New York SBDC Research Network

How's your brain feeling today? Right now, at 10:30 in the morning, mine is a bit sluggish. When asked "How are you?" by coworkers first thing in the morning, "tired" is the word I've used the most. No different today. I need more sleep. A fellow named John Medina would agree. He wrote a book called Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. In it, he puts forth his 12 rules for a better brain. Most of the rules are pretty obvious: exercise more, eat better, get more sleep. However, he's built a website where he lays out the science behind each of them - how a portion of your brain is physically influenced by external factors. For instance, regular exercise stimulates a part of the brain related to the thalamus, which aids in memory. A lack of sleep hinders your attention span, promotes moodiness, and impacts your logical reasoning. Your brain will better retain new information if exposed to it repeatedly. And so

As of July 24th, the minimum wage has been raised to $6.55. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 required three minimum wage hikes over a three-year period, with the final increase going into effect July 24th, 2009. This summer also marks the 70th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act. History of Federal Minimum Wage Rates Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938 - 2007 Minimum Wage Laws in Individual States

I have suggested the language podcasts on iTunes . They also have business podcasts on various issues. I've been listening to one called How to Give Feedback About Attire on Manager Tools by Michael Auzenne and Mark Horstman. It's free and you can also get it from their website . One of the sessions I listened to was about talking to employees about dress codes. It is interesting and talks to this team's approach to managing employees in general. For the purposes of this topic they discuss the ways managers talk to employees - making judgements versus offering feedback on employee behavior with an explanation of impacts. In this scenario, not criticizing clothes specifically, but talking to the choices employees make and how to separate the person from the behavior. They describe situations where a dress code is too specific and tries to codify clothes. The difficulty is where a person is not breaking rules but is making choices that creates less than positive results. Th

We have several resources related to venture capital at our disposal at the Research Network. Here's a new one I saw on the ResourceShelf blog. It's the Venture Capital Database . As described on by Alain Sherter on TheDeal .com : "The database, which lists information on 492 VC firms and nearly 6,800 venture investors worldwide, is based on information from the National Venture Capital Association, supplemented by Winn's own entries. It provides links to firms' Web sites, email addresses, locations and investment parameters, including assets under management and minimum and maximum investment. In a nice touch, VCDB displays firms in Google Maps, which gives entrepreneurs an idea of their proximity to investors. Even more useful, it provides biographical info on individual VCs , along with links to their blogs, if they have one. The database is searchable by firm and VC , location, investment size and alma mater." Worth checking out? Let us know what

I've gotten this question a couple times now this summer, so I thought I ought to address it here. Q: There are women-owned certification programs, minority-owned certification programs, and small business disadvantaged certification programs,, such as 8(a). Is there a small business certification program? If not, how do those programs that require small businesses fill them? A: According to my sources - the SBA and a very nice woman at the NFIB - there is no small business certification as such, as there are women, minority and small disadvantaged programs. Wait, you say, so how do they get SB for contracts, etc.? They assume they are telling the truth, but then require documentation (payroll records, tax records, etc.) to make sure. Trust but verify. BTW, it’s the same for veterans – no certification, but one will need to bring in the documentation at some point.

In today's online Wall Street Journal there's a brief article titled " Wait to Work for Family ". We sometimes get inquiries regarding succession planning from small business owners who, upon retirement, hope to keep things in the family. This article suggests that grown children are likely more effective - and more confident in their decision-making - if they don't join the business right out of school. It's obvious - small businesses kept in the family stand a better chance of survival if the next generation is as motivated as those who founded it.

I'm sure a number of our clients could afford to practice their story or pitch. Here are few sites on developing an elevator pitch. www.wikipedia.com Elevator Pitch Youtube.com Elevator Pitch The Art of the Elevator Pitch www.businessknowhow.com By Robert Pagliarini of SeekingCapital.com The Perfect (Elevator) Pitch BusinessWeek.com by Aileen Pincus

If you have a regular need for the forms issued by the SBA (or any other Federal government agency), then bookmark the Federal Forms Catalog at Forms.gov . Note in the left-hand margin, under the heading "Frequently Used Forms," that there's a link titled "Small Business Forms". All of them emanate from SBA. All of the links lead to a PDF version of the form, many of which can be filled out online. Elsewhere, I can envision how quick access to IRS forms would be useful to certain clients as well. I took a quick spin around SBA's website, but couldn't readily find a link there to the forms they've issued. Keep it handy.

