New York SBDC Research Network

By FranchiseKing (Joel Libava), SBA Guest Blogger Do you ever have ideas for a new business running through your head? I do. Most of the business ideas I come up with nowadays are marketing-related. It’s probably because I own a business and I’m always thinking of ways to market my services and products. But, once in a while, I come up with an idea that’s bigger than just a marketing tool. An Idea For A Franchise Many years ago, I don’t remember how many, exactly, I came up with an idea for a retail store. It was an idea that I was able to easily visualize-and still could today. I even had a name for the store. Stores plural, actually. I envisioned lots of stores. Franchises even. My idea was a niche-clothing store, for men, women and children. The name of the store: Just Socks. The business would specialize in one thing-you guessed it, socks. The latest search on Google revealed that as of today, the only business with that name is a little shop located in Perth, Aust

In Mangawhai, located in the New Zealand countryside, lies a beautiful olive grove. This grove is the site of a family-run business that plants, grows, and harvests these olives and then uses them to manufacture premium quality extra virgin olive oil. This is the home of Divinity Olives, a company run by married couple Michael and Leanne Chinnery. The business, which also makes their own balsamic vinegar and strawberry compote, is streamlined and focused; with a small number of products and an even smaller team, the quality of the product takes top priority. Divinity currently sells their products in over 50 stores and online, and business is growing. I spoke with Michael about their experience, of raising their three kids while being entrepreneurs; and for Michael, of holding down a full-time day job as well. He also recounts which decisions were instrumental in his success, and what inspires him about not just the olive oil business, but New Zealand entrepreneurship in general.

By  Eileen Sánchez , SBA Official Small business owners often tell us that they have many questions about how to enter a new market - and those questions are magnified when it comes to doing business with Cuba.  There have been several changes to the bilateral relationship in recent months, and, to address your questions, I hope that you will join SBA Administrator Contreras-Sweet and other senior officials on July 29 at 4:00 p.m. ET to discuss the opportunities that exist for exporting to Cuba. Today’s re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba and reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana is an historic step marking the new direction in U.S.-Cuba relations announced by President Obama last December. This step was preceded by a series of significant measures: in January, the Departments of Commerce and Treasury amended their regulations to increase travel, trade and the free flow of information to and from Cuba.  In April, during the Summit of the Americas in Pan

ust before the July 4th weekend, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a press release on the state of tourism. The release covered tourism in its totality and did not address specific sectors like adventure tourism, winery tourism, historic tourism, and LGBT tourism, the four pillars of I Love NY promotions. It also did not differentiate between business, vacation, or shopping travelers. (Macy’s chief executive Terry Lundgren in 2013 called Macy’s “ a tourist place” with roughly 6,000,000 tourists a year). That being said, the number of travelers to the Empire State from elsewhere is impressive and the economic impact is substantial. The headline of the press release boldly declares: NYS Tourism Impact Exceeds $100 Billion Tourism Employment Increased By 16 Percent Since 2011 New York Remains Most Visited State by Overseas Travelers for 14th Year in a Row See more at New York History blog

This self-paced training exercise provides an introduction to securing information in a small business. Topics include: Defining cybersecurity; Explaining the importance of securing information through best cybersecurity practices; Identifying types of information that should be secured; Identifying the types of cyber threats; Defining risk management; and Listing best practices for guarding against cyber threats. Duration: 30 minutes Take the course HERE .

Retailers should be sure to register with the Tax Department and obtain a Certificate of Authority . "Your application (for a Certificate of Authority) will be processed, and, if approved, we'll mail your Certificate of Authority to you. You cannot legally make any taxable sales until you have received your Certificate of Authority." Based on the literature, I would HIGHLY recommend AGAINST using ZIP Codes alone for trying to determine sales tax, since ZIP Codes cross county boundaries. One needs to charge at the rate of the jurisdiction served . Is the item taxable? Probably . There are some free sales tax calculator online, e.g. TaxRates.com and Pitney Bowes for the US; NYS Tax Department and Earth Odyssey for New York only; there are undoubtedly others. And of course, there are paid sites, such as Strike Iron and the Sales Tax Clearinghouse . One can also Google sales tax calculator software and find a ton of these for sale. These, though, will not make t

Wearable device awareness is high, but ownership—and purchase intent—remain low. Indeed, May 2015 polling by Altimeter Group found that just 7% of US internet users owned a wearable, and a March 2015 study by DigitasLBi put wearables penetration among internet users worldwide at 17%. What could urge consumers to take the plunge? When April 2015 polling by Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB)—which found that six in 10 US smartphone owners were familiar to some extent with wearables—asked about the most desirable features, respondents stuck with three categories: fundamentals, health and point-of-sale payments—in other words, nothing overly fancy. See more at eMarketer

Import prices decreased 10.0 percent from June 2014 to June 2015. The import price index for fuels and lubricants (which makes up 12.0 percent of imports) declined 40.7 percent from June 2014 to June 2015. Over that period, petroleum prices decreased 41.3 percent and prices for natural gas declined 42.7 percent. In June 2015, prices for nonfuel imports declined 2.3 percent over the year. The decrease was led by a 6.7-percent drop in prices for nonfuel industrial supplies and materials (13.4 percent of imports). More from the Bureau of Labor Statistics .

