New York SBDC Research Network

Perhaps you thought the Census Bureau only tracked people and housing. Or perhaps you were also familiar with the Economic Census of businesses. But did you know that there was an Annual Survey of State and Local Government Employment and Payroll? The 2005 data on the number of government civilian employees and their gross payrolls is now available. The 2004 report showed most full-time equivalent employees worked in education. Other employment categories include corrections, financial administration, fire protection, health, hospitals, judicial and legal, police protection, public welfare, streets and highways. For details, go to http://www.census.gov/govs/www/apes.html .

How can you tell how many people visiting your site actually become customers? At Clickz.com , they claim to have come up with a formula and while they do not reveal the formula, they do discuss a few things to think about. Calculate Your Online Conversion Rate ROI Marketing Sponsored by WebTrends By Bryan Eisenberg August 13, 2004 Mal Watlington , president of specialty consulting group, City Square Consulting , offers a blog on the topic of online conversion: Online Conversion & Beyond discussing a variety of topics on marketing. Put the "Find" Back in Search To Increase Online Conversion Rates Activepoint By Moshe Ofer November 1, 2005 The Art of Online Conversion: Four Steps From Interest to Acquisition by Brian Dempsey June 27, 2006

From InfoWorld: Learn more about the current trends in regulatory compliance and how companies are dealing with multiple regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPPA, by reading The Struggle to Manage Security Compliance for Multiple Regulations. This white paper offers key findings from the 2006 Security Compliance Benchmark Research Report, such as: - Three out of four organizations must comply with two or more regulations and corresponding audits. Nearly half must comply with three or more regulations. - The frequency of regulatory and IT security audits have dramatically increased. - Many companies that employed manual, labor-intensive procedures to complete audits are now utilizing ways to automate the process. Click HERE.

This is long overdue. My apologies. Last April, we knew we were moving to new offices. We also knew that our old methods of doing things could be improved. Because of this, we created a survey for distribution to SBDC advisors, which Roger administered & tallied. Of the 112 people surveyed, we received 65 responses (nice response rate - thanks!) Your responses were then the basis of the Research Network presentation at the Staff Training event in May. Since not every respondent came to our presentation, I thought you'd like to know the results: 1. Do you pose research requests for JUST your clients? Just my clients (57) For clients of others in the office (2) Depends (6) 2. How often do you make requests to the RN? Daily (2) Two/three times a week (6) Weekly (8) Two/three times a month (22) Monthly (9) Rarely (14) Never (0) Other (4) 3. If the answer to the previous question is "rarely" or "never," please explain why (more than one might apply): I do

As reported in a number of places, the Spanish language network, Univision is now the top-rated network in primetime among the sought-after 18-34 demographic. Last year the network even beat out Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS for number of viewers. Through the World Cup Univision has averaged 2.6 million viewers during the first 8 games. Even English speaking viewers are tuning into to Univision for coverage If, as Clickz.com reports: “ The Latino market is said to have a purchasing power of over $425 billion per year .”, then this is a market businesses will have to begin to understand. DirectoryOne.com Search Engine Marketing carries an article entitled Spanish Marketing: The U.S. Hispanic Market – Are You Ready? offers an idea of the size of this growing segment: “According to U.S. Census statistics, the American Hispanic population stands at approximately 40 million today and is projected to grow to nearly 50 million within the next 5 to 6 years.” i Media Connection Reaching Hispanic Int

Recent pet owner surveys from the American Animal Hospital Asssociation found that: 83 percent of pet owners refer to themselves as the pet's mom and dad 70 percent sign their pet's name on greeting cards Almost 75 percent hang a Christmas stocking for their pet 39 percent say they have more photos of their pets than their spouse * It is estimated that Americans will spend $38.4 billion will be spent on their pets in the 2006. The pet care and product industry is fully aware of these trends and it is coming up with more and more ways to pamper our pets. Pet gourmet meals, fancy shampoos, hotel suites with televisions and spa treatments- the sky is the limit. Want more facts and figures about pet owners and the pet industry? American Animal Hospital Asssociation 2004 Pet Owner Survey http://www.aahanet.org/About_aaha/summery%20of%20results%2004.pdf American Pet Products Manufactures Association Industry Statistics & Trends http://www.appma.org/press_industrytrends.asp *Cite

