New York SBDC Research Network

In January, the Urban Institute released a report called " Current Strategies to Employ and Retain Older Workers ". Their reason for doing this can be found in their Executive Summary: "As the U.S. population ages and the number of people reaching traditional retirement ages increases, employers need to do more to attract and retain older workers, many of whom are highly experienced, knowledgeable, and skilled. Successful approaches include offering formal and informal phased retirement options and creating flexible work arrangements, such as part-time work, flexible schedules, job sharing, telework arrangements, and snowbird programs. Federal, state, and local governments, as well as nonprofit organizations and post-secondary educational institutions, help older workers find employment and secure job training. They also educate employers about the value of older workers." I just had a birthday, but I'm NOT writing this from the perspective of an "older&qu

I'm not sure that any of the following items are worthy of their own blog postings, so today, they will share. Interesting bits: Vancouver’s Used Street Banners Transform to Shopping Bags Reusable bags and totes are hot. So why not make good use of old marketing banners, and get extra revenue and exposure? Most Searchers Have Two Words for Google "Internet users who type two words for on a search engine query account for 31.9 percent of searches worldwide. Three-word phrases are used for 27 percent of searches. A single word accounts for 15.2 percent of queries, and four words are used for 14.8 percent of searches. " Best Geek Hotels in the World 2.0 These places have some pretty neat toys - entire floors devoted to video gaming, Segway riding employees, and even the perfect setting for reinacting scenes from "The Matrix" (careful kids!)

For those of your clients who would like to make and maintain contact within their industry but may feel a bit out of place in Facebook or MySpace, the social network arena still appears to be narrowing to a few main players. As much as people who write about these products often make it sound like there is only one reasonable choice: theirs; I'll be interested to see what lasts in the long run and becomes the standard. Will it play out that this is something we really need or will social network sites never replace the usual ways we keep in touch and make new contacts? It seems that whatever social networking program used has to come out of email. It seems silly to me to have to read my email to tell me to go to Facebook to read the message. What for? It has to be integrated - I have enough stuff to check up on with multiple email addresses. I was not aware of VisiblePath but now it sounds like a good solution. www.Jigsaw.com Jigsaw is an online directory of business people who

You were probably unaware of the fact that New York's governor will soon be New York's former governor. Unaware, that is, if you've avoided all news broadcasts, late-night talk shows, newspapers and any personal contact with anyone who reads a newspaper or watches TV over the past few days. Political and personal tragedy aside, I was interested in the mechanism by which Governor Spitzer was caught when I came across How an information system helped nail Eliot Spitzer and a prostitution ring . So it appears that tools used to fight terrorism, organized crime and identity theft helped undo him.

If you get "The Small Business Advocate" newsletter from SBA's Office of Advocacy (and you've actually read it), then this won't be news to you. Their March 2008 issue features an article called "Trio of New Advocacy Reports". They don't always pertain to the day-to-day activities with our clients, but I find them interesting nonetheless. Here's what they mention: 1) " The Tax Debts of Small Business Owners in Bankruptcy " 2) " Rural and Urban Establishment Births and Deaths " 3) " Small Business and Micro Business Lending in the U.S., 2005-2006 " Regarding #3, here's one person's take on the real impact of microlending, at least internationally.

My stepdaughter is doing a months-long project for school on the state of West Virginia. Part of her assignment is to write a profile on a famous citizen from that state. She chose the famed aviator Chuck Yeager, and we've since been inundated with the minute details of his breaking of the sound barrier in 1947. We at the Research Network recently broke a barrier, though it didn't cause a boom or any other noise. For years, when giving tours of the library to guests, I'd state that we spent, on average, about 1.25 hours per request. I repeated that statistic so often that I began to wonder whether it was just a tale I heard around the campfire when I was new here. Lately, I've been tracking that figure. Starting last December, we now spend on average 2 hours per request. Clearly, all of you have become much better in finding resources on your end that can help answer questions that, in the past, we would do for you. (I'd like to think that the blog has, in so

Ben and I must be on the same wavelength because I came across a similar item. So while on the subject: Free Love Trendwatching.com March 2008 This month, we'll be looking at FREE LOVE, which is all about the ongoing rise of 'free stuff', and the brands already making the most it. Not to mention the millions of consumers who are happily getting into a free-for-all mindset. Absorb and apply!

