New York SBDC Research Network

We have a print directory in our collection that provides contact information for nonprofit organizations around the U.S. It would be an ideal resource if it were only available online somewhere. Its layout makes identifying nonprofits in a given area a very cumbersome task. There are websites that provide this information, though they have their limitations, too. I recently suggested to an advisor that his client check out what I consider to be the best of this bunch: http://www.idealist.org/if/as/Org/npo As you'll see, the search feature gives you the option of searching by state/province, city/town, postal code, and "area of focus". Use of any or all of these fields can be used to create a pretty targeted list of NFPs in a given geographic area. Once you get your results, the name of each NFP is hyperlinked to a page with more complete contact information. Precision searching is a priority here. For example, I did a search of all NFPs in New York, and found 5,56...

Not to say it is recommended, but I still like to see sites that help people help themselves, and this one is offered by the US Courts: How to handle your own bankruptcy. Even if an attorney were consulted, at least it offers a clear idea of what needs to happen. Bankruptcy Basics runs through the chapters and what they mean and includes a glossary. There is also a page of Bankruptcy Resources . FYI: Bankruptcy Filings Down for Fiscal Year 2007, Up for Quarter Bankruptcy 'tweak' could save 600,000 homes Consumer group pushes for change to bankruptcy law; others worry about negative impact on mortgage-debt markets. By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer October 1 2007 Changes to Bankruptcy Rules (Effective 12/1/07) By Brett Weiss, Maryland Bankruptcy Attorney on Dec 15, 2007

Giving: Its the season of gift giving, including executives and their family foundations. Portfolio.com has created several features about the philanthropic habits of Wall Street family foundations, including Wall Street Family Values : Who's giving—and who's missing? and The Generosity Index . Receiving: Want to know how much they are keeping to themselves? The SEC has developed a new online tool, the Executive Compensation Reader , "that enables investors to easily and instantly compare what 500 of the largest American companies are paying their top executives."

In the December 6, 2007 New York Times , Brent Bowers writes that a study has concluded that dyslexics were more likely than nondyslexics to excel in oral communication and problem solving and to own two or more businesses. It has long been known that dyslexics are drawn to running their own businesses, where they can get around their weaknesses in reading and writing and play on their strengths. But a new study of entrepreneurs in the United States suggests that dyslexia is much more common among small-business owners than even the experts had thought. ... William J. Dennis Jr., senior research fellow at the Research Foundation of the National Federation of Independent Business, a trade group in Washington, said the study’s results "fit into the pattern of what we know about small-business owners." "Entrepreneurs are hands-on people who push a minimum of paper, do lots of stuff orally instead of reading and writing, and delegate authority, all of which suggests a high...

If there's one thing you need to hear about during the last days of the holiday buying season, it's your credit score. Sarah O'Connell from the Watertown SBDC forwarded this article to me recently from the LA Times , which reports the "facts" and "myths" associated with business owners & their attendant credit scores. She thought some of y'all would find it interesting. Much merriness to all!

The History of Christmas from the History Channel. How Christmas Works . Holidays.net's take . And the Census Bureau's .

Here's a site that's been around since the mid-1990s, in one form or another. I can't believe that I'd never blogged about it before, but it's been in my bookmark collection since I was in my late 20s - a loooooong time ago, apparently. You can search for websites for trade associations through a portal provided by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE): http://www.asaecenter.org/Directories/AssociationSearch.cfm It's come a long way, as you can now search by numerous methods (like "Association name contains," which is particularly handy). If you need it, you can also search for trade groups based outside of the U.S. Note that there's also a State field. If you're looking for trade groups with a headquarters in New York State, then this is the field to use. However, I'm assuming that most of these associations will have national or international scope. The National Restaurant Association is based in Virginia, but would s...

I reminded myself to check out our shelves and lo, success! A source that I am sure we have described before but here it is again is the Consultant & Independent Contractor Agreements book by Attorney Stephen Fishman for Nolo. It comes with a disk with the sample contracts. The book covers hiring contractors and working a contractor. There is a chapter on negotiating contracts - a sample for the hiring firm and one for the contractor.

What are the hottest trends in restaurant menu items? The National Restaurant Association’s “ 2007 What’s Hot & What’s Not Chef Survey ” highlights 194 food items, rated as “hot,” “cool/passé” or “perennial favorite” by 1,282 members of the American Culinary Federation in October 2007. Hottest items? Bite sized desserts. Hottest trend in vegetables? Surprise, surprise- locally grown. This survey offers additional insight into the hottest cooking methods, ethnic cuisines and alcoholic beverages. Obviously of interest to anyone in the restaurant biz, but perhaps also valuable to specialty food producers, ready for the next “hot” thing!

According to the Bizjournals.com website and the Business Review newsweekly, employers must begin using a revised I-9 work eligibility verification form for new employees by December 26, 2007. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service revised it to update the types of documents that can be used. "The new form also instructs employees that they don't have to include their Social Security number on the form unless they used their Social Security card as evidence of their work eligibility or unless their employer participates in the E-Verify program. Employers in this voluntary program electronically check a new worker's Social Security or visa number against government databases." In other employer news from the US government, the Department of Homeland Security plans to revise its new regulation that would require employers to fire employees if they can't resolve discrepancies between the Social Security numbers submitted by workers and government records. ...

In the midst of the holiday bustle, let's take time to give a birthday shout-out to a landmark figure in library history. Today is the birthday of Melvil Dewey, a former State Librarian in New York (as well as the creator of the library classification system that bears his name). He would have been 156 years old today if he, well, hadn't died in 1931. Dewey was born in Adams Center, just southwest of Watertown (where our own Mary Hoffman once lived). He was 26 when he conjured up the Dewey Decimal System. This was a means of dividing all human knowledge into 10 broad categories, which could be divvied up further still depending on the subject (like biography, which begins with "920"). Before then, librarians were expected to arrange books on the shelves by either size or color, and memorize the placement of each one. While we've never used DDC at this library (shoehorning some of the subjects in our collection into the rigid ten categories results in some as...

