New York SBDC Research Network

Under the category: a lot of stuff in one place, this site is a gateway to a lot of good international organization sites, directories, and advice relating to international trade. I had a look at the "Getting Started in Importing or Exporting?" and found a number of information sheets or pathfinders for various aspects of a international trading company. It offers a nice compilation of a number of other sites on all aspects of import/export.

The NNY Tourism Research Center was created in 2001 to fill an information void felt by communities, tourism professionals, entrepreneurs and others. Among its reports are the 2004 STATISTICAL COUNTY TOURISM PROFILES, 12 - 16 page PDF files for these counties: Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego, St. Lawrence, and Warren; plus the Town of Webb in Herkimer County.

As some of you might know, Dr. James Chrisman (from Mississippi State University) frequently conducts impact studies on behalf of the SBDC program. Surveys were mailed from Central earlier this year to those long-term clients (i.e., those with a minimum of 5 hours of contact time) seen during 2004. This, from the report: "In 2004 the New York SBDC provided long-term consulting assistance to 14,984 clients. Of these, 4,226 owned established small businesses and 10,758 were seeking to start new businesses (pre-ventures). A mail questionnaire was sent to the 9,368 long-term clients for whom the SBDC still had valid mailing addresses in 2006. A total of 1,405 clients returned questionnaires. This represented a 15.0 percent response rate." From these responses, Dr. Chrisman was able to compile his analysis of the New York program's performance for 2004. It's a detailed report, but here are some of the highlights: Aggregate sales impact: Established Firms = $354,294,30

The contents of more than 10,000 libraries, with 1.3 billion records for books and lots of other materials are now available in one place, free, and online. If a library owns it, it’s probably in here. OCLC’s WorldCat is available at the new beta site, http://www.worldcat.org/ . To learn more check out http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/ . Give it a whirl.

Another helpful site I don’t think we’ve mentioned before is www.nationsonline.org which is what it sounds like: information on nations and regions of the world. It promotes itself as “among other things, a more or less objective guide to the world, a statement for the peaceful, nonviolent coexistence of nations.”, which works for me. It also includes some useful information like population statistics, international news, maps, culture, flags, languages, currencies and airports. And most useful at this time of threat to air travel, there is a link to compilations of global travel safety advice.

From Entrepreneur magazine: The process by which persons conduct inquiries for the purposes of timely, sufficient and accurate disclosure of all material statements/information or documents which may influence the outcome of the transaction. Due diligence is a critical component in mergers and acquisitions. Due Diligence definition – usually associated with contracts or investments, this term , in general, means that proper efforts will be made in investigations or examinations of efforts put forth in a transaction. Good faith efforts are to be made in performing obligations. First, the definition should mean nothing more than an investor being "diligent" when checking out the substance of the claims made by an entrepreneur with respect to the market, the product or service concept, the competition, the management team and so on. The term "due" means that it's expected and someone has to perform this task. So the concept is really all about the diligence that is

Two quick things this week. I've been remiss in giving an update regarding the turnaround time for your requests. Right now, there's a seven-day gap between when you ask a question and when we answer it. We plan on keeping it around that level for a while longer. Secondly . . . after many delays, and a lot of work, the website for the SBDC book "What's Your Signage?" is nearly complete. It's a collaborative effort between the SBDC and the International Sign Association (ISA). Right now, a volunteer team of fifteen ISA members are looking it over to see if we've got the details correct regarding their industry. Next week, I'm going to send an e-mail out to some lucky group of SBDC advisors to look at the site from a small business perspective. You could be the big winner! Seriously, it won't take too much of your time, and your feedback will be valuable. It'll be a random selection of advisors, with a mix from upstate & downstate. (

Sent by the LaGuardia Community College SBDC in Long Island City Are you in the import or export business? Attend the LaGuardia Community College International Trade Fair & Symposium "Growing American businesses through strengthening trade opportunities with the world" August 22 - 24, 2006 in the E- building Atrium on the LaGuardia Community College Campus MEET DIRECTLY WITH SUPPLIERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD! Bangladesh, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Greece, Mexico Agro-industrial Products Leather Goods Textiles Handicrafts & more! · Business trade fair with up to 50 foreign and domestic exhibitors · Educational seminars and workshops on trade · Business networking, matchmaking and marketing opportunities :: Be an Exhibitor · US wholesalers and importers of international products · Multinational businesses looking to sell in the US market · Transportation & logistics companies · New York trade and business assistance providers :: Be an Attendee · No fee to attend · Regi

