New York SBDC Research Network

Mary Ellen Bates is a respected information consultant. I receive an e-newsletter from her, and this month's issue had this bit that I think is pretty cool: "If you are based in the US, you can search for local companies through your cell phone, regardless of whether or not your phone has web capability. If you call 1-800-GOOG411 (1-800-466-4411), you will be asked to say the city and state you want information on - Boulder, Colorado, for example - then you say the type of business or specific business name you want - for example, "book store" or "Barnes and Noble". A text-to-speech program will read you the top eight results from its local search ( http://local.google.com/ ). If you want, Google can automatically dial any of the first eight businesses' phone number, or you can ask to have the address and phone number read to you." (From Bates Information Services, www.BatesInfo.com/tip.html ) A visit to the Google website for this service repeated

Lending and Borrowing from the General Public YOUR MONEY Person-To-Person Lending Flourishes on Web by Jessica Smith Morning Edition, NPR , November 2, 2007 “Welcome to the era of coffee shop money lending.” I read this story on NPR.org about person-to-person lending on the Internet which just seemed like an amazing idea. It is fascinating that this exists and that it seems to work. The idea is that a person writes a profile of how much they want to borrow and for what and what their top limit on the interest they are willing to pay and then people bid on the loan request. The borrower is vouched for by friends, colleagues or family and the amount raised from various lenders is consolidated by Prosper.com and then the money is distributed. These are not small loans either- they can run from $50 to $25,000. It seems a risky proposition but interesting to see how people will take things into their own hands. Prosper.com "Prosper generates revenue by collecting a one-time 1% or 2% f

Happy Halloween! If my memory is correct, the Halloweens of my childhood in Vermont were always super-dark and freezing cold (Snow? Fairy costumes are a bust when you have to wear your winter coat over them). This chilly thought made me think how nice it is for tonight's trick-or-treaters to get that extra hour of light, since we haven't yet turned back the clocks. Well, apparently I wasn't the only who thought it would be nice for Halloween to have a little more evening light. According to this online New York Times piece, An Extra Hour of Halloween Daylight? Thank the Candy Lobby , the candy industry lobbied hard for this extension of daylight savings, thinking it would spur additional candy sales.

We get quite a few requests about veterans, so here's something from the SBA Office of Advocacy: This study compares changes in the income and wealth of veteran and non-veteran households; veteran small business households with veteran non- business households; and veteran small business households with non-veteran small business households from 1989 to 2004. It classifies all households with a business owner/manager or self-employed individual as a business- owning household. This study uses the 1989 through 2004 Surveys of Consumer Finances (SCF), conducted by the Federal Reserve Board as its primary data source. A full copy of this report is available here and the research summary can be found here . Should you need further information, please feel free to contact Charles Ou at (202) 205-6533 or advocacy@sba.gov.

This article appeared in yesterday's online version of the Wall Street Journal. Misleadingly titled "Four Danger Signals When Franchising," (it ought to read "When Buying a Franchise"), it re-visits territory that we've explored in this blog over the years. Nevertheless, this is practical information to review with our clients. It's a brief article, and it highlights three specific issues: 1 - Lots of litigation and closures - Noting that franchisors have an obligation to disclose any current or past litigation in the franchise offering circular; 2 - Too many bad reviews - Recommending that potential buyers interview a variety of current owners of the franchise to get their honest take; and 3 - High-pressure sales tactics - Which ought to speak for itself. A lot of this is common sense, but I've heard many stories from all of you over the years about clients who bought a franchise first, then asked questions later. That's the wrong order to

Today is the last day with the SBDC RN for Alexis Mokler who has been our very diligent library intern. Alexis is continuing her Master's in Library Science course at SUNY Albany. We are always happy to have the help of interns but are especially glad when we have as good an intern as Alexis, able to take on oftentimes troublesome projects and give us some much needed help with research. We wish her much success and thanks for all her good work!

Do you get too many catalogs in your mailbox? Check out Catalog Choice . Catalog Choice “is a free service that lets you decline paper catalogs you no longer wish to receive.” You just enter your name and address (they promise not to send you anything), then search for and select the catalogs you’d like to stop receiving. Your mail box and letter carrier are saved wear-and-tear, the catalog company isn’t wasting money on catalogs you have no interest in, and a lot less paper is consumed. As the website points out, “Over eight million tons of trees are consumed each year in the production of paper catalogs.”