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Statistics of U.S. Businesses

2012  annual or static data include number of firms, number of establishments, employment, annual payroll, and estimated receipts for most U.S. business establishments. The data are tabulated by geographic area, industry, and enterprise size. Industry classification is based on 2012 North American Industry Classification System  (NAICS)  codes. An establishment with 0 employment is an establishment with no paid employees in the mid-March pay period but with paid employees at some time during the year. Receipts data are available only for economic census years (years ending in 2 and 7). View the latest receipts data below. Employment and Payroll Summary Report: 2012  [PDF, 1.1 MB] Data Tables by Enterprise Employment Size        The following links are subsets of SUSB data in spreadsheet format.        For more detailed industry and employment size classes, download additional data in  comma-delimited format.           U.S. and States:             U.S. & states, totals   [xls

What is the Business Expenses Program from the US Census?

The Business Expenses Survey (BES) was created originally to compile statistics on business operating expenses for Retail Trade, Wholesale Trade, and Service Industries. Expense data are key components of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) input-output (I-O) accounts, which are a critical element in the calculation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  Starting in 2003, the Service Annual Survey (SAS) began collecting selected expense items on their annual form. In 2004, Census and BEA formed a joint team, called the Core Expenses Group (CEG) to evaluate the collection of expense items across the many Census programs. The result of this team effort was a core set of expenses that have been collected on an annual basis since 2005 by the SAS and the Annual Survey of Manufacturers (ASM), and on a quinquennial basis by the Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS), Annual Wholesale Trade Survey (AWTS), and the Economic Census for Manufacturing, Construction, and Mining. What data is available

Startup in a Day

The Startup in a Day initiative aims to make it easier for entrepreneurs to start a business by reducing the amount of time it takes to register and apply for permits and licenses on the local level. Cities and Native American communities across the United States are encouraged to get involved. The SBA is conducting two prize competitions for U.S. cities and Native American communities. Both competitions will award prizes to support the development, implementation, and improvement of online tools that will let entrepreneurs learn about the business startup process in their area, including how to register and apply for all required local licenses and permits, in one day or less. Startup in a Day Competition – Start Small Model: The first competition will award up to 25 prizes of up to $50,000 each for cities. Up to two (2) prizes of $50,000 each are available specifically for Native American communities. Startup in a Day Competition – Dream Big Model: The second competition chal

How Do You Protect Your Creations?

If you created something original, you may have a certain degree of protection against someone else using, claiming, modifying, or selling it. In other words, you may have intellectual property. Knowing how to legally protect your creations is essential to retaining ownership of them. In the simplest terms, intellectual property (IP) pertains to things you create with your mind; not the ideas themselves, but the expression of the ideas in some form. A thought or notion that’s been floating around your head may be a great idea for a future product or service, but it isn’t yet intellectual property. There are four common types of IP: Copyrights Patents Trademarks (including design rights) Trade secrets Read more from BPlans.com

Oswego SBDC's Larry Perras Honored Posthumously with Economic Development Award

Larry Perras, director of the Oswego SBDC until his death in 2014, was honored posthumously with the 2015 Martin Rose Economic Developer Merit Award by Operation Oswego County.   Jim King, NY SBDC State Director, writes, "Many of us remember Larry as a soft-spoken but extremely dedicated and effective member of the SBDC family who spoke several times at SBDC Advisory Board meetings, presented at Staff Training and collaborated with many of us on projects across the State where he shared his expertise and talents. Larry was dedicated to helping others and often said he found his ideal position with the SBDC. All of us who knew Larry are much better off for the experience and having worked with him." Read about this award here: Operation Oswego County Recognizes Larry Perras’ ‘Exceptionalism’

10 Ways to Find out What Your Competitors Are Doing

Competitive analysis has become an essential part of business marketing activity and has made it possible to perform qualitative strategic planning. While analyzing your competitors, you should know what you are looking for and how it can help your business. It is not about stealing your competitor’s ideas; it’s about revealing their strengths and weaknesses, and finding your own company’s competitive advantages. Only unique brand positioning will eventually bring your company customer loyalty and business success. If you’ve wondered what your competitors are up to, that shows you’re thinking strategically and want to have confidence in your own company’s approach. There are plenty of ways to check on your competition that are totally above-board. Read more BPlans

Payroll Concerns for Remote Employees

Generally, the employer must withhold income tax in the state where work is performed (there is an exception that is explained later). If an employee who resides in another state works exclusively in that state (different from the employer’s state), then taxes are usually withheld only in the employee’s state. (The employer is in State A and the employee lives in State B and does all the work for the employer in home State B, so the employer should withhold State B tax for the employee, assuming State B has an income tax.) I say “usually” because there are exceptions that permit the employer not to withhold state income taxes in the employees’ state. If the employee resides in the employer’s state, tax for that state must be withheld even though the employee works exclusively in another state. And there may be additional withholding obligations in the state in which the employee works. Already confused? If an employee works a few days in each location, things become even more compl

