SBA Now Accepting Grant Funding Proposals For Small Business Teaming Program
Posted on: January 18, 2011
- In: Economy | SBA | Small Business
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The U.S. Small Business Administration is accepting grant funding proposals from eligible and well-established national organizations interested in providing training, guidance, counseling, mentoring and procurement assistance to small businesses in teaming arrangements, which may be in the form of a joint venture or prime and subcontractor relationship, under its new Small Business Teaming Pilot program.
The Small Business Teaming Pilot program was established by Congress under the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. Under this new program, the SBA expects to make 10-to-20 grant awards in the range of $250,000-$500,000 totaling up to $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2011.
To be eligible for these grant awards, an applicant must:
- be a private, non-profit or for-profit entity;
- have been in existence continually for the past three years;
- have experience dealing with issues relating to small business on a national level; and
- demonstrate that it has the capacity to provide assistance to small businesses.
Read this Small Business Post at http://www.homebusinessbug.com/sba-accepting-grant-funding-proposals-for-small-business-teaming-program-10189/
Speaking Roses was honored to receive the “Distributors’ Pick” award from the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI). This is the highest award from over 20,000 distributors in a global organization that represents a $20 billion industry in the US alone. The top honor, selected from thousands of competing new products, is given to the best new product of the year as voted by the distributors that sell the products.
The Opportunity
Imagine being able to print flowers – live, fresh flowers!
This process can be the key to servicing the various needs of the many markets that are responding to today’s era of personalization.
We can provide you with the technical training, equipment and supplies. The Speaking Roses product has the ability to tap into the huge potential of the floral, promotional, gift and greeting card markets by becoming a part of the Speaking Roses phenomenon and bringing embossed flowers to individuals and corporations in your area!
Sign-up with Speaking Roses today at http://www.homebusinessbug.com/speaking-roses/
- In: Economy | Jobs | Small Business
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Web portal is now a gateway for information on employment, training, financial help
The U.S. Department of Labor has upgraded its re-employment Web portal to provide access to assistance beyond career and job searches. The http://www.CareerOneStop.org/reemployment site now offers a single source for information on jobs, career training, unemployment benefits and assistance with necessities such as food, housing, health care and utility payments. The resources will prove useful to everyone from recently laid-off workers and unemployment insurance claimants to individuals who have exhausted their unemployment benefits and those seeking to change careers.
Read more about this Small Business post at http://www.homebusinessbug.com/re-employment-web-portal-gets-upgraded-by-us-labor-dept-10187/
- In: Economy | SBA | Small Business
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New Legislation Helps Exporters by Providing Higher Loan Limits
Export-related loans to small businesses approved under the Jobs Act provisions have reached nearly $110 million as of Dec. 31, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced today.
“The Jobs Act builds on the efforts already underway through the National Export Initiative by providing SBA with additional tools to help small businesses tap into the global market,” SBA Administrator Karen Mills said. “We know that to take that next step to begin exporting or expand into a new market a small business often needs both financial and counseling resources.”
Read the full Small Business post at http://www.homebusinessbug.com/small-business-exporting-gets-a-boost-from-sba-10186/
SEBO Home Business Offers Ground Floor Opportunity In $4 Billion Industry
Posted on: January 6, 2011
This ground floor business opportunity was created to give you a shot at getting your fair share of the more than $4 billion per year floor-care industry. So whether you’re someone who’s passionate about keeping a clean, healthy home, or someone who’s looking for a way to clean up financially, you owe it to yourself to see what SEBO can do for you. Business opportunities representing world- class products are very rare, but SEBO is one company you can rely on to give you a fresh, clean start!
Read more about SEBO at http://www.homebusinessbug.com/sebo-america/
- In: Economy | Jobs | Press Releases | Small Business
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Small business employment continued to show growth in December with hours worked up and wages flat.
Those were among the results of this month’s update of the Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) Small Business Employment Index. The monthly report found that small business employment grew by 0.3 percent in December, equating to an annual growth rate of about 3.4 percent. This translates to approximately 57,000 new jobs created nationwide. The Index is based on figures from the country’s smallest businesses that use Intuit Online Payroll.
“Small business is still the most vigorous sector of the employment picture,” said Susan Woodward, the economist who worked with Intuit to create the Index. “We generally see a rise in employment for all businesses in December, but this year it is unusually strong. We can hardly see the recovery in overall national employment, but among small businesses, the recovery, albeit slow, is unambiguous.”
Based on this latest data, the employment growth rate for November was revised upward to 0.4 percent, equating to 73,000 jobs added for the month and a 4.4 percent annual growth rate. Since the growth trend first began in October 2009, small business jobs have increased by a revised estimate of 880,000.
Read more at http://www.homebusinessbug.com/small-business-job-employment-rises-in-december-10184/
Bella Casa offers four investment packages. Two are “Fabricator” packages which have been carefully designed to launch you, immediately, as a super competitor of the shutter fabrication industry in your area. “Ramp up” time is reduced to days instead of years in reaping real and significant profits from your investment.
For those investors who cannot afford to make the required investment for a “Fabricator” package, Bella Casa offers two “Marketing” packages that provide you a low cost means of getting started in the shutter business on a smaller scale and working toward a “Fabricator” goal and its profits.
To contact Bella Casa Window Fashions, go to http://www.homebusinessbug.com/bella-casa-window-fashions/
Jobs Act Supported More Than $12 Billion in SBA Lending to Small Businesses
Posted on: January 4, 2011
- In: Economy | Press Releases | SBA | Small Business
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WASHINGTON – Today, SBA Administrator Karen Mills announced that as of Dec. 31 the agency had approved more than $10.3 billion in loan guarantees which supported more than $12 billion in lending to small businesses since President Obama signed the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 on Sept. 27. The Jobs Act included an extension of reduced fees and higher guarantee loan enhancements in the agency’s two largest loan programs.
