New York SBDC Research Network

From BizFilings : The harsh reality is that few small businesses can win by trying to imitate the big-box stores and slashing prices dramatically. Mega-businesses have a number of advantages in the price-slashing arena: They can demand low prices from wholesalers and they have a vast array of other products to offset the losses taken on the specials. But, that doesn't mean that you can't have a successful holiday sales season. After seeing every permutation of the 'game' global thermonuclear war resulted in total destruction, Joshua the computer in the movie War Games observed: "the only winning strategy is not to play." And then, he suggested, "How about a nice game of chess." Playing a different game can be your winning strategy as well. Don't compete on price for mass production items. Instead, focus on quality service, unique product offerings and a deep knowledge of your customers and your community.

An Issue Brief published by the Office of Advocacy shows the changing makeup of America’s veteran business owners. Veteran business owner demographics and the economic and business environment are changing dramatically and rapidly. There is some evidence that the proportion of younger veteran business owners (under age 35) increased from 2008 to 2012, as did the share of veteran women business owners. (The share of women business owners appears to have increased among both veterans and non-veterans, but at a much greater rate for female veterans.) See Advocacy’s Issue Brief Number 1, Profile of Veteran Business Owners: More Young Veterans Appear To Be Starting Businesses . For press inquiries or to speak with Advocacy’s Chief Economist Janemarie Mulvey, Ph.D., contact Elle Patout, Public Affairs and Media Manager, at (202) 205-6533 or elle.patout@sba.gov.

WASHINGTON – The U.S Small Business Administration (SBA) announced new measures to help get small business loans into the hands of veterans by setting the borrower upfront fee to zero for all veteran loans authorized under the SBA Express program up to $350,000. This initiative will start on January 1 and continue through the end of the fiscal year. “Our nation’s veterans are highly-skilled and highly-trained leaders in their communities,” said Acting SBA Administrator Jeanne Hulit. “This initiative will set fees to zero for SBA Express loans to veterans up to $350,000, and is part of SBA’s broader efforts to make sure that veterans have the tools they need to start and grow a business. As we honor our veterans and thank them for their service and sacrifice, let’s continue to identify ways to support them when they come home.” Of all SBA loans that go to veterans, 73 percent are $350,000 and below. The SBA Express Loan Program, which supports loans under $350,000, is SBA’s mo

A report published by the Office of Advocacy measures the small business benefit of federal tax expenditures. Tax expenditures are provisions in the tax law designed to benefit specific groups of taxpayers. They are similar to spending programs but generally do not involve direct federal outlays. Rather, they work through the income tax system, taking the form of special credits, exemptions, deductions, exclusions, and preferential rates. This study estimates the utilization of federal tax expenditure provisions by small and large businesses in 2013. The report, Measuring the Benefit of Federal Tax Expenditures Used by Small Business , was written by John O’Hare, Mary Schmitt, Judy Xanthopoulos of Quantria Strategies, LLC. For press inquiries or to speak with Advocacy’s Chief Economist Janemarie Mulvey, Ph.D., contact Elle Patout, Public Affairs and Media Manager, at (202) 205-6533 or elle.patout@sba.gov.

From MoneyWatch : Do you think your customer service is more on point than ever? That the cutting-edge technology you've put in place has brought your customer game to a new level? That your self-help processes make it easier and more frictionless than it's ever been for customers to get their needs met and issues resolved? Well, there's a good chance you're wrong. So suggests a recent study of what customers are looking for by American Express. According to the report (which was produced by an independent testing firm and is based on customer surveys), regardless of technology, resources or access to multiple modes of 24/7 communication, the attitude and desires of the customer -- and the things that determine whether she is likely to be happy or disappointed -- haven't changed with the times. In other words, despite all the hype and noise of modern business, the customer service wheel has not been reinvented; in fact, according to most customers, "old

The message behind today’s marketing post may sound a little counter intuitive. I’m going to explain why the key to gaining the visibility your business needs, is to be LESS visible. In fact, every entrepreneur who achieves meaningful success, sees their products or services ignored by the vast majority of people. It has to be that way! Allow me to explain. More from Jim's Marketing blog .

From Toolkit : The approaching holiday season provides an opportunity to show your employees that you appreciate the contributions they make to the success of your business. While there is some truth to the currently popular quip, "haters gotta hate," and you often can't please everyone, most employees appreciate gestures that you make to show them that they are valued and respected. To be well-received, the gestures of appreciation must be about the employees, not about you and not about the business. This means you must evaluate what the recipient would appreciate by looking at your plans through your employees' eyes. To do this requires that you know your employees and have an appreciation for the stresses and joys of their everyday life. (This pays dividends year-round because taking a few moments to interact personally with your employees is in itself an excellent way to show they are valued.) Many employers opt for a holiday party. However, this is a tradi

From MoneyWatch : The popularity of workplace wellness programs suggests that more employers than ever believe that healthy employees are more productive. Ivan Misner, founder of networking organization BNI.com, which has over 150,000 members worldwide, believed it and challenged his staffers to a 90-day diet makeover -- what he called "The Misner Plan Challenge." Followers ate fresh, organic produce, small amounts of seafood, and food rich in healthy fats like olives and avocados, while avoiding processed, packaged foods and saturated fats. Here's what he's finding with his healthy experiment.

