New York SBDC Research Network

I've posted about web-based directories for angel investors before, but here's yet another site that your clients can use. This one focuses squarely on angel groups by region within New York State, so it's right up our alley: "Angel investor groups across New York State" http://bianys.com/node/76 (Thanks [again] to the Business Incubator Association of NYS for pointing this out to me.)

Have you recently used the links we provide in the online resource center section of nyssbdc.org? If the answer is "no," you're not alone. I have to admit that I'm not familiar with all of them. The list is available here . Do you have any favorite links that we haven't included? Are there things here that just shouldn't be? (The answer is yes, but which ones?) We try to keep up with broken links, but we haven't evalutated for the quality of the sites in a while. I don't feel that we have to offer our visitors the world, but a quick glance at some important resources would be great. What do you think? Feel free to comment here, or send me an email .

The world of the librarian is not always as glamorous as it might seem. Sometimes, it's just trudging through the mire. Someone wanted to know what New York's stand on "green cleaning" is. Not finding sufficient info by looking at databases or by Googling, I decided to make a call to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. I was transferred SEVEN times, before the last person told me that I needed to contact the Governor's office. I was transferred only TWICE before I was given the state Health Department. FOUR transfers later, I found Nancy; SHE knew exactly what I was talking about, but she wasn't the one I wanted; the guy she thought I should talk with was home with a broken leg. Taking pity on me after my tale of woe, she called him at home, and he gave her, and she gave me, the number to a guy named Kurt Larson in the Office of General Services , who, unfortunately wasn't in that day. But he WAS in the next day, and he had my answer.

We're members of the National Restaurant Association (though the only things we cook around here are leftovers at lunch). As such, I get emails from this organization, linking to stories that represent current trends in the industry. Today's email cited a recent story in the Providence Journal (you might - MIGHT - have to register [for free] to read this) as to the trend of naming restaurants after their location. Restaurants rely heavily on word-of-mouth, and if its name includes all or part of its address, then industry insiders feel that these owners have a great advantage. The article cautions against possible trademark infringement, as well as taking care not to create a name that sounds more like a union chapter than a place to eat. However, keep this advice in mind for your restaurant clients who are still debating what they should call their place. (NOTE: There are quotes in this piece that infer that a number-in-the-name strategy is an advantage for people who loo

10 Businesses Facing Extinction in 10 Years They're going, going and may be completely gone by 2017. Check out their odds of survival. By Geoff Williams September 19, 2007 Businesses that should give up the ghost? Entrepreneur Magazine offers a list of businesses that they believe are on their way out - at least in the next 10 years: Record stores Camera film manufacturers Crop Dusters Gay bars Newspapers Pay phones Used book stores Telemarketers Coin operated arcades

I saw this article- THE NUMBERS GUY: Weddings Are Not The Budget Drains Some Surveys Suggest Carl Bialik. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Aug 24, 2007. pg. B.1 Abstract (Summary) The Knot takes steps to ensure that its respondents are representative in terms of geography and household income. But research manager Kristyn Clement acknowledges that The Knot's members may not be typical spenders. "Our market is brides who are planning an actual wedding and putting resources toward that event," Ms. Clement says. "Are there brides who are not spending money on their weddings? Potentially." Rebecca Mead, staff writer at Conde Nast's New Yorker magazine, writes in her new book, "One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding," that the survey covered only brides who had made themselves known to the Bridal Group and thereby "already demonstrated an interest in having the kind of wedding that bridal magazines promote.&quo

In an article in yesterday's (September 18, 2007) New York Times by RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA, the paper announced that it would stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight night, "two years to the day after The Times began the subscription program, TimesSelect, which has charged $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for online access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives." "In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free." The story indicated that while the Times had generated about $20 million from 227,000 paying subscribers — out of 787,000 over all — and generating, the paper didn't release how much traffic would be generated by the search engines, visitors who

For those of you who like a good map, here's a fun tool: Using GIS data from ESRI (a leader in the GIS software & data field - pssstt... we bought some way cool data from them that you'll be hearing more about soon...) National Geographic's MapMachine offers good looking satellite views, physical maps and road maps. But it also provides theme maps on a range of topics, including weather, population density, natural disasters, and nature & conservation. While many of these topics are probably more applicable to school projects, others (perhaps congressional district maps or land use maps?) just might be useful at work. Whatever your motives, its pretty cool.

