New York SBDC Research Network

Last May, at Staff Training in Lake Placid, we had some special visitors from the province of Zhejiang, China at Staff Training this year. Mary Hoffman send out an e-mail to alert staff about the sensitivities of hosting international dignitaries, a message that may have future applicability: The following notes are excerpts from several sources regarding protocol for interactions with visitors from other countries. The cardinal rule that should guide your thoughts as you plan to receive international guests or travel abroad is: "When in doubt, err on the side of excess." One doesn't have to apologize for being too kind and respectful - but one cannot recover from an affront and disrespect. Often what Americans might view as appropriate would be seen as minimal in many other cultures. As members of the global community, a sensitivity and understanding of cross-cultural protocol is vitally important. It is very important to ensure that neither your actions, nor your appear

Many clients come to your doors telling stories of how they gave money to some organization - be it an inventors assessment program, or a grants provider group - only to have regrets soon after. I recently received an e-mail from Walter Reid, an advisor with the Farmingdale SBDC. He'd been keeping me posted regarding a client who sent $1,000 to the National Grants Conferences, an organization that promises attendees of their conferences with the "secrets" on how to obtain "free" government money for any number of endeavors. Walter took it upon himself to write a letter on behalf of the client, insisting on his money back. Recently, the client received a check for the full amount. Persistence, then, can pay off. If you're interested in Walter's methods, give him a call down in Farmingdale. I know that there've been several clients with bad experiences with NGC and similar types of organizations. In fact, go here to read about other people & their

Before anymore is added to the pile on my desk...here are the latest additions to the collection both purchased and donated: SRDS The Lifestyle Market Analyst 2006 Media Solutions Federal Yellow Book: Who's Who in Federal Departments and Agencies Leadership Directories Spring 2006 Congressional Yellow Book: Who's Who in Congress, Including Committees and Key staff Leadership Directories Spring 2006 2005 New York State Staistical Yearbook 30th edition The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government Don't Make me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability Steve Krug Constructing Accessible Web Sites Jim Thatcher, Paul Bohman, Michael Burks, Shawn Lawton Henry, Bob Regan, Srah Swierenga, Mark D. Urban, Cynthia D. Waddell You Need to be a Little Crazy The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business Barry J. Moltz Staying With It: Role Models of Perserverence Emerson Klees Entrepreneurs in History Success vs. Failure - Entrepreneurial Role Models Emerson Klees No More

smallbizresource.com This is a useful business blog. Actually, it's three blogs: the Balancing Act that a business person must face (Rules About Blogging, Working At Home Not For Everyone); MyTech (virus protection, mobile speech to text); and Thinking Big (patents, preparation). The main page of this site also has helpful information on finance, growth, management, marketing, sales, technology and more.

Clients who do their own research often find reference to very expensive market research reports. Often, these items are not available on the shelves of your local public or university library. (They're certainly beyond the budget for our library, too.) However, there is a site that your clients might consider visiting in these circumstances. It's www.marketresearch.com . This site makes available for sale reports from many market research firms. Of course, they'd rather your clients buy the whole report. However, they also allow them to buy "by the slice". When there, your client can search for a given report. If it's in their database, they can then search within the report for a given word or phrase. They'll then get results that show them the context of the report in which that word or phrase is used. If only one or two instances fit your client's needs, then they can buy just that chapter. It still won't be super cheap, but they'

Before I ever met Mary Beth, I heard her. Specifically, I heard her laugh. She had just been hired, and since I was not on the search committee, I had no information about her, other than the assurances from the librarians who were on the committee that she was "really good." Well, that turned out to be correct; she is a fine librarian. She has the dogged determination and the requisite curiosity of a good researcher. She also is in charge of the SBDC web page, which is more than a design task; it’s asking, sometimes cajoling, newspapers to provide rights to display stories about the NYS SBDC on the site. It’s probably because of the varied experience she had before coming to the SBDC – she had worked at ASCAP, the New York Assembly and Empire State Development. Mary Beth is currently the president of a local branch of a national library association. In fact, it was attending a library conference meeting where MB came up with the idea of the Research Network doing a blog, whi

At the Research Network, we have a book in the collection entitled, "Up Against the Wal-Marts: How Your Business Can Prosper in the Shadow of the Retail Giants," published back in 1994. Competition can be fierce for small businesses in communities where Wal-Mart set up. Now Wal-Mart is stepping up to remarks of criticism according to a New York Times report by offering "financial grants, training on how to survive with Wal-Mart in town and even free advertising within a Wal-Mart store." Read more about the "Wal-Mart Jobs and Opportunity Zone” initiative .

