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WHAT'S HOT, WHAT'S NOT Sales increase for fitness and sports centers, the small-business sector with the strongest growth from 2009 to 2010: +13.62% Sales decrease for car washes, the small-business sector with the weakest growth from 2009 to 2010: -12.18% Sageworks TRENDS Among people who text, the average number of text messages sent per month: Men: 555 Women: 716 The Nielsen Company State of the Media 2010 THE WORKPLACE Area, in square feet, of workspace lost by the average office worker from 1994 to 2010: 15 International Facility Management Association HIRING The portion of small businesses hiring in 2010 that said they added fewer workers than they needed: 42% Reasons for hiring: Replace an employee who left: 41% Support growth or expansion plans: 21% Some other reason: 18% Don't know: 1% Revenue or sales has increased: 13% Economy is getting better: 5% Tax credit for hiring unemployed workers: 1% Wells Fargo/Gallup TAXES Lowest and highest overall tax burdens for entrepreneurs: South Dakota: 1st New Jersey: 50th Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council REALITY CHECK Retail price, per gallon, of black ink in the average printer ink cartridge: $4,371 PC World THE ECONOMY Increase in the sales of trucks and cargo vans—considered a useful indicator of small-business activity—in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared with a year earlier: 24% Edmunds.com

The last couple days have brought numerous positive reports about the economy. Most show jobs climbing, others show decreased layoffs and still others indicate increased capital investment. But what isn’t being talked about is what’s going on with the country’s smallest businesses

Photographs by Darren Soh An elderly women holds a sign that says "Please, sir hold on. I'm not asking for a red envelope." | Photographs by Darren Soh It is a couple of weeks before Chinese New Year and Chen Guangbiao is sitting in the back of his SUV, barking orders out the window at his press secretary, a serious lady with a serious clipboard: "Beijing News, Beijing Evening News, Beijing Youth Daily ..."Chen, a member of China's new and fast-growing billionaire ranks, has just paid these newspapers to publish articles listing the charitable deeds he's done over the course of the year.

The Fast Company reader's essential source for breaking news and innovation from around the web--bite-sized and updated all day.

Despite its mysterious PR aura, Apple is generally pretty reliable when it comes to releasing new hardware at a particular time. But now there are rumors that its hardware release dates may be pushed back later than usual this year.

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs. Here's what we found today

An ad agency has resorted to an innovative hiring technique: a hashtag battle. Say you're a hiring manager at a leading advertising firm, and you're looking to hire a summer intern

Picture an old-fashioned covered wagon . Now, imagine your job is to pull that wagon. The wagon carries all of the concerns and goals of your business; understandably, this is a pretty heavy wagon, so you consider finding someone to help you pull it.

Recent moves by two of the biggest names in tech may be shedding light on their plans for digitally connected televisions.

Aha! Google is caught with ink on its hands. Then Google *must* be a media company after all, right? The truth is not that simple

In my previous life as fashion editor I covered the Oscars for many years. And now that the finalists for the James Beard Foundation Awards have just been announced, I can totally see how the JBAs are like the Oscars for the food world, complete with just as much campaigning, intrigue and breathless live blogging as Hollywood's biggest night.

We've seen conflicting data concerning the role of mobile media in our lives.

1. Reports of the demise of wireless payment NFC tech in the upcoming iPhone 5 may be exaggerated: A new rumor has surfaced , purporting to come from an entrepreneur working on a "secret" NFC project, that suggests Apple will indeed support the contact-free system in its new edition. This backs up moves by Apple in January to hire an NFC/RFID expert

The world premiere of Paramount Pictures The Tunnel will happen in a few months, but not in a theater--it's going to be released on BitTorrent, for peer-to-peer distribution. Yup, that's the same tech video pirates utilize. The movie is set in a network of abandoned rail tunnels that really exist underneath Sydney, Australia, and from the teaser trailer the film proceeds as a real-life feeling horror/thriller with a nod to the Blair Witch Project

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