New York SBDC Research Network

In 2011, total employment from all U.S. business sectors was 113.4 million, an increase of 1.5 million employees from 2010, according to new statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector led the way with a 12.0 percent increase in employment from 2010 to 2011. This year is the first since 2008 in which U.S. businesses reported an increase in employment over the prior year. There were 7.4 million U.S. businesses with paid employees for 2011, a loss of 42,585 establishments from 2010. This is the fourth consecutive year of decline for the number of U.S. businesses. These new findings released today are from County Business Patterns: 2011 , which provides the only detailed annual information on the number of establishments, employees, and quarterly and annual payroll for nearly 1,200 industries covered at the national, state and county levels. The statistics are broken down according to employment-size classes (for example, num

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has`announced that it published a new Web page regarding identity theft. The new Web page spells out what to do next if you think you may be the victim of identity theft. It also provides several links to information, such as the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Taxpayer Guide to Identity Theft, that help taxpayers make identity protection part of their regular routine. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing economic crimes in the nation, but taxpayers often don't realize their information has been stolen until they receive an unexpected notice about their tax account from the Tax Department or the IRS. Once identity theft is reported to the Tax Department, the agency can correct an account by removing any fraudulent returns from the record, and it can cancel bills issued that are related to the fraud. To head-off any additional suspicious activity, the Department will devote extra attention to future return

The U.S. Small Business Administration and the W20 Group, an entrepreneurial ecosystem of digital communications companies, will present Blogging 101, the second topic in the five-topic social media webinar series that will run through June. The webinar will help small business owners create content to connect with their customers and market their products. Blogging is a beneficial tool for small business owners because it is a cost-effective way to communicate their expertise and message directly to a larger audience, expand the company’s web presence and build their brand. The Blogging 101 social media webinar for small businesses will be held on May 8, 2013, at 1 p.m. EDT. To register for the webinar, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8214259306487899136 . The webinar will highlight topics such as: • What blogging can do for your business; • What to blog about; • What blogging tools are available to you; • Managing your time; and • Other best practices. T

From CBS News MoneyWatch : What do people complain about most? Meetings. What do workers love about working from home? No meetings. Meetings are the bane of the working day, and yet it's hard to do anything without them. These days, recognizing that collaboration tends to be more creative than assembly-line thinking, getting people together is how we make things happen. But meetings are very expensive.

From SmallBusinessNewz : Fear is a major stumbling block for many business owners. It causes them to make decisions, which seriously sabotage their chances of success. Thankfully, the fears that stand between where we are and what we want to achieve, can be overcome.

The availability of capital is crucial for small business startup, survival, and growth. This study investigates how the youngest small firms, especially high-tech firms and firms owned by women and minorities, were financed during the evolving financial environment of the Great Recession. Get the full report or summary . Should you need further information, please feel free to contact Victoria Williams at (202) 205-6533 or advocacy@sba.gov.

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics : Durable-goods manufacturing, finance and insurance, and wholesale trade were the leading contributors to U.S. economic growth in 2012, according to advance statistics on the breakout of real gross domestic product (GDP) by industry from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Overall, 19 of 22 industry groups contributed to the 2.2 percent increase in real GDP. Manufacturing real value added—a measure of an industry’s contribution to GDP—rose 6.2 percent in 2012, after increasing 2.5 percent in 2011. Durable-goods manufacturing, the largest contributor to overall growth in the economy for the third consecutive year, increased 9.1 percent, after increasing 6.8 percent in 2011 and 13.3 percent in 2010. The finance and insurance industry group increased 3.6 percent in 2012, after two consecutive years of negative real value added growth. Wholesale trade increased 4.8 percent, after increasing 3.0 percent in 2011.

Terri Ann Lowenthal’s excellent Census Project Blog has a great post about the bill and its implications : Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC-3) [has] just introduced a bill (H.R. 1638) to cancel the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), Economic Census, Census of Governments and every other survey the agency conducts, except the once-a-decade population count. Oh, and bye-bye Census of Agriculture (transferred from Census to the Agriculture Department in 1997). Sayonara, adios — no more data.

The first thing you should know is that there are a series of what are called interchange levels which affect the cost of a charge at every stage, depending on a number of factors—including the type of card presented, specific information contained in the transaction and how/when the transaction is processed. Here are tips on how you can prevent being assessed higher processing fees .

Empire State Development and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance announced the appointment of Mwisa Chisunka as New York State Business Ombudswoman and Director of Business Tax Services and Education. As New York's first Ombudswoman, Ms. Chisunka will work closely with the business community to provide education about tax law developments, answer questions, and help businesses navigate the issue resolution process. She will also launch pro-business programs as part of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's Open for Business initiative. More HERE .

