Government, Politics, and the Economy No Rebound Yet For Smallest Businesses Confidence among America’s smallest business owners fell to the lowest level since February, according to the latest Discover-Small Business Watch. BusinessWeek.comManagement and OperationsDisaster Protection: The Need for Small Business ContinuityBusinessKnowHow has reprinted the latest edition (Fall 2009) of Disaster Recovery Journal and the article “The Need for Small Business, Business Continuity” by Mark R. Lupo. BusinessKnowHow.com Management and Operations [Read Full Article]

Tips from October 1, 2009 The Small Business tips today discuss how to leverage a bit of social media for your business. Create a LinkedIn profile & page for your small business. Join entrepreneur/small business groups. Get your business networked. Use Twitter and it's searchable database to find your target audience. Begin networking, talking, being social and offer out some special deals. Facebook Fan Pages for business: tell your story, get members, upload pictures/videos. If your business has a blog, import your RSS feed using one of the Facebook applications for that purpose. Can't afford commercials? Create viral videos for YouTube. Create a channel for your business, post to Facebook Fan pages and share on all the other social networks you're a part of. Daily Overview: Find the areas of social media that are going to be able to do the most for your business. Network, get social and connect with both c... [Read Full Article]

Government and Economy New SBA Chief Could Deliver Real Change Karen Mills, President Obama's choice to run the Small Business Administration, could transform the agency's approach to funding. Greenwashing in Washington With Democrats emphasizing the environment in their economic recovery plan, environmental groups are saying that greenwashing—the marketing of products as green even if they really aren’t—has moved from being an advertising ploy to a lobbying tool. [Read Full Article]

Government and Economy The Obama Rescue Plan President-elect Obama's economic stimulus plan is still coming together, but the goals are clear: To spur the economy and create jobs by spending hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure, state budget relief, safety nets for the needy and tax cuts. Here is where things stand. Business Groups File Suit to Block E-Verify Business groups, including the US Chamber of Commerce, have filed a federal lawsuit to block a new rule requiring federal contractors to use the E-Verify system to check their employees’ eligibility to work in the US. The law is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 15. [Read Full Article]

This morning I was having a conversation on Twitter with my new friend Eva Kaplan-Leiserson about social media and its place within Small Business during this time of economic failure. Let’s break it down a bit so that I can address some aspects of new versus traditional medias and maybe answer some of your questions.  Looking at Traditional Media Traditional media ventures are expensive. If you’ve done any research on getting people to hear about your business you’ve probably looked into putting something in the newspaper, pricing radio advertisement and impressions or even looked into a short television advertisement. All of those cost money and with the economy taking a dive into the deep end, the path of those traditional media ventures are beginning to look like you’ll have to put a price on your arm or leg. Yo... [Read Full Article]