3 CYBER THREATS YOU'VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF

If you think your business is completely protected from inbound cyberthreats, think again.

A study released Wednesday from the San Diego-based CyberCatch, a cybersecurity platform provider focusing on small and mid-size businesses, reveals that more than 30 percent of U.S. small businesses have weak points that bad actors can exploit. Moreover, fraudsters tend to set their sights on small businesses since smaller companies usually have weaker security safeguards in place compared with those at larger companies.

Some of the main vulnerabilities that small businesses face include "spoofing," "clickjacking," and "sniffing," according to the study. 

Spoofing occurs when a bad actor uses a fake IP address to masquerade as an authorized device with the goal of tapping into a company's private system. A clickjacking attack is a technique used to persuade a user to click on something that looks benign in their browser when they're actually clicking on something malicious. And as it turns out, sniffing attacks have nothing to do with smell, but rather involve hackers intercepting a network's traffic to access unencrypted data. 

After using its proprietary scanning tool to look for vulnerabilities in more than 20,000 randomly selected U.S. small businesses, CyberCatch found that around a third suffered from spoofing while 28 percent succumbed to clickjacking. The scan, which was conducted last November and December, examined different vulnerabilities including cryptographic failures, security misconfiguration, authentication failures, and outdated components. 

So what can you do about it?

For starters, just having an IT team isn't enough, says Sai Huda, founder, chairman, and CEO of CyberCatch. Even if your IT team deploys anti-malware software on a network's computers, a hacker could still steal an IT administrator's password through a phishing attack, or another mechanism, and access sensitive data. 

"This is why a small business must first understand what are its crown jewels (its most valuable data and IT assets) and then make sure prevention, detection, and response cybersecurity controls are implemented," Huda explains.

Once you've assessed your valuable real estate, Huda recommends companies test all of their systems--which include websites, software, and web applications--to locate any security vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities can range from a disabled security feature in your system to injections of malicious code commonly seen in cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

If you spot any security holes, patch them up before a cyberattacker finds them. Huda also advises businesses to inspect their websites or web servers regularly to detect any other weaknesses in their software. With these safeguards in place, businesses will be better positioned to fend off the attacks coming their way. 

TWO KINDS OF LEADERS IN TODAY'S WORLD

There are two kinds of leaders in today's world: those who disrupt and those who get disrupted.

Obviously, most of us want to be the former. We want to make the world better. We want to write the rules, not follow them. We want to see our dreams realized, and not let our fears prevent us from achieving what we believe deep in our hearts we're capable of.

But aspiring innovators face obstacles, some of which are easy to see and predict and plan for, and others that are much more pernicious and debilitating. Why? Because they're invisible. Due to their subversive, destructive nature, I call these barriers silent killers, because they operate much the same way as high blood pressure, which shows no overt symptoms before a massive heart attack strikes.

Silent killers are powerful human fears and anxieties that derail our dreams of becoming future innovators and respected leaders.

I'm sure there are more than seven, but these are the ones that I've seen time and again over 25 years of interviewing iconic leaders, executive coaching, teaching, and starting businesses.

1. Fear of looking like an idiot.

Sometimes when we step into an innovative new role or a position of leadership, we question our own qualifications. We become overwhelmed with anxiety and what some psychologists call imposter syndrome. This can be immobilizing because we are afraid to act and to speak up. We are guilt-stricken and full of shame because we feel we are out of our league, or somehow don't deserve to be where we are. Courage is speaking up and taking action, even when we're not yet experts or certain how others will respond. 

When the introverted Daniel Greenberg started an LED light business while still in high school in Louisville, Kentucky, he had no idea how to drum up sales. Friends recommended that he pursue TikTok advertising. That made him nervous. He had no expertise on this social media platform. At the time, TikTok seemed to him like a place where high school girls showed off their latest dance routines, not where entrepreneurs went to generate interest for their new venture. Greenberg didn't want to be perceived as an "idiot," particularly since he was applying to universities at the time, and he knew admissions officers could scour the internet to research top candidates. Yet, Greenberg gave it a shot anyway, and his TikTok spot went viral and helped his business gain immediate traction and profitability. Incidentally, he was accepted to most colleges and now attends Brown University.