In a statement, Mills noted that SBA moved quickly to get these critical loan dollars in the hands of small businesses and just three months later all of the $505 million in subsidy provided in the Jobs Act to support the loan enhancements has been utilized by the agency’s national network of lending partners. In light of that, the SBA has activated the SBA loan queue to ensure that any remaining funds that result from loan cancellations in the coming weeks are redirected to new Jobs Act loans.
Following is the full statement from Mills:
“In just three months since the Small Business Jobs Act was signed into law, SBA supported more than $12 billion in lending to small businesses and entrepreneurs across the country. SBA is on the front lines with small business owners and our lending partners every single day. I’m very proud that as a result of those close relationships and partnerships we were able to quickly put this significant amount of capital into the hands of our nation’s largest job creation engine.
“The loan enhancements of higher guarantees and reduced fees first implemented as part of the Recovery Act have been a vital resource for tens of thousands of small businesses at a critical time when lending markets had dried up. Beginning in February 2009, these loan enhancements engineered a significant turnaround in SBA lending, including driving record-high levels of SBA lending in recent weeks. The end result is that the agency helped put more than $42 billion in the hands of small businesses through the Recovery Act and Jobs Act combined.
“These enhancements have been a key piece of the Obama Administration’s efforts to help small businesses drive our nation’s economic recovery. As we transition back to our standard guarantees and fee rates, SBA loan programs will continue to play an important role, as they have for decades, in helping entrepreneurs and small business owners start or grow their businesses and create jobs.
“The Small Business Jobs Act is the most consequential piece of legislation affecting small businesses enacted in more than a decade. While we are proud of how quickly SBA could provide $12 billion in capital to small businesses, we remain focused on implementing other key
provisions of this law that will continue to expand access to capital, help small businesses compete for federal contracting dollars, strengthen small business exports and provide other critical support.”
During the quarter, SBA approved nearly 22,000 small business loans for $10.47 billion, supporting a total of $12.16 billion in lending. The amounts are greater than the volume for Jobs Act loans over the same period because they exclude some loans that were not eligible for one or more Jobs Act enhancements.
Read full news article at http://www.homebusinessbug.com/jobs-act-supported-12-billion-in-sba-lending-to-small-businesses-10183/
388,000 Jobless Claims in December – Lowest jobless claims since july 2008
Posted on: December 31, 2010
- In: Economy | Jobs
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In the week ending Dec. 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 388,000, a decrease of 34,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 422,000. The 4-week moving average was 414,000, a decrease of 12,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 426,500.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.3 percent for the week ending Dec. 18, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.2 percent.
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Dec.18 was 4,128,000, an increase of 57,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 4,071,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,120,000, a decrease of 37,250 from the preceding week’s revised average of 4,157,250.
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 521,834 in the week ending Dec. 25, an increase of 24,879 from the previous week. There were 556,517 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009.
The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.3 percent during the week ending Dec. 18, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,095,135, a decrease of 85,886 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.9 percent and the volume was 5,088,864.
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending Dec. 4 was 8,866,924.
Read the full Small Business News article at http://www.homebusinessbug.com/388000-jobless-claims-in-december-lowest-since-july-2008-10181/
No one ever said that starting a small business would be easy, but then again, very few things in life worth doing are easy. The challenges that face the entrepreneur when starting a small business would seem daunting to most people, but many entrepreneurs live for this kind of excitement and cannot stand the boredom of a 9-5, steady job, week-in, week-out.
With that said, first time entrepreneurs can easily find themselves in over their heads if they jump in without first doing their market research, consulting some experienced colleagues, and doing a lot of reading. While there’s no one stop shop for learning how to successfully launch your first small business, here’s some well-known traits of successful small businesses that you should strive for in your own startup.
- Small Markets, Not Small Profits
While many bemoan the construction of another big box store moving into town as the death of all of the mom and pops, the fact remains that a large chain simply cannot meat the needs of everyone. As an avid photographer, I know that i can get a good price on a new camera if I head to Best Buy, but there are a few local, independently owned shops in town that carry all of the obscure parts and the higher end cameras that professionals and semi-pros need. They also service cameras and lenses in the store, whereas a camera bought at Best Buy will either be swapped out for a return (if you’re within 30 days) or you’re left to fend for yourself, dealing with the manufacturer for a warranty repair. - Treat Your Customers Right
Despite the rampant growth of national chains, there is currently a resurgence (particularly in larger cities) of smaller stores with knowledgable salesmen cropping up more and more. What gives these small businesses and edge, and keeps them in the black, is often the dissatisfaction that many customers have found at the bigger chains, so they’ll turn to the smaller alternative. If you start a hardware store, for example, you’ll never be able to beat Home Depot on pricing, but what you can beat them on is service, knowledgeability and going above and beyond with your customers to make sure they leave satisfied and come back your way the next time. - Don’t Be Afraid To Branch Out
While you’ll mostly be focusing on a niche (or narrow) market with your small business, a great way to grow your small business is to add on with similar niche markets, ideally in the same vein. Take our camera store example, the one i have in mind in Seattle, opened up a second store by the same name across the street, but instead of camera equipment, it’s lighting, camera support and film. While this isn’t a big departure from their initial business, it opens them up to more customers and gives more people who live in the neighborhood less of a reason to go to the big box stores.
Read the full article at http://www.homebusinessbug.com/5-traits-of-a-successful-small-business-10180/
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