Small Business

Time To Go Fly A Kite

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:00:35 -0500

I went to the annual kite festival on the Smithsonian mall with my family over the weekend. We watched master kite flyers dip and soar their sleek, colorful contraptions into the cloudy sky. Although many festival-goers brought their own snazzy kites, we showed up empty-handed -- having stopped by the festival at the last minute after an early-morning, soggy tour of the cherry blossoms around the tidal basin. My kids were apoplectic that they should be denied the right to launch something into the air so we stopped by the arts-and-crafts booths to see what we could invent. With help from a kite enthusiast, we managed to fold a piece of paper this way and that. With some paper streamers taped to it along with something resembling a pair of chopsticks for support, we got that simple kite flying. In fact, it soared high into the sky and far surpassed

Web Media Startup Raises Small Business Spirits

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:45:42 -0500

Meet the new Sir-Mix-a-Lot. He mixes sound and video, along with a good cocktail and sips it back in the form of a small business. Colin Kimball, 31, is co-founder of the one-and-a-half employee Web-media company Small Screen Network and a good example of today's new media entrepreneur. Cocktail lover and videographer Colin Kimball gets ready to shoot a Web show. (Courtesy of Kimball) He went to film school in Seattle, worked on independent films and for major networks. He cut his teeth as a production assistant on the first season of television phenomenon American Idol. Kimball, who has always had the entrepreneurial itch, started a company called Storypipe after graduating. It had a concept similar to Small Screen, but Kimball said it "imploded because five people -- really, really creative people -- were trying to run a business." He then started Small Screen in September 2006 with the idea

Legislation Seeks to Revamp Manufacturing Program

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:30:47 -0500

The Senate Task Force on Manufacturing on Wednesday introduced legislation designed to aid a special, public-private network of centers that assist small and medium-sized manufacturers. The Manufacturing Extension Partnership helps manufacturers expand operations, become more efficient, increase sales and create jobs. The centers currently must provide two-thirds of their funding after four years of operation by raising money from state governments, the private sector and colleges and universities. The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology oversees the program and provides one-third of its funding. This legislation would reduce the centers' cost share to 50 percent of funding for all years of operation. The task force includes Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who is the top Republican on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. Snowe said the bill will give the centers "much-needed relief so that they may focus

Federal Contracting Program Continues to Suffer from Fraud, Abuse

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:20:57 -0500

A Small Business Administration program that provides federal contracting assistance to small firms located in economically disadvantaged areas continues to be rife with fraud and abuse. A new report from the Government Accountability Office shows that the HUBZone program has problems spread throughout the nation, and not just in the Washington, D.C., area as outlined in a similar report released in July 2008. After that 2008 report was issued, lawmakers asked the GAO to determine whether fraud existed in the program outside of the nation's capital and if the SBA had taken actions to stem the fraud. For the study released today, the GAO identified 19 firms in Texas, Alabama, and California participating in the HUBZone program that do not meet program requirements. For example, an Alabama firm listed its principal office as "Suite 19," but GAO investigators found after visiting the site that the office was "Trailer 19" in

Tools, Tips and Studies: Health Care Heats Up, Snail Mail Slows Down

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:01:00 -0500

The small business community continues its push on health care reform. The National Small Business Association has launched Health Reform Today along with new data on the small business community and its difficult relationship with affording decent health insurance. Group President Todd McCracken said the number of small business owners who are able to provide health insurance to employees dropped from 67 percent in 1995 to 38 percent in 2008. In other health news, the House Small Business Committee held a hearing last week on health care issues. Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) said: "The needs of small firms and small medical practices are different from those of big companies, and it is critical that we not push forward with one-size-fits-all reform." Other lawmakers last week introduced a bill (H.R. 1470) that would eliminate language in the tax code requiring millions of self-employed individuals to pay additional taxes on the cost

Poll: Government Could Do More to Spur Entrepreneurship

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:00:51 -0500

The government should be doing more to encourage individuals to start businesses, according to a new poll (pdf) released by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Pollster Douglas Schoen conducted the survey, asking a random sample of 2,000 Americans whether they prefer the government giving individuals the incentives they need to start their own businesses or if the government should create new jobs directly or through big corporations. Sixty-three percent said help out the individuals, while 22 percent favor the government creating new jobs in the public and private sector. Three hundred of the respondents identified themselves as entrepreneurs and 200 said they were aspiring entrepreneurs. The Kauffman Foundation said the study pointed to a "key and unrecognized reason as to why the public has not been satisfied with the overall stimulus package." "These two statistics -- which produced similar results -- underscore the public's deep and abiding belief that the

Lawmakers Extend Tech R&D Program

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:40:38 -0500

Congress last night extended the life of a popular small business program that was set to expire at the end of this week. The Senate passed a bill that gives a new lease on life to the Small Business Innovation Research program, which is administered by the Small Business Administration to ensure that small, high-tech firms receive federal government research and development dollars. Eleven federal agencies participate in the SBIR program, which has generated more than 84,000 patents and millions of jobs, by allocating 2.5 percent of their extramural research and development budgets to it. The National Science Foundation administers the SBIR.gov Web site. Several lawmakers have been pushing for the program to receive a long-term reauthorization. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), the top Republican on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, said: "It is disappointing that last Congress we were unable to pass a long-term reauthorization bill for vital

How Do I... Make It to a Sesquicentennial?

