Dashboard
A daily roundup of small-business developments.
What’s affecting me, my clients and other small-business owners today.
The Economy
- Existing home sales for September surged to their fastest pace of 2014.
- Unemployment rates fell in 31 states during September.
Retail
- Here are four reasons not be afraid to shop at stores that got hacked.
- Consumers are changing their spending habits to favor small retailers.
- Should car manufacturers be allowed to sell directly to consumers? Tesla suffers a setback.
Pricing
- A Harvard psychologist offers a lesson in pricing (consumers are easily manipulated).
Employees
- Employees who work in environments with natural elements report higher levels of well-being and are more productive.
- A company that makes printers says that using a centralized copier/printer can curtail productivity.
- A company that sells office chairs finds that chairs affect employee productivity.
- The Dallas Cowboys release the first openly gay player to be drafted by a National Football League team.
Finance
- Indiegogo is the first crowdfunding platform to integrate Apple Pay.
- Here are five things you need to know to get approved for a business loan, and this is what small-business owners need to know about recent FICO score changes.
- These are the pros and cons of getting financing from friends and family.
- An investment from Google places a $2 billion valuation on a little-known start-up.
Franchising
- The Franchise King says franchising is a scam.
Washington
- The House and Senate will likely have new small-business leaders next year.
Social Media
- Microsoft’s Yammer begins a share button to help employees post web content on company time.
Around the Country
- Las Vegas approves higher taxi prices.
- In Chicago, a few businessmen (and one union guy) get punched in the face for a good cause.
Around the World
- China’s growth rate is its slowest in five years.
- Russia is “investigating” more than 200 McDonald’s.
- Britain considers quadrupling prison terms for Internet trolls.
Online
- Yelp leaps into hotel bookings.
- Marc Andreesen says Paul Krugman is wrong and Amazon is NOT bad for America.
Management
- Coca-Cola plans to further slash expenses.
- Jeff Bezos is either the world’s best chief executive — or a terrible underperformer.
Ideas
- There’s a hoverboard that levitates one inch off the ground is on Kickstarter.
Technology
- A reviewer says that shopping with Apple Pay is seamless in stores but quirky online.
- A man repels a bear by using an old computer.
- Yahoo’s quarterly earnings and revenue beat expectations.
- The winner of Techcrunch Disrupt Europe is a service with an easy-to-use interface for quickly setting up a distributed database cluster.
- An oil baron who tried and failed to corner the market on silver dies at 88.
Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. You can follow him on Twitter.