New York SBDC Research Network

From eMarketer : When it comes to payments, cash may no longer be consumers' first choice—though it's still a widespread and even preferred option for many, depending on the type of transaction. A study from ATM network Cardtronics found that 91% of internet users said that they used cash either to make a purchase, or to give money or get money from another person. This was a decrease of 4 percentage points over 2016. But the inverse of that measure is telling. According to the study, nearly one in 10 respondents said they had not used cash at all in the previous six months.

From the Internal Revenue Service: Employers face a January 31, 2018, due date for filing 2017 Forms W-2 and W-3 with the Social Security Administration. This date applies to both electronic and paper filers. Form 1099-MISC is due to the IRS and individuals by January 31 when reporting non-employee compensation payments in box 7. Penalties for failure to file correct information returns or furnish correct payee statements have increased and are now subject to inflationary adjustments. These increased penalties are effective for information returns required to be filed after December 31, 2015.

From eMarketing : Retailers are constantly looking to improve the shopping experience, but leveraging new technologies to do so can be costly. A spring 2017 study from Oracle and cloud-based marketing automation provider Bronto Software, which was released this past November, asked US retailers a hypothetical question: What ecommerce innovations they would focus on if money or time were not issues. A large share of respondents (44%) said they would focus on newer payment options, like one-click ordering, while a little over a third said they’d like to focus on social selling. Overall, many of the responses had a similar theme—enhancing the user experience.

From Business Week : Andrew Therrien had been caught up in a fraud known as phantom debt, where millions of Americans are hassled to pay back money they don’t owe. The concept is centuries old: Inmates of a New York debtors’ prison joked about it as early as 1800, in a newspaper they published called Forlorn Hope. But systematic schemes to collect on fake debts started only about five years ago. It begins when someone scoops up troves of personal information that are available cheaply online—old loan applications, long-expired obligations, data from hacked accounts—and reformats it to look like a list of debts. Then they make deals with unscrupulous collectors who will demand repayment of the fictitious bills. Their targets are often poor and likely to already be getting confusing calls about other loans. The harassment usually doesn’t work, but some marks are convinced that because the collectors know so much, the debt must be real. The problem is as simple as it is intractable.

From :  Institute for Veterans and Military Families SYRACUSE, N.Y., Nov. 28, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- If home ownership is one quintessential American dream, owning your own business is another. While a higher percentage of veterans are self-employed compared to non-veterans, the rate of veteran entrepreneurship has seen a significant decline. Forty-nine percent of veterans returning from service in World War II started businesses. Today the rate of post 9-11 veterans doing the same has fallen to 5.6 percent (from 12.3 percent in 1996). The question now becomes why are we losing a potential class of business owners who come out of the military well equipped with important skills and attributes for success as entrepreneurs? A new study of veteran business owners, conducted by the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University (IVMF) in collaboration with Bunker Labs, takes an in-depth look into factors that account for the motivation, success, failure

Each year the  New York Small Business Development Center  recognizes outstanding small businesses in a variety of ways.  This Success Story from the  Canton SBDC  appears in our  2016 Annual Report .  Jeff Beekhoo Mohawk Networks, LLC Canton SBDC The mission of Mohawk Networks, LLC is to provide reliable, affordable high-speed broadband Internet access to the residents of the North Country and beyond through existing fiber optics and new wireless infrastructure. Jeff Beekhoo consulted the SBDC for assistance in expanding internet services throughout the North Country. When he first met with Advisor Jennifer McCluskey at the Canton SBDC, Jeff was the general manager of the Broadband Department for the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe.  At the time he was overseeing a $10.5 million USDA grant awarded to the tribe to provide internet access to the Tribal lands. Jeff and the Tribe wanted to create a new company, Mohawk Networks, LLC (MNLLC), to expand internet services outside triba

From MarketingProfs : Male holiday shoppers are more likely than female holiday shoppers to be drawn into brick-and-mortar stores by online ads and deals displayed in windows, according to recent research from Euclid. The report was based on data from a survey conducted in September 2017 among 1,500 US shoppers who own smartphones. Younger consumers are more likely than older consumers to say they would chose one retailer over another during the holidays because of the store experience.

