New York SBDC Research Network

By Kathleen McShane From the Small Business Administration As a former small business owner and entrepreneur, I know first-hand the support, resources and access to networks and financing that entrepreneurs need. While there are many businesses that experience success, the fact remains that only half of all small businesses survive more than five years; and about 10-12 percent of all employee-based firms close each year. There is growing evidence, however, that connecting a business with a mentor can change this statistic. Having a mentor can change the playing field for a small business. Research has shown us that small businesses that receive mentoring early in the development of the business achieve higher revenues and increased business growth. A survey by the UPS Store found that 70 percent of small businesses that received mentoring survived more than five years – double the survival rate of non-mentored businesses. The same survey found that 88 percent of business owner...

From America's SBDC : SBDC Day is a national, collective proclamation of the success and the impact America’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) have across the nation in economic development and the small businesses community. America’s SBDC Day will take place on Wednesday, March 21, 2018. SBDC Day will unite the nearly 1,000 SBDC centers across the country and the hundreds of thousands of clients they serve by sharing, in real time, the success stories and notable impacts SBDCs collectively have on the small business community at large. This special day will be celebrated with social media campaigns, public relations initiatives, online and in-person events and more. To learn more about what your local SBDC is doing to celebrate, click on Find your local SBDC . America's SBDC has developed a national SBDC Day Ambassador program , so that all of America's SBDC partners, supporters and stakeholders can collectively show their support for SBDC Day. All nationa...

From America's SBDC : Small businesses are an integral aspect of not only the economy, but also communities and families across the country. They are the face of America because they represent the creativity, ingenuity, and hard work that fuels this country’s economy. It is critical that we understand the state of entrepreneurialism in America and develop strategies to support and promote the success of current and future generations of entrepreneurs — whatever their age. This national study is an important step toward achieving this goal. It was designed to uncover research-based insights into the entrepreneurial mindset of Americans, and how to engage them by understanding their perceptions, motivations, and behaviors when it comes to small business.

Study Conducted by America's SBDC Reveals Insights into the Entrepreneurial Mindsets of Different Generations of Americans America's SBDC partnered with the Center for Generational Kinetics to better understand how different generations view and approach entrepreneurship. The findings reinforced previously held beliefs such as a strong entrepreneurial inclination among millennials, while challenging preconceived notions about their motivations for starting a business. Generational Perceptions Small Businesses play a huge role in the lives of Americans. One-third of Americans (34 percent), have worked in a small business in the past and nearly a quarter (24 percent) of both Millennials and Gen X own or have owned a small business. The study found that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well with 41 percent of Americans saying they would quit their job and start a business in the next 6 months if they had the tools and resources they needed. This number is higher fo...

The New York SBDC will join other SBDC centers across nation in celebrating the first annual SBDC Day on March 22. SBDC Day is a national recognition movement to share the small business success stories and notable impacts SBDCs have fostered in communities nationwide. Clients, guests, and prospective entrepreneurs are encouraged to stop by NYSBDC locations to meet the staff and learn more about the SBDC. Since 1980, America’s SBDCs—the nation’s largest small business and entrepreneurial assistance network—have helped aspiring and emerging small business owners achieve the American dream of entrepreneurship. SBDC Day will celebrate the collective impact and success SBDCs have across the nation and in local communities each year. With nearly 1,000 locations across the country, SBDCs provide local businesses and entrepreneurs with the resources needed to succeed. In 2016, America’s SBDCs provided 1.3 million hours of consulting to 192,205 client businesses, resulting in 100,233 jobs crea...

From here : Don't miss Microsoft's National Entrepreneurship Week , February 20-24th, 2017. Don't miss their free webinars and you can follow on Twitter at #WININBIZ. 2/22 at 9am PT: The Power of Referral Marketing: How to get your customers talking Tapping into your existing customer base could be the key to new business growth.  On the next episode of Office Small Business Academy, learn about the power of referral marketing, and how to design a program that works for your business. Register Now  2/22 at 10am PT: Staying Ahead of the Curve: Technologies that Adapt with your  business .  It used to be that as your business grew, you'd have to increase your technology budget to meet your growth needs. Not anymore. Join the Microsoft's presentation the Staying Ahead of the Curve: Technologies That Adapt with. Register Now  2/23 at 10am PT: Small Business Webinar: 3 Tips for remaking your online professional presence Learn how Yelp and Office 365 ca...

