New York SBDC Research Network

I've received a couple of requests in the last month that were looking for a listing of the current issues that concern small business owners. These are typically the legislative agenda items for such groups as the National Federation of Independent Businesses or the National Association of Women Business Owners. Related to those is the current " Top 10 List of Current Rules for Review and Reform ," published each March by SBA's Office of Advocacy . According to their most recent issue of The Small Business Advocate , the list was drawn from over 80 rules nominated by small business owners as those whose reform or removal would be most beneficial. As you'll see, all of these items concern current requirements as mandated by Federal agencies. Some are very industry-specific (e.g., EPA should revise outdated or inaccurate testing requirements for dry cleaners), while others have a much broader (and larger) target audience (such as the request that the IRS simplif

Earlier this week, I was asked by a client if they had image rights to a caricature that was purchased from a street vendor. After searching and searching for the answer, I called the U.S. Copyright Office. Their response was that the street artist owns the copyright and person who purchased the caricature has to get permission from the artist in order to use the print. Well then, how can the purchaser find the artist? Go wandering the streets of the same city in the hopes that they may run into him or her? Unlikely. Instead, they need to make a Good Faith Effort into locating the artist. The referenced link gives multiples locations to look for the original creator. Good Faith Effort does not mean that if the owner posts the caricature after trying to locate the artist and failing, they are free to use the image as wanted. For specific copyright laws, go to The United State Copyright Office . If you can't find the answer, do what I did, and call 202-707-5959.

Who is Your City? by Richard Florida I have not read this book. I was in Barnes and Noble and came across this title that naturally strikes a chord with me. I had a quick gander and thought I would like to read it and then, while in my car I was teased with a promise of a program discussing the book with the author that never materialized for me. So, I went looking for the story and ended up at this site and took the short survey to discover my best city - of the cities I listed as places I would consider living. The site offers some information about the book and also has themed maps for things such as innovation, economic activity, "mega-regions of Asia", and personality maps, all fun stuff. I have always said I would like to live in an amalgamation of the best cities I have lived in: Brooklyn's frank neighborliness, San Francisco's creative happiness, London's energy and brains...so if SanFrooklyn exists, I'm there.

I have to give the video game industry some credit – they are willing to provide information about their industry on the web. It’s a real pleasure to find associations & websites that offer substantive reports, factsheets and articles, even to non-members. So here are a just a few good sites for video game design & sales: International Game Developers Association http://www.igda.org/ Indie Games http://www.indiegames.com Gamasutra: The Art & Business of Making Games http://www.gamasutra.com/ Entertainment Software Association: http://www.theesa.com

From the SBA Press Office: WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration launched a new Web site, www.NationalSmallBusinessWeek.com , for National Small Business Week 2008, featuring information about the agency’s premier annual event. The celebration of National Small Business Week is April 21-25, with events in Washington, D.C., April 21-23 and in New York City April 24-25. Among the featured speakers confirmed are Secretary Mike Leavitt, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Ambassador Susan C. Schwab, United States Trade Representative; Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker; David Latimore of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City; John Bryant of Operation HOPE, and other prominent business leaders, CEOs and politicos. Visitors to the site will find it richer, deeper, and easier to navigate, with a look and feel that conveys the spirit of excitement surrounding this year’s Small Business Week events. Up-to-the-minute highlights, multimedia content and information

This article from CNet notes that Adobe rolled out their brand-new Photoshop Express feature on March 27th. It's seen as a direct response to Google's Picasa application. This looks way cool to me. I've gone back-and-forth over the years as to whether I should buy Photoshop for my PC at home. Now, there's no need. If you've been looking for a low-cost means to touch-up, correct, re-color, or re-format your digital photos, and/or felt a need to store your current shots off-site, then this is the site for you. "Low-cost" with this application means "free," and off-site storage of 2 GB is available. The site will try & sell more sophisticated products to professional & hardcore amateur enthusiasts, but for people like me (who simply point & click), then the options offered by this site is plenty. The application is also usable via blog owners & This is a beta version, so there are likely bugs & hassles in there somewhere

Starting a small business is complicated, but keeping it out of the red can be even more challenging. The stress that some small business owners must experience over continually trying to keep a business afloat opposed to 'folding' must be immense. When I stumbled across the article "When to hold 'em, when to fold 'em" in the Toronto Star , I was struck by how useful some of the tips could be to our clients.