In most organizations the raw materials of the successful team exist; like dedication to service or professional ability, quality control. Where many, many organizations fall down is in the area of communication, sharing expertise, and a supportive environment. In particular, an appreciation of differing styles of working is essential to the smooth running of any organization. The detail oriented worker cam still have an appreciation of the big-picture worker; the process man can make room for the innovator. Organizations or businesses may have a plan but no process to truly implement it - the goal may be to empower employees but in practice, employees are micromanaged, evidence of a lack of trust. Or there is lip-service to the idea of communication but no process or game plan for dealing with conflict. To read up on teambuilding, check out Free Management Library

An advisor at one of our regional centers asked me to share some information he learned while working with a client last week. During the course of the counseling session, the client revealed she had signed up with a credit counseling service, Clear Your Debt LLC, from Austin, TX. The advisor was concerned when he read the contract the client signed, which prompted him to investigate the company. The Better Business Bureau in Austin told the advisor they had received numerous complaints against Clear Your Debt LLC. Though Clear Your Debt promised financing, counseling and other assistance, the advisor’s conclusion - after reading their confusing contract and talking to the BBB - was that the client would pay $15,000 for basically nothing. At that point, the advisor encouraged the client to return the contract she signed and cancel the agreement (this was within 3 days of the client signing the agreement). The advisor called me and asked that I share the information with other SBDC advi

The Association of Religious Data allows you to interactively explore the highest quality data on American and international religion using online features for generating national profiles, maps, church membership overviews, denominational heritage trees, tables, charts, and other summary reports. Over 350 data files are available for online preview and most can be downloaded for additional research. I had a question about the number people practicing Islam in parts of New York for a question about the dietary practice known as halal . I used The ARDA search mechanism and found files describing the number of Muslims by county. Other sources of religious data: Hartford Institute for Religion Research and Glenmary Research - the latter especially good for a breakdown of Roman Catholic numbers. Not so incidentally, it would be a mistake to assume that most U.S. Arabs are Muslims. In fact, if you go here , you'll see that most Arab-Americans are Christians.

The Research Network has answered over 23,000 questions since its inception. I've been around for most of them. Most every new request reminds me of something we've researched in the past. It's that deja vu feeling, on a daily basis. You can't trust it, though. I wanted to write a post about business incubators in New York, but I was sure I'd done it a year ago. I hadn't. I looked & looked, but there's no record of it. My bad. Sometimes, I just think I remember things. All righty then. David Hochman, the Executive Director of BIA/NYS, visited a Directors' Meeting within the past year. He let on that their website features contact information & descriptions of active business incubators throughout the state. Here's the URL: http://bianys.com/datainc/ Pass this list on to clients of yours whom you feel have the potential to benefit. And sorry for not getting this to you earlier. Say, a year ago.

When the Do Not Call registry opened registration to the American public in 2003, the majority of individuals rejoiced at the thought of no more telemarketer calls. According the FTC, "The registry was created to offer consumers a choice regarding telemarketing calls". Now, the list has started to expire since numbers are only on the list for five years from the date registered and not everyone who originally signed up is aware that they may be recieving unsolicited calls in the near future. For the article on the list expiring, go here . To re-register your number when it expires, go here . For more information from the Federal Trade Comission, go here . ---Alexis Mokler

Someone at the State Library took the trouble to compile in one place all of the databases tucked away on the websites of New York State government agency. God bless those librarians. Check out the page here . Some you already know about (like the Business Permit System, or the Corporation and Business Entity Database [which I wrote about last week]). There are others on such things as inmates in New York correctional facilities, profiles of licensed doctors, links to websites of licensed insurance departments, and other tidbits. I'm particularly interested in the GIS Clearinghouse website. I'll explain why in a future post (hint, hint).