From:  NameCheap You’ve heard it a million times: your website should have a blog. But why? You’re probably imagining a lot of work going into something no one will read anyway, right? While it’s true that a blog can represent a significant investment of time (or money, if you hire a writer), in this article we’re going to suggest that all businesses—from small one-person shops to major corporations—can benefit from having a blog on their website. Do you have enough customers or clients? Chances are, you’d like to bring in more business. A blog offers you a great opportunity to find—and keep—your customers.  First of all, blogs offer a great way for people to find your website. By writing about topics relevant to your business, your blog posts will start showing up in search engine results, bringing more people to your website. Solid content is also a signal that your site is relevant and reliable, which will boost your overall site ranking.

From:  U.S. Small Business Administration  The U.S. Small Business Administration is interested in learning more about the needs of current and aspiring small business owners. This survey will ask for input on the resources you have used to start and manage your small business and your satisfaction with those resources.    This survey is being administered by CFI Group, an independent third-party research group. It is voluntary and will take approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Any information you provide will be strictly confidential. Neither names nor email addresses will be associated with any answer you provide.

Each year the  New York Small Business Development Center  recognizes outstanding small businesses in a variety of ways.  This Success Story from the   Buffalo SBDC  appears in our  2016 Annual Report .  Kerry Beiter   Alpine Made Buffalo SBDC Bieter & Sons’ Farm LLC is a certified organic goat dairy farm and Ms. Kerry Bieter is the sole owner of the business. In 2012, Kerry founded Alpine Made LLC, a soap and skin care company, through which she sells goat milk soaps and skin care products at farmers markets in Western New York, wholesale to local retailers, and nationally through a website. Bieter & Sons’ farm uses sustainable and organic farming practices to raise alpine dairy goats. The business is certified organic through the northeast Organic Farming Association of New York. The farm is located in the town of Wales in an agricultural district 30 minutes south of Buffalo. Kerry began working with Buffalo SBDC Advisor Andrea Lizak in 2011 when she was in the pl

From  Entrepenuer Every state in America picked one small business owner as its small business person of the year as part of National Small Business Week. Each one of them was up for the national award as well. These people are doing amazing things , from contracting with the Department of Homeland Security to making silver-gallium nanoneedles. Max Nisen,  Guidance Aviation  is a high-altitude flight school and John Stonecipher just won  Small Business Person Of The Year .   One piece of advice for small business owners: "Surround yourself around the best people you can and give them an opportunity to do what they love to do best. Each one of my staff and faculty are leaders themselves. I cannot succeed without them."

From:  Medium Marketing is  really  about how customer values translate into aspirations, insecurities, fears and motivations. Marketing, at the end of the day, is not just about a company’s values — it’s about understanding what these mean  to a customer , and getting that meaning to be felt strongly enough that they buy. The success of a business — and its marketing message — is partially figuring out what people want. And partially the promise of fulfilling it. There are a number of companies popping up that sell clothing with elephants on it and donate part of the proceeds to “saving the elephants.” They’re popular. And they’re popular not because donating makes people feel good, but because  elephants make people feel good. It’s not accidental. These companies aren’t donating to, say, endangered Amazonian spiders or rock moss. No. It’s elephants. Why? It’s simple. You want to sell some fast-fashion casual clothing?  Look at who’s buying it. Once yo u know who’s buying it (

From:  MarketingProfs Writing can take a lot of time. Sometimes that's because research needs to be done; sometimes the business owner you're working with may have unexpected changes; and sometimes you can be your own worst enemy by making your writing process inefficient—especially if you're a perfectionist. Trying to create a "perfect" piece as you write can hinder creativity and slow you down. But the good news is that you are in control of making your writing process faster and more productive, and today's  infographic  by  Enchanting Marketing  offers tips to help. "Perfectionism becomes unhealthy when you mix it with self-doubt and undermine your creative productivity," the graphic begins. "To speed up and enjoy your writing, become a writing pragmatist." For example, a perfectionist wants to use perfect sentences in a first draft, whereas a pragmatist simply puts down ideas on paper that can later be finessed, the graphic explains

From: eMarketer Brick-and-mortar retailers often gripe that they are at a competitive disadvantage against online retailers because of their relative inability to map a more complete view of their customers are and their traffic, browsing and purchasing behavior. As malls, department stores and other retailers struggle to drive traffic, some players are considering sharing data. Mall developer Westfield, the owner of 35 shopping centers, is seeking to persuade retailers, brands and even competing malls to share data such as what consumers have just bought to allow partners/rivals to better target potential customers for related sales.

