Today in Global Small Business: Emerge Stronger Post COVID-19

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Four questions (and answers) about Covid-19’s lasting impact on business (Bain & Company).
• As stores reopen, which customers are most likely to return (MIT Sloan Management Review).
• Quote of the week:  "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." – Winston Churchill
• Special issue on digital transformation (California Management)
• Emerge stronger post COVID-19 (pwc).
• Digital marketers race to meet the needs of a new era (Boston Consulting Group).

Love Is the Flower

©2020 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

“Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.” – John Lennon

For All the Moms Worldwide: The Kids' Table

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A Chicago kids' cooking school offers virtual weekly classes for children ages 2 to 14.  Most classes are one hour, a new two-hour course, Supper Club, puts kids in charge of dinner.   Hmm, does that sound nice :-).  Spots I hear go fast, so book yours today.

With interactive instruction from our skilled instructors, young chefs get to chop, mix and roll their way to a different delicious dish in each class - with enough to share with the fam! Kids learn valuable culinary skills and new recipes, enjoy a fun hands-on activity, and are inspired to expand their taste buds to discover that "real food" can be really good. 

Learn more:  The Kids' Table

Exploring the Open Road Safely and Easily

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American Automobile Association (AAA) recently added a new map to their TripTik tool quiver (triptik.aaa.com), with all of the Covid-related data a traveler could need.  It includes:

• Features to show roadway checkpoints
• Border closings with Canada and Mexico
• Travel restrictions at the city, county or state level
• Confirmed cases of Covid-19 at the state/province and/or county level

The underlying data is updated every weekday by AAA's GIS (geographic information system) team, so travelers can count on having the freshest information at their disposal.

Serendipity Is a Skill

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In his new book, The Serendipity Mindset, Christian Busch, director of the global economy program at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, makes the case that serendipity is the result of a sensibility that allows people to spot and act on unexpected, fortuitous connections when others would dismiss them.

And he suggests that it’s possible for people to cultivate this mindset and use unpredictability to their advantage. Busch talked to strategy+business about the serendipity mindset, which he says is key for companies in a time of pressing global challenges.

Read the full interview here.

SBA: National Small Business Week 2020 (Event Is Free of Charge)

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Here's the Agenda for the U.S. Small Business Administration's National Small Business Week that starts today, September 22nd (at 12:30PM ET) and runs until the 24th offering educational presentations and panel discussions that help both new and existing businesses to recover, adapt, and innovate in this challenging time.

Best of all: the event is free of charge.  Register here.

Today in Global Small Business: How RBG Made Girls Equal to Boys

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Disney+ rolls out globally.
• Some of the earliest countries to be impacted by the virus have been quick to adopt health certificates – but can immunity passports really help us travel safely again?
• Quote of the week: "Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you." – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s impact on women spanned age groups, backgrounds.  RBG made girls equal to boys.  That will continue.  A fact.  
• The secret sauce to getting more women to export – wegg® plays a key role.
• Daniel Pink:  How to not be overwhelmed right now.

A Horse Is An Adulthood Treasure

©2020 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"A pony is a childhood dream. A horse is an adulthood treasure." – Rebecca Carroll

How Small Businesses Are Adjusting to COVID-19

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How are America’s small businesses navigating the economic disruptions resulting from COVID-19, and how will the CARES Act affect their decisions and future prospects?

To explore these questions, we [the National Bureau of Economic Research] conducted a survey of more than 5,800 small businesses that were members of the Alignable business network. The survey focused on assessing (1) the current level of financial fragility among small businesses, (2) the extent to which small businesses have already temporarily closed and laid off employees, (3) expectations about how long the crisis will last - and how this is affecting business decisions, and (4) decisions about whether to seek funding through the CARES Act, and how this will impact layoff and closure decisions.

Discover the survey results and themes that emerge.

Entrepreneurship is An Integral Component of African Economies

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Entrepreneurship is an integral component of African economies – it is not surprising that the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report for 2014, ranked Uganda as the World’s top entrepreneurial country.

With a high market value and uses in cooking and cosmetics, Shea butter has become known as Burkina's gold. By training groups of entrepreneurs in the best processing methods and how best to sell their end product, TREE AID is turning an everyday tree product into meals, medicines and schooling.

Most business entities in Uganda are small-scale ventures and operate extensively in the informal sector – young entrepreneurs have low growth expectations as not many of them innovate or develop new products.

Learn more about the challenges and prospects of SMEs and entrepreneurship in Africa.

Are the World Bank Doing Business Rankings Accurate?

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The World Bank's Doing Business rankings had a goal of evaluating countries’ openness to the private sector.  Right now, they are in a little hot water.  Seven years ago the bank rejected an independent panel’s recommendation to do away with the ranking system due to what appeared to be data manipulation [irregularities].

Now they have paused the publication of its next Doing Business report, originally planned for October, while it conducts “a systematic review and assessment of data changes” in the last five reports, as well as an audit of the data collection process and data integrity controls.

Sounds like they have some explaining to do ... we've always called their work Ease of Doing Business Rankings.

Georgia: The Epic Center of Global Trade in the Southeast, USA

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The new Export Georgia, USA Directory hosted by Georgia Department of Economic Development’s International Trade division  provides Georgia businesses with the global connections they need to reach new markets and diversify their international customer base. The site (www.georgia.org/export) currently features more than 60 Georgia businesses.  The new marketing tool has been created to provide virtual connections between international buyers and Georgia suppliers.

“Georgia has quickly become the epicenter of global trade in the Southeast,” said Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson. “As we continue to celebrate a record-setting year for trade in 2019 – our trade team is focusing on the future. Not only will this tool help Georgia businesses find new buyers in international markets, but it will also help businesses get back on their feet as they seek out new opportunities to succeed.”

Read more about how Georgia helps companies connect to international buyers.