New York SBDC Research Network

This time of year there are lots of ways to donate to a good cause at the office. But it can be more difficult to donate your time and to volunteer if you have a busy work schedule. That’s why I thought this article from Idealist.org (a great source for all things non-profit) was interesting. “ Busy Professionals Don't Have Time to Volunteer! ” is about one program that allows a group of co-workers to mentor a group of young women at the workplace, during the workday. There’s also a great little video about a company that will send volunteer opportunities that you can complete using your mobile phone in less than 20 minutes! Good options for busy people who still want to help.

The Library of Congress Business Reference Services has Frequently Asked Business Questions dealing with these topics: 1. Can you tell me if my old stock certificate has any value? 2. What is the cost of living today compared with X years ago? 3. How can I get a sample business plan? 4. How can I get information on foreign exchange rates? 5. Where can I find the history of a company? 6. Where can I find standard industry ratios so I can compare the performance of company X to others in the industry? 7. What are NAICS and SIC codes? 8. Where can I find information on starting a small business? I'm particularly interested in government loans and grants. 9. I am planning to start a new company and want to be sure the name I choose will be unique and protected nationwide.

I don't know. We've been doing this for 3 1/2 years now. It's about time we figured that out. Enter Typealyzer . Developed by a search optimization firm in Sweden, the site uses text analysis of any blog to determine the mindset of its author (or, in our case, authors). Here's what it says about us: "Type: The Guardians The organizing and efficient type. They are especially attuned to setting goals and managing available resources to get the job done. Once they've made up their mind on something, it can be quite difficult to convince otherwise. They listen to hard facts and can have a hard time accepting new or innovative ways of doing things." I like the bit about "managing available resources to get the job done." That's us. Not so sure about having "a hard time accepting new or innovative ways of doing things". That's not us. The blue triangle up there says that we're a left-brain group. We'll try & be more creat

This past week I was able to attend a training session at the New York Library Association's annual conference that was led by an Information Services Specialist from the Boston Regional Census Center. The next decennial census is scheduled to take place on April 1st, 2010. There have been a few changes in terms of what information will be collected through the census. The 2010 Census will only have 10 questions and every household will recieve the questionnaire. In New York State it is essential that every household fill out the questionnaire because the responses will determine the number of representatives that NYS will lose in Congress. It is predicted that the state will lose two representatives, but if every New Yorker were to be counted and surveyed, than theoretically we could only lose one seat. The long form has been eliminated entirely and has been replaced by the American Community Survey , which will provide the detailed information on housing, income, education,

In a follow-on to the post Alexis created, here is more fodder for surviving our economic times: Unpaid, Businesses Become Creative The New York Times By COELI CARR Published: November 12, 2008 In this article on how small businesses can cope in tougher times, suggestions range from bartering for services in lieu of payment and setting new policies for dealing with customers. Resilience and Recession Creative Class Richard Florida Richard Florida maps out areas at risk of recession, in recession or growing.

Here are a few items the IRS would like the small business community to know about: e-News for Small Business “e-News for Small Businesses is a free electronic mail service designed to provide tax information for small business owners and self-employed individuals. It is distributed every other Wednesday.” The newsletter includes information about upcoming tax dates for small business, tax reminders and tips, and information on the IRS website. Subscribe here. ’09 Small Biz Tax Calendar, Ready for Businesses “This 12-month wall calendar is filled with useful information on general business taxes, IRS and SSA customer assistance, electronic filing and paying options, retirement plans, business publications and forms, and common tax filing dates. Each page highlights different tax issues and tips that may be relevant to small business owners with room on each month to add notes, state tax dates, or business appointments.” And it’s free! Order your copy here . An online version of the cal

Our pals at JJ Hill Library are touting this tool developed by the Missouri SBDC: So you've got a new business idea, have you? Will that idea catch fire with your customers, or misfire? Will you blow away the competition or be overrun by them? Will your idea support your weekly grocery bill? Get help articulating important questions like these and learn how the answers can inform your nascent business idea with this business evaluation tool... The tool can help you decide objectively whether your idea is worth pursuing. Some of the other resources on this useful site are specific to MO entrepreneurs, but many are more broadly applicable. Check out this startup expense worksheet, or this detailed financial projections tool (with instructions) by way of example. And may all of your business ideas be pursuit-worthy!

