New York SBDC Research Network

Eligible small business owners now have more options to refinance eligible fixed assets and business expenses through the Small Business Administration (SBA) 504 Refinance Program . SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet made the program permanent through an Interim Final Rule in The Federal Register released May 26, 2016. This change will help small business owners ease their financial burdens and create incentives for potential expansion and further job creation. In making the announcement, Contreras-Sweet said: “As both a former small business owner and a banker, I know firsthand that access to capital is the single most important factor in the survival and growth of a small business. The 504 loan program with its long term fixed-rate can help refinance debt from adjustable rate loans with significant savings to borrowers. Paying off existing loans with a new loan at a lower cost can help increase cash flow, which can be especially helpful in a resurgent economy. That’s why

From PayScale : This week on CSCareerQuestions, a Reddit user reveals an unfortunate situation that sounds almost too much like HBO's Silicon Valley to be true. OP was fired after spending six full years working at a well-known tech company in the Bay Area. Now, our friend reflects on his time there and admits he may have made some mistakes along the way: for instance, automating his job to the point where he forgot how to code. Let's investigate what happened and see what OP can do to salvage his tech career. After graduating college with a computer science degree seven years ago, OP landed a job in the Bay Area doing Quality Assurance work for a tech company. And, being the savvy tech person that he is, OP automated almost all of his tasks after eight months on the job. So with most of the hard part of his job done for him, OP had some free time ... six years' worth, in fact. Let's see how he spent it, in his own words...

From the Harvard Business Review : The study: Nicholas Bloom and graduate student James Liang, who is also a cofounder of the Chinese travel website Ctrip, gave the staff at Ctrip’s call center the opportunity to volunteer to work from home for nine months. Half the volunteers were allowed to telecommute; the rest remained in the office as a control group. Survey responses and performance data collected at the conclusion of the study revealed that, in comparison with the employees who came into the office, the at-home workers were not only happier and less likely to quit but also more productive. The challenge: Should more of us be doing our jobs in our pajamas? Would the performance of employees actually improve if companies let them stay home? Professor Bloom, defend your research. See also, from Forbes: 10 Tips For Working From Home .

by Deb Best : I recently attended a major nonprofit fundraising event where no name tags were issued, and hundreds of other people in the business community were also in attendance. I was a new sponsor / donor. Fortunately, I connected with a number of people I know in the business community; and for those folks I didn’t know, I had my business card at the ready, and requested their business cards in return. When I approached the check-out table for the silent auction, I asked why there were no name tags. The young staffer at the table replied: “It’s too much work, especially since we have a lot of last-minute attendees. So we decided a few years ago to stop using name tags.” Not the right answer.

Each year the New York Small Business Development Center recognizes outstanding small businesses in a variety of ways.  This Success Story from the  Queens-York SBDC  appears in our  2015 Annual Report .  Joanne McNeil Blue Sky Landscaping Services Queens-York SBDC Blue Sky Landscaping Services, Inc. was started in March 1998 to provide landscape design, installation and maintenance. The woman-owned small business located in Howard Beach in Queens, was forced to close in October 2012 when Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New York City and devastated the business and the neighborhood. In November 2012, Joanne initially talked to York SBDC Advisor Brian Yeung at the Disaster Relief for Small Business Forum held at the Resorts World Casino. More than anything else, Joanne McNeil, Blue Sky’s owner, needed financial assistance to reopen her business, and she was seeking funds for renovation, equipment, and working capital.  The hurricane had destroyed the business physically

From Andrew Delmonte , Social Enterprise Coordinator at the Small Business Development Center at SUNY Buffalo State. The SBDC’s Social Enterprise Services include free one-to-one counseling in the following areas: social business planning, Benefit Corporation filing, social impact measurement and reporting, and financing your social enterprise. For more information contact Andrew at (716) 878-4030. Is your business venture motivated by more than profits? Do you want to start a “triple bottom line” business, to pursue both social impact and financial self-sufficiency? If so, Benefit Corporation legal status might be right for you. A Benefit Corporation is a hybrid legal entity that blends elements of nonprofit and for-profit corporations. It is taxed like a traditional corporation. It protects directors from liability for pursuing a social objective instead of simply profit. Benefit Corporations measure both financial and social bottom lines, and report their social and environmen