Already getting swept up in the Christmas blitz of stuff, this morning I opened my email to find a message from a friend with this link to a short film that I thought was very relevent. I thought I would share it here. This is from the Story of Stuff website describing their intentions: "The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns, with a special focus on the United States. All the stuff in our lives, beginning from the extraction of the resources to make it, through its production, sale, use and disposal, affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues and calls for all of us to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something. It'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever." There is a d...

We receive quite a few questions related to marketing to specific ethnic groups. Here’s a resource that can help find those markets: Ethnic Events provides a “comprehensive online directory of more than 1,000 ethnic events in the United States” as well as information on ethnic markets within this country.” It’s searchable by ethnic group, date or location. And don’t forget that we can help you find ethnicity and ancestry demographic information too!

Since primary voting will begin less than a month (Iowa, January 3), and New Yorkers will be voting on February 5, I thought I'd share The 51st State: The State of Online from Searcher magazine. The info was compiled a couple months ago, and a few of the candidates have already dropped out of the race. Here's a list of the current contenders. "As Laura Gordon-Murnane illustrates in this in-depth article , the Internet is no longer like a third-party candidate, but is breathing down the proverbial necks of the mainstream media, threatening to usurp broadcast and print sources as the primary way people follow the election. Five extensive tables look at the Web sites of each of the 17 presidential candidates, as well as mainstream media sites, blogs, and aggregator tools, and show just how much the Internet is impacting the 2008 election. This is a key reference tool for anyone following the election or helping voters."

Here's an article that Roger forwarded around the office, and it's created quite a stir. It's astonishing to see the nutritional content in some of the meals offered at restaurants around the country, and raises a lot of questions as to just what goes on behind the kitchen doors. For instance, check out #15. What does the Macaroni Grill put in their macaroni & cheese dish that results in a 1,200-calorie meal?) (If you want to check out the nutrition facts for other restaurants, go to DietFacts.com .) Sadly, some of these "Worst Foods" are familiar to my palate. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to eat a carrot.

After living for several years as an expat in the UK, you would think that I would be immune to the perpetual critique of the US and Americans that goes on. But I am not. Not even when I agree or can clearly see the truth in what is said. But this also inspires in me a need to represent the good people I know who are trying to make a difference day-to-day. Most people I know are not Hummer-driving, junk-food guzzling, paper-towel-wasting, supporters of ne'er-do-wells in the world. So,as usual came home from a trip to the UK feeling the need for a little good news, and after a few futile attempts returned to The Good News Network to see if in fact there was any good news. Well, sometimes these things can backfire, because the good news can seem so anemic compared to the bad news...but! If there is good news to be had, they will find it - and I am pleased to read that Google is trying to help develop clean energy to offset it's use of electricity and that healthy school lunche...

How goes your holiday gift shopping? As usual, I'm planning to make far more gifts than I will actually finish, and vowing to avoid the mall. We'll see how I do... Gifts & Decorative Accessories magazine offers some interesting holiday-shopping related articles. Here's a few: Affluent Shoppers Buy Half of Holiday Gifts Apparently, households with annual incomes less than $75,000 are expected to spend 7.6 percent less on gifts than last year, while households with more than $75,000 in income are projected to spend 3.1 percent more. The top 30 percent of households will spend almost the same as the bottom 70 percent. Gold, Geese, Milkmaids Drive Rising “12 Days” Price Tag Have an extra $19,507 ? You could buy your true love the items from the 12 days of Christmas. Black Friday Shoppers to Buy Before 10 a.m. According to Mastercard, 1/3 of "Black Friday" purchases are made before 10 am. Electronics and appliance retailers see their busiest hour between 7 and 8 a...

When it comes to businesses promoting their location as having free WiFi access, I think primarily of bookstores, coffeehouses, and hotels. However, WiFi access is something that any small business can promote. In today's New York Times, there's an article called " In-Store Wi-Fi Is Free, but Not Commercial-Free ". It features a company called AnchorFree , which "has introduced a service that lets merchants of any size — from a large bookstore chain to a mom-and-pop restaurant — offer free advertising-supported Wi-Fi to customers on the store premises. People who are shopping or eating in an AnchorFree location will see banner ads on their screens or short video spots or both before their browsing session." The article also mentions JiWire as a company that "has a similar system, though a different technological approach." If you have a client whose customer base includes the techno-literate, this is a service that they might want to consider.

Frequently Occurring Surnames From Census 2000 Tabulations of all surnames occurring 100 or more times in the Census 2000 returns are provided in the files at the link above. The first link there explains the methodology used for identifying and editing names data. The second link provides an Excel file of the top 1000 surnames. The third link provides zipped Excel and CSV (comma separated) files of the complete list of 151,671 names occurring 100 or more times. These charts are broken down by race and Hispanic origin. The top ten surnames are: NAME Number of occurrences Smith 2,376,206 Johnson 1,857,160 Williams 1,534,042 Brown 1,380,145 Jones 1,362,755 Miller 1,127,803 Davis 1,072,335 Garcia 858,289 Rodriguez 804,240 Wilson 783,051 Green is 37th with 413,477.

There's no shortage of information about green business and environmental issues. But its not always easy to find on the web. Here's a pleasant directory of " Going Green " resources put together by the librarians at the Middletown Thrall Library in Middletown, NY. Topics include organic food, energy and fuels, and home improvement - areas many of our clients seem to be particularly interested in.

Based on SBA guidelines, SBDCs at one time couldn't really assist not-for-profit organizations. Now, however, they can. One of my favorite resources is Guidestar.com. The October and November issues featured the article "20 Biggest Fundraising Mistakes", some of which apply to for-profit businesses as well, such as Failing to Set a Realistic Goal and Failing to Have Deadlines.

