June’s National Federation of Independent Business’ (NFIB) Small
Business Optimism Index reported declines in several economic
indicators, including small business job creation and capital spending
plans. Additionally, the NFIB stated a drop in entrepreneurs’ optimism,
putting the index at recession levels.
Data released this spring from the American Express OPEN Small
Business Monitor conflicts with the NFIB findings and reports that
small business owners are shifting their focus from surviving to
capitalizing on growth opportunities, and they’re expecting to hire
and make necessary capital investments in their firms, signaling to
signs of an economic recovery.
Top-level spring 2011 Small Business Monitor findings:
• More than one-third of small business owners have plans to hire
( 35 percent), up 9 percentage points from last fall and the highest
level since the fall 2008 survey;
• Four in 10 plan to make capital investments (44 percent, on par
with 48 percent last spring and up from 38 percent last fall);
• Many expect to grow ( 37 percent) and are willing to take a
financial risk to do so (56 percent).
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Are you reaching your customers online? How about on their cell
phones? Perhaps you need to be sure you take another look at the
tools available to you from apps to QR codes.
Don Kellogg, senior manager, Telecom Research & Insights, Nielsen,
notes that the mobile data tsunami is still growing at an astounding
pace. According to Nielsen’s monthly analysis of cell phone bills
for 65,000-plus lines, smartphone owners – especially those with
iPhones and Android devices – are consuming more data than ever
before on a per-user basis. This has huge implications for carriers
since the proportion of smartphone owners is also increasing dramatically. (Currently, 37 percent of all mobile subscribers in the
United States have smartphones.)
In just the last 12 months, the amount of data the average smartphone user consumes per month has grown by 89 percent from
230 megabytes (MB) in Q1 2010 to 435 MB in Q1 2011. A look at
the distribution of data consumption is even more shocking: data
usage for the top 10 percent of smartphone users (90th percentile)
is up 109 percent while the top 1 percent (99th percentile) has
grown their usage by an astonishing 155 percent from 1. 8 gigabyte
(GB) in Q1 2010 to over 4. 6 GB in Q1 2011.
Growth in smartphone data usage is clearly being driven by app-friendly operating systems like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.
Consumers with iPhones and Android smartphones consume the
most data: 582 MBs per month for the average Android owner and
492 MBs for the average iPhone user. Also of note, Windows Phone
7 users doubled their usage over the past two quarters, perhaps
due to growth in the number of applications available.
Even as data usage has almost doubled, most users are paying
around what they did a year ago for data. That translates to a lower
cost per unit of data consumed. The amount the average smartphone user pays per unit of data has dropped by nearly 50 percent
in the last year, from 14 cents per MB to a mere 8 cents.
Average U.S. Smartphone Data Usage up
89 Percent
Denby has been producing pottery for over 200 years in the heart
of the English countryside. Much has changed in those 200 years
but one thing remains: Denby is still known for its attention to detail
and giving the casual customer fresh and timely designs they can live
with every day and for a long time. Denby has always worked to find
innovative and practical ways to produce fine stoneware while being
mindful of the environment and continuing to find ways to be “greener”
through recycling.
• Being ‘zero to landfill’ saves about 600 tons of CO² emissions
each year.
• After Denby clay is exuded, if it does not meet the rigid specs,
it is recycled back to the beginning of the process.
Denby’s Green Innovations
