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Photograph by Damon Winter/The New York Times via Redux
Your Small Business Questions, Answered
Send us your questions on challenges you face in your business. Journalist Karen E. Klein will interview experts and distill their insights into answers.
Recent
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Advice
Advice for Small Employers Confused by Obamacare: Part 2
Can benefits vary depending on employee type? Are multiple businesses counted in employee tallies? Industry experts weigh in on questions about Affordable Care Act requirements -
Policy
Struggling Cities, From Detroit to New Orleans, See Startups as Saviors
Efforts are spreading to lure tech entrepreneurs to places not known for their tech scenes -
Smart Answers
Cutting Health-Care Costs for Aging Employees
Employees who don't participate in a company plan are still counted in its rating pool. To reduce costs, offer an attractive retirement plan -
Benefits
How to Hire: Seven Questions for Mort Mandel
A nonagenarian who turned an auto parts shop into a $2.8 billion company describes the importance of picking 'A' candidates instead of 'B's -
Advice
Starting a Business While Raising Kids Alone
Determine how you'll support yourself before you earn enough to raise a family; then research the idea and build a network -
Smart Answers
Advice for Small Employers Confused by Obamacare
What size businesses are affected? Does it pay to drop coverage? Industry experts weigh in on a handful of common questions about the law's forthcoming requirements -
Smart Answers
When to Make an Employee a Business Partner
Giving a top apprentice a share of the company may not be the best way to reward her -
Taxes
How to Get Ready for an IRS Audit
The self-employed are more likely to be audited. Here's how to bulletproof your tax return -
Advice
Renegotiate a Lease When a Big Competitor Moves In
Start by gathering information about the market and preparing an affordable, palatable plan. Then avoid e-mail and do your best to meet in person or on the phone -
Policy
Designers Imagine Ways to Hide Cigarettes in NYC Stores
From branded curtains to pneumatic tube systems, designers ponder new ways retailers might conceal cigarettes if Mayor Bloomberg's display ban is approved -
Marketing
How to Run an Effective Social Media Program
Which platforms work best? Manage them yourself or delegate? Spend time or money? As social media grows in influence, businesses need to answer these questions -
Advice
Getting Started, Getting Paid, and More Answers to Business Questions
To address challenges readers face in their businesses, