Shoppable Pins Brought to You By Pinterest on a Worldwide Basis

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Shopify’s Pinterest app, which launched last year in the US and Canada, is now available in 27 additional countries.  The Pinterest app for Shopify stores lets merchants upload their product catalogues and convert their products into pins.  Users can then buy products featured in a merchant’s pins without ever having to leave Pinterest.

This gives 1.7 million merchants the ability to turn products from their e-commerce store into shoppable pins.

What Are You Best in the World At? Have You Found Your Personal Hedgehog?

Everyone Needs to Go At Ventilator Speed

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A Time Magazine article says that every company is a tech company now.  The disruption is just beginning.  For example, "March 2020, as businesses across the world sent non-essential workers home to slow the spread of the coronavirus, a 2.6 million-sq.-ft. General Motors plant in Kokomo, Ind., sat idle. At the same time, ventilators—the breathing machines essential to keeping critically ill COVID-19 patients alive—were in frighteningly short supply. And so within a week of pausing the plant’s operations, GM CEO Mary Barra launched it back into action, quickly transforming a dormant engineering building into an assembly line that delivered 30,000 ventilators in five months."

Barra says that approach, incubated in the crisis of the pandemic, is now a permanent cultural shift that has already led to faster timetables for GM’s bet-the-company push to sell only electric vehicles by 2035. “Now as we approach different projects, we say, ‘You know, we’ve got to go at ventilator speed because we know we have the capability to do that,’” Barra says.

Read the entire article here.  We are in the midst of a reset.

The Backbone of Our Economy: Global Small Businesses

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Global small businesses are vital to the USA recovery from the global pandemic yet micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can power an even stronger recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, due to their innovative and opportunity-seeking nature, but they need more support.

Such support should be aligned with the priorities of the post-COVID-19 social and economic recovery, said the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Acting Secretary-General Isabelle Durant.

Read on to find out how supporting small businesses is critical for COVID-19 recovery.

Today in Global Small Business: Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) or All Things Crypto

©iStock/Marina Funt

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

• Fungible (adj.) — able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable.
• Speculative crypto art market takes off.  Why?  "Our digital lives are surrounded by countless digital objects. NFTs are a way to imbue such objects with financial value. When that happens they take on a new level of significance and importance."
• Lindsay Lohan sold a photo of herself for $17K – and then tweeted about it.
• Quote of the week:  "Billionaire Mark Cuban is selling a motivational quote as a NFT for $1,700. " – Markets Insider, March 13, 2021
• Shark Tank celebrity and owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban sold a tokenized version of one of his tweets for $952.  The sale was made via the Valuables platform. 
• A clip of LeBron James blocking a shot sold for $100K last month.

Coca Cola Is One

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney (all photos).  All rights reserved.

"There are good examples of companies – Coca-Cola is one – that invested before there was a huge market in countries, and I think that ended up playing out to their benefit for decades to come." – Mark Zuckerberg

Embracing the Love-Hate Relationship of Remote Work

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A May survey from Intermedia showed that 57% of surveyed owners of small and midsized businessessaid they likely would keep increased remote working options long term for their workers.

Embracing remote work has been a love-hate relationship for many global small and medium-sized business (SMB) owners. Yet, even before the pandemic hit, Global Workplace Analytics had estimated that by 2025, 70% of workers will work remotely at least five days per month. 

What are the lessons for lenders?  Find out here.

Trustbusters: Taking Aim at the Tech Industry

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While nations and tech firms have jockeyed for primacy for years, the latest actions by China, the European Commission and the United States have pushed the industry to a tipping point that could reshape how the global internet works and change the flows of digital data.

University of Michigan law professor and antitrust expert Daniel Crane says "it is unprecedented to see this kind of parallel struggle globally."

Read more about how a global tipping point for reining in tech has arrived.

The Pros and Cons for Accepting Bitcoin for Global Small Business Payments

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Whether you think Bitcoin is going to keep going up or is due for a correction, you should consider these pros and cons  – benefits and risks – before accepting Bitcoin as a payment method in your global small business. 