A few weeks ago, one of the center directors had a story in one of those weekly business newspapers discussing the use of office computers for personal use. This story from InfoWorld begged for being shared: Any time that you allow employees access to your computer systems and authorize their use of the Internet, e-mail and instant messaging (IM), you put your organization's assets, future and reputation at risk. By implementing well-defined best practices for all forms of electronic communication, your company can mitigate potential liabilities. This comprehensive white paper offers: - The Three E's of Electronic Risk Management, including how to effectively enforce established policies. - Managing peer-to-peer (P2P) file networking technology and related security threats. - Monitoring IM to manage risk and prevent disasters. - 12 recommendations for electronic communication management. - Various sample Internet policies. Manage your organization's electronic liabilit

Here's a handy site should you be approached by local media asking "How many small businesses were started or disappeared around here in the last few years?" The Census Bureau has a section on their site which they call their Business Information Tracking Series . The page presents a series of links to spreadsheet files, providing data showing growth/decline of businesses (small or otherwise) over specific two-year periods (2002-2003, 2001-2002, etc.). Each shows data by the U.S. in general, as well as by state & specific industry sector. Lately, they've also been providing data on metropolitan areas, too. If you click on "Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), totals" under the 2002-2003 banner, you'll be presented with a fairly substantial spreadsheet. Each MSA takes up three lines: "Initial year establishments," "Establishment births," and "Establishment deaths". In column D, for example, you'll notice that

I have become fascinated by the “latest phenomenon” in cyberspace (there’s probably a new one already), the rise of social computing and such – or, what they are calling “Web 2.0.” Here is a brand new article about its impact on the business world: Fast Company, The Network Unbound And an older one on the same general topic (a sort of preview of a book by the same name): Wired Magazine, The Long Tail Here is an excellent article giving an overview of the phenomenon, from a reference librarian’s blog: Infotangle (blog), The Hype and the Hullabaloo of Web 2.0 Incidentally, the concept is also being applied to libraries, as “Library 2.0” You can read more about that here (a Squidoo “lens,” - a sort of pathfinder). -Ben Ropp

I’ve mentioned www.trendwatching.com before but Amelia and I were talking about the customer-designed phenomenon and I thought I’d check back at trendwatching.com to see what they were calling it – since they like to come up with so many snappy names for trends, and sure enough their May/June Trend Briefing is “ Customer-Made Update ”. This is becoming a popular way for companies to build interest in their products. Some I have noticed is L.L. Bean who’ve created “build-a-tote. Land’s End do it for jeans. Now the world of bespoke is becoming available to the masses. Even children’s medicine can be adjusted to be palatable to your tot’s tastes. Consumers are used to being able to communicate with their favorite brands and maybe these companies are seeing that the customer really is always right. It’s the ultimate lesson: don’t create a product and then look for a market, create a product that is needed or wanted. Check out this site to see how companies are innovating with borr

The hunt for the elusive national networking association continues… A couple months ago, Josee mentioned the social networking sites. Here are a few links to organizations that are more about benchmarking and connecting entrepreneurs and small to mid-size companies. Need the email address of a friendly expert willing to answer your question? Try: The Entrepreneurship Network http://www.tei.net/ask.asp The website provides “A database of hundreds of experienced solution providers compiled to facilitate "networking" and assist the growth of mid-market companies.” Users can search for experts by specialty or geography yielding full contact information. Need help benchmarking? Want to discuss how other companies manage their billing process (or one of dozens of other topics)? Try: The Benchmarking Network http://www.benchmarkingnetwork.com/ Offers lists of benchmarking resources organized both by industry and by process. Each topic seems to have its own benchmarking association t

Last week, New York State Commissioner of Taxation and Finance Andrew S. Eristoff announced a new Department service that helps businesses more accurately determine which local sales tax jurisdictions should receive revenue from certain sales tax transactions, and the correct sales tax rate to apply to those transactions. Sales tax on purchases is generally credited to the county or city in which the sale occurred, the service performed, or the tangible property delivered. However, problems arise when vendors use zip codes to determine the local taxing jurisdiction for New York addresses. Because postal zip codes may overlap county or city boundaries, sales tax revenue may be incorrectly credited to the wrong local taxing jurisdiction. Sales Tax Jurisdiction and Rate Lookup Important Information Sales Tax Jurisdiction and Rate Lookup

