New York SBDC Research Network

What is the best way for a business to obtain a barcode for a product? I would start HERE .

This one of those gooey, somewhat religious pieces. But it also has a basic business application, which is that good signage matters. The Blind Boy's Sign .

WASHINGTON – A major disaster has devastated your community, and landlines are down. Will you be able to use Facebook or Twitter to keep your employees, customers and vendors aware of your status? How will you distinguish good information on post-disaster social media channels from the scams? Business and civic leaders in Joplin, Mo., had a crash course in leveraging social media following the May 22 tornado that tore through the city, killing 160 people and damaging or destroying about 8,000 homes and businesses. Kirstie Smith, communications director of the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, and Mark Kinsley, creator of the Rebuild Joplin Facebook page, will join the U.S. Small Business Administration and Agility Recovery Solutions during a free webinar August 16 to talk about how they used social media tools to exchange critical information with local businesses. Social media consultant John Orlando will share practical tips for business owners to use to map out a business contin

The Cost of Government Regulation & How Business Strategy Can Be Used to Mitigate Its Impact ...with all things in life and business, there are issues, such as government regulation (and taxes), that we cannot control, only react to. So we can use business strategy to mitigate the cost of government regulation by first understanding its aspects, and then developing a strategy or strategies for dealing with it, always with the focus of moving ahead, pushing forward and growing.

A NYS SBDC client seeking financing, and has been unsuccessful at local banks, inquired about a company called Lendio who says they make small business loans using an online matching platform. They require an upfront fee of $30 to start the processing. A SBDC counselor discovered this article from Forbes magazine about a small Michigan business ended up being hookwinked by Lendio's predecessor, Funding Universe. The website even made it appear that the the company was somehow affiliated with the Small Business Administration.

Compensation for civilian workers rose 0.7%, wages and salaries rose 0.4%, and benefit costs rose 1.3%, seasonally adjusted, from March to June 2011. Over the year, compensation rose 2.2%, wages and salaries 1.6%, and benefits 3.6%

Annual report on businesses without paid employees in nearly 300 industries for the nation, states, counties and metropolitan areas. Most who own such businesses are self-employed and operate very small businesses (for example, real estate agents or beauticians) that may or may not be their primary source of income. The number of nonemployer businesses...declined by more than 260,000 between 2008 and 2009 across the United States, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau...In 2009, there were 21.1 million nonemployer firms, a decrease of about 1.2 percent from 2008. This continues a decline first noted in 2008 — following the beginning of the recession at the end of 2007 — when the total number fell by more than 350,000 from a peak of 21.7 million firms in 2007. “Nonemployer firms generate a small percentage of total U.S. business receipts, but they constitute the majority of U.S. businesses...”