously weigh the variable cost component and the cash or capital component. This KPI is working its way into business analytics to optimize inventory levels in the cloud at http://www.rightoninventory.com. With procurement representing as much as 55 percent of a company's total costs, an effective supply chain depends on efficient suppliers. But streamlining procurement is just the beginning.Using the right metric is vital.

Geri Stengel

I'm not sure the economy will recover, but I agree that social media and technology will bring about changes in the way business is done, which will benefit small businesses and create new opportunities, particularly variable business models and alternative financing. Technologically based tools, such as the cloud and the crowdsourcing, will open door to new business models and change the business model of existing companies.

To take advantage of these opportunities, entrepreneurs must keep learning! Colleges and community colleges offer classes in entrepreneurship, new business models and ways to use technology. Now city government (NYC Business Solutions) and even Goldman Sachs are recognizing the importance of training in starting and sustaining a business.

Karla

Fantastic tips! Thanks for sharing your thoughts to all of us. I should say, this is such a great help especially to us people who are into business. I love every bit of it and the points that you expressed. Keep posting and looking forward to the next one!!!

Rodney Prinsloo-Enterprise Support

Read in conjunction with 2010's list this is fairly comprehensive. However when looking at trends in South Africa businesses are resorting to outsourcing, subcontracting and joint venturing in order to weather the recession. As a result of retrenchment there is an upsurge in micro/survivalist low cost, low risk type businesses.

Todd Hockenberry

Great list - manufacturers in particular need to see the amazing opportunities in front of them. Just this week three of our small manufacturing clients sold significant jobs in Germany, Taiwan and Brazil - all generated with inbound marketing and the Internet, set up by 'free agent' partners using the cloud to work collaboratively.

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