A few weeks ago, I blogged about a Wall Street J ournal piece about the history of the necktie , and how changing rules about business attire have affected that industry. Here's another change in business etiquette . The handshake may not be in any danger, but according to this USA Today article, the fist bump is making in-roads with the younger set (and presidential candidates): Read more here: " Can the fist bump mix with business? " Time magazine offers a history of the fist-bump here: " A brief history of the fist bump " Of course there are other greetings in the business world, including the cheek kiss. Make sure you're familiar with kissing etiquette by checking out this Wall Street Journal piece : " Americans Learn The Global Art Of the Cheek Kiss "

A new search engine, Cuil - pronounced "cool" - started today. You can read all about its claims of being "better than Google" here and here , among many other places. Apparently, it was having start-up jityters, as one person indicated that one couldn't access it at all fotr a time. But I got through and tried New York State Small Business Development Center ; it actually suggested the whole name after I had typed New York State Sm My result: We didn’t find any results for "New York State Small Business Development Center" Some reasons might be... a typo. Please check your spelling. your search includes a term that is very rare. Try to find a more common substitute. too many search terms. Please try fewer terms. Finally, try to think of different words to describe your search. It’s the first item on Google. Meh. And as a matter of vanity, I cuiled my blogs and they showed on the 7th page, while they're on the first page on Google. As this wri

With gas prices rising and the economy worsening, companies are trying to find solutions for the strain that businesses and employees are feeling. The article Should We Embrace the Four-Day Workweek provides a solution to alleviate employee stress while also benefiting the company. The article points out that a Community College in Florida converted to four-day workweek and saved over $200,000 on energy costs for the summer while also reducing sick leave usage by 50% and turnover by 44%. For more information on solutions, check out Surviving a Slowing Economy and Surviving an Economic Downturn

I am reading about enneagrams which seem to be a Myers Briggs-type personality type system. I was pointed to the book: The Nine Ways of Working by Michael J. Goldberg which looks at how people can work better if they understand the stories that we tell ourselves about who we are and how we function. This made me wonder what an enneagram was and came across the following descriptions as well as a brief test to see what type I might be. So, if nothing else, you feel like entertaining yourself, check out these sites: Enneagram Institute Take a test: The New Enneagram Test What Breed of Dog Are You? Time Anita Hamilton This article reviews various sources of personality quizzes to help you get to know youself better.

I'm not a fan of business meetings. My wife works for a company that seems to revel in them. Sometimes, entire days go by where she does nothing but shuttle from one conference room to another. I don't hide my dismay. I prefer meetings that focus on a single thing, and then be part of an engaged group of people who share their opinions and reach some kind of consensus. It's a rare thing, but it is possible. (For instance, it's how we developed our presentation for this past year's staff training event.) I don't call many staff meetings (I like to think I communicate directly). However, I recognize that this is just the opposite extreme from how my wife's company works. There ought to be a middle ground. This is why I found this article so interesting. It ran in last Sunday's New York Times , and contains eminently practical suggestions for making meetings more efficient, and more useful to the time of everyone involved. I'm going to print it out, an

The Urban Institute has just released a new report addressing the job market for the baby boomer generation. Will Employers Want Aging Boomers? discusses the fastest-growing occupations for those over 55 and the types of skills employers will be looking for in this working population. From the report's abstract: "Boomers will probably want to work longer than earlier cohorts, but their continued work requires that employers hire and retain them. Employers value older workers for their maturity, experience and work ethic, but worry about out of date skills and high costs. Slower overall labor supply growth will increase demand for older workers and occupations with higher shares of older workers will increase modestly as a share of all jobs. Future jobs will require less physical demands and more cognitive and interpersonal skills, trends that favor educated older workers, but job opportunities for less educated older workers may remain limited."

Advocacy funded, U.S. Census Bureau Statistics of U.S. Businesses dynamic data has been updated to 2005. The data contains firm/establishment births, deaths, and related employment creation and destruction data by firm size, industry, and geographic location. From 2004 to 2005, firm births numbered 644,122 and deaths numbered 565,745. Firms with fewer than 500 employees accounted for 78.9 percent of the net employment growth during this period. See the dynamic data sections of http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/data.html for details.