New York SBDC Research Network

Another interesting tidbit on the radio this morning was concerning ageism in the workplace – in both directions. The British government is only now introducing legislation to attempt to curb age discrimination in the workplace. On PersonnelToday.com, a favorite magazine for the HR professional, they ran a story in about a small survey done by a consultancy called Water for Fish that revealed that 27% of the recruitment ads in a national Sunday newspaper contained language that might put the listing companies afoul of future laws. The article suggests it may be challenging for companies to rethink their hiring practices. Elements like requiring a specific number of years experience, asking for information that would reveal the applicant’s age, and using language such as “young”, “mature”, “dynamic” or “new graduate” won’t make the cut in the future. Survey exposes ageism in recruitment ads PersonnelToday.com Mike Berry 12 May 2006 09:32 Ageism laws set to transform job adverts BBC New

Indeed.com, one of the free agregator sites of online job postings, has just released a beta version of a salary search tool, available at http://www.indeed.com/salary Type in the job title you are interested in and a location, and it will provide average salaries for that, and related, positions. Or change it up and create a comparison of jobs or locations.

From SBA: Small businesses in the United States have received a share of federal procurement dollars not quite commensurate with their relative importance in the U.S. economy, according to a research study released by the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy . The study states that while 99.7 percent of all employer firms are small, they receive about 23 percent of direct federal procurement dollars and almost 40 percent of subcontracting dollars. The Government's Role in Aiding Small Business Federal Subcontracting Programs in the United States was authored by Major Clark III, Chad Moutray, and Radwan Saade from the Office of Advocacy. The study discusses the importance of the small business sector to the overall economy and the policy framework for the federal government's involvement in requiring federal prime contractors to subcontract with small businesses. It examines the policy from 1958 to the present; and discusses steps needed to improve the Ame

Each year, the magazine Advertising Age publishes a supplement called the "Hispanic Fact Pack". This year's version can be found here . The table of contents for this 27-page PDF file promises such things as: Hispanic ad spending by media and category Top Hispanic DMAs by media spending Top web sites by viewers & ad revenues U.S. Hispanic population by race, origin, projected growth And other items, too. It's a macro view, to be sure, but the document provides a nice intro to this subject.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica, www.britannica.com , would like you to know more about their online encyclopedia. Usually available only to subscribers, the renowned publication has just announced that they will make full-text, extended articles available to websites and blogs that wish to link to them. Users can then see the full entry, rather than the usual stub that appears for non-subscribers. They even give webmasters the code to add the link. Here's an example. Information from Encyclopædia Britannica about business organization * Don't be put off by the flags promoting full access through a free trial- there are 25 pages of information here. But only for this topic. Read more in their press release: http://corporate.britannica.com/press/releases/faf.html

One recent reference question was about enforcement of the Americans with Disablilities Act. I scowled a bit. Even before I attended a workshop on the ADA at an ASBDC conference a few years back, I knew that the focus of the law was not so much on enforcement, but on creating accessibility. I remember one example from the workshop: a store trying to be more accessible might create a ramp, but that might not be practical; so one dry cleaner installed a bell at the bottom of the steps, so that the clerk would come out to the client. Accessibility achieved. This is not to say that there isn't any enforcement, and even fines imposed by the US Department of Justice. It's just not the route of first resort. Read more about the ADA here .

Way back in May at staff training, we talked about your responses to a survey the Research Network had created one month earlier. Among the results to the survey was the majority's wish to have more information transmitted electronically. It's something we were interested in doing, so it's a good fit. Tomorrow, Amelia & I will be attending a day-long seminar titled "Developing Digital Collections". It's the first of a four-part series, spread out over the next four months, on the subject of employing digitization in a library setting. We're very curious to hear from other librarians who've adapted this to their collection. On another note, we're also close to upgrading our ancient copier. We'll be switching to one that will allow for scanning documents (for instance, our collection of 80+ start-up information packets), which can then be stored into specific files on our network. Scanning these will take some time, so it isn't lik

