New York SBDC Research Network

From the Governor's webpage : You can register for FEMA assistance by calling 800-621-3362 (TTY: 800-462-7585) or visiting www.DisasterAssistance.gov (or m.fema.gov from a smartphone or Web-enabled device). There is never a fee to apply for FEMA disaster assistance or to receive it. There is no fee for FEMA or U.S. Small Business Administration property damage inspections. Please be aware: Government workers will never ask for a fee or payment. They wear a photo ID. Watch out for middlemen who promise you will receive money, especially if they ask for an up-front payment. One of the dire consequences of any disaster for many people is the loss of important documents. Often, such documents are needed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state emergency services in order to process assistance applications for those who suffered losses or damage to their homes and belongings. If papers are lost – like birth certificates, Social Security cards, drivers’ lice

From SmallBusinessNewz This time of year many businesses turn to planning as a way to determine the path for the upcoming year. It’s a great practice and one that I support without hesitation. Taking stock of where you are now and how you intend to move towards the vision for your business as you see it down the road is something that you must do to create positive change and growth. While the task of annual planning is a necessary one, it’s also one that is fraught with challenges. The best strategic planning focuses on carving our priorities for the year. The challenge with this is that many organizations see it as a time to create a giant wish list or to do list.

CBS News : ...veteran entrepreneur and contributing [Inc. Magazine] editor ...Norm Brodsky's position is that, while he and all good business owners are happy when they can give people jobs, creating new jobs isn't -- and shouldn't be -- a goal. I'm a long-time fan of Brodsky and his down-to-earth advice, and an admirer of his tremendous business accomplishments. But I don't fully agree with his argument, or at least the way he frames it. In his piece, Brodsky focuses on job-creation as it relates to overhead and productivity. He says "no one operates a company with the goal of maximizing labor costs," and of course in that regard he is right. We business owners naturally want -- and are generally obliged -- to generate the highest possible return on every dollar we spend. That means getting the most we can out of our real estate, machinery and people. Certainly no one has "increase rent" as a business goal, and Brodsky is saying the same th

SBA Coordinating With Our Federal Partners Federal response teams are already providing assistance to affected communities. SBA is closely coordinating with federal partners, including FEMA, to share information in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Sandy Response SBA plays an important role in disaster recovery efforts for businesses and homeowners by providing low-interest loans to rebuild and recover. If you have been affected by Sandy, please visit www.sba.gov/sandy to learn more and apply. For the latest on the government-wide response to Sandy, please visit www.usa.gov/sandy . Not affected by Sandy? You can help by sharing this update. IRS Provides Tax Relief to Victims of Hurricane Sandy Following recent disaster declarations for individual assistance issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the IRS announced that affected taxpayers in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York will receive tax relief. Other locations may be added in coming days based on a

Interesting discussion on the BUSLIB listserv this week. Someone was working with students of an instructor who has assigned the "impossible assignment" of finding the "demographics for a given company: how many female employees, how many male, how many disabled, how many minorities/persons of color, and what positions these hold and salaries they make. The instructor insists that this is a doable assignment." Many companies give similar info annually to the US Government, such as to the Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), but generally it is released only in aggregate form. Public companies are not subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, even though they are "subject to more reporting requirements than private companies by virtue of the fact that their shares are publicly traded." However, the SEC does accept FOIA requests related to public companies for several reasons. Per the SEC: "A FOIA request is required to obt

The State University of New York’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) today began offering disaster relief services to business owners affected by Hurricane Sandy. "SUNY is proud to be able to offer assistance to communities throughout New York State as they recover from the damage left in Hurricane Sandy’s wake, whether it is by providing shelter on our campuses, volunteering in affected communities, or helping businesses get back up and running," said Chancellor Zimpher. "I commend the efforts of the SBDC and our campuses across New York for their efforts to help the state get back on its feet." "The SBDC is committed to helping businesses throughout the impacted areas that were affected by this tragic event," says James King, SBDC State Director. "Our business advisors are trained to deal with this type of emergency, and our objective is to help these businesses get back to being fully operational as soon as possible." Highly train

So, you’ve just finished a task or an assignment and figure you deserve a little mental break. Why not check Facebook or Twitter? It will only take you five minutes, right? Wrong. As American students and workers spend more time on the Internet and on social media sites in particular, their levels of productivity are tanking. The average college student might spend three hours checking their various social media sites, but only two hours studying. That discrepancy is reflected in lower GPAs. Workers aren’t faring much better, either. Every time someone at work gets an IM, a Facebook message or a tweet, it takes them a whopping 23 minutes to get back on task. Taken all together, that costs the American economy $650 billion per year in lost productivity. The next time you think about checking a social media site, consider how much time and energy it will actually take. See infographic .

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics - Nearly 3.0 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses were reported by private industry employers in 2011, resulting in an incidence rate of 3.5 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers, according to estimates from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rate reported for 2011 was unchanged for the first time in a decade during which the total recordable cases (TRC) injury and illness incidence rate among private industry employers declined significantly each year since 2002, when estimates from the SOII were first published using the current OSHA requirements for recording occupational injuries and illnesses. The incidence rate of injury and illness cases involving job transfer or restriction only among private industry establishments declined in 2011. Rates remained unchanged from 2010 for all other case types—cases with days away from work, job transfer, or rest

$2.95 Billion in Financing for Small Businesses in FY12 WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) debenture program provided a record $2.95 billion to small businesses in fiscal year 2012, a 14 percent increase over last year’s $2.59 billion and an 85 percent increase over 2010, also a record year. “Over the past three years SBA has transformed the SBIC program to ensure small businesses have greater access to SBIC funds,” said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. “These record-setting numbers are proof that our efforts to streamline and simplify the process have made it possible to get capital into the hands of small businesses more quickly. When an SBIC invests in a small business, it can scale up and create jobs.” High-growth small businesses continue to face difficulties in accessing patient, long-term capital to grow and create jobs. Since 1958, the SBIC program has helped fill these gaps and has invested approximately $63 billi

