Building Cybersecurity Awareness

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.”

Read the article here.

Financing Challenges for Minority Entrepreneurs

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.

Read the entire article here.

Business Financing Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs

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.

Read the entire article here.

Achieving Success in the Online Business World

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." 

Read the article here.

Coping with Stress for Business Owners

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (January 25, 2018) - Running a business can be an immensely satisfying experience, but the mental and emotional burden is heavy. Many entrepreneurs work independently or remotely, limiting social contact and sense of community. Business owners are responsible for their employees, paying the bills, and the success of the company as a whole.  

The business blog Real Business addresses the often-overlooked issue of wellness and stress relief for business owners, and steps they can take to improve their well-being.

Click here to read more.

Smart Marketing Hacks for Small Business Owners

NEW YORK, NY (January 24, 2018) - With so many responsibilities, small business owners often make marketing a lower priority. However, marketing plays a crucial role in every business - if people don’t know your product exists, they’re not going to buy it. TGDaily provides some excellent advice on how to streamline and maximize your marketing efforts.

Read the entire article here.

How the Tech World Can Help Small Businesses

SAN JOSE, CA (January 23, 2018) - Devin Wenig, CEO of eBay shares a compelling Op-Ed in USA Today highlighting the importance of connection and collaboration between the tech industry and the small business world.

“Creating pathways between remote areas and urban centers is beneficial in recirculating economic prosperity. Instead of painting the tech sector and innovation as job destroyers, we need a new model of public-private tech partnership where technology companies and public officials come together to rev the small business engine,” Wenig writes.  

Read the entire article here.

Entrepreneurship is Growing in the US - Especially Among Women

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. 

Read the entire article here.

Big Data for Small Businesses

NEW YORK, NY (January 19, 2018) - Big Data and artificial intelligence have been hot topics in the media lately - and yet most entrepreneurs don’t realize that they can use these tools in their own business.

“The majority of techniques used in Big Data and the Internet of Things (even some artificial intelligence) don’t require a large budget or a huge staff. They only require a willingness to learn and experiment,” the business blog SmallBizTrends reports.

The blog presents a fascinating list of books on Big Data, introducing the opportunities that it offers for business and offering ways to utilize these resources.  

Read the entire list here.

Bringing Down Barriers for Minority Entrepreneurs

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.

Read the entire article here.

A Guide to Navigating the New Tax Law

WASHINGTON DC (January 17, 2018) - The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act offers a 20 percent deduction for business income from limited liability companies and S corporations, causing many entrepreneurs to contemplate whether they should incorporate their business. However, the new law provides numerous stipulations that are important for business owners to understand.

CNBC offers a straightforward guide to evaluating and maximizing the tax law for your business. Read the entire article here.

Smart Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs

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.

Read the entire list here.

The Best States for Female Entrepreneurs in 2018

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.

The Downside of Crowdfunding

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.

Small Business Owners Struggle to Find Financing

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.

Read the entire article here.

The Rise of Veteran-Owned Small Businesses

NEW YORK, NY (November 15, 2017) In the United States, veterans are a significant force in the world of small businesses. One in four veterans own a small business, a rate that is 7.7% above the national average - that's 2.5 million veteran entrepreneurs.

In "The top places in America for veteran small business owners", economist Lucas Puente presents the results of a national survey by Thumbtack and writes,

"The other thing veterans point to as being a catalyst to their success is being part of a supportive community. While every business’ needs are different, being in a place where veteran-owned businesses are valued by clients, bankers, suppliers, and others can help provide a leg up in the potentially harrowing process of starting and growing a small business."

Read the entire article here. 

Exposing Peer-to-Peer Lending Myths

 CLEVELAND, OH (November 13, 2017) The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland has released a new report uncovering the predatory nature of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending services that leave many Americans facing unexpected and dire consequences:

"We find that, on average, borrowers do not use P2P loans to refinance pre-existing loans, credit scores actually go down for years after P2P borrowing, and P2P loans do not go to the markets underserved by the traditional banking system. Overall, P2P loans resemble predatory loans in terms of the segment of the consumer market they serve and their impact on consumers’ finances. Given that P2P lenders are not regulated or supervised for antipredatory laws, lawmakers and regulators may need to revisit their position on online lending marketplaces."

Read the entire report "Three Myths about Peer-to-Peer Loans" here. 

Celebrating National Women's Small Business Month

WASHINGTON DC (November 10, 2017) Female business owners are on the rise, according to reports by the National Women's Business Council.

October was featured as Women's Small Business Month, marking the 29th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan's signing of the Women's Business Ownership Act, creating the National Women's Business Council and ensuring that banks could no longer require women to have a male co-signer for business loans. Here's a look at some recent progress:

• From 2002 to 2012, women-owned businesses increased at a rate 2.5 times the national average: 52% vs. 20%. Employment in women-owned business grew at a rate 4.5 times the national average: 18% vs. 4%.

• In 2016 there were 11.3 million women-owned businesses in the US, with nearly 9 million employees generating more than $1.6 trillion in revenue.

The report concludes: “The growth of women business enterprises over the last ten years is unprecedented; yet, women still lag behind, in earnings and receipts, and in the amount of venture capital and other forms of equity investment that they receive. This is a unique time, in many ways a perfect storm, and it is imperative that we work harder and faster to unlock the tremendous potential of women business enterprises,” said Carla Harris, Chair, National Women’s Business Council.

Click here to view the entire report. 

Survey: Millennial Entrepreneurs Plan to Expand and Seek Business Loans

RALEIGH, NC (November 7, 2017) In the next six to twelve months, 82% of millennial business owners plan to expand their business, and 34% plan to do so with the help of loans, savings or credit cards, according to First Citizens Bank's Small Business Forecast Survey. 

Click here to view the survey. 

Why You Need Financing as a Woman Business Owner

NEW YORK, NY (October 10, 2016) excerpt via BUSINESS 2 COMMUNITY - Women business owners are on the rise across the United States, as entrepreneurship offers some uniquely attractive benefits. 

"For one it allows them to bypass the 'glass ceiling'. The flexibility of being 'your own boss' is an environment which allows many women to thrive – you are in charge of your own career advancement!" the business blog Business 2 Community reports.

However, the blog continues: "Running a business as a woman also comes with a unique set of challenges- particularly financing. Not all women know about their resources and some don’t even bother apply for lines of credit, assuming they won’t get accepted. Instead, they rely on their own personal funding."

Click here to read the entire article.