In late 2005, I was part of an SBDC meeting where we heard from a director of The Entrepreneur's Source . This company provides coaching/counseling services to people interested in owning a business, with a specialization in franchises. Theoretically, they help the budding business owner in finding the franchise opportunity that best suits his/her personality, lifestyle, etc. They are not brokers, nor do they represent any particular franchisor. We often get questions from advisors with clients who want to own a business, but aren't sure what type is best for them. If, during discussions with them, you & your client can't seem to find that industry perfectly suited to them (and the client is interested in running a franchise), then keep this site in mind.

Shelfari Like most things that are working well online - you can always find more than one version of it - social networking - take your pick - there are so many out there. Well, we are now using LibraryThing to share our catalog with you all but naturally there are other similar tools out there. I have always liked the idea of having a way to keep track of everything I've read. For people like my own mother who doesn't remember she has read something until she's halfway through it for a second time, it is pretty useful and timesaving. I was invited to join Shelfari which another personal library tool where you can list what books you've read, have but haven't yet read, and a wish list. It links to Amazon.com so you can double check titles and write a commentary on each. It's not as big as LibraryThing but it's prettier and I a little more user-friendly. You can discuss, find like-souls and maybe figure out what to read next.

Sometimes helpful resources come from unexpected places. Take this report on " wireless substitution ," ie households that rely on cell phones rather than landlines, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics ( NCHS ) . You might ask, "Why does the CDC care about who has cell phones and no landline?" The answer doesn't seem to be because they are tracking brain cancer from cell phones (Phew...) It turns out that when the agency conducts the National Health Interview Survey, they ask for a phone number for follow-up purposes. And they ask if this number is a landline , and if anyone in the household has a cell phone. These questions yield some interesting answers, showing the rise of the wireless-only household, particularly in young adults renting with a non-related roommate.

The Economic Census forms will be sent out in December 2007 and are due back on February 12, 2008. Virtually all large and medium-sized businesses are surveyed. A large sampling of small businesses, covering all industries, will receive a form. This tally is done once every five years. The forms ask for basic information like business location, employment, payroll, and sales by type of product or service. Businesses that receive a form are required by law (Title 13, U.S. Code) to respond. The individual information is confidential, and Census will suppress any information that would identify a particular business, e.g., the sales information for the only jewelry store in town will not be published. Businesses, communities, and governments use Economic Census data for planning and market development. Statistics are published for more than a thousand industries as well as for states, counties, cities and metropolitan areas at business.census.gov. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bern...

Over the weekend, I had to bring a lawnmower AND a DVD player to be repaired. In both cases, I fear that the cost will be dangerously close to simply buying a new one. Not a very environmentally-friendly deal. Which is why I liked this article from the Nov. 8th New York Times so much. It reveals a number of websites where you can go and get ready advice on repairing an iPod (CrunchGear.com), a Mac (macfixit.com), home theatres (avsforum.com), gaming systems (fixya.com), copiers, PDAs . . . and all the other toys of life. In many cases, you'll get a variety of options, specific instructions, and the means to save a bunch of money vis a vis replacement parts. As an extension of the Third Place post I wrote a while ago, it's clear that these online repair forums are a replacement for local repair shops (which the article laments as a near-extinct species). Here at the library, we frequently visit online forums to get answers to questions relating to the software we use. ...

Roll your own search engine Create search engines using the sources you trust. Works the way the personalized pages on Google or Yahoo! work but this time with the purpose of searching those sites. They also have a toolbar so that you can limit to your favorite sources wherever you happen to be. So if you want to the New York Times, Answers.com and Amazon.com in a drop down or radio button, there it is. They have a popular set of sources but you can also design your own - list all the sites you like and then label the group - what they call a " searchroll " You can also look at others' searchrolls. So if you like Rosario Dawson , then you can have a look at her Latino Issues roll which lists about a dozen sites of interest. Steve Rubel , marketing strategist, has created the Interactive Marketing roll which includes many really good marketing sites.

Have you heard about Radiohead’s new album? The band has made “In Rainbows” available for online download with users allowed to pay as much or as little as they’d like for the music. There’s been much discussion of how the average person has paid (“ more than half pay nothing ” or “ the band isn’t telling, so we don’t know ”, but the bottom line is that without a record label taking a hefty share of sales, the band is likely to do very well. Here’s another alternative to the major record labels - SellaBand . The company offers this description of its model: “Artists and fans have one goal. Make music and money together. Artists upload their music and profile. Fans find artists they like and believe in. $10 (plus transaction costs) buys them a piece of the action. $50,000 gets the artist in the studio. Fans get an exclusive CD send to their homes. Artists make their dream come true. From now on bands and believers are in business together. You are the record company!” More on how it wo...

Intuit has now made their "Simple Start" version of QuickBooks (formerly $99) free, recommended for very small or one-person businesses. Entrepreneurs can also enter Intuit’s contest to win $50,000 ($40,000 cash and $10,000 in products and services). Get contest details and download a free copy of Simple Start here . These activities are tied into Intuit's "Just Start" campaign, including a series of exciting live events featuring Rhonda Abrams, small business advice columnist and expert, as the "expert-in-residence." She'll be available one-on-one to answer questions about business. People who meet Rhonda will receive one of her books (free and personally autographed), get free Simple Start software, and enter Intuit’s "Just Start" contest for a chance to win $50,000 for their business. New York – Thurs & Friday, November 8-9, 11 am – 2 pm Grand Central Terminal, Vanderbilt Hall Boston – Tues & Weds, November 13-14, ...

Mary Ellen Bates is a respected information consultant. I receive an e-newsletter from her, and this month's issue had this bit that I think is pretty cool: "If you are based in the US, you can search for local companies through your cell phone, regardless of whether or not your phone has web capability. If you call 1-800-GOOG411 (1-800-466-4411), you will be asked to say the city and state you want information on - Boulder, Colorado, for example - then you say the type of business or specific business name you want - for example, "book store" or "Barnes and Noble". A text-to-speech program will read you the top eight results from its local search ( http://local.google.com/ ). If you want, Google can automatically dial any of the first eight businesses' phone number, or you can ask to have the address and phone number read to you." (From Bates Information Services, www.BatesInfo.com/tip.html ) A visit to the Google website for this service repeated...

