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Dynamic Small Business Search: looking for woman- or minority-owned business?

The Dynamic Small Business Search is generally a self-certifying database. The SBA does not make any representation as to the accuracy of any of the data included, other than certifications relating to 8(a) Business Development, HUBZone or Small Disadvantaged Business status. The SBA strongly recommends that contracting officers diligently review a bidder's small business self-certification before awarding a contract.

SBA’s 8(a) Certification Program Explained

Did you know that the SBA has a program designed to help small, disadvantaged businesses compete in the federal marketplace? If you’re interested in government contracting, the 8(a) Business Development (BD) Program offers a broad scope of assistance to small businesses for which you might be eligible. The 8(a) BD Program has been essential for helping socially and economically disadvantaged entrepreneurs gain access to the economic mainstream of American society. Ultimately, the program helps thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs to gain a foothold in government contracting. More from SBA . SBA Hosts Webinar Series to Help Small Businesses Learn How to Apply for the 8(a) BD Program .

10 Tips I Wish I Knew Before I Launched My Kickstarter Campaign

From Entrepreneur magazine . In June of 2012, I launched my first Kickstarter campaign for a previous startup I was involved in -- iPad-case company Origami Slate. Though we reached our goal, there were a lot of hurdles we went through to accomplish our success – everything from dealing with late manufacturers, crabby customers and being clueless on shipping. These struggles inspired me to launch my latest venture BackersHub, a startup that provides tools for crowdfunding-campaign creators. While our company helps provide support for crowdfunding campaigns by assisting in managing various elements, like rewards, shipping and marketing, we realize creators are going to need a roadmap for launching a successful campaign. Here are our top tips for executing a stellar campaign from 10 Kickstarter campaign creators. *** Kickstarter Basics: Kickstarter 101 .

Staten Island SBDC Event - “Go to Higher Ground: Vulnerable Population Emergency Preparedness Annual Special Needs Fair”

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NY State Senator Andrew J. Lanza and the College of Staten Island Disabilities Fair Team with VP Dr. Michael Kress and SBDC Director Dean Balsamini at the “Go to Higher Ground: Vulnerable Population Emergency Preparedness Annual Special Needs Fair” on Friday, April 4th, 2014. Some 300 people attended the fair, a collaboration of the Staten Island Small Business Development Center, NY State Senator Andrew J. Lanza and the Jewish Community Center on Staten Island.  At the event, people with special needs, their families and local community organizations learned about preparedness in the event of major storms and other emergencies on Staten Island.

Using Trade Associations and Expert Consultants in Disaster Planning and Recovery

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Using Trade Associations and Expert Consultants in Disaster Planning and Recovery by  Mike Keating  | January 15th, 2014 Manufacturers can rely on trade groups and expert consultants in their disaster planning, says Michael Keating in his latest Expert’s Corner. This is Keating’s seventh article in the series on disaster planning and recovery . His series advises manufacturers what to do in disaster preparation and recovery. Source: http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/2014/01/15/using-trade-associations-and-expert-consultants-in-disaster-planning-and-recovery/ Continue reading below the jump. 

SBA Hosts Weekly Office Hours Webinars on Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program

WASHINGTON – Women business owners are invited to learn more about increasing opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the federal contracting arena through free Office Hours Webinars hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration each Tuesday and Thursday through June 26 at 2 p.m. ET. SBA’s Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program presents an opportunity for small businesses to increase their presence in the federal marketplace. The federal government is the biggest buyer in the world and is a must-have customer for women-owned companies. The hour-long webinars will be led by SBA officials, and will help to answer questions and give valuable insight to women entrepreneurs on doing business in the federal marketplace. WHAT: SBA Office Hours Webinars on Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program WHEN: May 13 – June 26, 2014, each Tuesday and Thursday: • Tuesday, May 13th, 20th, 27th, June 3rd, June 10th, June 17th, and June 24th • Thursday, May 15th, 22nd

The business/markets case for limits to copyright

From BoingBoing : You'll remember Derek Khanna as the Republican House staffer who got fired for writing a paper that used careful objective research to argue for scaling back copyright. Now, Khanna is a fellow at R Street, where he's expanded on his early work with a paper called Guarding Against Abuse: Restoring Constitutional Copyright [PDF] , which tackles the question of copyright terms from a market-economics approach, citing everyone from Hayek to Posner to the American Conservative Union... Khanna recommends new copyright policy based on a House Republican Study Committee proposal in 2012. Under this proposal, there would be a free 12-year copyright term for all new works. Following that, there could be an elective 12-year renewal, at a cost of 1 percent of all U.S. revenue from the first 12 years. There would then be two elective 6-year renewals, at a cost of 3 percent and 5 percent of revenue, respectively. There is one final elective 10-year renewal period at a

