The turkey has been carved, the gifts have been purchased and business owners are ready to celebrate the holiday season reflecting on a successful 2014. While small business owners may be thinking about holiday traditions, they are also beginning to focus on priorities and potential challenges ahead. Changes in technology, growing cybersecurity concerns, and shifts in the political landscape are all top of mind as small business owners enter 2015.

As the clock strikes midnight and the champagne bottles pop to ring in the New Year, three topics will be top of mind for entrepreneurs in 2015.

New Year, New Tools

complete article

To ensure success in the new year, most small businesses don't realize that the process begins long before January 1. Instead, a lot of work goes into setting your business up for a running start when the clock strikes 12. Do not wait; start now with this list of 10 New Year Tips For Your Small Business.

complete article

The skills gap is widening and workers are feeling it. In fact, Lynda.com recently conducted an online survey of nearly 10,000 respondents, and found that about half of them lacked confidence in their job skills.

complete article

Take the time to understand your finances
Understanding the nitty gritty of your finances is crucial to running a successful small business, but this is especially true if you're coming from a place of bad credit. The best way to get a handle on your finances, says Brad Farris, a business advisor with Anchor Advisors, is to sit down once a month and review your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow for the prior month. Use the time to look for changes and trends, as well as to monitor your receivables and inventory.

complete article

Have a plan, and stick to it

When you walk into the office every Monday morning, it is crucial that you understand the goals that you need to accomplish that week and then map them out.

complete article

I know, I know. It is hard to start thinking about the New Year when we’re stuck in the middle of the hectic holidays. But with January 1 right around the corner, now is the perfect time to reflect on how to grow your business in 2016.

As a fellow small business owners and solopreneur, I know first-hand how tricky it can be to even find the time to think about business development. Some days we are so busy juggling our current client demands, big picture goals — publishing great thought leadership articles, going after a dream client — take a back seat to a ringing phone or email deluge.

complete article

If you think so, or at least want to explore the idea, SCORE and our mentors are ready to assist you confidentially and at no charge. It’s a long, winding road to entrepreneurial success. The more advocates you have, the better chance you have to realize your dream.

Do not go into business if you know little or nothing about it.

complete article

As Federal Reserve officials gathered to issue their monthly assessment of the world's largest economy, a new study lays bare the extent to which many small firms are pressed for cash.

complete article

Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?

1 – A new form of ransomware centers on a fake font update.

complete article

Here is a fact: fake news is everywhere.  There is not a reputable news source out there distributing information with an objective, unbiased voice. It just does not exist anymore.

Where are the Cronkites, the Huntleys, the Brinkleys? In this frayed political climate, fake news seems to be at the very top of every discussion; it’s almost inescapable

Fake News Hurts Small Business

Recently, I was asked to take over an existing project. And, like most people, my first inclination was to feel completely intimidated and overwhelmed.

This assignment -- along with its longstanding processes and its related team members -- was all brand new to me. And, if that wasn't enough to have me breathing into a paper bag, managing this project also required me to branch out and exercise some skills that I had previously left untapped.

My chest gets tight at the very thought. Can you relate? Being asked to take on a new work endeavor is a great thing (hey, you must be doing something right!). But, it can also plant plenty of seeds of self-doubt.

Fortunately, this recent experience opened my eyes to some better, more productive things you can do when you're tasked with a new project -- aside from just panicking.

complete article

Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?

1 — Amazon Go cashier-less convenience store opens to the public in Seattle.

This week in Seattle, Amazon opened its cashier-less convenience store to the general public. At Amazon Go, customers scan their smartphone on the way in and are then tracked with cameras and other sensors as they browse.

complete article

Social media, email, text messaging and other communication technologies are transforming government into a more efficient, effective and dynamic process. Whether it’s an elected official using Twitter to address constituents or a city using a Facebook page to make public announcements, government entities and elected officials are becoming more accessible and connected to constituents. And therein lie today’s nuanced First Amendment related challenges

complete article

Have you ever shared bad news with coworkers, employees or partners? As much as we don't want to shoot the messenger, sometimes we associate negative feelings with the person who tells us bad news.

Work is hard enough as is. You do not need a negative halo effect associated with you, especially if a situation was out of your control. For example, maybe you and a partner organization submitted a proposal and were waiting to hear back from a Fortune 1000 client. The client tells you that another company out-bid you with a lower quote.

complete article

In the modern business world, companies make use of SEO basics to secure a digital footprint. SEO is everywhere. What is more, the Internet is constantly changing. In order for businesses to keep up with demand, they have to cater to an audience that lives and breathes the Internet.

complete article

A few rules of SEO, like publishing great content and providing a good user experience, are universal.