California Says Uber Driver is an Employee

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It was only a week ago that I saw a request for information on how Uber drivers were defined. This appears in today's New York Times:   TECHNOLOGY California Says Uber Driver Is Employee, Not a Contractor By  MIKE ISAAC  and  NATASHA SINGER JUNE 17, 2015 ... ... The classification of freelancers is in dispute across a number of industries, including at other  transportation  companies. And the debate is set to escalate as the number of online companies and apps like Uber and others rises. Venture capitalists have poured more than $9.4 billion into such start-ups — known as on-demand companies — since 2010, according to data from CB Insights, a venture capital analysis firm, spawning things like on-demand laundry services and hair stylists... ... “Today’s ruling from the California labor regulators demonstrates why federal policy makers need to re-examine the 20th-century definitions and employment classification we’re attempting to apply to a 2

How to Improve Your Company 3-Times Faster than Your Competition

If you run your company like most business owners do, you might take a deep look at your business numbers once every three months. Frankly, that’s not a terrible strategy. You have time to see how things are going and you aren’t spending too much time on the books. At least you’re actually looking at your numbers—which puts you well ahead of many other small business owners. But, reviewing your key numbers only once a quarter can limit the opportunities you have to evolve your strategy and grow your company. If your company closes its books quarterly and only looks at results quarterly, you’ll have a hard time adapting and evolving quickly to situations that arise within your business. That’s because you are only stepping back, reviewing your strategy, and course-correcting your business four times a year. Thankfully, there’s a simple solution to make your company more nimble and agile than your competition. read more from LivePlan

Tips for Building an LGBT-Inclusive Workplace

As a small business owner, you can show your support by implementing these best practices for an LGBT-inclusive work environment. Creating a safe space for LGBT employees and customers can make your business more appealing to a diverse group of employees and a growing market of consumers. The Business Case for Equality The pace of acceptance of the LGBT community has been driven in no small measure by the business community. While commonly identified with large corporations, small businesses have also participated in making equality part of their business model. Fostering an inclusive and friendly business environment is a way to hire and retain employees, as well as help you break into corporate supply chains. Furthermore, by projecting an inclusive business model, small businesses have the opportunity to sell to the LGBT community, which has an estimated $830 billion in buying power.* More from the Small Business Administration

10 User Experience Testing Tools Marketers Need to Know About

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works!" Steve Jobs said. Each one of us interacts with information differently, and a design that works for one person may turn someone else off entirely. No matter how much effort you've put into designing your website or mobile app, the proof of the pudding is in the testing—user testing, which allows you to learn what the actual users of a product think about it and how they use it. Here are 10 tools that will help you gain insight into what you can do to improve user experience (UX) and win your users' hearts, minds, and business. Read more at MarketingProfs

How to Pitch Your Business by Email

But, pitching can come in different forms, and one of the most common ways to pitch your business—even in our technologically advanced age—is the “pitch email.” Email is everywhere. It’s used by nearly everyone, it’s more personal than social media, and it’s less obtrusive than a phone call. When you need to introduce yourself and your company to someone, email often just makes the most sense. So what’s the best way to go about pitching your business by email? After all, you want to be sure you aren’t just sending emails into a black hole where they’ll be deleted without a second thought. Even worse, you want to make sure you’re writing in such a way, or pitching in a way that won’t end up annoying the very recipient you’re trying to entice. A bad email can actually “burn bridges.” Here’s where you can start. Read more from BPlans

A Contentious Domain

Imagine your a small-town entrepreneur, looking to build a local business. You may end up using your last name as part of the company name... That's all fine and good and rarely causes a problem. If you were really ahead of the curve -- say, you knew about the Internet in the early to mid-1990s -- maybe you even registered yourself a domain name, your last name followed by the now-ubiquitous dot-com. If you did, chances are you ended up something with a lot more valuable than you bargained for. Unless your last name is Nissan. In that case, you probably ended up with a big headache -- and a lot of legal bills. Since the 1980s, Uzi Nissan -- that's his real name -- has owned a number of small businesses branded with his last name. In the early 1990s, he started the Nissan Computer Corporation. He registered the Nissan.com domain in 1994. More from Now I Know .

Five Simple Ways to Make Your Press Release Stand Out

No matter what industry your company is a part of, you're bound to be facing competition—a lot of competition. To stand out from a sea of lookalikes and wannabes, your company must reach out to the right people. That outreach starts with maintaining an effective network of press relations. For a lot of companies, finding PR success can be extraordinarily frustrating—especially when just starting out. But the good news is that it's actually fairly simple to get your brand name out there and in the media. Read more at MarketingProfs

Upward Trend in Venture Capital Investments

The Office of Advocacy released a small business fact sheet, "Putting Recent Venture Capital Gains in Perspective," by Economist Jonathan Porat. According to the fact sheet, the first quarter of fiscal year 2015 had the highest level of venture capital investment in a first quarter since the year 2000. This upward trend is part of a sizeable post-recessionary rebound in venture capital. The fact sheet also examines the data on venture capital investment deals since 1995 and looks at the five biggest venture capital deals in Q1 2015, all of which are technology startups from California. The fact sheet can be found here .