2. Fear of failure.

Sometimes this fear can be so paralyzing it freezes us into a permanent state of inaction. By definition, innovators and disrupters craft something that is totally new. But there are no guarantee others will accept the creation; it may be rejected altogether, or it may just never find success. Auburn University basketball coach Bruce Pearl told me during a one-on-one interview, "The hard truth is if we're not failing, every once in a while, it means we're not pushing boundaries." Innovators routinely get out of their comfort zones. They know failure is part of the innovation process. Innovators are far more afraid of getting stuck in routines and never trying new things. To them, stagnation is a conscious decision. Escaping their zone of familiarity opens them up to a new world of amazing possibilities. Coach Pearl's leadership, and ability to create a safe space for his players to get out of their comfort zones, is one reason why Auburn basketball is one of the top ranked teams in college basketball.

3. Fear of responsibility.

As Victor Frankl said in 1977, "To be aware of responsibility is to be aware of creating one's own self, destiny, and life predicament." If this is true, and we are able to achieve this level of self-consciousness, we must also be aware of our own pain and suffering that comes with added responsibility. This is a frightening concept, and it's eventually faced by all disrupters. The weight of the world is on the innovator who willingly assumes new responsibility. Often innovators and entrepreneurs start brand-new companies with thousands of employees who believe deeply in the mission and have skin in the game (equity). The founder is responsible for every employee. To cope with the added stress and anxiety that is part and parcel of responsibility, innovators need to create their own support system from scratch and find other ways to self-soothe. 

Georgia Messinger, for example, started a successful mental health startup before being accepted to Harvard University. To help her cope with the stress of being a full-time student and a hard-working entrepreneur she created her own personal network of coaches, advisors, and friends who helped her discuss and analyze personal challenges and anxieties. She also initiated honest, open discussions with other students facing similar challenges - much like group therapy - to discuss practical solutions to common anxieties.  "Just getting these fears out in the open, and recognizing that we're not alone, was a great start," according to Messinger.

WHY PRIVATE COMPANIES AND ENTREPRENEURS WILL DOMINATE THE METAVERSE

There's a new arena in which startups and entrepreneurs can seize an advantage over Big Tech: the metaverse.

That's according to LinkedIn senior editor at large Jessi Hempel. For the uninitiated, the metaverse is "the 3-D immersive and collaborative experiences that are already making their way into our lives," as Hempel describes it. Think Facebook's Oculus, HTC Vive--any pixelated world in which we interact with avatars.

Writing about the metaverse within LinkedIn's list of 29 big ideas that CEOs, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders believe will change the world in the next year, Hempel predicted that smaller companies and solo artists will seize sections of this new virtual reality world for themselves.

• - Hempel describes a "metaverse land grab" that is already afoot. Companies are rushing to roll out metaverse platforms, which, of course, include virtual reality experiences like Meta's that transport users to entirely new worlds. But they also include augmented reality experiences like Pokémon Go, as well as the highly complex worlds within video games.
• - Big technology companies will attempt to carve out as much control over this new landscape as possible. Just look at Mark Zuckerberg's newfound obsession with the metaverse and Facebook's recent rebranding to Meta. Microsoft also recently announced its own foray into the metaverse, teasing a new Teams product in which users can interact with each other using avatars.
• - But despite Big Tech's best efforts, smaller players will have a huge role to play within the metaverse, according to Hempel. This is because the metaverse will be difficult to wall off--thanks in large part to the blockchain. Hempel says that blockchain "will allow metaverse participants to build and use decentralized technology, rather than rely on Big Tech players alone." This will mean ample opportunities for startups and creatives within this wild new digital world.

SAVE TIME WHEN DEALING WITH OTHERS

Your interactions with others consume as much time, if not more than any other part of your day and if done wrong, can it be a huge time waster. Even technical workers spend up to 75 percent of their time communicating with coworkers. You can greatly increase the efficiency of your interactions by improving the quality of your communications.

Common Misunderstandings: A Major Time Waster

A major time waster is caused by misunderstandings between people about roles, goals, and responsibilities. People do not know what they are expected to do, how to do it, and by what time.

Misunderstandings lead to inefficiencies, anger, frustration, and unhappiness. It often requires an enormous amount of time to clear up a misunderstanding and get matters back to normal.