Lending and Borrowing from the General Public YOUR MONEY Person-To-Person Lending Flourishes on Web by Jessica Smith Morning Edition, NPR , November 2, 2007 “Welcome to the era of coffee shop money lending.” I read this story on NPR.org about person-to-person lending on the Internet which just seemed like an amazing idea. It is fascinating that this exists and that it seems to work. The idea is that a person writes a profile of how much they want to borrow and for what and what their top limit on the interest they are willing to pay and then people bid on the loan request. The borrower is vouched for by friends, colleagues or family and the amount raised from various lenders is consolidated by Prosper.com and then the money is distributed. These are not small loans either- they can run from $50 to $25,000. It seems a risky proposition but interesting to see how people will take things into their own hands. Prosper.com "Prosper generates revenue by collecting a one-time 1% or 2% f...

Happy Halloween! If my memory is correct, the Halloweens of my childhood in Vermont were always super-dark and freezing cold (Snow? Fairy costumes are a bust when you have to wear your winter coat over them). This chilly thought made me think how nice it is for tonight's trick-or-treaters to get that extra hour of light, since we haven't yet turned back the clocks. Well, apparently I wasn't the only who thought it would be nice for Halloween to have a little more evening light. According to this online New York Times piece, An Extra Hour of Halloween Daylight? Thank the Candy Lobby , the candy industry lobbied hard for this extension of daylight savings, thinking it would spur additional candy sales.

We get quite a few requests about veterans, so here's something from the SBA Office of Advocacy: This study compares changes in the income and wealth of veteran and non-veteran households; veteran small business households with veteran non- business households; and veteran small business households with non-veteran small business households from 1989 to 2004. It classifies all households with a business owner/manager or self-employed individual as a business- owning household. This study uses the 1989 through 2004 Surveys of Consumer Finances (SCF), conducted by the Federal Reserve Board as its primary data source. A full copy of this report is available here and the research summary can be found here . Should you need further information, please feel free to contact Charles Ou at (202) 205-6533 or advocacy@sba.gov.

This article appeared in yesterday's online version of the Wall Street Journal. Misleadingly titled "Four Danger Signals When Franchising," (it ought to read "When Buying a Franchise"), it re-visits territory that we've explored in this blog over the years. Nevertheless, this is practical information to review with our clients. It's a brief article, and it highlights three specific issues: 1 - Lots of litigation and closures - Noting that franchisors have an obligation to disclose any current or past litigation in the franchise offering circular; 2 - Too many bad reviews - Recommending that potential buyers interview a variety of current owners of the franchise to get their honest take; and 3 - High-pressure sales tactics - Which ought to speak for itself. A lot of this is common sense, but I've heard many stories from all of you over the years about clients who bought a franchise first, then asked questions later. That's the wrong order to ...

Today is the last day with the SBDC RN for Alexis Mokler who has been our very diligent library intern. Alexis is continuing her Master's in Library Science course at SUNY Albany. We are always happy to have the help of interns but are especially glad when we have as good an intern as Alexis, able to take on oftentimes troublesome projects and give us some much needed help with research. We wish her much success and thanks for all her good work!

Do you get too many catalogs in your mailbox? Check out Catalog Choice . Catalog Choice “is a free service that lets you decline paper catalogs you no longer wish to receive.” You just enter your name and address (they promise not to send you anything), then search for and select the catalogs you’d like to stop receiving. Your mail box and letter carrier are saved wear-and-tear, the catalog company isn’t wasting money on catalogs you have no interest in, and a lot less paper is consumed. As the website points out, “Over eight million tons of trees are consumed each year in the production of paper catalogs.”

The SBA Office of Advocacy-funded paper "Are Male and Female Entrepreneurs Really That Different?," by Erin Kepler and Scott Shane, finds that gender does not affect new venture performance when other factors are controlled for. However, several factors--differing expectations, reasons for starting a business, motivations, opportunities sought and types of businesses--vary between the genders, and these result in differing outcomes. Such observations should be taken into account when comparing the outcomes of ventures across genders. The data used for the study was from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) focusing on businesses started in 1998 and 1999. A full copy of this report is available here and the research summary can be found here .

Not long ago, Dale Rice sent me this article from the October 2nd Buffalo News . It reports the desire of the mayor of East Aurora (about 15 miles southeast of Buffalo) to ban outdoor digital signs in that village. Proposing to ban any kind of sign is fraught with legal & Constitutional issues, as signage (as a form of commercial speech) is protected under the First Amendment. Hundreds of cases have been brought up (and won) by businesses over the years, challenging the legality of their local codes. If passed, the proposed sign code for East Aurora could eventually meet this same fate. Last week, I was part of a panel presentation on the importance of fairly-constructed, legally-sound sign codes. In the audience were town and municipal officials, inspectors, and code enforcement officials who were eager to learn about the subject. Codes exist all over the country that impose restrictions and obstacles on business owners when it comes to the sign outside their front door, and...

This is purely for entertainment purposes, at least to my mind. The World 66 Travel Guide a wiki that will let you create a map of all the places you have been and to create a travel guide of your own. It calls itself an "open travel guide". You can read travel information from individuals like yourself and learn as I did, that I have only visited 5% of the world. You can also list individual travel to US states and Canadian provinces, along with the countries of the world - though you may not always agree on the boundaries and definitions of those countries. For instance, you can read the England travel guide but you cannot isolate England as a country on your map. It will select all of the UK (including Scotland, Wales - it has Ireland (both presumably) listed separately. My profile also defines me as "Travel Yup" which may not bevery complimentary but is fairly accurate.