Looking for angel investors for any of your clients? Check out these sites: 1) vFinance, Inc. - Angel Search - Here, you can search a database with "[o]ver 20,000 potential angels" by any number of variables (amount needed, industry & subindustry, state, ZIP, etc.). Searching is free. However, there is a fee for purchasing the complete record of any angel investor. 2) Inc.com (June 2005 issue) - Directory of Angel-Investor Networks - Provides links to any number of Web sites, depending on the U.S. region in which the company is located. When your client has secured a meeting with a potential angel, he or she might also want to check out a page called " Pitching Angel Investors ," located on the Web site of the Kauffman Foundation. The page is a collection of articles on how a company can prepare itself to maximize its chances for financing when meeting with angels.

The Library: Next Best Thing to an MBA Across the country, public libraries are giving would-be entrepreneurs ahelping hand with resources and expert guidance. May 30, 2006 Business Week: Small Biz By Stacy Perman Public libraries get their due in this Business Week Small Business article. The author talks about entrepreneurs who discover " that owning a business takes a lot more than just raising money and finding a location". The article discusses how business-owners can learn how to write a business plan, create a website, and praises librarians as "the most valuable resource". Apparently, according to a 2006 study by the American Library Association , 61% of small businesses found libraries to be important in getting them started.

I was working on a question one afternoon about goat milk. After finding part of my answers elsewhere, I went to Google to enter the term. I looked over to the right side of the screen, to the sponsored section of the page and came across local.com , which I clicked on. Lo and behold, lists of goat milk retailers in Albany from nearest location out! Well, not exactly. After picking up the handful of goat milk (and dry goat milk) sources, it picked up goat cheese and other products. Still, it was a useful piece of the reference puzzle for a product that doesn't lend itself to a lot of local data.

This is a 31-page PDF file , written by SBA's Office of Advocacy and published in April 2006. It states that health insurance premiums paid by wage & salary employees receives a different tax treatment than those paid by self-employed individuals. This paper explores how the tax treatment of self-employed health insurance premiums affects entrepreneurial decisions. Clearly, this is of interest to the sole proprietors among our clients.

Here's the current time in places all over the world. I suppose one could just find out the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), a/k/a Greenwich Mean Time or Zulu Time, and subtract five for the eastern U.S. Except that Britain is currently on Daylight Saving Time, which started a week before the United States in 2006. Except that DST will start the second weekend in MARCH in the U.S. in 2007. BTW, Australia went OFF DST the same weekend the US went ON DST this year. Of course, parts of the U.S. (Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the parts of Arizona not controlled by the Navajo) DON'T go to DST. Starting in 2006, all of Indiana is now on DST. Thus, the web link. Note, that it's Daylight Saving Time, not Savings - it's a common mistake.

Old Norwegian bachelor farmer Darrin Conroy is getting married tomorrow. O.K., he's not that old, I'm fairly certain he's not Norwegian, and his horticultural skills may be in question. But Darrin and Suzy are indeed tying the knot. They became good friends some years ago when they worked in the same building, before it evolved into romance. Before he left work Wednesday, I reminded Darrin not to forget to breathe tomorrow. He indicated that was the exact same advice he got when he went skydiving, almost exactly a decade ago. He wondered if there was a relationship between matrimony and skydiving. I say Yes - both involve jumping, one the broom, the other, out of the plane. Even though it will be a Christian wedding, both Suzy and Darrin have agreed to take the Buddhist approach to the busyness that leads up to the ceremony and take it as it comes. If you'd like to contact Darrin, please be aware that he'll be out of the office until June 8. If you call him, the mes

While driving to work on Monday, I was listening to a story on Market Place on NPR called Chasing Innovation by Scott Jagow. It started off discussing research & development departments of large business and how things have changed from striving to maintain secrets and maintain the lead to finding new ways to be competitive. This broadcast discusses how huge companies like Proctor & Gamble are looking to small businesses for their next best thing. The transcript is available on American Public Media . With small businesses always looking at how to get their products marketed, this feature offers some advice on what partnering with the likes of P&G can offer as well as how the entrepreneur should protect him/herself.

