Unemployment numbers have been at historic lows recently, and this is having a positive effect on the stagnant wages of the past decade. According to the ADP Research Institute Workforce Vitality Report (WVR), the fourth quarter of 2018 delivered year-over-year wage growth of 3.4% to end the year. 2018 Wage Growth StatisticsOverall, 2018 provided wage growth of 2.8% compared to 2.6% in 2017. The steady wage growth is being driven by a tight labor market as businesses are competing with a fewer number of qualified applicants for positions. For small businesses, it means having to compete with large companies and the incentives they offer in terms of pay and other benefits. This has forced owners to raise wages as they continue to struggle in finding qualified talent. Because of the tight labor market, ADP says job holders, job switchers, and entrants are seeing average wage growth of more than 4.5% on an individual basis. However, workers are not moving as much. In the press release, Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said, “As the labor market sits at full employment, we continue to see an overall slowdown in job switching across the majority of industries.” Yildirmaz goes on to say, the exception is the finance industry, which is seeing a high number of younger workers switching jobs in the segment. The WVR said 20.5% of US employees successfully switched their place of work in 2018. The Workforce Vitality ReportThe WVR provides a monthly analysis of the vitality of the US labor market with quarterly publications. The report gives decision makers an insight into market performance along with trends impacting different segments of the workforce. It includes total employment growth; change in the hours worked by current job holders; wage level and growth; the job switching rate; the overall job turnover rate and more. Fourth Quarter Results for 2018The Q4 results for 2018 saw the average wage level go up by $0.93 to $28.06 an hour. Industries in the education and health services were responsible for driving this growth as they represent 19% of the nation’s total workforce. For this group, the wage growth was 4.1% with an average hourly wage of $27.05. The next largest group was trade with 22% of the workforce. And it saw a 4.4% wage growth with an average hourly wage of $24.56. Regionally, the Northeast experienced the biggest gains with 3.7% in wage growth and an hourly wage of $31.75. But the West had the highest growth in employment at 2.7%. Small BusinessesWhile there was good news overall, small businesses experienced a decrease in wage growth. Companies with 1-49 employees saw their wage growth and level go down by -2.1% compared to Q4 of 2017. The report also revealed lower employment growth, while experiencing turnover rates of 69.9%. This data point could be indicating small businesses are losing their workforce to larger companies as employees look for better-paying jobs. Image: Depositphotos.com This article, "U.S. Wages Grew 2.8% in 2018, Should You Increase Staff Compensation?" was first published on Small Business Trends from https://smallbiztrends.com/2019/02/2018-wage-growth-statistics.html
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The Brag Basket is open! This one is for Feb 8-10, 2019. Bring your good news, big or small, to share with everyone. What can you share in the Brag Basket?
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from https://smallbizsurvival.com/2019/02/lean-into-good-news-in-the-brag-basket.html
I loved this restaurant marketing idea from the Texas Downtown Association:
Now, Longview, Texas, is a small city at 80,000+ population, but I think smaller towns could adapt this idea. You don’t have to do a fancy group website. This kind of promotion is perfect for a social media campaign. A simple hashtag is enough to start. Even one local person could start taking pictures and posting positive comments online with a message of “chews local.” Get more collaborative marketing ideas, for service and retail businessesIn the just-released video from SaveYour.Town, Deb Brown and I share more cooperative and collaborative marketing ideas that any business can use to better reach local customers. It doesn’t take a formal organization or big funding. Anyone can put them into practice right away. Learn more about Cooperation Creates More Customers here.
from https://smallbizsurvival.com/2019/02/how-restaurants-can-market-each-other-in-small-towns.html The Brag Basket is open! This one is for Feb 1-3, 2019. Bring your good news, big or small, to share with everyone. What can you share in the Brag Basket?
