The cannabis industry – both domestic and international in scope, and comprised of two substantial subsectors: marijuana and hemp – started last year off strong. Namely, with a splash of high-profile M&A activity in January and February. There was tremendous promise for growing the market. There’s room for winners in the cannabis space, but first will come pain. How long the pain will … [+] getty As we entered second quarter of 2022, the hope for a fruitful Q2 faded. By Q3, it was full-fledged retreat, with many of the industry investment conferences refusing to even consider seminar presentations or panels regarding workouts, receiverships or other proactive measures designed to protect or mitigate the poor economic conditions surrounding the industry and many of its operators. There was a concerted effort to “keep it positive” after the industry had been called “recession proof” and designated as an “essential business,” while enjoying record high sales numbers and revenues. Things were good — until reality set in. I have always argued that the cannabis industry is unlike other emerging industries and that analogies and analytical methodologies often miss the mark. Friends and colleagues suggested comparing cannabis to the dot-com boom of the […]

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FEB. 8, 2023 – Each year, the U.S. Census Bureau brings together cross-sector collaborators during The Opportunity Project (TOP) Summit to solve some of the world’s major data and technology challenges. TOP is led by the Census Bureau’s Census Open Innovation Labs (COIL). The program engages government, technologists, and communities to create digital products using federal open data that serve the public. To date, thousands of people, hundreds of organizations and 30 federal agencies have participated in TOP sprints, resulting in over 200 new open data tools including apps, websites, mapping tools, data visualizations, games and more. TOP Summit 2023 is a multiday virtual conference that will showcase new products created during TOP’s 2022 sprints, featuring innovative technology and other solutions (using federal open data) built by some of the nation’s leading data experts and leaders. The sessions will offer learning opportunities, collaboration, and inspiration for thousands of federal and local government innovators, tech pioneers, community advocates, students, and emerging leaders. Attendees will be able to join sessions featuring: Keynote speakers like federal officials, civil society leaders and technologists. Lightning talks and reaction panels featuring many of the 35-plus products created in TOP’s 2022 sprints. Spotlights on the work […]

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Your guide to California policy and politics Presented by Prologis, California Water Service, American Pistachio Growers and Cal Needs Assessment Supporters of the lowrider community attend a press conference at the state Capitol in support of legislation that would prevent local governments from imposing cruising bans on Feb. 6, 2023. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters If you want to see two diametrically opposed views of what California lawmakers have done and should be doing or not doing, look no further than a new poll and a new legislative scorecard. On one hand, a survey out Monday from the National Federation of Independent Business found that overwhelming majorities of California small business owners want the state to exempt them from expanded employee leave requirements, to delay the plan to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035 and to repeal the provisions of Proposition 47 that raise the felony level for theft from $450 to $950. John Kabateck, the federation’s California state director: “California has the Lamborghini of legislatures when it comes to setting land-speed records for more and more rules, regulations, and taxes. If I could sum up the ballot results from our small-business-owning membership in one sentence, […]

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OPINION Operations Restaurant Rewind: Dayparts are being varied as much as menus these days. The trend started 45 years ago with a brand called Le Peep. Food, service and ambience have long been the fundamental means for differentiating one restaurant from another. Now a new variable is gaining importance as the industry’s labor plight forces a hard decision on operators: When should their restaurants be open? As this week’s edition of RB’s Restaurant Rewind reports, concepts are adding or forgoing dayparts as they more carefully balance sales potential against the difficulties of staffing for those hours. Brunch is drawing entrants throughout the full-service sector, but the worth of dinner service is being increasingly questioned. Meanwhile, even brands synonymous with round-the-clock service are skipping overnight shifts because of diminishing head counts—not of customers, but of potential hires. As Rewind host Peter Romeo notes in this week’s report, restaurant newcomers have been opting out of post-afternoon service for decades. The Restaurant Business Editor At Large suggests that the true instigator might have ben a concept that was a rage in the 1980s but is little known today, called Le Peep. Learn how that venture may well be the grandfather of a […]

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As the annual GreenBiz publication, ‘ State of Green Business 2023 ’, rolls off the presses, one thing is clear: U.S. President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will have a big influence on environmental business trends this year. When the IRA was signed into law in August 2022, not everyone was sure whom it would benefit. Businesses are figuring it out. Many environmental sectors are taking advantage of the loans and tax breaks the Act makes available and using the money to investigate both new and existing technologies. Carbon Capture Take carbon capture for example. Carbon capture is everywhere these days. It has gone from 0 to 100 in the last year or so, says Leah Garden in the State of Green Business 2023 report, “Carbon technology captures billions in funds.” Yet, carbon tech and capture has been around for about 50 years. The process of capturing carbon dioxide emissions from industrial facilities and reusing or storing them, instead of releasing them into the atmosphere, “was long considered too expensive and inefficient to be a viable climate solution,” writes Garden. “Now it’s the tech sector to watch.” Why? Primarily, thanks to the IRA. According to Garden’s sources, the […]

