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Economy
- Snowstorms curb industrial output, rebound seen | Reuters
- Industrial production braked sharply in February, held back by severe winter storms that slammed parts of the country.
- Retail Sales Take A Surprising Up-turn In February | NPR
- Retail sales posted a surprising increase in February as consumers did not let major snowstorms stop them from storming the malls.
- Small Business Optimism Slipped in February | Reuters
- NFIB's monthly survey showed 34 percent of the small business owners said weak sales are their top business problem.
- How Real Estate Values Contribute to the Small Business Credit Crunch | BusinessWeek
- Small business owners, who often borrow against homes and offices, are suffering from the vicious cycle that's keeping credit tight and pushing real estate down.
- Consumer borrowing up in January after 11 monthly declines | AP
- Consumer borrowing broke a record stretch of declines with a small increase in January as a boost in auto loans offset continued weakness in credit card borrowing.
Policy
- States may ban credit checks on job applicants - Yahoo! News
- Lawmakers in at least 16 states from South Carolina to Oregon have proposed outlawing most credit checks, saying the practice traps people in debt because their past financial problems prevent them from finding work.
- Credit unions seek approval to increase small-business loans | USATODAY.com
- Credit unions say the economic downturn presents their best opportunity yet to persuade lawmakers to raise a federal limit on their business loans -- but banks say this would give CUs an unfair advantage.
- Lawmakers probe banks' lending to small businesses | AP
- Two House committees, Small Business and Financial Services, are hearing Friday from federal regulators, business owners, bankers and developers to gauge the condition of lending to small business and commercial real estate.
- Obama Readies a Fallback Health-Care Proposal | WSJ.com
- Scaled-down plan would expand insurance to about half as many people as pending bill envisions - at 1/4th the cost.
- Class Action Lawsuit Claims Yelp Sales to Local Businesses an "Extortion Scheme" | TechCrunch.com
- The lawsuit essentially alleges that the heavily funded startup runs an extortion scheme and has unscrupulous sales practices in place to generate revenue, in which the company?s employees call businesses demanding monthly payments in the guise of advertising contracts, in exchange for removing or modifying negative reviews.
HR
- Hiring index nears turning point | AP
- An index that measures the breadth of hiring among private industries is nearing a turning point that could signal consistent job gains.
- Survey: Employers shifting away from downsizing | Reuters
- The number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in February to the lowest level since 2006, and employers appear to have shifted away from downsizing even though hiring may be a while off, a report on Wednesday showed.
- States may ban credit checks on job applicants - Yahoo! News
- Lawmakers in at least 16 states from South Carolina to Oregon have proposed outlawing most credit checks, saying the practice traps people in debt because their past financial problems prevent them from finding work.
- Senate Approves $15 Billion Jobs Bill | NYTimes.com
- The measure would give employers a temporary exemption from payroll taxes for newly hired workers who had been unemployed for 60 days or more.
- IRS, states crack down on independent worker abuse | AP
- The Internal Revenue Service and 37 states are cracking down on companies that try to trim payroll costs by illegally classifying workers as independent contractors, rather than as full employees
Technology
- Google Launches the Google Apps Marketplace | Mashable.com
- In addition to its own suite of office software, Google will now allow third-party "software as a service" companies to allow their products to work within the Google Docs environment.
- Foursquare Introduces New Tools for Businesses | NYTimes.com
- The free analytics tool and dashboard will give business owners access to a range of information and statistics about visitors to their establishments.
- FCC, SBA Partner To Help Small Businesses Tap Into Broadband | Broadcasting & Cable
- FCC and Small Business Administration outline national broadband plan's small business proposals.
- Apple's Joint Venture may focus on Small Business | Computerworld Blogs
- This Joint Venture concept would seem to indicate that Apple is moving beyond these two passive programs or perhaps combining them into a single active business services division.
- Class Action Lawsuit Claims Yelp Sales to Local Businesses an "Extortion Scheme" | TechCrunch.com
- The lawsuit essentially alleges that the heavily funded startup runs an extortion scheme and has unscrupulous sales practices in place to generate revenue, in which the company?s employees call businesses demanding monthly payments in the guise of advertising contracts, in exchange for removing or modifying negative reviews.
