New York SBDC Research Network

From the SBA PRESS OFFICE Administrator Karen Mills of the U.S. Small Business Administration has written an open letter to small business owners across the United States explaining immediate benefits available to small businesses as part of the Affordable Care Act. The full letter is available at http://www.sba.gov/acaletter/ - content is below: *** Dear Small Business Owner, For decades, access to affordable health insurance has been the number-one concern of small business owners. To help you address that concern and provide quality, affordable coverage for your employees, the new Affordable Care Act gives you a number of new tools and benefits . The most immediate benefit you should know about is the tax credit to help you pay for up to 35 percent of your employee premiums starting this tax year. An estimated 4 million small businesses may qualify for these tax credits, totaling about $40 billion over the next 10 years. Go here to learn more about the tax credit , including new in...

WASHINGTON – The Orange County Calif. SCORE Chapter, a New Mexico Women’s Business Center, and a New York Small Business Development Center received national awards today for their outstanding service and assistance to entrepreneurs in their communities. These outstanding resource partners were recognized during a National Small Business Week award event in Washington, D.C., taking place May 23-25. The event, sponsored by Northrop Grumman, also highlighted lender awards from the U.S. Small Business Administration. ‘During national small business week we honor those who stand beside and support small businesses as they create jobs,” said SBA Administrator Karen G. Mills. “Because of our resource partners we are able to touch the lives of over a million small businesses each year that are the engine of our nation’s economy.” The Entrepreneurial Development Award categories include the National SCORE Chapter of the Year, the Women’s Business Center of Excellence Award, and the Small Busi...

On May 17, 2010, the IRS begins the process of revoking tax-exempt status from nonprofits that failed to file three consecutive annual returns (Form 990-N, 990-EZ, 990, or 990-PF). "A large number of these organizations are smaller nonprofits that previously were not required to file an annual return because their gross revenues were $25,000 or less. These nonprofits now must file Form 990-N, which the IRS created in response to the Pension Protection Act" of 2006. Read more about these upcoming changes HERE .

WASHINGTON - Calling small business the backbone of the nation's economy, President Barack Obama stressed his Administration's commitment "to helping small businesses drive our economy toward recovery and long-term growth" in his proclamation of the week of May 23-29 as National Small Business Week. The President's proclamation was issued May 20 prior to the U.S. Small Business Administration's 47th annual observance of National Small Business Week in Washington, D.C. (May 23-25). The event honors the nation's most outstanding entrepreneurs, and features the announcement of the National Small Business Person of the Year for 2010 from among the 53 state small business winners, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. President Obama will meet with Small Business Week award winners at the White House Tuesday. "Small business owners embody the spirit of entrepreneurship and strong work ethic that lie at the heart of the American dream....

When the press release is right, it's right: The Web offers investors a rich trove of information. But it has little value in today's fast-paced business environment if you can't quickly find the nuggets you need. That's why BusinessWeek is launching the Company Insight Center on BusinessWeek.com. The CIC, or Companies Channel, combines our resources with those of Standard & Poor's (MHP) Capital IQ division (like BusinessWeek, a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP)) to pull together up to 33 pages of data, charts, profiles, and news stories on each of 42,000 public companies in the U.S. and abroad. The result: an unparalleled array of corporate data. CIC offers easy navigation to get you from, say, stock price charts that you can customize; to earnings reports and estimates; to profiles of chief executives and board members; to a history of their stock trades. Also available are reports on some 320,000 private companies, though since they're private, the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U. S. Small Business Administration is offering new, free tools for new and established small business exporters to help them grow and succeed in international trade. Small businesses will now have access to six-part podcast series, an introduction to exporting Youtube video and an online training course. SBA is making these new tools available as part of the World Trade Week celebrations taking place May 17-21 nationwide to raise awareness of the increasing importance of international trade to the nation’s economy. "Exporting is a critical strategy for helping small businesses grow and create jobs," said SBA Administrator Karen G. Mills. “We’re working every day to help small businesses break into exporting, reach more international markets and be more competitive in the global economy." The podcast series is available online and focuses on Growing Your Business Through Exporting; Developing an Export Strategy; Preparing for Global Markets; C...

Tarsus Online Media...announced plans to launch the TSNN DataSite to provide in-depth information about the top trade shows in the U.S. The DataSite will be an online resource representing TSNN’s ten years of data collection on trade shows in North America. The announcement comes a little more than a month after the closing of Tradeshow Week, the industry’s only weekly print publication and publisher of the Tradeshow Week 200 Annual Directory. More info HERE .

