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The spread of some very nasty viruses seems to be constantly in the news, with the possibility of catching illnesses such as the Novel Corona Virus or the latest IH7N9  Influenza currently spreading in S.E. Asia becoming more likely. This probably seems obvious, but this study is the first to really examine how these illnesses and others can be spread through routine social contacts - such as working in retail sales or as a food server.  Having just recovered from my second head cold in two months, I thought passing along this study to be appropriate.  Here's the jist: Most people have an average of around 26 social contact hours a day but a small number have up to 50 contact hours a day since people can spend time with more than one individual simultaneously. “There are many sensible measures people can take to cut down on the risk of catching or passing on these kinds of infections. These include regularly washing your hands with soap and water, keeping surfaces cl...

To win customers — and a bigger share of the marketplace — companies must first win the hearts and minds of their employees.                                                                                                                                                 ~ Gallup State of...

Back thirty years ago when I first wrote about small business, a hoary and horrible statistic was bandied about, even by some of the most experienced entrepreneurial pros: "80% of new businesses fail in their first five years."  This "statistic" has appeared in more places than you can imagine, from the leading small business magazines, books, presentations by employees of SBDCs, the SBA, SCORE, Chambers of Commerce, even professors on the college level - who should know better than to quote un-sourced numbers.  It still shows up in small-business blogs today. For some years, I searched for a source of that statisitic.  Never found where that number came from, leading me to believe that some self-appointed expert made it up.  To quote a character from the popular television show, M*A*S*H, "Horsepucky."  Here is the truth about the survival rate of new start up businesses in the U.S. economy from two unimpeachable sources, The Marion Ewin...

 " attractiveness is not the 'be all, end all' -- it just helps to tip the scales when competitors are otherwise equally talented or skilled ." At least for real estate agents, it turns out that beauty is indeed more than skin deep. A recent study of physical attractiveness and how it impacts real estate brokers' pay and productivity shows that the more attractive the real estate agent, the higher the listing price of the home for sale.   Those higher listings lead to higher sales prices, meaning that beauty enhances an agent's wage, said the report by Frank Mixon, professor of economics at Columbus State University's Turner College of Business.   He collaborated on the article, "Broker beauty and boon: a study of physical attractiveness and its effect on real estate brokers' income and productivity." with Sean P. Salter, from the Jennings A. Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University and Ernest W. King from the College of...

One of the most enjoyable and important parts of starting a new business is creating a “corporate culture”; in other words, an environment in which your employees are able to perform at a peak level with the least supervision while developing new products and services that meet the needs and wants of customers while growing your business. That being said, it’s not always easy to make this happen.   Many if not most businesses are so driven by the day by demands that little thought is given to where the company is going and how it’s going to get there and by what route. For example, innovation is always a hot topic in the business press.   How does a company foster innovation?   The short answer is by creating a corporate culture in which innovation is encouraged and rewarded.   Research shows that people innovation when they are given the freedom to explore those things that interest them based on their internal motivation.   Telling people that they must innova...

Funding a start-up is always a hot topic, unfortunately, all too many prospective business owners believe more than a few myths about financing a start.  Below is a small excerpt from a longer article, Six Myths About Venture Capitalists  by Diane Mulcahy, in the current online issue of The Harvard Business Review. Myth 1: Venture Capital Is the Primary Source of Start-Up Funding Venture capital financing is the exception, not the norm, among start-ups. Historically, only a tiny percentage (fewer than 1%) of U.S. companies have raised capital from VCs. And the industry is contracting: After peaking in the late 1990s, the number of active VC firms fell from 744 to 526 in the decade 2001–2011, and the amount of venture capital raised was just under $19 billion in 2011, down from $39 billion in 2001, according to the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). But less venture capital doesn’t mean less start-up capital. Non-VC sources of financing a...

Source:  www.fremont.gov We are all creatures of habit, which is good news to owners of any small business.  This may seem instinctive to any business owner, but now this assumption can be considered scientific fact. A comprehensive study of consumers world-wide conducted by the mathmatics department at the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M) not only documents this, but has developed a method for predicting people's shopping patterns.  Also participating in this research are scientists at the University of California in San Diego (U.S.A), M.I.T (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and NICTA (Australia).  A pretty impressive group of researchers, indeed. The conclusion of this study is that consumers are more predictable than you might assume and because of this predictability it is possible to know where consumers will shop. As explained by one of its authors, Esteban Moro of the Department of Mathematics at UC3M, " the main conclusion we have ...