But not all websites thrive by using the exact same set of SEO guidelines.

News websites, in particular, place greater emphasis on certain elements than other types of sites.

Here are five best practices you should keep in mind to optimize your news site for search.

complete article

The end of the calendar year is a natural time to reassess how your business did in the previous 12 months and then devise a plan for improving. By almost every measure, 2018 was a good year for the economy. Small business optimism is high, holiday sales were the strongest in years, unemployment is low, and consumer confidence hit an 18-year high in September before tempering a bit in November.

It would be hard to duplicate the atmosphere that prevailed in 2018. The impact of President Trump’s tax cuts will lessen, interest rates have risen again, and the Dow Jones dropped from 25,862.43 on December 3 to 21,792.20 on Christmas Eve, a sign that the economy may be slowing.

Small business owners need to take all of these factors into account.

complete article

A new report is saying that almost half of people recently hired (41%) used an online job board to find work and 61% flagged automatic job alerts as helpful. What is more, a full 14% found their present job using social media. The findings from How Do People Find Jobs? published by the B2B research firm, Clutch, highlights how today’s candidates are connecting with small businesses and vice versa.

complete article

Grow or die.

It sounds like the title of a rap song, but its actually the business idea that if your company does not grow, it is probably not going to make it. The reality is that you don't need to get bigger. What you need is a stream of customers to replace the ones that move, buy from you a little less, or have other life circumstances that change the level of business they do with you.

Yes, it is nice to add business and grow.

complete article

If you own or are employed by a small business—and are among the approximately 38 million people in the U.S. with no access to a retirement plan at work—you may be interested in a new U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rule set to take effect Sept. 30, 2019.

complete article

A new free analytics tool introduced on Sept. 10 by the Atlanta-based lending platform Kabbage analyzes the live data of more than 200,000 companies in an effort to give small business owners a way to assess how their businesses are performing in real time. It’s daring to meet the demands of the ever-changing world of small business.

complete article

Embedded Financial Services is the Future

Another group of companies to watch are those that focus on one particular vertical. They can build out capabilities unique to a particular industry and while they will not have broad data sets they can go very deep within a vertical. Shopify is a good example of this as they become the go to platform for ecommerce companies. They have functionality they call Shopify Manage which is billed as the mission control for your business, wherever you go available on desktop or mobile. They also have Shopify Capital for lending and Shopify Payments.


complete article

Small business owners have plenty of changes to deal with as 2020 begins — higher labor costs for many companies and some owners will discover that they have to comply with new laws that aren’t on the books in their own states.

As of Jan. 1, there are higher minimum wages in a quarter of the states and new federal overtime rules. The IRS has new W-4 forms owners will need to get used to. Plastic bags are on their way out at stores and other businesses in a growing number of places around the country. And California has new laws on freelancers and consumer privacy that can affect out-of-state companies.

complete article

The first weekly roundup of 2020 starts with some motivational quotes to get you up and running for the new year.

Once you are all pumped up, an article about the economy should also get you excited. The report says all 50 states have improved their GDP since the 2016 election. And if the rally of the stock market on January 2, 2020 is an indicator of things to come you can expect even better numbers.

The optimism for the coming year is also being shared by business leaders. Over two thirds or 76% of them say they see similar or more profits in 2020. The data comes as part of a survey that polled 940 business owners in this article.

complete article

The pandemic is revealing to small businesses just how versatile they are. So: A home-decor company, a skirt designer, and a business that makes boots for horses all realize they can craft face masks. A manufacturer of pet supplements and a hot sauce company join myriad craft distilleries in production of hand sanitizers.

The task of disinfecting workplaces tainted by or vulnerable to coronavirus also has attracted a variety of unexpected entrants. At AK Wet Works, the partners set out at once to reengineer their dustless blasters to produce a cold vapor fog that can sterilize 20,000 square feet an hour. In 100 hours, they produced a working model and began converting all 10 of their machines.

Seeking validation for their plan, the founders reached out to FQE, a local chemical company with an EPA-approved coronavirus disinfectant, to create a blend for them. Thinking their idea might have legs outside the Houston-area market, they next approached MMLJ, the original blaster manufacturer, which agreed to mass-produce the modified parts and market them to its large client base. MMLJ is paying a royalty to AK Wet Works, Bland says.

