New York SBDC Research Network

Excerpt from an article by Remie Arena To read more, visit  eMarketer "A global survey by marketing platform Hubspot found that among a variety of emerging concepts, cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology, blockchain, leave the most people scratching their heads. Interestingly, though, those surveyed seemed to perceive that blockchain and cryptocurrencies were not one in the same, because while more than one-quarter of respondents called cryptocurrencies overhyped, only 10% said the same about blockchain. Two other emerging technologies that were also fairly widely perceived as being overhyped were driverless cars and artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, the survey found that half of respondents did not expect AI to ever have an impact on their jobs."

Blog post from SBA.gov by Anita Campbell "Good software can enable your small business to increase sales by saving time and money while expanding capacity. But you must choose wisely — because the wrong software can be an expensive mistake. Here is my tried-and-true checklist for choosing software to support your business operations: Testimonials from Businesses Like Mine Find vendors with a meaningful number of testimonials from other small business owners. Look for testimonials from businesses like yours — businesses of roughly the same size, in similar industries and trying to solve similar problems. A software package might work just fine for some businesses, however, it may not help fix your problem. Financially Strong Vendor For mission critical processes, I hesitate to put my company’s future in the hands of software or an app that may or may not be updated a year from now. You see this problem with some mobile apps and content management system plugins....

Excerpt from an article by Mia Taylor To read more, visit  The Simple Dollar "There are many upsides to the gig economy and freelance work, like the flexible schedule, the autonomy of being your own boss, and, if it’s a side hustle, the ability to earn extra income to pay off bills or save for special purchases. But a path to a stable retirement does not appear to be among the benefits, at least for a lot of gig economy workers. Betterment, an online investment platform, has just released new research focused on the finances and the future of retirement in today’s self-employed workforce. And it’s not all good news. Their report looks at the nation’s dated retirement system, and how it has left gig economy workers unprepared. The study notes that the rise of the gig economy is fundamentally changing the way Americans earn, spend, and save for retirement, pointing out that the freedom and flexibility of the gig economy is nice now, but, for many, unsustainable over the...

Excerpt from an article by Megan Ray Nichols To read more, visit Thomasnet "You probably already know about consumer sharing services such as Uber and Airbnb. These services involve the peer-to-peer acquiring or providing of goods and services, which are selected by users via an online platform or app. This system is mutually beneficial, since the people who rent out their cars or houses on these marketplaces and platforms can earn money and develop a positive reputation, and the people purchasing have a viable, often much more affordable and personalized alternative to traditional services. When the greater economy subsides, the sharing economy rises. In these situations, people generally have less individual wealth to devote to temporary goods or services, prompting them to search for shared resources. The sharing economy is also growing as the supply chain shifts. Consumers now expect fast deliveries, from anywhere in the world. As a result, shared fulfillment centers...

From Thomasnet According to Bicycling.com, the modern carbon-fiber bike is “a technological marvel” based on its superior strength over traditional metal bikes, at a fraction of the weight. So why isn’t everyone hopping on one of these top-notch bikes to pedal around town? Two reasons – the cost is insane and, say the experts at Bicycling.com, carbon-fiber can be a manufacturing nightmare. Typical problems mostly relate to quality control, in a production environment that requires lots of labor and precision, which is why the Silicon Valley startup Arevo intends to upend the process with 3D printing. The company has a prototype of the first 3D printed carbon-fiber bike, and Arevo hopes to propel the business into manufacturing ASAP. The intention is to partner with existing bike manufacturers and automate the production aspect using a robotic arm.

From: Susan Solovic Regular followers of this space know that I’m firmly committed to the proposition that as a small business owner  you  need to grow  if you are serious about growing your small business. That’s why I recommended attending at least one of the best small business conferences each year. To make this a little easier for you, I’ve compiled a list of the 50 best tech, startup and small business conferences 2017 – 2018 has to offer. Do a little exploring (I’ve provided the links) and you’ll find: Great marketing conferences, Top tech topics, Business networking opportunities, Cutting edge online strategies, Social media marketing conferences, And much more. Further, it’s likely you can find a small business conference that’s not too far away from your home turf and at a time that’s convenient for you to attend. And don’t forget about your team. Sending your employees to one of the best 2017-2018 small business conferences not only brings new skills and...

From the New York Times : Salad bars are magnets for bacteria and viruses. Even if the sprouts and ranch dressing aren’t tainted, the serving utensils may be. The Silicon Valley start-up Chowbotics has devised what it says is a partial solution. Its device, which it calls Sally the Salad Robot, is aimed at reducing the risk of food-borne illness by assembling salads out of pre-cut vegetables stored in refrigerated canisters. Diners use a touch screen to place their orders, choosing from a menu of recipes or designing their own salads. The machine calculates the number of calories per salad and drops the veggies into a bowl in less than a minute. There is less human contact with the food. But as a growing number of food- and drink-slinging robots have begun interacting with diners in the San Francisco Bay Area, Deepak Sekar, the device’s inventor and the founder and chief executive of Chowbotics, has faced questions about whether his machine will put people out of work. He deni...

