New York SBDC Research Network

The SBA has announced that they will be working to provide low-interest disaster relief loans to small businesses impacted by novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Now that the President has declared a National Emergency, State and Federal governments can work together to assist businesses severely impacted by the pandemic. A statement by SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza was released on Friday, the 13th of March. You can read more about the Small Business Administration at www.SBA.gov/Coronavirus. You can read about SBA resources here:  https://www.sba.gov/disaster-assistance/coronavirus-covid-19

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...

The Empire Center for Public Policy is an independent, non-partisan think tank based in Albany, NY. Their project, De/RegulateNY exists to improve policies in NYS to promote small businesses. De/RegulateNY gave small business owners a chance to nominate state laws that owners believe hinder the progress of new businesses. This February, the winners were announced and in particular, two votes went to a law that requires new LLCs to buy ads in local papers to announce their organization. This rule ignores progress that has been made in business communication and burdens the new business owner with additional expense. You can read more about the award and the project  here .

This story was brought to my attention by our esteemed alumnus, Roger Green. This is the story of youngsters thwarted in their initial forays into small business ownership and some suggestions for workarounds. The Now-I-Know blog by Dan Lewis shared the story of how the police were called to respond to a lemonade stand that had been set up a bit too close to County fairgrounds. How do we encourage young people to think like entrepreneurs?

Article by Lucy Koch From eMarketer After the children are tucked in, most parents probably intend for that time to be quiet and interruption-free. But relaxing after the kids are asleep typically involves media consumption—which can also be an opportune window for marketers to reach those parents. The No.1 post-bedtime activity for both mothers and fathers is watching TV or movies, according to an August 2018 survey by Brigham Young University and Deseret News. Mothers are more likely than fathers to use this time for interaction with people outside of the household. And more respondents in both groups said those interactions took place on social media, rather than on phone calls or texts. Parents aren’t on their devices before bed just for entertainment purposes, they’re also shopping. In the OpenX/Harris Poll survey, 46% of parent respondents said they use their phones in bed at night to research purchases more than once a week, and 20% said they transact in-bed purchases by...

By Jennifer Robison From Gallup In his annual letter to the leaders of companies that his asset management firm invests in, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink wrote, "Profits are in no way inconsistent with purpose -- in fact profits and purpose are inextricably linked." Leaders can be left with no doubt: Increasing profit and share price are the basics. Advocating for purpose to be an integral part of an organization's culture defines successful leadership. Astute leaders increasingly understand the effect purpose has on business outcomes. But purpose can't be limited to just a slogan. To advance, inspire and unite a company, purpose must be actualized in the day-to-day work. Gallup data show businesses have a long way to go on purpose -- but Gallup analytics show leaders how to get there.

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 ...