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Trends That Could Change Your Business
From crowdsourced shopping to mancessories to new ways to get green: The trends that will define opportunity next year.
On the Verge:"A brust of creativity ahead"';
Hard to believe, but
according to the learned folks at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the
economy's been in recovery since June 2009.
Unfortunately,
a big reason for the stagnation so far has been, well, you. Tons of people--71
percent, says a recent survey by Discover Small Business Watch--are waiting for
economic indicators to rise before they're willing to hire and spend.
But
waiting around is ill-advised, maintains Eric Jackson, innovation specialist
and VP of research and development at Gap International, a global management
consulting firm in Philadelphia
Which
brings us to some good news: Some of you are already on it. Resource
constraints are stimulating great business practices, and the survival rate of
new ventures in some sectors is on the upswing. The Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor (GEM) found that a mere 1.4 percent of minority-owned businesses closed
down last year, compared with 2.9 percent in 2008; and Sageworks, a North
Carolina-based research firm, says that small-business profit margins are at a
five-year high (6.2 percent on every dollar of sales) because of savvy
cost-cutting practices. Hiring may have stalled, but guess who'll be first in
line to scoop up new employees when revenues pick up.
So forget about the
dire predictions about double-dip recession, dismal unemployment and the
drop-offs in entrepreneurial activity in favor of this idea: Since the
financial crisis laid waste to business as usual, the world is brimming with
potential. The economic future will be populated by the movers and shakers, who
even now are poised for greatness.
Just
ask Socrates, who doled out this gem more than two millennia ago: "Let him
that would move the world, first move himself." --J.W.
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