The New York Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is pleased to announce Christina Loggia , Business Advisor with the Farmingdale State College SBDC, has been awarded the 2016 State Star for New York. The State Star designation recognizes outstanding achievement in high-quality business counseling and distinguished, long-term service in terms of economic development. Loggia was recently honored during the America’s SBDC Annual Conference in Orlando. Loggia joined the SBDC in 2013 as an advisor helping Hurricane Sandy victims with NY Rising grant applications, and in 2015 started counseling non-disaster clients. To date, she has assisted more than 300 small business owners and entrepreneurs and has succeeded in helping them obtain more than $6.8 million dollars in small business grants and or loans. Loggia brings more than 30 years of business experience in the areas of retail, purchasing, human resources, marketing and education to the small business community.

The US House of Representatives has passed HR 5485, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations for FY2017.  This bill, which funds the US Small Business Administration, includes $130 million in support for the 63 Small Business Development Center (SBDC) networks and their nearly 1,000 centers across the United States and in DC, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa.   "We particularly want to thank Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Ander Crenshaw for his support. This funding increase will enable SBDCs to expand and improve our ability to assist small businesses nationwide, small businesses that are the vital foundation of our national economy.  Every day small businesses face challenges with access to capital, sales, marketing, and a host of other issues. This funding will make sure that SBDCs are there to help them grow and create jobs"

In honor of National Small Business Week, please join America's SBDC (@ASBDC) for "10 Most Common Small Business Questions" Twitter Chat on May 4th at 3pm ET. @ASBDC will serve as the chat "moderator." America's SBDC will post questions every 7-9 minutes for about 45 minutes beginning at 3pm ET using the hashtag, #SBDC. Questions will be noted as Q1, Q2, etc. In your response, please note your answers with A1, A2, etc. For example, @ASBDC will post "Q1: What's your favorite marketing technique? #SBDC" and you might respond: "A1. We recommend writing a blog #SBDC". Feel free to RT the questions so your followers know which question you are answering. The chat will last about 50-60 minutes depending on the pace of responses. If other Twitter users are chiming in, please feel free to RT them or answer their questions. Just remember to add the hashtag #SBDC. Here are the questions that @ASBDC will be posting: • Q1: Do I have what ...

How often do you pick up your smartphone throughout the day? When you wake up; when you’re standing in line for your coffee; when you get a notification? According to a study by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, the average person looks at their phone 150 times a day. With 57% of customers saying they would not recommend a business with a bad mobile site, the power of mobile for small businesses is undeniable. Here are a few tips to get started: Put your website to the mobile test. More from America's SBDC

You’re considering going into business for yourself. Perhaps you’re looking into a franchise, but you’re not sure you’re ready to start a brand new franchise outlet. Even with all the support and systems in place to aid new franchisees, the thought of tackling a brand new franchise outlet can be intimidating to some. An attractive option for those individuals may be a resale franchise opportunity. Franchises all over the country will routinely be resold by the previous franchisee for a variety of reasons. These outlets may be a little more “ready-made” for an immediate business opportunity, yet all businesses aren’t created equal. Also, you may not know which franchises are for sale. Many times, the franchisee must work back through their franchisor in a resale opportunity. You need to find the right guidance and investigate, there’s no substitute for performing your proper due diligence throughout the business investigation process. More from America's SBDC

Like a prehistoric masterpiece scratched into the far recesses of an undiscovered cave, it doesn’t matter how awe-inspiring your website is if nobody can find it. Search engines are the archeologists of the digital landscape. An estimated 90 percent of consumers searching for local businesses online use search engines like Google® Bing® and Yahoo® to find them. If you want your business website to get discovered, you need to tap into the power of search. Just about every website owner today understands the basic concept of search engine optimization (SEO): taking steps to attract the attention of search engines in order to drive traffic to your site. Search Engine Land defines SEO as “the process of getting traffic from the ‘free,’ ‘organic,’ ‘editorial,’ or ‘natural’ search results on search engines.” The paid ads you often see at the top of search results don’t figure in. You’ve likely already taken the fundamental steps to improve your SEO. Your website brims with unique and com...