The Three Ways of Great Leaders “In a new study, some leading business thinkers identify the attributes of great leadership -- and nominate the best bosses of the 20th century.” From: Issue 98 September 2005 Page 50 By: Bill Breen Fast Company This Fast Company article looks at “contextual intelligence” or the ability to see opportunities in the winds of change. C.W.Post and his product samples, Louis B. Neumiller of Catepillar, taking advantage of circumstances to become a permanent fixture on the global scene, or Lee Iococca’s ability to use demographics in his favor: they all capitalized on what was going on in the world and used their individual styles to put their products in the limelight. Another Fast Company article on leadership offers the flipside: Ten Self-Defeating Behaviors to Avoid "Want to Succeed at Work? First Step: Get Out of Your Own Way" 2005-09-26 by Mark Goulston Fast Company The article starts out with some advice from Warren Buffet and goes on to

Just how are you supposed to spell website these days? Darrin and I pondered this very question the other day, and here’s the answer: Depends who you ask. Merriam-Webster and the Associated Press will tell you it should be Web site. Afterall, "Web" refers to the World Wide Web, which as a proper noun always gets capitals. American Heritage goes both ways, but offers this usage note: http://www.bartleby.com/61/57/W0075725.html “The transition from World Wide Web site to Web site to website seems to have progressed as rapidly as the technology itself. The development of website as a single uncapitalized word mirrors the development of other technological expressions which have tended to evolve into unhyphenated forms as they become more familiar. Thus email has recently been gaining ground over the forms E-mail and e-mail, especially in texts that are more technologically oriented. Similarly, there has been an increasing preference for closed forms like homepage, online, and

Here's what the press release says: The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has published a convenient quick reference guide and research tool to help business and individual taxpayers meet their New York sales and use tax obligations. Commissioner of Taxation and Finance Andrew S. Eristoff today unveiled Publication 850, New York State and Local Sales and Use Tax: Quick Reference Guide , designed to provide general information about State and local sales and use taxes. Commissioner Eristoff said, "Sales and Use tax can be confusing for many taxpayers. Over the past 12 years the Department of Taxation and Finance has made great strides in simplifying our rules and regulations, clarifying our forms and instructions, and making interaction with the Department more convenient. "Publication 850 takes this a step further by bringing all of these simplified and revised resources together in a handy reference guide. No longer will taxpayers need to wade through a p

Both Van Morrison & Kermit the Frog know that bein' green isn't easy. However, for clients whose businesses are environmentally-conscious, there exists the Green Seal website to help them out. Its home page describes this group as "an independent non-profit organization dedicated to safeguarding the environment and transforming the marketplace by promoting the manufacture, purchase, and use of environmentally responsible products and services." If your client has an environmentally-friendly product, a link exists to information as to how they can get a Green Seal certification to add to the product's resume. If your client seeks a "green" product, a link exists to a member directory that'll help find out who sells it.

Two cities in New York State made the list: New York City and Ramapo. Have a look to see where your city ranks. Top 100 finalists City Population New York 8,143,200 Ramapo 112,500 Other cities City Population Albany 96,253 Amherst 114,942 Brentwood 55,720 Buffalo 285,058 Cheektowaga 77,785 Clarkstown 85,350 Clay 59,679 Greenburgh 89,942 Hempstead 58,010 Irondequoit 51,903 Levittown 52,577 Mount Vernon 69,884 New Rochelle 74,320 Niagara Falls 53,728 North Hempstead 223,903 Rochester 216,598 Schenectady 61,698 Syracuse 146,404 Tonawanda 59,894 Union 54,827 Utica 57,721 White Plains 55,763 Yonkers 199,611 Also, check out http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2006/faq/ for "how we picked fthe Best Places to Live".

