Today, I got the following question from Jodi Womack of The Womack Company.

How many US businesses are owned by married couples?

Gracias!!!!

(see how polite Jodi is?)
Well, we checked it out and voila!

Back in 2006, the Indy Star wrote:

“Copreneurs,” as they’re called, are a rapidly growing segment of business partnerships. The number of husband-wife companies has more than tripled since 1990, topping 3.6 million, according to the U.S. Census. Glenn Muske, co-author of a 2002 study titled “Copreneurs as Family Businesses,” believes the number of copreneur firms is “greatly underestimated.” He said couples are leaving corporate jobs and opening businesses, but for reasons beyond the bottom line.

This (even older) article from Inc. How To Work (If You Must) With Your Spouse writes:

Though there are no accurate statistics about what happens when spouses try to run a business together, expert estimates are grim: “Only 5% of couples can make all-in partnership work,” says Azriela Jaffe, a frequent reporter on the phenomenon of entrepreneurial couples and author of Permission to Prosper: What Working Wives Crave From Their Husbands, and How to Get It. (”All-in” co-ownership is tougher than a partnership in which one spouse is a subordinate who’s helping out.)

We may need to wait for the next Economic Census for an update, but I’d go with 3.6 million for now! So Jodi, you are not alone!

For a Big Mac, we’ll tell you. (If you us get some fries, too, we’ll tell you even more.)

A new study by Research International “Fast Food Nation 2008: A Consumer Perspective on the Fast Food Industry” provides an understanding of consumers’ views on fast food.

“With the average American spending $500 a year on fast food, the industry clearly plays a major part in the country’s economy and we felt that our clients would benefit from gaining an in-depth understanding of this segment which is a large part of consumers’ lives,” said Alexander Kleijngeld, Research International, vice president-client services.

Some of the major findings from the study include:

• Over half of the population eats fast food once a week with 20 percent eating fast food at least every other day.
• Fourteen percent of the population accounts for almost half of all fast food sales. These high frequency users tend to be male, below middle-age and employed with high incomes.
• High-frequency users have an average income of $67,575 which is 15 percent higher than the sample group’s average household income of $58,875.
• Despite their above-average incomes, high frequency users are more likely to increase fast food consumption because of economic pressure and are attracted to “value” dining options.
• Subway earned the highest Brand Energy score which measures how strong a brand is the minds of consumers. This score is a composite of four dimensions: Status and Momentum: strong brands not only perform well today (Status) but are also seen as continuously evolving and improving/innovating (Momentum); Affinity and Performance: strong brands not only offer a great experience functionally (Performance) but consumers also have an emotional bond with them (Affinity).
• Frequent users are attracted to restaurants that have new menu options or promotions and react positively to healthy food choices that are in tune with a restaurant’s efforts to improve the healthiness of their menu.
• More than half the country (57 percent) has been to McDonald’s in the past month followed by Subway (37 percent), Burger King (36 percent), Taco Bell (33 percent), Wendy’s (32 percent) and KFC (27 percent).
• Convenience is the main reason consumers choose a fast-food dining option.

Did that say $500 a year? Per person? Yikes.

AND

Over half of all Americans eat fast food at least once a week (20 percent eat it every other day) and nearly 60 percent of us went to a McDonald’s in the past month.

We also learned that (as is common in most businesses) a small percentage of customers account for most of the sales. Almost 50 percent of all fast food sales come from 14 percent of consumers. And these aren’t who you’d expect. They have an average income of $68,000 and, though young-ish, they aren’t teens and college kids.

What markets are consuming the most fast food? According to MRI’s Market-by-Market study:

1.Lafayette, Ind. (Hi Kathy B.!)
2.Rochester, Minn./Mason City, Iowa (think it’s because of Mayo Clinic?)
3.Cedar Rapids/Waterloo/Iowa City/Dubuque, Iowa
4.Detroit
5.St. Joseph, Mo.
6.Omaha, Neb. (Hello WG and Sara and Kevin and…)
7.Champaign/Springfield/Decatur, Ill. (Lori – you there?)
8.South Bend/Elkhart, Ind.
9.Columbus, Ohio
10.Cleveland/Akron (Canton), Ohio (Hey EK!)