Don’t like to brag? Just share some good news for someone you’re happy for. It’s a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other. How do you join in? Below this post is the comment section. Add your good news there. Reading this in your email? Hit reply. Some weeks you’ll find even more comments on our Facebook Page. Want to see some past Brag Baskets and read some past contributions? Here’s the archive.
from https://smallbizsurvival.com/2019/02/count-some-good-news-in-the-brag-basket.html
For years, we’ve all worked to get our names out there and associated with specific words and phrases we knew our customers would type into a search engine to find us. Now that customers are saying their searches out loud, how does that change things? Today’s voice searches happen via smartphone tools like Siri and Google Search, and via home assistants like Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod. What words do customers type?It still matters because many searches still happen on tablets, laptops and even by typing searches on phones. To pick the right keywords, you have to know what people search for. What is your customer thinking when they type a search for the solution you offer? They don’t know your name or your business yet. All they know is their own problem. For my liquor store, we saw a lot of search phrases like “liquor store” and our town name. What words do customers say?It’s a little different when you speak a search instead of typing it. They may be shorter and more to the point. Think of starting with this phrase, “Siri, find me…” and what would they say next? They still don’t know your business name, but they know what they’re looking for. For my liquor store, we saw searches in our analytics that looked like they were probably done via voice. Searchers asked for phrases like “liquor store near me” and specific products like “tequila.” Customers weren’t just searching for the type of business but also the specific thing they wanted. Especially as small town stores diversify their product lines, customers aren’t sure which particular store they need. They search for the item. My local sewing machine center carries adult coloring books and handcrafted gift items. Customers aren’t going to guess that from the name of the business. Small town stores have to write a lot more online about all the unusual and unexpected product lines they carry so they show up in terse voice searches for specific products. You can do this on your own website, your social channels and on search profiles like Google My Business. New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates. from https://smallbizsurvival.com/2019/01/seo-for-voice-search-is-different-for-rural-small-business.html BizBuySell started collecting the data for the number of small businesses bought and sold in a single year in 2007. And according to the company’s Annual 2018 Insight Report, it has been a record year for buying and selling a small business. BizBuySell Annual 2018 Insight ReportThe numbers for 2018 are the culmination of a three-year record run with a total of 10,312 businesses reported sold for the year. This was a 4% increase from 2017 when there were 9,919 businesses sold and a 31% surge in 2016 was responsible for a high of 7,842 businesses being sold for the year. For entrepreneurs who are looking to buy a small business and owners who want to sell, these past three years have been exceptional. Even though the price for small businesses has increased, so has the revenue tthey are generating As to what is driving the record numbers, Bob House, President of BizBuySell.com and BizQuest.com, said a strong economy has given individuals the confidence to be their own boss as well as their belief the economy will remain strong. In the press release House expressed his optimism along with some cautionary advice. He added, “We expect continued strong deal flow, but both buyers and sellers should also keep a close eye on factors that could affect the marketplace such as political gridlock, potential tariff impacts, rising interest rates, and stock market volatility. Those can be good indicators of how the market could shift moving forward.” The DataThe businesses which changed hands in 2018 were also the most financially healthy. There was a growth of 6.3% in business valuation for this year, which increased the median revenue of sold businesses from $500,000 in 2017 to $531,653 in 2018. The businesses being sold also increased their cash flow by 4.3%, from $115,000 in 2017 to $120,000 in 2018. According to BizBuySell, the numbers for both years represent the highest financial performance of sold businesses since the company has been tracking the data. In addition to the data of the businesses that were bought and sold in 2018, BizBuySell also surveyed business owners on a range of topics including performance and outlook. Close to half or 49% indicated their business performed better in 2018, with another 36% stating they had similar outcomes for the year. There was only 11% of respondents who reported they had a worse year in 2018. Owners were also asked why they believe 2018 was such a good year for small businesses. Again, another 49% said it was the economic conditions of the country followed by 22% who noted consumer confidence, and another 7% crediting improved management practices. PriceWhen it comes to the actual value of small businesses, owners were able to ask and receive higher prices in 2018. The median asking price jumped to $275,000, a 10% increase from 2017. This of course increased the sale price, which was up 9.3% in 2018 to $249,000. Even though new owners were paying higher prices, 41% of the respondents in the BizBuySell survey believed they were accurately priced. Those who believed the business was overpriced (31%) also conceded the purchase was worth it. Another 15% said they got a good deal and the business was actually underpriced. So where were these businesses being bought and sold? The best-performing cities in 2018 were led by Los Angeles — Long Beach — Santa Ana with 691 transactions, followed by