by Chris Anderson, TED Curator. From LinkedIn : When I first took over leadership of TED in late 2001, I was reeling from the near collapse of the company I had spent fifteen years building, and I was terrified of another huge public failure. I had been struggling to persuade the TED community to back my vision for TED, and I feared that it might just fizzle out. Back then, TED was an annual conference in California, owned and hosted by a charismatic architect named Richard Saul Wurman, whose larger-than-life presence infused every aspect of the conference. About 800 people attended every year, and most of them seemed resigned to the fact that TED probably couldn’t survive once Wurman departed. The TED conference of February 2002 was the last one to be held under his leadership, and I had one chance and one chance only to persuade TED attendees that the conference would continue just fine. I had never run a conference before, however, and despite my best efforts over several mont

From Entrepreneur magazine : Every year, the grass on the other side of the fence looks greener to many entrepreneurs, and a change of place looks like the most promising path to growth. So they pull up stakes and move to a new place, where they hope to find better odds for business success than they had in their previous location. They're in good company. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that approximately 40 million Americans relocate each year, and the U.S. Postal Service processes about 38 million change-of-address forms annually. Although no one keeps a similar count of business moves, given the multitude of valid business reasons for making a move, almost any entrepreneur will, at some time, consider relocating as a way to expand. Businesses commonly cite five main reasons for moving...

From Payscale : Unless Michael Scott is your management hero, you probably care more about getting results than getting your reports to like you. That's as it should be: it's too much to ask people to do what you tell them to do and validate you at the same time. But that doesn't mean that you should be indifferent to how your team feels. To be most effective, you need to build the kind of relationship where your people have trust in both your judgment and your discretion. Building respect should be one of your top priorities. "People naturally want to do their best for those they feel respected by," writes Victor Lipman at Forbes. "There's nothing complicated about it: Employees respond well to being treated well. It puts them in a favorable productive mindset. As the old military saying goes, Take care of your people and they'll take care of you." Further, Lipman says, "people resent not being respected, and a resentful attitude is n

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  2015 Annual Report .  Tony Grenzy Faery's Golf and Landscape, Inc. Niagara SBDC In the fall of 2014 Tony Grenzy decided to purchase Faery's Golf & Landscape, a business that had employed him for the last ten years. He worked with the Niagara SBDC to help make the purchase possible, and Advisor Dinene Zaleski help Tony develop a funding package. This included hours spent developing the narrative, exploring market opportunities, and analyzing the financial feasibility of the project. The comprehensive loan package included multiple funding partners. Tony has grown Faery's Golf & Landscape into a full service golf course renovation contractor.  He has an extensive client list that includes regional courses as well as those across New York State and beyond. Services focus on reno

From MarketingProfs : Today's article offers tips on debugging content marketing software of a different sort. Namely, the words, phrases, and sentences that constitute your marketing content. Just like buggy computer software, buggy content software can be costly to your business. Because buggy content software can reduce the amount of time people spend with your marketing content, thereby lowering its productivity and effectiveness. So before you publish the latest version of your content marketing software, make your best effort to remove all bugs. To that end, here are two sets of content debugging tips that will help you exterminate a good many of these meddlesome maligners—in this case, 12 often misused words and phrases.

There are  different kinds of leadership styles , including the servant-leader style that focuses on the  growth and well-being of people and communities.  Learn more about servant-leaders .   

From the Federal Trade Commission : Your phone rings. You recognize the number, but when you pick up, it’s someone else. What’s the deal? Scammers are using fake caller ID information to trick you into thinking they are someone local, someone you trust – like a government agency or police department, or a company you do business with – like your bank or cable provider. The practice is called caller ID spoofing, and scammers don’t care whose phone number they use. One scammer recently used the phone number of an FTC employee. Don’t rely on caller ID to verify who’s calling. It can be nearly impossible to tell whether the caller ID information is real. Here are a few tips for handling these calls: If you get a strange call from the government, hang up. If you want to check it out, visit the official (.gov) website for contact information. Government employees won’t call out of the blue to demand money or account information. Don’t give out — or confirm — your personal or financial inf

ZIP Code Business Patterns provides data on the number of business establishments by employment-size class for detailed industries. Statistics are provided for about 40,000 five-digit ZIP codes, including nine new ones nationwide and include the total number of establishments, employment and payroll. In addition, the number of establishments for nine employment-size categories is provided by detailed industry for each ZIP code. Here are the 2014 data from the US Census Bureau .

