New York SBDC Research Network

Empty Net? Will snagging a government contract ever get easier? By Mark Henricks | Entrepreneur Magazine - May 2007 An article in the latest Entrepreneur Magazine talks about the state of small business government contracting and offers some statistics: What share of federal contracting dollars is small business getting? Here’s a closer look, broken down by the top 25 major producing agencies. Big Spenders Source: General Services Administration, Federal Procurement Data System and Global Computer Enterprises Inc.

Someone asked some interesting questions about sales tax on clothing items valued at under $110 when sold by mail, answered here . One of the examples that caught my attention was this, and it's not limited to the mail order aspect: If one is selling a shirt, cufflinks and a tie tack as a package for $50, then the whole thing is taxable because the accessories are taxable, even though the shirt would otherwise not be.

One of the reasons as to why the Research Network decided recently to go all-digital can be found in the results of this survey . Wells Fargo & Gallup frequently conduct surveys of small business, with a specific emphasis lately on the role technology plays in a small business owner's management style. As you can see, this is an attitudinal survey, asking business owners what they think might happen if Internet access went away, etc. Nonetheless, such attitudes are a driving force in how business owners conduct their operations. I've handled a few recent requests where the client didn't have an email address. Since addresses can be obtained freely, I'm not sure why neither of them had one. Perhaps it's a reflection of a personal philosophy, or a sign of discomfort with certain technologies. However, perception is key, and surveys like this serve as guides as to what small business owners see as the expected norm in the American economy. It's been said many

America and its guns * There are nearly 200 million privately owned firearms in the US * In 2004, there were nearly 11,000 homicides involving guns, according to the FBI * Total number of victims from firearm incidents was 477,000 in 2005 * A British citizen is 50 times less likely to be a victim of gun homicide than an American * One third of firearms are handguns * 16 children and teenagers are killed by gun accidents in the US each day * Guns that are kept for self defense are 43 times more likely to be used to kill a friend or family member * Possessing a household gun increases the chance of suicide by five times. * Guns are used five times more often for self defense than for crime * 24 per cent of people who draw their guns actually fire them * 5,000 gun shows are held per year across the United States * The number of gunshot wounds from assaults treated in hospital emergency departments in America fell from 64,100 in 1993 to 39,400 in 1997, a 39 per cent decline www.independen

What’s a ning you ask? It is an online platform that allows users to create and participate in their own social networks. Librarians love these sorts of things, and nings have been a recent topic of discussion on our favorite BusLib listserve. Like a listserve, a ning can facilitate communication between individuals with shared interests, and provide a forum for notices and discussion. Unlike a listerve, you have the opportunity to post a picture, and perhaps carry on a more casual discussion than you would want to post to a list of thousands. You can create your own, or participate in an existing ning. And librarians aren’t the only ones with nings. These are all related to business . Read more about Ning here.

"I have a patron who is looking for nonprofit organizations' IRS form 990" Foundation Center.org has a database. I looked for those in NYS in 2005 and discovered that 44991 documents matched, though only 100 documents are displayed, so narrowing by name will be necessary. Grantsmart.org showed 85844 Matches Found for New York, though it may cover more than one year. It claims to have over 620,000 tax returns filed by over 100,000 private foundations and charitable trusts. If you're looking for aggregate tax data about charities, or for that matters, businesses generally, go to the web page of our good friends at the IRS . Hurry up and file those taxes!

The Research Network has had a written policy of limiting our clients to 50 records for any business list we create. (It's right there on page 185 of the SBDC's current Standard Operations Policy document . . . what, you didn't have that memorized?) We've gotten away from that, mostly because it was not a great effort to generate lists that were a bit larger. A poll of the librarians here reveals that it's been pretty common to provide your clients with lists of 50 to 100 companies, mainly because there was no consequence to us. We'd pay once for the American Business Disc CD-ROM at the beginning of the year, and that would be that. ABD was produced by InfoUSA. Last fall, I learned that they wouldn't be making the CD product anymore. Now we're using their web-based database (called Reference USA). We paid a rate for four librarians, and then have unlimited usage for twelve months. The product is up for renewal at the end of the month. InfoUSA cha