Listen Carefully And Set Clear Priorities

Misunderstandings about priorities often lead to your working at the wrong job, at the wrong time, for the wrong reason, and perhaps aiming at the wrong level of quality. Or the problem may be that you are working for the wrong person.

The single most important cause of positive feelings and high levels of motivation in work is defined as “knowing exactly what is expected.” On the other hand, the number-one complaint, or demotivator, of employees is to “not know what is expected.”

In order to perform at your best, you need absolute clarity about your job and what you are expected to do.

Poor Delegation

Poor delegation to others, or from others, leads to mistakes and frustration on the part of both the boss and the employee. It is a major time-waster. Poor delegation causes even the most sincere talented people to do poor work or the wrong jobs. Therefore, they end up feeling frustrated and unhappy.

Save Time Through Lines Of Authority

Unclear lines of authority and responsibility lead to time wastage. People do not know who is supposed to do what job, when is it to be done, and to what standard of quality. People are left to wonder, who is supposed to report to whom? Who’s in charge? Who’s the boss?

Incomplete Information

Another major time waster in business is poor or incomplete information, which leads to erroneous assumptions and conclusions. It is amazing how often people jump to conclusions or make false assumptions on the basis of wrong information.

The very best managers take the time to ask questions, and they listen carefully to the answers before they make a decision. If there is a key piece of information that suggests a problem or difficulty, they double-check on this piece of information to make sure that it is accurate.

Aimless Or Too Frequent Meetings

Too many meetings, or aimless meetings that proceed without an agenda, direction, or closure, are an enormous time-waster at work. These are meetings that start and stop without any particular resolution. No problems are solved, no decisions are made, and no responsibilities are assigned. No deadlines are agreed upon for action.

Lack Of Clarity Concerning One’s Job

People need to know everything that is happening in the company that affects their particular jobs. The very best companies are open and honest with all employees concerning those matters affecting the health of the company.

Employees need to know what is going on and how their jobs fit into the big picture. When employees are unclear or unsure, an enormous amount of time is lost as the result of conversations, discussions, and gossip, which lead to ineffective work behaviors and poor productivity.

Best Managers Take Action

Be crystal-clear in explaining to others exactly what is to be done, to what standard of performance, and by what date. By following the above steps you save time and become a more efficient manager.

FEELING FRUSTRATED AND ANGRY? TIPS TO OVERCOME THE NEGATIVE EMOTIONS

Can you relate to feeling frustrated and angry? We all do. Frustration and anger are part of human emotions.

But what do you do when it gets out of hand? It’s very easy to get carried away with negative emotions and hurt someone you love. The worst thing is, you hurt yourself as well.

To be happy and healthy in life, it’s very important to keep your emotions in check. Because emotions make us human.

If you’re tired of the frustration and anger, try these tips we are sharing below.

Be Present

Yes, it’s as simple as that. The first step of saying bye to frustration is being in the present.

To understand why it’s important, you must understand what causes frustration.

For most of us, frustration emerges when we are not satisfied with something. When we are not somewhere we wanted us to be. When we lack behind our idea of an ideal scenario.

And it’s okay to be frustrated. But in a positive way. You should always go beyond what caused your frustration and focus on how you can improve yourself.

And being in the present the best way to approach that practice. You feel frustrated because you feel insecure about your future. Or, you regret something you did in your past.

One mandatory lesson of life is neither past nor future matters. You reside in present. That’s what matters.

Practicing mindfulness is a great way to not feeling frustrated and angry. Mindfulness anchors our thoughts to the present and allows us to appreciate what we have.

This brings us to our next tip: appreciation.

Appreciate What You Have

Can you do something for us? Once you’re done with reading this post, can you take a few minutes to dissect your frustration?

We’re pretty confident you are capable of doing that. And when you do, you’ll find that you are feeling frustrated and angry because you didn’t get something. It might be something materialistic like a new car wanted for your birthday or a goal of achieving a higher rank in your work.

Whatever it is, keep it aside for a minute. Now, focus on what you have.

You have a working car.

You have work that can support you.

You have a loving family who wants nothing but your happiness.

