Happy Halloween Untemplaters! This is one of my favorite holidays because we all get a chance to be totally silly and show off some creativity with ridiculous and funny costumes. It’s also a thrill watching scary movies in the dark, pranking friends, and of course munching on all sorts of candy especially when it’s free. I almost got hooked on eating candy corn this year, but fortunately I have an upcoming trip to the dentist, so that’s helping me from going overboard.
Scary Facts About Business
Since Halloween is often associated with scary things, let’s talk about some rather curious, spooky and frightening things. We all have different fears, and we have to come face to face with a lot of them in our careers and entrepreneurial journeys. Perhaps you’re scared about getting laid off, jumping to a new career, going back for a masters degree, or how the economy is impacting your industry.
In the spirit of Halloween, here are some interesting and scary facts about business and the economy:
- 1,000,000 workers call in sick due to stress every day. Have you?
- People with desk jobs are twice as likely to die from heart disease than those with active jobs. Not sure I fully believe this one, but a lack of exercise is definitely bad for heart health.
- Around $600 billion of losses are caused by counterfeit goods globally, impacting the US the most. Stealing, pirating, and purchasing counterfeit products is bad and hurts legitimate businesses. Don’t do it!
- 48% of employees have logged on to an unsecure wireless network using a company device. Security is a big risk for any business. Chances are you’ve breached at least one IT protocol this year.
- 90% of Americans live within 15 miles of a Walmart, and around 40% of all purchases are made by families earning under $40,000/year. The impact on small businesses has been significant in many areas.
- In August 2012, new orders for manufactured goods decreased 5.2% or $24.9 billion. It will be interesting to see how this changes as we near the holiday season.
- Approximately 29% of businesses were owned by women in ’07 but this is changing. The number of female owned small businesses is growing 50% faster than the total number of small businesses. It’s also estimated that five years from now, 33% of new US jobs will come from companies owned by women.
- Over 5.8 million corporations filed income tax returns in the US, and their total income taxes (after credits) were $204,995,622 in ’09. Your employer is paying way more in taxes than you probably realize.
- Fewer than 10% of organizations are fully aware of the devices accessing their network.
- Less than 30% of Americans over the age of 25 had Bachelor’s degrees, and the US median household income in was $51,914 according to the ’06-’10 census. Does this surprise you?
- 55% of employees admit they’ve sent work email or documents to their personal email accounts on their phones. This makes business executives cringe and many companies consider this stealing and grounds for termination.
- Fewer than 10% of organizations are fully aware of the devices accessing their network. This is why it is important to have security protocols and restrictions in place that block external devices.
- The US’s international trade balance in goods and services worsened to $-44.2 billion in August 2012 from $-42.5 billion in July, as exports decreased more than imports. These are some big numbers.
Ready to read more? Here are some other Untemplater articles on business you’ll enjoy:
What Are Estimated Taxes? The Basics You Need to Know
The Risk of Starting A Business
How To Switch Careers: Real Life Advice To Help You Succeed
When Is It Time To Quit? Why I Gave Up My Dream
Untemplaters, how are you celebrating Halloween this year? What are your fears? Do you know any scary facts about business?
I don’t think that we should overdo it, but my opinion is that it’s okay to take a sick day off work once in a while to decompress. Usually, you rack up a lot of sick leave throughout the year that you never use.
$600 Billion in losses! WOW, sadly though it doesn’t surprise me. I’m on the fence about this one though. I feel if artist/companies advertised at a lower price they would get more customers and the cost of manufacturing couterfeit goods wouldn’t be worthwhile.
Yeah, it can be hard to resist the cheap prices on knock off products, but we do get what we pay for and there isn’t a return policy with counterfeit goods so buying anything electronic is always risky.
I was surprised how many fake watches are sold in Istanbul when I went there last year. They have entire stores, not just guys roaming the streets, stocked with thousands of knock offs of all the latest luxury brand watches.
I can totally believe 1 million call in sick due to stress everyday!
And I can totally believe there are a lot of slackers who call in sick around a holiday or a Friday or Monday when they are not sick! 🙂
Happy Halloween!
Haha, and probably an additional 1 million called in sick in SF alone today because of the Giants parade! The city was a mad house but it sure was fun. Orange and Black baby, go Giants!
A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I emailed a file of confidential data to myself. There really wasn’t a better way of doing it, because they needed me to update the file while working off-site. I felt it was a better option that going to the lawyer’s office, writing down a list of the files they had, and driving back to the office to update the file.
I have in insane fear of falling. The closer I am to the edge of something, the lower to the ground I had better be. I once got dizzy standing on a chair at school!
I think that was a fair decision given your circumstances. The real problem is when employees send company files to their personal accounts for malicious reasons like stealing ideas and leaking data to the media. Tech companies must be super paranoid about that since there is so much competition of which company is going to create the next big gadget first.
I’m not the best with heights either. I don’t like walking on glass/clear stairs and walkways which I’ve seen in some newer buildings.