Tax season is approaching, and with recent improvements in the economy, small businesses cannot afford to overpay on their dues or miss any crucial regulatory procedures.
Posted: Feb 1st, 2012
It's no secret: There's a talent shortage emerging in the U.S. labor force.
Posted: Jan 12th, 2012
The world of online marketing is shifting dramatically.
Posted: Jan 9th, 2012
There's no telling how the new year will shape up for the business community, but one thing is clear: Technology will continue to offer new ways of accomplishing old tasks.From an organizational perspective, companies have begun leveraging online learnin...
Posted: Jan 3rd, 2012
Borrowing by small businesses reached its highest level in nearly four years in November, offering further indication that small companies are investing in growth as the economy continues to rebound.The Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index...
Posted: Jan 3rd, 2012
The pace of the U.S. economic recovery will pick up next year, although growth will remain tepid for some time to come.
Posted: Dec 27th, 2011
While the holiday season usually heralds increased consumer activity, this year may not be enough to satisfy small business owners. Recent economic woes have prompted most small business owners - 61 percent - to cite improved customer sales as the item o...
Posted: Dec 20th, 2011
Women in developing nations are more likely to start or maintain a business, according to the most recent Women's Report by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.
Posted: Dec 19th, 2011
While successful entrepreneurs tend to share some basic characteristics - such as being self-motivated, confident, or determined - not all are natural-born leaders. For many, the idea of managing a company and placating board members is rather daunting, ...
Posted: Dec 19th, 2011
The volume of small bank loans to businesses in the U.S. has been waning since the recession began, according to data recently released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.While overall commercial and industrial lending by banks has risen for fi...
Posted: Dec 19th, 2011
Small businesses are often cited as engines of economic growth, with their history of job creation and entrepreneurial innovation. Of course, the narrative in recent months has shifted toward how policy can stir activity in the sector and progress the ec...
Posted: Dec 15th, 2011
Congress may actually have flouted its partisan gamesmanship for a few brief moments to provide support for small businesses, particularly those in research and development fields.
Posted: Dec 14th, 2011
Mobile payments and related technologies promise to revolutionize the way in which consumers and business alike make monetary transactions. Consider this scenario: You owe a friend money, but you don't have cash. No problem - just whip out your smartphon...
Posted: Dec 13th, 2011
Earlier this week we talked about alternatives to email. Why? Because it's a rather ancient technology, in light of other recent breakthroughs. While the simple exchange of text has been around - and useful - for thousands of years, it seems silly th...
Posted: Dec 8th, 2011
Although the manufacturing sector has been one of the hardest hit by the recession, it appears to be more promising for the coming year than its counterparts in the service sector, according to a new report from the Institute for Supply Management.The se...
Posted: Dec 8th, 2011
The year is winding down and projections for 2012 are beginning to take shape. Although recent trends seem to flout the idea of a double-dip recession, pessimism and general dismay are rampant. Most notably, high unemployment and stagnant wage growth - m...
Posted: Dec 7th, 2011
This holiday shopping season is expected to be the most mobile-friendly yet, as consumers hit stores with smartphones and tablets firmly in hand to research deals, purchase products, and even process payments.According to a survey released this week by P...
Posted: Dec 7th, 2011
As far as internet history goes, email is about as ancient as it gets. While its value as a communications channel is clear and its age a testament to its success, there are some major disadvantages to email, especially within a professional work environ...
Posted: Dec 5th, 2011
The evolution of digital media has provoked a variety of new trends in the world of marketing. One of the most sensational of these trends is content marketing, which a new study projects accounts for 26 percent of total business-to-business marketing sp...
Posted: Dec 5th, 2011
The new year is just around the corner, and while most small business owners are likely focused on getting through the holiday season alive, it's an important time to review strategy and administrative considerations for 2012. Recent employment data ...
Posted: Dec 2nd, 2011
Small retailers may need to ramp up their deals and services not only during the holiday shopping season, but for the foreseeable future as well. While consumers spent an estimated $52.4 billion over Black Friday weekend, preliminary data from a number o...
Posted: Dec 1st, 2011
Three hundred small businesses in the U.S. are one step closer to a contracting award from NASA. Proposals were selected through the space agency's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.T...
Posted: Nov 30th, 2011
When it comes to growth within the small business sector, owners may run off a variety of reasons why markets have stalled and rendered their expansion efforts a challenge.Most analysts point to hiring in the sector as one of the leading economic problem...
Posted: Nov 23rd, 2011
Members of a 12-person bipartisan "supercommittee" are expected to announce they have failed to come up with $1.2 trillion in spending cuts, triggering an automatic $1 trillion in reductions over nine years. Most of those cuts will target defense and nat...
Posted: Nov 21st, 2011
Municipal officials have launched a nationwide crackdown on Occupy Wall Street camps in their respective cities, citing growing public safety and sanitation concerns as the reason for a slew of recent evictions. Encampments in Portland, San Francisco, an...
Posted: Nov 15th, 2011
The U.S. Small Business Administration has ramped up its lending activities in recent years. While the agency does not actually distribute loans, it offers guaranteed repayments to banks of up to 90 percent.Since the recession, business leaders and entre...
Posted: Nov 14th, 2011
This week is Global Entrepreneurship Week, a worldwide celebration of innovators and job creators hosted by the Kauffman Foundation. With a focus on driving global economic growth through startup and entrepreneurial activity, GEW arrives amid an otherwis...
Posted: Nov 14th, 2011
While Congress continues to struggle reaching an agreement over how to address the nation's looming employment crisis, Americans appear to hold the most faith in small or local enterprises.According to a new Gallup poll, approximately eight in 10 sur...
