Small Business Information Center

Small Business Book Keeping Software, Bookkeeping Software

Small Business Pro — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:42:25 +0000

Properly specify your small business book keeping software requirements before undertaking any kind of accounting software review

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[Source: Small Business Finance Tips latest articles and information]

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

5 Ways to Break the Silence Barrier

Captain of the Enterprise — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:57:46 +0000

When your employees are scared, the best thing to do is get them talking.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Growing Your Business]

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Find Your Purpose

Business Evangelist — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:38:48 +0000

Roy Spence explains why entrepreneurs are the key to our economic future.

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[Source: Entrepreneur.com: Growing Your Business]

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Data Mining Isn't Good Bet for Investors

Small Business Pro — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:07:14 +0000

Every year, billions of dollars pour into data-mined investing strategies, but no one knows if these techniques will work in the real world.

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[Source: WSJ.com: Money]

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Stock Dividends Make a Difference

Small Business Pro — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:51:04 +0000

Those thinking of wading back into the stock market should consider looking at dividend-paying stocks, often called "equity income" funds.

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[Source: WSJ.com: Money]

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Start-Ups Share Space to Shave Costs

Masher — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:22:04 +0000

For three years, Tobias Roediger and a friend spent their spare time in Mr. Roediger's basement working on a dream: starting a small digital-film and visual-effects company. When Mr. Roediger lost his full-time job as a computer-lab supervisor in June, the friends decided it was time to launch the company -- and move out of the basement.They were able to afford the move by "co-working," a rental arrangement in which the tenants -- usually small-business owners and professionals -- share space and office equipment, and pay short-term leases, usually month to month. Some co-working spaces feature groups of desks positioned in open rooms; others have individual offices. Many provide certain amenities such as a receptionist, kitchen or game room.For entrepreneurs, it's a cheaper and more flexible alternative to renting or buying space of their own. The 32-year-old Mr. Roediger and his partner contracted with Qwirk Columbus Corp., a recently opened co-working space in downtown Columbus, Ohio, to pay $500 a month for two desks in an office, computers with Wi-Fi, use of conference rooms, a shared printer/copy/fax machine, espresso maker and more. Mr. Roediger estimates he's saving $300 to $400 per month on utility bills and not having to rent space he doesn't need.It's also a much more social setting than Mr. Roediger's basement. "The thing that really drew me was the ability to work with a lot of other creative people," says Mr. Roediger, who adds that the shared space is good for networking, too: He says he's been talking to an advertising company on the premises about a possible deal.Sharing office space with other businesses isn't new, but the tanking economy has prompted many small-business owners to consider it as they look for any practical way to lower overhead costs.Some providers of co-working space are also offering reduced rates and even giving entrepreneurs opportunities to barter their services in return for paying no rent at all.In February, Office Nomads LLC of Seattle started giving a "Pink Slip Special" to customers who were recently laid off, offering a free one-month membership worth $375. Overall, a dozen people took advantage of the offer, which ended last month, says Susan Evans, co-owner of Office Nomads.
Winnie Fung, a manager of the Change You Want to See Gallery, a nonprofit co-working space in Brooklyn, N.Y., says she sees a lot more bartering than she did a few years ago. At least three or four people from the 10 in her co-working space have partially or fully bartered their services for desk space, she says.Ms. Fung says a few months ago she made a deal with one of her members, a tech start-up owner, to look after the building's computers and Internet service in return for free space.
Glenn Okun, clinical professor of management and entrepreneurship at New York University's Stern School of Business, say that the co-working environment presents an opportunity to tap into the collective expertise of the group and create business deals with other business owners, who are just a cubicle away.Other experts, though, say small-business owners should be wary about the loss of privacy in such a workplace.
Sara Beckman, a senior lecturer who has taught a course on workplace design issues at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that entrepreneurs should consider these drawbacks: "Am I sharing the space with people who are direct competitors? How do I draw boundaries around the information I can and cannot share with people who don't work in my organization?"Michael Patino of Fairfax, Va., who was laid off in October from an executive-search firm, started his own firm, Patino Associates LLC, and says he saw co-working as a better alternative to working from home. It's a more professional place for clients to visit, and a businesslike environment in which to make calls and conduct interviews.But he didn't want a work space that was airy and open. "I needed four quiet walls," he says, to evoke the image of confidentiality, especially when he needed to interview candidates for executive positions.For six months he worked at home, while also taking care of two kids. But "in a field where you spend most of your time on the phone, [home] is not the best dynamic in the long term," says Mr. Patino.He started looking for a suitable co-working space for his company and found one in McLean, Va., owned by Preferred Offices LLC, which has nine locations in the Washington area. Mr. Patino signed a 12-month lease in June. He says he spends $2,000 a month, which includes the lease, utility, telephone and Internet charges, and a receptionist, who works for all the businesses on the floor."It's wonderful so far," he says. "There's an extra layer of credibility when there's someone picking up the phone for you."
Write to Raymund Flandez at raymund.flandez@wsj.com

