New York SBDC Research Network

Annual Report on the State of Small Business Empire State Development 2019 Annual Report on the State of Small Businesses In accordance with section 134 of the NYS Economic Development Law, Empire State Development (ESD) is required to compile an annual report on the state of small businesses, particularly businesses with less than 25 employees which are often referred to as “microbusinesses.” Please note that the data provided in this report are the most recent available. The data includes such topics as:  Growth & Economic Trends of Small Businesses Employment and Economic Data of Small Businesses in New York State Programs to Improve Small Business Growth in NYS Employment in New York State Small Businesses with 0 - 19 Employees, By Industry (4th Quarter 2017*)  Improving the Business Climate State & Local Business Regulations

 The US Census Bureau produces a Weekly Pulse Newsletter that offers a perspective on the state of small businesses in the US.  This survey was developed to gauge the business impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US (with some exceptions such as agricultural businesses).  You can subscribe to the Census Bureau surveys - of which there are many - and receive them in your inbox. This stage in the pandemic, when we are focused on returning to "normal",  is an interesting time to take the temperature of how we've borne it. Here are the highlights from their emailed newsletter. You can see periodic pulse reports here . Weekly Pulse Newsletter The U.S. Census Bureau is in a unique position to produce data on the social and economic effects of COVID-19 on American households and small businesses.  Small Business Pulse Survey Updates Explore Data See Data Tables Based on responses collected May 24 through ...

 There are the trends we read about in journals and newspapers and then there are the observations we make from our own perspective - and they don't always match. Throughout this pandemic, we have been able to see with our own eyes the businesses that have closed temporarily or permanently. Friends can tell us how they have been affected by COVID-19 and it is no surprise.  While we see all these outward signs of a shrinking back, there are also indicators of new growth. We have been busy despite COVID-19. This article in Forbes describes what we have seen as supporters of small business owners: Small businesses were hit hard by COVID-19 but there were also a staggering number of new business starts. Small Business Struggle While New Businesses Surge: A Paradox? by  Dane Stangler "Existing small businesses continue to struggle. New entrepreneurs are seeking opportunities. That is what the data appears to be saying about the state of small business and entrepreneurship amid...

Here's how 3 women pivoted their small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic Almost a third of small-business owners have had to close their in-person business operations because of government regulations put in place as a response to the pandemic. By Michelle Fox CNBC.com May 18, 2020 9 Entrepreneurs Who Have Rapidly Transformed Their Businesses for the Better A small sample of owners proving that it's possible to regroup and reinvent. Daniel Priestley CEO, Dent Global Entrepreneur.com April 13, 2020 EDITORS' PICK   How Three Small Businesses Are Pivoting To Stay Afloat Amid The Coronavirus Pandemic Maneet Ahuja Forbes.com May 12, 2020 Small Businesses Adapt, Plan for Growth Amid Pandemic Struggles The latest Coronavirus Impact Poll performed by MetLife and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that many small businesses are adapting and pivoting their workflows to make it through the pandemic. Matthew D'Angelo, Contributor US Chamber

Small businesses are especially vulnerable to the threat of any sort of disaster and certainly, we are now getting a glimpse of just how much businesses will be affected by the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. As the spread of the disease moves quickly from continent to continent and across the country, we can see healthcare organizations and cities roll out their plan for emergencies such as this. But if there is a task that falls by the wayside for the small business owner, planning for business continuity is probably the one that falls through the cracks. Perhaps lessons learned from myriad climate disasters have prepared business owners for this new threat but if not, there is no time like the present. I've come across a few articles that offer some practical things that business owners can do to mitigate the damage.  ECONOMICS & SOCIETY How Chinese Companies Have Responded to Coronavirus by Martin Reeves , Lars Fæste , Cinthia Chen , Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak and Ke...

By Beth Thouin From Web.com Consumers are now doing more research before they buy, so making an investment in your small business website is an absolute must. With 56% of online shoppers and 45% of brick and mortar shoppers reading reviews before purchasing, their expectation is that they’ll be able to self-serve and get many of their questions answered during their research phase. This means your website needs to be modern and give consumers what they want — information to qualify their buying decisions. The most essential part of your business is its purpose and similarly, your website has to clearly express this purpose. Your business and your website need to thoughtfully address the needs of your visitors, and the best small business websites have this practice down from the start. Before you buy your domain, make sure it was never used in the past for purposes you don’t want to associate your business with. Some domains already have a bad spam score once purchased, and ...