Meetings: we can't stand them, but we don't seem able to live without them. Either the meeeings are pointless, overlong, or all top down. You sit there waiting for that three minutes of a kernel of an idea that made your hour and and a half investment marginally valuable. Perhaps these articles from BNET can help. Registration is required, but it's free. Reinventing The Staff Meeting Solutions At A Meeting Meeting-Speak: What to Say and How to Say It Take A Hike - Planning Dynamic Business Meetings The Gang's All Here We've Got to Have a Meeting. How Do We Ensure that It Is Productive?

Last December, you might remember that the SBDC's 2004 publication "What's Your Signage?" was recognized by the New York Library Association as being one of two winners of the 2004 New York State Notable Documents Award. Each May, the Library Journal announces winners of Notable Documents from Federal, State, and International agencies. Among other nice things, our earlier recognition resulted in the book being entered into this competition. I'm happy (and humbled) to announce, then, that, on May 15th, I received word that "What's Your Signage?" was designated as being one of the most Notable Government Documents in the U.S. in the State category, one of only 10 winners so honored. One of the judges remarked that "it has been a while" since New York had a document on the list. (If you care to know of the others, there's a lengthy article here: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6332169.html .) The Library Journal is the profess

Just some basic info on where we are now and how you can reach us, in case you've lost the email that went out on the subject, here it is again: Our new physical address for UPS, FedEx, Airborne etc. is: NYS SBDC State University of New York 3rd Floor 22 Corporate Woods Albany, NY 12211 The US Postal Service address is: NYS SBDC State University Plaza Corporate Woods Building Albany, NY 12246 Main Line 518-443-5398 Fax Line 518-443-5275 Amelia Birdsall 518-641-0603 Frances Carner 518-641-0604 Darrin Conroy 518-641-0605 Kevin Crider 518-641-0606 Josee Fonseca 518-641-0607 Beverly Ford 518-641-0608 Brian Goldstein 518-641-0609 Roger Green 518-641-0610 Cheryl Hoffman 518-641-0611 Mary Hoffman 518-641-0620 John Joel 518-641-0612 Jim King 518-641-0613 Lori Kitchen 518-641-0614 Martha Pollock 518-641-0616 Mike Ross 518-641-0617 Al Scher 518-641-0618 Jinshui Zhang 518-641-0619 As you may have noticed, we are just starting to get back on our feet. We are still experiencing some lack of ser

You're writing something and you discover you have been using the same word repeatedly. Do you reach for a dictionary or a thesaurus? Maybe. Anoother possibility is to go to the Word Web dictionary and word finder of over 280,000 words and phrases. A free software version at the site adds proper nouns, pronounciations and more definitions. There's also a paid version ($19) which allows for wild card word searches, the ability to solve anagrams and more. I found the information above in a magazine called Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professional. Each month, there is at least one free article online: April 2006: The People’s Law: Free Legal Help and Legal Research on the Web with a list of sites. March 2006: Wikipedia and Britannica: The Kid’s All Right (And So’s the Old Man) January 2006: Shhh!!: Keeping Current on Government Secrecy November/December 2005: Another Phine Kettle of Phish: Identity Theft Prevention

We're here in our new library space, located with the rest of SBDC Central. As you know, we're now out of downtown Albany, which has its pluses (no more listening to car alarms beeping incessantly outside my window), and its disadvantages. Nonetheless, our computers are working, the phones & e-mail are in order, and the library books -mail is back & running, so we can communicate with the outside world. Back to reference tomorrow!

The recent SBDC conference in Catskill reminded me of a tool I use for ring studies. Go to http://www2.easidemographics.com/ . Click on FREE Census Reports. You'll have to register with your e-mail and ZIP Code, but that's free as well. Pick EASI Ring Studies Site Selection with Maps. You can pick one or three rings. Pick a report - try the Free Complete Report. Filling in the report name is optional. You need the latitude and longitude of what you want to study, so plug in the street address, and click on Find Address Coordinates. (You CAN'T use "the corner of Trade and Tryon".) With the next fields filled out, click on Create Site Study. Voila; the report is done. There is also some mapping capacities here and elsewhere in the site. There is also Rank Analysis (e.g., the counties with the greatest number of people with Masters Degrees, or with an Asian population.)