And it is important to know that PayPal is getting into cryptocurrency for its customers, too.

COVID-19 and Its Impact on Global Small Business

©iStock/Feodora Chiosea

The SME Competitiveness Outlook 2020 analyses the impact of the global pandemic on small firms, international supply chains and trade. It provides projections and a 15-point action plan for businesses, policymakers and business support organizations to weather the crisis – and gear up for a ‘new normal’ that needs to be resilient, digital, inclusive and sustainable.

The report, "COVID-19:  The Great Lockdown and Its Impact on Small Businesses," combines analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on firms based on a large-scale global survey, with case studies and a thought leader viewpoint. The projected drop in supply chain trade is evaluated by region, and in 85 country profiles.

Two things to keep in mind as you go through this very thorough report:  It's dated June, 2020 (a lot has changed since then) and the analysis is 147 pages long (excluding Endnotes).  

Today in Global Small Business: Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) Dominate 2021?

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

• Globally Local, one of the world’s first vegan fast-food chains, announced it will begin publicly trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol GBLY on April 16, 2021.  Interesting name‎!
• Pandemic shipping delays and product scarcity could last through summer 2021.
• Cryptocurrency (bitcoin) is increasingly being used for transactions and is beginning to go mainstream – and global – as an investment.
• Quote of the week:  "Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history.  Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks." – Stephen Hawking
• Will artificial intelligence dominate 2021?
• The future of the workforce – robotics and manufacturing.

Tulips Jostle to the Front of the Stage in April

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"Daffodils, blossom and tulips jostle to the front of the stage in April.  I love these early perennials:  they may be more modest but they nearly all have that one special quality that a plant needs to transform your affections from admiration to affection – charm." – Monty Don

Global Small Businesses: The Heart and Soul of Our Economy

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When Fiverr looked at services that have seen a significant increase in search over the past six months, five major global themes emerged. It is evident that these are areas where global small businesses and entrepreneurs are focusing their efforts in order to rebuild, to pivot and for some, to even start fresh.

Check it out.  Review the Small Business Need Index to find out what is important, what is trending, and what is next for global small businesses.

Be Like a Bird and Stay Calm (Video)

Global Expansion and International Tax Challenges

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Small and mid-size companies, as well as large corporations, share similar challenges, either when planning or in the process of expanding overseas. With global expansion, businesses face multiple obstacles surrounding tax compliance and local laws, which is a significant time and financial commitment and can distract the focus from growing the company. 

When a company decides to expand globally, it needs to determine how it will create its products or offer its services in each specific market. For instance, will it leverage third parties to perform its functions or develop its own workforce within those countries? 

Learn more to appreciate global expansion and the international tax challenges businesses face.

High-Performing Global Businesses Are Led By Mission Driven Leaders

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Eva Ados, COO and Chief Investment Strategist, ERShares, says, "High-performing organizations are led by mission driven leaders. This helps in strategic alignment over business strategy leading to purposeful innovation."

Leadership matters in the world of business. ETF (exchange traded fund) investors can explore portfolio strategies that capitalize on this proprietary “Entrepreneur Factor.”

Read more to learn how strong leadership helps ETFs focus on innovation. 

Today in Global Small Business: Global Recovery Will Be Divergent

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

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised this year’s growth forecast upward for the Middle East and North Africa region and says recovery will be 'divergent.'
• Speaking of the latest developments in the global economy, the IMF has upgraded the world growth forecast!
• Millions of small shops in India have now become the next big target of tech firms to integrate technology into local shopping experiences.
• Global and local technology and financial services giants have embarked on a range of projects aimed at enhancing skills and diversity among small businesses in South Africa.
• Quote of the week:  “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” – Albert Einstein
• Managing divergent economies (by the IMF).  We are on firmer ground but there is a high degree of uncertainty.