You have a loving girlfriend/wife or boyfriend/husband.

You have kids that look up to you.

As you can see, the list of things you have is longer than what you don’t. It’s always going to be longer. Because life has blessed us with things we never hoped for.

And you should appreciate what you have. It brings a sense of fulfillment. When you have content in your heart, what you don’t have starts to matter less.

Appreciating what you have is a surefire way to say bye to feeling frustrated and angry.

Fear is Your Worst Enemy

Deep down you know you fear losing control. You know the situation may get worse when you cannot control your temper.

And it’s the fear that fuels your anger. Don’t fear. Don’t fuel your frustration and anger anymore.

It’s a vicious cycle that keeps bringing you back to where you wear. Instead, relax. Be relaxed. Make the habit of listening to what people have to say.

You have an opinion on something. Similarly, other people also have an opinion. Practice respecting their opinion. Just because you are right doesn’t make them wrong.

Respecting your surroundings and letting go of fear could be what you’re looking for to not feeling frustrated and angry.

Say Goodbye to Powerlessness

The feeling of being powerless lies at the very core of anger. You might not realize it, but it’s proven over and over.

Whenever we don’t have power over something or someone, anger starts to seep in. The feeling of ‘I can’t do anything’ results in feeling frustrated and angry. And in most cases, you hurt someone you love who didn’t deserve the treatment.

To get rid of frustration and anger, get rid of powerlessness. You don’t have to feel it. You cannot control every aspect of your life. In fact, humans are only capable of controlling very little.

Learn to accept things as is. For starters, do things that you feel empowered. And slowly but steadily, get rid of the feeling of powerlessness.

Stop Feeling Frustrated and Angry for the Past

Life is not always fair to us. That’s the way Mother Nature rolls. There might be things in your past that still creep up on you from time to time. Anger and frustration is the only natural reaction that comes out of you.

Try to get closure. If another person was involved, understand their perspective if you didn’t already. There are a cause and effect for everything. The adverse the cause, the severe the effect.

Eliminate the cause. Solve it with your own understanding. Every human being is perfectly capable of analyzing a situation and derive the best out of it. Utilize your potential of being the understanding one.

Do What You Feel

Lastly, the ultimate path to saying bye to frustration and anger is to deal with it. Why are you feeling frustrated and angry? What can you do about it?

If it’s a goal you couldn’t achieve, start working hard so that it becomes a reality.

If it’s something you did in the past, let go of it. You’re a changed person now. There’s no point in punishing yourself for something you did in the past. Especially, when it does not affect the present.

Give time to yourself. Do the activities you like to do.

Like listening to music? Go out in the morning for a walk while listening to your favorite tracks.

Love TV shows? Get in a binge to feed your mind.

Always remember, you are responsible for your own happiness.

Wrapping Up

At the end of the day, feeling frustrated and angry is a common expression for all of us. For some, it’s only momentary. And for some, it becomes a way of life. We know you don’t want it.

We don’t want it for you either. So, take the time to incorporate the tips we’ve shared in this post.

Soon, you’ll become a personality that is just as lovable as everyone. Believe it in yourself.

WINNING AT SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN 2022

Are you looking to win big at social media marketing in 2022? If so, you’re far from alone. Business owners and marketers across all industries use social media to connect with their audience, enhance brand awareness, and of course, secure more sales.

There are many things you need to consider when developing your social media marketing strategy. If you don’t understand critical factors like the needs of your customers or which social media platforms your target audience uses the most, you’re going to have a tough time building a substantial social media following.

Beyond the basic best practices mentioned above, there are other ways you can get more website traffic and engagement from social media. Today, my focus is on sharing several tried and true strategies that helped us grow our following on popular social channels like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.

I believe that these tips can help business owners and marketers across all industries get more value from their social media profiles while dramatically increasing the value offered to their audience.

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

Share Content from Your Blog

Sharing content from your blog is one of the most cost-effective and powerful ways to amplify your brand’s value on social media. A whopping 77% of internet users read articles online, so you can bet that people will click through to your website if you share relevant, actionable content.

The key to promoting clickable blog content on social media is understanding your target audiences’ specific goals and pain points. Every company should have a list of buyer personas that define the people who shop with their business. If your posts help visitors solve an industry problem or learn about a new topic, you can expect to see a surge in traffic, engagement, and sales.