I have a new favorite database. Its name is DemographicsNow. I’ve always enjoyed questions of a demographic-nature, but this tool makes answering them considerably easier and more fun. Want to know where to locate your new business? The database can compare up to ten geographies at once, comparing consumer expenditures, income, existing businesses and employees, or retail sales potential for almost a hundred categories. Have you heard of MOSAIC cluster groups? I hadn’t, but the company that owns DemographicsNow describes them here . Using this feature you can see how a geographic area breaks down into niftily-named groups like “small-town success,” “affluent urban professionals,” “urban grit,” or “comfy country living.” It has all the usual census data, including age, race, etc, but its easier to choose your exact geography (the whole U.S., state, metro areas, cities, zip codes) and you can use a radius around a zip code. Seems like a great way to learn more about people and places, an...

Scarborough Research, the leading consumer research firm measuring the lifestyle and shopping patterns, media behaviors and demographics of American consumers, released an analysis which finds that the South reigns for eBay Visitors . But Rochester, NY does OK, too.

It's been almost two years since I first wrote about this resource in our collection. I guess our blog has reached the age where we can dip into the archives once in a while to review some older posts. I won't repeat it verbatim (no need to plagiarize myself). However, I have done a few searches for venture capitalists this week, and, in both occasions, lacked information to create a more focused list. Most advisors, when requesting such a search, will let us know the industry in question. Also, as a general rule, we limit our results to those firms with an office somewhere in New York. However, there are two other factors worth knowing: 1) The amount of funding being sought (many firms have a minimum and/or maximum amount that they're willing to invest); and 2) The development stage of the business Galante's defines some of these development stages: Seed - Concept or idea stage. Money needed to research market and concept feasibility. Startup - Pre-operational f...

WHO: SBA National Ombudsman Nicholas Owens will host the October Web chat on “Regulatory Fairness and Your Small Business.” Owens, who also serves as assistant administrator for Regulatory Enforcement Fairness at the SBA’s Office of the National Ombudsman, leads the national effort to ensure fairness in federal regulations on small business, while working to diminish disputes between small businesses and federal regulatory agencies. WHAT: Chat participants will have the opportunity to learn more about how the Office of the National Ombudsman can help small business owners with unfair and excessive federal regulatory enforcement, such as repetitive audits or investigations, excessive fines or other unfair actions by a federal agency. The SBA’s live Web chat series provides business owners the opportunity to discuss online relevant issues with experts, industry leaders and successful entrepreneurs. Participants have direct, real-time access to the Web chats via questions they submit onl...

I get a number of library newsletters via listserv and one of them is by Mary Ellen Bates of Bates Information Service . She covers a huge number of sources with a little brief about each and today I received one on translators on the Internet. And I note that the contribution was originally from Barbara Verble so it is truly making the rounds. There have been language tools and translators available for some time on the Internet, they are not terribly effective, but still helpful if you want the gist of a passage. While I try not put too much faith in them, I still use them. My options are often limited though to a very few though because I usually need Danish translated and many do not have languages outside of French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese and the other most popular languages. World Lingo offers a translation service into several major languages and even includes an email translator - new to me, that translated text and sends the message. They also list PROMPT and f...

Next time you call a company’s customer service number and would like to speak to a real person, gethuman.com has the tools for you. One of the American Library Associations’ MARS “ Best Free Reference Web Sites 2007 ,” ALA offers this description: “Aimed at consumers, the gethuman database of 500 companies includes customer service telephone numbers, specific instructions for reaching a human being at each company, and quality of service grades. Users can click on a company name to rate the quality of telephone support.” The companies are broken down by category, including, but not limited to, automotive, credit, financial, stores, internet and products. It’s also nice to see which companies have real people answering the phone from the very beginning of a call. Have clients interested in providing better phone customer service? This May 2007 NPR report, " Improving Customer Service Over the Phone " discusses corporate training for customer service representatives, and offe...

Publication 910 (10/07). I have a peculiar interest in the fact that while some codes are well-delineated, others are cut off at the three-digit level.

The weather this week has been far too gray, which should not be the color of autumn. To get around this (if you actually want a little color), this page offers three links to cool videos of changing foliage in different parts in Maine. (You'll need Adobe Flash Player to view them.)

It seems the trend to be unique is gathering strength. We notice it in the types of requests we get and in the success stories that we come across. People want their wedding to be "unique" and "special" with personalized favors and cake toppers. Customized m&ms, ketchup bottles, hershey bars, cereal boxes, soda bottles, gift cards, soaps, design-your-own totes and jeans, it seems like whatever you can think of, you can probably personalize it. I enjoy my iGoogle page with all my own source choices grouped in one place - we've become accustomed to having our way and we want to express our individuality through the products we buy. We've been seeing ways to personalize your car or your kitchen mixer. "Gravanity" Trendwatching.com This is an interesting monthly bulletin and you can also read all of this sites well-considered trends. Pimp my KitchenAid Charles Perry for Los Angeles Times Aug 09, 2007 Soup up your kitchen mixer or fridge or toaster...

This week I was trying to track down information on travel-related websites and found Consumer Report’s Webwatch . This site has been around since 2002 (and it seems most of their reports are from 2004-2005), with a stated mission to “Provide unbiased and practical research on Web site publishing and business practices; help devise guidelines for credibility; expose practices that are a cause for consumer concern; and recognize good practices” and to “Promote consumer awareness of important issues on the Web that relate to our mission.” Their reports focus on several industry areas, including travel, search engines, health, e-commerce and finance. They also offer these same industries guidelines for improving their web credibility. These five guidelines to promote Web credibility would be helpful for anyone working with a business website.

Joel Saltzman is a "speaker, facilitator, consultant, and creator of the 'Shake That Brain!' system - for innovative solutions and transformative thinking." He has an entertaining newsletter that one can subscribe to for free. It's from that website that the title article came from. It could have just as easily come from his Shake That Ethics Brain blog, which is described as "Business Ethics Made FUN, EASY and PRACTICAL."

I've posted about web-based directories for angel investors before, but here's yet another site that your clients can use. This one focuses squarely on angel groups by region within New York State, so it's right up our alley: "Angel investor groups across New York State" http://bianys.com/node/76 (Thanks [again] to the Business Incubator Association of NYS for pointing this out to me.)

