This Week in Small Business: Raising Caine - NYTimes.com

Dashboard

A weekly roundup of small-business developments.

What?s affecting me, my clients and other small-business owners this week.

The Big Story: A Billion Dollars

Instagram?s Kevin Systrom celebrates being 27 by selling his company to Facebook for a billion dollars (and Pat Stansik celebrates being 24 by making this video). The Instagram acquisition fuels start-up fever, and Om Malik explains why Facebook spent all that money: ?Facebook is essentially about photos, and Instagram had found and attacked Facebook?s Achilles? heel ? mobile photo sharing.? Dylan Tweney explains why Instagram is worth more than your start-up. Todd Warren learned three lessons, including: ?develop the simplest solution to the customer problem, then iterate on what resonates FAST.? For Matthew Ingram, the acquisition proves that nothing is more important than the network.

Economy: Hazardous to Your Health

The Federal Reserve said the economy maintained its expansion in all 12 of its regions. That?s nice, but a better economy causes more people to die. Small-business confidence dips, and Lance Roberts says it?s because of the return of economic weakness. A small-business lending index increases slightly, and the Treasury Department is reporting small-business lending success. James Hamilton summarizes current conditions. Some economists are making dreary forecasts. Gary Shilling makes a case for another recession ? which might be fine for big business. A massive, catastrophic spike in interest rates is still not happening, and Roger Arnold says QE3 is coming. Doug Short supplies an interesting graphic on how the Fed?s interventions affect the markets. The government?s biggest asset is student loans. Here?s a chart that explains the student debt ?disaster.? John Hinderaker says America?s ?debt bomb? is worse than Europe?s. These sectors are getting investor attention, and these sectors are dying. Mary Ellen Bierly tells who?s hiring.

The Data: Gas Use Plunges

Nonfarm payrolls increased 120,000 in March (pdf) but weekly unemployment claims rose. Sony loses $6.4 billion. Machine-tool orders rebound. Retail container traffic is expected to increase. Inflation-adjusted natural gas futures fall to their lowest prices since 1994. Petroleum and gas use plunges, and March car sales were the most fuel-efficient in history. Our budget deficit hits a record high, and the editors at Bloomberg say, ?Don?t tell Obama and Ryan, but their budgets are similar.?

Marketing: Lessons From Food Trucks

A new microchip knows your location to within centimeters ? so you may want to check out Brian Honigman?s recommendations for marketing with location-based networks. Valeria Maltoni suggests 50 content ideas to create buzz. Here are six ideas for finding new sales leads. Food truck owners share some social media lessons. Lorna Sixsmith explains how to network on LinkedIn. Mark Schmulen has five ways to turn Facebook likes into results. Only 34 percent of Americans view Twitter favorably, but here?s one really smart use of the service. Google Plus undergoes a redesign and now claims 170 million users (although that number is probably useless). Liz Crawford explains how to reward consumers.

Boss of the Week: Caine

Must-see lessons in entrepreneurship (and social media) in a video about a 9-year-old who builds an arcade. Runner-up: an 8-year-old brings it against the University of North Carolina basketball team.

Start-Up: Ashton and Betty

Ashton Kutcher invests in Dwolla, and Betty White joins Twitter. If no celebrity is available, here are seven other ways to finance your start-up. A venture capitalist is seeking investors for a new fund focused on start-ups. Rieva Lesonsky explains why investors may reject your start-up pitch. Diana Ransom reports that most start-ups should hold off going after investors until their companies are making solid revenues. Here are five social entrepreneurship start-ups you should know. A human resources specialist says there are three things start-up founders need to know about human resources. Here?s how to get your business started on YouTube. Startup Weekend participants can get a new .co domain at no cost for the first year. Neustar is helping small businesses ?Kick-Start America? with the .us domain. Here?s how to speak Squirrel.