BY MELANIE LOCKERT From The Balance : If you have an introverted personality, you might shy away from some jobs that require a lot of face time or public interaction. There are numerous jobs and side gigs that are perfect for introverts, allowing you to make extra money without having to deal extensively with other people. How much you make depends on what you’re selling and how much time you’re willing to put into it — this can be a side hustle to make you a little extra money​ or a full-time business that can make you thousands of dollars a month. Also: Are you an introverted small business owner? You are not alone: Networking and social gatherings By Wayne Fowler For the Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce

BY SUSAN WARD From The Balance: Small Business The title of this article is a bit misleading. These aren’t the absolutely worst ideas for starting businesses. They were fine ideas for starting a business in their day, as were film developing, video stores, dial-up internet services, and horse-drawn carriages. But for some, that day is gone and these are no longer necessarily good choices. Some are no longer good choices because their potential markets have been saturated. You can still start a business in a saturated market, but if you do you’ll have to find a specific niche you can target and/or have especially strong skills. For others, times have changed and no matter how talented you are or how much you love the idea are, your new business is unlikely to be profitable.

From the Small Business Administration The Small Business Profiles are an annual portrait of each state’s small businesses. They gather the latest federal data into state-by-state snapshots of small business health and economic activity. Limited economic data is also provided for the U.S. territories. This year’s profiles report on state economic growth and employment. They also answer the questions: How many small businesses are in my state? How many jobs do they create? Which industries have the most small businesses and small business jobs? How many establishments opened and closed? How many small businesses export, and how much? Which counties have the most small business employment?

From FedEx : Enter Your Small Business by March 25 You’ve built something amazing. Now it’s time to share it with a wider audience. The 2019 FedEx Small Business Grant Contest is here — with even bigger prizes. Enter now for a chance to expand your possibilities. Grand Prize $50,000 (1 winner) Plus $7,500 in FedEx Office® print and business services Silver Prize $30,000 (1 winner) Plus $5,000 in FedEx Office print and business services Bronze Prize $15,000 (8 winners) Plus $1,000 in FedEx Office print and business services Enter and Spread the Word First, review an example . Then follow these steps to increase your chances of winning: 1. Write a short profile. Share your unique story and offerings. 2. Upload photos and a logo. Capture the spirit of your business in images. 3. Create a video. Create a one-minute video pitch about your business. Check out some simple tips to get you started. 4. Get out the vote. Remind fans to vote for you. Votes are one...

From the Internal Revenue Service Section 199A of the Internal Revenue Code provides many taxpayers a deduction for qualified business income from a qualified trade or business operated directly or through a pass-through entity. The deduction has two components. Eligible taxpayers may be entitled to a deduction of up to 20 percent of qualified business income (QBI) from a domestic business operated as a sole proprietorship or through a partnership, S corporation, trust or estate. For taxpayers with taxable income that exceeds $315,000 for a married couple filing a joint return, or $157,500 for all other taxpayers, the deduction is subject to limitations such as the type of trade or business, the taxpayer’s taxable income, the amount of W-2 wages paid by the qualified trade or business and the unadjusted basis immediately after acquisition (UBIA) of qualified property held by the trade or business. Income earned through a C corporation or by providing services as an employee is no...

By Max Gulker From the American Institute for Economic Research Who doesn’t love small businesses? They embody two classic American archetypes: the little guy and the hard worker. People treat them less as individual businesses, and more as barometer of what they find good and fair in our market-driven economy. There are few more effective ways to drum up public support for or opposition to a policy than arguing that it’s good or bad for small business. Lost in this narrative are the businesses themselves — a diverse array of individual actors rather than a monolithic symbol of economic virtue. Asking whether something is good or bad for small business limits our understanding of how firms and markets evolve. Nothing better embodies the array of ways revolutionary technological change reverberates through the business landscape than the impact of internet retail giant Amazon on small businesses. Thinking carefully about that impact requires us to unpack the many kinds of firms we...

From Bloomberg LP Written by Zeke Faux and Zachary Mider New York’s attorney general has opened an investigation into potential abuses by finance firms that offer quick money to small businesses nationwide, according to a person familiar with the probe. Attorney General Barbara Underwood’s office is looking into whether merchant cash-advance companies engaged in fraud or abused the state court system, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Last week the office subpoenaed one of the largest cash-advance companies, Yellowstone Capital LLC, the person said. "It’s reprehensible to defraud, deceive and harass small-business owners through predatory debt-collection practices and the abuse of our court system," Underwood said in a statement to Bloomberg News that didn’t provide details. “If a company is engaging in fraudulent and deceptive conduct, we want to know.”