You might have missed it amid all the goings-on since then, but in August 2019, a new law was passed that gives small businesses (and individuals/married couples) a new and simplified way to go through bankruptcy without needing to sell off their assets.

In other words, you can keep operating your business while going through and emerging from bankruptcy. And you can do it faster and cheaper than before.

The Small Business Reorganization Act added a new section to Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Subchapter V lets entities with debts below a threshold amount go through a streamlined court process, establishing and approving new repayment plans that creditors are required to accept (creditors get input, too, but this is limited and more streamlined as well). You don't have to sell off your assets as in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and you can keep operating without needing to meet the strict Chapter 13 requirements or suffering the prohibitive expense of a standard Chapter 11 process.

Your business might be in dire straits, but weathering this rough patch might mean a return to profitability.

Ninety-six percent of new entrepreneurs say the pandemic is motivating or giving them the motivation they needed to start their own business. This positive statistic comes from Azlo, a banking platform for small business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs.

In mid-March 2020, Azlo witnessed an uptick in new accounts opening. Wanting to understand the reasons behind the boost in business, Azlo conducted a survey. ‘The COVID Economy’ report interviewed 1,000 of Azlos newest customers across the United States.

Google has beta-launched a program for small businesses (SMBs) to help them become better marketers on Google. Called Small Business Advisors (SBA), the program offers 50-minute individualized consulting sessions on a range of products from Google My Business to Ads and Analytics to YouTube.

No enterprises or agencies. Google told me in an email that the program is is open to small businesses in the United States with an active Google account.  Large businesses, marketing and SEO agencies are not eligible to participate. The cost is $39.99 per session. There’s no fee through the end of 2020.

Small business does not appear to be defined, so theoretically companies with up to 100 employees or even 499 employees (the U.S. Small Business Administration definition). As a practical matter, the program will likely be utilized by very small businesses with relatively few employees. Suspended accounts are not eligible to book an appointment and must get reinstated before gaining access to the program.

This week the Wall Street Journal reported that nearly 300 companies that had received loans through the Paycheck Protection Program had filed for bankruptcy. The very next day, the Journal highlighted Americans using the Covid-19 pandemic to take their first steps on the entrepreneurial journey.

Existing small businesses continue to struggle. New entrepreneurs are seeking opportunities. That is what the data appears to be saying about the state of small business and entrepreneurship amidst the third Covid-19 wave.

Small Businesses Suffering, See Rough Road Ahead

In early November, Goldman Sachs surveyed nearly 900 small businesses. They found that four in 10 had laid off employees or cut compensation. If further government relief were not forthcoming, another 38% said they would need to do the same. Half of small business owners had stopped paying themselves.

Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?

1 — Google plans to scrap third-party cookies by 2022.

Google announced this past week that it plans to stop the use of tracking cookies on Chrome by next year and— instead— will replace cookies with a profiling system

2 —Recruiting startup SeekOut raised $65M to take on LinkedIn and other talent acquisition companies.

3 —Small business owners adopted new software in 2020 and increased tech budgets in 2021.

 It's a beautiful day in mid-Autumn on Skye and I'm not sure where the year went. This house came with an enormous walled meadow, which my neighbours use to keep their sheep in, and an ancient orchard. About seven years ago the orchard was flooded, and we lost all the redcurrants and gooseberries and rhubarb and such, but most of the trees survived, and there are apples and plums and pears still growing on them.

I'm very aware that on Skye, beautiful weather can be replaced by weeks of rain and gale-force winds, so I went down to the orchard and clambered up a ladder, and picked all the pears I could reach, disturbing a tawny owl, who flapped off somewhere it wouldn't bothered by people randomly climbing its trees.

And now I'm sitting and writing this outside. It's too chilly really to write outside, but it's possible, and it won't be possible soon, and that means a lot.

There are two new books out -- one came out last week, one comes out this week.

PIRATE STEW was published first, illustrated by the genius Chris Riddell. Here's me reading the opening and talking about how the book came into existence...

It's 2021 in some places already, creeping around the planet. Pretty soon it will have reached Hawaii, and it'll be 2021 everywhere, and 2020 will be done.

Well, that was a year. Kind of a year, anyway.

When my Cousin Helen and her two sisters reached a displaced persons camp at the end of WW2, having survived the Holocaust by luck and bravery and the skin of their teeth, they had no documents, and the people who gave them their papers suggested to them that they put down their ages as five years younger than they were, because the Nazis had stolen five years from them, and this was their only chance to take it back. They didn't count the war years as part of their life.