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[Source: WSJ.com: Small Business]

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Calif.'s Lessons on Insurance Exchanges

Motivation Now — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:35:09 +0000

As Congress debates creating insurance "exchanges" as part of a health-care overhaul, the failure of a similar effort in California may offer important insights, former participants in the program say.From 1993 to 2006, small businesses in California could buy health insurance through an exchange run initially by the government, and later by a nonprofit group.The plan was undermined when some businesses with relatively healthy workers bought policies more cheaply directly from insurers, bypassing the exchange. That left the exchange with a shrinking pool of less-healthy workers, forcing rates higher and prompting many insurers to withdraw. Managers chose to shut the program in 2006 when one of three remaining insurers withdrew."There are definite lessons to be learned," said John Ramey, who as former head of the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board helped implement California's exchange. "We learned them the hard way out here."Among those lessons, he and others said: Employers and individuals who qualify must be required to obtain health insurance through the exchange. Failing that, John Grgurina, who ran California's exchange from 2002 until it ended, said government must impose rules governing rates and eligibility to protect the exchange from attracting a disproportionate share of high-risk people.An exchange aims to get better prices for coverage by banding together businesses and individuals. Insurers would have an incentive to join an exchange because they would gain access to more potential customers. Individuals and employees of businesses that participate in an exchange would be able to chose from the available plans and pay the same rate.Exchanges, either on a regional basis or a single national one, are likely to be a part of any final health-care legislation. Late Friday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved its health-care bill, though a full House vote won't come until the fall.President Barack Obama on Saturday praised the House committee's action and urged lawmakers to "build upon the historic consensus."The compromise proposal agreed to in the House Friday exempted more businesses from the mandate to provide coverage to their employees and offered subsidies to fewer individuals to buy insurance through an exchange, which would shrink the number of potential participants.Each of the three major bills -- one in the House and two in the Senate -- would create one or more exchanges. The specifics vary, but most of the proposals would impose more regulations than the failed California program, which analysts say would help the exchanges compete.Despite California's struggles, insurance exchanges are still the most effective way to expand coverage, said Elliot Wicks, a health-care consultant who wrote a report on the California program. The report, released last month, was commissioned by the California HealthCare Foundation, a private independent nonprofit.Veterans of the California effort said the ultimate effectiveness of any exchange would rest on details that have yet to be worked out. They said the pool of people in an exchange should be as broad as possible, to spread both risk and administrative costs.Other states have tried health exchanges, with mixed results. Exchanges in Texas, Florida and North Carolina each failed because, like California, they were left with too many high-risk participants, said Rick Curtis, president of the Institute for Health Policy Solutions, a consulting firm on health-insurance issues.Massachusetts and Connecticut have had more success. Massachusetts created an exchange as part of its universal-health-care effort; the exchange has helped expand coverage, although some business owners have balked at the costs, and state officials have worried about the impact on the state budget.In Connecticut, a for-profit subsidiary of a nonprofit organization administers a small-business exchange founded in 1995 that now covers roughly 88,000 people at 5,000 businesses. Participants said the system worked because of rules governing how insurers set rates.California's exchange, by contrast, never really caught on with employers. At its peak, it covered 150,000 people, about 2% of the small-group market. Employers were never required to provide health insurance to workers; those with healthy workers found they could get lower rates outside the exchange. The low enrollment figures also meant the plan never realized hoped-for administrative savings.
Phil Lebherz, chief executive of LISI Inc., a San Mateo, Calif., insurance consultant, said the plan was mismanaged from the beginning. For example, he said, government officials who initially ran the program tried to circumvent brokers, but later returned and asked brokers to participate.
Write to Michael Sanserino at michael.sanserino@wsj.com