Posted: Nov 7th, 2011
Lending to small businesses grew in September, although at a slower pace, according to the most recent Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index. The 14 percent increase marks the 14th consecutive month of double-digit monthly gains and a sligh...
Posted: Nov 3rd, 2011
The U.S. private sector added 110,000 jobs last month, according to the most recent ADP National Employment Report.The data surpass many economists' expectations and provide a few rays of hope ahead of Friday's employment report from the Departme...
Posted: Nov 2nd, 2011
Small businesses, creators of roughly two-thirds of all new jobs, added 30,000 positions in October, according to the latest Small Business Employment Index from Intuit. This figure marks a 0.14 increase over the month before and a 1.17 percent hike from...
Posted: Nov 1st, 2011
A number of business advocacy groups released an open letter to President Barack Obama this week, outlining five key steps to improving conditions for small businesses through comprehensive regulatory reform.The National Federation of Independent Busines...
Posted: Nov 1st, 2011
Last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported U.S. student loan debt has now surpassed credit card debt in total volume for the first time ever. The report brought further attention to some of the grievances facing students and recent college ...
Posted: Oct 28th, 2011
The U.S. economy expanded by 2.5 percent during the third quarter, according to preliminary data released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, allaying many fears of a double-dip recession and offering further proof of a steady, albeit slow, reco...
Posted: Oct 27th, 2011
Unemployment is at 9.1 percent, and the economy needs to create 125,000 jobs per month just to keep up with population growth - it has not done so since April. Meanwhile, economists project the jobless rate will stay north of 8 percent through next year....
Posted: Oct 27th, 2011
It's been said that small businesses and entrepreneurs are the drivers of innovation in this country. While that argument may be up for debate, the sector appears to be leading in the green technology sector.According to a report released Thursday by...
Posted: Oct 21st, 2011
Perhaps giving weight to some of the grievances among the Occupy Wall Street protesters, total student loan debts are expected to surpass $1 trillion for the first time this year, a new report from USA Today shows.The average full-time undergraduate stud...
Posted: Oct 19th, 2011
The U.S. has long held itself as a bastion of business and economic might. While its historical credentials may warrant this standing, trends in recent years have slid in the opposite direction.Forbes magazine's most recent rankings of the best count...
Posted: Oct 17th, 2011
While the U.S. labor market is not expected to improve much over the next year, a new report suggests wage growth in the private sector may, albeit mildly.The third quarter Wage Trend Indicator from analytics firm BNA climbed to 98.36, up from 98.21 in t...
Posted: Oct 13th, 2011
A closely watched index of small business confidence edged up in September after months of declines, suggesting the economy may begin to take on a more vigorous recovery.The National Federation of Independent Business' Small Business Optimism Index c...
Posted: Oct 11th, 2011
Read any headline about the current U.S. employment situation and you'll gather it's quite an employer's market right now. Americans are taking lowlier positions at reduced wages just to stay employed.However, the segment of "critical-sk...
Posted: Oct 10th, 2011
Small businesses have decaying confidence in the U.S. economy, according to a new survey from PNC Financial Services Group.Analysts have been hard-pressed to find hopeful prospects for U.S. or European markets in recent months. Hopes for improvements hav...
Posted: Oct 7th, 2011
Given the relative strength of Wall Street and the wider financial services sector in comparison to the rest of the U.S. economy, it may be surprising to note how tepid its employment recovery has actually been since the recession began.According to the ...
Posted: Oct 5th, 2011
A number of states and business organizations are challenging the legality of last year's healthcare reform law. This week, the Obama administration is expected to respond to the appeals, which were tendered by 26 states and the National Federation o...
Posted: Sep 28th, 2011
Heightened economic uncertainty, political impasse, high unemployment and ongoing debt crises all collaborated to rack confidence among small businesses in the third quarter.The Vistage CEO Confidence Index, which measures optimism among small business l...
Posted: Sep 27th, 2011
Small businesses seeking a line of credit may find relief in a string of lending pledges signed by 13 U.S. banks. The effort is hoped to stimulate hiring and investment among the nation's smallest employers.Vice President Joe Biden and Small Business...
Posted: Sep 21st, 2011
Ever wonder how vital the internet is to society? Well, according to the newest generation of working professionals, it's about as important as food and shelter.As the results of a survey released this week by Cisco found, one in three college studen...
Posted: Sep 21st, 2011
Leadership is the pinnacle of business management. But what is leadership? How is it defined, and who exemplifies it? In many ways, a leader is someone who defies business norms and sets his organization on a separate path. Yes, that path is usually a mo...
Posted: Sep 15th, 2011
In the retail sector, creating an incentive for customers to return to your business is integral to good sales, as loyal shoppers are perhaps more important than new ones. But when it comes to marketing in this regard, creating an effective retention str...
Posted: Sep 14th, 2011
Creativity is often defined as a series of decisions. In an ideal environment, brainstorming generates the initial concepts and ideas for a project, and then the creative process filters down and enhances those primary ideas. But both practices are elusi...
Posted: Sep 13th, 2011
Everyone knows the age-old mantra "work hard, play harder," but few people actually adhere to its timeless wisdom. It's not so much about gunning that exchange until you're running on fumes as it is about striking a balance - a work-lif...
Posted: Sep 8th, 2011
From INCyclopedia, the incorporation encyclopediaContents: Types of Corporate Records → Articles of Incorporation Bylaws and Operating Agreements Resolutions and Minutes Annual Reports Shareholder List Shareholder Communication Co...
Posted: Mar 22nd, 2011