Management: Wasting Time

Gary Stix says you should ask yourself this set of questions every few weeks to gauge how much damaging stress you are experiencing. Bob Ingle says New Jersey wants some of the unused billions on gift cards. A big business learns the true power of social media. Jessica Reid looks at the most common ways small-business owners waste time. Here are five wonderfully weird products small businesses created. A few teenage tycoons show that entrepreneurship knows no age limit ? and neither does ignorance. Moving your mouse pad can improve your brain. Ron Schenone explains why noise can increase productivity. Linda Hill and Kent Lineback believe that good managers lead through a team. Ndubuisi Ekekwe says ?companies need to help employees unplug their smartphones.? A snack food pioneer dies at 87. These are the best National Hockey League playoff beards of all time.

Around the Country: Bacon Sundaes?

Staples awards five small businesses $50,000 in free advertising and cash. An auction offers face time with star entrepreneurs. Buffalo slips to No. 15 in one ranking of the best places for the small businesses in the East. Here are nine cities where jobs are booming. San Francisco prepares for small-business week. Burger King tests a bacon sundae in Nashville. A Florida town bans nightclubs, dance halls and skating rinks. The British Department of Energy and Climate Change says that 30 million homes and small businesses will have smart meters by 2019. Georgia?s Clarke County leads a list of top small-size communities.

Around the World: South Korea Smells the Coffee

China?s inflation increases. Japan?s core machinery orders rise 4.8 percent in February. A Dubai company introduces a farming system that allows farmers to use 90 percent less water. A Dunkin? Donuts bus ad sprays the aroma of coffee in South Korea. Small businesses in Toronto can score big contracts with the Pan Am Games. A new report shows that the business environment for entrepreneurs in all five economies of the East African Community improved between 2010 and 2011.

Red Tape: Enemy Strongholds

The Buffett Rule becomes an election-year battleground. A senator says ?don?t Buffett small businesses.? Jim Geraghty argues that a 1 percent spending cut would be six times as effective as the Buffett Rule, and Ezra Klein says everything you know about the rule is wrong. Here are six overlooked small-business tax deductions (and the worst cheap shot you?ll ever see). Bruce Bartlett says to really simplify the tax code we must ?bypass enemy strongholds.? A small-business owner takes the Internal Revenue Service to court over ?outrageous? new regulations, and a senator from Texas announces a small-business taxpayer bill of rights. A report calls for doubling the nation?s public health spending.

Technology: 665 Million Tablets

Here are five ways the Internet of things will be powered. Gartner predicts 665 million tablets will be in use by 2016 and more merchants are embracing direct mobile billing. A new AT&T Web site gives access to the best apps for small businesses. Stores are increasingly adding self-checkouts, which makes it more convenient for many people to shop ? and steal. A 3-D chocolate printer is now available. Here are 75 open-source replacements for popular small-business software. Intel announces a program to help small-businesses improve productivity and security. Cookie sales soar as the Girl Scouts adopt smartphones and credit cards. Microsoft will be supporting Windows XP and Office 2003 for just two more years. An old man in a nursing home reacts to music.

The Week?s Bests

Reason Not to Outsource. Jeff Wallingford, a supply-chain specialist, says there are six situations where manufacturing is best left in-house, including when a company?s manufacturing process is the source of its competitive advantage: ?You must continue to advance the art and lead the technology curve for that manufacturing process. If you stand still while others move forward, you will lose your competitive advantage. At the point that process innovation is more likely to come from outside your company than inside, you have to reconsider your strategy.?

Way to Beat the Odds. Martin Zwilling says there are 10 ways entrepreneurs beat the odds, including reinforcing the team message: ?Teamwork is the hallmark of high-performing start-ups. Establishing a shared identity is the first step to creating unity. The Google team stayed tight as they developed the technology, first working out of Larry Page?s dorm room at Stanford, then a garage.?

Get the Most From Your People. John Mills says smart talent managers look for ways to reward achievement: ?Use announcements, newsletters, awards, small gifts, or even social media to highlight outstanding performances. Celebrate excellence, and then place workers in roles where they are most likely to achieve more of it.?

This Week?s Question: What outsourcing mistakes have you made?

Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. You can follow him on Twitter.

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