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[Source: WSJ.com: Small Business]

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Internet Start-Ups Diversify

Motivation Now — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:28:53 +0000

If at first you don't succeed, try again -- and if you are an Internet company, do it quickly.Slide Inc. is learning this lesson well. The San Francisco-based company, which was started by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and has raised a total of about $75 million, makes some of the most popular applications on social-networking sites, including a game called SuperPoke, where users can send their friends virtual hugs, slaps and sheep.To capitalize on its popularity, Slide opened an ad-sales office in New York last summer and hired a team to sell standard online ads, such as the graphical ads that border a Web page. It typically sold such ad campaigns for $50,000 to $200,000.Now, Slide is scrapping those ad efforts. It recently fired its ad-sales team and instead is focusing on selling so-called branded entertainment campaigns, where an advertiser is incorporated into games that are already popular among consumers. It is also ramping up its virtual-goods business, such as spoofs of famous works of art. It hopes that segment will account for the majority of its revenue this year."Think of us like an e-commerce business," says Keith Rabois, Slide's vice president of strategy and business development.Slide is among a group of companies, including RockYou, Zynga Inc. and Meez, that are diversifying their businesses by selling virtual goods to consumers and branded entertainment ads to marketers.A year ago, investors thought of these start-up companies primarily as application, or widget, makers, referring to games and other applications for social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Some of the most-hyped businesses on the Web a year ago were such companies.Backed by venture-capital dollars, these companies had grand plans to capitalize on their popularity among Web users by selling ads. They opened New York offices, hired ad-sales executives and hosted hip widget conferences to evangelize the new media to marketers.Turns out, it wasn't such a good idea, particularly during a recession. Now, many of these companies, such as Slide, are searching for more and different ways to earn money."A year ago, advertising was seen as the cool new way to create a great deal of revenue," says Sean Ryan, founder and chairman of Meez, a San Francisco-based Web site where consumers can create animated characters for social-networking sites. "It turns out those applications didn't have enough engagement to deliver the advertising."But whether these new ventures will become a viable business model or are just the latest fad remains to be seen. Virtual goods are an untested business model at massive scale. The companies also are likely to face intensifying competition from Facebook and MySpace, which are bulking up their business with marketers and and experimenting with virtual goods, too. MySpace is owned by News Corp., which also owns Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co.Amid shrinking ad budgets, marketers have been hesitant to experiment with new advertising models. Marketers are projected to spend about $70 million this year on widgets and applications, up 76% from the approximately $40 million spent in 2008, according to research firm eMarketer Inc. That is just a sliver of the total $1.1 billion spent on social networks in the U.S. this year and the total $24.5 billion spent on the Web.Mr. Ryan says selling virtual goods is a better model. One example he is betting on: dressing up online characters, or avatars, with virtual clothing, such as a $3 Rocawear T-shirt. Slide, the maker of SuperPoke, sells items for $1 to $50, ranging from a tool that created background scenery for virtual pets to the spoofs of famous paintings.The changes have meant scrapping the term used to describe some of these companies."We are not a widget company. We are a distributed media company," says Ro Choy, chief revenue officer at Rock You. "The reality of our company is that we were not a widget company. We make money through our relationships with advertisers and partners."Widgets and applications first became popular in 2007, when Facebook started allowing outside developers to build applications on its site. Other social-networking sites followed, and the market became a bit of a free-for-all, with dozens of companies building widgets and applications for the sites. Piqued by widgets' popularity among consumers, several marketers turned to the widget and application makers to experiment by building their own applications but found it hard to stand out from the pack."There got to be a point of widget fatigue very quickly," says Sarah Hofstetter, vice president of emerging media at 360i, an independent digital ad agency that creates campaigns for major marketers including National Geographic and NBC Universal.
Write to Emily Steel at emily.steel@wsj.com

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[Source: WSJ.com: Small Business]

Original post blogged on b2evolution.