Old School Marketing in the Digital Age

Carmen Sognonvi, owner and general manager of Urban Martial Arts in Brooklyn, NY, had the pleasure of hosting a workshop with Ramon Ray and InfusionSoft a few months back on how bricks-and-mortar businesses can combine old-school marketing tactics like flyers and signage with new technology like marketing automation. She finally had a chance to edit the darn thing! So check out this video with some clips from her workshop.

Entrepreneur magazine's Business Idea Center

The Business Idea Center can be very helpful to the budding entrepreneur. Click on the industry, or interest, and drill down to the business you are interested in. You'll read: Business At A Glance, including startup costs, home based (whether it can be operated from home), and whether franchises are available. More detail in the business overview.

How Can Technology and Collaboration Drive More Sales for Small Businesses?

With SBA and PayPal, learn about the latest technology trends and best practices to help your small business increase sales, streamline operations and improve the customer experience. Tune in to watch at 2pm on Wednesday, May 14 at www.sba.gov/smallbusinessweek . SBA is also offering a series of business webinars during National Small Business Week on the following topics: • Smart Small Business Travel: Strategic Ways to Increase Your Return on Travel with Marriott, Visa and SBA, May 12 • Growing Your Business with Direct Mail with the United States Postal Service and SBA, May 12 | Register • Voluntary Benefits 101 for Employees with Colonial Life and SBA, May 13 • Achieving Big Customer Loyalty in a Small Business World: 10 Tips to Create A Killer Customer Loyalty Program with Manta and SBA, May 14

10 Ways to Grow Your Business

When you first started your business, you probably did a lot of research. You may have sought help from advisors; you may have gotten information from books, magazines and other readily available sources. You invested a lot-in terms of money, time and sweat equity-to get your business off the ground. So...now what? For those of you who have survived startup and built successful businesses, you may be wondering how to take the next step and grow your business beyond its current status. There are numerous possibilities, 10 of which we'll outline here. Choosing the proper one (or ones) for your business will depend on the type of business you own, your available resources, and how much money, time and sweat equity you're willing to invest all over again. Amazingly still useful article from Entrepreneur magazine, 2004 .

6 Tips for Negotiating a Commercial Property Lease without Getting Burned

While residential leasing often places the burden of maintenance and upkeep on the shoulders of the landlord, commercial leases are different. Just because the landlord owns the building, it would make sense to believe that they are responsible for repairs and upkeep – this is not the case. Commercial leases vary in their approach to this – some stipulate that the tenant is responsible for all property upkeep and repairs while others specify that the tenant is responsible for systems such as the air conditioning, plumbing , etc. Check your lease – in addition to stating who is responsible for what it may also contain dollar limits on how much the tenant must pay for maintenance and repair. This 2011 article from SBA was useful this past week.

New E-Book: Five Ways to Improve Ergonomics in the Laboratory

The laboratory environment poses unique challenges resulting from specialized equipment and work areas. Increasing your awareness of existing and potential ergonomic issues in the lab and knowing how to adjust workstations to fit the employee can have a huge impact. Humantech's complimentary e-book introduces tools and provided guidance to help make your laboratory a productive, comfortable, and safe place to work by applying ergonomics principles.

Tricky Ways to Imporve Your Google Search Results

Google Search is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. Google search is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, handling more than three billion searches each day. The main purpose of Google Search is to hunt for text in publicly accessible documents offered by web servers, as opposed to other data, such as with Google Image Search. Although many are familiar with the basic uses of Google search, there are a few tricks that some people don’t know of. The most basic example is the “I’m Feeling Lucky” search option on the home page. When you search using the normal Google Search option it brings out a list of possible results from different websites. However, Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” option opens the very first link it generates from your search. It can save you time if you are searching for websites, but may not be accurate when searching for people or some products. Yet, this barely scratches the surface of Google Search’s capabilities. Have you ever struggled to fi

E-commerce: Internet Retailer

The Internet Retailer bills itself as the portal to e-commerce intelligence, and it is. The site contains articles, a vendor directory, many free resources, and a helpful blog.