It’s clear that promoting blog posts on various social platforms can help you keep existing customers engaged, but did you know that it can also help people discover your brand for the first time? When followers share your post, there’s a good chance their peers will click through to your blog.

If you want to know how this translates to sales, consider this; Research shows that 47% of shoppers read between 3-5 blog posts from a business before purchasing a product. Your goal is to offer first-time visitors and loyal fans alike value from your brand. Sharing high-quality content from your blog is an excellent way to get started.

Make Live Video a Marketing Cornerstone

Live video is an excellent way to build rapport with your customers and grow a substantial following on social media networks like YouTube. For context, over 1.9 billion people use YouTube every single month. You can safely assume that your target audience is out there and looking for a product or brand just like the one you’re offering.

The fantastic thing about hosting videos on social media is that there are countless options and strategies to grow your brand. Every business is different, so it’s always nice to choose marketing strategies that are flexible and effective.

We’ve had tremendous success using a combination of events, including:
-AMAs (Ask Me Anything)
-Educational webinars (We provide broad, industry advice)
-Product demonstrations (We show off our product and share insider tips that help users make the most of our products)
-Games / Interactive events (For instance, giveaway announcements)

You can use your live videos to do things like grow your email list, educate your audience, and secure more sales. The key is to choose events that align with your goals. For instance, giveaways give you the opportunity to ask visitors to subscribe to your list for a chance to win.

Partner with Influencers + Other Brands

How you choose to engage with Influencers and brand partnerships will play a pivotal role in your success. Despite wanting to build your business without “outside help,” sometimes, you need solid partnerships if you hope to build momentum and grow your social media presence.

When partnering with influencers, there are several things worth keeping in mind. I suggest watching their content so you can determine if your product is a good fit for their audience. For instance, a makeup company likely wouldn’t reach out to a video game steamer to promote their product. Similarly, game companies rarely reach out to health and beauty influencers to sell their latest release.

You’ll also want to look at how many followers each influencer has on their channel. Smaller influencers can help you reach a targeted audience, which could lead to more direct sales. On the other hand, Prominent influencers have a lot more followers with more varied interests. As a result, working with well-known influencers can lead to more traffic and followers but not quite as many sales.

If you want to partner with another brand, the key is to find a company that sells products that complement your own. For example, an email marketing company and a hosting company would likely make a good fit because users typically don’t need email marketing software unless they also have a hosted website.

Think carefully about the partnerships you choose to pursue on social media. One final suggestion on this topic; start each partnership on a short-term basis. You don’t want to sign a lengthy contract only to find out that your brands don’t mesh well together.

Add a Social Wall to Your Website

Another way to amplify your presence on social media is to make sure your website visitors can quickly and easily follow your brand on their site of choice. In my experience, social walls are the perfect way to keep your on-site audience engaged with your social media account while ensuring that they don’t bounce from your site.

Essentially, social walls are a live list of your recent tweets, comments, and videos, as well as how followers are interacting with your posts. You can add this feature to your site as either a standalone page or contained to your sidebar.

There are quite a few advantages that come with adding a social wall to your site. For starters, your live feed will act as social proof for new visitors. Imagine visiting a website for the first time. You can’t see a single thing other visitors are saying about the brand. Do you give them your debit card information? If you’re like most people, you’re a little skeptical, and reasonably so!

Now, imagine the same scenario, except you can see the business actively engaging with social media followers on the sidebar of their site. Odds are, this would impact your opinion of the company and lead to you trusting them sooner.

You’ll also have the ability to keep your site visitors in the loop about upcoming events, such as giveaways or live video events. If you time your marketing posts, you can easily get more value from your other social media marketing strategies with this addition to your site.

Monitor Feedback and Keep an Eye on Your Analytics

Finally, I want to talk about how monitoring user feedback and your analytics can help you truly win at social media marketing in 2022. We send every user who interacts with our business a feedback form, including email subscribers, on-site visitors, and social media users.

The good news is it’s easier to ask for feedback on social media than ever before. You can create a post that acts as a poll on sites like Twitter and YouTube. Simply ask your followers questions about future content, your products, and upcoming events. Use this time to learn more about your followers’ goals and pain points, and you’ll have an easier time keeping them engaged with your business.