New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island with 672. Tampa — St. Petersburg — Clearwater rounded out the top three with 539 transactions in 2018. You can look at the full data tables from the 2018 report here, including by Geography or Sector. Image: BizBuySell This article, "Number of Businesses Bought and Sold Hit Record Level in 2018" was first published on Small Business Trends from https://smallbiztrends.com/2019/01/bizbuysell-annual-2018-insight-report.html Guest post by Paula Jensen The Langford Area High School boys’ basketball team made it to the State B tournament for the fifth time in the past six years. As I travel across South Dakota for my job people ask me, “How can Langford (being such a small school) continue producing winning teams year-after-year?” My answer is always, the same – it’s because of the coaches. Successful coaches realize that winning teams are not run by one individual who dominates and reduces the rest of the group to mere followers. Winning teams are more like open forums in which everyone participates in the decision-making process, coaches and players alike, until the decision is made. Then, once a decision is made, the team is motivated to move ahead and execute it. This winning team scenario had me thinking about the community engagement work I do with small towns in South Dakota. What would happen if our small-town leaders and residents started working together as a winning team, like our high school athletes and their coaches? If we can envision the possibility of shaping our small towns into winning teams, then the first task for local leadership is to bring together groups of motivated people to make joint decisions and move grassroots ideas to action. Successful leaders, like winning coaches, recognize that they need to become more knowledgeable and competent in dealing with and developing local people and their ideas to create a dynamic small town. This team approach is a fundamental shift from the hierarchical leadership style we are accustomed to where the one person in charge provides instruction and the others in the group follow by doing the work. Starting this process of building winning teams through community engagement can begin with local leaders inviting all residents to take part and volunteer their thoughts, impressions, and ideas. Effective community engagement requires 1) local leaders to be idea friendly, and 2) local residents to share ideas in a friendly way. If you are a motivated resident with a great idea to implement, then here are a few pointers to help you prepare to share that idea in a friendly way:
I can’t speak to the secret ingredient of coaching a winning basketball team. But, I am certain it is similar to the secret ingredient of a winning community which is being committed to developing people. These thriving communities create a strong sense of belonging among their residents. They are friendly to new ideas. And, they develop their residents into future leaders that will carry the winning team approach forward. #Iamrural from https://smallbizsurvival.com/2019/01/whats-the-secret-ingredient-to-a-winning-team.html The Brag Basket is open! This one is for Jan 25-27, 2019. Bring your good news, big or small, to share with everyone. What can you share in the Brag Basket?
Don’t like to brag? Just share some good news for someone you’re happy for. It’s a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other. How do you join in? Below this post is the comment section. Add your good news there. Reading this in your email? Hit reply. Some weeks you’ll find even more comments on our Facebook Page. Want to see some past Brag Baskets and read some past contributions? Here’s the archive.
from https://smallbizsurvival.com/2019/01/the-art-of-your-good-news-in-the-brag-basket.html
A small town official wrote in to ask me what business would work on empty land. This town had acquired an old industrial site with 30 acres of empty land in the middle of town. They’d like to build a city within a city, maybe a mix of residential and commercial. To get there, they were putting together a list of businesses and other uses that might work. Don’t make a plan!Rather than creating a finished plan, I suggested a lot of experiments to find out what might work in their specific situation. I don’t have any list of what business will work because of course it’s different in every location. The right answers are going to emerge from the tests, experiments, temporary projects, and tiny trials. That’s how you’ll learn what will work. Experiment your way to prosperityHere are the steps I’d think would make sense to fill any chunk of empty land in a small town:
With any major empty land development, officials will be under a lot of pressure to draw up one big master plan and stick to it. That’s the biggest mistake you can make. There is no way for any expert to predict what will work next year or 50 years from now. But your own people can come together, experiment, have fun, try things out, and incrementally build something that is a huge asset to your whole community for decades and centuries to come. New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates. from https://smallbizsurvival.com/2019/01/what-businesses-would-work-in-a-small-town-with-empty-land.html The Brag Basket is open! This one is for Jan 18-20, 2019. Bring your good news, big or small, to share with everyone. What can you share in the Brag Basket?
Don’t like to brag? Just share some good news for someone you’re happy for. It’s a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other. How do you join in? Below this post is the comment section. Add your good news there. Reading this in your email? Hit reply. Some weeks you’ll find even more comments on our Facebook Page. Want to see some past Brag Baskets and read some past contributions? Here’s the archive.
from https://smallbizsurvival.com/2019/01/tell-your-story-in-the-brag-basket-2.html |
ABOUT MEHello I am Dian Arispe 28 years old from Miami. I love reading articles about business consulting and like to learn more about it. ArchivesNo Archives Categories |