New York SBDC Research Network

VAMBOA is a non-profit veteran business trade association that promotes and assists Veteran Business Owners, Service Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses (SDVOB) and Military Business Owners. "We know that you possess special skills including leadership abilities and a work ethic second to none. Veteran Business Owners, Service Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses (SDVOB) and Military Business Owners are highly qualified to build successful businesses. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and responsible for job generation." Membership in VAMBOA is free and provides a multitude of resources. Here is the blog .

In 2006, a report published in Inc.com concluded — ridiculously — that productivity losses cost U.S. employers more than half a trillion dollars — $544,000,000,000, to be a little more precise. The report found that in an eight-hour day, employers spent an average of 1.86 hours “on something other than their jobs, not including lunch and scheduled breaks.” And of those surveyed, 52% “admitted that their biggest distraction during work hours [was] surfing the Internet for personal use.” The data is garbage, of course; the idea that employees should be always-on and that anything less than that is going to result in productivity losses isn't based in science or reality. But every once in a while, there’s an example of an employee who goes to the extreme, not doing much work and perhaps none at all. Take, for example, the story of a former software developer identified by the press only as Bob. More from Now I Know .

Have you ever wondered which company rules in your state? Well, now you don't have to—thanks to a new revenue map covering all of America's 50 states. The graphic, designed by telecommunications firm Broadview Networks, reveals the largest companies in each state based on income. It shows that Verizon Communications is the biggest company in New York, while the retailer Costco has trumped Microsoft Corporation in Washington. ... The graphic,  unveiled in a blog by Broadview , is based on financial information from a Hoover's database of company profiles. More from Nation of Change .

Entrepreneur provides general business, start-up information on Leadership Growth & Strategy Marketing Technology Security Social Media Finance Entrepreneurs Starting a Business Franchises and MORE

JUST LAUNCHED! There is ONE website where you can find free government programs, grants, events and advisors near you! BusinessUSA has just launched its newest website feature, the State Resources Portal. Together with the other local resource tools on the site, American businesses can find local resources, events, and business assistance centers in their state. Try it today! Click the State button at the top of the Business.USA.gov Home Page . You can also find local resources and events by using the Local Resource Finder on the home page of Business.USA.gov . Simply type your U.S. ZIP Code in the box shown and click GO.

Collected by Kate Baker, advisor with the NY SBDC office in Albany 1. The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best but legendary. Sam Walton, Founder of Wal-Mart 2. Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Bill Gates 3. It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. Charles Darwin 4. It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages. Henry Ford 5. Well done is better than well said. Benjamin Franklin 6. Spend a lot of time talking to customers face to face. You’d be amazed how many companies don’t listen to their customers. Ross Perot 7. Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. Mother Teresa 8. If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful. Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon.com 9. In the

Where in the U.S. will you find the most satisfied employees? And what makes them so satisfied in their jobs? For job seekers looking to relocate or launch their career, Glassdoor has released its second annual Employment Satisfaction Report Card by City (2014) , offering a comparison by city of overall employee satisfaction, number of employers hiring, business outlook expectations and more, according to local employees in the 50 largest U.S. metros. Based on local employee feedback shared over the past 12 months, the San Francisco Bay Area takes the lead for the second year in a row, with San Jose, CA ranking #1 (3.5 employment satisfaction rating) and San Francisco, CA taking #2 (3.4). Both cities are home to several companies that won a 2014 Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, honoring the 50 Best Places to Work.

From Jim's Marketing Blog : Some business owners get it all wrong. They think that they can offer an average service, to average clients for average prices and use marketing to make average sound amazing. The challenge with that approach, is that it has never been harder to hide bad or average work. A quick search on Google, Tripadvisor, Linkedin and Facebook, etc., allows your prospective clients to build a pretty good picture of your business and what your business stands for. For example, claiming to offer a professional service, yet operating behind a cheap website, littered with bad grammar, is a huge warning sign to prospective clients. With the majority of people now checking service providers out online, before contacting them, this is a very big deal.

