Decline in Business Attraction for Economic Development

By | Economic Development, small business

Low unemployment and a tight labor market for skilled workers has diminished the value of the economic development strategy of business attraction. What works now is 1. Recruit quality labor, 2. Focus on entrepreneurs and small business, 3. Retain local businesses, 4. Workforce development, and 5. Improve quality of place.  A discussion of the value of SizeUp LBI for local communities is included in the article. Read the whole article “Business Attraction Used to Be Great for Economic Development. Now It’s Not. Here’s What You Can Do.”

FinTechVisor Connects Banks and Fintech Startups

By | Banking, Fintech, Insurance, startups

Efma and Capgemini launched the FinTechVisor platform as a digital solution to connecting banks and fintech startups. The primary objective of FinTechVisor is to enable faster and better collaboration between these two groups. SizeUp, Token, and cbot were invited to speak about the challenges and opportunities of fintech companies working with banks at the launch of the FinTechVisor service. Elias Ghanem, VP of Capgemini, presented findings of the landscape of relationships between banks and startups. He discussed paradigm shifts, buying experience vs. products, ownership vs. access, big tech vs. traditional banks, financial services being forced to reinvent themselves, and findings of the World Fintech Report (customer centricity, complimentary strengths, selecting correct partners). He further explained how Capgemini has a process by which fintechs can be certified on the FinTechVisor platform through Capgemini’s evaluation process. Lubomir Olach, Director of International Development at Efma, explained the process for Fintech startups to join the FinTechVisor platform. A discussion with senior members of SizeUp, Token, and bot addressed the specific difficulties and benefits of working with banks from the direct experience and perspective of Fintechs. The fintech panel included Anatalio Ubalde of SizeUp, Eylem Basturk of bot, and Michael O’Loughlin of Token.

SizeUp, Neilsen, and Google Trends on List of 85 Best Business Tools

By | News coverage

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The Bplans article “85 of the Best Business Tools for Startups” by Noah Parsons lists tools that the team at Bplans “know, love, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend-many of them we use ourselves.” The full list of the four market research tools recommended for startups includes the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, Neilsen MyBestSegmentsGoogle Trends, and SizeUp.

The article says that “If you need help finding a business location or want to see where your competition is, check out SizeUp. You can also compare your forecasted marketing and advertising budget against the competition.” It further explains about the business tools that entrepreneurs should “Use them to propel your startup into success and growth.” The article includes their curated list of favorite tools and resources to build a company.

Read the full article.

5 Online Trends Economic Developers Can’t Ignore

By | Economic Development, News coverage

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The white paper from the Financial Times’ fDi Intelligence, 5 Online Trends Economic Developers Can’t Ignore, includes the trend “Small is the New Big”. The article points out that there is greater value from economic development organizations focusing on small businesses that already exist in their communities instead of an exclusive focus on business attraction from outside of the area. According to the article, “today innovative economic development organizations are implementing online Business Retention and Expansion using the same ingenuity to bring mass service to their local businesses on their websites. The breakthrough online innovation which is making this happen is SizeUp LBI (Local Business Intelligence) which enables EDOs to empower their small business community with industry-accurate and geographically specific market research and data insights to help entrepreneurs make smarter decisions based on data.”

Read the full article on Linkedin or download the white paper.

Benzinga says SizeUp Is Personalizing Small Business Analytics

By | Banking, Fintech, News coverage

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The Benzinga article “SizeUp Is Personalizing Small Business Analytics” discusses the strategic ways that SizeUp is helping banks and insurance companies with “tailored data to its clients through comparisons of millions of separate local, regional, and national data points.” According to the article “Through those data points and basic information on the business, like revenue, clientele or vendor information, Sizeup generates statistics on how that business compares to others close by or nationwide. Sizeup also provides maps and graphical information on areas of opportunity for new customers or advertising in the communities they serve.”

Insurance Innovation Reporter Covers Westfield Insurance Giving BOP Clients BI

By | Insurance, InsureTech, News coverage

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Insurance Innovation Reporter’s article “Westfield Insurance Partners with SizeUp to Give BOP Clients Business Intelligence” describes how “Westfield Insurance (Westfield Center, Ohio) has partnered with business intelligence site SizeUp (San Francisco) to provide a competitive analysis tool to its small business owner customers to help them identify and maximize their competitive advantage and become more profitable.” The story further explains that Westfield is able to provide their small business customers and agents with four new analytical tools including: performance benchmarking, competitive assessment, best places to advertise, and demographic analysis.

Digital Insurance on Westfield Insurance Small Businesses Intelligence

By | Insurance, InsureTech, News coverage, small business

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Digital Insurance’s article “Westfield Insurance offers new BI tool to small businesses” discusses how the insurance company is providing SizeUp business intelligence to its small business customers. “Now small business owners can instantly access competitive benchmark, advertising, demographic, industry, geographic, and cost-of-business data that huge corporations use every day,” said Carrie Busic, Westfield Insurance’s national commercial sales leader, in a statement.

You can read a reprint of the original article on Information Management.

Westfield Provides Business Insights for Competitive Advantage

By | Insurance, InsureTech

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Westfield Insurance discusses how it is providing tools for its small business customers to receive real advantage in its “The Commercial Line” article. The company has developed a partnership with Plug and Plan to identify how it can breakthrough Silicon Valley innovations to “better the insurance industry for consumers, agents and carriers alike.” As an example, Westfield discusses how to find a “Cheeseburger in Paradise” using SizeUp technology to help entrepreneurs figure out how to be more successful at running their business by accessing SizeUp’s data insights.

Read the full article “Business Insights to Give You a Competitive Advantage” here.

Westfield Insurance Launches SizeUp to Give Small Business Owners a Competitive Edge

By | Insurance, InsureTech

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“We’re thrilled to offer small business owners this digital resource,” said Carrie Busic, Westfield Insurance National Commercial Sales Leader in Westfield Insurance’s announcement of the launch of SizeUp to small business owners. According to the announcement, “Putting competitive data in the hands of small business owners, Westfield Insurance has partnered with SizeUp, a business intelligence website that provides customized data and analytics to small businesses. The competitive analysis tool aims to help entrepreneurs identify and maximize their competitive advantage and become more profitable.”