New York SBDC Research Network

Many of our favorite information sources for general business advice are in Spanish as well as English. The following links provide access to some articles and documents that might be helpful to your Spanish-speaking clients. Do you have other non-English resources? Things you’ve prepared? We’d love to be more multilingual on our website, so please think about what you might be able to share. SBA en español: Online Library http://www.sba.gov/espanol/Biblioteca_en_Linea/ SBDCNet Document exchange en español http://sbdcnet.utsa.edu/docx/espanol.htm SoyEntrepreneur.com http://www.soyentrepreneur.com/ Mi Propia Negocio http://www.myownbusiness.org/espanol/index.html

When I get a question about the number of international students in the United States, or U.S. students studying abroad, the source I check first is the Open Doors Report on International Exchange. There is a great deal of free information, such as: Total Enrollment Source of Funds Source of Funds by Academic Level Fields of Study Leading Countries of Origin Institutions with 1,000 or More International Students while other data, such as All Countries of Origin All Institutions Enrolling International Students Countries by US State Fields of Study by State are available in publications to members. A Research Membership is available for $50 for a month's access to all member data. Here's some more examples of the great free data: STATISTICS ON INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE IN NEW YORK From the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors Report 2005, statistics particular to the state of New York are listed below. Additional statistics are available at IIE’s Web site

Being a Monday, it's my day to post to this blog. However, it's a different kind of Monday - a day of reflection for many people in our country. Instead of small business, I had a poem that I read in the aftermath of those sad, chaotic days from five years ago. It speaks of hope, and it reassures me. Try to praise the mutilated world. Remember June's long days, and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew. The nettles that methodically overgrow the abandoned homesteads of exiles. You must praise the mutilated world. You watched the stylish yachts and ships; one of them had a long trip ahead of it, while salty oblivion awaited others. You've seen the refugees heading nowhere, you've heard the executioners sing joyfully. You should praise the mutilated world. Remember the moments when we were together in a white room and the curtain fluttered. Return in thought to the concert where music flared. You gathered acorns in the park in autumn and leaves eddied over the

It may be one thing to find opportunities to network, but it is quite another to succeed at it. For many people, the mere idea of networking is frightening, let alone entering a room full of strangers and striking up a conversation. I’ve come across a few articles that have some advice on how to network if you are not a natural. Learning to Love Networking: How a Shy Guy Became a Master Glad-Hander Inc. Magazine August 2006 by Mike Spinney Describes techniques to overcome anxiety including acknowledging the fear, and then having a plan of attack. First, avoid the boring intro, keep the listener engaged. As an example, the author explains how Reed Thompson, the focus of the story, improved his delivery: You also have to keep them interested. To that end, he stopped telling people he was a personal financial adviser, which usually prompted glazed-over expressions and a change of subject. Instead, he began describing himself as the founder and president of a company that helps people take

Web 2.0: The power of 2 This article gives a very perceptive and thoughtful overview of howWeb 2.0 applications can change the nature of marketing. Some Excerpts: "Social networks, blogs, user-generated content, tagging, wikis, P2P - all those are about conversation and fall neatly under 'reputation management', which is, essentially, PR," says Howell. Companies need to be out there, looking at what people say about them online, and respond in an open and appropriate way. Ignoring even one customer's negative comments on a blog could do serious damage to a brand's reputation. Brands can learn an awful lot from blogs and social networks, which they can use to their advantage; not just to get their marketing messages right but also on a deeper business level, by involving consumers in product development. An interesting example of this approach backfiring: ...car brand Chevrolet placed tools on its site that allowed users to remix and 'mash-up' its lates

" This report describes the prominent features of New York’s personal income tax, with particular emphasis on the 2003 tax year. It also includes taxpayer profiles consisting of number of taxable returns, sources of income, federal adjustments, New York modifications, deductions, dependent exemptions, tax liability and credits by NYAGI class, filing status and return type. In addition, it includes separate sections on income, itemized deduction amounts, exemptions, available credits and information on refundable credits. Finally, it compares statistics for 2003 with those from the prior year for most of these items." The PDF of this report is 125 pages long, but if you feel so compelled to print it out, please note that a number of even-numbered pages are actually blank. On a related topic, "The Rockefeller Institute of Government has released State Revenue Preview # 65P , the first in a new series of releases covering state tax collections. The Preview provides an earl

It is only too easy to find fall into a rut. Everywhere you look it is easy to see examples of situations where the joy has gone out of a thing, and no creativity is being used to solve problems. So, how to keep things fresh? How does that creative problem solving go away? The main thing seems to be to exercise your mind, by thinking. Like the cardinal rule of brainstorming, don’t censor. Spend time looking beyond your realm of expertise, to other disciplines and exercise your imagination by using it. Here are a couple of articles and sites that explore how we maintain our creativity. The Brain Behind Creativity USA Today: Science and Space Updated 8/27/2006 10:04 PM ET Creativity Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Creativity Techniques – an A to Z Creativity Innovation mycoted Science and Technology de Bono Consulting "The quality of our thinking will determine the quality of our future." -Edward de Bono Books by Edward de Bono: Teach Your Child How to Think by Edward de Bono