THE FUTURE OF THE GIG ECONOMY

Why the Future of the Gig Economy May Not Be What You Expect

  The ‘gig economy’ has gotten a lot of press lately; in fact, we even covered it on Smart Hustle recently. What we know is that the gig economy (or on-demand economy) consists of workers who provide on-demand services. Things like freelance writing to car sharing. Some experts predict that by 2020, 40 percent of...

Millennial Entrepreneurs Show They Really Can Change the World

4 Ways Millennial Entrepreneurs Are Changing the World and Small Business

Ever since they started to come of age, millennials have been a generation that has fascinated the media. The millennial generation is even larger than the baby boomer generation, and since they were born between 1980 and 2000, they grew up in a time of rapid change that has created very different priorities and expectations...

Facebook Instant Articles - The Wordpress Plugin

Facebook Instant Articles WordPress Plugin Makes Small Businesses Reach Bigger Audiences

Businesses and publishers everywhere – if you wanted to participate in Facebook Instant Articles, which opens to all publishers on April 12th, but weren’t sure how to set it up, we have excellent news for you. WordPress has just launched a special Instant Articles plugin that will allow WordPress-based publishers to participate in the...

Business Owners, Meet Plonked A New Business Search Engine You Need to Know About

Meet Plonked: A New Business Search Engine You Need to Know About

Search engines like Google and Bing are great for finding general information about any topic under the sun. But could there be a better way to find specific information about businesses? A new company called Plonked says yes. On March 3, 2016, they officially launched their free search engine specifically for locating information about tech...

Maria Sharapova's Lesson for Entrepreneurs: Hustle But Don't Lie

Maria Sharapova’s Lesson for Entrepreneurs: Hustle But Don’t Lie

[content field="callout1" format="true" class="calloutwide"]For a while, it seemed like Maria Sharapova ruled the athletic world. An outstanding tennis player, she commanded the top spot of the highest paid female athletes list for 11 years, making $29.7 million in 2015 alone. But with sports (and really any aspect of life) there are rules by which...

How to Limit Your Small Business Sacrifices and Maintain a Healthy Work-Life Balance

How to Limit Your Small Business Sacrifices and Maintain a Healthy Work-Life Balance

[content field="callout1" format="true" class="calloutwide"]It’s no surprise that small business owners make sacrifices. Choosing to follow your own path means you have to work twice as hard and there are plenty of things you have to give up on the way to success. If you’re lucky, these sacrifices pay off in the end with a...

Strategically Staying Small: 25 Companies Focusing on Greatness Over Growth

Strategically Staying Small: 25 Companies Focusing on Greatness Over Growth

[content field="callout1" format="true" class="calloutwide"]Small businesses have many competitive advantages over the big guys. Are you embracing these strengths or trying to quickly scale up and grow your business out of the ‘small’ label? While there isn’t one correct path, many small business owners do focus on growth in a quest to find more customers...

The On-Demand Economy & the Changing Face of the American Workforce

The On-Demand Economy & the Changing Face of the American Workforce

[content field="callout1" format="true" class="calloutwide"]The American workforce is changing before our very eyes. While the traditional full-time job is still the norm, a new group of workers – called the on-demand economy or the gig economy – is redefining how you can make a paycheck in today’s world. Because this is a new and growing...

Staples #MakeMoreHappen Twitter Chat

Staples #MakeMoreHappen Twitter Chat: Avoiding & Reducing Tech Downtime

[content field="callout1" format="true" class="calloutwide"]No matter what your business is, technology likely plays an important role. The last NSBA Technology Survey (in 2013) found that: 87 percent of small business owners use a desktop (up from 76 percent in 2010) 84 percent use a laptop (up from 67 percent in 2010) 74 percent use a smartphone (up from...