Another interesting finding. People actually turn more frequently to fast food when the economy is less than optimal. So yay to all you in the biz!

Well, we found some expert opinions for you. (And we changed ours over some time ago!

Here goes:

Did you know that over half the energy consumed by an incandescent light bulb produces heat, not light? According to onebillionbulbs.com, compact fluorescent light bulbs are more efficient than incandescent bulbs because they typically use 65%-75% less energy than a standard incandescent bulb to provide the same amount of light AND they last up to 10 times longer than a regular light bulb.

Although CFL bulbs typically cost more than a standard incandescent bulb, the cost savings over the life of the bulb can be significant. If you replace multiple bulbs in your house, the savings can really add up.

And, don’t forget the heat. Given that standard incandescent bulbs throw off most of their energy as heat, your home cooling costs in the summer increase in order to offset the heat generated by your standard incandescent light bulbs.

There are environmental benefits as well.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, if every U.S. household replaced just one regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, it would prevent 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the equivalent of taking 7.5 million cars off the road.

All that great stuff said, there are some cons to using compact fluorescent light bulbs.

According to Energystar each bulb contains a small amount of mercury, which can be hazardous if broken in your home. The EPA recommends the following steps if you need to clean up a broken bulb:
(1) you immediately open windows to reduce mercury concentrations inside your home; (2) you do not touch the spilled mercury; (3) you clean up the broken CFL glass carefully and immediately (but not with your hands or a vacuum cleaner), and (4) you wipe the affected area with a paper towel to remove all glass fragments and mercury. EPA further recommends that you place the paper towel and glass fragments in a sealed plastic bag and bring the sealed bag to your local Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection Site.

Also, you need to contact your solid municipal waste agency to determine how to dispose of your burned out bulbs. Some jurisdictions have specified sites and some allow you to put them in your regular trash.

Gulp. We’re glad you asked.
The controversy seems to be two-fold.
The first concern surrounds a chemical call bisphenol A (BPA) that can leak out of can linings into your food. Cans that hold things like soup, beans and soft drinks . Nearly all can liners contain BPA, says Geoff Cullen, director of government relations at the Can Manufacturers Institute. BPA has also been found to migrate, under some conditions, from polycarbonate plastic water bottles. BPA is also found in clear plastic baby bottles, water bottles and dental sealants.
Here’s where it becomes controversial. The plastics industry says its harmless, but a growing number of scientists are concluding, based on animal testing, that BPA poses a risks if encountered in the womb including certain cancers, interference with reproductive health and increases in childhood behavioral problems, such as hyperactivity. Ninety-five percent of Americans were found to have the chemical in their urine in a 2004 biomonitoring study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The levels that leach into food are well below the safety thresholds set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the plastics industry website, Bisphenol-A.org, says the chemical is completely safe unless you ingest 1,300 pounds of canned and bottled food daily.
The second concern surrounds the re-use of plastic bottles. The assertion is that the plastic used to make plastic bottles, called PET polyethylene terephthalate, contains a potentially carcinogenic chemical called diethylhydroxylamine. According to the reports, this carcinogenic chemical is released upon repeated washings or heating of the bottles.
According to one of our favorite rumor websites, www.snopes.com , this claim is false and here’s why: The FDA regulates bottled water as a packaged food product, and asserts that PET is safe for food contact materials.
The basis for this concern was a graduate students master thesis that was not subject to peer review and did not reflect the serious rigor that would provide accurate and reliable information about the safety of these products. Additionally, DEHA is not regulated or considered a human carcinogen. Furthermore, DEHA is not inherent in PET plastics either is a raw material, byproduct or decomposition product. DEHA is a common plasticizer used in many plastic items including ones found in a lab. The students results were most likely a result of inadvertent lab contamination.

We weren’t surprised.

But some of the stats from Pew Internet Project’s December 2007 survey are surprising and some? Just plain interesting! (And useful, we think.)

