This may be either a good or a bad thing, depending on your point of view, but it seems at least one person in the government believes the lot of small businesses is improving. Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke recently indicated that a positive outlook is taking hold.
The classic TV show The Twilight Zone often dealt with people getting what they wanted, only to be unable to handle it. [Spoiler ahead] Recall the episode in which a disgraced jockey became a physical giant, then couldn't accept a chance to race again, for example. And similarly, it seems many small businesses' sites couldn't survive a traffic spike.Neustar, in partnership with Decipher, conducted a survey of 300 IT workers at small businesses before reaching this conclusion. The stats were pretty definitive, too.
Anyone who thought (or at least hoped) the National Federation of Independent Business's Small-Business Optimism Index would climb forever has unfortunately been proven wrong. This week, the NFIB announced that the Optimism Index fell by a significant amount in March.
With the aid of a program like TurboTax, some people are able to gather together fewer than a dozen pieces of paper and finish their taxes in around an hour. But small business owners often aren't nearly so lucky, as the results of a new survey from the National Small Business Association prove.The NSBA surveyed over 300 small business owners between March 15th and March 28th, and determined that doing taxes isn't always a matter of setting aside an evening - or even an entire day - to spend in front of the computer, shuffling forms.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has announced an update to its Business Barometer Index, and - in a good way - the change is insignificant. Only a slight dip registered despite elections and the crises in the Middle East and Japan.
A partial shutdown of America’s government is an interesting – and controversial – concept. Some people seem to be half looking forward to it (Conan O’Brien joked that he’ll immediately park in a loading zone), while others are more worried. And the National Association of the Self-Employed falls into the second camp.Kristie Arslan, Executive Director of the NASE, issued a statement today about the possible effect of a shutdown on America’s small businesses. She wasn’t optimistic.
The average small business customer may not give much thought to privacy when dealing with a firm. Or the customer may even feel he or she's safer than usual, since a human being, and not some error-prone system, is more likely to handle info. Still, there's a new privacy-related offering for small businesses that might be interested in such things.
"The cloud" has become an increasingly common term over the past year or so, with all sorts of people and companies discussing the benefits of accessing information online rather than storing it locally. And it looks like they've been doing more than talking, too, as a new study shows that many UK small businesses have begun taking advantage of cloud technology.
It's a rare month when everyone can agree whether things took a turn for the better or for the worse, but with respect to March, there's now one more vote for "better." The CBIZ Small Business Employment Index indicates that small businesses were able to hire new workers.
At least once a week, a study comes out showing that people are buying and/or using smartphones more often. Small businesses sometimes have trouble taking advantage of this trend, however, and so an upcoming "How to Mobilize Your Business" webinar from AT&T may prove especially helpful.
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