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Data on Financing May Disappear
Tweet Share on Facebook November 30, 2006 CommentThe Federal Reserve is not an organization that advocates careless spending, but its own frugality may threaten a key piece of small-business research. Every five years, the Fed pays about $4 million to survey companies with fewer than 500 employees about where they get financing. Now the Fed says it might stop the study it has been doing since 1987, saying its cost isn't justified.
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Vacation's Not Spoken Here
Tweet Share on Facebook November 21, 2006 CommentWith mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie beckoning Americans to holiday tables, it's hard to imagine anyone being chained to a desk this Thanksgiving. But if you're a small-business owner, chances are you are squeezing work in between touch football and feasting. It's impossible to completely cut off if you are in charge of a company, says entrepreneur Jasen Lew, cofounder of MySeniorCenter.com. Small-business owners like him are responsible for everything from making Office Depot runs to marketing.
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The Romance of an IRS Audit
Tweet Share on Facebook November 15, 2006 CommentIn the new movie Stranger Than Fiction, Will Ferrell plays Harold Crick, an Internal Revenue Service auditor who becomes attracted to a bakery owner he's auditing. I haven't seen it, but the possibility of romance between an auditor and a small-business owner seems about as far-fetched as the movie's premise that Crick's life is being dictated by a novelist afflicted with writer's block. Especially this year.
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Business Owners Assess the Midterms
Tweet Share on Facebook November 9, 2006 CommentIt's time to put away the yard signs, tear down the fliers, and wash the "I voted" sticker grime off your clothes. After months of hand wringing, midterm elections are finally over. But what do the results mean for small-business owners? Actually not much, says Andy Birol, who owns a small-business consulting firm in Ohio, right smack in the middle of election madness. He says that the Democrats' capture of the House of Representatives and most likely the Senate matters to small companies about as much as did the ill-fated Janet Jackson Super Bowl snafu a few years ago.
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Woman-Owned Firms Show Rapid Growth
Tweet Share on Facebook November 6, 2006 CommentAt most major companies, it's rare to see women in top leadership positions. But that doesn't mean women are shunning the business world. Instead, many are starting their own companies, and some of them are getting help from big corporate players.
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Yes, Small Is Beautiful
Tweet Share on Facebook November 6, 2006 CommentCashing out with a public offering may seem like the ultimate goal of a lot of entrepreneurs, but it turns out that's not so true. Most small-business owners see their companies as a lifestyle and a legacy, not just as another way to earn a living.
Renuka Rayasam covers small business, biotechnology, and other business news for U.S. News. Her stories have included a piece on the latest trends in corporate dining, as well as regular small-business profiles. She has written for the Austin-American Statesman, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bloomberg News, and tech magazine Ziff Davis Smart Business. She has a bachelor of arts in political economy and German from the University of California – Berkeley and a master of international affairs from Columbia University.