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we have created an online catalog of our circulating collection on the LibraryThing network. Here's a brief update: Due the diligent work and mad trouble-shooting skills of our intern, Alexis, we now have 156 books listed in our online catalog. The catalog is searchable, and most records contain basic information about the book (title, author, publisher etc. ) as well as an image of the cover, and links to other LibraryThing members that own the book (anyone can create a LibraryThing account and catalog their personal collection.) Its pretty easy to enter records, as you just provide the ISBN or title, and the database finds a matching record. That said, not all the records are perfect, and since we didn't enter all the data ourselves, their may be some inconsistencies. For example, the Entrepreneur start-up guide records all look a little different. With that in mind, we'll try to "tag" records, to pull together similar item

The SBA Office of Advocacy released an update to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). It estimates that there are 26.8 million small businesses in the United States, and addresses small businesses' importance to the U.S. economy. It provides data on small business firm survival, owner demographics, health care questions, regulations, and procurement. Advocacy's updated FAQs can be found here (PDF) . *** Small Business Report: Statistics for Tax Year 2003 Small businesses are defined by New York State as those businesses that employ fewer than 100 employees. Small businesses in New York may be sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability companies and partnerships, general business corporations, subchapter S business corporations, or transportation, transmission, and utility companies. Data presented in this report includes employment and business receipts by entity type and employment class. This edition of the Small Business Report provides data for New York Stat

It’s Warren Buffett’s birthday today, so I thought I would look at advice he has offered. Warren Buffet Wikipedia Buffett has amassed an enormous fortune from astute investments managed through the holding company Berkshire Hathaway, of which he is the largest shareholder and CEO. With an estimated current net worth of around US$52 billion,[2] he was ranked by Forbes as the third-richest person in the world as of April 2007, behind Bill Gates and Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helú.[4] Profile of Warren Buffet the free dictionary Investors Should Heed Warrens Buffett’s Free Advice SmartMoney By James B. Stewart July 10, 2007 In any event, Buffett has given away more free advice than just about any billionaire I can think of. He reports his stock holdings and discusses their merits and the reasons for his choices in his popular annual letter to shareholders. More fundamentally, he has laid out his investment philosophy repeatedly for all to see. Anyone can piggy-back his actual stoc

When I stop at a roadside farm stand, my first assumption is that they are selling home-grown fruits and vegetables from their own fields. But when a New York farm stand has mangos and lemons? And sells t-shirts too? That's a totally different experience. This recent Treehugger blog post, Farm Stand Produce Not Always Local , refers to a Newsday article, Farm Stands on Long Island Undergoing an Evolution , and discusses that while Long Island is known for its local produce, many farm stands are importing their products from as far away as Florida and Mexico, and are not limited to selling only fruits and vegetables. Whether or not this is a good thing for local agriculture, retailers, or consumers, farm stands are an evolving business. With that in mind, here are some helpful resources for the farm stand owner or agricultural businessperson: Farmers' Market Federation of New York Planning the Farm Retail Market Cornell Cooperative Extension: Agriculture Business Resources

Answering the office phone at the end of the day is often interesting. Last week, the Central office received a call from Michael Raptis, casting director of RDF Media Group . As the press release he subsequently sent me reads: "Key US RDF/Pangea shows include: Wife Swap (ABC); Shaq's Big Challenge (ABC); Two Coreys (A&E); Meadowlands (Showtime); Off The Charts (Fox); How to Look Good Naked (Lifetime); Banzai (G4); 3 Kings (MTV); Ice T's Rap School (VH1); Junkyard Wars (TLC); Faking It (TLC); Gene Simmons Rock School (VH1); Ladette to Lady (Sundance)." Now, the company is engaged in starting a new program: Have you always wondered how wonderful life could be if you started that business, took that hobby more seriously or changed your career? Is there anything you always said you'd do once your kids got older? For many people in their 40’s and 50’s, the time has come to restructure their life and do something they’ve always dreamed of...it could be anything fr