Have you recently used the links we provide in the online resource center section of nyssbdc.org? If the answer is "no," you're not alone. I have to admit that I'm not familiar with all of them. The list is available here . Do you have any favorite links that we haven't included? Are there things here that just shouldn't be? (The answer is yes, but which ones?) We try to keep up with broken links, but we haven't evalutated for the quality of the sites in a while. I don't feel that we have to offer our visitors the world, but a quick glance at some important resources would be great. What do you think? Feel free to comment here, or send me an email .

The world of the librarian is not always as glamorous as it might seem. Sometimes, it's just trudging through the mire. Someone wanted to know what New York's stand on "green cleaning" is. Not finding sufficient info by looking at databases or by Googling, I decided to make a call to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. I was transferred SEVEN times, before the last person told me that I needed to contact the Governor's office. I was transferred only TWICE before I was given the state Health Department. FOUR transfers later, I found Nancy; SHE knew exactly what I was talking about, but she wasn't the one I wanted; the guy she thought I should talk with was home with a broken leg. Taking pity on me after my tale of woe, she called him at home, and he gave her, and she gave me, the number to a guy named Kurt Larson in the Office of General Services , who, unfortunately wasn't in that day. But he WAS in the next day, and he had my answer. ...

We're members of the National Restaurant Association (though the only things we cook around here are leftovers at lunch). As such, I get emails from this organization, linking to stories that represent current trends in the industry. Today's email cited a recent story in the Providence Journal (you might - MIGHT - have to register [for free] to read this) as to the trend of naming restaurants after their location. Restaurants rely heavily on word-of-mouth, and if its name includes all or part of its address, then industry insiders feel that these owners have a great advantage. The article cautions against possible trademark infringement, as well as taking care not to create a name that sounds more like a union chapter than a place to eat. However, keep this advice in mind for your restaurant clients who are still debating what they should call their place. (NOTE: There are quotes in this piece that infer that a number-in-the-name strategy is an advantage for people who loo...

10 Businesses Facing Extinction in 10 Years They're going, going and may be completely gone by 2017. Check out their odds of survival. By Geoff Williams September 19, 2007 Businesses that should give up the ghost? Entrepreneur Magazine offers a list of businesses that they believe are on their way out - at least in the next 10 years: Record stores Camera film manufacturers Crop Dusters Gay bars Newspapers Pay phones Used book stores Telemarketers Coin operated arcades

I saw this article- THE NUMBERS GUY: Weddings Are Not The Budget Drains Some Surveys Suggest Carl Bialik. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Aug 24, 2007. pg. B.1 Abstract (Summary) The Knot takes steps to ensure that its respondents are representative in terms of geography and household income. But research manager Kristyn Clement acknowledges that The Knot's members may not be typical spenders. "Our market is brides who are planning an actual wedding and putting resources toward that event," Ms. Clement says. "Are there brides who are not spending money on their weddings? Potentially." Rebecca Mead, staff writer at Conde Nast's New Yorker magazine, writes in her new book, "One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding," that the survey covered only brides who had made themselves known to the Bridal Group and thereby "already demonstrated an interest in having the kind of wedding that bridal magazines promote....

In an article in yesterday's (September 18, 2007) New York Times by RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA, the paper announced that it would stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight night, "two years to the day after The Times began the subscription program, TimesSelect, which has charged $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for online access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives." "In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free." The story indicated that while the Times had generated about $20 million from 227,000 paying subscribers — out of 787,000 over all — and generating, the paper didn't release how much traffic would be generated by the search engines, visitors who ...

For those of you who like a good map, here's a fun tool: Using GIS data from ESRI (a leader in the GIS software & data field - pssstt... we bought some way cool data from them that you'll be hearing more about soon...) National Geographic's MapMachine offers good looking satellite views, physical maps and road maps. But it also provides theme maps on a range of topics, including weather, population density, natural disasters, and nature & conservation. While many of these topics are probably more applicable to school projects, others (perhaps congressional district maps or land use maps?) just might be useful at work. Whatever your motives, its pretty cool.

In most organizations the raw materials of the successful team exist; like dedication to service or professional ability, quality control. Where many, many organizations fall down is in the area of communication, sharing expertise, and a supportive environment. In particular, an appreciation of differing styles of working is essential to the smooth running of any organization. The detail oriented worker cam still have an appreciation of the big-picture worker; the process man can make room for the innovator. Organizations or businesses may have a plan but no process to truly implement it - the goal may be to empower employees but in practice, employees are micromanaged, evidence of a lack of trust. Or there is lip-service to the idea of communication but no process or game plan for dealing with conflict. To read up on teambuilding, check out Free Management Library

An advisor at one of our regional centers asked me to share some information he learned while working with a client last week. During the course of the counseling session, the client revealed she had signed up with a credit counseling service, Clear Your Debt LLC, from Austin, TX. The advisor was concerned when he read the contract the client signed, which prompted him to investigate the company. The Better Business Bureau in Austin told the advisor they had received numerous complaints against Clear Your Debt LLC. Though Clear Your Debt promised financing, counseling and other assistance, the advisor’s conclusion - after reading their confusing contract and talking to the BBB - was that the client would pay $15,000 for basically nothing. At that point, the advisor encouraged the client to return the contract she signed and cancel the agreement (this was within 3 days of the client signing the agreement). The advisor called me and asked that I share the information with other SBDC advi...

The Association of Religious Data allows you to interactively explore the highest quality data on American and international religion using online features for generating national profiles, maps, church membership overviews, denominational heritage trees, tables, charts, and other summary reports. Over 350 data files are available for online preview and most can be downloaded for additional research. I had a question about the number people practicing Islam in parts of New York for a question about the dietary practice known as halal . I used The ARDA search mechanism and found files describing the number of Muslims by county. Other sources of religious data: Hartford Institute for Religion Research and Glenmary Research - the latter especially good for a breakdown of Roman Catholic numbers. Not so incidentally, it would be a mistake to assume that most U.S. Arabs are Muslims. In fact, if you go here , you'll see that most Arab-Americans are Christians.