Jeff Boyce, who sits on the New York SBDC Advisory Board, forwarded a link to a new report found on the Kauffman Foundation website. It's called The Capital Structure: Decisions of New Firms . It's 20 pages long, and was generated by using data from Kauffman's Firm Survey. From its Abstract: "This paper investigates the capital structure choices that firms make in their initial year of operations . . . Contrary to many accounts of startup activity, the firms in our data rely heavily on external debt sources as bank financing, and less heavily on friends and family-based funding sources." Later in the report, "external debt sources" is defined to include local bank financing, as well as that of credit cards. There's a lot more to the report, but I invite you to read it. As Jeff mentioned in his accompanying email, "This recent Kauffman Foundation report underscores the importance of microloan funds and small business lending operations like NY

"Internet the easy way" This site pulls together popular sites into categories and allows you to search in a batch. It pulls together the top 10 websites in each category. So you could runa a search in shopping sites, narrow the search and move from one site to another. The ways to narrow vary from category to category. You can type in a product name and then search the shopping category and you can then narrow by price. I haven't had perfect search results but I like the idea. I searched in the Social Networks category for "NYS SBDC" and I got hits in Stumbleupon, Twitter, Delicious and Technorati and FriendFeed.

Now that it’s November, I guess it’s safe to start talking about the holidays. So, are you sending out holiday cards this year? Need advice on business holiday card etiquette? Here are some articles that might help: Boosting Business Relationships with Holiday Cards From the Small Business on washingtonpost .com A tip: Send your card early in the season. Most people leave their cards up until after the holidays, so yours will be in view for a longer period of time. The 8 Rules of Business Greeting Card Etiquette From About.com Don’t forget the personal touches – sign your name, handwrite the address, and send to the home address if you know it. This Holiday, Say It With an E-Card From Entrepreneur.com To cool for stuffy, old paper cards? Maybe try an e-card this year, and share photos, inspirational messages or a little whimsy.

One of the J.J. Hill Library Business Sites of the Week last month was vozMe . "Paste any amount of text into the vozMe Text to Speech site , and the tool quickly converts that text into speech. You can choose a male or female voice and then save the speech as an mp3 to listen to anywhere." I decided to test with this text: "With a paid HillSearch membership, you should not have to pay extra for any articles, reports or lists in any of the HillSearch databases, nor should you have to re-enter your login information. If you encounter this problem, please contact us at 651.265.5500 or at 1 877 700-HILL (4455)" The text was OK, albeit mechanical, not unlike the menu items in some telephone systems. The word "login" sounded more like Logan. But the telephone numbers were incomprehensible, as the system made 651 into six hundred fifty-one. In fact, it was just distracting enough that I wouldn't want to be operating heavy machinery at the same time.

By Sharon St. John, The Mohawk Valley Small Business Development Center, SUNY Institute of Technology, Utica, NY One of my colleagues posed a question about a New York State for-profit business that would contract with banks so that after a foreclosure, the contractors would come in to clean, change locks, mow the lawn, and keep the property maintained until the bank sells it again. Should they be registered as sales tax vendors since what they're doing seems to fall into maintenance and repair? I noted that there are two NYS publications that I recommend for all my clients who are in any kind of construction business. Publication 750, A Guide To Sales Tax in New York State (PDF) , notes on page 20 under Specifically Enumerated Services: "maintaining, servicing or repairing real property both inside and outside of buildings (for example, cleaning, painting, gardening, snow plowing, trash removal and general repairs)" are subject to sales tax. My conclusion is that the com

Do you want to know more about what you can do as a business owner during times of economic downturn? Below are links to articles with solutions and guidelines on how to survive and possibly thrive during the current financial crisis. Congressional Research Services: Economic Slowdown - Issues and Policies (PDF File) Entrepreneur.com: Surviving a Slowing Economy National Federation of Independent Business: Ten Ways to Reject the Recession and Build a Thriving Business Business Week: Surviving the Storm Small Business Trends: Four Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in a Recession WomenEntrepreneur.com: Surviving an Economic Downturn