Some clients have businesses that could benefit in knowing the names of newly-created companies. The Division of Corporations (within the New York Department of State) makes available a daily report of newly registered corporations, limited liability corporations, and limited partnerships. It's not EVERY new business in the state, but it's a start. Here's the service, in DOS' own words: "The Department of State publishes a daily report of new Corporations, Limited Liability Companies, Limited Partnerships and Registered Limited Liability Partnerships and amendatory certificates thereto. These reports are available only through e-mail. The subscription fees are: Annual subscription $125.00 Semi-annual subscription 75.00 Quarter-annual subscription 40.00 Your computer must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to review and print the report. You will be notified of the date of expiration of your subs

Well, I am surprised to see that I have not written about this most favorite website. The Halfbakery is a wonderful site for innovative thinkers to run their ideas by other thinkers/would-be inventors. I have found this site useful especially for those - "the world has never seen a product like mine..." clients. For every idea presented, posters will then weigh in on whether they think it is a good idea(viable or not) and often present examples of similar or existing products. Many products are completely fantastical but then some ridiculous sounding ideas have actual examples out in the world. This was the case with the collapsing bollard, and I just read about the "dog jack" that I can imagine being a real product like the doggie stairs we see so often. Here's another that would probably be popular if it existed: School kid pick up express: "So what I thought of is a transponder for each family. When we arrive at the school driveway, our ID and our kid

If you look to the right-hand side of this screen, you just might see a new feature we've added. There's a widget here that links to our new LibraryThing collection . LibraryThing is an online community that allows members to catalog their own book collections. You simply enter the title, or ISBN etc., and it finds the appropriate catalog record for your book, links you to others who own the same book, and can also make book recommendations and provide other user-advisory-type services. A user can enter up to 200 books for free. As our circulating collection isn't particularly large, we thought we'd give it a try. So, check out our library collection. The goal is to include all of our circulating books from this decade, but its a work in progress. Still, take a look, use the search feature, and if you find something you're interested in, send us an email and we'll send it your way.

Source: The Informant e-newsletter, Volume 4, Issue #243 -- Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Free From NASA: Rocket-science Expertise for Businesses NASA offers 40 hours of free technical advice to businesses. Overhaul by SBA to Help Fix System on Procurements Small Business Administration chief Steven Preston announced reforms aimed at cleaning up a broken system for keeping track of government procurements that has allowed federal agencies to classify billions in contracts to some of the world's largest companies as going to small businesses.

Tom Morley (from the Westchester SBDC) recently forwarded me an email that began like this: "Whole Foods Market, a national grocery chain with seven stores in New York, recently started a new program to provide low-interest, long-term loans to small producers around the country. We would very much like to let small producers of food products in New York know about the program." Part of this company's mission is that their produce be as fresh as possible, and make these loans available to farmers of "locally grown" produce (for reasons best explained here ). Of Whole Foods Market's seven locations in New York State , none are farther north than White Plains. However, they define "locally grown" as "produce that has traveled less than a day (7 or fewer hours) from the farm to our facility." Eligible products include agricultural crops, value-added food products, and other all-natural grocery items. This definition, then, makes most of the

Commissioned by Capital One and conducted by BusinessWeek Research Services , the survey looks at confidence, expectations and hopes of small business owners. The survey asks small business owners where they seek business advice, in this order: colleague, family or friends, CPA or accountant, business association followed by consultant, lawyer, commercial lender and other. “In their own words” are sections given to hearing actual comments from business owners on these topics: How Would You use $50,000 to Improve Your Business? How Did You Start and Then Grow Your Business to its Current Level?

