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IRS Alerts Payroll and HR Professionals to Phishing Scheme Involving W-2s

The Internal Revenue Service today issued an alert to payroll and human resources professionals to beware of an emerging phishing email scheme that purports to be from company executives and requests personal information on employees. The IRS has learned this scheme – part of the surge in phishing emails seen this year – already has claimed several victims as payroll and human resources offices mistakenly email payroll data including Forms W-2 that contain Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information to cybercriminals posing as company executives. “This is a new twist on an old scheme using the cover of the tax season and W-2 filings to try tricking people into sharing personal data.

Small Business Success Story - ButaPub

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Each year the New York Small Business Development Center recognizes outstanding small businesses in a variety of ways.  This Success Story from the  Brockport SBDC  appears in our  2015 Annual Report .  Ed Mott & Asa Mott ButaPub Brockport SBDC The father and son team of Ed and Asa Mott came to the SBDC with the dream of opening a restaurant. Ed, a retired contractor, and Asa, an executive chef at several of the Rochester areas finest dining venues, found what they believed would be the perfect location. The restaurant housed a dining room, a theater, and private banquet room under one roof, and was located in the heart of the city’s newest up and coming South Wedge neighborhood. Finally after months of deadlines, reconfiguring financials and planning with Advisor Jim Soufleris at the Brockport SBDC, the place was theirs. Ed and Asa were able to obtain a $260,000 SBA 7a loan to purchase the business. They also made a $120,000 personal investment to get the business off

Is Your Small Business Mobile Ready?

More and more people are browsing, shopping, and doing business on their phones and tablets. Currently, 11.3% of the digital population uses mobile  only , compared to 10.6% desktop only use*. This may not seem significant now but these numbers will continue to grow as mobile capabilities advance and mobile devices become more and more integral to day-to-day life.  Seriously, if you are not mobile ready you are missing an opportunity to connect with mobile users who may be future customers and partners. So how do you get started? You see, mobile is really about your audience. Here are some tips to help you get started. Click  HERE  to learn more!

OPERATION: START UP & GROW Veteran Business Conference, Syracuse, NY 3/16/16

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Do you want to start a business? Expand your existing business? Find all the resources in one location at this FREE conference for veteran entrepreneurs! Operation: Start Up & Grow is the premier veterans business conference in Upstate New York for our veterans and members of the military community who want to start or expand their own small business. The half-day event includes breakout workshops, networking sessions with guest experts and exhibitors, award ceremony, free breakfast and lunch. Online registration is now open: REGISTER HERE. Flyer (PDF)

Advocacy Report Examines Foreign-Born STEM Entrepreneurship

The Office of Advocacy, an independent office within the Small Business Administration, has released a report investigating the differences in STEM entrepreneurship between U.S.-born and foreign-born college graduates. The study finds that differences in educational attainment along with differences in the distribution of U.S.–foreign-born demographic characteristics explain most of percentage the gap.  Among immigrants who earned their highest degree in the United States, the rate of STEM entrepreneurship is almost 4 percentage points higher than for otherwise-similar native-born citizens. The report is titled Imported Entrepreneurs: Foreign-Born Scientists and Engineers in U.S. STEM Fields Entrepreneurship and is written by the noted economist, Margaret Blume-Kohout. It suggests several opportunities for policymakers interested in spurring new business creation and startup employment in new ventures focusing in STEM fields. The  full report  and  research summary  are located

2012 Economic Census, Survey of Business Owners, Company Statistics Series: Characteristics of Businesses and Characteristics of Business Owners

These  reports  provide selected economic and demographic characteristics of U.S. respondent firms and their owners.  Data aggregates are presented by gender, ethnicity, race and veteran status of majority owners at the national level by 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), and employment size and receipts size of firm. Characteristics of Businesses and Business Owners statistics for both employer and nonemployer firms include, but are not limited to, types of workers, year the business was originally established, if the company owned a website, age of owner, owner’s highest level of education, and whether the owner was born in the United States. Internet address:  < http://factfinder.census.gov/ bkmk/navigation/1.0/en/d_ program:SBO/d_data_orig_year: 2012/text_search:SB1200CSCB* >.

Fast Food Restaurants Lead Franchised Businesses in Employment

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Franchised limited-service restaurants (NAICS 722513 ), sometimes called fast-food restaurants, employed 2.6 million people in 2012 and had sales of $129.2 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reports. New car dealers (NAICS  441110 ), an industry solely comprised of franchises, employed 973,745 people and had sales of $672.5 billion in 2012. The  2012 Economic Census Franchise Report  is only the second comprehensive and detailed report by the Census Bureau on this segment of the U.S. economy, with the first being released for the 2007 Economic Census. The report presents data for selected industries on the number of businesses with paid employees engaged in franchising, annual sales for these businesses, and employment and payroll. These data are broken out by industry in three categories: franchisor-owned businesses, franchisee-owned businesses and all businesses. The data are primarily national level, although state-level statistics are provided for limited-service rest