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:25:27 -0500

With most small businesses closing shop within five years, how do some make it to 150? The Potter Violin Company officially started in 1996 when Dalton Potter, the senior repair technician at the Violin House of Weaver, took over the retail and service operations that Herman Weaver founded in 1898 and was maintained by four generations of Weavers. When Herman's grandson Bill was running the shop, he recognized that the student violin market was key to the professional market, according to Potter. "Professional violin shops used to be hoity-toity places, and you just didn't think about bringing kids there," he said. "But Bill took a different approach -- he recognized that violinists of the future will start out as kids today." That insight dovetailed with the blossoming in the United States of the Suzuki musical education program designed for children. The program spurred a demand for high-quality student-size instruments rather

White House Offers Details of Plan to Foster Small Business Growth

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:05:22 -0500

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner today announced details to some of the promises made in the government's Financial Stability Plan outlined last month, including ways to spur banks to lend, eliminating loan fees and creating new bank-lending reporting requirements. The Obama administration believes that the nation's "economic recovery will be driven in large part by America's small businesses" and notes that small firms have generated about 70 percent of net new jobs annually over the past decade, according to a statement from the White House. However, entrepreneurial growth has been stunted as credit has dried up; the Small Business Administration typically guarantees about $20 billion in loans annually but new lending is leaning toward less than $10 billion this year. Treasury announced today that it has appointed an investment manager who will be able to purchase securities backed by portions of SBA's popular 7(a) loan program. This action, as explained by

Spending Bill Halts Women's Contracting Plan

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:00:46 -0500

The spending bill signed into law this week by President Obama stops a controversial regulation that critics said would have limited opportunities for women to compete in the federal marketplace. "President Obama has made clear that women's opportunities to compete for their fair share of federal contracts will be a priority from now on," said Rep. Nydia Velázquez, chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee and a Democrat from New York. Law mandates that government agencies must award at least 5 percent of federal contracts to women-owned businesses, however that goal has never been met. The proposed rule -- which was reversed this week -- said women were under represented in contracting agreements in just four out of 140 recognized industries. That proposal was met with staunch criticism because it meant that only women-owned businesses in those four arenas would be eligible for contracting assistance. Lobbying group Women Impacting Public

Big Spending Bill Includes Small Business

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:45:18 -0500

The big spending bill headed to President Obama's desk for final approval has several measures in it aiming to aid the small business community. The measure overall would provide fiscal 2009 funding for nine federal departments, covering all government activities other than defense and homeland security-related agencies, whose funding was approved last fall. Many agencies would see big increases, in some cases 10 percent or more above fiscal 2008 levels. According to the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, the bill bumps up funding for the Small Business Administration to $547 million -- that's $63 million more than President Bush's original request for the agency and $47 million more from the amount appropriated last year. The appropriations measure also gives: * The SBA the authority to back $17.5 billion for its most widely-used 7(a) program and $7.5 billion for the 504 program, which aids in long-term financing for fixed assets

Job Search Startup Aims to be More Than a Sign of the Times

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:04 -0500

A senior bank loan officer recently told me that lending was on track to improve for small businesses, but things were tight enough that "a plumber looking to open a dance studio" would probably have a hard time bringing home the financing for a new pas de deux. Banks are still looking for start-ups that are going into somewhat familiar territory -- like a plumber leaving a firm to start his own plumbing business. That's one reason why most start-ups these days are founded by people who have already been garnering knowledge in a particular field and who have either been laid off from a larger firm or just want to try and make a go of it on their own. A good example of the current economic phenomenon, is BusinessElite. Two human resources professionals this week are launching an online job-matching service looking to place seasoned professionals at established

Tools and Tips: Get Organized, Get Paid, Get the Word Out

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:45:37 -0500

Doodle.com, a Swiss firm that recently launched its service in the United States, offers a free online scheduling assistant for setting up things like meetings. For example, n organizer can create a poll, send it to invitees, who can then respond with their choice of meeting time. Doodle tabulates the votes and reports results back to the organizer, who then finalizes details. The final meetings times automatically appear in a user's calendar with reminders. The service syncs with popular calendar systems such as Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar and Apple iCal. The service is available in 28 languages. Itty bitty businesses might be interested in checking out ProcessAway, a charge card terminal for the iPhone. The mobile application turns the devices into portable card-charge terminals. The service links into Authorize.net's payment processing system enabling the Apple device user to accept credit payments anywhere there's Internet access. Customers receive an e-mail receipt

Senators Urge Better Agency Coordination

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:45:37 -0500

Manufacturers are taking a big hit in this aching economy and government agencies could do a better job of coordinating their efforts to aid them, two senators said this week. Leaders of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee -- Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), wrote to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Acting Commerce Secretary Otto Wolff and Small Business Administration Acting Administrator Darryl Hairston, asking them to improve coordination between their agencies' programs designed to help manufacturers suffering in the current economic crisis. "During these tough economic times, it is critical that our nation's federal departments and agencies work in unison to address the needs of small and medium manufacturers," the senators wrote, noting that 33 percent of jobs lost in 2008 came from the manufacturing industry -- a significant jump from 2007. The senators suggested that programs such as the SBA's small business development centers and

Data Show Small Firms Hiring Contractors at Lower Salaries

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:05:57 -0500

Small businesses are hiring, but are paying lower salaries, according to new data from payroll firm SurePayroll. The company's February data show that hiring increased by 0.3 percent over January. Year to date, hiring is up 0.6 percent. However, the data also show that most of the new hires are contractors -- for every 100 workers engaged by small businesses in January, 3.82 are 1099 independent contractors and 96.18 are W-2 employees. This is up from 3.78 percent in the prior month, and it's the highest level SurePayroll has seen its "Contractor Index" since it started publishing economic data. Small businesses are hiring contractors in lieu of salaried employees because the nation's economic future is uncertain, and it's easier to terminate a contractor than to terminate an employee, said SurePayroll President Michael Alter. Contractors also cost small businesses less because they don't receive benefits, and employers are not required to