New York SBDC Research Network

An article in the Wired Blog Network recently discussed YouNoodle , a social networking site for startup entrepreneurs. The website has "introduced a dynamic scoring system purports to indicate the viability of early-stage ventures." "A YouNoodle Score is a quantitative measurement, on a scale of 0 to 100, of a startup's impact and importance based on its traction, activity, and buzz. The score is based on information pulled in from thousands of online sources: traffic, mainstream media, the blogosphere, conversations on Twitter, and other key factors." Currently in it's Beta phase, click here to go directly to the You Noodle website.

RS Means Site Work & Landscape Cost Data 2009 " A successful project is built on the foundation of an accurate and dependable estimate. This book will enable you to construct just such an estimate." Statistical Abstract of the United States 2009 "The national data book." Engagement is Not Enough Keith E. Ayers "You need passionate employees to achieve your dream... light a fire within your employees, not under them!" Fresh Customer Service Michael D. Brown "Treat the employee as #1 and the customer as #2 and you will get customers for life." Long Island Business News - Book of Lists 2009 "LI's Best on Display"

Interested in knowing more about "green" jobs and the "green" economy? The following reports may be particularly useful for those of us in New York State. Cleantech : A New Engine of Economic Growth for New York State From the New York City Investment Fund, January 2007 Central Upstate New York’s Green Industry Sector: Opportunities and Prospects Prepared for Metropolitan Development Association of Syracuse and Central New York and Creative Core’s Regional Green Team, November 2007 Current and Potential Green Jobs in the U.S. Economy From the US Conference of Mayors, October 2008 Includes statistics on the number of existing and projected green jobs by metro area. This is just the tip of the iceberg. For more, check out California’s Employment Development Department's Digest of "Green" Reports and Studies - they are doing a great job keeping track of reports from around the country.

Google recently launched an application, Latitude , that tracks users’ location using GPS and cell-tower triangulation. "Latitude" is an opt-in application meaning users can choose to share their geographic location with friends. This application broadcasts the users’ location but is equipped with "fine-grained privacy controls" built into the application that allow the user to control how precise the location they broadcast is. The location can be as specific as available through "Latitude's GPS and cell-tower triangulation technologies" or as broad as city-level. Users can also control who is allowed to view their location by limiting the audience to a circle of friends or a specific person. Is this creepy or is it another way to minimize geographic distance and provide another avenue for information? Google Latitude video - Amy Peker

SBA has upgraded its podcasts to offer additional resources to the nation’s entrepreneurs. The podcasts, available here , provide an introduction to a variety of small business topics, and provide useful business information and advice. The newest podcast topics include Marketing to the Federal Government, Getting Your Small Business Ready for Tax Season and Online Reporting of Employee Wages. Existing podcasts for entrepreneurs are Is Entrepreneurship for You and Checklist for Starting a Business. New podcasts will be added regularly to provide insight and tips on such topics as downshifting in a slowing economy, going green and business plan development, along with programs for veterans and information to help entrepreneurs start, grow and succeed. Each podcast delivers a broadcast quality recording that can now be downloaded through RSS feeds, in addition to portable media players and personal computers. RSS is a format for delivering regularly changing Web content, such as pod

The 2008-2009 New York State Budget Act has drastically altered the way that franchise taxes will be determined for businesses. Last night CBS 6 News reported that the Tax Changes Anger Small Businesses . A Mr. Subb franchise owner in the Capital Region had his franchise tax jump from $425 last year to $3,000 this year. The franchise tax used to be based on payroll and is now based on receipts. A more in depth article was published on January 1st, 2009 in the CPA Journal . Written by Mark H. Levin, a copy of the article can be found here . The below tables were found in the original article.

I wrote a piece last week with a similar theme, but it bears repeating. Every day, I get an email from the National Federation of Independent Business, providing links to recent news stories on a whole spectrum of small business-related trends. Lately, every day there's another article with a title that indicates the overall angry mood of our nation's entrepreneurs. Here are two new ones: No Small Differences Over Obama’s Treatment of Small Business (from the "Front Row Washington" blog on the Reuters website) Obama's Budget to Raise Small-Business Taxes (from an opinion piece by Donald Lambro, in the Washington Times ) And then this, with a much different point of view: FACT CHECK: GOP Adrift on Small Business Claim The numbers are so politicized, it's difficult to ascertain what's truth, and what is just spin. Anyone have a story from an actual business owner, who can compare and contrast his or her return from this year to one in the recent past? I

There are many sites available now to artists to exhibit their work. One of the difficulties I see in the sites I have visited is the time it takes to navigate, ugly or cluttered presentation, and the time it takes to gauge where on the spectrum of "art" it falls - absolute beginners? long-dead museum-level artists? Mishmash of both? My benchmark is usually: could I actually buy anything by these people? And how much time do I want to spend on trying to gravitate to art I like? This site organizes artist by continent, and there seems to be a fair range of contemporary working artists represented by links to their own websites with 3 examples of their work. They state that they are making an attempt to weed out artwork that strikes the organizers as "formulaic". I like that you can hover over the artist's name and see a thumbnail of a piece so you can decide pretty quickly how to direct yourself to work you like. The site attempts to streamline connection betwee

