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Correction
Tweet Share on Facebook January 11, 2007 CommentAn earlier post, Tech Solutions for Small Firms, incorrectly identified StoreVault's parent company. StoreVault's parent company is Network Appliance.
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Schwarzenegger Health Plan Raises Doubts
Tweet Share on Facebook January 10, 2007 CommentHealthcare routinely ranks No. 1 in polls that gauge the concerns of small-business owners. But there has been some head-scratching this week after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled his plan to ensure that everyone in the state has health insurance. The impact on small business is far from clear, and the fallout will depend largely on a company's makeup.
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Who Says the French Don't Work Hard?
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2007 CommentAmericans may have the reputation of working through lunch and being chained to their BlackBerrys. But it turns out that small-business owners in the United States actually work fewer hours than their global counterparts. U.S. owners of companies with under 100 employees worked 52 hours a week on average. Business owners in the United Kingdom, Mexico, France, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, and Australia averaged 54 hours a week, according to a MasterCard survey of 4,000 small businesses around the world.
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Finding the Keys to Being an Entrepreneur
Tweet Share on Facebook January 8, 2007 CommentI recently talked with Carl Schramm, president of the Kauffman Foundation, about his new book, The Entrepreneurial Imperative. Here are excerpts of our conversation.
Who are entrepreneurs?
That goes to the question of are they born or made? It's very hard from a personality perspective to identify them. You can't tell from shaking hands with someone whether [he or she is] an entrepreneur. They believe they can tell who's the entrepreneur in the room. They think they have certain special traits such as being gregarious, or they radiate risk-taking readiness. It's a nice thing to want to believe.
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Firms Plan to Hire and Invest in Tech
Tweet Share on Facebook January 5, 2007 CommentWhile cutting back tops the list of many New Year's resolutions, many small businesses plan to beef up a bit in 2007. Overall, companies don't expect spending that's off the charts, but they say they will staff up, add space, buy equipment, and invest in technology, according to several recent small-business surveys.
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The Psychological Test Behind the Salad Bar
Tweet Share on Facebook December 19, 2006 CommentHiring and keeping new workers may be on many small companies' 2007 to-do list, but they may find that it's easier said than done. About 8 in 10 business owners said they couldn't even find qualified applicants to fill open jobs, according to a December survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.
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Tech Solutions for Small Firms
Tweet Share on Facebook December 15, 2006 CommentCorrected on 1/11/07: An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified StoreVault's parent company.
When it comes to technology, start-ups have little wiggle room in their budgets for costly business services normally geared toward much larger players. But next year these often ignored small fry will get some attention. More companies, themselves tiny start-ups, are figuring out that while small businesses may not spend much per firm, there's a lot of them, and that can add up to big sales.
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Firms Need a Gift-Giving Strategy
Tweet Share on Facebook December 11, 2006 CommentIt's that time of year when calendars, cards, and candy fill up workplaces. That's why small-business owners need to be a bit more creative with their holiday gift giving to stand out among the crowd, says Alice Bredin, a small-business adviser at American Express. She says that despite being all too common, gifts are an important marketing move. Smaller companies have gotten the message, making room in their tight budgets for holiday presents. This year, such firms plan to spend an average of $1,065 on gifts for clients and customers–about the same as last year and up from $923 two years ago, according to an American Express survey. Top gifts included fun items such as restaurant and retail gift certificates and donations to charities on clients' behalf.
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Small Business Cheers Changes at Export-Import Bank
Tweet Share on Facebook December 8, 2006 CommentThe Senate brought some holiday cheer this week to little residents of Whoville, passing new rules that force the Export-Import Bank to loosen its purse strings when it comes to small companies. If President Bush signs the bill reauthorizing the bank's charter, as expected, sledding through the export loan process will be a lot less bumpy for companies with fewer than 500 employees.
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Energy Saving Tips From a Pro
Tweet Share on Facebook December 6, 2006 CommentWhile many big companies are tapping into the small-business market, sometimes it makes more sense for the underdogs to stick together. That's the idea behind five-year-old Liberty Power, cofounded by David Hernandez after he left Enron in the wake of its collapse. At the energy giant, Hernandez got a front-row seat to see how large companies ignore little ones. Problems like lost invoices and bad customer service abounded, he says, as Enron paid more attention to large clients.
Small Biz Scene
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.
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