IEN's exclusive report, "The State of Manufacturing & Digital Commerce," is now live. Download the report, for free , to read: • How manufacturing companies fail at online sales. • How real-time pricing can help close the deal. • How to identify online competition. • How tech investment can improve sales. • How dynamic content enhances website performance. • How to make sure you're not leaving money on the table.

From the FCC : Benefits and Risks of a Wireless Network Many consumers and small businesses use wireless (Wi-Fi) networks to enable their laptops and other wireless devices to access the Internet. Wi-Fi networks generally include a wireless “router” connected to a broadband Internet service via a modem that is attached to the cable or telephone network. Sometimes the wireless router and the modem are integrated into one device. While Wi-Fi networks provide many benefits, an unprotected network can result in unauthorized use and potential harm unless certain steps are taken. In some cases, unauthorized users may be able to access your private information, view the content of transmissions, download unlawful content using your network or infect computers with viruses or spyware. Unauthorized users may also cause harm beyond your computer or network, such as sending spam, spyware or viruses to others, and the activity can be traced back to your network. How to Secure a Wireless Networ

Each year the New York Small Business Development Center recognizes outstanding small businesses in a variety of ways.  This Success Story from the  Jamestown SBDC  appears in our  2015 Annual Report .  Jim Pullan Jamestown Mattress Jamestown SBDC Jamestown Mattress, a manufacturer of quality handcrafted bedding, was founded in 1886. The Pullan family, the current owners, purchased the business in 1982. Three generations of the Pullan family work for the business, which employs a staff of 35. Jamestown Mattress has an extremely strong and growing wholesale and private label business with nine factory direct retail showrooms across Western New York and Northern Pennsylvania. Customers include institutions, colleges, hotels, other bedding retailers and several internet companies. Jamestown Mattress has been a client of the SBDC since 2012 working with Advisor Curt Anderson. The primary goal was to establish a new website and then to institute a strong Internet marketing initia

Every week, millions of Americans work more than 40 hours but do not receive the overtime pay they have earned. President Obama is taking action to fix that: In a note to signers of a We the People petition, the President announced that tomorrow the Department of Labor will finalize a rule to extend overtime protections to 4.2 million more Americans. Check out the President's note . If you work more than 40 hours a week, you should get paid for it or get extra time off to spend with your family and loved ones. It's one of most important steps we're taking to help grow middle-class wages and put $12 billion more dollars in the pockets of hardworking Americans over the next 10 years. For generations, overtime protections have meant that an honest day's work should get a fair day's pay, and that's helped American workers climb the ladder of success. That's what middle-class economics are all about. But after years of inflation and lobbyists' effor

This is the second post in our " Contracting Corner " series from Judy Wolf, Government Contracting Coordinator, Mohawk Valley SBDC & NY SBDC Procurement Assistance Center   If you’re like most small business owners, you’re drawn to the idea of government contracting, but don’t necessarily know where to start. Perhaps you’ve heard talk of small business set asides or minority-, women-, and service-disabled veteran-owned business utilization requirements, which can make it sound as if winning government contracts is a given for companies owned by individuals who are eligible for certification. Don’t be fooled. While there can be some benefit to being a small business, particularly one owned by members of certain historically under-represented groups, government contracting is not an easy row to hoe. The following questions cover some cornerstones you’ll want to make sure form a solid part of your foundation before you start building your business in this comp

From the IRS : It’s important to know how many full-time employees you have because two provisions of the Affordable Care Act – employer shared responsibility and employer information reporting for offers of minimum essential coverage – apply only to applicable large employers. Employers average the number of their full-time employees, including full-time equivalents, for the months from the previous year to see whether they are considered an applicable large employer. Whether your organization is an Applicable Large Employers (ALE) for a particular calendar year depends on the size of your workforce in the preceding calendar year. To be an ALE, you must have had an average of at least 50 full-time employees – including full-time-equivalent employees – during the preceding calendar year. So, for example, you will use information about the size of your workforce during 2016 to determine if your organization is an ALE for 2017.