Have you ever tried to give driving directions and you just can’t remember the number of the highway exit you take everyday to get to work? Here’s useful tool. The Upstate New York Roads Site http://www.upstatenyroads.com/ An independent labor of love, this site provides massive amounts of information about New York’s highways. Find the highway you need, and the page provides a list of all its exits, complete with numbers and the towns or routes listed on the highway sign. You can even find out what vendors are in the rest areas! There is also a mileage chart, and links to other New York road web sites.

There's a column in the Wall Street Journal called "Small Talk", which currently appears every Tuesday. Readers are encouraged to send their small-business questions to smalltalk@wsj.com . A question last month was about prototypes. Columnist Kelly Spors recommended Thomasnet.com/ , from the people who put out the Thomas Register. Click on Engineering & Consulting, then Prototypes. Also, the United Inventors Association makes recommendations. Another more general useful tool from WSJ is the Startup Journal , from the paper's Center for Entrepreneurship, with tabs for franchising, finance, running a business and more.

If you work at Central, you have the option of getting candy every day. However, that's not why I blog. Recently, I did a request for a client who wanted to open an environmentally-friendly cleaning business. As with many research requests, this one included an inquiry as to how to begin marketing this type of service. During my work, I came across the aforementioned Daily Candy site. It promotes itself as being "The Insider's Guide to the Sweet Life". It has several online "editions," each focusing on a specific metro area. One for New York City is available. Once there, the site fancies itself as a broadcaster of what's new, hip, or innovative in that city's scene - fashion, food & drink, beauty, etc. So I read an article on a "green" cleaning service that promoted itself through this site. It exists for businesses to promote themselves (as long as they meet the site's criteria), as well as for people looking for such pla

While it is not particularly new, visual searching seems to be catching on. With a visual search, users type in their search string, same as always, but results are displayed visually and clustered into subtopics, related areas, etc. The goal is to conceptually organize results and to allow users to look beyond the top 10 that appears in a traditional results list. Check out a couple of these engines on their own: http://www.kartoo.com/ http://www.grokker.com/ Grokker’s homesite allows users to “Grok” (and get visual result displays) using Yahoo’s search engine, but more and more databases are using it too. EBSCO Publishing and Factiva now use Grokker to provide a visual results display for several of their databases, and even the Internet Public Library, http://www.ipl.org/ , is now on board. Read more about the use of visual searches in these articles: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6328082.html http://library.stanford.edu/about_sulair/special_projects/stanford_grokker.html

A Review of trends and Activity in the Investment Company Industry 46th Edition146 pages; PDF. ICI Investment Company Institute www.icifactbook.org For an overview of the investment landscape, this report lays out what investment customers are doing, and how the various investment funds work, and industry employment facts. This 146 page report offers a detailed look at how people are investing. It also includes a description of the roles involved and a glossary of terms.

You may recall that I have mentioned the American Communities Survey (ACS) and other enhancements to the Census process, contingient on the budget process. Those improvements have been severely compromised recently this past week, when the House of Representatives shifted $50 million from the Census Bureau to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. From Census Briefs: Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf (R-VA) countered that the amendment would "devastate the census" and "impact fundamental missions of the Census Bureau." "The immediate ramifications are a disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations, irretrievable loss of testing opportunities to identify problems," the chairman warned, referring to efforts to improve coverage of historically hard-to-count populations in the census. Noting that the Census Bureau is "vulnerable" to cuts to fund other popular programs, Rep. Wolf said, "There is not a

An advisor recently called me on behalf of a client, who sought legal information relating to commercial leases. I'm very leery about passing as a legal research expert (that's a whole other world of librarianship, unknown to me). However, there does exist a site that attempts to provide insight into common legal issues (both individual- and business-related). It's called FindLaw.com , and its home page breaks down its contents into several recognizable broad categories (bankruptcy & debt, real estate, intellectual property, and so forth). By drilling down from there, you'll eventually encounter articles written in clear language that provide brief, introductory articles relating to a specific subject. The site is also useful for finding attorneys in the numerous specialties within the legal profession. FindLaw.com is similar in intent to the web site for Nolo Press . They're a publisher of self-help legal books, and have been mentioned in previous Research Net