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November 16, 2009

News for small and independent businesses

Today's Top Stories

Why small-business job creation statistics vary
Scott Shane, a professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University, attempts to explain why there is a 32.7% disparity in statistics about small-business job creation reported by the Census and Small Business Administration compared with Automatic Data Processing. The difference, he says, is that the Census and SBA track "firms" while ADP measures "establishments." "Putting the data together, it is clear that a lot of people work in small establishments that are part of large firms," Shane writes. "Unfortunately, most people looking at the different sources of data don't know this." BusinessWeek (11/13)

How to take advantage of current trends
Deb Purcell, director of client services for Pitney Bowes Business Insight's Strategy and Analytics Group, says small businesses can take advantage of some opportunities now. Purcell tells BusinessWeek columnist Karen E. Klein that retailers can set up a temporary storefront, firms can negotiate cheaper rent, and emphasizing value may attract customers. BusinessWeek (11/13)

Health Care Reform

Why the House health reform bill breeds discontent
Lawmakers know small businesses want to see health care reformed, but many small-business advocates are opposed to two measures included in the House-passed bill -- the public option and the mandate that most employers must provide insurance coverage to their employees. NFIB says the public option "is an easy way out for legislators who decided to simply grow the size of government" and says the employer mandate will keep small businesses from growing and kill jobs. TIME (11/13)

Loopholes in health insurance exchange could hurt reform
Senate bills that would enable health insurers to operate outside of the proposed health insurance exchange may be detrimental to health reform by drawing healthy people out of the exchange, critics say. However, Democrats on the Senate health committee clarify that the bills are "about creating and enhancing choice," taking into consideration the people who do not want to buy insurance through an exchange. The Washington Post (11/15)

Small shops "whipsawed" by insurance rate hikes
Small-business owners in Massachusetts are seeing the largest premium increases in years. Bob Carroll, a paint-spraying distributor who switched carriers after Blue Cross-Blue Shield told him his rates were going up 47%, said small businesses are reluctant to add employees because of the insurance hikes. The Boston Globe (11/15)

Sales & Marketing

3 strategies for getting bills paid
Collection agencies and attorneys can help businesses get customers to pay overdue bills, but short of calling in the big guns, the experts in this Wall Street Journal article suggest three strategies owners can use first. Their tips: Check a customer's payment history before extending credit, make it easy for customers to make payments and use mobile devices to swipe credit cards in the field. The Wall Street Journal (11/13)

Technology for Small Biz

HP move reflects small-business product trend
HP's announcement of a new suite of products focused on small businesses is an indication that "we're about to enter a golden age of small-business products and services," writes USA TODAY columnist Rhonda Abrams. HP brought out high-level decision makers from across diverse divisions to help promote the suite -- which shows how important the small-business customer is to this giant company, Abrams says. USA TODAY (11/13)

Political Landscape

Obama backs mandatory sick-leave law
The Obama administration last week lent support to the Healthy Families Act, which would require businesses with 15 or more employees to give workers seven paid sick days a year. NFIB and other small-business lobbies are opposed to the measure. The New York Times/You're the Boss blog (11/14)

Featured Content

Best Practices

Pursue the next best thing to meet customer expectations
One strategy a business can undertake to become more successful is to study how customers interact with the brand and the competition, writes Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland Advertising. "Regardless of how you go about innovating, make sure you're continually pursuing the next thing, because a company's commitment to staying relevant must never cease," says McKee. BusinessWeek (11/13)

NFIB in the News

Delaware small-business owner sees surtax as detrimental
Bob Prybutok, president of the Newark composite material manufacturer Polymer Technologies and chairman of the leadership council for NFIB/Delaware, says the surtax the House put in its health care bill makes the measure more about "government control" than health care. Prybutok says small businesses like his already provide health insurance for their employees but it may make more sense to drop the insurance if the company has to pay more in taxes. The News Journal (Wilmington, Del.) (11/15)

Connecticut's failed sick-leave bill likely will return
Connecticut likely will see the return of a failed proposal to mandate that businesses pay employees for sick days, says Andrew Markowski, NFIB/Connecticut. However, if employers have to pay sick leave, they likely will cut back on hours or jobs, which will hurt workers in the long run, he says. Hartford Business Journal (Conn.) (11/15)

Health reform will reach into pockets of Hawaii owners
Proponents of the House health care bill say it will increase insurance coverage for 48,380 people in Hawaii while opponents say it will raise costs for employers. The employer mandates, payroll taxes and government-run insurance program will not make insurance more affordable for small business, says Melissa Pavlicek, NFIB/Hawaii. The measures "will only result in more money coming out of small-business owners' pockets," she says. The Honolulu Advertiser (11/15)

Small-business reality may change Q3 GDP report
The credit crunch is affecting small businesses disproportionately, and their burden is not reflected in the statistics the government released on gross domestic product, writes Edward Harrison at Seeking Alpha. When Goldman Sachs' Economics team challenged the government figures and compared them with data released by NFIB, it found that GDP growth is probably much lower than indicated by the government. Seeking Alpha (11/15)

SmartQuote

Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm."

--Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
English poet, critic and philosopher

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