From Inc. Jennifer Walzer, CEO of Backup My Info!, offers a strategic hiring tactic you probably haven't used before.

An 8-minute video from America's SBDCs

One-third of consumers who contact a brand on social media with a customer service issue never get a response, according to a recent report from the Northridge Group. The report was based on data from a survey conducted in March 2015 of 1,017 adults in the United States. Consumers were polled on their expectations and experiences with customer service problems and inquiries in the past year. When consumers do get a response on social media about a customer service issue, the answer comes from the brand within an hour only 38% of the time. Some 42% of respondents say they expect a response from companies on social media within an hour. Read more from MarketingProfs

The Office of Advocacy, an independent office within the U.S. Small Business Administration, released an Issue Brief entitled “ Patenting and Innovative Startups: Putting the America Invents Act (AIA) in a Broader Economic Context. ” The issue brief summarizes some of the potential small business outcomes of the AIA and contextualizes those outcomes for innovative startups. This issue brief finds that policy changes that affect patenting could affect innovative startups as they may heavily utilize patents to raise funds to continue to innovate.

As our intake of user-generated content has increased, businesses have capitalized on that material and in turn, relaxed the style of corporate media. We see ads copying the style of social media, and the use of popular social media stars to promote brands. The use of humor is becoming even more expected. There has been an increase in the use of various short video-based communication formats across the Internet. From Vine s, SnapChat s, Instagram and Twitter joining the already established YouTube , FaceBook and Tumblr , very young people in particular are comfortable using these methods and video content is proliferating. Small business brands need to be relevant, and it would be wise to consider video as a vital part of the marketing mix. Any dedicated person with a smartphone can start making video content, but it is an opportunity for videographers whose meat-and-potatoes are wedding videos and christenings to expand their clientele. Some businesses are especially suited to usi

Supplier Connection is a FREE, Web-based portal that allows small businesses to register to become suppliers to Fortune 500 corporations, mid-market firms, and other enterprises.  It is open to any small business with less than $50M in revenue OR less than 500 employees.  https://www.supplier-connection.net/SupplierConnection/index.html Supplier Connection is offering a webinar on July 28 at 1:00 PM for clients to learn about the procurement needs and best practices for doing business with the Kellogg and Caterpillar companies.  Speakers include Charly Ugorji, Supplier Diversity Manager at Caterpillar, and Debra Quade, Supplier Diversity Manager at the Kellogg Company.  Each will share how procurement works at their corporation and what they look for in suppliers. Small businesses will have the opportunity to ask questions during a Q&A session at the end of the webinar. To register:  http://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-the-buying-members-caterpillar-kellogg-company-ticket

How often do you pick up your smartphone throughout the day? When you wake up; when you’re standing in line for your coffee; when you get a notification? According to a study by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, the average person looks at their phone 150 times a day. With 57% of customers saying they would not recommend a business with a bad mobile site, the power of mobile for small businesses is undeniable. Here are a few tips to get started: Put your website to the mobile test. More from America's SBDC

Upcoming IRS webinar for the Affordable Care Act: Small Business Health Care Tax Credit (SBHCTC). Date: 8/5/2015 Time: 1:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Location: On-line Webinar Contact Name: Susan Jensky Contact Email: Susan.R.Jensky@irs.gov Event Information: The IRS will discuss the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit, who qualifies and how to report the credit. SEFCU will discuss the market place and how they can assist you in choosing a health care provider to offer your employees. This webinar will be conducted via WebInterpoint. Pre-registration is required. To pre-register, email Susan Jensky at mailto:Susan.R.Jensky@irs.gov . Include the following information: Name: Email: Job title: Name of organization you represent: Affiliated organization (ie: chamber of commerce, SEFCU, etc.): Phone number:

