Small businesses are enabled for growth, or otherwise restricted, by local and state policy and incentives. See how states stack up in the annual Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council "Small Business Policy Index."
A recent (September 30) Wells Fargo/Gallup survey of small business owners has found that, while the percentage of respondents who feel "extremely satisfied" or "very satisfied" with being small business owners has remained relatively constant over the past 12 years, the percentage who feel "extremely successful" or "very successful" as...
Recent reports indicate that the need for loans for small business owners has dropped. While this may partly be explained by tighter loan restrictions, a lack of need for loans may also be a reason.
On October 1, U.S. House Committee on Small Business Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) released a sobering statement about the ongoing problems of the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP), one year into Obamacare's operations.
Despite all the confusion surrounding the Affordable Care Act, not much has changed during the past year regarding what benefits employers are offering. However, what has changed is how much employees are currently paying as compared with 2013.
When it comes to attracting "the best and the brightest" employees, it is incredibly difficult for small businesses to compete with larger employers, in at least four ways: wages, benefits, perks, and recruiting programs.
On September 18, Sam Graves (R-MO), chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, introduced legislation designed to streamline and simplify the loan application process for the Small Business Administration (SBA) by requiring the agency to permit the use of e-signatures and electronic records.
On April 30, 2014, the U.S. Senate failed to pass a measure (S.2223) that would have increased the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour by 2016, at which time it would be permanently indexed to inflation. One of the most vocal organizations opposing the bill was the...
While federally or state-mandated increases in the minimum wage can impact employers of all size, they are particularly difficult on small businesses, which not only tend to employ larger percentages of minimum wage workers than larger businesses, but also find it more difficult to absorb the costs of these wage...