You’ll also want to review the analytics on your website and across all of your active social channels. You may notice trends that are not immediately noticeable in surveys. For instance, if one subtopic gets little to no engagement, while all of your other posts get hundreds of shares and likes, you can use this data to restructure what kind of content you create and share in the future.

Back to You

There you have it! These are the tried and true strategies that I believe all business owners can use to win big with social media this year. I suggest tracking your progress as you implement these strategies on your social channels. You’ll want to learn what works well with your audience and what doesn’t. If you regularly check this information and keep your audience in mind when posting on social media, you can find success across many different social media platforms.

THE ECONOMIC INDICATORS YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT IN 2022

With a new year comes new beginnings -- and new ways of looking at things. As we enter 2022, we were wondering what small-business owners could be looking at to find information that helps them.

To get answers, we spoke to a well-known figure in the world of financial and economic analysis, George Pearkes of Bespoke Investment Group. He regularly appears on financial-news TV shows to talk about the latest developments in the markets and has a reputation for digging deeply into obscure data to generate uncommon insights.

Before digging into specific information, Pearkes said that it can be more important to know what to filter out. "There is a lot of room to present economic data and analysis from a perspective that's motivated," he said, and it's important to keep in mind that a great many offering insights are "selling a product or advancing an ideological agenda." 

When Pearkes looks at data measuring small-business owners' sentiment, he sees evidence of the influence of these sources. When the NFIB asks small-business owners how they feel about their business, Pearkes noted, there are wild swings due to political changes that have little to do with anyone small business's prospects, while economic news produces less volatility in business-owners opinions.

We asked him to turn his lens toward the world of small business and tell Inc.'s audience what he would spend his time looking at if he were a small-business owner in 2022.

An approach to economic analysis for SMBs

If Pearkes were going to create a dashboard of economic indicators for small businesses to look at to assess their business's near-term prospects, he'd start with:

• - State and local employment data
• - Homebuilding data

Why those two? "It's definitely helpful for businesses to know, 'Is the population rising? Is consumer spending rising?'" Pearkes said, "anything more generalized than [housing and unemployment data] is just not available with public datasets" that are updated on a frequent basis.

Beyond those more immediate indicators, there's an opportunity to develop a "medium-to-longer" look at local demand, he said, specifically "population consumer spending and gross value added."

The thinking behind those is generated from an underlying theory of what generates demand for a small business. Pearkes asserted, "If the economy is on a good path, if employment is rising, that's going to fundamentally change the things that you look at as a business owner in terms of basic strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis." 

The broad themes worth tackling start by asking one question: "What's the trajectory of aggregate demand?" according to Pearkes. "From there, you then spill down into other problems, like 'How do I expand my margins or improve my return on capital?' and asking 'Where are we in the economic cycle -- how fast is the economy growing?'"

For many small businesses, local economic indicators are especially important, and, he said, "Local is tough because we have decent state-level data that isn't super lagged, but at the metro level it's [often too] lagged to be useful." Sticking to just the numbers that are well-covered, like the numbers mentioned above, is a way to get data that's reliable, meaningful, and fresh.

Finding a theme in broader data

What about national data? Depending on your industry and what's going on in the broader economy, the specifics relevant to your business could vary broadly. Pearkes recommends working backward from a national issue that affects your business and then finding a metric that tracks it closely.

For example, during the supply chain crunch that the U.S. is currently experiencing, "auto production is a really interesting thing to keep a close eye on," Pearkes said, because "understanding how many finished cars are rolling out of factories is really helpful for understanding the supply chain." It's an indicator important enough to the national economy to be regularly tracked and publicized, but can be used by any business as a proxy for how the supply chain crunch will affect them.

Other statistics to keep in mind:

• Prime-age employment to population, which tells you how the 25- to 54-year-olds are doing. This data is valuable both for tracking demand and for figuring out how difficult it will be to hire.
• Actual GDP data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the more-frequently updated, but less accurate, Atlanta Fed GDPNow tracker. This tells you where overall economic growth is going.
• The New York Fed's Weekly Economic Index, a seasonally adjusted composite of economic data.
• "A whole bunch of cool underlying data sets from the ISM," which tells you about supply and demand in manufacturing.
• A wide range of data from the five regional Feds that produce manufacturing data.