A source that offers a number of resources to entrepreneurs is the CELCEE website. CELCEE stands for Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Clearinghouse on Entrepreneurship Education, a non-profit add-on to ERIC, the Educational Resources Information Center. They offer articles related to entrepreneurship, as well as conferences, government publications, books, among many other things. There is a simple search function that searches the entire site. Materials are also arranged by year and there is an advanced search feature that allows you to choose the type of record. Some examples are: Native American Gaming and Tribal Economic Development: Myths and Realities By Amy Fann June 2005 DIGEST Number 05-11 Entrepreneurial Opportunities Serving Aging Adults By Jennifer Paek June 2005 DIGEST Number 05-03 July 2004 Women in Agriculture CELCEE Clearinghouse on Entrepreneurship Education EDINFO Number 04-07

Beginning Saturday, April 1, a year-round exemption from the four percent New York State sales and use taxes went into effect on the purchase of clothing, footwear, and items to make or repair exempt clothing, costing less than $110 per item or pair. The exemption does not apply to locally imposed sales and use taxes unless the county or city imposing those taxes elected the exemption. To find the local sales tax, if any, on these products, go here .

Sam Kandel from the Mid-Hudson SBDC sent me an e-mail regarding one of his clients. She's an author, and is currently researching and writing a book about improving personal productivity in the workplace. Ideally, this woman would like small business owners to take a brief survey, so that they can add their "voice" on the issue. It's only 17 questions, and most of them are a matter of selecting a rating on a scale. Participants are entitled to an advance copy of the book. The client would be grateful if you could ask your existing small business clients to take the survey. It can be found here .

One of the things I love about the World Wide Web is the ability to track down your favorite poem, book, or movie simply by entering keywords into a search engine. Here's a poem that I have posted next to my desk: Sometimes, oh, often, indeed, in the midst of ugly adversity, beautiful Memories return. You awake in wonder, you awake at half-past four, Wondering what wonder is in store. You reach for your clothes in the dark and pull them on, you have no time Even to wash your face, you have to climb Megunticook. You run through the sleeping town; you do not arouse Even a dog, you are so young and so light on your feet. What a way to live, what a way... No breakfast, not even hungry. An apple, though, In the pocket. And the only people you meet are store-windows. The path up the mountain is stony and in places steep, And here it is really dark -- wonderful, wonderful, Wonderful -- the smell of bark And rotten leaves and dew! And nobody awake In all the world but you! --

I started work on a request today on change management, an area I’ve looked at often in previous incarnations as a librarian for an HR consultancy and as it is something we all have to face, it might be interesting to see how the “experts” think it should be done. Many of our established clients are faced with the reality of shifting gears after years in the business, perhaps they can put some of these ideas to use. Here are a few direct lifts from sites explaining change theory. Change Management 101: A Primer Fred Nickols 2004 Fred Nickols of Distance Consulting provides an overview but succinctly boils down some basic strategies: Four Basic Change Management Strategies Strategy Description Four Basic Change Management Strategies Empirical-Rational People are rational and will follow their self-interest — once it is revealed to them. Change is based on the communication of information and the proffering of incentives. Normative-Reeducative People are social beings and will adhere to

Every once in a while, one of our centers gets a call from a reporter. That was the case last Tuesday, when the 2002 SURVEY OF BUSINESS OWNERS (SBO) came out with the release of the Final Estimates of Business Ownership by Hispanic or Latino Origin . It showed that the Hispanic-Owned Firms: 2002 in the Albany area actually dropped in relation to 1997 , though the population had increased. Complicating the story further was the fact that the the 1997 data were in SIC, while the 2002 data were NAICS-based. Also, the definition of the Albany metro area changed. The Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY MSA used to include Albany County, Montgomery County, Rensselaer County, Saratoga County, Schenectady County, and Schoharie County. The current definition , however, excludes Montgomery County. There's a new beast in the Census terminology, though, the Combined Statistical Area. The Albany-Schenectady-Amsterdam, NY CSA includes the newly configured Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistic

Demographics is at the heart of nearly every question we answer at the RN. To do so, we have several tools at our disposal, including several from New Stragetist Publications. I recently learned of a blog now being published by this publisher on the subject of demographics. It's called DemoMemo, and can be found here . Its primary author is a woman named Cheryl Russell, who also once worked with the late, lamented magazine American Demographics . It's updated nearly every day, and is filled with references to demographics - sources, data, interpretations, etc. - that are quite interesting and bound to be useful not only to librarians, but to your clients as well.

The New York State Small Business Awards are presented annually to honor outstanding small businesses. Awards are presented to the Small Business Person of the Year (last year's winner-Frank S. Falatyn, President and CEO of FALA Technologies, Inc.); Small Business Advocate of the Year (last year- Raymond M. Nowicki, managing partner of Nowicki & Co.) ; and Small Business Not-for-Profit Organization of the Year (last year- Staten Island Economic Development Group)during a ceremony which recognizes the exceptional achievements of the award winner. All completed applications are considered. The governor may also designate candidates for honorable mention. Any small business is eligible for nomination. Applications for the New York State 2006 Small Business Awards are available here . The deadline is April 30, 2006. For more information, please contact the Small Business Division of Empire State Development at 518 292-5220.