It’s been a busy week for small businesses and in the premier edition of This Week in Small Business, I sat down with ecommerce expert John Lawson (@ColderICE) to discuss some of the stories that interested us the most.
In Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead’s article on Instagram statistics most important to small business owners, John and I noted the best time to post videos that get interaction.
We also found the fact that Instagram is far more engaging than Facebook very interesting. Finally, we talked about the audience that’s using Instagram today.
John and I continued our discussion over The Young Entrepreneur Council’s advice this week on balancing a full-time job and a growing side hustle.
When is the right time to ditch the job in favor of making the side hustle a full-time business. Check out our chat on the article and all the advice they shared.
Finally, we wanted to talk about the recent news from Amazon and its public search for HQ2, its second company headquarters. Cities have been courting Amazon for some time now and recently, the company phoned 200 of them telling each why they would NOT be the choice.
This Week in Small Business is presented by Salesforce.
Check out all the other headlines this week from Small Business Trends:
Economy
Report Reveals the Best Cities for Hispanic Entrepreneurs in 2018
After comparing 182 U.S. cities across 23 key metrics, WalletHub has released its 2018 Best Cities for Hispanic Entrepreneurs report. WalletHub created the list by looking at cities that were business friendly to Hispanics. But the report also looked at the purchasing power of the Hispanic populations in those cities.
NYC Rates Best for Small Business Growth Second Year Running, Says Biz2Credit
The 2018 Best Cities for Small Business Growth study by Biz2Credit has revealed New York is the best city for small business growth. Biz2Credit looked at cities across the country along with the data of small businesses including annual revenue, credits scores, and time in operation.
Management
62% of Small Business Owners Can’t Afford a Hike in Health Insurance Premiums
The eHealth report, Small Business Health Insurance: Costs, Trends and Insights 2017 (PDF) highlights the concerns small business owners have when it comes to the cost of health coverage. Close to 80 percent said they worry about the cost. And 62 percent say a 15 percent increase in premiums would make group health insurance unaffordable.
How to Balance a Side Hustle with other Commitments – Including a Full Time Job
You’ve decided to run an online business in addition to your other obligations such as a full-time job and family, and it’s much harder than you thought. It takes time to figure out what to do, and how to balance it all. It’s probably easier to learn from the experts first. We asked several experts from the YEC community how to best balance an online business with the rest of life.
Survey Reveals Top Challenges Businesses Face Using WordPress
Performance issues, security vulnerabilities and problems resulting from updates top the list of challenges facing businesses using WordPress. The stats come from a survey conducted by Pagely, a managed WordPress hosting platform. The 2018 Edition of “The Biggest WordPress Headaches” survey looks at some very specific issues affecting how the WordPress platform operates.
20 Amazing Instagram Statistics Small Business Owners MUST See
The age-old saying ‘a picture tells a thousand words’ definitely bares truth on Instagram. This incredibly simple photo and video sharing network is a rapidly gaining in popularity and social media prestige. For small businesses, utilizing Instagram provides cost-effective opportunities to resonate with target audiences, reach new customers and grow their brand.
Technology Trends
MakiPlace Helps Designers and Developers Sell their Products to Small Businesses
MakiPlace is a marketplace for digital assets created by a growing global community of designers and developers now numbering 33,121 members. The designers and developers have 1,845 products in 355 shops providing graphic templates, font and web fonts, CMS themes, website templates, script and code and app templates.