Stretch! Yup, I've got my arms up in the air again, and am getting funny looks from my coworkers. But I have a plan - I like to get tiny little bursts of exercise during my work day. It feels good, and makes going back to my computer a little easier. Turns out, movement breaks of just 10 minutes can make a difference to employee health and productivity. Check out this piece from NPR: " Expert: 10-Minute Workouts Can Have Big Payoff " According to Dr. Toni Yancey of UCLA, a couple of short exercise breaks offer real health benefits, and working out in groups (with people like your co-workers) is motivating. It can increase productivity too. Fifteen years ago, employees at L.L. Bean's manufacturing facility began taking three, five-minute breaks a day to engage in a little group exercise. Management found that for those fifteen minutes per day, the company found 30-minutes return on productivity.

The blog post How to Create Triggers That Get People to Spread Your Ideas was the introduction of sorts to a webinar I listened to earlier this month, Viral Marketing: How to Create a World Wide Rave . Both venues made these cogent points: "Nobody cares about your products (except you)...What people do care about are themselves and ways to solve their problems..." "No coercion required...When you've got something worth sharing, people will share it..." The webinar example was a dentist who created a free e-book, Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex! and ended up more than quadrupling her gross while allowing her to drop her expensive Yellow Pages ads. "Lose control...Yes, you can measure success, but not through business-school Return On Investment (ROI) calculators." Think of the Grateful Dead, who allowed and even encouraged recording at their concerts. "Put down roots...If you want your ideas to spread, you need to be involved in the online communities

Docuticker recently posted documents put out by Deloitte, LLP about the 2009 automotive and technology, media & telecom TMT) industries.   2009 Industry Outlook: Automotive discusses the challenges to the big 3 in the coming year; 2009 Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT) Predictions are broken down into three respective topics and "provide an in-depth look at the emerging issues that will have an impact on the technology, media and telecommunications sectors in the coming year. The 2009 series has drawn on internal and external inputs from conversations with member firm clients, contributions from Deloitte member firms’ 6,000 partners and managers specializing in TMT, and discussions with industry analysts, as well as interviews with leading executives from around the globe. Each report includes recommendations on how to leverage these trends." -Tyler Krumm

Everyone has an opinion, and there's been no shortage of them in relation to the recently-passed stimulus package. Here are links to three stories that I read, all of which were published some time this month, and each with a different point of view on what to expect from the Small Business Administration. Thought you might like to read them yourself: " SBA Ill-Equipped to Handle Obama Stimulus Funds ," an opinion piece by Keith Girard that appeared on Feb. 12th' " Smaller Lenders See Opportunities in SBA Loan Programs ," a story that appeared on the website of the Arizona Republic on Feb 17th; " Stimulus: What's In It for Small Biz? ," which appeared first on Feb. 18th in the Money section on CNN's website. " Overhaul in the Offing at SBA ," first available on the Entrepreneur.com website on Feb. 4th, which discusses recent political developments that affect the Administration.

Ideas worth spreading "TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design.  It started out  (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds.  Since then its scope has become ever broader." This site collects the 18 minute talks from the conferences and they are released under a Creative Commons license so that they can be shared.  You'll recognize a lot of the people who speak or perform at TED, but you may also encounter interesting people you may not have. It's a conference of ideas, a community of thinkers. For inspiration and a wider view, check out TED.

Take any management or psychology class and you'll no doubt learn about "groupthink" and the power of group dynamics. So you might think one slacker in an otherwise productive group probably won't make much difference. But according to some research, that one "bad apple" can make a large impact. I'm a big fan of the radio program, This American Life, and when I heard the " Ruining it for the rest of us " episode, I had to share. The prologue of the episode focuses on the research of " Will Felps , a professor at Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands, who designed an experiment to see what happens when a bad worker joins a team." Felps used an actor who took turns being a jerk, a slacker or a depressive, and watched what happen to the team. The results? One "bad" team member can spoil it for the rest of us. The antidote? Good listening and asking questions. The whole episode is an hour long, but the prologue secti

The U.S. Small Business Administration has a new package of resources for older entrepreneurs looking to start both for-profit and nonprofit businesses. The site, 50-Plus Entrepreneur , is targeted to those seeking to start a small business, but offers lots of practical advice for social entrepreneurs as well. For example, people can get help in analyzing their competition, counseling problematic employees, improving cybersecurity, developing a business plan and determining how much insurance is needed. That audience might also be interested in Encore Careers . "The growing network of people in encore careers is transforming the workplace and the way that people think about work. More and more individuals in the second half of life are combining continued income with personal fulfillment and social impact." Here's a success story about a social entrepreneur . (Thanks, JM)