New York SBDC Research Network

Last night I attended an event held by the NYS Writers Institute program at the University at Albany where Elizabeth Kolbert , a journalist for the New Yorker and the New York Times discussed her new book, " Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change ." This book grew out of a series of articles on climate change Kolbert wrote for the New Yorker that hoped to get the full story on climate change or global warming. Kolbert described her experiences in Alaska and Greenland, noting the dramatic changes that have already occurred. She also discussed the disconnect between the scientific community and the lay community. Apparently the majority of the scientific community not doing research sponsored by energy companies, agree that we are in a dire situation that needs immediate attention. The damage we do now will have a knock-on effect that will severely affect our children. From the point of view of small business, I wondered what if anything was happening. W

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