According to a recent survey from office services firm Regus, SMB’s are increasingly successful at customer acquisition via social networks. Bigger firms, despite a generally larger marketing budget, are not quite as successful in social acquisition. While customer service and interaction remains the main function, more and more companies utilize social networks for acquisition and retention. Because of its sizeable business opportunities, social marketing will continue to grow. Read the full article on emarketer.

image: courtesy of emarketer

not surprisingly, the u.s. is still far ahead of germany and the rest of the world in terms of entrepreneurship. this interesting chart, produced by grasshopper, compares the u.s. portion of gdp (gross domestic product) that comes from entrepreneurship against that of major european countries.

entrepreneural activity in the u.s. (as a percentage of gdp) lies at 11.3%, compared to 6.3% in germany for example. also worth mentioning is how “would-be” entrepreneurs perceive starting a new business in the current economy: according to the data provided, entrepreneurs in the u.s. feel far more optimistic about starting a new business in the near future and foster much less fear of failure.

in addition, the graphic depicts the percentage of enterprises by size, native vs. foreign-born self-employed and the overall difficulty entrepreneurs face when starting a new business.

image by theeducatedentrepreneur.com

check out the full size infographic here.

How effective do you as a freelancer accomplish your work? It can be surprising, how much you can do to work more focused on your daily business. Exploiting your full potential is most important to run a successful business and to help you with this we have summarized a few hints.

Setting your goals for a certain period of time, both short term and long term to save time is equally important as watching your health and diet. Being under permanent stress and not doing a lot for your body in terms of exercising and eating properly can influence your state of health permanently during working hours as well as in your private life.

You should as well ask yourself if multitasking is always a good thing or if it can rush you into decisions you actually need to think of a bit longer. Some people are specialists in doing a lot of things at a time some need the focus on one thing to work effective. It is crucial to find out which is best for you to find your perfect work

Some useful hints to give you an idea what can help you to work conducive to success are elaborated here.

Source: elance.com

as the nytimes reports, the workforce is becoming increasingly comfortable with the changing nature of work as it is…”becoming more temporary and project-based, with workers increasingly functioning as free agents and no longer being governed by traditional long-term employer-employee relationships…”. it’s a development that first began in the 90’s but recently gained some momentum.

a recent survey by the pew research center found that job satisfaction is highest among the self-employed. the center studies behaviors and attitudes of americans in key realms of their lives, including family, community, health, finance, work and leisure.

link:

image by fastcompany

this neat video by fastcompany provides a few helpful tipps and hints freelancers may use to make the challenges and difficulties that self-employment entails a little less troublesome. gina trapani (author) suggests time management, money, and expectations to be the biggest struggles. what do you think? what do you find demanding about freelancing?

video: freelance survival skills

The entire world is taking a break for breakfast and lunch.
Breaks are important to keep performance, productivity and creativity high, also it helps you to calm down and relax.

Scientist keep finding that it is better for us to take a couple shorter breaks during the day than just taking one long break.
Furthermore breaks should be used for seriously taking time off and not for working on minor tasks, such as checking mails. Especially when you are a freelancer working at home, don’t occupy your breaks for getting other stuff done. You will feel drained if you don’t give your body and brain some rest. You better go outside and get some fresh air, close your eyes for a little while, calm down and dream yourself off to a nice place or do some stretching to get your circulation going.

Power naps are supposed to be most effective for regenerating and reactivating your productivity. But how to power nap?
Find yourself a comfortable place to sit or lay down, take something like a bunch of keys in your hand and relax your arm. Close your eyes and give in to sleepiness. After around 5 minutes you’ll be relaxed and your keys will fall out of your hand. Now you have to get up immediately and do some stretching, otherwise you’ll be even more tired afterwards.

After power napping you’ll feel refreshed and ready to start over again!

Are there any other suggestions how to get back on track during your working day?
Feel free to share!

Most freelancers would agree that freelancing itself is a great way to work.
Still there are some things that more or less every freelancer experiences which might be problematic.
Here are some commonly experienced points:

- bookkeeping
Some people are good at this, others are not: organising yourself and keeping record of all your bills, checks etc.
What might help: e.g. Google Docs

- difficult clients
A whole book could be written about the topic of difficult clients. If it is just the part of not getting along or problems like unwillingness to pay, there are all kinds of difficulties with clients.
What might help: staying calm and for cases like customers unwillingness to pay: signing contracts which mention all terms and conditions

- income inconsistencies
Everyone knows that there are periods when there are just not enough jobs and others when there are plentiful jobs.
What might help: in good times putting money to the side or diversifying your services

- motivation
Some people got problems with staying focused and motivated while working without a boss or coworkers to hurry.
What might help: a calendar that visually reminds you of deadlines

- costs of equipment updating
Always being up to date with your technical equipment, software etc. is expensive.
What might help: Buying only what is crucial to your work

These points were found on freelancereview.

What are other downsides of freelancing?
And how can you confront those?

Feel free to share your experiences!

this is an interesting post by the wsj about what experts predict the requirements for professionals will be for landing jobs of the future. inspiring read.

image by jason schneider

based on a report by research company “fast future” and the u.k. department of business, innovation and skills – fast company casts a glimpse into the future job market. in behalf of fast company, fast future asked a network of futurists to imagine how advancements in science and technology will shape the job market in 2030. while their findings sound somewhat futuristic, fast future ended up with a wide array of “future jobs” – some of which might surprise you:

future jobs: what might you be doing?