Startup
- Intel plans $2 billion fund to invest in U.S. companies | Reuters
- U.S. technology giant Intel Corp is planning to set up a $2 billion fund to invest in U.S. companies, the Wall Street Journal said. They will likely work with Venture Capital firms in their efforts.
- Laid-Off Managers, Finding Jobs by Starting Companies | NYTimes.com
- Last year, more laid-off managers and executives grew tired of waiting for human resources departments to call them back. They took matters into their own hands by starting companies.
- Austin Tops Small Business Vitality Survey | Portfolio.com
- A ranking by Portfolio.com and American Business Journals ranks the Texas capitol the best city in America to start a business.
- Malcolm Gladwell Punctures the Risk-Taker Myth | BusinessWeek
- No surprise here: When people have their own livelihood on the line, they're obviously going to be concerned about managing the downside.
- Despite the facts, Silicon Valley perpetuates the youth bias startup myth | San Jose Mercury News
- If Silicon Valley wants to continue to thrive, and to live up to its image as a meritocracy, it needs to take the blinders off and look for innovation everywhere.
Marketing
- Foursquare Introduces New Tools for Businesses | NYTimes.com
- The free analytics tool and dashboard will give business owners access to a range of information and statistics about visitors to their establishments.
- Class Action Lawsuit Claims Yelp Sales to Local Businesses an "Extortion Scheme" | TechCrunch.com
- The lawsuit essentially alleges that the heavily funded startup runs an extortion scheme and has unscrupulous sales practices in place to generate revenue, in which the company?s employees call businesses demanding monthly payments in the guise of advertising contracts, in exchange for removing or modifying negative reviews.
- Six easy ways to maximize your social media content | Econsultancy
- The headline says five, but there are six great, basic tips for how to get the most out of your company's use of social media.
- U.S. enlists UPS in quest to find potential small business exporters | Reuters
- UPS will use shipping data to identify small and medium-sized U.S. companies that export to just one foreign country. It will then suggest new export markets for those companies based on factors such as industry, geography, currency and market access opportunities.
- Entrepreneurs: Beware of Vanity Metrics | Harvard Business Review
- Vanity metrics are numbers which look good on paper but aren't action oriented: website hits, message volume, or "billions and billions served." They look great in a press release, but what do they accomplish?
Management
- If you want to succeed, get used to failure | Management-Issues.com
- Once you accept that failure is commonplace, you are better able to succeed now and in the future. You can start with a clearer understanding of innovation reality.
- Which Presidents Were Small Business Owners | USA Today
- It's President's Day in the U.S. Around here, it's a good time to ask, which President's were small business owners?
- IRS, states crack down on independent worker abuse | AP
- The Internal Revenue Service and 37 states are cracking down on companies that try to trim payroll costs by illegally classifying workers as independent contractors, rather than as full employees
- Malcolm Gladwell Punctures the Risk-Taker Myth | BusinessWeek
- No surprise here: When people have their own livelihood on the line, they're obviously going to be concerned about managing the downside.
- Joblessness Is High, and So Is Worker Discontent | NYTimes.com
- Beneath the high unemployment rate lurks a simmering discontent ? among people who still have jobs.
Finance and Accounting
- How Real Estate Values Contribute to the Small Business Credit Crunch | BusinessWeek
- Small business owners, who often borrow against homes and offices, are suffering from the vicious cycle that's keeping credit tight and pushing real estate down.
- Credit unions seek approval to increase small-business loans | USATODAY.com
- Credit unions say the economic downturn presents their best opportunity yet to persuade lawmakers to raise a federal limit on their business loans -- but banks say this would give CUs an unfair advantage.
- Lawmakers probe banks' lending to small businesses | AP
- Two House committees, Small Business and Financial Services, are hearing Friday from federal regulators, business owners, bankers and developers to gauge the condition of lending to small business and commercial real estate.
- Ohio-based Huntington Bank plans $4 billion in Small Business Loans | Dayton Daily News
- Small businesses in the bank's six-state Ohio Valley service area of Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will be the market for the bank's boost in small business loans.
- Credit unions seek larger share of business loans | washingtonpost.com
- Credit unions, historically focused on consumer lending, increasingly are making loans to businesses, too.
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