Many of our favorite information sources for general business advice are in Spanish as well as English. The following links provide access to some articles and documents that might be helpful to your Spanish-speaking clients. Do you have other non-English resources? Things you’ve prepared? We’d love to be more multilingual on our website, so please think about what you might be able to share. SBA en español: Online Library http://www.sba.gov/espanol/Biblioteca_en_Linea/ SBDCNet Document exchange en español http://sbdcnet.utsa.edu/docx/espanol.htm SoyEntrepreneur.com http://www.soyentrepreneur.com/ Mi Propia Negocio http://www.myownbusiness.org/espanol/index.html

When I get a question about the number of international students in the United States, or U.S. students studying abroad, the source I check first is the Open Doors Report on International Exchange. There is a great deal of free information, such as: Total Enrollment Source of Funds Source of Funds by Academic Level Fields of Study Leading Countries of Origin Institutions with 1,000 or More International Students while other data, such as All Countries of Origin All Institutions Enrolling International Students Countries by US State Fields of Study by State are available in publications to members. A Research Membership is available for $50 for a month's access to all member data. Here's some more examples of the great free data: STATISTICS ON INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE IN NEW YORK From the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors Report 2005, statistics particular to the state of New York are listed below. Additional statistics are available at IIE’s Web site

Being a Monday, it's my day to post to this blog. However, it's a different kind of Monday - a day of reflection for many people in our country. Instead of small business, I had a poem that I read in the aftermath of those sad, chaotic days from five years ago. It speaks of hope, and it reassures me. Try to praise the mutilated world. Remember June's long days, and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew. The nettles that methodically overgrow the abandoned homesteads of exiles. You must praise the mutilated world. You watched the stylish yachts and ships; one of them had a long trip ahead of it, while salty oblivion awaited others. You've seen the refugees heading nowhere, you've heard the executioners sing joyfully. You should praise the mutilated world. Remember the moments when we were together in a white room and the curtain fluttered. Return in thought to the concert where music flared. You gathered acorns in the park in autumn and leaves eddied over the

It may be one thing to find opportunities to network, but it is quite another to succeed at it. For many people, the mere idea of networking is frightening, let alone entering a room full of strangers and striking up a conversation. I’ve come across a few articles that have some advice on how to network if you are not a natural. Learning to Love Networking: How a Shy Guy Became a Master Glad-Hander Inc. Magazine August 2006 by Mike Spinney Describes techniques to overcome anxiety including acknowledging the fear, and then having a plan of attack. First, avoid the boring intro, keep the listener engaged. As an example, the author explains how Reed Thompson, the focus of the story, improved his delivery: You also have to keep them interested. To that end, he stopped telling people he was a personal financial adviser, which usually prompted glazed-over expressions and a change of subject. Instead, he began describing himself as the founder and president of a company that helps people take

Web 2.0: The power of 2 This article gives a very perceptive and thoughtful overview of howWeb 2.0 applications can change the nature of marketing. Some Excerpts: "Social networks, blogs, user-generated content, tagging, wikis, P2P - all those are about conversation and fall neatly under 'reputation management', which is, essentially, PR," says Howell. Companies need to be out there, looking at what people say about them online, and respond in an open and appropriate way. Ignoring even one customer's negative comments on a blog could do serious damage to a brand's reputation. Brands can learn an awful lot from blogs and social networks, which they can use to their advantage; not just to get their marketing messages right but also on a deeper business level, by involving consumers in product development. An interesting example of this approach backfiring: ...car brand Chevrolet placed tools on its site that allowed users to remix and 'mash-up' its lates

" This report describes the prominent features of New York’s personal income tax, with particular emphasis on the 2003 tax year. It also includes taxpayer profiles consisting of number of taxable returns, sources of income, federal adjustments, New York modifications, deductions, dependent exemptions, tax liability and credits by NYAGI class, filing status and return type. In addition, it includes separate sections on income, itemized deduction amounts, exemptions, available credits and information on refundable credits. Finally, it compares statistics for 2003 with those from the prior year for most of these items." The PDF of this report is 125 pages long, but if you feel so compelled to print it out, please note that a number of even-numbered pages are actually blank. On a related topic, "The Rockefeller Institute of Government has released State Revenue Preview # 65P , the first in a new series of releases covering state tax collections. The Preview provides an earl

