Small Business News

Small Business News from Richard Turcott

• Overzealous license rules can deter entrepreneurs
  

  Many people dream of opening their own business. But some would-be entrepreneurs are finding that state licensing requirements are so arduous that it would take years and thousands of dollars before they ever would be able to hang out a shingle.

  
  
  
• As Facebook's Stock Struggles, Fingers Start Pointing
  

  As shares of the social network tumbled in their second day of trading, bankers, investors and analysts wondered what had gone wrong with the initial public offering of Facebook, the most highly anticipated technology debut in years. Some fingers are pointing at Morgan Stanley , the lead banker on the I.P.O., while others criticize Nasdaq and even Facebook itself. In the aftermath, critics contend that Facebook's offering price was too high and too many shares were sold to the public, hurting the stock's performance out of the gate.

  
  
  
• Want the Right Stuff? Start With Your Help-Wanted Ad
  A top-performing team starts with writing a thorough and accurate job description. Consider these five tips.
  
  
• Ranking for signal to noise ratio
  A whisper in a quiet room is all you need. There's so little noise, so few distractions, that the energy of the whisper is enough to make a dent. On the other hand, it's basically impossible to have a conversation...
  
  
• Organizers: Don't mess with the Olympic brand
  Organizers: Don't mess with the Olympic brandBoston.comBut it's more than likely the small business became another casualty in the battle against guerrilla marketers -- advertisers who try to associate their products with an event without paying to be sponsors. Protecting the Olympic brand is always a big ...and more »
  
  
• 5 election-year issues for small business
  As anyone who regularly reads this website knows, we're a mixed bag of economic and political discourse, in addition to news and information relevant to HR and employee benefits. But, as we'll see in the run-up to this contentious presidential election, if there ever was a time for the two to intersect on major political and societal influence, it's now. This is true especially of small businesses, which account for 99.7 percent of all employer firms and employ half of all private sector employe
  
  
• Entrepreneur "student fair on steroids" brings heavy hitter VCs to Stanford
  

  Silicon Valley's brightest young minds will vie for $150,000 in rewards as part of a full-day entrepreneurial challenge at Stanford University this Tuesday. The Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (BASES), the student-run organization behind the event, has birthed a …

  
  
  
• Would You Fire Someone for Taking a Late Lunch?
  From Courtney Rubin: Margarita Arriaga, a Target cashier, shelf stocker and saleswoman of more than 16 years, was "well liked by her managers and peers, and she received generally satisfactory performance evaluations," according to the company. Yet in June 2009 she was fired because she was late taking a meal break three times in 18 months—one of those times by just two minutes. But tardiness for breaks is "an automatic ground for termination of any Target employee," the company said in court papers cited by The Sacramento Bee. Target "makes no exception for 'two-minute violations.'" So Arriaga, 40, sued Target in January 2010, alleging wrongful termination. The Minneapolis-based retail giant has forked over $275,000 to settle the case. Mandatory Breaks Breaks, of course, are required ...
  
  
• A Week Of Small Business Celebration (PayChex Small Biz Insight and New Blog)
  Paychex, is celebrating small business week this week with a variety of useful information elements that I encourage you to check out. In case you don' t know Paychex provides small businesses with payroll, human resource, and benefits outsourcing solutions for small- to medium-sized businesses. There's two things I want to bring to your attention: [...]
  
  
• Marketing Hacks for Google Hangouts
  From John Jantsch: Google+ has grown into an important social media hub for many businesses. One of the most intriguing–but as of yet underutilized–features is the Google Hangouts video chat feature. It's not a replacement for face-to-face meetings, but it is a great tool for building relationships and getting more interaction. The opportunities for video chat as a marketing tool are also very rich. Video chat puts you in direct contact with your customers on a personal level. You get to take customer interaction from email messaging and status updates to face-to-face communication. Since it introduced the Hangout feature, Google+ has made several updates based on user feedback. With regular Hangouts, you can: Video chat instantly with up to nine people Have chats that are ...
  
  
• Business Owners Take SBA Chief to Task
  

  At a town hall at National Small Business Week, some entrepreneurs complain to Karen Mills about access to credit and high health insurance costs.

  
  
  
• Is There a 'Right' Time for a Mom to Start a Business?
  

  This week's Dashboard roundup of small-business news includes a link to an article about Laura Kelly, the owner of The Handworks Studio, a craft shop in Narberth, Pa. Opened in 2003, the shop offers sewing and knitting classes for children and has expanded to offer a series of summer camp programs in locations from Pennsylvania to Texas.

  
  
  
• Unexpected Paths to Growth
  From Mike Periu: Whenever I think about crazy business ideas that succeed, I remind myself of the brave individuals who raise their hands when the boss asks for "new ideas." One of these nameless heroes is the executive who thought it would be a good idea to put cafés into bookstores. Imagine telling a Vice President of Operations or a Sales Director at a large bookstore chain that you think it's a good idea to make it easy for customers to enjoy your books and magazines without actually having to buy them. It's nuts! But of course, nearly 20 years later it turns out those cafés were a brilliant idea which not only improved book sales, but also opened the path to new high-margin coffee ...
  
