New York SBDC Research Network

Well, the Affordable Care Act has now been up and running for the last month.  So what are the news sources saying?  What are the people saying?  What advice is out there?  Here are a few examples, once again, with a disclaimer that popular news stories are not always accurate and up-to-date, and should always be taken with a grain of salt. In Obamacare, Go For Bronze Health Plans -- Buying Platinum Is Often A Waste Of Money Obamacare and your financial future Dear Young People: Please Sign Up for Health Insurance Obamacare: Uninsured Americans still staying away so far Obamacare deadbeats: Some don't pay up Obamacare open enrollment: Here's everything you need to know Obamacare 2.0: More regulation

Khalid Abouelhouda said he knew little about running a business before opening Pita Kebob, a Mediterranean restaurant and catering company, almost a year ago... “Initially I didn’t know where to turn,” he said. But then the Ruskin resident discovered the Small Business Development Center at Hillsborough County, which operates out of rented space in the SouthShore Chamber of Commerce. “They helped me from day one,” Abouelhouda continued. “And they’ve been with me all the way.” That’s exactly what the SBDC is for, said Lynn Schultz, onsite business consultant and special projects coordinator for South Shore. “He walked into the office one day, and then based on our consultation, feedback and six months of workshops he attended, successfully started his business.” “I benefited from every single one of them,” Abouelhouda said of the workshops. “They were all free, even the consultation.” The SBDC provides free, confidential advice to entreprenuers who want to start or expand a smal

FATHER AND SON PIZZERIA is a 900-square-foot, eight-table restaurant in Guttenberg, N.J., across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Opened in 1971, it was bought in 2007 by Carlos Vega, now 45, from its aging founder. Mr. Vega soon doubled sales by expanding the menu, improving service and selling the restaurant’s “gravy,” or red sauce, over the counter in 12-ounce Mason jars. THE CHALLENGE Mr. Vega left a corporate job producing print publications for the financial industry to take over the pizzeria. He felt constrained by his business’s size and location: a small restaurant without a parking lot on the six-block main street of a blue-collar town. Even with his improvements, the business was bringing in only about $10,000 a week. It was profitable, but only because he was working long hours, typically seven days a week, to hold down labor costs. Mr. Vega knew he couldn’t continue like this. More from the New York Times .

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has amended its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program Policy Directives in response to public comments and input from all parties involved in the program. These amendments - - published on January 8, 2014 in the Federal Register - - can be found and reviewed HERE for SBIR , and HERE for STTR . The SBIR Program Policy Directive makes several key changes to the SBIR Program relating to eligibility, the SBIR award process, SBIR Program administration, and fraud, waste and abuse. The changes to the STTR Program Policy Directive have been made to maintain concordance with the SBIR program. SBA also made several minor clarifying changes to ensure that the participants in both programs clearly understand certain program requirements. On December 31, 2011, the President signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. That Act contained the SBIR/STTR Reauth

Last June, Facebook released a tracking pixel, a snippet of code that allows advertisers to track customers who come to their websites from Facebook ads. For Amy Norman, co-chief executive officer of Little Passports, the pixel was a game-changer. Ms. Norman, whose San Francisco company sends children a monthly package to introduce them to geography and history, began testing ads on Facebook to see which ones brought in more customers. In June, Little Passports spent about $30,000 on Facebook ads and the company’s revenue for the month was about $130,000. By the end of the year, the company’s monthly advertising spending on Facebook had grown to as much as $150,000 and its revenue for December was $700,000. Ms. Norman acknowledged that $150,000 was a huge amount of money to spend on advertising in a month for a company with annual revenue of just under $2 million, but she said “we also tripled our customer base in six months.” More from the New York Times .

A very, very, very common question here at the SBDC is "Where do I find grants?".  Unfortunately, this is not the right question to ask first.  The first question should be "Do I qualify for grants?". Who may qualify for grants: Non-Profits Special Populations (i.e. minorities and veterans) Community and Municipality specific Businesses related to children Agriculture Research So now you've determined if you possibly qualify for a grant.  

Yelp and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) have teamed up to launch the Success With Online Reviews initiative, which kicked off ... at the New York Stock Exchange. “Sharing what you dig and what you don’t is nothing new, but today this consumer word-of-mouth happens at lightning speed online, in the form of reviews,” says Darnell Holloway, Yelp’s Senior Manager of Local Business Outreach. “What’s more is that in a recent national survey, 85% of consumers said that they read online reviews about local businesses. ” That would be the Local Consumer Review Survey 2013 from BrightLocal. More from WebProNews .