New York SBDC Research Network

Getting the right logo can often be the hardest part of building a brand. It’s the one mark that defines you in the marketplace. It’s the holy grail of how you should look. Right? Actually no. Often businesses get themselves worked up in a frenzy, trying to make their logo the next Mona Lisa. What ends up happening? The logo becomes over-complicated instead of being a simple and succinct mark. No question, your logo will lead the charge in your brand efforts. But it really is just one piece of the branding and marketing puzzle. Take a look at some of the most famous brands out there. Think Apple. Nike. Google. More from Bplans .

Nationally, today’s findings  of the 2012 Survey of Business Owners show the number of minority-owned firms in the U.S. rose from 5.8 million in 2007 to 8.0 million in 2012. This includes a 46.3 percent increase in the number of Hispanic-owned firms over the period, from 2.3 million to 3.3 million, and a 34.5 percent rise in the number of black or African American-owned firms, from 1.9 million to 2.6 million. Additionally, the number of Asian-owned firms climbed from 1.5 million to 1.9 million, an increase of 23.8 percent. For added context, total U.S. firms increased 2.0 percent during the same period, from 27.1 million in 2007 to 27.6 million in 2012. The 9.9 million women-owned firms in 2012 were up more than 2 million from five years earlier when there were 7.8 million women-owned businesses, a 26.8 percent increase. As a comparison, male-owned firms increased 6.8 percent from 13.9 million to 14.8 million during the same period. The Survey of Business Owners is a sample s

Today it has offices in four states, 10 employees and a roster of high-profile and successful clients that would be the envy of any web development company. But Binghamton-headquartered Freshy Sites got it starts on what founder Ben Giordano admits were misguided ideas. He was helped, he recalls now, by a 2009 visit to the New York Small Business Development Center based at Binghamton University. The confidential and free counseling included assessment of his business idea and financial forecasts. "I don’t know how you’d say it but some of my concepts were based on kind of misguided information, I think, and they helped me work through that. They helped me understand the market a little better,” he said. This is the kind of tale counselors at the business development center want to tell. Now, the SBDC, one of 24 across the state, is expanding its staff and array of services, but at its core is assessing new-business ideas of most any kind and training new business people i

Ever wonder how New York State decides how the state decides whether the application of sales tax is appropriate in specific situations? Here are the NYS Division of Tax Appeals, the Sales tax advisory opinions for 2015 , with previous years available as well. An Advisory Opinion is issued at the request of a person or entity. It is limited to the facts set forth therein and is binding on the Department only with respect to the person or entity to whom it is issued and only if the person or entity fully and accurately describes all relevant facts. An Advisory Opinion is based on the law, regulations, and Department policies in effect as of the date the Opinion is issued or for the specific time period at issue in the Opinion. TSB-A-15(48)S Petitioner asks whether a subcontractor should collect sales tax on its charges for various services to a prime contractor where the prime contractor’s customer is an exempt organization. TSB-A-15(47)S Petitioner asks whether it has Nexus w

The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) publishes information classified by characteristics such as income, household size, and age of the reference person. This article uses 2013 CE data to examine the relationship between age and consumer expenditures. This relationship is important because the aging of the baby-boom generation will influence the overall level and composition of consumer spending in the years to come. Data show that: Outlays on pensions and Social Security increased with age up to 45–54 years before declining. The share of the food budget devoted to food at home increased with age while the share devoted to food away from home declined. Healthcare spending, in dollar amount and as a share of the household budget, increased with age. CE household data classified by age of the reference person show that annual expenditures and pretax income are “hump” shaped over the lifecycle, lowest for the under 25 years group, then increasing to their highest levels for the

Are you collecting customer contact information? Being able to connect with your customers can be extremely beneficial to your new business, especially if you’re keeping a master email list. We asked Janine Popick, the CEO and founder of email service provider VerticalResponse, to explain the top reasons you should collect customer email addresses, and the best ways to get that information. Why you should collect customer emails: Email marketing can increase buying opportunities With a list of email addresses, you can send promotional emails to entice customers to buy from you. Send an email that offers a deal or a discount, Popick suggests. The trick to a good promotional email is to put a deadline on the deal, which encourages customers to act quickly. Without a deadline, your customer can say, “Oh, that’s nice, I’ll have to check it out later.” Odds are, they won’t get around to it. Whether customers shop online or print off a coupon and bring it into your business to us

 Eileen Collins of Admin-On-Call Today's small business success story comes from the Small Business Development Center at Onondaga Community College. Eileen Collins came to the Onondaga SBDC in June of 2013 through a referral from the Department of Labor.  She was coming to participate in our 3-day" Fast Track to Business Start-up" course as a requirement for the Self Employment Assistance Program, a DOL program that allows qualified persons to receive unemployment compensation while working on their self-employment business development. Eileen successfully completed the course and her SEAP business planning requirements, and went on to open "Admin-On-Call: Executive Assistant on the Run", a home-based business offering "cost effective Administrative Business Services on an as-needed basis. Perfect for busy Professionals, Sole Proprietors, Home Based Businesses, Large and Small Business Owners". We recently saw an example of Eileen's success

Who Must Report? As a governmental, Tribal, tax-exempt or for-profit employer, if you are an  applicable large employer  you are subject to the Affordable Care Act information reporting requirements. These requirements apply to you whether or not you offered health coverage to your employees. You are an  applicable large employer  for 2015 if you had 50 or more full-time employees, including full-time equivalent employees, in 2014. What Must You Report? If you were an applicable large employer in 2015, you must file information returns with the IRS and provide statements to each employee who was a full-time employee for at least one month of the year about health coverage you offered or to show that you did not offer health coverage.