The Research Network has answered over 23,000 questions since its inception. I've been around for most of them. Most every new request reminds me of something we've researched in the past. It's that deja vu feeling, on a daily basis. You can't trust it, though. I wanted to write a post about business incubators in New York, but I was sure I'd done it a year ago. I hadn't. I looked & looked, but there's no record of it. My bad. Sometimes, I just think I remember things. All righty then. David Hochman, the Executive Director of BIA/NYS, visited a Directors' Meeting within the past year. He let on that their website features contact information & descriptions of active business incubators throughout the state. Here's the URL: http://bianys.com/datainc/ Pass this list on to clients of yours whom you feel have the potential to benefit. And sorry for not getting this to you earlier. Say, a year ago.

When the Do Not Call registry opened registration to the American public in 2003, the majority of individuals rejoiced at the thought of no more telemarketer calls. According the FTC, "The registry was created to offer consumers a choice regarding telemarketing calls". Now, the list has started to expire since numbers are only on the list for five years from the date registered and not everyone who originally signed up is aware that they may be recieving unsolicited calls in the near future. For the article on the list expiring, go here . To re-register your number when it expires, go here . For more information from the Federal Trade Comission, go here . ---Alexis Mokler

Someone at the State Library took the trouble to compile in one place all of the databases tucked away on the websites of New York State government agency. God bless those librarians. Check out the page here . Some you already know about (like the Business Permit System, or the Corporation and Business Entity Database [which I wrote about last week]). There are others on such things as inmates in New York correctional facilities, profiles of licensed doctors, links to websites of licensed insurance departments, and other tidbits. I'm particularly interested in the GIS Clearinghouse website. I'll explain why in a future post (hint, hint).

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we have created an online catalog of our circulating collection on the LibraryThing network. Here's a brief update: Due the diligent work and mad trouble-shooting skills of our intern, Alexis, we now have 156 books listed in our online catalog. The catalog is searchable, and most records contain basic information about the book (title, author, publisher etc. ) as well as an image of the cover, and links to other LibraryThing members that own the book (anyone can create a LibraryThing account and catalog their personal collection.) Its pretty easy to enter records, as you just provide the ISBN or title, and the database finds a matching record. That said, not all the records are perfect, and since we didn't enter all the data ourselves, their may be some inconsistencies. For example, the Entrepreneur start-up guide records all look a little different. With that in mind, we'll try to "tag" records, to pull together similar item...

The SBA Office of Advocacy released an update to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). It estimates that there are 26.8 million small businesses in the United States, and addresses small businesses' importance to the U.S. economy. It provides data on small business firm survival, owner demographics, health care questions, regulations, and procurement. Advocacy's updated FAQs can be found here (PDF) . *** Small Business Report: Statistics for Tax Year 2003 Small businesses are defined by New York State as those businesses that employ fewer than 100 employees. Small businesses in New York may be sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability companies and partnerships, general business corporations, subchapter S business corporations, or transportation, transmission, and utility companies. Data presented in this report includes employment and business receipts by entity type and employment class. This edition of the Small Business Report provides data for New York Stat...

It’s Warren Buffett’s birthday today, so I thought I would look at advice he has offered. Warren Buffet Wikipedia Buffett has amassed an enormous fortune from astute investments managed through the holding company Berkshire Hathaway, of which he is the largest shareholder and CEO. With an estimated current net worth of around US$52 billion,[2] he was ranked by Forbes as the third-richest person in the world as of April 2007, behind Bill Gates and Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helú.[4] Profile of Warren Buffet the free dictionary Investors Should Heed Warrens Buffett’s Free Advice SmartMoney By James B. Stewart July 10, 2007 In any event, Buffett has given away more free advice than just about any billionaire I can think of. He reports his stock holdings and discusses their merits and the reasons for his choices in his popular annual letter to shareholders. More fundamentally, he has laid out his investment philosophy repeatedly for all to see. Anyone can piggy-back his actual stoc...

When I stop at a roadside farm stand, my first assumption is that they are selling home-grown fruits and vegetables from their own fields. But when a New York farm stand has mangos and lemons? And sells t-shirts too? That's a totally different experience. This recent Treehugger blog post, Farm Stand Produce Not Always Local , refers to a Newsday article, Farm Stands on Long Island Undergoing an Evolution , and discusses that while Long Island is known for its local produce, many farm stands are importing their products from as far away as Florida and Mexico, and are not limited to selling only fruits and vegetables. Whether or not this is a good thing for local agriculture, retailers, or consumers, farm stands are an evolving business. With that in mind, here are some helpful resources for the farm stand owner or agricultural businessperson: Farmers' Market Federation of New York Planning the Farm Retail Market Cornell Cooperative Extension: Agriculture Business Resources...

Answering the office phone at the end of the day is often interesting. Last week, the Central office received a call from Michael Raptis, casting director of RDF Media Group . As the press release he subsequently sent me reads: "Key US RDF/Pangea shows include: Wife Swap (ABC); Shaq's Big Challenge (ABC); Two Coreys (A&E); Meadowlands (Showtime); Off The Charts (Fox); How to Look Good Naked (Lifetime); Banzai (G4); 3 Kings (MTV); Ice T's Rap School (VH1); Junkyard Wars (TLC); Faking It (TLC); Gene Simmons Rock School (VH1); Ladette to Lady (Sundance)." Now, the company is engaged in starting a new program: Have you always wondered how wonderful life could be if you started that business, took that hobby more seriously or changed your career? Is there anything you always said you'd do once your kids got older? For many people in their 40’s and 50’s, the time has come to restructure their life and do something they’ve always dreamed of...it could be anything fr...