For all of these, you can look at your own business's trends over the past number of years, and what these indicators looked like at those times, to get a sense of what your demand and hiring picture will look like when the metrics go this way or that.

Think about who speaks for you

Adding up all of his thoughts about operating as a small business and looking at economic data, Pearkes warned that it's easy to get confused about what exactly is being talked about when talking about small business. "A full-service restaurant in a major metro area is subject to competitive forces in a way that a fast-food chain in a rural area just isn't," he said, but economic reporting and agencies that claim to speak for small business often conflate the two.

When someone calls themself a "small-business owner" or says they "speak up for the interests of small business," the fact that the world of small business has some large, very distinct groups of businesses means that those people or agencies might not be speaking of businesses at all like yours.

As one indicator of this difference, Pearkes spoke about how differences in measuring small businesses can produce very large discrepancies. "If I'm a franchisee and I own 10 restaurants," there's the opportunity to be seen as many small businesses or one larger business, he said. Two different measures of employment in small businesses take different approaches: Payroll processor ADP measures employment at small businesses at the individual-restaurant level, "on the basis of establishments, not firms," he said, and recently had a tally of 32.3 million people employed in small businesses in the U.S. The Bureau of Labor Statistics takes the reverse approach, measuring by the firm instead of individual establishment, and has a number that's a third smaller: 21.2 million people.

When reading economic analyses of small businesses, it's important to keep this difference in mind, because the takeaways and advice might be speaking to a category of small businesses that is quite different from your own.

FOUR INNOVATIONS THAT GIVES A SNEAK PEEK INTO METAVERSE

Meta, the company is formerly known as Facebook, has been on a tear filing patents to realize its vision for the metaverse.

The company has been awarded hundreds of patents in the past four months aimed at increasing the realism of its planned interactive virtual world, according to a review by Insider. The new technologies could enable a user's avatar to pick up and put down objects, for example, or wear clothes that actually wrinkle as it moves. As Insider notes, there's no guarantee the company will develop the new products, but they may be a good indication of its strategy.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said the metaverse will be mainstream in five to 10 years. However, as experts tell Insider, there are many challenges with virtual and augmented reality: uncomfortable headwear, lack of things to actually do in the virtual world, and technology that is not advancing quickly enough. But Meta--which has long been a VR advocate--seems determined, despite concerns from privacy advocates over the project.

"This is the future I want and I'm going to push to make it happen," Zuckerberg said in October at the opening of Connect 2021, a VR/AR conference. Here are four things that the future might allow you to do.

1. Throw things at people--and bring in your laptop

Several patents show that the company wants people to be able to interact with objects realistically in the metaverse, which would render in real-time. The company also seems to want to make it easy for people to throw, pinch, or otherwise engage with objects that exist in the metaverse, a feature called "gesture-based casting and manipulation of virtual content." Another patented technology would let users bring a real-life object into the metaverse. Imagine, for instance, conducting a Zoom call with your laptop, while remaining in the virtual world with your colleagues. 

2. Look like yourself

One patent is for "generating accurate and realistic clothing" that wrinkles as your avatar moves, with sensors that detect body movement to do so. Another is designed to create "avatar fidelity and personalization," which suggests that avatars in the metaverse could closely resemble their real-life counterparts. 

3. Share your view

One patent focuses on something called "spectator images." That would allow you to invite someone to share your view of something, like a live concert, even though they aren't there in person. Combine that with "pupil-steering," which would track your eye movements and use them to steer you around in the virtual world, and "notification triggers"--notifications you can get rid of just by looking at them--and your eyes have a lot of power in the metaverse.

4. Share even more data

As the Insider article notes, putting yourself in the metaverse might require sharing even more personal data than you do now. The new patents are designed to track everything from your eyes to your body movements--all data that Meta would then have access to. There were no patents regarding consumer safety or privacy in this batch, according to the review. 

