New York SBDC Research Network

The U.S. Postal Service wants the small business world to know about its direct mail shipping service for small businesses, called ” Every Door Direct Mail .” With Every Door Direct Mail, small businesses including restaurants, auto dealerships and doctor’s offices can send out direct mail campaigns such as postcards and brochures, with postage rates as low as 14.5 cents.  The remarkable thing is that you don’t need a mailing list with specific addresses and/or names, or a postal permit. Such items typically drive up the costs and effort in a direct mail campaign. Instead, the Postal Service’s website provides an online mapping tool.  You  can choose a city, county, zip code or even a neighborhood (i.e., within a 5-mile radius of a specific address).  You just choose the area, and the direct mail will be delivered without the need to affix labels or print specific addresses. The tool is fairly easy to use.  Once you’ve registered your business and learn it the first

The International Business Help Center provides 300 pages of resources and information about worldwide B2B and Import Export opportunities. This web based international trade center was created to assist companies expand into new foreign markets, provide training for individuals wishing to start an export import business and help importers locate reliable sources of new products. For access to more information and services, click  here.

From HERE - How do you describe your business to the world? What words sum up your brand identity and what you have to offer? Are you clearly explaining your business value? It takes a little time and thought to get your marketing message right, which is why so many small businesses fall back on their “About Us” page or product descriptions to describe what they do and for whom. The problem with this approach is that this message is always about the business itself, and not about those you are trying to connect with – your customers. Getting your marketing, positioning, and brand statements right is an essential step

For the full article,  here. Want to get into TechStars? You're not the only one. Of the 1,500 who apply, only 1 percent actually get in the prestigious accelator program. The good news? You can learn from other founders' success and, of course, failure. Here are some tips we learned from the 2012 applicants to New York's TechStars program. Do Send progress reports... Do Show your pe rsonality... Do Fight back... Do Cop to your shortcomings... Don't Stalk the admissions committee... Don't  Ramble... Don't Lose your co-founder... Don't  Request a nondisclosure agreement...

This report from the Pew Hispanic Center analyzes labor market trends in the economic recovery from 2009 to 2011. The focus is on the change in employment by race, ethnicity, gender and nativity. The data for this report are derived from the Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of about 55,000 households conducted jointly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau. Data from three monthly surveys were combined to create larger sample sizes for individual groups of workers.

Sales of eligible clothing and footwear for less than $110 are exempt from state sales tax  Beginning April 1, 2012, the New York State sales tax clothing exemption is restored to the original less-than-$110 threshold. Sales of eligible clothing and footwear costing less than $110 per item or pair are exempt from the state's 4% sales tax and local tax in those localities that enacted the exemption. These sales are only exempt from the ⅜% Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District (MCTD) tax in those localities within the MCTD that enacted the exemption from their local tax.

From  HERE - If you’re a sole proprietor with no employees and very little business overhead, what you pay yourself is pretty much what you earn in sales minus your costs and taxes. But what happens when your business grows, or you enter a partnership, or take on employees – how do you determine what your salary should be? As a business owner, setting your own salary can be a tricky task, especially in markets that see highs and lows. Here are a few tips to help you determine the best way to "pay the boss.” No Magic Formula There is no magic formula for setting your salary because so much depends on the development stage of your business and how it’s doing.

Stephen Terrell expected a group of happy users when he updated his company's Facebook profile page to the new Timeline format, allowing his mostly senior-citizen customers to register for a contest to win a trip to Hollywood to meet nonagenarian actor Betty White. Instead, there was an explosion of anger and confusion.   MORE

His saga is the entrepreneurial creation myth writ large: Steve Jobs cofounded Apple in his parents’ garage in 1976, was ousted in 1985, returned to rescue it from near bankruptcy in 1997, and by the time he died, in October 2011, had built it into the world’s most valuable company. Along the way he helped to transform seven industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, retail stores, and digital publishing. He thus belongs in the pantheon of America’s great innovators, along with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Walt Disney. None of these men was a saint, but long after their personalities are forgotten, history will remember how they applied imagination to technology and business. In the months since my biography of Jobs came out, countless commentators have tried to draw management lessons from it. Some of those readers have been insightful, but I think that many of them (especially those with no experience in entrepreneurship) fixate too much on