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is now accepting proposals for funding from its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The SBIR Program awards contracts to small businesses across the country to spur research and commercialization of innovative transportation technologies in select research areas. The current SBIR Solicitation provides funding ranging from $150,000 to $200,000 for ten Phase I research topics. “Small businesses are essential to our economy, and this program plays an important role in advancing America’s economic competitiveness by supporting domestic small businesses while stimulating technological innovation that can improve our transportation systems and lead to further economic growth,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology Dr. Robert C. Hampshire. The SBIR program supports investments in transportation that improve the safety, sustainability, and resilience of the Nation’s transportation assets, and provides opportunities for small businesses to explore innovative technologies. The research topics selected for this year’s SBIR Solicitation address a variety of needs regarding advanced materials and structures; behavioral safety; and the safe transport of materials. Awards will be funded for projects in the following research areas: Federal Highway Administration Addressing Stormwater Runoff with a Self-Contained Portable Treatment System Traffic Monitoring and In Situ […]

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In the first quarter of a new business year, companies set sky-high goals, but most fall flat. Executives looking to take their businesses in a new direction should follow a proven formula to hit attainable milestones. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Business leaders are constantly setting lofty, impressive-looking goals for themselves and their companies. But what good are those goals if they’ve been thrown out the window within a couple of weeks? It’s time for business leaders to take charge and set intentions that can actually be achieved — not just high-minded ambitions that will fade away soon after. Instead of settling for vague directions, they should strive to make their objectives actionable and attainable with the right activities. Now more than ever, it’s essential for businesses to have tangible outcomes rather than empty promises. Let your managers manage Sitting in the C-suite brings its perks, but it also removes you from many of the day-to-day operations your company executes. Your team leaders, however, are in the trenches. While executives set the direction, they should require their team leaders to set the milestones. These critical front-line players have an intimate understanding of how their team performs […]

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Voice search is growing, and your business can utilize this important functionality to get more customers. Here’s how. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Voice search use is on the rise globally. Back in 2019, there were 2.45 billion voice assistants in the world. This number is expected to reach 8 billion by the end of 2023, which will be roughly equivalent to the global population. This rapid global increase in the number of voice assistants has created a new ecosystem that businesses can leverage to reach and connect with their ideal customers. And don’t forget the alarming number of smartphone users, search engine users and IoT devices — we are already living in the voice search era. But what does it mean for your business? How can your business leverage voice search for growth? What is voice search? Voice search lets users do a search via voice instead of text. Major search engines like Google and Bing allow users to run a search query through a voice command. This feature is available across devices and isn’t limited to smartphones. Search engines use automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology that converts voice signals into text, and then search […]

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How to Successfully Use Social Media: A Small Business Guide for Beginners Are you a small business owner or marketing manager, just getting started on building your social media strategy? Need to learn the basics before launching your first social media campaign? Who uses social media? What does social media do for you? Define your goals Targeting your audience Choosing a platform Social media metrics Check out the infographic below to learn more. How to Successfully Use Social Media: A Small Business Guide for Beginners

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J.B. Hunt corporate offices Executives with J.B. Hunt Transport, Simmons Foods, Tyson Foods and Walmart on Tuesday (Feb. 7) spoke about expansion plans at the winter meeting of the Northwest Arkansas Council held at the new Ledger building in downtown Bentonville. Walmart’s new home office campus has been under construction for roughly two years. Cindi Marsiglio, senior vice president of real estate at Walmart, is overseeing the massive campus build that encompasses roughly 9 city blocks, 12 office buildings and 10 community buildings with outdoor and indoor areas of recreation. She said there are as many as 800 people working on the building site daily at what she calls the “peak of nuisance stage” because of the lane and road closures around the mega block. “Please be patient with us through this time. We are on track to move into the building in 2025, two years from now, but it will take some time to bring everyone back on campus,” Marsiglio said. The first public building to open will be the Walton Whole Health & Fitness Center, a 360,000-square-foot facility that also intends to offer memberships to the public. She said the health & fitness center was originally a […]

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