Today's New York Times features the article "At Netflix, Victory for Voices Over Keystrokes" . It discusses how the online movie rental business is trying a new tack (actually, they're returning to an old tack) vis a vis customer service: the telephone. The company has de-emphasized its email address on its website, and has heightened the presence of a toll-free number that is available 24/7. In addition, the call center is located just outside of Portland, OR, and not in India or Singapore. I find this interesting on a few levels. Netflix believes, in the face of increased competition from Blockbuster's new online service, that they should promote the actual voices of friendly customer service reps as a distinguishing characteristic not found at Blockbuster. This kind of emphasis is something that the business literature has recommended to small businesses in the face of big-box competition, but Netflix still is the market leader in this industry. So - does locat

I tend to write “thanks” a lot. And not just because I’m a grateful person (although I am). It’s just my usual email sign-off , probably because I tend to be asking for things, or thanking you all for asking us great questions. Maybe I should start expanding my repertoire. This recent article from Entrepreneur.com discusses a variety of email closers, and what they say about you. “ What your sign-off is really saying .” Here’s an older USA Today article on the subject. Another good source of email etiquette info: Online Writing Lab at Purdue University

Ofttimes, I see someone send a URL via e-mail and it spreads onto the second line of the posting. The first line of the address is hyperlinked, but the second is not. This becomes cumbersome for the end user. Two suggestions: See if the address can be manually shortened. I've noticed that in some newspaper and magazine databases, an address is created to indicate not only the story, but the section and the date. If removing that information still gets you to the story, shorten it. An example: http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=613944&category=FRONTPG&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=8/14/2007 can be shortened to http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=613944 , and is actually more likely to work over time, for some arcane reasons. The other method is a website TinyURL!™ . Put in even that shortened, 57-character, version of the URL above and you'll end up with http://tinyurl.com/yrwmgk , a more manageable 25-character URL.

A big part of how successful we are at finding information is having the correct terms. We generally hope that the client will be knowledgeable enough in their field to provide some good key words but of course this isn't always possible. We hear of business incubators often enough but kitchen incubators are becoming more prevalent. I worked on a request yesterday for a a list of commercial rental kitchens in the NYC metro area. The examples I came across were not all in NYC area and there were a few good pieces on a kitchen incubator in San Francisco that I thought were interesting. I thought I'd share what I found here. WHEDCo Urban Horizons Kitchen rents a "4,000 sq ft state-of-the-art, commercial kitchen space." They serve the New York City metropolitan area especially aimed at women and minority businesses. They also state that "tenants are required to incorporate in order to secure insurance covering product liability. Some of their clients have been Curr

Can you walk from your home to a grocery store, library or movie theater? How about from your office? Check out Walk Score to determine just how pedestrian-friendly a location might be. You simply enter an address into the search field, and the site offers a "walk score" based on the proximity of parks, shops, restaurants, schools and all those other necessities. The site's mission: "We help homebuyers , renters, and real estate agents find houses and apartments in great neighborhoods. Walk Score shows you a map of what's nearby and calculates a Walk Score for any property. Buying a house in a walkable neighborhood is good for your health and good for the environment." I'd think it would also be useful to a business interested in attracting foot traffic, and wanting to know about nearby facilities. The site recognizes that it's algorithms can't account for features like highways or bodies of water that might make a route impassable on foot. But

From Hispanic Business : "Are there industry guidelines for how much officers of small companies [less than 10 employees] should pay themselves? Would it be 1% of sales? 10%?"

(Or so the song goes.) Last week's issue of The New Yorker features an article called "Damn Spam" - an unnerving piece that traces the recent history of this email plague. For example: * "In 2001, spam accounted for about five per cent of the traffic on the Internet; by 2004, that figure had risen to more than seventy per cent." * "The onslaught apparently began on April 12, 1994, when two lawyers . . . bombarded the Internet with e-mail offering their services to immigrants . . . The two later claimed that they made a hundred thousand dollars from the e-mail campaign - a compelling demonstration of the peculiar economics of the Internet." * "The more spam that is blocked, the greater the volume spammers will need to send in order to make money. If you used to have to send fifty thousand pieces of spam to get a response, now you have to send a million. Spammers just shrug it off and send a million." * "Spammers today almost never use t