I could almost do that with 2020. Just not count it as one of the years of my life. But I'd hate to throw the magic out with the bathwater: there were good things, some of them amazing, in with the awful.

The hardest moments, in retrospect, were the deaths, of friends or of family, because they simply happened. I'd hear about them, by text or by phone, and then they'd be in the past. Funerals I would have flown a long way to be at didn't happen and nobody went anywhere: the goodbyes and the mutual support,  the hugs and the tears and the trading stories about the deceased, none of that occurred.

The hardest moments personally were walking further into the darkness than I'd ever walked before, and knowing that I was alone, and that I had no option but to get through it all, a day at a time, or an hour at a time, or a minute at a time.

The best moments were moments of friendship, most of them from very far away, and a slow appreciation of land and sky and space and time. In February 2020 I'd been regretting that I knew where I would be and what I would be doing every day for the next three years. Now I'd been forced to embrace chaos and unpredictability, while at the same time, learning to appreciate the slow day to day transition that happens when you stay in the same place as the seasons change. I was seeing a different sunset every night.  I hadn't managed to be in the same place, or even the same country, for nine months since... well, probably when I was writing American Gods in 2000. And now I was, most definitely, in one place.

I had conversations with people I treasure. Some of them were over Zoom and were recorded. Here are the two conversations that I felt I learned the most from, and I put them up here because they may also teach you something or give you comfort. The first is a conversation with Nuclear Physicist and author Carlo Rovelli, moderated by Erica Wagner, about art and science, literature and life and death:

Oceania Aviation Ltd - bases in Ardmore Airport Auckland & Queenstown Airport NZ. ... Josh C chatting with the Prime Minister of NZ last night.

Sky Prime Aviation Services Saudi Arabia Aeromedical Services, Aircraft Management, Aircraft Sales/Acquisition, AOG Services, Certification Services, Charter Brokers, Completions Management, Continuing Airworthiness Management

The Birthday Boys: New Episodes, New Friends Interview by Francis Rizzo III Sketch comedy has rarely been hotter on TV than right now, with shows airing on several major networks. One of the more recent additions has been IFC's The...

In summary, quite a useful general purpose car without being too shouty

Remarkably solid machine, and great fun to drive and own

Great vehicle otherwise. Just this issue causing me disappointment

From WFLA: Here’s how many Floridians have ordered the new Jimmy Buffett license plate TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida lawmakers this year approved a new Jimmy Buffett-inspired specialty license plate to honor the late musician. …

Video: The Hives – “Rigor Mortis Radio”

Directed by Filip Nilsson. From The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, out now.

Remember when CGI was just CGI and not A.I.?

Or maybe the Hives are just really good dancers. It’s possible. Things are very groovy in Sweden and the people are very healthy and nimble. So you never know.

(Journalistic integrity spoiler: You, in fact, do know. The actual dancers — Alex Brown, Tom Hardiman, Connor Pearson, Reece Woodier, and Jacob Whawell — are credited in the video.)

I’ve seen the Hives in concert several times and their natural moves are impressive enough. Do they really need to employ deepfake technology to impress us even more? Maybe they do, because this video is fun and hilarious. And of course the song is great too.

But, like with all computer generated imagery, you find yourself looking for the glitches and cruising down the uncanny valley. It’s real looking enough, but not totally convincing, which makes it a little creepy. And, unsurprisingly, that creepiness factor works with the song’s lyrics.

You’ve never seen me look so good before
This silver lining and this golden glow
This shine, all mine
Looking like I’m fresh off an assembly line.

Read more at Glorious Noise...

Video: The Hard Quartet – “Rio’s Song”

Directed by Jared Sherbert. From The Hard Quartet, out October 4 on Matador.

The whole idea of an indie rock supergroup is kind of ridiculous but here we are. The Hard Quartet is Stephen Malkmus from Pavement and Matt Sweeney from Chavez, both on Matador Records, plus Drag City’s Emmett Kelly and Jim White. Put ’em together and what have you got? Skibidi-Bobbidi-Boo!

The song’s good (we love the 90s!) but the video’s great. Especially if you’re familiar with the Stones’ 1981 “Waiting On A Friend” promo. They went to great lengths to capture the vibe. Director Jared Sherbert told Pitchfork, “The original staircase is now surrounded by businesses, so we shot at the nearly identical staircase next door. The St. Marks Bar & Grill is gone, and, although there was another bar in the neighborhood with almost the exact same layout, International Bar was incredibly accommodating and encouraged us to shoot there, which just felt right for this. The apartment window with the guy daydreaming has changed, but a neighbor a few doors down let us use hers.”