Some clients have businesses that could benefit in knowing the names of newly-created companies. The Division of Corporations (within the New York Department of State) makes available a daily report of newly registered corporations, limited liability corporations, and limited partnerships. It's not EVERY new business in the state, but it's a start. Here's the service, in DOS' own words: "The Department of State publishes a daily report of new Corporations, Limited Liability Companies, Limited Partnerships and Registered Limited Liability Partnerships and amendatory certificates thereto. These reports are available only through e-mail. The subscription fees are: Annual subscription $125.00 Semi-annual subscription 75.00 Quarter-annual subscription 40.00 Your computer must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to review and print the report. You will be notified of the date of expiration of your subs...

Well, I am surprised to see that I have not written about this most favorite website. The Halfbakery is a wonderful site for innovative thinkers to run their ideas by other thinkers/would-be inventors. I have found this site useful especially for those - "the world has never seen a product like mine..." clients. For every idea presented, posters will then weigh in on whether they think it is a good idea(viable or not) and often present examples of similar or existing products. Many products are completely fantastical but then some ridiculous sounding ideas have actual examples out in the world. This was the case with the collapsing bollard, and I just read about the "dog jack" that I can imagine being a real product like the doggie stairs we see so often. Here's another that would probably be popular if it existed: School kid pick up express: "So what I thought of is a transponder for each family. When we arrive at the school driveway, our ID and our kid...

If you look to the right-hand side of this screen, you just might see a new feature we've added. There's a widget here that links to our new LibraryThing collection . LibraryThing is an online community that allows members to catalog their own book collections. You simply enter the title, or ISBN etc., and it finds the appropriate catalog record for your book, links you to others who own the same book, and can also make book recommendations and provide other user-advisory-type services. A user can enter up to 200 books for free. As our circulating collection isn't particularly large, we thought we'd give it a try. So, check out our library collection. The goal is to include all of our circulating books from this decade, but its a work in progress. Still, take a look, use the search feature, and if you find something you're interested in, send us an email and we'll send it your way.

Source: The Informant e-newsletter, Volume 4, Issue #243 -- Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Free From NASA: Rocket-science Expertise for Businesses NASA offers 40 hours of free technical advice to businesses. Overhaul by SBA to Help Fix System on Procurements Small Business Administration chief Steven Preston announced reforms aimed at cleaning up a broken system for keeping track of government procurements that has allowed federal agencies to classify billions in contracts to some of the world's largest companies as going to small businesses.

Tom Morley (from the Westchester SBDC) recently forwarded me an email that began like this: "Whole Foods Market, a national grocery chain with seven stores in New York, recently started a new program to provide low-interest, long-term loans to small producers around the country. We would very much like to let small producers of food products in New York know about the program." Part of this company's mission is that their produce be as fresh as possible, and make these loans available to farmers of "locally grown" produce (for reasons best explained here ). Of Whole Foods Market's seven locations in New York State , none are farther north than White Plains. However, they define "locally grown" as "produce that has traveled less than a day (7 or fewer hours) from the farm to our facility." Eligible products include agricultural crops, value-added food products, and other all-natural grocery items. This definition, then, makes most of the...

Commissioned by Capital One and conducted by BusinessWeek Research Services , the survey looks at confidence, expectations and hopes of small business owners. The survey asks small business owners where they seek business advice, in this order: colleague, family or friends, CPA or accountant, business association followed by consultant, lawyer, commercial lender and other. “In their own words” are sections given to hearing actual comments from business owners on these topics: How Would You use $50,000 to Improve Your Business? How Did You Start and Then Grow Your Business to its Current Level?

Today's New York Times features the article "At Netflix, Victory for Voices Over Keystrokes" . It discusses how the online movie rental business is trying a new tack (actually, they're returning to an old tack) vis a vis customer service: the telephone. The company has de-emphasized its email address on its website, and has heightened the presence of a toll-free number that is available 24/7. In addition, the call center is located just outside of Portland, OR, and not in India or Singapore. I find this interesting on a few levels. Netflix believes, in the face of increased competition from Blockbuster's new online service, that they should promote the actual voices of friendly customer service reps as a distinguishing characteristic not found at Blockbuster. This kind of emphasis is something that the business literature has recommended to small businesses in the face of big-box competition, but Netflix still is the market leader in this industry. So - does locat...

I tend to write “thanks” a lot. And not just because I’m a grateful person (although I am). It’s just my usual email sign-off , probably because I tend to be asking for things, or thanking you all for asking us great questions. Maybe I should start expanding my repertoire. This recent article from Entrepreneur.com discusses a variety of email closers, and what they say about you. “ What your sign-off is really saying .” Here’s an older USA Today article on the subject. Another good source of email etiquette info: Online Writing Lab at Purdue University

Ofttimes, I see someone send a URL via e-mail and it spreads onto the second line of the posting. The first line of the address is hyperlinked, but the second is not. This becomes cumbersome for the end user. Two suggestions: See if the address can be manually shortened. I've noticed that in some newspaper and magazine databases, an address is created to indicate not only the story, but the section and the date. If removing that information still gets you to the story, shorten it. An example: http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=613944&category=FRONTPG&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=8/14/2007 can be shortened to http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=613944 , and is actually more likely to work over time, for some arcane reasons. The other method is a website TinyURL!™ . Put in even that shortened, 57-character, version of the URL above and you'll end up with http://tinyurl.com/yrwmgk , a more manageable 25-character URL.

A big part of how successful we are at finding information is having the correct terms. We generally hope that the client will be knowledgeable enough in their field to provide some good key words but of course this isn't always possible. We hear of business incubators often enough but kitchen incubators are becoming more prevalent. I worked on a request yesterday for a a list of commercial rental kitchens in the NYC metro area. The examples I came across were not all in NYC area and there were a few good pieces on a kitchen incubator in San Francisco that I thought were interesting. I thought I'd share what I found here. WHEDCo Urban Horizons Kitchen rents a "4,000 sq ft state-of-the-art, commercial kitchen space." They serve the New York City metropolitan area especially aimed at women and minority businesses. They also state that "tenants are required to incorporate in order to secure insurance covering product liability. Some of their clients have been Curr...