Telling a Good Story by Michele Miller "You may have the greatest company in the world. But if you don't know how to convey that to customers, you may as well not exist." Another way to tell a story... Duct Tape Marketing , one of my favorite sites talks about an interesting idea in a blog post of theirs. by John Jantsch Mon May 14, 2007 Blurb Books a Great Tool for Telling Your Story You've probably seen these as they are popping up everywhere. In iPhoto (if you use a Mac) you can order your photographs nicely put together in a book. Wedding pictures are also offered in this format to deliver your digital memories. This blog suggests the use of polished books for businesses to use to sell themselves. Blurb shows some nice examples of how the books could be used. A sophisticated way to tell your story. Here's one last article on storytelling: How to Tell Your Story in the Media by Ilise Benun from The Art of Self Promotion #22

“Don't get too attached to MySpace. You might want to pull up stakes from Second Life, too. And you'll probably want to stop posting inanities to Twitter. Why? All of these sites will be gone before the end of this decade.” Thus begins “ MySpace, Second Life, and Twitter Are Doomed ” a recent PC Magazine article by Lance Ulanoff. We’ve mentioned a lot of Web 2.0 applications lately, but are they really the wave of the future, or just a lot of hype? The author argues that MySpace pages are ugly, and sometimes dangerous. Second Life may not be as big as reported, and Twitter is way too random and useless. As a librarian, I feel there’s a purpose in exploring all sorts of information sharing opportunities, since that’s what we do, and we want to be where our users are. And I also enjoy looking up kids I went to high school with. But while I may have a MySpace page, I rarely go there, and I don't feel any great sense of community. Second Life seems pretty neat, but I don&#

You probably know the Motion Picture Association of America, if at all, as the folks who administer the movie ratings. True enough, but it also collects a lot of statistics as well. They include: 2006 U.S. Theatrical Market Statistics A summary of 2006’s theatrical performance, looking at box office trends, admissions trends and consumer attitudes. US Theatrical Snapshot A brief summary of the domestic box office, admission and screen count trends, including the top five grossing films domestically. International Theatrical Snapshot A brief summary of international box office and admission trends by region for the past four years, includes the top five grossing films worldwide. Movie Attendance Study An annual study which provides a summary of the demographics of moviegoers and an analysis of the yearly changes in frequent movie attendance. 2005 Piracy Data Summary A summary of a piracy study conducted by LEK Consulting outlining losses due to piracy, profile of a typical pirate,

Josee often tells you about new books added to our collection. Today, I'm going to steal a bit of her thunder (sorry, J!). We recently obtained an electronic version of the book "Web & Software Development: A Legal Guide". It's published by Nolo , a publisher of self-help legal books for people & businesses (and provider of lots of other titles in our collection). I like the books from Nolo, because they're an honest attempt at boiling down complicated legal issues into terminology that's straightforward. A lot of their titles (like this one) are written by practicing attorneys with practical experience in their chosen specialty. We bought this book primarily because of a recurring type of request: Is software patentable? And, if it is, is it worth pursuing? I tried researching this question without this book, and the stuff I found was just dense and likely of little use to the client who needed it. Fortunately, chapter 9 - "Software and Internet

After reading through Mary's SPD Gazette and seeing what great things the centers are up to, I'd like to reiterate an invitation to send in DVD copies of tv spots, interviews or programs created by the regional centers. We are hoping to collect these materials in the hopes of becoming a depository for materials - printed, electonic or audio-visual for the products of SBDC collective talent. At some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, our catalog will be accessible and searchable by the rest of the NY SBDC. So, if you have materials you've produced that you can share, please do so. At the very least, we can keep a record of what materials are produced around the network and who to contact for a copy.

Want to see your colleagues on TV? Check out these video segments starring David North and Gloria Glowacki from Stony Brook (this link should open one video. There are others on the right, in the "Other videos in BUSINESS Channel" section.) The videos cover how to start a small business, financing, marketing, franchising, and businesses plans, and many of the services provided by the Small Business Development Center. And Gloria mentions the Research Network, and our market research services. Thanks Gloria!