Sphere touts itself as an improved search tool for blogs, promising current and relevant results. One thing about it is it indexes entire sites and so your search term may only be mentioned in a blog. When I typed in SBDC, I got a list of mentions emboldened, with the name of the site, how long ago it appeared and a profile in the form of a pop-up that includes average posts per week, and the last 3 links in. The first in the queue was Roger’s blog, and various other mentions of SBDCs around the country. Some other search tools of interest? Talk Digger our website came up in a mention about our veteran’s program. Blogdigger http://www.nyssbdc.org/ did not appear in a simple search but a search on sbdc brought up a mention about the SBIR conference. Google Blog Search brought up mentions of sbdc and the url in various blogs.

The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, commuting, and socializing. It is a relatively new survey from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, and there are changes from the 2003 to the 2004 questionnnaire, so there are not always comparable figures. Much of the data are in ZIP files, and frankly, I found it to be quite cumbersome. Another source of this type of information can be found in this 2001 Harris poll , something you can actually read right away.

Law, accounting, consulting, advertising, public relations and human resources software, insurance, property management. These are some of the intangibles. They present marketing challenges to the entrepreneur trying to get the word out about their businesses. Below are a few articles that discuss some of the issues that face these services and how they can show potential clients something they can get their hands around.. Selling Your Services Pop quiz: How do you sell something you can’t touch? We've got a few answers August 28, 2000 By Danielle Kennedy Ten Myths about Selling Intangible Services By Charles H. Green Trusted Advisor Associates SWOT Team: Selling the Intangible Marketing Profs.com By Meryl K. Evans and Hank Stroll October 26, 2004 Selling the Intangible: The Value of Perceived Security IMAGE SUBSTATION Corporate Identity Consultants By Hamish Chadwick Carolina Entrepreneurship Club Business Resource Center How to Understand Your Customers

Health Status, Health Insurance, and Health Services Utilization: 2001 - How often do Americans use health care services? If you're looking for an answer, this report may be "just what the doctor ordered." It provides data on the frequency of visits to doctors, dentists and hospitals and whether or not people are taking prescription medicine - by characteristics such as self-reported health status, age and health insurance coverage status. Internet address: http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p70-106.pdf .

The Research Network is happy to announce the hiring of Amelia Birdsall, who will be starting her time with the SBDC on May 1st. Since Josee Fonseca will be unable to attend the upcoming Staff Conference, she will be working with Amelia - in a very quiet office - in introducing her to the ropes. Amelia graduated from the SUNY at Albany library program last December, and interned with both Empire State Development (where Mary Beth interned several years ago), as well as with the NYS DEC library. She had been working part-time at a local public library, but she now eagerly enters the world of specialized business librarianship. She comes highly recommended by those who've worked with her in the recent past, and we (Al Scher, Josee & myself) were very impressed with the answers given during her interview. We're all certain that you, too, will be impressed with the answers she'll be providing as a member of our library team.

Last night I attended an event held by the NYS Writers Institute program at the University at Albany where Elizabeth Kolbert , a journalist for the New Yorker and the New York Times discussed her new book, " Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change ." This book grew out of a series of articles on climate change Kolbert wrote for the New Yorker that hoped to get the full story on climate change or global warming. Kolbert described her experiences in Alaska and Greenland, noting the dramatic changes that have already occurred. She also discussed the disconnect between the scientific community and the lay community. Apparently the majority of the scientific community not doing research sponsored by energy companies, agree that we are in a dire situation that needs immediate attention. The damage we do now will have a knock-on effect that will severely affect our children. From the point of view of small business, I wondered what if anything was happening. W