An Act of Happiness

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness.  No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it." – Maurice Maeterlinck

Digital Transformation Is a Driving Force for Global Small Business

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Global small businesses are now attempting to make a name for themselves in the web-based market, yet few realize the advantages a digital platform truly provides.

How does digital transformation (DT) help global small businesses?  Going digital is rapidly moving away from being a luxury to a necessity.  

Read on to learn the benefits to digital transformation.  Spoiler alert:  DT gives you access to a global market.

Bold Global Entrepreneurialism at Edelman

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Global PR firm Edelman, founded in Chicago in 1952, named Lisa Osborne Ross as CEO of its U.S. operations.  Lisa is the first Black woman to lead a sizable business in the public relations field.  She will oversee Edelman’s largest region, covering 2,360 employees in 13 offices.

The firm said the new leadership will help it innovate and expand into what its global CEO, Richard Edelman, called “bold entrepreneurialism.” It has been researching ways to help clients build trust in their brands and operations.

We are also super excited to see our friend and colleague, Dan Webber, newly appointed to President of Edelman's D.C. office.

Congrats to Lisa and Dan.  We can't wait to see what great strides they make on behalf of Edelman.

CoCreate: Global Small Business

©iStock/Evgeny555

CoCreate: Small Business is a collaboration between [global] small business owners and the Adobe creative community. Funded by Adobe, it’s an initiative that helps provide creative services to select small businesses while also generating paid opportunities for creatives around the world.

Adobe is hiring carefully vetted creatives with skills that will help small businesses make a big impact — from branding and product photography, to social media templates, and more.

All creators and U.S. small businesses (1-50 employees) are invited to apply. The deadline for applications is April 20, 2021.

To learn more and to apply, creative cloud.adobe.com

How to Avoid PR Nightmares in Your Global Business (wegginar®)

©2021 Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®.  All rights reserved.

Have you contemplated any of these issues or concerns?

• How to avoid onboarding a corrupt team or business vendor.
• People are always the weakest link in business yet regular background checks provide less than 1% of what you need to know.
• How to avoid fraud, bribery and corruption issues in international business ventures.
• Due diligence investigations identify “bad actors” and help you mitigate risks. 

We've got you covered.  Candice Tal, founder and CEO of Infortal Worldwide will be showing us the way forward on April 7th at 11AM CT.  She will help us all reduce corporate liability exposure by minimizing business risks and improving risk management options.

The wegginar® is free of charge thanks to wegg®'s generous sponsors:  APCO Worldwide, Associated Bank, FedEx, GlobalCare Clinical Trials, Multilingual Connections, Passport Shipping and Union Pacific.  These companies support the growth of women business owners, especially globally.  

To learn more and to register, visit:  https://womenentrepreneursgrowglobal.org/2021/03/03/avoiding-pr-nightmares-in-your-global-business-with-candice-tal/

Today in Global Small Business: How Successful SMEs Are Reinventing Global Business

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

• How successful SMEs are reinventing global business.
• Avoiding PR nightmares in your global business (wegginar® 4/7)
• Quote of the week:  “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Factors to consider on the Suez Canal problem – disruptions and backlogs to name a few.
• The global payment industry is just beginning.
• How to find your first overseas customers (by Laurel J. Delaney)

Sit Still

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

“There are times when we stop, we sit still. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.” – James Carroll

The Digital Sales Tax War

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The Biden administration has warned it could slap 25% tariffs on British exports to the US after the UK levied a digital services tax on major technology companies.

Brought in last April, the digital services tax levies a 2% charge on the revenues of search engines, social media services and online marketplaces.

Complicated.  Read more here.

What's Your Side Hustle?

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From copywriting and consulting to social media management or private-labeling, side hustles give people a leg up in an economy that has had very little growth for the middle class in the last 40 years.  

What's the growth now?  As of January, 2021, 34 percent of Americans have side hustles.  

Starting a side hustle is extremely easy if you know what you want to do. But if you're not sure where to start, The 2021 Complete Amazon Dropshipping & Private Label Master Class Bundle is something to consider provided you have some extra change to put toward it.