Follow these rules, and you'll see a dramatic difference in your own team's ability to innovate: 1. Manage Creative Friction The wrong type of friction on teams makes people hate each other and hold back, but the right type gets results. How do you encourage good creative friction? Share the experience. The whole team, including the client, work together through all steps of the ideation process from consumer learning, to analysis of possibilities, to envisioning the final idea. Working with consumers directly to understand their needs and aspirations is an especially powerful bonding experience that gives the team a common sense of purpose, and creates a shared foundation of facts and feelings. Remove communication barriers. People communicate in different ways, so we do social styles analyses to help people understand how their teammates tend to communicate. Are they a driver, amiable, expressive or analytical? They learn that it is not that Harry is necessarily overb

Communities benefit when formerly incarcerated individuals are able to effectively reintegrate into their neighborhoods. But all too often, people who have been convicted of crimes face difficult employment challenges when they are released. Two out of three incarcerated adults had jobs before they went to jail, but we’ve seen that incarceration can reduce their earning potential by as much as 40 percent when they get out. If people are unable to secure jobs when they are released from incarceration, they cannot support themselves or their families – and there’s an increased chance that they will return to a life of crime. Nationally, recidivism rates are substantial, but for participants in the Labor Department’s Reintegration of Ex-Offenders program, the recidivism rate is just 14 percent. This initiative’s success is something we’re proud of – and poised to build upon. More here .

On March 21, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its 2011 report on the unemployment situation of Veterans. Unfortunately, some news outlets and Veterans organizations have keyed on a single statistical measure—the mean (average)—that, when taken out of context, is a bit misleading. For that reason, it’s important to look at the bigger picture and note what’s actually happening: While we still have a long way to go, the unemployment rate for Post-9/11 (Gulf War II-era) Veterans is—and has been—in an overall downward trend since January 2010. In covering the BLS report, one news headline blared, “Unemployment Rises for Afghanistan and Iraq Era Veterans.” Another called the situation “bleak.” And one Veterans organization called the report “discouraging.” But, in fact, these reactions aren’t entirely accurate. Below, charts demonstrate the reason why. For more, here .

Using social media to accomplish a meaningful purpose involves more than providing new technology and praying for success. Successful mass collaboration places new requirements on an organization, particularly its managers. While many organizations are technically ready for social media, they should question the readiness of managers to embrace new ways of working collaboratively to achieve social success. Why? Because social media and mass collaboration fundamentally challenge the relationship between responsibility, resources, and management. Normally, managers accept responsibility provided it comes with control of the resources required to deliver on that responsibility. The connection between responsibility and resources sits at the heart of management authority, control, accountability, and organizational design. Look at an organization chart and you will see the distribution of resources and responsibilities — the currency by which managers measure themselves and compare thems

Gov. Andrew Cuomo will send a team of officials from at least six agencies — including the departments of State, Labor, Taxation and Finance as well as Empire State Development, State Liquor Authority, and the Workers Compensation Board — to every region of the state to talk about rules and programs intended to help small businesses. The program is a subset of the state’s economic development efforts; it’s dubbed NY Open for Business. One of the first sessions will be held in the Capital Region on 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, at Schenectady County Community College, 78 Washington Avenue in Schenectady. For more information on the sessions and the initiative, visit HERE . “This program is all about creating jobs because when small businesses do well, New York does well,” Cuomo said in a statement. “It so important for us to get out of the office and go into communities to see how we can help anyone who wants to start, grow or improve a business and that’s what this program will do.”

A new private-public collaboration will help small businesses strengthen their revenue streams by gaining access to more than $300 billion in combined supply chain spending by a consortium of 15 of America’s largest corporations, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced today. Supplier Connection, created by the IBM Foundation, is part of the Obama Administration’s American Supplier Initiative and is designed to help bridge the gap between small, nimble businesses looking for new opportunities and large corporations looking for innovative new ideas and diversity in their supply chains. “The American Supplier Initiative is part of a comprehensive solution to grow small businesses, create jobs and to ensure that America has a strong, deep and diverse supply chain,” said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. “While it is clear that becoming a corporate supplier can lead to business growth, breaking in can be a challenge for small businesses. The Supplier Connection will be one tool