On Monday, I got a notice from an old college friend via Facebook. Yesterday, I received a request from someone to connect to my LinkedIn account. Today, I read an article from Computerworld on which of these sites was better for business. Call it karma. LinkedIn has always been designed as a networking site solely for interaction among those in business. Facebook originated as a networking site amongst those with college or university email addresses. However, it is being adapted more and more by those in the labor force as a means of finding better opportunities, contract employees, and so forth. The article presents six scenarios, and asked separate writers to argue the merits of one versus the other in that situation. Needless to say, the article doesn't provide an answer to the question of "Which is better?" (unless you consider "It depends" as a worthwhile conclusion). I only dabble at both, but I can certainly see why people get hooked on these sites.

I've been enjoying the free language learning podcasts available on itunes . I've been focusing on French and Danish. At the end of the Coffee Break French , the instructors encourage posting comments on itunes , which led me back to the site and I thought: before I post a comment I should listen to a language I do not know so well to see how manageable I found it. So I wandered over to Coffee Break Spanish and I can say that I think the program is great value for money. They offer free lessons with inexpensive add-on materials if you choose to use it. The instructor is a friendly Scottish guy who has a great accent in both French and Spanish and I think he leads other languages. The lessons are about 15 to 20 minutes long and very manageable. So, for those who have an MP3 player, this is a painless way to add some language skills to your day. Some of the other offerings on the Radio Lingua site are OneMinute Polish or Irish or Russian and MyDailyPhrase:Italian or German amo

"They're smart, they're aggressive and their services are free." Thus starts a really great article about the Niagara SBDC in the Spring 2008 issue of Niagara Business. Not only are the services of the Niagara SBDC pretty great, but the staff looks pretty great (and tough) in the cover photo of this issue. But the best part? Rick Gorko is kind enough to highlight research services! "We have librarians there who are paid to do research so the client doesn't have to spend hours or days in front of a computer trying to find out information we already have access to." Thanks for the shout out Rick! We'll do our best to keep saving the clients' time.

The state Tax Department has recently made available a new easy-to-use online NAICS Code Lookup service to locate North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for sales tax registration. "An accurate NAICS code will help us provide you with the sales tax returns, schedules, and other sales tax information specific to your type of business." It can also be useful for SBDC advisors who are entering records into various electronic databases.

Hello! Since this is my first week officially working for the SBDC RN and I am no longer the intern, I would like to introduce myself and give a little background on my education and interests. I hold a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology and Criminal Justice from Elmira College. After graduating in June 2003, I moved around the country and spent time living in Arizona and Georgia. After returning to New York, I started my Master’s in Information Studies at SUNY Albany in January 2006 and graduated this past December. On a personal note, I enjoy reading (surprise!), cooking, traveling, watching movies, and gardening. I look forward to working with all of the regional offices. Please feel free to contact me for any reason. Best regards, Alexis Mokler

My work keeps me in one place but even between work and home, I like the flexibility that web applications allow. I was frustrated by the tempermental ways of my ISP mail account so I stick with Gmail knowing I can always get to it. Sync your calendars with Yahoo! or Google , share documents and speadsheets with Google, and you are pretty much set to do most things wherever you are. With online storage available and even remote access to your PC, the business-owner is rarely helpless. I find it much easier to upload photos onto Snapfish or Flickr in order to share them with family, then to send them any other way. We will see more and more applications we know from their desk-top versions moving to the web. Combinations of these tools will create the project management software in the future. It pays to check these things out because in many cases they are free to use. For anyone, the price is right. www.4shared.com Iomega iStorage www.gotomyPC.com www.basecamphq.com

If you have anything to do with online advertising, here are a couple of recent pieces that may cause you to rethink the subject. It starts with a report from Ad Age, Think Different: Maybe the Web's Not a Place to Stick Your Ads . It turns out that internet users are pretty good at ignoring banner ads, and as Jakob Nielsen said a decade ago, "The basic point about the web is that it is not an advertising medium. The web is not a selling medium; it is a buying medium. It is user-controlled, so the user controls, the user experiences." As Techdirt summarizes in Advertising Is Content; Content Is Advertising , helpful content on a business website can advertise that company, and to get noticed, advertising has to offer something to the viewer ( ie , content).

One of the hassles of the earlier move in Daylight Saving Time, besides a four-year-old's inability to adjust to it (it's still dark at 6:15 a.m.!) is that I have no idea what time it is in other parts of the world. Other countries change to Daylight Saving Time on different dates. This time and date converter lets me know that CURRENTLY, it's a four-hour difference between New York and London. In a couple weeks ( March 30, 2008 ), it'll be back to a five-hour difference.