Small Business - Thesmall businessWeb, a network of integrated apps from dozens of companies that play well together, just launched a directory, Simon Mackie reports at WebWorkerDaily. (My story from last summer on the group here.)
NYT's Robb Mandelbaum examines why the SBA won't lend directly to businesses.
Real Time Economics interviews Atlanta Fed researcher David Altig on small business's role in the recession and recovery.
No relation: Steve King highlights a slideshow of stats characterizing "The New Entrepreneur."
And in this week's print edition of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Alison Damast chronicles B-school students turning to entrepreneurship.
Elsewhere in the magazine, Doug MacMillan explains the push behind the startup visa.
Small Business - First of all, we will not be opening on April 1.
Small Business - If I fired everyone who had complained at some point, there would be very few people here.
Small Business - As much as I like to help our small clients, we might have to start introducing them to other options if we want to meet our sales goals and remain profitable.
Small Business - Small business optimism is down, the NFIB's latest survey indicates, but the job openings subindex ticked up. More from Real Time Economics and The Economist.
The Guardian's Bobbie Johnson tries to size up theeconomyof startups built on Facebook.
Business owner and NYT blogger Jay Goltz advises managers to fire unhappy employees.
How to handle employee behavior onsocial mediasites, by the WSJ's Sarah Needleman.
New European funds aim to boost women entrepreneurs, Jennifer Schenker reports over on BW's Europe Insight blog.
Small Business - In the current Congress, the House has twice passed legislation calling for direct S.B.A. loans.
Small Business - Although VC money is not a fit in all cases, the lessons from VCs and the entrepreneurs they work with are useful in a broad range of businesses
This is a post by guest blogger Jeff Bussgang.
"I've decided to write a book," I told my wife over a year ago.
She gave me that what-the-bleep-are-you-talking-about look. You may be familiar with it with your spouse.
"You've what?"
"I've decided to write a book," I repeated, slightly less confidently.
"On what?"
"Venture capital and entrepreneurship."
"Why?"
"Well, when I was an entrepreneur, I couldn't find any good books on how this mysterious capital-raising process worked and how to harness the resources and knowledge of the VC industry to help build my start-up. Now that I've seen it from the other side, I want to explain to entrepreneurs how it all works to help them be successful. There are good blogs out there, but no good books that pull it all together."
"When are you going to find the time to write a book?" she challenged.
I didn't have a very good answer for that one.
But somehow I've figured it out over the last year plus and am pleased to report that my book, called Mastering the VC Game, will be coming out this spring from Penguin's business imprint, Portfolio.
I've gotten wonderful
Small Business - NPR's April Dembrosky examines efforts to create laws that protect social ventures from having to sell out values for shareholders' benefit.
FDIC Chief Sheila Bair says banks that aren't lending to consumers and business owners need to explain why, McClatchy's Kevin G. Hall reports.
Steve King ofsmall businessLabs on how the film industry and others are following the barbell pattern: a handful of big companies, lots of tiny ones, very few in the middle.
Kauffman's Dane Stangler dives deep into the patterns of how growth firms create jobs.
The WSJ and Dow Jones VentureSource rank 50 top VC-based companies.
Scott Shane, writing in Small Business Trends, explains what we can and can't learn from optimism surveys like the NFIB's.
Small Business - If you haven't seen it, I suggest you watch "The Caine Mutiny." Basically, one guy takes apart the ship. He was unhappy.
Small Business - JPMorgan Chase has been trumpeting increases in lending to small businesses in full-page print ads. One running today in The New York Times describes the bank's new policy to give a "second look" to rejected business loan applicants who request another review:
This means our credit team gives a second look—and makes every reasonable effort—to approve those businesses that are only experiencing short-term stress due to the unprecedented economic downturn.
This extra step has already provided an additional $50 million in credit to 200small businessapplicants who had been previously declined.
How many loan applicants requested a second-look? I asked Chase spokesman Tom Kelly this morning, but he told me the bank isn't sharing that information. So it's hard to evaluate how significant those 200 second-look approvals are.
Kelly did offer this much: Chase's business banking segment originated $700 million in new small business lending in the fourth quarter of 2009. (That does not include credit card lending, Kelly says.) The second-look policy, which began in mid-November, resulted in $50 million in originations since then (a period slightly longer than a quarter). So it's not a negligible amount.
But more transparency would help here. The bank has said
Small Business - When we exceed the market, our people earn more than their peers in the industry.
