Key Small Business Statistics is a semi-annual report from Industry Canada that covers a range of data and information on small business in Canada.  They recently released their July report (07 data) and the highlights are:

1.  There are roughly 2.3 million small (less than 100 employees) and mid-sized (less than 500 employees) businesses in Canada.  This does not include the self-employed. 

2.  Small firms employ about 5 million Canadians, which...

What gets to you about employee engagement? Here are 6 things that are getting to me right now:

Let’s stop calling it employee engagement. It seems when we call it employee engagement that we blame employees for not being engaged, we are blind to the fact that leaders and managers are also employees, and employees feel that engagement is something done to them rather than something that enriches them. I will still use the term but in my mind I am...

“Where some see control freakery, others see a desire to craft a seamless, end-to-end user experience. Instead of perfectionism, there is the pursuit of excellence. And, instead of screaming abuse, there is the passion to make a dent in the universe.”
–Leander Kahney

Yes, the book is repetitive. Yes, it is an extrapolation of compiled sources in an attempt to explain what might be going on inside Jobs’ head and how it has shaped Apple. Regardless,...

LinkedIn.com - a social site for professionals - is partnering with CNBC to integrate news and other content. LinkedIn has over 27 million members but until now has had very little community-buildling or social networking features.

Currently on LinkedIn you can email other professionals, ask them questions, and give or get recommendations from people in your network. Now you’ll also be able to share information with them...

Hall Martin was kind enough to spend some time with me this morning discussing the Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN).  The two year-old group is based in Austin and approximately 80% of their dealflow is local, with the remaining 20% primarily coming out of Dallas and other Texas cities.  Hall explained the group meets 18 [...]

I recently posted on the American Express Open Forum blog on the trends that are creating new opportunities for entrepreneurial artists.  I used illustrator Claudine Hellmuth as an example of an artist taking advantage of these trends to build a successful small business. 

Hellmuth is a great example because her business shares many of the traits we see from successful artist entrepreneurs.  These small and personal art busine.....

If social media is established enough to have best practices, sharing is one of them.

Share freely, share things of value, share what people ask you for most.

My liquor store blog shares drink recipes, information about local wine events (ours and others), and tasting notes. All of this brings business back to my store. That business is measurable (when people tell me that's how they found us, or how they chose us over the competition).

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