I got an article from the Brand Identity Guru about The Art of the Tagline and Positioning which says, in part: So how important is a tagline? Well, it briefly represents your brand identity and positioning. If it's off target it hurts you and if you don't have one it hurts you. A tagline can be powerful and actionable. Let's play a little game. Which taglines do you know and associate with? If you know them and the company they belong to then they've done their job. Does your tagline measure up? Then their sales pitch. But it's a bit of fun, and maybe you can think of more to suggest to your clients. Tagline Trivia What brands are associated with these taglines? 1. You deserve a break today. 2. Be all that you can be. 3. Just do it. 4. It's the real thing. 5. Where's the beef? 6. It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. 7. We try harder. 8. Oh, what a feeling 9. You've come a long way, baby. 10. Mmm mmm good 11. It's where you want to be

"If you want to get a VC's attention, you need to make a stronger statement than that. Here's how." By Guy Kawasaki Entrepreneur Magazine July 2007 Recently I have pointed out an article by Guy Kawasaki on how not to approach a venture capitalist. In the July issue of Entrepreneur Magazine he now goes into what a business ought to do when looking for venture capital. The article is here, but these are the highlights: "An entrepreneur seeking venture capital can feel like a knight on horseback, looking longingly across the moat at the gleaming spires of the VC's "castle" beyond. How do you bridge that gap and actually get inside the castle walls, where the money is? Here, my shortlist of tips to get a venture capitalist's attention": 1. Get an introduction by a partner-level lawyer. (for connections) 2. If you're in tech, get an introduction by a professor of engineering. (for connections) 3. Get an introduction by the founder of a c

When I’m not sure what to blog about, I read blogs to get ideas. Today I went to Stephen’s Lighthouse (by super-librarian Stephen Abram), and found a link to another blog posting, about, well, blogging. This posting, “ 55 Essential Articles Every Serious Blogger Should Read ” from the Entrepreneurial Blog of Matt Huggins , highlights articles and, of course, blog postings, that provide useful information to bloggers. Topics include getting started, creating content, increasing traffic, and making money. Helpful stuff. This blogger intends to take a closer look, and maybe your clients who are bloggers or would-be bloggers could benefit too…

Here's something I got from Heather Robinette, Business Consultant at UALR Arkansas Small Business Development Center a few years back: I will receive free money or loans because I am a minority, woman, veteran, or ex-convict. I’ll get rich quick and won’t have to ‘put up’ with people. I will be my own boss, be free to do whatever I want, and no one will tell me what to do. I will work less and be able to have more free time if I am an owner versus an employee. It doesn’t matter what my family thinks about me going into business. If I know how to do the work, then I can run the business. I plan to hire someone to run my business for me. If I build it, they will come. Whenever I turn the key on the door, there will be a line of people waiting to buy my products. I know my idea will work because my friends and family thought it was a great idea. I don’t need to write a business plan because I have contracts with my customers. There is no competition in my area. The lack of a product

Even though I'm an information guy by trade, I'm sometimes the last to learn about new resources. I was flipping through a print newsletter that we get from the Georgia SBDC, and it had on the front page an article that looks useful: "The IRS has started a news service, e-News for Small Business . Distributed every Wednesday, it brings timely, useful tax information right to your computer, including, but not limited to: * Important, upcoming tax dates * What's new on the IRS web site * Reminders and tips to assist businesses with tax compliance *IRS news releases and special IRS announcements e-News' convenient format will put IRS tax information at your fingertips. "Useful Links" brings you quickly to some of the most useful information on IRS.gov for large and small businesses and the self-employed. To start your FREE subscription to e-News , just go to IRS.gov , type in your e-mail address and submit." And if you didn't hear it here first, th

This World Bank site offers a picture of the regulatory costs of doing business. You can look at a map decorated with different colored flags to indicate the level of difficulty of doing business there - ranking issues like starting a business, obtaining licenses, employing workers, registering property, paying taxes and closing a business. For instance, the US ranks as number 3 for ease/difficulty of starting a business, with a 22 for obtaining licenses and a 6 for enforcing contracts. Taiwan ranks in at 62 for enforcing contracts and 148 for obtaining licenses. The Dealing with Licenses Report totals up the number of procedures and days to producing a license; the Trading Across Borders has a summary of number documents needed for export, cost to export per container. Singapore tops the chart for ease of starting a business, followed by New Zealand, United States, Canada and Hong Kong. The site also offers a tidy summary for each country like this one for Denmark .