Last May, at Staff Training in Lake Placid, we had some special visitors from the province of Zhejiang, China at Staff Training this year. Mary Hoffman send out an e-mail to alert staff about the sensitivities of hosting international dignitaries, a message that may have future applicability: The following notes are excerpts from several sources regarding protocol for interactions with visitors from other countries. The cardinal rule that should guide your thoughts as you plan to receive international guests or travel abroad is: "When in doubt, err on the side of excess." One doesn't have to apologize for being too kind and respectful - but one cannot recover from an affront and disrespect. Often what Americans might view as appropriate would be seen as minimal in many other cultures. As members of the global community, a sensitivity and understanding of cross-cultural protocol is vitally important. It is very important to ensure that neither your actions, nor your appear

Many clients come to your doors telling stories of how they gave money to some organization - be it an inventors assessment program, or a grants provider group - only to have regrets soon after. I recently received an e-mail from Walter Reid, an advisor with the Farmingdale SBDC. He'd been keeping me posted regarding a client who sent $1,000 to the National Grants Conferences, an organization that promises attendees of their conferences with the "secrets" on how to obtain "free" government money for any number of endeavors. Walter took it upon himself to write a letter on behalf of the client, insisting on his money back. Recently, the client received a check for the full amount. Persistence, then, can pay off. If you're interested in Walter's methods, give him a call down in Farmingdale. I know that there've been several clients with bad experiences with NGC and similar types of organizations. In fact, go here to read about other people & their

Before anymore is added to the pile on my desk...here are the latest additions to the collection both purchased and donated: SRDS The Lifestyle Market Analyst 2006 Media Solutions Federal Yellow Book: Who's Who in Federal Departments and Agencies Leadership Directories Spring 2006 Congressional Yellow Book: Who's Who in Congress, Including Committees and Key staff Leadership Directories Spring 2006 2005 New York State Staistical Yearbook 30th edition The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government Don't Make me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability Steve Krug Constructing Accessible Web Sites Jim Thatcher, Paul Bohman, Michael Burks, Shawn Lawton Henry, Bob Regan, Srah Swierenga, Mark D. Urban, Cynthia D. Waddell You Need to be a Little Crazy The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business Barry J. Moltz Staying With It: Role Models of Perserverence Emerson Klees Entrepreneurs in History Success vs. Failure - Entrepreneurial Role Models Emerson Klees No More

smallbizresource.com This is a useful business blog. Actually, it's three blogs: the Balancing Act that a business person must face (Rules About Blogging, Working At Home Not For Everyone); MyTech (virus protection, mobile speech to text); and Thinking Big (patents, preparation). The main page of this site also has helpful information on finance, growth, management, marketing, sales, technology and more.

Clients who do their own research often find reference to very expensive market research reports. Often, these items are not available on the shelves of your local public or university library. (They're certainly beyond the budget for our library, too.) However, there is a site that your clients might consider visiting in these circumstances. It's www.marketresearch.com . This site makes available for sale reports from many market research firms. Of course, they'd rather your clients buy the whole report. However, they also allow them to buy "by the slice". When there, your client can search for a given report. If it's in their database, they can then search within the report for a given word or phrase. They'll then get results that show them the context of the report in which that word or phrase is used. If only one or two instances fit your client's needs, then they can buy just that chapter. It still won't be super cheap, but they'

Before I ever met Mary Beth, I heard her. Specifically, I heard her laugh. She had just been hired, and since I was not on the search committee, I had no information about her, other than the assurances from the librarians who were on the committee that she was "really good." Well, that turned out to be correct; she is a fine librarian. She has the dogged determination and the requisite curiosity of a good researcher. She also is in charge of the SBDC web page, which is more than a design task; it’s asking, sometimes cajoling, newspapers to provide rights to display stories about the NYS SBDC on the site. It’s probably because of the varied experience she had before coming to the SBDC – she had worked at ASCAP, the New York Assembly and Empire State Development. Mary Beth is currently the president of a local branch of a national library association. In fact, it was attending a library conference meeting where MB came up with the idea of the Research Network doing a blog, whi

At the Research Network, we have a book in the collection entitled, "Up Against the Wal-Marts: How Your Business Can Prosper in the Shadow of the Retail Giants," published back in 1994. Competition can be fierce for small businesses in communities where Wal-Mart set up. Now Wal-Mart is stepping up to remarks of criticism according to a New York Times report by offering "financial grants, training on how to survive with Wal-Mart in town and even free advertising within a Wal-Mart store." Read more about the "Wal-Mart Jobs and Opportunity Zone” initiative .

