The Sole Proprietor Research Information Pack by Laurence Goss, 2007. A new study from Massachusetts makes an important point about the 21st century American economy: the self-employed are a major but underappreciated economic force. While most people recognize that self-employment is growing, they don’t know that many measures of state or local employment don’t count sole proprietors. Instead, they simply track those workers who are paid as employees. The report, by Salem State College’s Laurence Goss, details the numbers for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The report concludes that policymakers need to better understand the importance of this sector of the economy. They should also take steps to provide better support and encouragement to sole proprietors and other micro-business owners. Data and analysis on sole proprietors in Massachusetts are available from the Enterprise Center at Salem State College http://www.enterprisectr.org/soleproprietorresearchreport57.html
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Youth Entrepreneurship
What do kids know about business? You'll be surprised!
E-Commerce Learning Modules
- Direct Marketing for Specialty Food Products. Learn strategies to direct market and sell specialty food products.
- Electronic Retailing. More and more of our communication and social behaviors involve computers and networks. Nonetheless, it is not as simple as it might appear to connect the dots on electronic retail and turn it into a successful venture.
- Going Global: A Guide for e-Commerce Expansion. A worksheet driven learning lesson for the established e-commerce business exploring export/import opportunities.
- A Primer for Hispanic Small Businesses. In both English and Spanish, this module was founded in the belief that e-commerce education should not only be available to Spanish Speaking business owners but also that small business stand to benefit greatly from the patronage of the Spanish speaking consumer.
- Marketing Food Specialty Products OnlineThe purpose of this learning module is to assist food retailers in making decisions on the use of online technologies in their marketing and planning strategies.
RESOURCES:
Build Your Business
- Online Tutorial on Farm Leasing
- Strategies to Improve Farm Business Management
- Visual Merchandising: The Silent Salesperson. View a recording of a marketing workshop conducted by Glenn Muske, Oklahoma State University. The workshop covers some key aspects of display as a sales tool. The workshop is approximately 45 minutes long.
Building Entrepreneurial Communities
- E-Commerce Module:Connecting Rural Communities
- Strengthening Competitive Advantage of Rural Businesses with e-Commerce and Experience Economy Strategies
- Mini-Course: Developing Diversified & Value-Added Agribusinesses
Blogs to Watch