THESE ARE THE 5 COVID-DRIVEN A.I TRENDS THAT ARE CHANGING HEALTH CARE

For all of its ills, Covid-19 has supercharged consumerism in America's health care system, offering tantalizing opportunities for companies interested in lowering health care costs and increasing access to quality medical care. 

Speaking at CB Insights' recent Future of Health Conference, Deepa Varadharajan, a senior managing analyst at the New York City-based research and analytics firm, explained that consumers can look forward to improved access and quality of health care, in addition to lowered costs--courtesy of artificial intelligence spurred by the coronavirus.

More than 170 startups are driving "anytime, anywhere care," said Varadharajan, noting that she expects the trend to continue. In addition to providing a growth industry for those working to further A.I., improving accessibility and lowering the cost of care could make the lives of time-crunched workers far more convenient--especially if the technology cuts down the time it takes to see a doctor or get a test done. 

Here are the five trends shared by CB Insights that are affecting health care:

1. Bridging the gap between virtual and in-person care

Telehealth visits are lauded for their convenience, but a major limitation with virtual visits surfaces when it comes to manual exams. For obvious reasons, a doctor cannot perform a physical exam virtually, which limits a patient's full assessment--for now, at least.

Enter report monitoring devices. Digital health company Eko offers A.I.-powered stethoscopes along with a hand-held electrocardiogram, a test that evaluates a person's heart health. A patient can, for instance, live stream their heart and lung sounds for their doctor during a virtual visit. 

Together, the tools, which are proliferating after the pandemic proved a heightened need for virtual care, bringing the medical field closer to completely remote checkups that supplement in-person visits.

2. Expanding lab test accessibility for patients 

The pandemic is normalizing at-home Covid-19 rapid testing, and that could further other at-home diagnostics testing. Remote clinical testing company Healthy.io uses computer vision, artificial intelligence, and colorimetric analysis so that patients can conduct at-home urinary tract infection tests or annual urine tests. Varadharajan expects that artificial intelligence will gradually edge out third-party laboratories, at least for certain types of tests.  

3. Driving down radiology costs 

Artificial intelligence isn't making just radiology faster; it's also driving down the costs associated with pricey scans and other imaging. That's thanks in part to the use of A.I.-assisted computerized tomography scans, which have grown in popularity for diagnosing Covid-induced pneumonia.

But looking to the next wave of artificial intelligence suggests that A.I. will go beyond diagnostics to improve patient experience, Varadharajan says. This could translate to quicker magnetic reasoning imaging. In collaboration with the New York School of Medicine, Facebook is working to improve MRIs and aims to create new methods to expedite the scanning process. Varadharajan explains that hour-long visits could drop to just 15 minutes. And shaving off a patient's time spent in an imaging device that emits radiation, such as with x-rays, can dramatically reduce exposure. 

4. Picturing computer vision

Another unintended benefit of the pandemic: Computer vision is making inroads in specialty care. With computer vision, which is a form of A.I. that allows computers to learn to recognize and interpret visuals, fields including physical therapy, where patients almost exclusively rely on the direction of a physical therapist, now see the promise of making virtual connections. 

But as long as a patient is armed with a smartphone camera, they can now access care almost anywhere. Kaia Health, a digital therapeutics company in the musculoskeletal space-based in both New York City and Munich, is using computer vision for motion and posture tracking, which provides patients with real-time feedback on their exercises. And the Austin-based DentalMonitoring is providing A.I.-powered technology to dentists and orthodontists, which the company claims can reduce the need or frequency for in-person follow-ups. 

5. Deploying passive monitoring technology 

Apple Watches and Fitbits are some of the more classic examples of wearables, but the evolving wearables space is crowded. Too many options can become overwhelming for consumers required to keep track of different devices, charge them, and monitor separate applications that their devices use.

But A.I. passive monitoring technology may disrupt the wearables space by bringing technology that doesn't require patients to wear a device around the clock. When Google entered the sleep and wellness tracking with its smartphone device, its mantra was "Nothing to wear or remember to charge." 

One newer approach to monitoring patients is using contactless in-home monitoring systems, which can keep track of a patent's sleep activities and respiration with the help of a sensor.

"Big techs and startups are breaking ground here in passive monitoring and as this technology takes off, we'll head toward more proactive intervention--especially in the senior and acute care settings," Varadharajan says.