A source that offers a number of resources to entrepreneurs is the CELCEE website. CELCEE stands for Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Clearinghouse on Entrepreneurship Education, a non-profit add-on to ERIC, the Educational Resources Information Center. They offer articles related to entrepreneurship, as well as conferences, government publications, books, among many other things. There is a simple search function that searches the entire site. Materials are also arranged by year and there is an advanced search feature that allows you to choose the type of record. Some examples are: Native American Gaming and Tribal Economic Development: Myths and Realities By Amy Fann June 2005 DIGEST Number 05-11 Entrepreneurial Opportunities Serving Aging Adults By Jennifer Paek June 2005 DIGEST Number 05-03 July 2004 Women in Agriculture CELCEE Clearinghouse on Entrepreneurship Education EDINFO Number 04-07

Beginning Saturday, April 1, a year-round exemption from the four percent New York State sales and use taxes went into effect on the purchase of clothing, footwear, and items to make or repair exempt clothing, costing less than $110 per item or pair. The exemption does not apply to locally imposed sales and use taxes unless the county or city imposing those taxes elected the exemption. To find the local sales tax, if any, on these products, go here .

Sam Kandel from the Mid-Hudson SBDC sent me an e-mail regarding one of his clients. She's an author, and is currently researching and writing a book about improving personal productivity in the workplace. Ideally, this woman would like small business owners to take a brief survey, so that they can add their "voice" on the issue. It's only 17 questions, and most of them are a matter of selecting a rating on a scale. Participants are entitled to an advance copy of the book. The client would be grateful if you could ask your existing small business clients to take the survey. It can be found here .

One of the things I love about the World Wide Web is the ability to track down your favorite poem, book, or movie simply by entering keywords into a search engine. Here's a poem that I have posted next to my desk: Sometimes, oh, often, indeed, in the midst of ugly adversity, beautiful Memories return. You awake in wonder, you awake at half-past four, Wondering what wonder is in store. You reach for your clothes in the dark and pull them on, you have no time Even to wash your face, you have to climb Megunticook. You run through the sleeping town; you do not arouse Even a dog, you are so young and so light on your feet. What a way to live, what a way... No breakfast, not even hungry. An apple, though, In the pocket. And the only people you meet are store-windows. The path up the mountain is stony and in places steep, And here it is really dark -- wonderful, wonderful, Wonderful -- the smell of bark And rotten leaves and dew! And nobody awake In all the world but you! --

I started work on a request today on change management, an area I’ve looked at often in previous incarnations as a librarian for an HR consultancy and as it is something we all have to face, it might be interesting to see how the “experts” think it should be done. Many of our established clients are faced with the reality of shifting gears after years in the business, perhaps they can put some of these ideas to use. Here are a few direct lifts from sites explaining change theory. Change Management 101: A Primer Fred Nickols 2004 Fred Nickols of Distance Consulting provides an overview but succinctly boils down some basic strategies: Four Basic Change Management Strategies Strategy Description Four Basic Change Management Strategies Empirical-Rational People are rational and will follow their self-interest — once it is revealed to them. Change is based on the communication of information and the proffering of incentives. Normative-Reeducative People are social beings and will adhere to

Every once in a while, one of our centers gets a call from a reporter. That was the case last Tuesday, when the 2002 SURVEY OF BUSINESS OWNERS (SBO) came out with the release of the Final Estimates of Business Ownership by Hispanic or Latino Origin . It showed that the Hispanic-Owned Firms: 2002 in the Albany area actually dropped in relation to 1997 , though the population had increased. Complicating the story further was the fact that the the 1997 data were in SIC, while the 2002 data were NAICS-based. Also, the definition of the Albany metro area changed. The Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY MSA used to include Albany County, Montgomery County, Rensselaer County, Saratoga County, Schenectady County, and Schoharie County. The current definition , however, excludes Montgomery County. There's a new beast in the Census terminology, though, the Combined Statistical Area. The Albany-Schenectady-Amsterdam, NY CSA includes the newly configured Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistic

Demographics is at the heart of nearly every question we answer at the RN. To do so, we have several tools at our disposal, including several from New Stragetist Publications. I recently learned of a blog now being published by this publisher on the subject of demographics. It's called DemoMemo, and can be found here . Its primary author is a woman named Cheryl Russell, who also once worked with the late, lamented magazine American Demographics . It's updated nearly every day, and is filled with references to demographics - sources, data, interpretations, etc. - that are quite interesting and bound to be useful not only to librarians, but to your clients as well.