Featured in America's SBDC newsletter The U.S. Department of Labor announced the launch of the New and Small Business Assistance  webpage and the Compliance Assistance Toolkits webpage. These new online tools assist American small businesses and workers with simple, straightforward resources that provide critical Wage and Hour Division (WHD) information, as well as links to other resources. The webpages were established in response to feedback received from new and small business stakeholders voicing their need for a centralized location to secure the tools and information they need to comply with federal labor laws. These new webpages provide the most relevant publications and answer the questions most frequently asked by new and small business owners. These tools, in conjunction with worker.gov and employer.gov , ensure greater understanding of federal requirements and provide tools to help employers find resources offered by other regulatory agencies. Learn more .

Excerpt from an article by Jackie Dana To read more, visit  NameCheap "Every business needs happy customers and clients to be successful. From repeat business to word of mouth, satisfied customers sustain your business and help it to grow. But not every customer or client is going to be happy all the time. Your quest, should you choose to accept it, is to view each complaint you receive as an opportunity to build your business and improve your customer relationships. Let’s take a look at how you can transform your angry customers into your biggest fans and become their hero."

From FTC.gov Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission, jointly with the offices of eight state Attorneys General, the New York Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, two U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Better Business Bureau (BBB), announced the results of Operation Main Street: Stopping Small Business Scams, a law enforcement initiative targeting operations seeking to defraud small businesses, and an education outreach effort to help small businesses protect themselves from fraud. Operation Main Street - Stopping Small Business Scams (24 Law enforcement actions nationwide; 12 Partners in law enforcement, including the FTC, brought these federal and state actions; 6+ Types of scams - including unordered merchandise, business directories, fake invoices, and imposters - collected more than $290 million from businesses in these cases) - Go to ftc.gov/smallbusiness.The agencies are announcing a total of 24 actions involving defendants who allegedly perpetrated scams against sm...

From the Federal Trade Commission : The Federal Trade Commission is launching a national education campaign to help small businesses strengthen their cyber defenses and protect sensitive data that they store. The FTC will develop and distribute reader-friendly educational materials with information about cybersecurity that small businesses need. The effort grew out of the Small Business & Cybersecurity Roundtables that the FTC hosted last year with small business owners and non-profit organizations, employees, and managers to learn about the challenges they face when dealing with cyber threats and security and ideas for how the government can help them. “Small businesses understand the importance of cybersecurity and the need to protect their networks and data, but many feel overwhelmed about how to address the myriad of cyber threats they face,” said Tom Pahl, Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Our new campaign aims to help these small businesses w...

From Lendedu : Being a female entrepreneur can come with its challenges. On top of building a business, many women business owners juggle numerous responsibilities like family or caregiving commitments. For these reasons, running a business as a woman can feel sometimes like you’re Ginger Rogers, who famously said that she had to do everything Fred Astaire did – except backwards and in heels. Fortunately, some organizations have realized the added difficulties women entrepreneurs can face in finding funding and have set up grants and investment opportunities specifically for female business owners. There are also several traditional funding opportunities you can access. This guide can help you navigate the different types of programs that want to give you money to help you grow your business.

From PBS : Since President Donald Trump signed the American Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December, large corporations have made headlines by giving bonuses to employees and raising wages. But much less attention has been paid to small businesses, even though experts believe they stand to benefit significantly from the new tax law... Three main changes to the tax law will likely help small businesses...: lower individual tax rates, an additional 20 percent deduction for companies filing as pass-through entities, and an expansion of Section 179 filing, which allows for expensing of business-related equipment. Of course, not all aspects of the tax law will be advantageous to small businesses. For example, the law’s elimination of many deductions — including for certain business expenses like travel costs and membership dues for professional organizations — may incentivize employees to work for larger companies that can afford to absorb those costs.

Each year the  New York Small Business Development Center  recognizes outstanding small businesses in a variety of ways.  This Success Story from the   Niagara SBDC  appears in our  2016 Annual Report . Roger Urban   Platter's Chocolates Niagara SBDC Platter’s Chocolates is a family business owned and operated by the Urban family since 1972. Owner Roger Urban purchased Platter’s from Carl Platter who started the business in 1938, and several members of Urban family currently work in the business. Several years ago Roger purchased Betty Dixon Candies, the Jamestown candy shop that Lucille Ball worked at as a teenager, and which inspired the famous episode on her show. This purchase broadened Platter’s manufacturing lines and chocolate mold inventory.  In 2014, Platter’s acquired Ko-Ed Candies, a South Buffalo tradition since 1947, again expanding production. This lead to Platter’s outgrowing its facility. In 2015, Platter’s embarked...