New York SBDC Research Network

D&B delivers a monthly perspective on U.S. small business health, jobs growth and overall business growth. Read the U.S. Economic Health Tracker , and peruse the archive for previous reports and visit related videos and webinars for the latest trends. New updates are published the Tuesday prior to the first Friday of each month.

From Credit Card Forum : Before he got a credit card for his cellphone repair and parts wholesale business iPhillyfixit, founder Corey Bates used PayPal’s small business funding services. Unsatisfied with the delays in getting money, he got a credit card from Citizens Bank. Getting a credit card for his business was a good move, Bates says, and a smart way to keep on top of his finances as his business grew from an eBay-based side gig he started in 2010 as a high school student to a venture that allowed him to quit his restaurant job, join forces with a new partner and open up a shop in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. In addition to letting him redeem reward points for cash back, helping him keep track of his businesses expenses and soothing tax headaches, the card gives him financing flexibility. “If you do need to buy something and don’t have the money at the moment, you can buy it and pay it off within the month,” Bates says. Indeed, business credit cards have much to offer smal

The May 2014 issue of The Small Business Advocate is a special conference edition that highlights the events from the Office of Advocacy’s Region VI Symposium which took place in New Orleans. The symposium brought together members of Advocacy with small business leaders and entrepreneurs from around Region VI (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas). The diverse participants shared their big ideas, best practices and barriers with Advocacy staff to take back to Washington, D.C. The newsletter includes details from presentations given by small business leaders, breakout sessions and site visits. In This Issue New Orleans Symposium Provides Valuable Lessons on Region VI Challenges and Successes Idea Village Connects the Local Community with Entrepreneurs Message from the Chief Counsel: The Gumbo of Entrepreneurship Advocacy Staff Dialogues With Small Business Stakeholders in Breakout Sessions Fostering Regional Innovation Accelerators Understanding the Waterways of

From SmallBusinessNewz : Measurement is one of social media’s key advantages over traditional marketing and advertising. Prior to social media’s rise as an essential business solution, marketing campaigns were primarily through print, media including TV and radio, and direct mail. The use of flyers, posters, billboards and print editorials were the staple method of promotion, often complemented with radio spots or television ads. The main problem with these methods is that it was difficult to pinpoint which ones were working and driving foot traffic to a brick and mortar store. If a business sent 10,000 flyers out, how could they guarantee their intended recipients saw all 10,000? Or if a radio spot played during a certain time of day based on that radio station’s demographics, how could the brand be sure a certain percentage of that audience heard and acted on that ad? The answer to both questions is simple – they couldn’t. If there was increased foot traffic to a location o

Who is the National Ombudsman?  The Office of the National Ombudsman assists small businesses facing unfair or excessive federal regulatory compliance or enforcement issues such as repetitive audits or investigations, excessive fines, and retaliation. As an impartial liaison, the Office of the National Ombudsman directsreported regulatory fairness matters to the appropriate federal agency for high-level fairness review and works across government to address those concerns, reduce regulatory burdens, and help small businesses succeed. Congress established the Office of the National Ombudsman in 1996 as part of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA). The Act ensures that businesses, small government entities, and small nonprofit organizations have a means to comment if they experience unfair regulatory enforcement actions by federal agencies. The National Ombudsman Can Help If you’re a small business or represent one, a non-profit organization, or a sm

We all make mistakes. So let me refer you to number seven of the Dali Lama of Tibet’s “Eighteen Rules of Living,” where he gives us the following advice, “When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it. And do not let your pride get in the way of taking those steps.” The main idea is that trying to hide a mistake, once you have become aware of it, by pretending it didn’t happen only perpetuates the goof up and inevitably leads to sinking deeper and deep into the quicksand of oops. There has to be a more than a million zillion possible copyright related snags and unintentional misunderstandings that lurk within the professional shadows just waiting to trip up even the most seasoned of freelancers. This article seeks to aid freelancers in avoiding a nasty stumble by illuminating the wiles of three of the more common snares that imperil the footsteps of the unwary. More from the ASBDC .

From Medium.com : The first 24 hours were a rush. The next 16 a panic. The last 12 a chart-based roller coaster. That’s what a Kickstarter feels like when it hits the mark. It’s statistically provable that Kickstarter campaigns that fail, fail big; blockbuster Kickstarters are actually far and few between, but they attract more attention because of the amount of money raised. For The Magazine: The Book (Year One), a somewhat ungainly title chosen to describe our project with a high degree of specificity to our likely audience, we were only slightly above average. Let me dissect our results for you