New York SBDC Research Network

The risk for cyber espionage continues to evolve as perpetrators are targeting small businesses at an alarming rate. Symantec, a bellwether in the web-security space, recently announced that attacks surged almost three-fold for small businesses or those with less than 250 employees. Small businesses now account for more than 31% of all web attacks or greater than 300 million incidents annually. Given this backdrop, should your business consider investing in greater security measures and cyber liability insurance? Why are small businesses being targeted? Attackers are recognizing now that it’s more effective to go after the weakest link than to focus on the largest companies in the world. If they can attack a million different websites with ease versus one large website, it’s more strategic for them to go after the small players. The data that these cyber criminals are targeting include bank account information, customer data and intellectual property. More from America's SBDC

The December-January issue of The Small Business Advocate newsletter features new research from Advocacy, the chief counsel’s review of 2013 highlights, and the chief economist’s perspective on the important policy choices of 2014. The issue also includes reports on regulatory activities in several areas that affect small business: crowdfunding, cybersecurity, reverse auctions, and critical habitat designations. In This Issue (PDF) The Year of Innovation: The Ride to Entrepreneurial Advancement Factors Leading to Firms’ Hiring Their First Employee Positive Small Business Indicators in 2013 and the Challenge Ahead New York City Roundtable on Crowdfunding Comments Filed on Fish and Wildlife Service Proposals Congressional Testimony on GSA’s Reverse Auctions Advocacy Comments on NIST’s Preliminary Cybersecurity Infrastructure

Whether selling or purchasing a small business, determining the value of the business is essential. There are multiple different methods for valuing a business.  Below is a description of some of the most common methods of valuing/pricing a business. Descriptions have been provided by American Business Masters & Investments, Inc. (1) Rules Of Thumb Rules Of Thumb (ROT) can be useful tools for appraising small and medium size businesses. But, there is no one, universally acceptable, “Rules Of Thumb” method. All of them are only rough descriptions of reality. They are all gross simplifications, and can be as inappropriate as they are appropriate. Some are based primarily on “comps” (comparables with the sale of similar types of businesses), some are based on standard accounting approaches, some are based on the experience of the compiler/publisher of the ROT, and can be in conflict with ROT’s available, on the same business, from a different compiler/publisher. So, Rules Of Th

Throw those standard interview questions out the window. Use these questions to find the best employees for your business. While folks seeking employment may spend hours prepping for their interviews, the failure to adequately prepare typically comes on the end of the person asking the questions. The people you hire can be your greatest strength or your biggest liability, and we owe it to ourselves and our businesses to take the time to find the most talented employees who are also a good fit for our business model. Prospective employees prepare canned responses to the questions they think you’ll ask. Their goal is to make themselves look good—to amplify their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Your goal should be to set up a discussion that reveals patterns in their behavior and predicts how they’ll fare in your company. Past behavior predicts future behavior, so make it your goal to collect some honest, thoughtful responses that will give you a better idea of how each candid

 Don’t lose your business to a power outage, hacker disruption, fire, flood, earthquake or other disaster.  A 2012 survey by Alibaba polled small-business owners to gauge how prepared they were to run their business if a natural disaster struck. The findings were alarming: 74% of American small businesses do not have a disaster preparedness plan; 84% of them are without natural disaster insurance. Preparation, an Active emergency and later, Recovery. Sadly for many businesses, Preparation is the missing component that could have lead to a successful navigation of an active emergency and a graceful navigation of Recovery. More than half of all businesses affected by a disaster level event will not reopen their doors.  In this series we will dive into the three pillars and offer you guidance and routes of assistance to help you plan, prepare and act when the time comes for you to shepherd your business and your employees through an unforeseen (but not an un-planned for disaster)

When trying to get to the NYS Online Permit Assistance and Licensing site is "temporarily unavailable." The message reads: For information regarding the status of your OPAL ID, please contact the OPAL Help Line at (518) 474-8275 during the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday – Friday, except State observed holidays. For information about starting or expanding your business, please visit the New York State License Center. [ This page , which I was not familiar with previously, seems to have most OPAL stuff.] Under the heading, “Other NYS License Center Services”, click on the second bulleted hyperlink, “Find out what permits or licenses your business needs” to access the Business Wizard Home page. To apply online for a Certificate of Authority to Collect Sales Tax or Certificate of Registration to Sell Cigarettes and Tobacco Products, please visit the New York State License Center at https://aca.licensecenter.ny.gov/ACA/Default.aspx and click on the “Login to get

Crossgates Mall is taking some heat for keeping stores open during last week's snowstorm. Retail employee Alli Dillenbeck's open letter to the mall on the subject was passed from her blog, http://allidillenbeck.blogspot.com , to Facebook and Twitter users. Commenters on the mall's Facebook page joined the chorus calling for the mall to let stores close and workers go home during such storms. After recounting how she struggled to get to the mall Thursday in the storm, Dillenbeck notes that she called the management office only to be told all those responsible for deciding whether stores could close left at 5 p.m. "Obviously, you care exponentially more about money than the people that work there," Dillenbeck wrote on her blog. ... "I have like 13,000 views on my post," she said. "I was shocked. It went up from 5,000 the day I posted it." Read more from the Albany Times Union . What is YOUR business's policy in case of inclement