07/21/2011
The head of the Food and Drug Administration is pledging to work more closely with small medical technology companies, who have criticized the agency for unnecessarily slowing down approvals of new drugs and devices.

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg is telling business leaders in Cleveland that the agency will invite medical entrepreneurs into the agency to train scientists on how to work with small businesses.

07/20/2011
Two sobering business surveys, a weak June jobs report and interviews with local business owners show a continued reluctance to add new employees anytime soon.

07/19/2011
Even a decade ago, most small businesses were shackled to locally installed software for their business needs.

Much of the SMB was pressed to use Office for line-of-business rather than purchasing dedicated Line-of-Business solutions from vendors like Peachtree or ERP programs from Lotus and IBM. Such software was first off, expensive especially when purchasing licenses and often required knowledgeable IT staff to deploy and maintain. Programs in the Office suite were substitutes for more robust solutions: Excel for financials and bookkeeping, Publisher for desktop publishing, Front Page for creating websites and so on.

With the emergence of cloud computing, however, SMBs now have vast numbers of solutions to choose from. Multi-tenancy cloud platforms from the likes of Amazon and Salesforce.com can scale to support millions of users. A small business simply can sign up for any of the wealth of cloud-based services available, and can never outgrow the service no matter how the business grows.

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07/18/2011
Chinas economy is caught in a difficult dilemma between trying to maintain growth and controlling inflation. Tougher lending policies are favoring large national and state-owned companies, while privately owned small and medium-sized enterprises are struggling or are closing down due to lack of financing. At the same time, food prices continue to soar, and the Consumer Price Index in June surged to a three-year high.

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07/14/2011
Managing a small business can be a thankless job, but if the business is at least yours there are some rewards. For years, large companies had the spotlight with better news coverage and higher salaries. Today, the coverage is all too often negative and the salaries are being cut or frozen. If you run a small business today, you are the superstar. You operate a company that could help the flagging economy and change the world. Here are some resources just for you.

Small Business Management

07/07/2011
The Federation of Small Businesses has reported that almost three quarters of small businesses have been paid late in the last 12 months.

This is a major issue for many SMEs, as they do not have the same financial buffers available to larger enterprises. This often causes a vicious circle for many, as 38% in turn are unable to pay their employers.

43 percent of those questioned are awaiting payment, while over half have been forced to write off invoices worth between £1 and £9,999. In the construction sector, 6% of businesses have had to write off payments of £35,000 or more.

While the government has succeeded in their pledge to pay invoices to small firms within ten days, the survey also showed that public sector clients had paid nearly a fifth of survey respondents late.

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07/06/2011
The U.S. Small Business Administration is reminding military veterans that it offers a loan program designed to help them start or expand their small businesses.

The Patriot Express program offers SBA-guaranteed loans to small companies owned by veterans, reservists and their spouses. The loans can also be used for other business purposes including equipment purchases, inventory and capital, SBA officials said.

Patriot Express loans are available in amounts up to $500,000. Since the program began in 2007, it has provided more than $633 million in SBA-guaranteed loans to 7,650 veterans. The loans are offered through SBAs network of participating lenders nationwide, agency officials said.

07/05/2011
When Do You Sue for Defamation?

The initial knee-jerk reaction of any business owner to a review posted on a national website that has negative content about their business is bound to be not so positive.

But, initiating a lawsuit over the review is entirely different – and it may be side-stepping important steps to help resolve your customer’s problems in a less public and aggressive way.

One thing is for certain: if your customer is simply expressing an opinion, or if what they are saying is simply true, a defamation lawsuit will fail. Opinions and truthful statements are protected.

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07/01/2011
Some companies compete by getting into the minds of their competitors. Competitive Intelligence is the process of collecting information about competitors in a competitive environment. These tips and tricks will help marketers better understand competitive intelligence, and how to effectively compete in their marketplace.

Competitive Intelligence

06/30/2011
With the surge in iPhones and iPads businesses are making the most of the new technology. Check out these new iPad and iPhone SpeckCases.

06/29/2011
The Export-Import Bank says it is on pace to back 5,000 new small-businesses exporters by 2015, part of an administration-led effort to encourage smaller firms to pursue global markets amid weak demand at home.

06/28/2011
The U.S. government needs to get out of the way of business to allow for job creation, Rep. Renee Ellmers said in her partys weekly address Saturday.

The freshman Republican representative is a former nurse and married to a surgeon. She said their small medical practice in Dunn, N.C., is an example of how government regulations are affecting businesses.

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06/27/2011
You can market your small business in a lot of sexy new ways, but hold on. Do not overlook one of the most tried-and true ways to let people know about your business.

I am talking about signs.

The concept is hardly ground breaking, but that is why they are easily forgotten. Signs are cheap and easy, but best of all they work.

Signs, Signs, Signs

06/23/2011
You heard correct. Free advertising. If you are starting a new home-based business, advertising online is essential to your success. Advertising however, can be extremely costly. Posting ads on Free Classified sites can be a good way to start getting your name out there, learning how to position your business, and to test your ad copy.

With online ads like Facebook or Google Ads, you can quickly rack up huge costs because the wrong people are clicking on your ads. When they click, you pay. If you post free classified ads, you don’t pay anything, unless you want to be showcased on a main page or at the top of your category’s listings.

CLASSIFIED SITES
There are several free classified sites that you can use for home business advertising. Craigslist, eBay Classifieds and Kijiji are the biggest ones I know in North America. Some others are Backpages, BOCOnline and iNetGiant, to name just a few. If you search for ‘free advertising’ or ‘free classifieds’ in your country or city you may find something different.

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