New York SBDC Research Network

If you are looking for a mission statement to emulate, your first stop should be MissionStatements.com . It includes statements from Fortune 500 companies, but also from restaurants, technology companies, construction businesses, real estate firms, hospitals, day care centers and more. It also contains some slogans/mottos and business descriptions. The web page says: A company's mission statement is a constant reminder to its employees of why the company exists and what the founders envisioned when they put their fame and fortune at risk to breathe life into their dreams. Woe to the company that loses sight of its Mission Statement for it has taken the first step on the slippery slope to failure. BELL: The Business Ethics Links Library is "a comprehensive starting point for research in corporate ethics and social responsibility. The database provides access to codes of ethics for U.S. companies and trade and professional associations, ethics sites at college and university bu

Here's a fun, short article from this month's issue of The Atlantic . Titled " Pac Rat ," it describes the efforts being made in certain circles of higher education to save the source code of video games that have long since gone out of favor (and whose intellectual property may no longer be in force). It also speaks to the issues behind technological preservation in general - with so much digitization in force, what becomes of data in general? Can it remain in a non-hard-copy ephemeral state forever? What becomes of the 1,000+ digital photos on my hard drive at home? How about this blog post? I'm fascinated by the judgments that will be made in the not-so-distant future, which reveals what amongst the deluge will live on, and what will fade away.

If you have a mail order/Internet business in New York State, and you have NYS customers, you need to charge sales tax on the eligible items at the rate of the location of the purchaser. This can seem quite onerous. Fortunately there is an electronic Sales Tax Jurisdiction and Rate Lookup . You type in the street address and ZIP Code and it will generate the correct rate. Incidentally, trying to find a list of sales tax rates by ZIP Code would be fruitless, since ZIP Codes are no respecters of county boundary. One thing this lookup does NOT do, however, is to indicate which counties have set aside, at the county level, the sales tax on individual clothing items that cost $110 or less. You need to check this chart .

Every household in the US will be receiving the 2010 Census form sometime this week. The Census has eliminated the long form, so every household will receive the same form. There is some information regarding the Census that is not well known or often debated. The links and quotes below are to help clarify Census issues. The Cost of the Census Responding By Mail Can Save Taxpayers Hundreds of Millions : - The Census Bureau today estimated that if every household completed and mailed back their census form, taxpayers could reduce the cost of taking the census by $1.5 billion . The Census Bureau saves about $85 million in operational costs for every percentage point increase in the nation’s participation rate by mail. - “It costs the government just 42 cents for a postage paid envelope when a household mails back the form,” said Census Director Robert M. Groves. “It costs $57 to send a census taker door-to-door to follow up with each household that fails to respond.” Census Confid

We all know the feeling of failure. Well, I guess those few perfect people out there don't know that feeling, but the majority of us humans know that failing never feels good. But it can be good for you. If we are open to learning from our failures, not only can we determine what factors caused us to fail in the first place, but then we can change the way we go forward. So while it's not always easy to view a failure as a learning experience, it may be the best way for your to succeed in the future. A Silicon Valley Conference About Failing Is Big Success 10 Ways Failure Leads to Success

Want to know more about the spending habits of your neighbors? Check out Bundle.com . There are lots of forums and articles about spending topics, and you can take a quiz which will assign you a “spend type” based on your usual spending tendencies. For our purposes, I think Everybody’s Money , a database on spending and saving trends, is more interesting. You can choose a location and see spending breakdowns. There are broad categories (like Health & Family) which you can then breakdown into smaller categories (like personal care, insurance, and pets). You can compare this data to other geographies, or compare within categories like age, household type or income. According to their FAQ: “Our data comes from the U.S. government, from anonymous and aggregated spending transactions from Citi , and from third party data providers.” This data shouldn't’t replace the more detailed consumer expenditure reports we can access from DemographicsNow , but it does seem to be an interesting

I'd like to offer a friendly reminder that if you have not already, you need to update your admin page on WebMQS. Even if you have done it recently, some updated information may not have been updated and it simply good practice to keep an eye on both your personal data as well as your center data. We rely on the primary email address that you wish to receive mail at to be at the top. We've noticed a few bounce-backs because of incorrect data - in one case data that was years out of date. So, please check your details often!

Over three years ago, I blogged about the efficacy of ClickZ for website user session information. But there's so much more to the site: statistics, white papers, news articles, expert columnists. It is, as it claims, "news and expert advice for the digital marketer."

When doing research for a question on boats over 34ft in length on the DMV website I found it did not provide useful information so I had to expand my search. While doing my expanded search I found a website http://www.boatinfoworld.com/boat/registrations/allegany-county-ny-new-york.asp that provided a description of the boat owners by state and then a further division by county. The site can provide the address of people who have a boat license as well as the length and docking port of the boat. I figured this would be useful information for people who need to know more info about boat owners.

Small businesses are less likely to have their own graphic designers on staff, so knowing how and where to find designers is important. The following article describes 10 Fantastic Places for Finding Designers Online . These various tools allow users to find professional designers by location, expertise and to read and write reviews of their work.

