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The Growth of Small Farms
Tweet Share on Facebook February 25, 2009 Comment (1)I grew up in a small farm town in Kansas. So I was pleased to see that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recently released 2007 census shows that, after decades of decline, the number of farms is growing.
The 2007 farm census counted 2,204,792 U.S. farms, an increase of 75,810 over 2002. The census also shows that more than 300,000 new farms have started operation since 2002. These new farms tend to be smaller and operated by younger farmers than existing farms.
The census results show that the majority of U.S. farms are small, and many are part-time and hobby businesses. More than 36 percent of all farms are classified as residential/lifestyle farms with the farm operators listing a primary occupation other than farming. An additional 21 percent are retirement farms, with farm operators reporting that they are retired.
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2 Ways for Businesses to Build Capacity and Grow
Tweet Share on Facebook February 25, 2009 Comment (1)Marketing was the focus of last week's post on growth. That is your ability to grow outside your business. Another way to grow your business is through capacity building: working on your company's ability to do more internally. Two areas that can contribute the most new capacity to grow your company are your skills and systems.
Improve Your Skills
Your own skills as a small-business owner can limit how much you can grow. While we all learn by experience in our businesses, you can accelerate your learning through the experience of others. You probably know right off the top of your head the No. 1 area where you need to learn more. For many entrepreneurs, that area is finance or accounting. Start now by finding the books, blogs, or newsletters you need to read regularly to build your skills. Make a daily or weekly appointment with yourself to focus on learning. If you are always growing personally by learning, you can grow your business as well.
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SBA Data Show a Declining Rate of Entrepreneurship in the U.S.
Tweet Share on Facebook February 23, 2009 Comment (1)In her Feb. 13, 2009, post "What's so entrepreneurial about the United States?" Dawn Rivers Baker took issue with the statistics I presented from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on downward trends in entrepreneurship in the United States.
She said, "It is often possible to find numbers to support any argument you care to make and even to find one set of 'official' numbers that can contradict what another set of 'official' numbers seems to say."
I have no doubt that the general principle of her argument is right; statistics are often contradictory. But the data from the Small Business Administration that she quoted don't contradict the numbers from the BLS that I presented. She wrote, "According to data from the SBA's Office of Advocacy, the population of U.S. firms increased at a much faster rate than the growth in the population of U.S. humans in the decade from 1997 through 2006."
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The Four P's for Growing a Business
Tweet Share on Facebook February 20, 2009 Comment (6)If you are looking to grow or expand your business, where can you look? Start with the Four P's of Marketing.
Back in Marketing 101 class, you may have learned that the Four P's are Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. They are a great place to start looking for growth potential.
Here are some questions to help spark your thinking.
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What's so entrepreneurial about the United States?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 13, 2009 Comment (2)Statistics are funny things. It is often possible to find numbers to support any argument you care to make and even to find one set of "official" numbers that can contradict what another set of "official" numbers seems to say.
For example, earlier this week, Dr. Scott Shane used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to make a forceful numerical argument that we're not as entrepreneurial in the United States as we think. Entrepreneurship, he said, is actually declining.
However, data from different federal sources seem to indicate that things aren't quite as cut and dried as that.
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What to Do When Sales Are Down?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2009 Comment (2)When you have less business to do, it can either be tempting to do relaxing or distracting activities, like browsing the Web, or it can feel odd, not knowing what to do. Here are three things to work on right now.
Invest in your people. If you have less business and less work to do, take the time to do training. You don't need to add any cost to do this. Set up in-house classes. Walk through the back room, and build product knowledge. Talk about a new skill or concept over lunch. Take advantage of the billions of free training resources online.
And with all the layoffs from big companies, now is a terrific time to recruit new talent. Experienced people with strong skills are out there.
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What Are the Latest Trends in Technology, Entertainment, and Design?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2009 Comment (1)TED stands for technology, entertainment, and design, and it is an annual conference with a mission to discuss "ideas worth spreading." It brings together a fascinating mix of technologists, politicians, academic researchers, business people, and celebrities.
The presentations, called TEDTalks, cover a range of topics that include science, art, design, culture, politics, and technology. The speakers are world-class leaders in their field. And because presenting at TED is the conference world's equivalent of performing at the Super Bowl, they bring their A game and do a great job.
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A Small-Business Stimulus? No Thanks
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2009 Comment (3)It's not politics, or at least I don't think so, but speaking as a small-business owner, I mistrust all the analysis of "what's in it for us" related to the badly needed economic stimulus, the bailouts, and all of that.
I don't think this is a time for looking at major legislation through a myopic, self-centered looking glass. Not by anybody. This is a deep dip in all economic indicators at once, and we should be pulling together to get out of it.
What I need as a small-business owner is a healthy economy. I don't need the government to help me specifically, but I need the economy to offer financing for those with good credit and good projects, and jobs for people who want to work, education for kids, and higher education for employees—in short, a healthy economy.
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Entrepreneurship Is on the Decline in the U.S.
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (2)One of the most common misperceptions about America is that we are becoming more entrepreneurial over time. Growing entrepreneurship is a common theme in many newspaper and magazine articles about this country. But the statistics tell a different story.
In other places, I have discussed the myth of increasing entrepreneurship in greater detail than I can here. But I want to show some recent statistics to illustrate that this downward trend is persisting.
So I produced the table below from the most current information on entrepreneurship available—the Bureau of Labor Statistics data on self-employment in non agricultural industries.
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Clean Tech Cleaning Up in Venture Capital Investment
Tweet Share on Facebook February 6, 2009 Comment2008 was not a good year for most companies interested in raising venture capital. The recession made an already tough fundraising environment even more difficult.
But according to Ernst and Young, clean tech was the exception, and VC investments in this sector reached a record $4.7 billion, up 68 percent over 2007. This compares with just $234 million in VC clean tech investments in 2002.
The top four segments were electricity/electricity generation ($2.7 billion raised), alternative energy ($703 million raised), energy efficiency ($427 million raised) and energy storage ($320 million raised).
