Promotions With Other Businesses

As an at-home business owner, you can take advantage of marketing opportunities by partnering with similar businesses for the mutual benefit of both. Read more about how to cross promote in my September issue of At Home News. Sign up for the free monthly newsletter under the Newsletter tab.

Until next time,

Sarah

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Starting Startups

A new study looks at how startup formations follow consistent patterns, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.

“This study reveals an important structural context in which firm formation and job creation occur that helps explain why new and young companies dominate net job creation,” said Robert Litan, Kauffman’s vice president of research and policy. “We need to understand the structural features of entrepreneurial capitalism — the why of firm formation and job creation — so we can take steps that support and encourage those features and not unknowingly undermine them.”

Of interest to at-home businesses because the easier it is for new companies to form, the better the survival rate could become. For now, “formation and survival rates for new companies end up being fairly consistent through time, boosting the number of U.S. companies each year. Those 5 years old or younger make up the largest chunk each year, adding the most net new jobs,” the newspaper reported.

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Self Employment Numbers Drop

The recession is hitting the self-employed hard, new numbers from the Department of Labor reveal, Bloomberg reports. Last month, 8.68 million people worked for themselves, the fewest since January eight years ago. Those numbers fell a whopping 13 percent from December 2006 numbers of 9.98 million.

Some experts point to a lack of credit as one reason small businesses are failing. Scott Shane, a professor of economics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said that "the failure rate of self-employment picked up a lot during the recession. ... I think the indications are not good at all.”

“This is not a good environment for starting a business,” said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse. “Look at the headwinds the household sector faces. These are headwinds that are going to be in place for some time.”

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