We've added a new feature to the NYS SBDC home page ! I mentioned having a "Business Advice Column" when the site revision first came out, but due to lack of content, it hadn't happened. Until now. So thanks to Doug Boyce and the folks in Mid-Hudson for sharing their articles with Mary, and through Mary, me. If you have any pieces that would fit in this space, please send them along. Items that haven't been published or have no copyright relationship with a newspaper or publisher would be especially welcome. I'm planning to change articles every two weeks or so, and articles will be archived here .

A question we were asked recently: Does a business need to get I-9 forms (employment eligibility verification) from its independent contractors? My answer: No. And yes. No, it’s not required of them, but if someone, say Wal-Mart, had a bunch of illegal immigrants working 60-hour weeks with no overtime on their behalf, that would look bad for Wal-Mart. Wait, that DID happen . From this law site : The government is looking beyond the mere labels of "independent contractor" to see if the employer had knowledge of its contractors' practices. In this type of environment, prudent employers who do not want to be the target of a federal investigation or prosecution will review their immigration law compliance efforts and make sure that they, and their executives, are not aware of violations by their contractors... At a minimum, require your contractors to furnish you with copies of Forms I-9 and supporting documentation for the workers they bring onto your site. From this legal

Of course, you knew that already. The rest of the world needed reminding, though, and I'm happy to report that our diligent public relations campaign is paying off. Two articles appeared this past week, focusing on how the newer generation of librarians believe that the skills necessary to bring people & information together in this digital age ought to mean that the musty old librarian stereotypes should fall by the wayside. I'm wholly in favor of that (though I'm hardly a "new generation" librarian . . . I'm young at heart). Check them out here: For New-Look Librarians, Head to Brooklyn (New York Sun - July 5, 2007) A Hipper Crowd of Shushers (New York Times - July 8, 2007 - registration required ) (By the way, our library doesn't use the Dewey Decimal System [we're a Library of Congress shop]. If you hung out with any of us in Ithaca, though, you'd know that we're still pretty snappy when it comes to classifying beverages from the ba

A couple years ago, someone from Empire State Development came to our offices, asking us to help them in the process of getting businesses certified as minority- and/or women-owned. Someone (probably me) asked what the turnaround was, and we were told it was 8 to 10 months. Yikes. At the NYS SBDC staff training a couple months ago, the same question came up, and we heard that the processing time was half the time it used to be, with even more improvements expected, thanks to the efforts of the Lieutenant Governor's office. Here's the application . The things I found most encouraging is the fact that applications from other entities, such as Port Authority, are now being accepted by ESD. Here's the applicable legislation and a website with more information .

The two questions that our author-clients frequently ask the most are, "What publishers specialize in my subject area?", and "Where can I find an agent?" For the first question, I recommend visiting AcqWeb's Directory of Publishers and Vendors . Note especially the section titled "Publisher Web Sites: Subject Directory". By clicking on any of these broad categories, you'll be led to a page that links to the websites of several dozen publishers. For the second question, here's the text to an email I sent to an advisor last April. It's still accurate: "As for literary agents, I'll point you towards another website, here: http://www.writers.net/agents.html This site is more than just a searchable directory, though. Note the articles that appear on the right-hand side. They seem to be written by authors who've gone through the process, and have a lot of practical advice. (The first one - Gary Kessler's "Finding a Go

I read a little blurb in the July issue of Entrepreneur Magazine called Temper, Temper! Apparently a Rice University research team has discovered moody office mates contribute to overall creativity and innovation. "When people are in good moods all the time, it can lead to complacency," says Jennifer M. George, professor of management and psychology at Rice University and co-author of the study. "A negative mood can give you that push to put forth more effort." The article offers some tips for managers of less than sunny employees.