New York SBDC Research Network

From People's United Bank : Your business is growing, but not as quickly as it could and you know it. You need capital to fuel expansion - to move into new markets, hire more staff, increase service and product offerings and grow more profitable with ever-expanding margins. Instead of borrowing expansion capital, maybe it's time to consider going public - selling ownership shares of your business to the public. But going public isn't as easy as simply offering stock to outside investors. Your business needs a solid track record of profitability, increasing revenues and reasonable margins in a healthy, growing industry or market sector. Investors want to see a strong management team, a vibrant corporate culture, a sound business infrastructure and growth potential. Lots of growth potential!   From Investopedia : An initial public offering (IPO) is the first sale of stock by a company. Small companies looking to further the growth of their company often use an...

From wikiHow : Corporate bonds are a financial tool that a corporation uses to raise funding. They are an alternative to acquiring loans from a bank or issuing shares of stock. Corporations use the money from bond sales to finance a variety of improvements, like business growth, new factories, or new equipment. When an investor buys a corporate bond, he is essentially buying an IOU from the corporation that is to be paid back after a pre-determined time (the maturity date). The bond will also typically pay coupon payments, which are interest-based payments made to the bondholder at regular intervals (usually semi-annually). Corporations usually enlist the help of investment banks, which function as underwriters, to organize the creation, marketing, and sale of the bonds.   From Chron , which also tells you how to issue bonds : Issuing bonds lets your corporation remain privately owned while you raise money to grow your business. You can sidestep most Securities and Ex...

From Go Digital : Consumer interest in the “sharing economy,” a popular term that’s been loosely defined as an economic ecosystem built around the sharing (renting) of assets, is exploding. Along with consumers, an increasing number of rising companies and small business owners are finding that they, too, can benefit from collaborative consumption. From big-name companies, such as Airbnb and Uber, to smaller marketplaces like DogVacay, Getaround, and LiquidSpace, businesses increasing in popularity and local merchants are exploring new ways to get in on the action.   According to a 2014 report by Nielsen, the consumer peer-to-peer rental market is now worth an estimated $26 billion. Sixty-eight percent of global consumers say they’re willing to share their own assets, and 66 percent say they’re willing to seek shares from others. Businesses are generating extra revenue by renting their own unused assets to consumers, and many are working with other merchants. By taking...

From The Balance : If you are looking for a small business idea to kickstart your path to entrepreneurship, you are in the right place. This list of 101 small business ideas includes everything from personal services, to retail opportunities, to environmental services, to pet-related ideas, to technology businesses. Use this list to identify the business idea that is perfect for your situation. It's time to take the next step, and evaluate the business ideas that made it to the top of your list. Doing this research at the beginning of the process is vital to avoid wasting time and money on a business idea that flops.

On a business listserv, one librarian pointed out a good resource for global corporate tax rates, 2006 - current , a website called Trading Economics. But the page is great for so much more: There are real time currency and stock market data for all over the world. Plus it has data on several topics. For instance- Labor: Employed Persons, Job Vacancies, Minimum Wages, Payrolls, Population, Productivity, Retirement Age, Unemployment Rate, Wages Prices: Consumer Price Index, Export Prices, Inflation Rate, Producer Prices Also several other categories, including Markets, GDP, Money, Trade, Government, Business, Consumer, Housing, Taxes If you are involved in international trade or just want info for markets across the world, check out Trading Economics

From LinkedIn "I'll be online later," you say, grabbing your laptop as you head out the door. "Please don't," say a growing number of CEOs who are radically rethinking the modern workday. Prompted by Millennials who value work-life balance, an increasingly global workforce spanning time zones, and devices that allow us to connect anywhere, anytime, these CEOs recognize the value of redesigning business to accommodate life, and not the other way around... In a world that is always on, when does work stop? In one corner is the argument for flexible hours, the darling of the tech set. When executed well, this approach allows staff to work when they work best while navigating life events that don’t naturally fall before 9 a.m. or 6 p.m. However, probe a bit further and many employees admit that flexible hours often mean "always working," with little or no ability to shut off. In the other corner is the 9-to-5 (or 6...or 7...) model, which can...

From BizWomen : When Heatherjean MacNeil launched her fashion startup, Proxy Apparel, several years ago, she applied to a prominent accelerator program. Two years in a row, she was accepted as a finalist. And two years in a row, she found herself pitching her business to the same room of older white men. The men had money to give, which was good. But there were misunderstandings about market opportunity, the vision behind the potential consumer demand and avenues for growth. “I think that [more broadly] represents the fact that, particularly in investment circles, there’s such a strong absence of women, so you feel as if you’re the other,” MacNeil told me recently. “And I think it’s harder to understand how to build relationship capital in that context.” Now, she’s part of a team of women working to create an alternate experience for other female entrepreneurs. MacNeil co-founded with Susan Duffy and Sharon Kan the Babson College Women Innovating Now Lab— or WIN Lab — an eigh...