New York SBDC Research Network

How can we thank our customers for their business this past year and encourage them to stick with us throughout the next? How do this in a more personal, human way than automated thank you emails? Nine entrepreneurs from YEC share their simple but effective ways to show appreciation for their best customers. Read more from BPlans

It’s that time of year again—you’ve no doubt been spending time on vacation and with your loved ones, and now it’s a new year and you’re getting back into the swing of things. Of course, being an entrepreneur, you’re also doing some reflection. How did 2014 go for you? The start of the year is a good time to take stock of what worked well for your business and what mistakes may have been made. It’s also the ideal time to look to the year ahead and decide on some resolutions and goals for what you’d like to accomplish. To give you an idea of what other business owners are planning to do in 2015, we asked entrepreneurs to send us their resolutions. Here’s a compilation of business resolutions for 2015. Read more at BPlans

As more and more companies begin outsourcing key business functions and enlisting the help of staffing agencies to provide workers, a fissure forms in the workplace, disrupting traditional employment relationships. Without a direct employee-employer relationship, these companies oftentimes mistakenly relinquish employer responsibilities which can have an adverse impact on workers who might experience a loss of benefits, inadequate health and safety protections, and sometimes lower pay. The Wage and Hour Division promotes compliance with a number of laws which impact almost every industry in the United States. One way to reach the 7.3 million establishments and 135 million employees covered by WHD laws in the U.S. is through planned initiatives. More from the US Department of Labor .

Big Data Benefits U.S. Businesses The   U.S. Cluster Mapping Project  is a  landmark joint partnership  between the Harvard Business School and the US government, created to give businesses access to new tools to compete in an increasingly competitive global economy.  How does it work?  In short, the project uses over 50 million open data records to identify “clusters” of related industries that can be hubs of innovation, jobs and private investment. How does it benefit businesses and communities? The cluster mapping tool helps "promote America's clusters and provide businesses and organizations with the data and strategies they need to capitalize on their region's assets," says U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. Read more  on why regional economies are the “building blocks of U.S. competitiveness” or check out  a list of current industry clusters and their corresponding dashboards.

Veteran entrepreneur and journalist Paige Thomas King breaks down the truth about owning a small business in this fascinating   article . She makes it clear that while the   government isn’t standing around waiting to hand out free money, there are several places you can go to get   financial assistance. Local events are great ways for veteran entrepreneurs to network and find out more about starting a business.  Discover  entrepreneur and business events near you .  And of course, don’t forget to check out the Department of Veteran Affairs'  newly revamped Veteran Entrepreneur Portal  and the Small Business Administration’s  Veteran’s Small Business Resource Guide  (a PDF).

The planning. The design. The writing. The programming and testing. Building a website can take hundreds of hours of work over months of time. And then, finally, it's live. The result of all that effort depends on a lot of little things. And some of those little things can often hurt the result—big time. Some common mistakes have big consequences, but they're also fixable. And some of those fixes are easy. This article is about a list of five mistakes that can cause big problems but have easy fixes. Note: The screenshots in this article are from sites that make big mistakes, but to protect their identities we've obscured their logos. Mistake 1: Homepage Headline Hints Read more from Marketing Profs

Rapidly evolving urban consumer attitudes are transforming our world. With only 5 years to go until 2020, the future seems closer than ever. Trends include using wearables for non-verbal communication, robots keeping us company, and the convenience of using things without the hassle of owning them. The insights in the report come from Ericsson ConsumerLab’s global research program, with a special focus this year on smartphone owners aged 15 to 69 in Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, New York, Moscow, San Francisco, Sâo Paulo, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo – statistically representing the views of 85 million frequent internet users. Report Infographic Presentation