New York SBDC Research Network

We've added a new feature to the NYS SBDC home page ! I mentioned having a "Business Advice Column" when the site revision first came out, but due to lack of content, it hadn't happened. Until now. So thanks to Doug Boyce and the folks in Mid-Hudson for sharing their articles with Mary, and through Mary, me. If you have any pieces that would fit in this space, please send them along. Items that haven't been published or have no copyright relationship with a newspaper or publisher would be especially welcome. I'm planning to change articles every two weeks or so, and articles will be archived here .

A question we were asked recently: Does a business need to get I-9 forms (employment eligibility verification) from its independent contractors? My answer: No. And yes. No, it’s not required of them, but if someone, say Wal-Mart, had a bunch of illegal immigrants working 60-hour weeks with no overtime on their behalf, that would look bad for Wal-Mart. Wait, that DID happen . From this law site : The government is looking beyond the mere labels of "independent contractor" to see if the employer had knowledge of its contractors' practices. In this type of environment, prudent employers who do not want to be the target of a federal investigation or prosecution will review their immigration law compliance efforts and make sure that they, and their executives, are not aware of violations by their contractors... At a minimum, require your contractors to furnish you with copies of Forms I-9 and supporting documentation for the workers they bring onto your site. From this legal

Of course, you knew that already. The rest of the world needed reminding, though, and I'm happy to report that our diligent public relations campaign is paying off. Two articles appeared this past week, focusing on how the newer generation of librarians believe that the skills necessary to bring people & information together in this digital age ought to mean that the musty old librarian stereotypes should fall by the wayside. I'm wholly in favor of that (though I'm hardly a "new generation" librarian . . . I'm young at heart). Check them out here: For New-Look Librarians, Head to Brooklyn (New York Sun - July 5, 2007) A Hipper Crowd of Shushers (New York Times - July 8, 2007 - registration required ) (By the way, our library doesn't use the Dewey Decimal System [we're a Library of Congress shop]. If you hung out with any of us in Ithaca, though, you'd know that we're still pretty snappy when it comes to classifying beverages from the ba

A couple years ago, someone from Empire State Development came to our offices, asking us to help them in the process of getting businesses certified as minority- and/or women-owned. Someone (probably me) asked what the turnaround was, and we were told it was 8 to 10 months. Yikes. At the NYS SBDC staff training a couple months ago, the same question came up, and we heard that the processing time was half the time it used to be, with even more improvements expected, thanks to the efforts of the Lieutenant Governor's office. Here's the application . The things I found most encouraging is the fact that applications from other entities, such as Port Authority, are now being accepted by ESD. Here's the applicable legislation and a website with more information .

The two questions that our author-clients frequently ask the most are, "What publishers specialize in my subject area?", and "Where can I find an agent?" For the first question, I recommend visiting AcqWeb's Directory of Publishers and Vendors . Note especially the section titled "Publisher Web Sites: Subject Directory". By clicking on any of these broad categories, you'll be led to a page that links to the websites of several dozen publishers. For the second question, here's the text to an email I sent to an advisor last April. It's still accurate: "As for literary agents, I'll point you towards another website, here: http://www.writers.net/agents.html This site is more than just a searchable directory, though. Note the articles that appear on the right-hand side. They seem to be written by authors who've gone through the process, and have a lot of practical advice. (The first one - Gary Kessler's "Finding a Go

I read a little blurb in the July issue of Entrepreneur Magazine called Temper, Temper! Apparently a Rice University research team has discovered moody office mates contribute to overall creativity and innovation. "When people are in good moods all the time, it can lead to complacency," says Jennifer M. George, professor of management and psychology at Rice University and co-author of the study. "A negative mood can give you that push to put forth more effort." The article offers some tips for managers of less than sunny employees.

Zip code maps are helpful things in our line of business. Compiling data on certain geographies that aren't defined by city, town or county borders requires an understanding of how those communitites fit together, and zip codes can be a useful tool. So, here's a resource that combines the U.S. Census Bureau 2006FE Tiger/Line ZIP Code Tabulation Areas with Google maps, resulting in several types of maps, including zip code maps and hybrid zip code maps. The hybrids show roads and towns below colorful zip code boundaries, and you can also click for a satelite view (without zip codes) to see the lay of the land.