Sometimes employment discrimination is obvious; for example, a particularly bigoted manager or supervisor may use racial slurs or explicitly admit to discriminatory intent. Those cases are rare, however. More often than not it is much harder to prove employment discrimination because employers who want to discriminate have become quite good at hiding their intentions. One trick these employers use is using coded language in their job postings. They list job qualifications that are a pretext for eliminating certain job candidates. This is particularly common when it comes to age discrimination. "Digital Native" and "Recent Graduate" Can be Code for "Young" More from Payscale

The FFIEC Geocoding/Mapping System (System) helps financial institutions meet their legal requirement to report information on mortgage, business, and farm loan applications. Geocoding refers to the Metropolitan Statistical Area/Metropolitan Division (MSA/MD), State, County, Census Tract combination (address information) that must be provided for each reported loan application and the System allows institutions to enter a street address to determine the corresponding geocode. The System also provides Census demographic information about a particular census tract, including income, population, and housing data. Go to FFIEC

Boost your email's chances of being opened by following these quick tips from Sikich. "Before sending your emails, tell your recipients what type of content they can expect and how often they'll be hearing from you," states Sikich. When you do send the email, send it from a real person. Avoid impersonal info@company.com email addresses. Also, spend time crafting an engaging subject line: "64% of people say they open an email because of the subject line," states Sikich. Find out more about critical email elements and how they increase your email's open rates by checking out the infographic from Marketing Profs

As reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we are currently enjoying the longest run of private sector job growth on record―64 consecutive months to the tune of 12.8 million new private sector jobs overall. We’ve come a long way since late 2008 and early 2009 when the economy, on the brink of meltdown, was shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month. The resilience of American workers―together with the ingenuity of our businesses and leadership from the Obama administration―pulled us out of the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. And I have every confidence that our workers, ever innovative and industrious, will continue to be our most valuable economic asset a quarter century from now. But still we face lingering and looming challenges. For about the first 25 years of the post-World War II era, wages rose more or less in line with productivity. But from 1973 to 2013, productivity has continued to soar (an increase of 74.4 percent), while hourly compensation for the t

You’re considering going into business for yourself. Perhaps you’re looking into a franchise, but you’re not sure you’re ready to start a brand new franchise outlet. Even with all the support and systems in place to aid new franchisees, the thought of tackling a brand new franchise outlet can be intimidating to some. An attractive option for those individuals may be a resale franchise opportunity. Franchises all over the country will routinely be resold by the previous franchisee for a variety of reasons. These outlets may be a little more “ready-made” for an immediate business opportunity, yet all businesses aren’t created equal. Also, you may not know which franchises are for sale. Many times, the franchisee must work back through their franchisor in a resale opportunity. You need to find the right guidance and investigate, there’s no substitute for performing your proper due diligence throughout the business investigation process. More from America's SBDC

On June 11, 2015, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and United Airlines announced a landmark consent decree resolving ongoing litigation about what it means to reassign an employee as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). To understand the significance of this agreement, we must first understand why reassignment as a reasonable accommodation is so important. When Congress passed the ADA in 1990, it recognized the need for a national legal framework to protect the employment rights of people with disabilities. Employment is a hugely important part of our collective lives. In addition to a paycheck, a job can provide other benefits, such as self-esteem and a sense of belonging, and for 25 years, the ADA has helped employees with disabilities obtain and maintain employment. More from the Disability Blog .

This week, the Office of Advocacy released a new research product, “Three Reasons to Love Your Region.” Designed to encourage regional small business pride, these handouts and web animation highlight unique facts and statistics illustrating the central role small businesses play in the economy. The series draws from the Office of Advocacy’s State Small Business Profiles and federal agency data sources.  To learn more about your region or to explore another region’s small business success, click  here .

In 2014, employed people worked an average of 7.8 hours on the days they worked. More hours were worked, on average, on weekdays than on weekend days—8.1 hours compared with 5.7 hours. On the days they worked, employed men worked 52 minutes more than employed women. This difference partly reflects women's greater likelihood of working part time. However, even among full-time workers (those usually working 35 hours or more per week), men worked longer than women—8.4 hours compared with 7.8 hours. More from the Bureau of Labor Statistics .

Starting a small business is not a one size fits all-process. However, one best practice that all small businesses should consider is liability insurance. It’s no surprise that most of the information out there about liability insurance comes directly from insurance providers, so it is important to do extensive research to ensure that you are relying on objective information to make business decisions. The SBA offers a wealth of information on liability insurance for small businesses that can help. Here are a few points to consider as you work to ensure that your business has complete protection: Liability insurance protects you from a variety of legal claims including bodily and personal injury as well as property damage that can occur during day-to-day business operations. If you do not have employees, you may not be required by law to have insurance, but you should still be prepared. A single incident can unravel all of the hard work that you have done to build your business. Wh