If you use your personal smartphone or tablet to read work email, your company may have to seize the device some day, and you may not get it back for months. Employees armed with a battery of smartphones and other gadgets they own are casually connecting to work email and other employer servers. It's a less-than-ideal security arrangement that technology pros call BYOD — bring your own device. Now, lawyers are warning there's an unforeseen consequence of BYOD. If a company is involved in litigation — civil or criminal — personal cellphones that were used for work email or other company activity are liable to be confiscated and examined for evidence during discovery or investigation. More from NBC News

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration and the W20 Group, an entrepreneurial ecosystem of digital communications companies, is launching a five-topic social media webinar series to help small businesses leverage and grow their businesses using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and mobile marketing. Social media is playing a growing and vital role in the success of small businesses growing and creating jobs. It provides the opportunity to build deeper relationships with customers, to increase sales and to reach new markets in a cost-efficient manner. The webinars will help small businesses to develop a comprehensive social media plan that is engaging, effective and that has maximum return on investment. The first social media webinar for small businesses, Introduction to Social Media: Helping You Get Started, will be held on April 24, 2013, at 1:00 p.m. EDT. To register for the webinar, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6526746

Most nonelderly Americans who have health insurance are covered through an employer, and employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) will continue to be a major source of coverage even after 2014, when the Affordable Care Act’s(ACA’s) Medicaid expansion and subsidies for the purchase of private coverage through health insurance exchanges will take effect. This report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation examines recent trends in ESI at the national and state level... The percent of the U.S. nonelderly population with ESI declined from 69.7 percent in 1999/2000 to 59.5 percent in 2010/2011. While 47 states and the District of Columbia saw significant declines in coverage during this time period, there is substantial state-level variation in both the magnitude of these declines and in the absolute levels of ESI coverage in each state.

WASHINGTON – Venture capital firms that invest in women-led businesses see positive returns, says a new report issued by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy. The report, called Venture Capital, Social Capital, and the Funding of Women-led Businesses , focuses on women entrepreneurs’ access to equity funding and how social networks influence venture capital firms’ decisions to invest. In the report, the authors, Joy Godesiabois and Lawrence Plummer, find that social capital (“who you know and how you know them”) affects funding of women-led firms in different, sometimes conflicting ways. Venture capital firms tend to invest with familiar social networks that may not include women entrepreneurs. Yet this study shows that when venture capital firms do invest in women-led businesses, they generally improve their bottom line. And venture capital firms that regularly invest as a group in the same businesses tend to invest more often in businesses led by women

Hi, Business Owners If you have not registered your business or personally (if you have personal damages for Hurricane Sandy) please register here . Thousands of homeowners across New York have been directly impacted by Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene or Tropical Storm Lee. The devastation wrought by these storms was unlike anything New York has seen in recent history. While FEMA, the State of New York and other disaster relief agencies stepped in immediately following the storm to provide public and private recovery assistance to homeowners in need of help, the State worked to secure Congressional approval of additional federal aid to meet the substantial need. The program outlined here is subject to federal approval. The State of New York, local governments and its partners are now accepting registrations for housing and small business assistance for residents located in disaster-declared counties. These registrations will be used to determine potential program eligibility

Yesterday afternoon, two explosive devices detonated in Boston, MA. Three people were killed and over 150 people were wounded. If you have any information or visual images related to the explosions, please contact the FBI by e-mailing boston@ic.fbi.gov or calling 1-800-CALL-FBI (prompt #3). No piece of information or detail is too small. Get FBI updates on the investigation .

If you found toast dull and uninspiring, you wouldn’t have it for breakfast every day. You’d try something new. You’d mix things up a bit. The thing is, it’s easy to change what you have for breakfast. It’s just a small decision. Where people struggle is with the bigger decisions, like changing your business from one that’s under performing, to a business that excites and rewards you. However, achieving that goal doesn’t come from making one big decision – it’s the end result of lots of small, daily decisions. The most successful business owners already know this, which is why they never feel overwhelmed. Here’s where the connection with breakfast comes in: You see, just as you choose what type of breakfast to have every day, you choose what type of business you have every day, by the daily decisions you make. Progress comes from these small daily steps. Whilst there’s room for making huge decisions, it’s what we do on a daily basis, which directs the course of our business. Mo

The Farmers Market Federation of New York is a grassroots, membership organization of farmers' market managers, market sponsors, farmers and market supporters. Together, we have developed a spectrum of services to increase the number and capacity of farmers' markets in the state, develop the scope of professionalism in farmers' market management and improve the ability of markets to serve their farmers, their consumers and their host communities. On this site you'll find support materials that will guide you to the successful development, implementation and operation of farmers' markets. Everything from publications and guides to research to reporting tools are available to assist you in market development and management. Here is a list of New York State Farmers' Markets .

Melissa McCarthy hosts SNL . "You're missing out on a great business opportunity."

WASHINGTON— Small businesses rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy will get both immediate and long-term help laying a foundation for economic recovery and resiliency thanks to expanded services funded by a $19 million emergency appropriation. Small businesses can take advantage of free expanded counseling, training and technical assistance from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s resource partners—the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), SCORE, and Women’s Business Centers (WBCs). “This is yet another example of placing proven, effective tools in the hands of America’s small business owners who are recovering from Hurricane Sandy,” said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. “SBA’s extensive resource partner network continues to play a critical role in fostering economic development in those hard-hit areas, and I’m pleased those resources will be made accessible on a broader scale to help those who need it most.” Funding was made available as part of a package appro