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SBA to Recognize Mission Lenders, including NY's Pat McKrell, during National Small Business Week

SBA is acknowledging the outstanding work of Empire State Certified Development Corp. (Empire State CDC), a New-York-based CDC, as the winner of the first-ever National Small Business Week Community Advantage Lender of the Year Award. A subsidiary of the New York Business Development Corporation, Empire State CDC is New York’s largest SBA 504 lender and consistently ranks in the top five among the 242 certified development companies nationwide. In FY 2014, Empire State CDC led the nation in approving $8.6 million of Community Advantage (CA) Loans to 66 different small businesses. Empire State CDC President and CEO Patrick J. MacKrell will accept the award. The award will be presented as part of the National Small Business Week 2015 Celebrations in May. A table showing both the top 10 Microlenders and top 10 Community Advantage lenders with their respective rankings and loan production may be accessed at https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/Top10-microloan-ca-lenders-fy14.pdf

SBA Honors Outstanding Disaster Recovery Efforts (2 of 3 from New York State!)

WASHINGTON – A Pacific Northwest mayor who managed recovery efforts in the aftermath of a devastating mudslide, a Long Island college student who used social media to ignite volunteerism in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and a New York marina owner who reopened his business less than six months after Hurricane Sandy nearly destroyed his property will be presented at the White House with a 2015 Phoenix Award on May 8 during a U.S. Small Business Administration National Small Business Week event. Since 1998, the SBA has presented Phoenix Awards to business owners, public officials and volunteers who displayed selflessness, ingenuity and tenacity in the aftermath of a disaster, while contributing to the rebuilding of their communities. Dan Rankin, Mayor of the Town of Darrington, Washington will receive the 2015 Phoenix Award for Outstanding Contributions to Disaster Recovery by a Public Official. On March 22, 2014, a major landslide occurred in Oso, Washington, killing 43, engul

30 Questions Angel Investors Will Ask You

When you pitch a startup to angel investors, you want to get questions. If you don’t get questions then your pitch fell flat and nobody is interested. My advice to you, if you’re pitching, is to love the questions that interrupt and answer them eagerly. Do they throw you off pace, out of your planned sequence? Welcome to startups. If having your pitch sequence disturbed bothers you, keep your day job. More from BPlans.com .

Are Your Personal Finances in Order?

Starting a business can put a burden on your personal finances. It takes time before your new venture turns a profit and provides financial support for you and your family. Before starting a business, it is important to get your finances in order. Read more about how business and personal finances are related , and why strains on your personal budget can cause a financial risk to your business.

The 8 Most Common Small Business Accounting Mistakes

Thanks to the huge range of accounting applications available for today’s small and medium-sized businesses, it’s easier than ever to keep an accurate record of where your business’s money is going. While accounting software has made bookkeeping and accounting easier for small businesses, it’s also made errors and accounting mistakes—from incorrectly categorizing a transaction to doing all accounting yourself—much more common. Some accounting mistakes are minor, insignificant, and—when they’re inevitably noticed by someone within your business—easy to correct. But others are more serious and could have a significant effect on your business’s financial health. Over time, poor accounting practices can distort the reality of your company’s fiscal health. In severe cases, repeated accounting mistakes and bad accounting practices can lead your business toward insolvency or company administration. Read more from BPlans.com

Consumers are poised to lead economic growth higher.

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U.S. consumer spending accounts for about 68 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). As goes the consumer, so goes the economy. This month, AIER looks at various aspects of Americans' economic behavior and factors that tend to drive spending such as attitudes, income and wealth. In particular, it highlights areas that may contribute to consumer sentiment since historically this has been a good indicator for future consumption.  Click here to read more.

Celebrating Earth Day with the SBA

By  Donna Butler The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has taken a dual approach to sustainability this Earth Day. The SBA is leading by example by reducing the environmental impact of our own operations while continuing to offer resources to small businesses who are interested in “going green.” Since 2008, the SBA has reduced its total greenhouse gas emissions by 17%. In addition, the agency has recycled over 1,000 lbs. of electronics through an innovative partnership with the U.S. Postal Service and increased the percentage of alternate fuel (hybrid, low greenhouse gas emitting and flex fuel) vehicles in the agency’s fleet up to 72% of the total fleet, among other successes. For more information on SBA’s sustainability activities please see the agency’s latest  Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan . For businesses interested in reducing their own environmental impact, the SBA has several resources.

