New York SBDC Research Network

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ---- a.k.a. 'Obamacare' ---- remains unpopular with many Americans. Richard Kirsch, a Rockefeller Institute fellow and author of the newly released book Fighting For Our Health, writes in a new commentary that there are several reasons for Americans' dislike of the law, but those reasons have little to do with the law's value. Chief among them is the fact that key provisions don't go into effect for another two years, leaving many people with the idea that the act has achieved little. The challenge for the law's supporters, Kirsch says, is to convince people that help really is on the way. To read Kirsch's commentary, visit the Institute's Web site .

The U.S. is still the leading manufacturing nation on earth and the percent of GDP that manufacturing occupies has remained about the same for the past 30 years. More here .

The Office of Advocacy’s Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories supply data on small businesses in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The publication also provides national-level data and limited data on the U.S. territories. The usefulness of the publication is the great detail it provides about small businesses at the state level. The following topics are covered: the number of firms, demographics of business ownership, small business income, banking, business turnover, industry composition, and employment gains and losses by size of business. 2011 Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories 2011 Small Business Profiles for New York State [PDF]

In response to a common question to the RN: The Provider Manual to the New York Medicaid Program offers a wealth of information about Medicaid, as well as specific instructions on how to submit a claim for rendered services.

"Each year, schools, school groups, PTAs, PTOs, youth sports leagues and other non-profit organizations raise nearly $2 billion by selling merchandise to the public (product fundraising). This web site is designed to assist these non-profit organizations and fundraising companies in determining the sales and use tax implications, if any, resulting from product fundraising drives. The goal is to provide a publicly-accessible clearinghouse of information about the States' provisions, practices and procedures related to the transactional taxation of fundraising sales, products and organizations. Source of the Information The information on this site was provided by the state revenue departments through a survey distributed by the Multistate Tax Commission.... States are asked periodically to review this information for accuracy. The site reflects updated information as provided by individual states. This site contains information from only those states that affirmatively in...

"Power is the ability to get things done. You could say that management is the art of ensuring that things get done. Yet what's so striking about most organizations is that so little management is effective. "That's what academics Heike Bruch and the late Sumantra Ghoshal discovered when they investigated what they called 'decisive purposeful action.' Most companies, far from being hives of busy, effective executives, could instead be seen as "a few isolated islands of action amid an ocean of inaction," the researchers found. Does this ring any bells? It certainly reminded me of many places I've worked -- and run -- where a small number of people always seemed to be doing the majority of work that mattered." More HERE .

Audio podcasts are a great (and free!) way for local business owners to further their own education. Carmen Sognonvi shares the 3 best business podcasts that every local business owner should be listening to .