This month, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced the SBA’s Patriot Express Pilot Loan Initiative for veterans and members of the military community wanting to establish or expand small businesses. Here's a Hispanic Business.com article that links to the new section of the SBA website.

Years ago I received a call from a director, looking for models from other communities regarding the conversion of dilapidated or depressed parts of towns. I thought of that immediately when I heard of a new website, called SustainLane . I wished this was around back then. Here's how it describes itself (from their home page): "Our open-source knowledge base speeds discovery, research and networking with more than 105 best practice documents and a secure directory of participating government officials from over 400 cities, counties and states." This "knowledge base" is searchable by a number of categories. Many of them focus on environmental issues, but there is a distinct category called "Economic Development". If you click on this, as of today the first document you'll see is a description of San Diego's "Abandoned Property Rehabilitation Program". Again, this would have been handy to have a few years ago. There are many others. Ke

" The Institute For Integrated Rural Tourism works with communities and individuals to develop tourism systems in which rural people and rural life patterns form the foundation of the touristic experience." This organization offers consulting and marketing services but also provides publications and workshops. One column is: Standing Out In The Crowded Tourism Market By Todd Comen, Associate Professor, Hospitality and Tourism Management, Johnson State College, Vermont, USA. They've also put together a book called: Integrated Rural Tourism Weaving Low Impact Tourism into the Economic Fabric OF Rural Communities Their web presentation: Telling the story of rural life patterns through the tourism experience .

The Wall Street Journal had one of those tests to determine whether someone meets the "psychological profile of entrepreneurs here . But, as the article notes, "Not everybody agrees there is an entrepreneurial personality type." So, I'm looking for some AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION here. What tests, if any, do you use to gauge entrepreneurial propensities? Do you think they are useful or just a bunch of hooey? (If you're curious about my results, block the space below with your computer mouse.) Achievement 50 Affiliation 47 Power 39 Your score: You're motivated primarily by achievement. Most entrepreneurial people are driven by the need to achieve.

Every so often, McAfee (the company that provides popular security software for home and business computers) evaluates the safety of the links generated by the most popular search engines. In early June, they released " The State of Search Engines " as a 2007 follow-up to similar reports written in 2006. If you've ever run a site analysis using McAfee, you'll know that they use a color-coded system to flag sites that feature security risks such as spyware loaders, high-volume spam generators, hyper pop-up ad creation, etc. This particular study theorizes that people rely on search engines to get what they want. So, the company reviews just how frequently search engines expose you to sites that they consider dangerous to your computer's security. Here are their key findings: Overall, 4.0% of search results link to risky Web sites, which marks an improvement from 5.0% in May 2006. Dangerous sites are found in search results of all 5 of the top US search engines

Well, you've seen it. What do you think? (What?? She wants me to comment on the blog?? I couldn't possibly do that!!) Maybe we'll keep this new look, maybe we'll change it. And your opinions matter. Either way, stay tuned, for new logos, headers, and maybe even some sort of feature to make it easier for us all to communicate in this space.

CBS Sunday Morning had a story a couple weeks ago about The Ever-Growing American Commute . The subtitle is "People Are Living Farther From Cities And Enduring Longer Commutes So They Can Have Large Homes". Much of the background data for the story comes from Commuting in America III from TRB. While one can buy the whole report for $60, there are important (free) data available in the summaries. The most interesting thing I learned is that the commuting patterns are not just from the suburbs to the central city, but from a suburb of one central city to a suburb of another central city. The implications of this is that carpooling and mass transit are almost never available options in these situations; thus, individual - no passenger - use is on the rise in many areas. Yet, there is this countervailing trend: "Although immigrants make up less than 14 percent of all workers, they represent about 40 percent of those in large carpools. The percentage is particularly high amo

(For this Monday, we could have the only blog in America without a posting about last night's episode of "The Sopranos". So, welcome.) On the theme of entertaining cultural events, I found amusing this link that Roger forwarded to me this morning: http://www.worldalmanac.com/blog/2007/03/calling_all_librarians.html It makes a reference to a post that appeared here last December. The blogosphere is nothing if not self-referencing, but I'm a bit bummed that our title is considered "less entertaining" than other library blogs out there. Just the title - not the content itself. Maybe a name change is in order. Any ideas? "Library Card CataBlog"? "Blogolicious"? I'll take suggestions.