Starters

This study examines the interaction effect of age in L2 attainment. It explores whether success in foreign language
learning at early childhood grades varies depending on age. It also addresses the beliefs of foreign language
teachers regarding the variables under review. Eighty-three 11 year-old language learners who started learning
English at different ages were placed into two groups. The initial exposure of the early starters was 5-6 and of
the late starters, 9-10. A set of language proficiency tests covering all four-language skills were given to the
participants to determine the possible differences in the proficiency of the two groups. Also, qualitative data was
collected from 6 teachers through a questionnaire that aimed to elicit their beliefs regarding the effect of age
on L2 attainment. The findings showed that the early starters did not perform significantly better than the late
starters in any of measures. The teachers, however, indicted that the early language learners had more positive
attitude towards English compared to the late starters. Findings underscore that language attainment may
involve a lot of variables and that early age may not take account of the whole issue.

The purpose of the article is to determine which factors are most important for the success of a startup with a radical innovation in the first three years. First a conceptual model is designed in which three main factors determine the success of growth: the uniqueness of the advantages of the innovation, the startup organization characteristics and the person of the entrepreneur. A survey was  setup with startup companies which are not older than fifteen years and which are active in a diversity of segments. A correlation analyses was done based on 75 respondents.Growth was operationalised  in two ways: the growth in turnover and the growth in employment. We found
different factors correlating in a different way with the different growth concepts.  Both growth in employment and in turnover are positively related to  a thorough business plan and more than 75k Euro seed capital. The
uniqueness of the advantages of the innovation, customer pro-activeness, multiple founders and a relevant social network have a positive influence on turnover growth but not on employment growth. For turnover growth t he uniqueness of the advantages of the innovation and more than 75k Euro initial capital had a high significance. There is a positive relation between employment growth and external advice and investor capital but not with the
turnover growth. Only a thorough business plan, external advice, 75k Euro initial capital and using investors capital had a positive significant influence on employment growth. Other conclusions are that depending on the used criterion for growth the significant factors differ and that in general the employment growth is a factor 4 smaller than the turnover growth.

A qué te enfrentas cuando inicias un negocio o decides trabajar por tu cuenta. (México) En México, hay un buen número de aspectos que debes tomar en cuenta para iniciar un negocio y tener éxito, igual si decides ser " free lance ". Lo que aquí se expone no pretende ser una fórmula de éxito, más bien es una guía para no naufragar en tanto trámite y aspectos administrativos. Si vas a iniciar tu negocio, seguramente ya te cercioraste que tu producto o servicio tiene suficiente demanda para darte utilidades. Aun así, se recomienda hacer un estudio del mercado. Según la magnitud del proyecto o negocio, pueden ser simples encuestas que den luz sobre la aceptación del producto o un estudio más profundo con encuestas, " focus groups " y todas las herramientas de la disciplina. • Estudios previos Bueno, si ya estás seguro que " vende " , lo que sigue es el estudio financiero. Creemos que es uno de los más importantes. Puntos a considerar en el estudio: Ventas mensuales, número de personas que trabajarán en el negocio para determinar los sueldos a pagar, gastos fijos como luz, agua, predial, telefonía. Deberás considerar todos los gastos posibles, eso le dará mayor exactitud al estudio. Es importante considerar que algunos gastos o inversiones sólo son por una vez, no corresponden a gastos periódicos. A través de este estudio se sabe en cuanto tiempo se recupera la inversión, qué monto de pagos se deben asegurar cada mes, cuánto dinero quedará en la tesorería del negocio y si habrá que hacer aportaciones adicionales. En resumen, el primer estudio te dice si tu producto se vende, y el segundo te dice si es rentable.