Your Business Cards - Top 10 Blunders Duct Tape Marketing By Barbara Wayman Published 02/28/2010 This article covers some key tips on what not to do to create an attractive and useful business card, most of which boil down to 'don't make it look homemade.' and on the other hand there are these great examples: CreativeBits

Someone recently e-mailed me one those heart-tugging stories. This one starts: "A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: 'I am blind, please help.' There were only a few coins in the hat." Usually, these messages get quickly deleted, but this particular one did not. Go read it here. Or here or here . The business librarian in me focused on one particular line in the Moral of the Story category: "Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively." The man rewriting the sign put a creative spin on the situation. He also recognized that doing things the way it had been done before - using the original wording - wasn't that successful, and the methodology had to change. And of course, the overriding message, which we at the Research Network embrace fully, is that signage matters . A lot. These lessons seem applicable to any entrepreneur.

This article (" Social Media Helps Some Small Businesses Endure Bad Economy ") is something you've seen before, but it bears repeating. Use of Facebook, Twitter, et al. requires imagination, just like any marketing campaign would (but at a much better price). This article focuses on the efforts of certain eating establishments. For those clients seeking inspiration, read on.

Every business owner knows that during a recession, it is difficult for any business to maintain previous levels of income. But after a recession ends, how does a company bounce back? Below are some articles that offer tips and success stories that will help your business exit the recession prepared for the turn around. 9% of Companies Emerge from the Recession Stronger - Here's How (BNET - Harvard Business) How to Reach an Audience Forever Changed by the Recession (Chief Marketer)

It’s all well and good to talk about the best business uses of Facebook and the best strategies for creating Facebook Fan Pages. But pictures and examples are worth a thousand words. That’s why this piece from Mashable is particularly helpful: 5 Fantastic Facebook Fan Page Ideas to Learn From Some tips: You can have a great looking fan page, but your fans are still going to want to DO something. Good example: Gap’s Baby Gap tab encourages parents to post pictures of their Gap-clad tykes. Remember that fans want to get something useful from your Page. You can customize your landing page to spell out the reasons to become a fan (like prizes!), just like Walgreens. If you’re not sure how to build a custom landing page for your Fan page, just follow the links to this article, How to Build a Facebook Landing Page for Your Business .

Take The Test . Twenty questions you need to ask yourself. Developed by Babson College professor Daniel Isenberg, this piece is from The View from Harvard Business . *** This is rather entrepreneurial: Caring for Pets Left Behind by the Rapture For a fee, this service will place your dog or cat in the home of a caring atheist on Judgment Day. By Mike Di Paola, Bloomburg Business Week Many people in the U.S.—perhaps 20 million to 40 million—believe there will be a Second Coming in their lifetimes, followed by the Rapture . In this event, they say, the righteous will be spirited away to a better place while the godless remain on Earth. But what will become of all the pets? Bart Centre, 61, a retired retail executive in New Hampshire, says many people are troubled by this question, and he wants to help. He started a service called Eternal Earth-Bound Pets that promises to rescue and care for animals left behind by the saved. (Hat tip to Steve Bissette .)

If you are a business in the renewable energy industry or your business has been looking for renewable energy company, then I suggest you bookmark The Source for Renewable Energy , "a comprehensive buyers guide and business directory to more than 16,000 renewable energy businesses and organizations worldwide". There are many different types of renewable energy businesses that have no clear NAICS or SIC code yet. With no clear classification code, it is difficult to create business lists using our business directory databases. The Source for Renewable Energy allows searchers to "locate renewable energy businesses by geographic location, by product type, by business type and by name, or search for renewable energy businesses using keywords". For example, I could create a list of US Electric Vehicle Battery Manufacturers, a list of US Renewable Energy Trade Associations by Business Name, or a list of Ocean Energy System Component Businesses in the World. As yet, I have

I still get faxes, a technology that I'd given up for dead. Mind you, most of these are "blast" faxes, promoting fabulous six-day cruises, or great breaks on group health insurance. (In response to this sentence, we'll now likely get "blast" email comments.) Surely, I'm not alone, and this recent article from National Underwriter proves that. It quotes extensively from recent comments made by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud , stating that small businesses, self-employed individuals, and recently-uninsured people are targeted by plans that prove to be ineffective or worthless. Periods of high unemployment are especially vulnerable times for those in need, making these scams even more reprehensible. A money quote: "Typically, the Coalition said, bogus plans promise full health coverage, affordable premiums, and easy signup regardless of preexisting conditions. Victims often must join a fake trade association or union. This ploy, it was exp

The Microbusiness Research Institute (MRI)is an organization dedicated to examining the realities and challenges facing the smallest businesses. "Over eighty percent of the growth in the number of businesses in the United States between 1992 and 2002 came from a surge in the number of microbusinesses (firms with fewer than five employees). Right now, more than nine in ten U.S. firms are microbusinesses." There are white papers available on the site including one called Microbusiness and the Human Economy There is also a Profile of Microbusiness .

Looking for licensed purveyors of alcohol in New York State? I found my Reference USA search for wholesalers surprisingly unsatisfactory. Then I went to the source, the New York State Liquor Authority's web page. Specifically, the Public Query System is quite useful. One can search by: premises name or the trade name. license serial number. location of the premises. name of the principal for the license. One can also use the Advance Search Find a license according to the City, County, Zip Code, Dates, License Category (on-premise, off-premise, wholesale) and License Status. You may also download the search results, though I had more luck with the Excel than the text, which formatted strangely. A peculiarity in the system, though, is that out-of-state registrants all show up in the records for Albany County. Thus, the 690 cureent wholesale records are not actually applicable to Albany County.