• 58% of adult Americans have used a cell phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) to  do at least one of ten mobile non-voice data activities, such as texting, emailing, taking a picture, looking for maps or directions, or recording video.
• 41% of adult Americans have logged onto the internet on the go, that is, away from home or work either with a wireless laptop connection or a handheld device.
• 62% of all Americans have some experience with mobile access to digital data and tools.
• When asked how hard it would be to give up a specific technology, respondents are nowmost likely to say the cell phone would be most difficult to do without, followed by the internet, TV, and landline telephone. Big change.
• Hispanic respondents were much more likely to use mobile data services.

And for the big shocker:

• 18-24 year olds are most likely to use mobile data services. (okay, no shock! But you might be surprised to know that 36% of respondents 65 and older have used cell phones or PDAs for some sort of data activity!

Glad you asked.

The slow food movement started in Europe and propagates the idea of good, clean and fair food. It is the belief that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.

The Slow Food movement incorporates a series of objectives within its mission, including:

• forming and sustaining seed banks to preserve heirloom varieties in cooperation with local food systems
• developing an “ark of taste” for each ecoregion, where local culinary traditions and foods are celebrated
• preserving and promoting local and traditional food products, along with their lore and preparation
• organizing small-scale processing (including facilities for slaughtering and short run products)
• organizing celebrations of local cuisine within regions (for example, the Feast of Fields held in some cities in Canada)
• promoting “taste education“
• educating consumers about the risks of fast food
• educating citizens about the drawbacks of commercial agribusiness and factory farms
• educating citizens about the risks of monoculture and reliance on too few genomes or varieties
• developing various political programs to preserve family farms
• lobbying for the inclusion of organic farming concerns within agricultural policy
• lobbying against government funding of genetic engineering
• lobbying against the use of pesticides
• teaching gardening skills to students and prisoners
• encouraging ethical buying in local marketplaces

Survey also says: work is what’s keeping us up nights. And workdays are getting longer and time spent working from home averages close to 4 1/2 hours each week.

Don’t you just wish it was 4 1/2 hours? For many of us, it’s much, much more. Read the CDC Release for more information.

Your timing is excellent. Read on.

PicAnswers launched just a couple weeks ago. It is the coolest! Billed as a picture question and answer site, it is fun and seriously educational. And, I might add, as time sink!

It is designed to help you identify things in everyday life that you’re not sure what that thing is! Like a plant or a tool or a symbol or a rash. You get the picture. (sorry for the pun.)

We love it. And we think it’s going to catch on.

The archives go back to the mid-1960’s. There is some amazing information here. Such as this abstract that caught my eye. (I’m sure it’s not just because I have pre-teen sons!)

Title: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study of Internet and Computer Game Use by Adolescent Boys and Girls: Prevalence, Frequency of Use, and Psychosocial Predictors

Author: Willoughby, Teena

Descriptors:Friendship; Grade 12; Grade 10; Internet; Longitudinal Studies; Psychological Patterns; Video Games; Grade 9; Grade 11; Gender Differences; Parent Child Relationship; Peer Relationship; Well Being; High School Students; Age Differences; Predictor Variables; Social Influences

Source: Developmental Psychology, v44 n1 p195-204 Jan 2008

Peer-Reviewed: Yes

Publication Date: 2008-01-00

Pages: 10

Abstract: Prevalence, frequency, and psychosocial predictors of Internet and computer game use were assessed with 803 male and 788 female adolescents across 2 time periods, 21 months apart. At Time 1, participants were in the 9th or 10th grade; at Time 2, they were in the 11th or 12th grade. Most girls (93.7%) and boys (94.7%) reported using the Internet at both time periods, whereas more boys (80.3%) than girls (28.8%) reported gaming at both time periods. Girls reported a small decrease over time in the frequency of hours spent per day on overall technology use, mostly due to a decrease in gaming. Both linear and curvilinear relations were examined between parental relationships, friendship quality, academic orientation, and well-being measured in early high school and the frequency of technology use in late high school. Being male significantly predicted both computer gaming and Internet use. There also were trends in favor of higher friendship quality and less positive parental relationships predicting higher frequency of Internet use. Importantly, moderate use of the Internet was associated with a more positive academic orientation than nonuse or high levels of use.

I am often surprised at the variety of subjects that are associated with education and how frequently our projects can benefit from a literature search of academic, educational articles.

It might come in handy for you one day, too.