Each year the  New York Small Business Development Center  recognizes outstanding small businesses in a variety of ways.  This Success Story from the   Brooklyn SBDC  appears in our  2016 Annual Report .  Doris Ulysse Brooklyn SBDC The story of Doris Ulysse is testimony to the grit and talent of a determined African American woman entrepreneur. Doris specializes in network design and administration. She is particularly adept at configuring and integrating hardware and software for a full spectrum of client types. She first consulted the Brooklyn SBDC after years of working as an IT professional to “test the waters” of entrepreneurship.  Advisor Janet Page expertly guided her through the business planning process and MWBE certification protocol. Doris became an MWBE subcontractor through the NYC Office of General Services and a contractor for the NYC Housing Authority. She learned that having certifications had little to do with getting contracts as a Prime or sub-contractor

From Digg : In August, the U.S. Small Business Administration found that self-employment is ticking upward, but hasn't yet reached the heights it reached before the 2008 financial crash. Now, using census data, the office estimates that just over 15 million Americans are self employed. The SBA also reported that in 2013 there were 28.8 million small businesses — that is, a business, or firm, that employs less than 500 employees.3 Which might explain why the U.S. Census Bureau found that small businesses employed 56.8 million people, about 48 percent of the private industries. The new face of a small business is the perpetual freelancer, which means we have to start considering what this means when this entire generation retires — or, more likely, can't afford to. We already worry about how we'll provide for the population as more and more people live longer but are unable to work. If there's a place for mid-level earners on the internet, does that carved-out space incl

From MarketingProfs : Remember those mobile phone carrier commercials that used colored balls to represent the four big carriers? It was red for Verizon, blue for AT&T, yellow for Sprint, and pink for T-Mobile. Consumers didn't need explanations about which color represented which brand, because we made the associations automatically. That goes to show the power of color when defining your brand. Vistaprint worked with Dr. Sally Augustin of Design With Science to analyze color popularity among the print company's customers, define the feelings those colors elicit, and explore which colors are popular in which industries. That information was summarized into a graphic. Should you choose a color that your competitors use, or should your brand stand out? That's a decision you'll need to make, and the tips in the graphic might help you out.

From  Small Biz Ahead Many long-time small business owners would agree with the line from the 1970s song by the band Faces: “I wish that I knew what I know now.” Over years of running a small business, owners inevitably gather many lessons about how to grow and run a business more effectively. Thankfully, many of these owners are more than happy to share their insights.  Here are seven tips from several successful small business owners that are worth paying attention to:  1. Build a Support Network For Laura Kelly, being a business owner can be an isolating experience at times. “Especially if you’re a solo business owner, you can lose touch with other business owners,” says Kelly, who 15 years ago started The Handwork Studio, a Narberth, Pennsylvania-based company that runs needlework camps and classes for kids in 10 states along the East Coast.

From Bureau of Labor Statistics : After reaching its historical peak at 67.1 percent in 2000, the labor force participation rate for all workers (age 16 and over) is projected to decline to 61.0 percent in 2026. The decline in the rate is largely the result of the aging population, as more and more workers move into higher age groups that tend to have lower participation rates. The overall labor force participation rate has been declining since 2000, dropping sharply following the 2007–09 recession and reaching 62.8 percent in 2016. The continued shift of the population into older age groups will have long-lasting effects on the labor force and the overall labor force participation rate. In 1996, the entire baby-boom generation was in the 25-to-54-year-old group, with a labor force participation rate of 83.8 percent. In 2001, the first of the baby boomers moved into the 55-and-older age group. Although the 25-to-54-year-old group shows the strongest attachment to the labor mark

From Small Business Bonfire Working in a pleasant environment helps people feel positive and motivated. If employees enjoy their time at work, they will be less likely to take long breaks or go on sick leave. The benefits for business owners include increased productivity and reduced staff turnover, leading to lower recruitment and training costs. Here are some ways to create a pleasant work environment for your employees.