The New York State Small Business Awards are presented annually to honor outstanding small businesses. Awards are presented to the Small Business Person of the Year (last year's winner-Frank S. Falatyn, President and CEO of FALA Technologies, Inc.); Small Business Advocate of the Year (last year- Raymond M. Nowicki, managing partner of Nowicki & Co.) ; and Small Business Not-for-Profit Organization of the Year (last year- Staten Island Economic Development Group)during a ceremony which recognizes the exceptional achievements of the award winner. All completed applications are considered. The governor may also designate candidates for honorable mention. Any small business is eligible for nomination. Applications for the New York State 2006 Small Business Awards are available here . The deadline is April 30, 2006. For more information, please contact the Small Business Division of Empire State Development at 518 292-5220.

Besides doing reference, each librarian is responsible for various other duties. I update the web site and this week that has focused on the upcoming U.S. - China Trade & Business Development Conference in Albany. Logos have been added for various organizers and sponsors, the agenda has been tweaked, and a PDF questionnaire was posted this morning. I added a Times Union article that highlights the conference in the news section . And you'll notice a direct link to the conference details on the homepage . If you haven't already registered or passed on the details to some of your clients, please visit the conference web site .

So, I started with the idea that I would highlight the issue of finding venture capital for start-ups after reading a brief article in the April issue Entrepreneur Magazine entitled All Aboard? By C.J. Prince “Is your company’s concept so cutting edge that investors won’t touch it? Here’s how to get their attention- and their money.” The article suggests taking proactive steps while waiting to hear from VCs and sweetening the deal. The Entrepreneur site also has many other articles on their site relating to raising venture capital, But, while looking for tidbits on brand new ventures finding investors I happily ended up on Paul Graham’s website who wrote Hackers & Painters among other titles. I got caught up reading How to Fund a Startup, Nov 2005 and got sucked in. Mr. Graham is also a partner in Y Combinator , which is described as a venture firm focusing on software and web start-ups. Paul Graham, an essayist, and program designer and it seems, all-round big-head. Besides an imp

Ranking tables are charts that rank states, counties and places by a variety of criteria. Some examples are the percent of: People 65 Years and Over With a Disability Households That are Married-Couple Families With Own Children People Who Have Completed a Bachelor's Degree Civilian Employed People in the Manufacturing Industry Occupied Housing Units That are Owner-occupied Occupied Housing Units That Were Moved into in 2000 or Later Households With Retirement Income People Who Lived in a Different House 1 Year Ago People Born in Asia Children Below Poverty Level People Who are White Alone, Not Hispanic or Latino Married-Couple Families With Both Husband and Wife in the Labor Force Workers Who Traveled to Work by Public Transportation Civilian Population Who are Veterans You can find this information on the Census page. Go to American FactFinder Click on Data Sets Select 2004 American Communities Survey This will generate a pulldown menu, from which you should pick Ranking Tables A

Back on January 30th, I posted a bit about a dubious company calling itself "SBA Express". Among other things, the post warned against " phishing ," a common method of conducting fraud by e-mail scammers. However, a recent article in the New York Times talks about a new form of cybertheft. Here's an excerpt: "In some countries, like Brazil, [phishing] has been eclipsed by an even more virulent form of electronic con - the use of keylogging programs that silently copy the keystrokes of computer users and send that information to the crooks. These programs are often hidden inside other software and then infect the machine, putting them in the category of malicious programs known as Trojan horses . . . These criminals aim to infect the inner workings of computers in much the same way that mischief-making virus writers do. The twist here is that the keylogging programs exploit security flaws and monitor the path that carries data from the keyboard to other part