BizStats is the home of free, accurate business statistics – well organized and easy to access. Search for: industry financial benchmark reports industry profitability risk data a selection of other useful industry statistics click here. free financial calculators, financial tools for your web site or financial glossaries

From FORBES : A best and worst of franchising list is tricky to put together. The methodology is just as important as the objective of the ranking. For the FORBES “best” and “worst” in franchising, FRANdata considered demand for the franchise brand, success of existing franchisees and franchisor support from the perspective of “lender friendliness”. This brings up another factor we reviewed, transparency and the average investment. As important as these criteria are, they can also appear nebulous, and indeed some are difficult to measure. In fact, we used proxies. Starting with demand, FRANdata examined a brand’s growth rate over the 2008 to 2012 period. High growth rates may be impressive but they can be misleading. Fast growth can become unsustainable and mask underlying issues. Therefore, as a proxy for sustainable growth and existing franchisee success, we calculated the franchised unit continuity rate between 2008 and 2012

American Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse gives statistics on white collar crime, including statistics on behavioral red flags PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Economics Crime Survey For research based info on U.S. culture related to business: The Hofestede Centre

Table 8. Private sector establishment births and deaths, seasonally adjusted (2003 - current) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

On Wednesday night, the Massachusetts House passed a bill that will raise the state’s minimum wage to $11 an hour by 2017. The Senate already passed that wage level, and after a procedural vote there it will head to Gov. Deval Patrick (D), who is expected to sign it into law... An $11 wage is the highest passed by any state this year. Eight other states have increased their wages so far... While some worry that higher minimum wages will hurt jobs or businesses, states that already had high wages haven’t had that experience. Washington, which has the highest current wage at $9.32 an hour, experienced the biggest increase in small business employment last year... More from Think Progress .

The SBA Office of Advocacy has released Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories , an annual analysis of each state’s small business activities. In a new and improved format, the profiles feature information on small business employment, industry composition, small business borrowing, exporting, and survival rates, as well as business owner demographics. This annual publication provides information for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. territories and United States.

From MarketingProfs : Who doesn't like free? When I worked at Columbia House, the music club company, our best offer was "Buy 1, Get 1 Free," not "2 for the Price of 1" or "Get 2 at half price." Why did we use "Buy 1, Get 1 Free"? Because it was more enticing to our customers, even though it's the same as "2 for the price of 1" or "Get 2 at half price." We always used this offer. Because it worked! It was our base offer for retaining customers, to which we often added other deals. We tested this offer over and over and it always yielded the best results in terms of customer lifetime value (CLV): i.e., the amount of revenue that a customer yields over time; minus the cost of product, fulfillment, and shipping; plus the cost to market to that customer. CLV also adjusts for the time value of money. The reality is that free is never free for the marketer. There's always an expense that has to be paid, even if

WASHINGTON –The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued an interim final rule that will adjust monetary based small business size standards (i.e., receipts, assets, net worth and income) for inflation to allow more small businesses to become eligible for SBA’s financial and federal government procurement assistance programs. The interim final rule was published in the Federal Register this week. SBA is adjusting all industry specific monetary based size standards to reflect the inflation that has occurred since the last adjustment for inflation in 2008. These adjustments are in addition to the recent revisions made to the small business size standards as a result of the SBA’s comprehensive size standards review mandated by the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. SBA is also adjusting its program specific monetary size standards with the exception of the new alternative size standard based on tangible net worth and net income that applies to SBA’s 7(a) and 504 loan programs.

I received a request for the number of stay-at-home moms in a particular geography. Posting the inquiry to a listserv, here are some of the responses: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2007 Historical Changes in stay-at-Home Mothers: 1969 to 2009 What I REALLY wanted, though, was: table B23007: PRESENCE OF OWN CHILDREN UNDER 18 YEARS BY FAMILY TYPE BY EMPLOYMENT STATUS . So it also has data for stay-at-home dads as well! One can go to American FactFinder and find data for fair small geographies.

The Economic Census industry snapshots are now available at the state level.

The United States imports a lot of American flags.

From CBS News Moneywatch : Many people in the business world take classes in the art of verbal communication: how to give a speech, make a presentation, chair a meeting. But the other half of the equation -- listening -- gets scant attention. At least until now. Sheryl Connelly, a futurist who works for Ford Motor Co., spends a lot of time talking and giving presentations. She's also a regular visitor to the TED conferences, where it is no surprise she likes to listen. And it was at TEDGlobal in Edinburgh this week where she talked about listening well. The skills of listening, Connelly argues, are really life skills: treasuring the precious and always limited time that you have. Why waste it?