NEW YORK, NY (February 16, 2018) - NYC’s Department of Small Business Services launched a free service providing legal advice regarding leases and real estate issues for small business owners.
“Small businesses are the economic heart and soul of this city and they deserve every opportunity to succeed. The Commercial Lease Assistance Program will give small business owners the help they need to resolve legal issues without driving them out of business,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
NEW YORK, NY (February 15, 2018) - Understanding the many financing options available is essential for entrepreneurs looking to expand their business. ForexTV.com presents an introduction to Small Business Administration loans, which can be a good option for business owners who have already been turned down for a loan application
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, CA (February 14, 2018) - The Mexican and Guatemalan consulates in California partnered to create an eight-week entrepreneurship program for Latino entrepreneurs in California.
“We’re told that we are a burden to this country,” said Guatemalan Consul Billy Munoz. “But on the contrary, Latinos are a huge help to the economy. And we are hungry to contribute to our adopted homeland that is the U.S.”
BROOKLYN, NY (February 12, 2018) - Starting a business as a student is an exhilarating challenge that requires a strategic approach. Entrepreneur offers a guide to smart financial tips for students starting out in the business world.
NEW YORK, NY (February 9, 2018) - Running a small business is a life-consuming career choice: one third of small business owners work more than 50 hours per week, and one fourth work more than 60 hours per week, according to a New York Enterprise Report poll.
GirlTalkHQ presents the latest innovative tools to run your business with the help of automation and artificial intelligence.
Surprisingly, email takes up more time than any other activity, the article reports. 32% of business owners’ time is spent on email, with unscheduled communication taking the longest. Smart email tools and digital assistants are two resources that can save hours of time each day so that business owners can focus on high-level tasks.
HOUSTON, TX (February 9, 2018) - Minority and women business owners are on the rise and inspiring new business initiatives in Houston.
Women-owned businesses in Houston grew 70.4% in the last ten years, boosting their employment by 34.5%, according to the American Express State of Women-Owned Businesses Report.
A 2016 US Census Bureau study found that 30.8% of businesses in the area are owned by minorities, ranking Houston in sixth place of all metropolitan areas in the United States.
Numerous community and business organizations are stepping up to support this surge of small businesses. The Houston Women’s Business Enterprise Alliance offers seminars and courses and fosters community among women entrepreneurs.
“We want the small-business community to know that you’re not out there alone,” WBEA President April Day says. “There are organizations here to support you, and there are small businesses that are going where you’re going and have been where you want to go.”
CHICAGO, IL (February 7, 2018) - Eighty-eight percent of Chicago small business owners plan to expand their businesses this year, up from 72% last year, according to the Chicagoland Small Business Economic Outlook Survey. 71% of business owners expect higher revenue in 2018 and 42% plan to hire full-time employees this year. However, top concerns include hiring skilled employees and managing healthcare and cybersecurity.
NEW YORK, NY (February 5, 2018) - A new study by the Small Business Administration finds that small business lending has grown significantly faster at small banks since the 2008 financial crisis, and encourages the establishment of more community banks and credit unions.
“Regulators should take steps to encourage the formation of new community banks, which are specialists in small business lending,” the study recommends.
Credit unions are also highlighted for their impact in the world of small business lending.
“Credit union lending to small businesses has more than doubled from 2008 to 2016, from $30 billion to $60 billion,” the article reports.
NEW YORK, NY (February 2, 2018) - A new survey by Paychex indicates that 69% of small business owners have little confidence that they will be able to retire comfortably.
Only 20% of small business owners confirmed that they were very confident in their retirement savings, reflecting a nationwide trend of low confidence in retirement security.
Read the article here.
WACO, TX (February 1, 2018) - The higher the number of local banks in a rural area, the greater the chances that local businesses have opened or expanded with the help of small business loans, a new Baylor University study reports. The study suggests that the local bank is key to economic development in rural communities.
“It allows local business owners in nonmetropolitan America greater access to the types of capital that often prove most useful and affordable to start and maintain businesses,” writes lead author F. Carson Mencken, Ph.D.
According to Newswise, the benefit of conventional loans “is that they allow businesses to be more flexible and weather sales downturns. They also do not require that business owners invest large portions of their personal savings. That enables owners to maintain a personal reserve to weather the early years of a new business, when profits tend to be small or absent.”
This raises concern due to the sharp downturn of local banks in rural areas - from 80% in 1976 to 20% at present day, as reported by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
WASHINGTON DC (January 31, 2018) - The increase in cyberattacks in recent years leaves America’s 30 million small businesses at risk - and yet many business owners are not taking adequate security measures, assuming that they are not a likely target. However, nearly 50% of the American workforce is employed by small businesses rather than larger high-profile companies, leaving millions of workers vulnerable.
“Small businesses are targets, and many are unprepared for cybersecurity challenges including ever-changing and increasing threats from malware, viruses and ransomware against intellectual property and company data,” writes Maria Roat in The Washington Times. “Nor are they adequately prepared to recognize or respond to an internal or external incident.”
NEW YORK, NY (January 30, 2018) - The number of minority-owned small businesses has skyrocketed in the past decade, growing by 79% - ten times faster than the overall growth rate for all small businesses in that time period.
