Today in Small Business: Start-Ups With a Social Mission

What’s affecting me, my clients and other small-business owners today.

The Economy

• Goldman Sachs reports oil prices will fall to $70 a barrel in 2015.
• The rate of manufacturing growth slowed in Texas but is still strong.
• Holiday spending is expected to rise 4 percent.

Employees

• Fast-food workers in Denmark make $20 an hour.
• Five San Francisco Bay Area restaurants eliminate tipping.
• Apple’s chief executive challenges the state where he grew up on LGBT rights.
• Here’s how to spot the résumé of a psychopath.
• And here is why not giving your employees business cards is a mistake.
• A recent study found that freelancers hire a lot of other freelancers.

Start-Up

• A venture capital firm invests in start-ups with a social mission.
• Beyonce is creating a “street wear” clothing line.
• Apple’s former retail chief has a start-up that will help online shoppers choose products.
• A planned Detroit brewery will ask customers to ride stationary bikes to power beer production.
• A start-up speakers bureau offers diverse alternatives.

Social Media

• Twitter’s user growth disappoints.
• Here are five ways to monitor employee social media activities.

Business Travel

• Starbucks was the “most often expensed” food and beverage brand for business travelers in the third quarter of 2014.

Management

• Here are four lessons from Amazon’s recent loss.
• You’ll never hear successful people say these 15 phrases.

Around the Country

• A shopping destination on Long Island caters to “one-percenters.”
• A construction worker shortage is being felt in Georgia.
• New York City’s speed limit is now 25 miles an hour.
• Taylor Swift is named New York’s ambassador for tourism.
• Detroit may increase cab fares and rein in Uber and Lyft.
• The World Series means extra business for a Kansas City marketing firm.

Around the World

• Victoria Beckham is named Britain’s entrepreneur of the year.
• These are the 10 best countries for women.

Marketing

• In an effort to lift sagging sales, Tesla unveils a lower-cost lease program
• A Harvard psychologist explains why buying experiences makes people happier than buying things.

Finance

• Charles Schwab will introduce free automated investment plans picked by computer algorithms in the first quarter of 2015.

Ideas

• A window-less plane would let passengers see the world around them.
• John Oliver goes after the sugar industry.

Online

• This is the ideal length of everything online.

Opportunities

• These five trends are coming to the smart home in 2015.
• Ethan, the creator of the viral “Ethan app” says he’s working on an open-source version that will allow others to build “Ethan” apps of their own.

Technology

• Tim Cook says Apple Pay is already a huge hit.
• Microsoft is offering unlimited OneDrive storage for Office 365 subscribers.
• Here are some Halloween costumes for the modern geek.

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.