New York SBDC Research Network

The U.S. Senate confirmed on Tuesday, February 14 the nomination of Linda E. McMahon as the 25th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration . "Small businesses are the engine of our national economy," McMahon said upon her confirmation. "I will work to revitalize a spirit of entrepreneurship in America. Small businesses want to feel they can take a risk on an expansion or a new hire without fearing onerous new regulations or unexpected taxes, fees and fines that will make such growth unaffordable. We want to renew optimism in our economy.

From eMarketing There are lots reasons consumers don’t like shopping at physical stores, including challenges with comparison shopping and long checkout lines. But if there’s one thing people do prefer to do in a brick-and-mortar setting, it’s to make impulse purchases. However, recent trends in e-commerce suggest this could change in the near future. A January 2017 survey by CreditCards.com found that 68% of US consumers said their primary location for making impulse buys was “in person in a store.” Digital methods were much less preferred.

From here : Don't miss Microsoft's National Entrepreneurship Week , February 20-24th, 2017. Don't miss their free webinars and you can follow on Twitter at #WININBIZ. 2/22 at 9am PT: The Power of Referral Marketing: How to get your customers talking Tapping into your existing customer base could be the key to new business growth.  On the next episode of Office Small Business Academy, learn about the power of referral marketing, and how to design a program that works for your business. Register Now  2/22 at 10am PT: Staying Ahead of the Curve: Technologies that Adapt with your  business .  It used to be that as your business grew, you'd have to increase your technology budget to meet your growth needs. Not anymore. Join the Microsoft's presentation the Staying Ahead of the Curve: Technologies That Adapt with. Register Now  2/23 at 10am PT: Small Business Webinar: 3 Tips for remaking your online professional presence Learn how Yelp and Office 365 can help you con

Because of a Republican-held Congress, and the new Trump administration, there has been talk on a new tax reform. In fact, according to Steven Mnuchin , Trump's [now confirmed] pick to head the Treasury department[now confirmed],that there will be   two comprehensive tax reform plans under this administration. But how will all this affect small business?  President Trump has repeatedly said that he will cut corporate taxes down to 15%. But most small businesses are in the form of S-corps- partnerships and limited liability corporations (LLC). In response to this, the two plans propose three tax brackets- 12%,25%,and 33%. And to repeal the Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT)- which, according to the IRS , "   applies at a rate of 3.8% to certain net investment income of individuals, estates and trusts that have income above the statutory threshold amounts." With the Trump plan,businesses will be able to elect a max rate for business income at 15%. "The Blueprint&quo

From eMarketer : When it comes to shopping online, consumers have a variety of different payment methods they can choose from. Most prefer PayPal—or something equivalent to it, like Stripe, Google Wallet or Amazon Payments. October 2016 research from postal industry service provider International Post Corporation surveyed cross-border digital buyers across 26 countries. More than four in 10 respondents—who purchased goods online in the past three months and made a cross-border purchase online in the past year—said they prefer to pay for their online purchases via PayPal, or an equivalent service.

Recently, a client asked Judy Wolf, the NY SBDC's Government Contracting Coordinator , if there was a source the compiled information on all matchmaker events taking place in NY, CT, MA, NH, and VT.  Unfortunately, she wasn't aware of such a resource. Fortunately (for the rest of us), she pulled together some really useful information for those states. From Judy: In NYS, matchmaker events tend to be coordinated on an agency-by-agency basis. For NY, I'd recommend getting on the mailing lists for the agencies that most frequently organize them, such as the regional PTACs and the SBA. I do know of the following: •    March 28 North Country PTAC Matchmaker in Watertown: http://www.wbenc.org/calendar-all/2017/3/28/2017-north-county-ptac-matchmaker-ny •    The SBA Albany Matchmaker this year is June 20: https://www.sba.gov/offices/district/ny/syracuse/resources/albany-matchmaker-expo •    The SBA Buffalo Matchmaker looks like it's going to be May 10 this year • 

There are numerous advantages and challenges to introduce Bitcoin and Blockchain technology to your small business. Today we see companies like Dish, Overstock, Microsoft, Dell, and more start to accept bitcoin as a payment. Though these giants have made the introduction, should your small business?  A cryptocurrency made in 2009, Bitcoin is a decentralized form of digital currency, w hich means that there is little to no government or bank involvement  through any transaction being made . According to Fortune.com Blockchain is a "  coding breakthrough—which consists of concatenated blocks of transactions—allows competitors to share a digital ledger across a network of computers without need for a central authority." For the entire analysis of the advantages and challenges of bitcoin technology follow this link to Entrepreneur.com. Here are just some of the advantages:  Compared to traditional two and three percent merchant transaction fees, Bitcoin has a