New York SBDC Research Network

The U.S. Small Business Administration unveiled today a new cybersecurity webpage for small businesses at  www.sba.gov/cybersecurity  on the 12th Anniversary of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.  The SBA launched the online tools and resources to highlight Cybersecurity at Work from October 5-9th and in recognition of President Obama’s annual proclamation to educate Americans about cyberthreats and cybersafety. “Cybersecurity is one of our nation’s most pressing national security priorities, and America’s 28 million small businesses, which create two out of every three new jobs in the U.S., are especially at risk.  Small employers are quickly becoming a larger target for criminals looking to access sensitive data because small businesses typically have limited resources for information systems security,” 

We’re entering a new era. For much of the past century, the 9-to-5 job has defined what most Americans think of as “work.” But that is changing—fast. More than 53 million Americans are now earning income from work that’s not a traditional 9-to-5. That’s 1 in 3 workers. We are still at the leading edge of a once-in-a-century upheaval in our workforce. The freelance surge is the Industrial Revolution of our time. More from the Bureau of Labor Statistics .

By SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet and Square CEO Jack Dorsey This October, America will take a major step to mitigate fraud and improve our financial security by migrating away from outdated credit and debit cards that transmit sensitive customer data using magnetic stripes. In 2015, it should not surprise us that a system using essentially the same technology as cassette tapes is especially vulnerable. That is why major credit card companies, lenders, and businesses are now embracing new, more secure, authenticated payment technologies. Many consumers already have credit cards embedded with microchips in their wallets, and many more will be receiving these cards in the coming months. This technology – also known as EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) – is a safer form of payment for buyers and sellers alike, as the cards are nearly impossible to counterfeit. EMV is not the only payment shift on the horizon. Because reading chip cards takes more time than reading magstrip

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is proposing revisions to its regulations for determining affiliation under SBA’s business loan programs and its surety bond guarantee program.  These revisions are designed to simplify eligibility determinations and reduce costs and processing time.   The proposed revisions were published October 2, 2015 in the Federal Register.  The comment period will be open until December 1, 2015.  SBA seeks comments from the public on the proposed rule and will consider these comments in its development of a final rule.   The proposed rule would apply to affiliation rules for SBA’s business loan programs and the surety bond guarantee program, but would not apply to SBA government contracting, business development, or grant programs.  The affected programs would include: the 7(a) Loan Program, the Business Disaster Loan Programs (collectively, the Economic Injury Disaster Loans, Reservist Injury Disaster Loans, Physical Disaster Business Lo

Business team and spouses Colleen and Stephen Sheehan started small, then went big. Tired of working for someone else, in 2010 they opened a Northwest-style-meets-Southern-cuisine food cart in downtown Eugene, Oregon. Their cart Delacata quickly became a local favorite, garnering multiple “Best of Eugene” accolades in annual people’s choice contests from local newspaper “Eugene Weekly.” But in 2013, the Sheehans set their sights higher. Riding the current national craft beer boom, the Sheehans remodeled a two-story, 5,580-square-foot former Carl’s Jr. restaurant into Elk Horn Brewery. The brewpub opened in 2014 and is gaining renown for its unique food menu, beers, and ciders. Elk Horn also won “Best New Restaurant” in Eugene Weekly Best of Eugene 2014-2015. In the midst of managing employees, running two businesses, handling suppliers, discussing beer styles with their brewer, and taking on all the other challenges of running a brewery and restaurant, the Sheehans took some time t

Now that we’ve looked at advertising in Part 1, it’s time to consider the situations in which you may be directly contacting your customers to advertise or market your products, and collecting their information to do so. Collecting customer information will be done in different ways online and offline, and has a number of different legal and privacy issues tied up in it that you need to consider. Let’s take a look. Read more at bplans

$100,000 Scholarship Program In April, we started partnering with Skillshare on  a series of educational classes about email marketing . It’s been fun and effective, so we’re excited to help Skillshare with a new project to further empower small businesses. Together, we‘ll be  awarding $100,000 in annual scholarships  granting small business owners access to Skillshare’s full educational catalog. Skillshare offers hundreds of business courses with experts like Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, and Lisa Congdon—plus 4 courses from MailChimp all about email marketing. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, small business owner, or a marketer, investing in education is a great way to grow your business, and Skillshare can help.

Ads are sometimes relevant, but often still blocked Ad blocking has been around for a long time, but digital advertisers and publishers are seeing it as an increasing problem. Research suggests that a solid majority of internet users ages 18 to 34 are now blocking ads when they view digital content Read more at Emarketer

You’ve validated your business idea, you’ve done your market research, and hopefully you’ve registered your business name. Now it’s time for the fun stuff. If you’ve ever wondered how to build a brand for your business, you’ve come to the right place. Work through these exercises each day and in less than a week, you’ll have a good sense of not only how you are uniquely positioned to compete with others, but also how to convey your brand message to the world. If you know you have to build your brand but aren’t quite sure of the reasons why, it’s worth reading our article on 4 Reasons to Brand Your Business, as well as Want Customer Loyalty? Build Your Brand. Now you know that branding really is a necessary step to starting a business, you can get to work. The infographic below is intended to be worked through as you might an exercise. Originally we ran it as a five-day challenge; if that’s how you’d prefer to read it, you can find each of the challenge days here. Read more at Bplan

7.9% say they are likely to purchase products advertised on mobile Mobile shopping and advertising have caught on quickly in the US. While younger mobile users appreciate the convenience of smartphones for shopping, baby boomers are less sure. And they're a lot more sure they don't like ads on their devices. Read more at: emarketer