11.1 million businesses in the United States are owned by minorities; yet these communities are drastically underserved in the world of business financing. The Minority Business Development Agency at the Department of Commerce reports that minority-owned firms are much less likely to be approved for business loans, and receive lower amounts and higher interest rates.
“These discrepancies have made minority business owners more likely to not apply for small business loans, usually out of fear of rejection,” reports Jared Weitz of Forbes.
NEW YORK, NY (January 29, 2018) - Women-owned businesses are expanding rapidly in the United States. In 2017, 11.6 million women-owned businesses employed 9 million people and generated $1.7 trillion, according to the American Express State of Women-Owned Business Report. Revenue among women-owned companies has grown 104% in the past decade and generates more than $1 million each year.
The number of female entrepreneurs applying for loans rose to 29% in 2016, according to Rohit Arora at Forbes.
“Borrowers who previously refrained from borrowing money for expansion or capital improvements re-entered the credit markets. Because the economy has been relatively strong and because interest rates are still quite low, women entrepreneurs have shown a willingness to take on more risk by borrowing money to grow their businesses.”
Arora provides a detailed description of the most popular sources of business financing for women business owners in the US.
NEW YORK, NY (January 26, 2018) - Building an online business is an incredible challenge that requires a unique mindset and approach.
Suhaib Mohammad at Entrepreneur offers seven ingredients that business owners need to thrive and grow a business in the online business world. “The arrogance of success," he quotes William Pollard, "is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow."
BABSON PARK, MA (January 22, 2018) - More than 25 million Americans are launching or operating new businesses in the past two years, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2016 United States Report by Babson College.
The influence of women in business is expanding, too - the rate of entrepreneurship among women has grown 1%, while holding steady for male entrepreneurs. Women are innovating more than ever, with 40% of female business owners introducing services or products that are new to consumers and not yet offered by competitors. Overall, Americans are developing new and groundbreaking products at the highest rate in 15 years.
NEWARK, NJ (January 18, 2018) - New Jersey established the Urban Plus Program in a new law on Tuesday, which will collaborate with the Economic Development Authority to provide support and access to financing for underserved minority business owners.
The Urban Plus Program is one step forward in addressing a significant problem: lack of access to capital for women and minority small business owners.
“Minority company ownership is up 38 percent over five years. These firms provide 7 million jobs. Hispanics and African-Americans represent 25 percent of the population. Yet only 1 percent of [venture] capital flows to Hispanic or black entrepreneurs. Does anyone honestly believe these communities are the source of just 1 percent of our best business ideas?” Maria Contreras-Sweet of the Small Business Administration asked.
NEW YORK, NY (January 16, 2018) - Women in business face unique challenges - and author Kerry Hannon at Forbes offers some valuable strategies to help small businesses thrive. Finding mentors, seeking financing, and staying curious are among her tips for developing habits for success.
Hannon’s article also emphasizes the unique strengths women may bring to work: “Many entrepreneurial successes depend on an exquisite form of human understanding and organizational leadership that women have the edge on,” author Michael W. Sonnenfeldt writes.
NEW YORK, NY (January 11, 2018) - Georgia, Florida, Maryland, California and Colorado are the top five states for women entrepreneurs, according to a study by business blog FitSmallBusiness based on statistics on women-owned businesses.
Female business owners are on the rise. “The U.S. is home to over 11.3 million female-owned businesses which employed around nine million people and generated over $1.9 trillion in 2016. Over the last nine years, the number of female-owned businesses has grown five times faster than the national average,” the article states.
FitSmallBusiness analyzed each state based on statistics including percentage of women-owned companies out of total businesses, percentage of business revenues from women-owned companies, and percentage of employees working in women-owned companies.
Read the entire article here.
FONTAINEBLEU, FRANCE (January 10, 2018) - New research indicates that business projects that market themselves as both innovative and useful have a higher risk of failure on crowdfunding platforms.
Crowdfunding has become a popular approach to business financing in recent years, with the advent of Kickstarter and similar platforms. However, a new study by INSEAD business school, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), HEC Paris and Singapore Management University shows that when projects marketed themselves as being both “novel” and “useful”, funding dropped by 26%.
“Prior research has shown that products that are novel and useful typically succeed in the marketplace. But when projects make both claims, backers either assume a product’s benefits are inflated, that it carries a high risk of failure or that it divides the crowd between believers and skeptics, making it hard for backers to pick a side,” says Professor Amitava Chattopadhyay of INSEAD, who co-authored the study.
This suggests a troubling trend for entrepreneurs seeking financing through crowdfunding, where audiences may be fickle.
Read the entire article here.
Seattle, WA (January 9, 2018) - The demand for small business loans is rising, and yet business owners are finding it difficult to obtain bank loans.
Small business demand for financing rose 3.6 percent, from 36.2 to 37.5 in the third quarter, and yet 61% of small business owners reported difficulty in acquiring a loan, according to a study by Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management and Dun & Bradstreet Corp in the Seattle Times. Only 36 percent of small businesses were able to get bank loans in the past three months, compared to 69 percent of mid-size companies.
Largest network of funding sources and resources for entrepreneurs, startups, businesses, nonprofits, social ventures, and community organizations.
What are people saying?
