New York SBDC Research Network

We've written occasionally about Melissa Data's website before. There is a wealth of data available. Instead of me listing the highlights for you, below is a list of information that is provided by the site. I've broken it down by the level of geography by which data can be found. With respect to providing research for our clients, I find the links for home sales, nonprofit organizations, business credit reports, and income tax returns especially useful. General U.S. Addresses - Verify & correct any U.S. address. Canadian Addresses - Look up & correct Canadian addresses. Carrier Routes Radius - Displays the Carrier Routes in a radius around a given street address. People Finder - Locate anyone anywhere with public records. Business Credit Report - Comprehensive financials and credit risk facts. Easy-to-read format. By ZIP Code Home Sales - Get the monthly home sales and selling price by ZIP Code. Income Tax Statistics - Income statistics by ZIP Code. House Numbers

In our efforts to convert to a purely digital information distribution library, we created a section on the SBDC website where we'd put large PDF files for you to download. The page was password protected, and the files would only be available for a week or two before being removed. This method didn't solve the problem of how you get the information to the client. If we can't attach these big files in an e-mail to you, how would you do the same to a client? Starting this week, we've come up with a new method. Some of you have already seen it happen. Instead, we'll be sending you a link directly to the file. It'll look like this: http://www.nyssbdc.org/RNFiles/[filename].pdf The old method is no longer in place, so don't worry about remembering passwords. Another plus is that you can forward that link directly to your clients. There won't be an issue with the client seeing files meant for other people, as there was in the old system. Obviously, thi

More and more we are hearing ads from established companies touting their "green" efforts. lately Hannaford has been running ads about how they are environmentally responsible and we've all heard a lot about what Walmart is doing to improve it's reputation. Here are couple of sites that offer businesses some advice on getting with the program... Greening Your Business: A Primer for Smaller Companies Greenbiz.com "This GreenBiz Essential offers tips and resources for small and mid-sized companies, though many larger firms likely will benefit, too. The links in this document are culled from the more than 2,000 resources found on GreenBiz.com" October 16, 2006 Greening Your Business Business Week Online Tip of the day Sustainable Business.com Sustainable Business Reference Library "Join in the Fun! Wouldn't you rather get your energy from clean solar or wind sources than dirty oil? Of course you would! Wouldn't you rather feed the world on food tha

I frequently find questions related to medicare and medicaid a bit daunting. Maybe that's just me, but I was pleasantly surprised by the eMedNY (the New York State Medicaid program claims processing system and part of the NYS Department of Health) website. Particularly useful to businesses is the page on provider manuals . Using very pleasant-looking icons to represent a variety of services, you can "read about specific rules governing the provision of your care and service to Medicaid recipients. This section also contains billing instructions, as well as pertinent procedure codes and fee schedules."

The number of small business loans outstanding under $100,000 increased 25 percent between June 2004 and June 2005, according to a report released by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The increase came mostly from credit card use by small business. The report also noted that the number of small business loans outstanding between $100,000 and $1 million increased 5 percent during the same period. The report, "Small Business and Micro Business Lending in the United States, for Data Years 2004-2005," uses both Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Reports) from June 2005 and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) reports for 2004 to review small business lending activities by financial institutions. This year's edition expands to include savings banks, savings and loan institutions, and American Territories. The report also ranks lenders in each state by their small business lending activities, as well as ranking large national financia

Google has done a fair amount of work to upgrade blogs on Blogger.com. Visually, our blog doesn't look much different, but there are two changes in particular that will be very helpful to you. First, there's a search field on the top left of the page. You can now search for any postings from the RN blog since its inception in May 2005. In addition, we can now add keywords to every post, providing you with additional subject terms to help you when searching for any of our blog posts. Very cool. We're still investigating these new changes, and we'll tell you about any more tidbits that we find.

Sometimes, I discover things online that are just too cool not to share. It is Friday, so here's a good one: Find Your Furniture Room Planner from the American Home Furnishings Alliance. (Honestly, I was doing research related to the furniture industry when I found this trade association and this addictive tool.) Here's how it works: you pick a room (bedroom, office etc) and you can add furniture (beds, bookcases, plants etc) to it, resize and reposition everything. Put in windows and doors, and change the way they open. Add a rug, and put it at any angle. Locate the perfect spot for your fuzzy slippers. Basically, this is a must for anyone who likes to move around furniture, but doesn't have a team of burly furniture movers at their beck and call. Enjoy.