Sweeney captures Mick’s aura without stooping to an impression while Malkmus totally nails Keith’s elegantly wasted swagger.

Read more at Glorious Noise...

Video: Caroline Says – “Faded and Golden”

From The Lucky One, out October 11 on Western Vinyl.

Caroline Says is Caroline Sallee and she’s moved around a lot. She was raised in Alabama. She moved to Austin. Then back to Alabama. And now she’s based in Brooklyn. That much moving, more than anything, reveals that you can’t go home again.

The house where you don’t live no more
When I drive by I still call it yours.

Nothing’s ever the same as how you left it.

When I said goodbye and said I’d see you soon
And how I keep you in my head just dies when I see you.

Sallee says, “Relationships are, first and foremost, ideas. That’s what allows relationships to persist even when we’re apart. We may yearn for an old friend or lover, especially one from our teenage years and our hometown. But there is a bittersweetness to any reunion. They may shatter the memory we’ve made of them.”

Shatter? Come on. What kind of fragile-ass memories do you have? People change.

Read more at Glorious Noise...

Video: Spring Silver – “It’s Imperative”

From Don’t You Think It’s Strange?, out now.

I don’t know anything about this artist but I somehow stumbled across this song and it’s too great to keep it to myself. Their little bandcamp bio says they’re from Silver Spring, Maryland and that the album was “written, performed, produced, and mixed by K Nkanza.” Well alright. What more do you need to know? They also offer thanks “to Mom for letting me record at her house.” It’s nice to see kids be grateful to their parents!

I see you all
Etched in the vertical tiles of an office building
I see you all
Trapped in the virtual squares of an application.

Sounds like somebody’s sick of zoom meetings!

Spring Silver: web, bandcamp, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

Read more at Glorious Noise...

Video: Lizzy McAlpine – “Pushing It Down and Praying”

From the deluxe Older (and Wiser), out October 4 on RCA/Sony.

I got into Lizzy McAlpine this summer after reading Amanda Petrusich’s New Yorker profile. Her album Older is great and now she’s releasing an expanded version with five new songs. The “deluxe reissue six months after the original release” game is a racket, of course, but that’s the music business and you can’t really complain about getting new music, especially in these days of streaming when it’s not like anybody’s actually going out and spending $15 on a CD and then feeling like you have to go back out spend another $18 just to hear five outtakes that didn’t make the initial cut.

This new song is sonically similar to the stuff on Older and its lyrics expand upon the themes of sex and guilt and longing raised in “You Forced Me To” specifically. I wonder if it was left off the original release because it was too similar?

Lizzy McAlpine: web, bandcamp, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

Read more at Glorious Noise...

Full disclosure–hell, this whole article is a full disclosure–Tiny Jackets is a project fronted by Kelly Simmons, who I played with in the band Daystar.

Some time ago I moved from Portland back to my hometown in Michigan and while we kept Daystar alive through those years (including through the pandemic lockdown), Kelly naturally got restless and started a new project called Tiny Jackets. 

Now, here’s the thing: Tiny Jackets is exactly the band I would have loved to be in. They have big hooks, big harmonies, occasionally jangly guitars, and clever lyrics. That sounds like me, right? 

Well, Tiny Jackets has a new single out called “My Own Dark Age” and it has all of the above plus a nifty outro that would sound natural on a banger from Waxwings (another band I wish I was in!).

Tiny Jackets Release Party

The Fixin’ To in Portland, Oregon

6:00 pm

Pre-order “My Own Dark Age”

Photo credit: Sarah Almedia

Read more at Glorious Noise...

In 'Revival Now', David Legge asks and seeks to answer the question: What might revival look like in the 2020s? Or, to consider it another way: What is the revival we need for today? Of course, there are common features to every revival, and yet there are always distinctives to every one. We can never second guess God in how He will move again - yet we do have desperate needs in our age that only God can meet. In this series, David looks at how we need a new move of God's Spirit to meet the contemporary needs in the church and our world in this present moment. In Part 1, we explore how the church and we as Christians need to get our focus back on Jesus. He must be the pre-eminent one and the centre of all we do and are. What idols have distracted us from the centrality of Christ? How can we give our Lord His rightful place in our lives and churches? This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format...