New York SBDC Research Network

There are lots of information sources about corporations and executives, but I though this beta directory at Condé Nast Portfolio.com was quite nice. The site offers "company information, news, and financial data on more than 500,000 public and private companies" here ... .. and executive profiles, with "backgrounds, including employment history and compensation data, and news on more than 500,000 executives of leading public and private companies" here . And if you find that any of those executives should be incarcerated, why not send them this piece ( C.E.O. Survival Guide: Pre-Prison Prep ), to help them prepare for life in the slammer.

One of you fine folks at a NYS SBDC center (I won't mention who, but the person has the same first name as my father AND my sister) sent me this nifty link to the New York Times Small Business page with news, tips, and the like. One of the stories, also sent separately by this SBDCer, is this story : "The Supreme Court, in its most important patent ruling in years, on Monday raised the bar for obtaining patents on new products that combine elements of pre-existing inventions." Interesting stuff. Please feel free to send us useful sites such as this one. *** New postage rates , as you probably know, started yesterday. But while the first ounce charge went up from 39 to 41 cents, the subsequent ounce rate went DOWN from 24 cents to 17 cents. So the cost of a two-ounce letter has gone from 63 cents to 58 cents. *** I thought those of you who attended last year's staff training would find this story rather intriguing.

A blog I read recently led me to an article on the SpecialtyFood.com website. It's called "Striving for Third Place," and, no, it's not an essay that is promoting mediocrity. While the article targets businesses in the food industry, the ideas it puts forth can be implemented in a variety of retail & service stores. The article posits that the "first place" in a person's life is home, while the "second place" is work. The "third place" is that public spot where people gather and interact with such regularity that they become part of the business' very fabric. There are several suggestions here on how entrepreneurs can help establish their businesses as a third place. These are ideas on how to generate repeat customers, but, in a larger sense, these are ways to better integrate the business as part of a larger social structure in a neighborhood. Right after college, when I was adrift in Albany, I found myself routinely visitin

One of our favorite sites for business start-up guidance is the Business Owner's Toolkit which covers all aspects of starting and running a business. One topic covered that I have referred to recently is the section on selling a business, something that comes up from time to time. I found that this site covers just about every step in the process. You can read the complete section on selling a business here . Here are the major issues you need to think about when it's time to sell your business: Initial issues in selling out : how should you time your decision and choose experts to help, and what legal/ethical pitfalls do you need to avoid? Valuations of small businesses : how does the market put a price on a small business, and what can you do to maximize your own business's value? Finding a buyer : what do you need to know about working with a business broker, creating a selling memorandum, and other marketing concerns? Structuring the deal : what are your o

I hope you all enjoyed staff training as much as I did. It was great to meet so many of you, and to put faces to email addresses! Prior to coming to our staff training, I went to the spring meeting of the Upstate New York Special Libraries Association. Our speaker was Stephen Abram, director of innovation at SirsiDynix, president-elect of SLA, and a library futurist. Like our futurist, Abram stressed the importance of continual learning, and the need for librarians to keep up with Web 2.0 and social web technologies. He cited a project conducted by the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenberg County, where employees of the library were encourage to play with web and digital technologies for 15 minutes a day and blog about their experiences. This project supported camaraderie within the library and in a short period of time, taught everyone some great new skills. Read more about that project here : There are so many new technologies out there that could help us in the way we w

I recently came upon a listserv, ostensibly about a movie theater, which had a thread about the closure of a neighborhood video store, designated here as VS. There were a number of comments of sorrow: I saw a piece on the local news channel that VS is closing. They said they did not have enough business. I don't think we can persuade them to stay open. Even though I was a member, they somehow weren't on my radar screen and I would forget to go there. I bet the Internet video businesses took a bite of their profits, too. There were also comments about the competition from Netflix, Blockbuster, and video on demand. Then, there were more nuanced responses: I was in the store this past weekend returning 2 movies we rented and asked why VS was closing. The owner of the store mentioned his disappointment in our community, stating that there are over 10,000 households in our zip code alone and he had only 300 active memberships. He thanked me for being a member of his store, supportin

Thanks to those who came to our presentation last Tuesday. For those of you who couldn't attend, here are the PowerPoint slides: http://www.nyssbdc.org/RNFiles/2007_Staff_Training_RN_Presentation.ppt (And, for those of you who WERE there, you can now linger over Amelia's slides. Stupid laptop re-booting . . .) During our talk, Josee made reference to a few things you can do on your end to better manage the information that we send you. She created a quartet of tip sheets, which were available (with the cookies) at the back of the room. Again, for those of you who couldn't make it, here they are: http://www.nyssbdc.org/RNFiles/RN_Tip_Sheet_Outlook_Safe_Senders.pdf On how to better ensure that emails from the Research Network get to you. http://www.nyssbdc.org/RNFiles/RN_Tip_Sheet_Outlook_Journal.pdf Use Outlook's "Journal" function to track the history of your inquiry. http://www.nyssbdc.org/RNFiles/RN_Tip_Sheet_Outlook_Junk_Filters.pdf Another way to make sure