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance today announced that a federal court judge has signed a temporary restraining order barring the furlough of state employees. This means that the previously-announced May 21 closure of the Department’s call center will not occur. The call center will be fully staffed and Department employees will not be furloughed on that day.

Real gross domestic product increased at an annualized 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010, its third quarter of positive growth and a sign of continued economic recovery. Mirroring broad economic trends, overall optimism was higher, with small businesses remaining cautious. Unemployment remained high at 9.7 percent in March, but nonfarm payrolls increased by a net 283,000 jobs in the first quarter. Meanwhile, interest rates remained low, and overall inflation appears to be in check. These and other trends are discussed in the latest update of the Quarterly Indicators: The Economy and Small Business. Quarterly Indicators: The Economy and Small Business is located here (PDF) .

From SBA: Recently, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and Google announced a new partnership and unveiled "Tools for Online Success," an array of online resources and training designed to help small business owners harness technology to grow their businesses. The site at www.google.com/help/sba , features tutorials, video testimonials, and tips from savvy small business people who have leveraged the web to become more efficient, more cost-effective, and more successful. "The SBA is pleased to partner with Google to put these important tools in the hands of small businesses across the country," said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. "As the web evolves and consumers adapt accordingly, we know that more customers are finding traditional ‘Main Street’ businesses online. With these tools for online success, we can ensure these small businesses reach new markets and customers so they can continue to create jobs." "One fifth of searches on Google...

The Postal Service has taken its case for five-day delivery to the Postal Regulatory Commission, claiming that current volumes do not support six-day service. The USPS is required by law to seek an advisory opinion from this commission any time they propose a nationwide change in service. Read more . Yes, you may have heard about that. But guess who sent the e-mail to me? Pitney Bowes. They send out a regular e-letter about topics that affect their clients. P-B machines are used to print out postage labels, among other things. In the same message P-B talks about small business and social media . You should be using Facebook and Twitter to tell you customers important, and relevant info...such as an impending five-day USPS delivery schedule.

Report for March 2010 . *Export-supported jobs linked to manufacturing account for an estimated 3.1 percent of New York's total private-sector employment. More than one-fifth (20.9 percent) of all manufacturing workers in New York depend on exports for their jobs. (2008 data are the latest available.) *A total of 27,329 companies exported goods from New York locations in 2007, the third highest number among the 50 states. Of those, 94 percent, or 25,657 firms, were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with fewer than 500 employees. *SMEs generated more than half (55 percent) of New York's total exports of merchandise in 2007. That is the third highest percentage among the 50 states and well above the national average of 30 percent. *In 2007, foreign-controlled companies employed 433,600 workers in New York. This was the second largest total among the 50 states (only California was greater). Major sources of New York's foreign investment in 2007 were the United Kingdom...

With census takers going door-to-door for the 2010 Census, there is a lot of information floating around about what the process for the Non-Response Follow-Up phase entails. Why is the Census Bureau collecting certain information on the form? How do I know that my data is safe? Is this operation the same as the American Community Survey (ACS)? How do I recognize a census taker? Please click on the following videos to find answers to some of these questions. It is important that proper information gets to your customers that have not responded to the 2010 Census. Please feel free to forward these videos and encourage everyone to answer the census taker, so that we make sure that everyone is counted. In English How is my data protected? 2010 MMC YouTube What is the difference between the 2010 Census form and the American Community Survey form? 2010 MMC YouTube Why does the Census Bureau collect information on Hispanic origin? 2010 MMC YouTube En Español ¿Cómo reconozco un e...

This week, Google and the Small Business Administration announced a partnership and unveiled Tools for Online Success , a website designed to "educate local businesses about how to succeed online". Through tutorials, tips, and short videos of business owners who have found success online, small business owners can "become more efficient, more cost-effective, and more successful". “The SBA is pleased to partner with Google to put these important tools in the hands of small businesses across the country,” said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. “As the web evolves and consumers adapt accordingly, we know that more customers are finding traditional ‘Main Street’ businesses online. With these tools for online success, we can ensure these small businesses reach new markets and customers so they can continue to create jobs.” The best part, Mills said, is that it’s free.

World Development Indicators, Global Development Finance, Africa Development Indicators, and Global Economic Monitor are now free, open, and easy to access at data.worldbank.org . Recognizing that transparency and accountability are essential to development, the World Bank Group now provides free, open, and easy access to its comprehensive set of data on living standards around the globe—some 2,000 indicators, including hundreds that go back 50 years. The data is available in Arabic, French, and Spanish in addition to English. Particularly for those folks dealing with international trade, this is huge. "Open data will foster innovation." - Hans Rosling, Gapminder Foundation