Now that you've decided to build a website for your small business (congratulations, BTW), there’s no room or reason for procrastination. Right now, your potential customers are on their smartphones, tablets and computers looking for products or services like yours. The facts don’t lie: -- At least 85 percent of today’s consumers use the Internet to find local products and services. -- More than one-third of U.S. smartphone owners use their phones to find store locations online. -- And people used their phones, tablets and desktops to shop online to the tune of more than $70 billion in 2013. Most likely, your competitors are already online. You’re losing out if you’re not. Of course you’re busy. More from America's SBDC

Brazzlebox, the exclusive social network for small and home based business, has announced it is launching nationally as of September 18, 2014. Small, at home, Veteran owned and start-up businesses will be able to go to http://www.brazzlebox.com/web/guest/home www.brazzlebox.com and sign up FREE. They can quickly develop their profile page and immediately start connecting with businesses in their community or industry. Brazzlebox is the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Glen Zinszer. Brazzlebox will be working to fill the current B2B and B2Community social networking void. More from America's SBDC

Smart Small Business Travel To increase orders from your current customers and find new clients, plan a business trip. Travel, an important tool in your small-business tool kit, is an investment in growing and sustaining your business. And as with any investment, you want to get the highest return—in this case, your return on travel. Businesses get an average return of $9.50 for every travel dollar they spend, according to a study the U.S. Travel Association sponsored, which Oxford Economics conducted. And it’s clear why business travel makes sense. In-person interactions close sales and deepen relationships. High Return on Travel Plan One obstacle that keeps business owners from traveling is the belief that they must be on-premise to run their businesses. Can you entrust team members with more of the daily operations so you can focus more on business development? Can you adopt cloud solutions and apps that allow you to be a more effective mobile manager? Must Have Apps ...

As an SMB owner, you want to maximize the investments you’ve made in your business. You want to get more done in less time. And you want to ensure you’re communicating effectively with customers and employees. The right technology can help you do both. Here are three ways you can ensure you’re making the right technology decisions for your business. 1. Know that “free” often comes at a cost. More from the America's SBDC .

Intellectual Property and 3D printing don't get talked about often, mainly because 3D printing is still growing into a mainstream activity. But with 3D printing starting to become more accessible to businesses and homes, what kind of Intellectual Property issues might develop that your business will need to protect or analyze? Any blueprint of a 3D design can be protected through copyright. And if your business is a creative one where people are creating original 3D files, this is going to be a necessary step as an interesting direction in creating new media works. However, many existing blueprints already exist for specific 3D objects. If your business happens to print one of those designs that you didn't create yourself, you could face copyright infringement if you plan to profit off the objects. More from the ASBDC .

For spice trader Ron Harris, owner of Valley Harvest Products, circumstances changed when he started meeting with Asbury Lockett, a certified business advisor with the Washington Small Business Development Center (SBDC). He hadn’t been resting, but he hadn’t been moving ahead. So many daily tasks demanded his attention that he couldn’t make progress on long-term goals. For the past year, Harris and Lockett have been meeting about every six weeks to go over financial statements, business strategy, marketing, new markets, priority lists, self-imposed deadlines and anything else that might help Harris grow and strengthen his business. “You eat an elephant one bite at a time,” he said. “Asbury helps me do that.” More from the ASBDC website .

These U.S. Small Business Administration resource partners have almost 1,500 locations across the United States, Guam, and Puerto Rico to help veterans who want to start their own business or grow an existing business. All partners can advise veterans on small business loans and provide training and support on a wide variety of challenges small business owners face, from access to capital to marketing. They include Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) , which provide a vast array of technical assistance to small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs. SBDCs foster local and regional economic development through job creation and retention. SBDC clients receive free, extensive, one-on-one, long-term professional business advising, low-cost training and other specialized services. More information from SBA .

The ASBDC wanted to make sure all small business owners are aware of an important occurrence next month. As of April 8, 2014, Microsoft will no longer provide technical assistance for Windows XP and Office 2003, including automatic updates that help protect your PC. According to Microsoft, more than 20 percent of small businesses are still using the XP platform, which Microsoft first introduced in 2001. What does this mean for your business? 1. There will be no new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options, or online technical content updates. 2. Without critical security updates, PCs could become vulnerable to harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software which can steal or damage business data and information. 3. Anti-virus software will not be able to fully protect PCs running Windows XP once the OS is no longer supported. 4. Businesses that continue to run Windows XP after support ends may be exposed to potential security threats...