If you have a current NYS Contract Reporter account holder, you should have received an invitation from Empire State Development to create an account for the new NYS Contract Reporter website. The new site is scheduled for launch in later this month. If you haven't yet registered, please do so soon. And if you registered, but didn't yet create your Business Registry account, please do. To facilitate registration and communication with the new pre-registration site, please tell your computer that the NYS Contract Reporter is a trusted site, and that you want to receive mail from: @nyscr.ny.gov Pre-registration will ensure a seamless transition from the current site to the new site, which will have many new features and functionalities. NYSCR is requiring all current account holders to create their new account during this pre-registration period which will end on 11/22/13. All services on the new site will be free, but if you don't create an account during pre-registratio

From MoneyWatch : Conventional wisdom suggests that as we spend more time on the Internet, we also spend less time on face-to-face interaction and other traditional kinds of socializing. But a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that these online hours come less at the expense of family and friends than they do from another source: people's jobs. The study, by Scott Wallsten of the Technology Policy Institute, a research organization that focuses on innovation, found that Internet users carve 27 percent of the time they spend online out of productive work hours. By comparison, people spend 15 percent of their time on the web instead of watching television, while 12 percent comes from sleep.

There are many options for keeping in touch with each other, with clients, to gain inspiration or keep abreast of the world around us. And we know that each of us has our own way of absorbing information. Sometimes things just click. I'm not a collector.  The only thing I collect is books but I find that in a virtual world, all the postcards I've ever bought in a museum gift shop, every article I clipped and saved, every tidbit or fact that entertained me I can re-manifest on Pinterest . Whether it's Twitter or Facebook etc.., we can choose how we use these new vehicles and you can see that in practice: collections of recipes, or mustangs, expensive watches, dogs or political outrage. But for visual learners, Pinterest can be a very useful medium. To that end, I've begun a new collection of boards aimed at both advisors and clients or anyone interested in the issues facing small business owners. We still have a profile for NYS SBDC , but this profile is from the poin

WASHINGTON – The U.S Small Business Administration (SBA) announced its third highest year of SBA lending to date, surpassed only by SBA’s two record years of supporting more than $30 billion in FY 2011 and 2012. In FY 2013, SBA supported more than $29 billion in lending to America’s small businesses, giving small businesses critical access to the capital they need to start and grow their business. “Under President Obama, SBA lending has reached record levels and we continue to get more capital into the hands of small business owners than ever before,” said Acting SBA Administrator Jeanne Hulit. “Small businesses are the engine of our economy, and reaching our third highest year of SBA lending in FY 2013 demonstrates the strength and resiliency of America’s 28 million small businesses as they continue to recover from the Great Recession and drive our economy forward.” One of SBA’s primary missions is to ensure that small business owners have access to the capital they need to sta

WASHINGTON – Small businesses can help keep their business information safe and protect their online information with a new free course from the U.S. Small Business Administration. SBA is launching this new course, designed for small businesses, to provide an overview on how to secure business information, identify security threats and guard against cyber-attacks. Cybersecurity for Small Businesses is one of SBA’s newest online courses to help business owners safeguard their information from computer attacks and determine their readiness against security breaches. The course, available at www.sba.gov/tools/sba-learning-center/training/cybersecurity-small-businesses , teaches best cybersecurity practices and protection against cyber threats for the nation’s small business community. The protection of sensitive data such as business invoices, payroll records, client and employee data and other proprietary information is essential to a company’s success. A computer failure or other

How can you recognize that your project is headed for disaster? Look for these warning signs. Not every project we work on is our crowning achievement. Only a few projects make us rush to our LinkedIn profiles to record how much wonderfulness we accomplished in how little time, with a budget this tiny. Into every project manager’s life a few clunkers must fall. Some failures are preventable; others are out of our hands. But all of us like to imagine we can avoid the worst of the catastrophes… or at least escape with our reputations intact. How can you tell that your project is aimed directly at #headdesk territory? Take heed of these warning signs. If you identify the uh-oh moments soon enough, perhaps you can take remedial action and save the situation. Maybe you can walk away, take a deep breath, reanalyze the requirements, and reset the team. We’d like to think so! See more at Quickbase .

From ReidHoffman.org At Greylock, my partners and I are driven by one guiding mission: always help entrepreneurs. It doesn’t matter whether an entrepreneur is in our portfolio, whether we’re considering an investment, or whether we’re casually meeting for the first time. Entrepreneurs often ask me for help with their pitch decks. Because we value integrity and confidentiality at Greylock, we never share an entrepreneur’s pitch deck with others. What I’ve honorably been able to do, however, is share the deck I used to pitch LinkedIn to Greylock for a Series B investment back in 2004. This past May was the 10th anniversary of LinkedIn, and while reflecting on my entrepreneurial journey, I realized that no one gets to see the presentation decks for successful companies. This gave me an idea: I could help many more entrepreneurs by making the deck available not just to the Greylock network of entrepreneurs, but to everyone. Today, I share the Series B deck with you, too. It has man