BusinessUSA: Going Green is Good Business

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We’re big believers in  green businesses  and the notion that making money and being eco-conscious are not mutually exclusive. In honor of the upcoming Earth Day on April 22, we’d like to outline some great ideas to “green” your business – ranging from ways to lessen your company’s carbon footprint to dealing with EPA regulations. These tips underscore the idea that going green is a great business strategy. For starters, make sure your facility is as energy-efficient as possible, something that benefits you and the environment. Once you’ve done that,  you may also want to consider renewable energy .

All Ideas are Brilliant Before They Are Executed

Ideas have to run through an obstacle course of hard realities before they are really opportunities. Few ideas make it. Everybody has ideas, Millions of them are floating around everywhere. Every problem anybody encounters is a solution waiting to be unwrapped. Every time somebody follows the comment “there should be a better way” by suggesting a better way, that’s an idea. An opportunity is way more important than an idea.The difference between idea and opportunity is huge. An opportunity is an idea somebody can execute. More from Bplans.com

Impersonal Communication Annoys Your Customers

Consider the following email marketing statistics from a recent consumer research study of British consumers: The average person's inbox has 260 unopened emails, 56% of which are from brands. 60% of those people who never open brand emails admitted they would if the subject line were personalized. The above facts tell us that consumers find impersonal marketing communications—let's call it "brand spam"—irrelevant as well as annoying. Often, unread emails from brands are those the consumer initially elected to receive, a process we call "self-selecting." Self-selecting is defined as ignoring emails originally requested but no longer relevant by the time they reach the individual's inbox. The solution to eliminating brand spam is to provide greater context for improved personalization. Read more from MarketingPros

How to Choose the Right Business Name

Choosing the right name for your business is really important. Not only should you pick a name that reflects your brand identity, but you also need to ensure your name is properly registered and protected for the long term. And be sure to give some thought to whether it's web-ready. Is the domain name even available? Here are some tips to help you pick, register, and protect your business name .

5 Marketing Mistakes New Entrepreneurs Make

by Lisa Furgison After years of working for micromanaging bosses, working ten-hour days, and feeling completely drained at the end of a workweek, my husband and I decided to call it quits. We left our jobs in the media world and started our own business, McEwen’s Media. While I’m happy to report that it pays the bills, it didn’t start off with rainbows and lollypops. At the beginning, we made some marketing mistakes. I started talking with other entrepreneurs and quickly learned everyone suffers from a case of the “marketing hiccups” at the beginning. In an attempt to help other entrepreneurs, I’ve put together this list of avoidable marketing mistakes. More from BPlans.com

April is National Financial Capability Month

According to the  findings of a 2014 Intuit study , more than 40 percent of U.S. small businesses consider themselves financially illiterate. Yet, 81 percent handle their business’ finances. April is National Financial Capability Month, so now is a great time for small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs to brush up on their  financial literacy skills . Whether you are a seasoned small business owner, a new small business owner or have dreams to be a future small business owner, it is inevitable that you will at some point have to deal with securing the capital to fund and/or expand your business venture. There are several  financing options  to explore when funding a small business such as loans, grants, venture capital, angel investors and crowd funding, but most small businesses rely on lenders to obtain the capital needed to open a business or to finance capital improvements.

How to Use Quizzes for Lead Generation

Bringing in new leads is a huge part of our job as marketers. Lately, a lot of emphasis has been placed on using content marketing for lead generation, putting pressure on us to create amazing whitepapers, case studies, videos, blog posts, and other forms of content that effectively convert content seekers into warm leads, who might then be nurtured into becoming lifelong customers. Creating content that actually converts is a constant struggle, and even if new pieces of content attract lots of views or downloads, that doesn't guarantee new subscribers. Which is where quizzes come in: A well-produced quiz can achieve opt-in rates north of 50% and improve lead generation. This article will break down how three businesses used a quiz to pull in huge amounts of new leads Read more at MarketingProfs

Top 10 Oddball Interview Questions for 2015

Job candidates must be prepared for anything during an interview. That's why Glassdoor has combed through tens of thousands of interview questions shared by job candidates over the past year to compile its annual list of the Top 10 Oddball Interview Questions. These are the toughest and most bizarre questions you may have to answer when interviewing for these top jobs or any job this year. "What would you do if you were the one survivor in a plane crash?" (AND it includes some of the creative ANSWERS to these questions!) More from Glassdoor .