New York SBDC Research Network

This World Bank site offers a picture of the regulatory costs of doing business. You can look at a map decorated with different colored flags to indicate the level of difficulty of doing business there - ranking issues like starting a business, obtaining licenses, employing workers, registering property, paying taxes and closing a business. For instance, the US ranks as number 3 for ease/difficulty of starting a business, with a 22 for obtaining licenses and a 6 for enforcing contracts. Taiwan ranks in at 62 for enforcing contracts and 148 for obtaining licenses. The Dealing with Licenses Report totals up the number of procedures and days to producing a license; the Trading Across Borders has a summary of number documents needed for export, cost to export per container. Singapore tops the chart for ease of starting a business, followed by New Zealand, United States, Canada and Hong Kong. The site also offers a tidy summary for each country like this one for Denmark .

We've added a new feature to the NYS SBDC home page ! I mentioned having a "Business Advice Column" when the site revision first came out, but due to lack of content, it hadn't happened. Until now. So thanks to Doug Boyce and the folks in Mid-Hudson for sharing their articles with Mary, and through Mary, me. If you have any pieces that would fit in this space, please send them along. Items that haven't been published or have no copyright relationship with a newspaper or publisher would be especially welcome. I'm planning to change articles every two weeks or so, and articles will be archived here .

A question we were asked recently: Does a business need to get I-9 forms (employment eligibility verification) from its independent contractors? My answer: No. And yes. No, it’s not required of them, but if someone, say Wal-Mart, had a bunch of illegal immigrants working 60-hour weeks with no overtime on their behalf, that would look bad for Wal-Mart. Wait, that DID happen . From this law site : The government is looking beyond the mere labels of "independent contractor" to see if the employer had knowledge of its contractors' practices. In this type of environment, prudent employers who do not want to be the target of a federal investigation or prosecution will review their immigration law compliance efforts and make sure that they, and their executives, are not aware of violations by their contractors... At a minimum, require your contractors to furnish you with copies of Forms I-9 and supporting documentation for the workers they bring onto your site. From this legal

Of course, you knew that already. The rest of the world needed reminding, though, and I'm happy to report that our diligent public relations campaign is paying off. Two articles appeared this past week, focusing on how the newer generation of librarians believe that the skills necessary to bring people & information together in this digital age ought to mean that the musty old librarian stereotypes should fall by the wayside. I'm wholly in favor of that (though I'm hardly a "new generation" librarian . . . I'm young at heart). Check them out here: For New-Look Librarians, Head to Brooklyn (New York Sun - July 5, 2007) A Hipper Crowd of Shushers (New York Times - July 8, 2007 - registration required ) (By the way, our library doesn't use the Dewey Decimal System [we're a Library of Congress shop]. If you hung out with any of us in Ithaca, though, you'd know that we're still pretty snappy when it comes to classifying beverages from the ba

A couple years ago, someone from Empire State Development came to our offices, asking us to help them in the process of getting businesses certified as minority- and/or women-owned. Someone (probably me) asked what the turnaround was, and we were told it was 8 to 10 months. Yikes. At the NYS SBDC staff training a couple months ago, the same question came up, and we heard that the processing time was half the time it used to be, with even more improvements expected, thanks to the efforts of the Lieutenant Governor's office. Here's the application . The things I found most encouraging is the fact that applications from other entities, such as Port Authority, are now being accepted by ESD. Here's the applicable legislation and a website with more information .

The two questions that our author-clients frequently ask the most are, "What publishers specialize in my subject area?", and "Where can I find an agent?" For the first question, I recommend visiting AcqWeb's Directory of Publishers and Vendors . Note especially the section titled "Publisher Web Sites: Subject Directory". By clicking on any of these broad categories, you'll be led to a page that links to the websites of several dozen publishers. For the second question, here's the text to an email I sent to an advisor last April. It's still accurate: "As for literary agents, I'll point you towards another website, here: http://www.writers.net/agents.html This site is more than just a searchable directory, though. Note the articles that appear on the right-hand side. They seem to be written by authors who've gone through the process, and have a lot of practical advice. (The first one - Gary Kessler's "Finding a Go

I read a little blurb in the July issue of Entrepreneur Magazine called Temper, Temper! Apparently a Rice University research team has discovered moody office mates contribute to overall creativity and innovation. "When people are in good moods all the time, it can lead to complacency," says Jennifer M. George, professor of management and psychology at Rice University and co-author of the study. "A negative mood can give you that push to put forth more effort." The article offers some tips for managers of less than sunny employees.