From LinkedIn : Robots are going to take our jobs, they say. I say, "Only if that's what we ask them to do!" Technology is the solution to human problems, and we won't run out of work till we run out of problems. Entrepreneurs need to set their sights on how we can use big data, sensors, and AI to create amazing human experiences and the economy of the future, making us all richer in the same way the tools of the first industrial revolution did. Yes, technology can eliminate labor and make things cheaper, but at its best, we use it to do things that were previously unimaginable! What is our poverty of imagination? What are the entrepreneurial leaps that will allow us to use the technology of today to build a better future, not just a more efficient one? Great entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are using technology to do more, not just to do the same thing more cheaply. That is the secret both to business success and to making the world more prosperous.

From the Federal Trade Commission : Some scammers call and claim to be computer techs associated with well-known companies like Microsoft or Apple. Other scammers send pop-up messages that warn about computer problems. They say they’ve detected viruses or other malware on your computer. They claim to be “tech support” and will ask you to give them remote access to your computer. Eventually, they’ll diagnose a non-existent problem and ask you to pay for unnecessary – or even harmful – services. If you get an unexpected pop-up, call, spam email, or other urgent messages about problems with your computer, stop. Don’t click on any links, don’t give control of your computer and don’t send any money. Don’t click that pop-up for a “free virus scan”. Scammers create pop-up ads, make fake websites, and call you pretending to be tech support personnel—but they’re not helping you, they’re just taking your money or stealing your information. The elderly are especially vulnerable to these tric...

From PC magazine : Amazon may have started as an online-only experience, but today the company is very much blended into real-world retail. This week, the company was granted a patent for technology that can prevent in-store shoppers from comparison shopping online. The patent - for "Physical Store Online Shopper Control" - is pretty self-explanatory. If you're in a store and logged on to that store's Wi-Fi, the network will see if you navigate to a rival's website to compare prices. The store can then block you from doing so, offer up a discount to purchase in-store, or even send a store employee over to persuade you to make that purchase. Amazon is expanding its brick-and-mortar presence so this technology could be deployed at its own stores, but it could also make a pretty penny licensing the tech to rivals. Call it augmented retail.

From the Library of Congress : The following is a guest post by Brad Greenberg, counsel in the U.S. Copyright Office, Office of Policy and International Affairs. Copyright law and new technologies have a long history, arguably dating back to the Gutenberg Press in the 15th century—more than 200 years before passage of the matriarch of copyright statutes, Britain’s Statute of Anne. New technologies provide new tools for creative expression and new vehicles for sharing those works. But sometimes they also disrupt existing copyright regimes—as seen with player pianos (late 1800s), radio (1920s and 1930s), cable television (1960s and 1970s), photocopying (1970s), home video cassette recorders (1970s and 1980s), and, of course, digital downloading and streaming technology (today). Emerging technologies continue to raise novel questions for copyright, particularly with a copyright system built around a law now more than forty years old. Is a poem written by a computer entitled to copyr...

From ThomasNet : The supply chain is going digital. In their annual industry report, Deloitte and MHI found that 80% of supply chain professionals believe that digital supply chains will overtake traditional supply chain models within the next five years. To prepare for these changes, and to put their companies in the best position to succeed with a next-generation supply chain, industry professionals will have to fully understand the latest technologies. So what's in store for supply chain folks? Here are a few of the technologies they'll need to know about

From the Harvard Business Review Bringing new technology and tools into your organization can increase productivity, boost sales, and help you make better, faster decisions. But getting every employee on board is often a challenge. What can you do to increase early and rapid adoption? How can you incentivize and reward employees who use it? And should you reprimand those who don’t? According to a study by MIT Sloan Management Review and Capgemini Consulting, the vast majority of managers believe that “achieving digital transformation is critical” to their organizations. However, 63% said the pace of technological change in their workplaces is too slow, primarily due to a "lack of urgency" and poor communication about the strategic benefits of new tools. "Employees need to understand why [the new technology] is an improvement from what they had before," says Didier Bonnet, coauthor of Leading Digital and Global Practice Leader at Capgemini Consulting, who worked ...