  
• Pushing Employers to Offer Better Retirement Plans
  Business owners need to prepare for a new federal rule that takes effect this summer meant to protect employees from high fees and expenses
  
  
• How To Leverage The Cloud To Work Best For Your Small Business – Small Business Tech Tour 2011
  The Small Business Technology Tour 2011 visited five cities across the nation; Mountain View, Salt Lake City, Boston, Atlanta and Chicago. If you weren't able to attend last year, we wanted to share a taste of what you missed. Check out this video clip below of Tim Burke of Quest Technology, from the presentation on "Cloud Computing: Boost Productivity [...]
  
  
• How Small Business Wins in a Socially Connected World
  

  Gail Goodman is the CEO of Constant Contact, a leading provider of email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, local deals, and online survey tools for more than half a million small organizations. Gailis the author of the newly released Engagement Marketing: How Small Business Wins in a Socially Connected World. In this interview, she talks about why email marketing is still important despite the blog craze, how to stand out and create marketing engagement and more.

  
  
  
• Cannes Film Festival - Los Angeles Times
  Cannes Film FestivalLos Angeles TimesThe Brooks project, which has not yet brought on or a writer or director, leads the slate of a new company called BiteSize Entertainment that Kirkwood is forming with a tech entrepreneur named Ron Bloom (who currently runs a video-platform outfit known ...and more »
  
  
• Tax Tips for Cash-Only Businesses
  From Katie Morell: Daniel Martinez is busily cutting hair at The Executive Barber Shop in San Francisco's Mission Terrace neighborhood when I call to ask what it's like to operate an all-cash business. "It's great," he says, the sound of scissors clicking in the background. "It is really just me, so it's easy to keep track of. I've been doing it since I opened in 2003." Martinez is one of many small-business owners nationwide who accepts only cash, a group that includes some bars, restaurants and medical offices. While it may expedite the accounts receivable process, the lack of an automatic paper trail can also come with a few downsides, namely drawing the attention of the IRS. According to Anthony V. Diosdi, tax attorney at ...
  
  
• A Business Master's 3 Truths of Innovation
  

  Peter F. Drucker is legendary for his insightful work and writing about business. I started reading Drucker's work in order to become a better, more educated small-business writer. I kept reading Drucker because I found myself applying his advice to my own small business. Here's a little of what he has to say about innovation. Innovation is not so much about genius as it is about a system and some sweat. This is bad news if you're a genius but great news for the rest of us. I can't really count on flashes of inspiration or moments of genius to occur with any regularity, or even at all. I can, however, count on bills and deadlines. They come with great regularity. To be innovative in ...
  
  

• 5 Marketing Lessons We Can Learn from Google
  This week I got an unsolicited telephone call from Google, which started me thinking. Why is Google, who is unquestionably the king of online marketing, engaging in telemarketing? What I discovered was surprising. Here are five marketing lessons small business owners can learn from Google.
  
  
• Can a Gas Tax Fuel Clean Energy Innovation?
  With gas prices already reaching nearing $4 per gallon in many places, most business owners don't relish the idea of them rising even further. Yet, some people are still calling for the government to deliberately increase them – by raising the gas tax. Scott Burgess, senior editor of AOL Autos, recently argued that a gas tax of $1 per gallon could help the U.S. government shore up its dismal balance sheet. Burgess cites a CongressionalRead More From Small Business TrendsCan a Gas Tax Fuel Clean Energy Innovation?
  
  
• Nine Reasons Your Investment Pitch Will Fail
  Nine Reasons Your Investment Pitch Will FailForbesYet thousands of entrepreneurs are still faced with the daunting and immediate task of raising money for their startup. When it's time to raise money, the game is often over before it begins. Here are nine ways your investment pitch will fail and how ...
  
  
• Small Business Week: A Preview
  From Jane Applegate: More than 1,200 small-business owners, family members and corporate supporters are heading to Washington, D.C. this week to celebrate National Small Business Week, which kicked off Sunday night at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The two-and -half day conference and celebration features workshops on finance, exporting, management and more. And corporate sponsors devoted to serving the small-business market, including Microsoft, Office Depot, Prudential and AT&T, will also be on hand to host seminars and parties. According to Cecelia Taylor, spokeswoman for the U.S. Small Business Administration, the event has been running since 1963, and often the sitting U.S. president has called special attention to the event. This year, President Obama took advantage of Small Business Week to make a major announcement promoting legislation ...
  
  
• Yahoo! Alibaba $7.1 Billion Cash Would Help Small Business
  Irish TimesYahoo! Alibaba $7.1 Billion Cash Would Help Small BusinessForbesYahoo! has long had a decent presence and service for small business owners. Their recent effort to revamp overall, but also specifically on content and ecommerce for small companies comes at a time that the Yahoo-Alibaba cash $7.1 billion infusion ...Alibaba buys back 20 percent stake held by Yahoo for $7.1 billionmsnbc.comAlibaba in talks over Yahoo stakeIrish TimesJack Ma: English teacher turned Internet billionairePhys.OrgInternational Business Times -CNBC.comall 1,126 news articles »
  
  
• Move Over Entrepreneurs, Here Come The Intrapreneurs
  ForbesMove Over Entrepreneurs, Here Come The IntrapreneursForbesIn the wake of Facebook's IPO, and despite where the stock goes from here, one thing is clear: Entrepreneurs–especially successful ones–are the new rock stars of business culture. Despite this trend, the reality remains that for every successful ...