Ben Ropp, former Research Network intern, recommends these two articles of recent interest in the "Business 2.0" category. Social Media Will Change Your Business "Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up...or catch you later." From Business Week. Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business By Chris Anderson. From Wired.

We have sports coaches, life coaches, career coaches, and now- garden coaches? I recently saw a blurb in Newsweek about garden coaches - consultants who will advise you on your gardening needs, teach you some techniques and help first time gardeners get their feet off the ground (or in this case, their hands in the dirt). If you're looking for more business-related information on gardening and gardeners, check out the National Gardening Association . There's good market research about home gardeners, organic gardening, and lawn and landscaping services.

The test consists of 20 questions from four areas; the last grouping is audible recognition, so I hope you have your sound on your computers. I got 18 out of 20, but misread one of the questions or I would have gotten 19. How did YOU do?

Alright, this is a little random, but here goes... Ever want to make a booklet from a digital PDF document? Here's a neat tool: " BookletCreator - is a free online tool that allows to create a booklet from a PDF document. It reorders pages so that after printing and folding the pages you get a small book." You set up your PDF file in portrait mode, upload it here , and it will do all the tricky formatting . You print (double sided, of course), staple, and voila! Booklet! Have a great weekend!

LooseTooth This is great site for a prolific jewelry (among other things) artist. She uses her blog to describe her artwork and her process. The site is clean but contains a lot of stuff, lots of images and a friendly, casual style. The goods are sold through CafePress.com I think she's found a great work-around the commercial web-site by combining products and not limiting herself by product type. For our artist-clients this ought to be inspirational. It is not a short-cut in the sense that obviously an enormous amount of attention went into this but in terms of using existing tools for good, it's a great example. For artists who may be daunted by the idea of getting started advertising themselves online, getting started as a blog may be a way to go.

Each year, the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration is tasked with documenting the importance of entrepreneurship to the American economy and with highlighting policy issues of relevance to small firms. This report summarizes the publications produced by the Office of Advocacy’s Office of Economic Research in 2007. A copy of this report can be obtained here (PDF) . Should you need further information, please feel free to contact Chad Moutray at (202)205-6533 or advocacy@sba.gov. Yet, this study (PDF) documents the pervasiveness and the magnitude of the tax burden among small business owners in bankruptcy. The data suggest that the tax burden is more pervasive among small business owners in bankruptcy than among consumer petitioners. While less than one-quarter of all consumers in the bankruptcy sample reported tax debts, more than half of individual small business owners reported owing some tax debts. The research summary can be found here (PDF) . Should you ne

Every so often, we'll get a question on behalf of a client who seeks to know the population concentration in the U.S. for a specific nationality. Until recently, I didn't know that the Migration Policy Institute has on their site a series of maps that can help meet this need. The site is limited, though, in the number of countries that it has tracked. In addition to a map of the U.S. that shows "States with the Largest and Fastest-Growing Populations of Foreign Born (2006)," the site links to county-level maps (in PDF form) for these categories: 1) The foreign born as percentage of total county population, 2000: Foreign-born population (total) Foreign born from Mexico Foreign born from the Philippines Foreign born from India Foreign born from China Foreign born from Vietnam 2) The number of foreign born by county, 2000 Foreign born from South America Foreign born from the Caribbean Foreign born from Africa Foreign born from Iran Foreign born from Pakistan In additi

Map pinpoints disease 'hotspots' By Mark Kinver Science and nature reporter, BBC News Map of world's Emerging Infectious Diseases hotspots A detailed map highlighting the world's hotspots for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) has been released. Research shows that many of the diseases we contend with have beginnings in the wild kingdom and offers one more reason to be concerned about environmental issues. I am impressed that my native Canada is remarkably clear of disease.