From Bplans : An early question among potential co-founders during discussions about commitment was always “have you raised money yet?” as if it’s a requirement of doing a tech startup. It seems like a common trend with first-time tech entrepreneurs—and even some more experienced entrepreneurs—to think of fundraising as a required step in the process of starting a technology company. They read articles on TechCrunch about how startups are raising huge, early rounds of funding from VCs, then begin putting together pitch decks and attempt to seek out funding for their own startup. However, if you look at the history of today’s biggest tech companies, nearly all of them started without raising outside funds. Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft all started in garages or dorms, and didn’t raise money until later on when they were ready to scale up operations. In fact, many companies are successful without ever raising outside money, including PlentyofFish, Balsamiq Mockups, and Shutterstoc...

Elena Yakubovskaya, a research scientist at SUNY Stony Brook, earned her Ph.D in the field of molecular and structural biology in Russia. Ten years ago in her spare time, she was one of the founders of School Nova at Stony Brook, which provides supplemental STEM instruction to elementary students on weekends. In addition, she is the Director of Sigma Camp, a summer STEM educational camp for gifted students. In 2014, Elena started Mindwick, Inc. with the goal of promoting early science education for students in grades 1-3. In 2015 Mindwick was awarded a $150,000 Phase I SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop "Ready for STEM" - a new educational program for improving reasoning skills in elementary school students. The Phase I “proof of concept” work results were well received when submitted to the National Science Foundation. In 2016, Elena applied for a Phase II $750,000 NSF grant and two new Phase I grants at other agencies....

From Huffington Post Credit Capital is possibly the most common reason hindering SME's from launching out. Small business owners spend months trying to acquire loans from banks often with little success and when the money finally comes, it becomes surprisingly difficult to keep a rein on spending all of it. Telephone and internet connections, shipping contracts, printing, stationery are some of the numerous day to daily requirements of running an office and the expenses tend to add up. Thankfully, operating business in the 21st Century comes with its perks. Technology is not only available to large companies but is also now affordable for small businesses including the possibility of integrated technologies that can provide services of two or more functions at the same time. Another advantage of technology is that it breaks the barriers of location, space and time. New technologies have become increasingly simplified and user friendly so everyone can benefit from them rega...

From Bplans . Often, a business plan introduces a new technology that requires some explaining. On one hand, as a reader of business plans for investors, I see way too many business plans that ask a reader to wade neck-deep through technology to get to the business. That’s a great way make your reader run in the other direction! It’s a business plan, not a term paper or thesis. Establish technology as a differentiator, when it is. Tell me about it in relation to its importance to the business. Don’t force me to understand it when I don’t need to. On the other hand, as a writer, manager, and user of business plans as tools for steering a business, I believe you should discuss your technology in the plan for any business. Even if technology isn’t the driving force of your business or your main differentiator, these days, almost all businesses have to manage technology as part of branding, marketing, and communications. To the extent that technology matters, I want to see it in the...

From NASA NASA has released 56 formerly-patented agency technologies into the public domain, making its government-developed technologies freely available for unrestricted commercial use. In addition to the release of these technologies, a searchable database now is available that catalogs thousands of expired NASA patents already in the public domain. These technologies were developed to advance NASA missions but may have non-aerospace applications and be used by commercial space ventures and other companies free of charge, eliminating the time, expense and paperwork often associated with licensing intellectual property. The technologies include advanced manufacturing processes, sensors, propulsion methods, rocket nozzles, thrusters, aircraft wing designs and improved rocket safety and performance concepts. “By making these technologies available in the public domain, we are helping foster a new era of entrepreneurship that will again place America at the forefront of high-tech m...

Each new generation of communication networks allows technology to flourish. When 5G becomes available by the end of this decade, what will it mean for small business owners and the tools we rely on? With data transfer rates greater than tens of megabits per second, 5G will be 1,000 times faster than what we currently experience. This will make the possibilities for communication and marketing endless. Here are five ways 5G could help you bring your business to the next level: 1. New Ways To Communicate With Clients One of the first ways 5G could open up business prospects is through the capability of new forms of communication. If you’re an entrepreneur, blogger or small business owner of any kind, you probably already rely on services like Skype and WhatsApp to stay connected to your contact list. The mega-fast speeds of a 5G connection will enable new forms of communication. Think 3D holographic phone calls, rather than just flat streaming video. This will make virtual meet...

By SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet and Square CEO Jack Dorsey This October, America will take a major step to mitigate fraud and improve our financial security by migrating away from outdated credit and debit cards that transmit sensitive customer data using magnetic stripes. In 2015, it should not surprise us that a system using essentially the same technology as cassette tapes is especially vulnerable. That is why major credit card companies, lenders, and businesses are now embracing new, more secure, authenticated payment technologies. Many consumers already have credit cards embedded with microchips in their wallets, and many more will be receiving these cards in the coming months. This technology – also known as EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) – is a safer form of payment for buyers and sellers alike, as the cards are nearly impossible to counterfeit. EMV is not the only payment shift on the horizon. Because reading chip cards takes more time than reading magstrip...