As we enter the new year, we can begin to forecast what the new trends will be for small business owners. Here are the top 10 small business trends to look out for in the new year.

The New Frugality: A variety of factors have coalesced to create an era of frugality – the bad economy, stubbornly high unemployment rates, and the burst of the housing bubble to name just a few.

The upshot is that people are spending less, saving more, and are looking for bargains. For the small business person, this has several ramifications: First, as you well know, it’s tougher to get people to spend, and spend more. That isn’t going away any time soon. Secondly, you have to give people what they want, and what they want are bargains.

The New Employee: This trend is another directly related to the changing and challenging economy. More and more, employees are shifting, or are being shifted, to part-time or independent contract status. It might be a forced furlough or a forced downsizing, but whatever the case, full-time employment with full-time benefits is becoming harder and harder to find, and to offer.

Less Money, More Responsibility: It is not my way to be the bearer of bad news, and I promise that the rest of this list is not so gloomy, but this trend is real and it ties in with the previous two.

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