From MoneyWatch : I love being in an office surrounded by contagious people. Not the sniffling, sneezing, coughing kind who don't stay home when they should, but the kind whose enthusiasm and attitude towards their products, customers and company is absolutely infectious. Many use the term "evangelist" to describe this, but I think there's a distinction: Evangelism (which I also love) is mostly unidirectional -- true believers, preaching and hoping to spread the good word to the masses, whereas contagiousness is more personal and subtle. When you're truly, "professionally" contagious, the people you deal with catch the fever just by interacting with you.

Blogs provide an excellent platform to engage with customers. WordPress blogs reach more than 70 million readers and Tumblr blogs reach up to 39 million. With numbers like those, you can see how important a blog can be, both as an extension of a business site and as a standalone destination. But many bloggers make basic errors that lessen their blogs' effectiveness. Are you making the same errors? Review the following list of nine unforgivable blogging offenses to make sure you are not committing any of them. Read more

From SBA : Now that we're in the fourth quarter of the year, it's time to get ready for 2013. There is much to do from a financial, legal and tax perspective. In this article are guidelines for mapping out your company’s financial plans for 2013. In upcoming articles, you’ll see what legal steps you should take and last-minute tax planning moves you should make before the end of the year.

Source: International Monetary Fund The recovery has suffered new setbacks, and uncertainty weighs heavily on the outlook. A key reason is that policies in the major advanced economies have not rebuilt confidence in medium-term prospects. Tail risks, such as those relating to the viability of the euro area or major U.S. fiscal policy mistakes, continue to preoccupy investors. The World Economic Outlook (WEO) forecast thus sees only a gradual strengthening of activity from the relatively disappointing pace of early 2012. Projected global growth, at 3.3 and 3.6 percent in 2012 and 2013, respectively, is weaker than in the July 2012 WEO Update, which was in turn lower than in the April 2012 WEO (Chapter 1). Output is expected to remain sluggish in advanced economies but still relatively solid in many emerging market and developing economies. Unemployment is likely to stay elevated in many parts of the world. And financial conditions will remain fragile.

From Hispanic Business : The U.S. Small Business Administration issued three final rules in the Federal Register, effective Oct. 24, increasing size standards for firms in three North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Sectors: Real Estate and Rental and Leasing; Educational Services; and Health Care and Social Assistance. Size standards define the maximum size a firm can be and still be considered a small business. The revised standards reflect changes in marketplace conditions and public comments that SBA received to the proposed rules... To review the three rules and public comments, go to www.regulations.gov . Each has a separate RIN number: -- Real Estate and Rental and Leasing - (RIN 3245-AG28) -- Educational Services - (RIN 3245-AG29) -- Health Care and Social Assistance - (RIN 3245?AG30) ... The SBA issued a White Paper titled "Size Standards Methodology" which explains how SBA establishes, reviews and modifies its receipts-based and empl

From the National Science Foundation : Businesses perform a large share of their research and development in a small number of geographic areas, two of the largest being the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland combined statistical area (CSA) and the New York-Newark-Bridgeport CSA, according to data from the Business R&D and Innovation Survey (BRDIS).

Today we present a recent article written by Myriam Bouchard, a certified business advisor with the Mid-Hudson Regional SBDC.  It presents information on the advantages of partnering with other companies as a marketing strategy: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121015/BIZ/210150335/-1/NEWS

The Dalai Lama describes himself as "a simple Buddhist monk," despite that his honorific is "His Holiness." Either way, it's important to note that [his] public talks... tend to have no religious overtones (or even undertones). On the contrary, his tremendous popularity and appeal... largely come from the fact that he reaches out to everyone, taking religion out of the equation. In fact, he stresses the importance and value of viewing human relationships through a universal, secular lens. More HERE .

From SmallBusinessNewz We knew that our company wasn’t perfect – which one is? We also knew that some of our company’s practices wouldn’t go over well with our customers, and that would lead to unhappy customers calling in to complain. Though they sometimes got vociferous in their argument, we would always listen, offer empathy and look for a way that we could both work together to resolve the issue. Again, it worked. At the end of the call, the customer would apologize and say they were really sorry that they came over as argumentative – they were just frustrated and felt as if they had no-one to talk to about it. All they wanted was for someone to listen and show that their problems were being heard. Even if nothing could be done about them, just knowing someone cared made a huge difference. *** No complaints about this traffic cop

The October issue of The Small Business Advocate (vol. 31, no. 7) reports on the Office of Advocacy’s September conference in Seattle, “Small Business and Government: Maximizing Entrepreneurship, Driving Innovation.” In presentations, panels, and hands-on activities, representatives of government and research institutions came together with cutting-edge, visionary entrepreneurs, small business owners, and investors, to learn how government can most effectively promote innovation and businesses can benefit from a relationship with government. In This Issue Conference Sparks Dialog on Government and Innovation Keynote, Recognition, and Takeaways Panel 1: Small Business Innovators: The Public/Private Relationship Panel 2: Maximizing Entrepreneurship: Showcasing Innovation Accelerators Panel 3: Driving Innovation: Emerging Capital Strategies Getting It Right—How Can the Public Sector Help the Innovation Sector Thrive? 3 Delaware and Pennsylvania Get Regulatory Flexibility 2012

Here’s a link to NYC demographic maps , thanks to NYC Planning Department.