Considering becoming a consultant? Here are 10 tips: 1. Take it seriously Do it right. Stay mindful of the old adage about a consultant being somebody who is between jobs. Avoid making that impression. Have a website and business cards. Establish a social media presence as a consulting business. Don’t let your clients or potential clients doubt you. Read more at bplans

From the outside, we know spam when we see it: links in comments that have nothing to do with conversations, emails that we didn’t ask for and aren’t interested in, and constant, high pressure attempts to sell, sell, sell. But from the inside, it can be harder to tell if the marketing we’re doing is spammy or responsible. Oh, sure, there are some easy clues. If you’re copying and pasting the same comment on a dozen websites, you definitely need to take a long look at the integrity of your tactics. Just to have a profile or post random things on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn is not marketing. But if you’re truly not sure, how do you determine whether or not you’re spamming? Read more at Bplans

It may not sound exciting, but it is important, especially if you’re taking your business’s marketing into your own hands. It’s also important to note that there are differences in terms of what laws apply between sending out a physical mailer to a mailbox, and sending an email. Most of the requirements of U.K. and U.S. anti-spam legislation will be met if you follow these two guidelines: Don’t mislead your customers, and make sure that you are collecting your customers’ private information legally. But, there are a few more things you need to keep in mind, so let’s begin. In the U.S., general advertising laws apply, but there is no specific legislation for the content of direct or mail marketing. Read more at Bplans

Advice on managing social media content from hootsuite.com: Creating a plan, a template, or a calendar simply means that you make all the necessary information available to all the relevant stakeholders in one place. It takes in all your channels and resources and organizes them in a way that makes it easy to access information you need when you need it. What is a social media content calendar? A social media content calendar should organize the way you curate and create content, and help develop your editorial strategy. A social media calendar cuts extra time out of your content marketing strategy and helps you allocate your resources wisely, to help ensure your brand consistently publishes high-quality, well-written, high-performing content pieces. Read more at hootsuite

From Kickstarter: Kickstarter Inc is no more. We’re now Kickstarter PBC — a Public Benefit Corporation. We’re thrilled to share this news, and we’d love to take a minute to tell you exactly what it means. Until recently, the idea of a for-profit company pursuing social good at the expense of shareholder value had no clear protection under U.S. corporate law, and certainly no mandate. Companies that believe there are more important goals than maximizing shareholder value have been at odds with the expectation that for-profit companies must exist ultimately for profit above all. Benefit Corporations are different. Benefit Corporations are for-profit companies that are obligated to consider the impact of their decisions on society, not only shareholders. Radically, positive impact on society becomes part of a Benefit Corporation’s legally defined goals. Kickstarter is excited to join a growing list of forward-thinking organizations — like Patagonia and This American Life — that hav

What’s my target market? What should it be? How would I know? Here’s a list of five things that will help you figure it out. 1. Don’t try to please everybody Strategy is focus. Say you’re running a restaurant; which of these three options is easier? Pleasing customers 40 to 75 years old, wealthy, much more concerned with healthy eating than cheap eating, appreciating seafood and poultry, liking a quiet atmosphere. Pleasing customers 15 to 30 years old, with limited budgets, who like a loud place with low prices and fast food. Pleasing everybody. Read more at bplans

New Census Web Tool Helps Business Owners Make Data Driven Decisions  The U.S. Census Bureau released  Census Business Builder: Small Business Edition , a new Web tool that allows business owners and entrepreneurs to easily navigate and use key demographic and economic data to help guide their research into opening a new business or adding to an existing one. The Census Business Builder was developed with user-centered design at its core and incorporated feedback from customers and stakeholders, including small business owners, trade associations and other government agencies. The tool combines data from the American Community Survey, the economic census, County Business Patterns and other economic surveys to provide a complete business profile of an area. Business statistics include the number of establishments, employment, payroll and sales. American Community Survey statistics include population characteristics, economic characteristics and housing characteristics.

Now that you’ve solved your cash flow problems, it’s time to figure out how exactly you want to approach growing your business. Unfortunately, since the needs and strengths of every organization are different, there isn’t really a cookie-cutter approach you can take to ensure your business will expand effectively. As such, it’s important that you do your due diligence prior to investing your capital. After all, you don’t want to find yourself overwhelmed with cash flow problems right after you’ve solved them. 1. Expand to new locations Whether you’re running a retail shop, a medical practice, a restaurant, or even a business-to-business tech company, you may be able to generate higher profits by expanding your organization to new physical (or even digital) locations. But, it’s important to remember that you can’t expect to simply open a second location, sit back, and watch your bank account get fatter. Believe it or not, the success of one location doesn’t really have any bearing o

As someone that has started several small businesses over the years and advised many small business owners, one challenging area for a lot of people is the idea that you need to set a strategy. Business owners need a strategy that will enable them to understand the value that they bring to the market, and to ultimately target an audience of buyers that will need and buy their products and services. Setting your strategy Like most challenges we face as business owners, the challenge of strategy comes down to one of focus. Not so much focus on achieving activities or doing so many things, but focus when it comes to understanding the key drivers that will propel your business forward. Read more at bplans

Get expert pitch advice from an entrepreneur who raised close to $1 million. Caroline Cummings shares her  pitch secrets, techniques, and tools in this free eBook, “How to Pitch and Get Funded.” What you will learn: The purpose of the pitch The importance of mentors and advisers How to deliver an elevator pitch How to deliver a video pitch How to deliver a one-page pitch Read more at Bplans