If you’re looking for a business location, you may be wondering, “where on earth do I start?” I’m going to help you figure that out. Once you’ve read this article, you will have a number of creative ideas for ways you can go about looking for your business location. While I’ve never had to find a location for myself, mainly because I’ve never started my own main street business, I have been privy to the process when my father decided to start his own garden center. It’s laborious if you don’t know what you’re doing. But, if you’ve got a heads up on how others do it, you’re way ahead of the curve. Read more at: Bplans

When starting a business, it is important to know where to get the best information. The basics of sales, marketing, and advertising are all topics to keep in mind while laying the groundwork. Here's a list of some sites to keep in mind. 1. Score Entrepreneurship These sites cover many topics like financing and marketing. They also have a search box tool for narrowing down information. 2. SBDCMichigan The Michigan SBDC created an online workshop for small business owners. Each class follows topics like Writing a Business Plan,Marketing Your Business, Financial Management, Business Legal Issues, and more. 3. SBA SBA Starting Managing Business The Small Business Administration offers free information in all aspects of starting a business. They also offer a regularly updated "Guide to Starting a Business." 4. Ecorner Lynda Ted Talks Many who are looking to start a business value information from success stories. People find sites like Ted T

Last year, Slate’s Jordan Weissmann observed that the rise of e-payments might be changing the way we tip. At coffee shops where we once might have tossed our change into a jar, services like Square now prompt us to pay much more. This has been a boon for baristas and others who depend on gratuities, since they otherwise might not receive anything from the swipe of a credit card. Now street-level charities like the Salvation Army are getting in on the action, testing the waters of our digital generosity. This experiment comes via DipJar, a New York-based company that makes small canister-like credit card receptacles. When you slide a card into one of them, it automatically charges a set amount—typically a dollar, though merchants can set it to other quantities—to the attached account. The machines produce a satisfying dinging sound as the payment goes through, clearly indicating to all involved that a virtuous act has been performed. Now, as BostInno’s Dylan Matt reports, DipJar has

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced it has reopened the filing period for survivors in all states affected by Superstorm Sandy on December 2, 2015 to apply for low-interest disaster loans.  The new filing deadline for physical damage and economic injury losses is December 1, 2016.    “The additional time for businesses, homeowners and renters to request federal disaster loans will go a long way in continuing to support the rebuilding efforts of the communities affected by Superstorm Sandy,” said SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet.  “I want to thank the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House Small Business Committees for their leadership on this issue.  We look forward to working with them to make sure the needs of small businesses are met.” The recently approved Recovery Improvements for Small Entities (RISE) After Disaster Act of 2015 gives the SBA Administrator the authority to make disaster loans for Superstorm Sandy for a period of one ye

Looking for a deep dive into U.S. patent trends to help inform your next invention? The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) PatentsView tool allows individuals to explore nearly 40 years of data on patenting activity in the United States. Data has been categorized and is easily searchable by patent titles and types, inventors, assignees, patent classes, locations and dates. So whether you're looking for the top inventors of the 1980s or the total amount of patents a company owns, the tool can serve as a source of history and inspiration. Read more at: patentsview

This week, the Office of Advocacy, an independent office within the U.S. Small Business Administration, released an issue brief entitled “Small Businesses Key Players in International Trade.”  The issue brief spotlights the role U.S. small businesses play in international trade, and finds that small businesses are important to consider when assessing U.S. export potential and policy tools such as free trade agreements.”  Find the full Issue Brief  here . International trade makes up 30 percent of the U.S. economy, and U.S. exports of goods and services reached a record $2.3 trillion in 2014.1 While total exports have grown 44 percent since 2009, the pace of export growth has been slowing in recent years.2 U.S. businesses, particularly small businesses (firms with less than 500 employees), face a host of challenges when selling products and services abroad; these may include high tariffs, financial risks, and customs clearance delays. Despite the challenges, international markets o

Employees spend nearly one-fourth of their workday, on average, sorting through their email inbox, a study by McKinsey found. Email is the most used form of communication in the workplace, but it's also easy for the emails you send to be quickly deleted or marked as irrelevant. Salespeople, particularly those who rely on email as their first point of contact with prospects, need to ensure their emails are relevant, appropriate, and able to cut through the noise of a busy inbox. Needless to say, so do marketers. Here are my top tips for crafting an email that will encourage opens, generate interest, and warrant a response. 1. Perfect the subject line A subject line is the gateway into your email. It needs to instantly grab the receiver's attention to ensure your email doesn't end up in the dreaded junk folder. First, keep it short: A recent analysis by MailChimp suggests fewer than 50 characters—but still descriptive. Place the most descriptive words at the beginnin