business

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.

Newest studies (by White Horse) have shown that in the B2B section almost 60% of the companies do not make use of social media frequently. This contact support is either used only on a basic level (45%) or not performed at all (14%).

B2B businesses do not put any interest (36%) in social media opportunities or due to lack of education (almost a quarter) do not try to establish a regular social media presence. The B2C sector however is a lot more engaged in social media presences like social networks, mobile applications or company blogs.

Reasons for this are more traditional views and attitudes of the Business-to-Business marketers as well as the perception of irrelevance. You can look at some more results, descriptions and explanations of the social media significance here.



Batching all the similar tasks you have to handle in a certain period can be a very useful support to get work done more easily.

In other words you can work smarter if you do tasks that aim in the same direction at a specific time of the day respectively of the week. This means for example that you do your customer support at a certain block of time and then go on to the next. This keeps you into the subject and you don’t have to switch between them during the day again. Some more points are elaborated here.

The number of open projects for freelancers in U.K. is rising constantly. Almost a quarter of the five million freelancers in the country are in this business no longer than two years. Half of those 1.2 million have been their own boss for even less than a year. The number seems to be rising since beginning of the recession 2008.

Also in America more people start employing their selves which gets obvious when looking at numbers from the U.S. market.

source: moneyexpert, odesk

project-related work requires very different talents and capabilities. the lack of such capacity creates inefficiencies. by utilizing a community of people with similar issues and needs, these inefficiencies can be minimized through collaboration. co-working spaces enable efficient teamwork by bringing people together in a shared working environment. this interesting post on mashable gives a great overview of why co-working makes so much sense for businesses…

image by mashable

why co-working makes sense for small businesses

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 study conducted by the german institute for the study of labour “What’s the difference?! Gender, Personality, and the Propensity to Start a Business” asks why women are less likely to start their own business than men.

Across industrialized countries men are self-employed more often than women. In Germany the start-up rate even differs by one third comparing men and women.

Socio-demographic factors fall short on explaining this gap. On the contrary socio-demographic factors would even propose that women had higher start-up rates: E.g. the average level of education is higher for women than men.

So the gap is more likely to be explained by differences in personality traits and behavioural components. Women tend to act more cautiously: Unrealistic optimism and entrepreneurial overconfidence are less prevalent. What sounds good on the one hand, also stops women more often from undertaking promising projects. Women seem to be more risk aversive and therefore make the step into owning their businesses less often.

What can be done to change those behavioural patterns that most likely evolve from society and upbringing?

What is your point of view: Is it really more men owning businesses?

Or do you know a lot of women starting businesses as a matter of course?

Ignorance and a lack of understanding undermine the implementation of social media in many medium sized businesses.

The question is: What is social media useful for?

The social web is a communication network. Completely new ways of communicating have developed online. More and more people are using these to express their opinions and exchange information. This fact cannot be denied.

Different kinds of people are talking to each other, commenting or forwarding things that have been posted in blogs and pictures are uploaded in public galleries.
Social networks, like facebook, are used to find old and new friends and to reconnect.
This leaves a huge network of social relationships and information, which is exchanged and rated.

And it is not only products or services of big businesses that are being talked about…

When starting your business you surely won’t have an overwhelming amount of money to spend on large-scale marketing.
Still there are some things worth spending the money required.

• professional logo
It’s good to invest some money on this one. Your logo needs to reflect the most distinctive features of your business. It needs to be memorable and recognisable amongst all competitors.

• website
Nowadays a website is crucial for most business, even the small ones. Start with a website which is displaying only the most important information. This is easier to handle for yourself as well as for potential users.

• business cards
Get yourself a business card and don’t forget any information crucial to know.
A business card always comes handy, no matter who you meet.

Those 3 seem indispensable, because most of the time you will definitely need them.
Once you actually start making money, you can always use your existing logo for further marketing measures. Your website is established and you can just fill it up with more and more content. Your business cards you will need whenever getting in contact with potential customers or fellow freelancers.

Is there any point missing?
What are measures you would definitely take in the beginning of a new business?

online workspace

virtual project management software like “wizehive” is becoming a new standard thanks to easy-to-use virtual workspace technology that connects remote users across from the world-wide-web. professionals can use virtual project management software to connect with other associates from anywhere a computer or mobile device can connect to the internet.

have a look @ this short youtube tutorial: wizehive