It is only too easy to find fall into a rut. Everywhere you look it is easy to see examples of situations where the joy has gone out of a thing, and no creativity is being used to solve problems. So, how to keep things fresh? How does that creative problem solving go away? The main thing seems to be to exercise your mind, by thinking. Like the cardinal rule of brainstorming, don’t censor. Spend time looking beyond your realm of expertise, to other disciplines and exercise your imagination by using it. Here are a couple of articles and sites that explore how we maintain our creativity. The Brain Behind Creativity USA Today: Science and Space Updated 8/27/2006 10:04 PM ET Creativity Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Creativity Techniques – an A to Z Creativity Innovation mycoted Science and Technology de Bono Consulting "The quality of our thinking will determine the quality of our future." -Edward de Bono Books by Edward de Bono: Teach Your Child How to Think by Edward de Bono

I enjoy the irony of celebrating Labor Day by not working. Even though there are 2 1/2 more weeks of the season, it's dubbed "the end of summer." Well, who am I to be contrary? Labor Day, as described by: The US Department of Labor Wikipedia Geocities PBS How stuff works something called Wilstar

I think it is fair to assume that most science editors are smart people. But who knew that they could put together such a nice list of internet reference links? The Council of Science Editors has indeed put together lovely pathfinder page, available at http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/links.cfm . Having stumbled upon this site when I interned for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, I’ve bookmarked it ever since. Some links are particularly science-y (like the link to FishBase, a database of over 28,400 species of fish), while others are just cool (check out the link to the dictionary of clichés or the internet anagram server). I probably should have just blogged about the neatest links individually, thus providing myself with blog fodder for some time. But I’m nicer than that, so here’s the whole kit and caboodle.

Reference Community Sourcebook of zip code demographics 2006 Community Sourcebook of county demographics 2006 Kids count data book NACS State of the industry 2005: Northeast Center for Small scale food entrepreneurship: Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.: Distilled spirit sales The PMI Book of Project Management Forms Circulating Klees, Emerson. Entrepreneurs in history-- success vs. failure : entrepreneurial role models Klees, Emerson. Staying with it: role models of perseverance Moltz, Barry. You need to be a little crazy: the truth about starting and growing your business Godfrey, Joline. No more frogs to kiss: 99 ways to give economic power to girls Hornjak, Boris. The Project Surgeon: a troubleshooter's guide to business crisis management

It's likely you've read about the 2005 American Communities Survey , which was released last week. The new "data products include estimates of demographic, social, and economic characteristics of people, households and housing units (both occupied and vacant) for every state in the Nation, Puerto Rico, and most areas with a population of 65,000 or more." The 2004 ACS was limited to places with 250,000 or more. In the Capital District, it's already created controversy, with the Albany mayor indicating that there is an undercount, and Colonie officials elated with their town's growth. This article , which talks a bit about the survey process, may be helpful. Surveys are sent to households, and if there is new construction in a geography which the Census Bureau doesn't know about - usually because the geographic entity has failed to provide information to the Census Bureau - then this could lead to the appearance of an undercount. The ACS is still a fairly ne

Some of you may have already gotten wind of this, but a brief article appeared in last week's issue of the Central Valley (CA) Business Times titled " Survey: What it costs to start a small business ". The text was based on a press release from Wells Fargo, based on their latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index study .

As if the folks who contribute to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia don’t have enough fun in cyberspace, they recently convened for the second annual “Wikimania” convention. Here, founder Jimmy Wales discussed his intent to focus on quality over quantity. Although a recent article in Nature gave Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Brittanica close marks in accuracy for their scientific articles, Wales appreciates that the whole encyclopedia isn’t there yet. There’s work to be done, but Wiki devotees seem up to the task. Home page for the convention: http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Article about Wales’ comments: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060804/ap_on_hi_te/wikimania Read more about the study from Nature: http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/438900a.html