The Bed & Breakfast/Country Inns Industry Study of Operations and Finance 2007-2008 Professional Association of Innkeepers International Table of Contents Introduction About the Study Glossary of Terms Regions Chart of Accounts Bed & Breakfast Inns Inns and Innkeepers - industry study (2006 data) Bed & Breakfast Inn Amenities Bed & Breakfast Inn Occupancy & ADR Bed & Breakfast Inn Employees Bed & Breakfast inn - Income Statements Country Inns Inns & Innkeepers - industry study Country Inn Amenities Country Inn Occupancy & Avergae Rate Country Inn Restaurants Country Inn Employees Counutry Inn - Income Statements Capital Expenditures Renovation Cost Business of Art An Artist's Guide to Profitable Self-Employment Table of Contents Preface Introduction Center for Cultural Innovation Chapter 1: Work Like an Artist, Think Like an Entrepreneur Chapter 2: Getting the Most Out of the Public Relations Chapter 3: Managing Money

How do you spot trends? What do you do about trends once they've been spotted? How will the financial crisis affect these trends and impact your business ? (For more answers to the latter, also check out this post from Alexis .) These are just some of the issues Trendwatching .com addresses in it's November briefing . A few weeks ago they asked readers to send in their questions, and they've set about to answer 15 of them. Among other things, they link to their trend watching tips , and their checklist of trendwatching tools , as well as updating some recently spotted trends in the face of our current economic situation. Some of their updated trend predictions: Indulgences? Big ones are out, small ones are in. Free stuff? People like free stuff, but advertising-supported businesses may suffer. Eco-chic? Look to " eco -cheap," efficiency and waste-reduction.

On a listserv I monitor, I saw a post about someone receiving notice that he or she had been given an award by the US Local Business Association . the question was, "Is this a VALID organization? or a 'scam' to get companies to buy their award plaque?" Frankly, I didn't want to spend an inordinate amount of time on the question, since it wouldn't count in my monthly statistics,. But I did venture to the Better Business Bureau website, went to the national page, and found this about USLBA: The BBB does not have a current report on this company, which means it has not had frequent enough inquiries or a reason to open a file. The red flags that the BBB sees with this organization's pitch are: *There is no way to contact this company other than via email. *Web site domain registration information is privately registered via Go Daddy. We consider this to be a red flag. *Organization states that you have been awarded, and then presents you with the option of p

I've written about state rankings from the Milken Institute before. Here's another one, called the State Technology and Science Index . Published last June, this is their third version of this survey (they do it every four years). The survey attempts to rank each state by its level of investment and commitment to high technology and science. To understand how they do this, it's easier to quote from their site: "The State Technology and Science Index looks at 77 unique indicators that are categorized into five major components: * Human Capital Investment * Research and Development Inputs * Risk Capital and Entrepreneurial Infrastructure * Technology and Science Work Force * Technology Concentration and Dynamism" As you'll notice, New York ranks 15th in their list. This is where we ranked in 2004. Massachusetts ranks 1st, and they've held that spot in each of these surveys. If you click on New York on the map, you'll see a breakdown of where we rank am

As a librarian, I am a voracious reader of all types of books. Although lately I have been on a James Patterson reading spree, every now and then I love an informative, non-fiction book. Booklist Online has published a list of the Top 10 Business Books of 2008 and although these are not the type of books that need to be purchased for a reference library, they may be of interest to our clientele that would like to learn about the history of business and some of the more successful businesses in the past, present, and future.

There are a few things you can do on Google to save a few steps: Type the airline and flight number into the search box and you can go straight to the departure and arrival times. Find out the currency exchange amount: type in 80 dollars in danish kroner and presto. This works for other measurements/conversions as well. The same goes for shipping tracking numbers. Type in temp in San Francisco and it will give you the latest. Type in a ticker in the search box and get price information. Try using your airport code: ALB airport and you can see local conditions. Use an area code to get a map of the area. Type define and the word you are looking up and you can get a quick definition. Use Google Image Search to gather information about a subject; like, for instance, looking up a name when you are not sure of the gender of the person holding it.

Here's a press release that I just received. It's good to read that the State Library has found its new leader. We've been the beneficiaries of a lot of work done by the NYSL, and we wish Mr. Margolis all the best. BOARD OF REGENTS APPOINT BERNARD A. MARGOLIS NEW YORK STATE LIBRARIAN The Board of Regents today announced the appointment of Bernard A. Margolis as the New York State Librarian. He will assume his new responsibilities in January 2009. State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said, “We live in an age of information, and libraries play a critical role in providing us with access to that information. They are vital to our economy and our communities. They promote literacy and lifelong learning. And in these trying economic times, they are vital to people seeking information about jobs. I am thrilled that the Regents have appointed a dynamic and innovative person like Mr. Margolis to serve in the critically important position of State Librarian.” Mr. Margolis wi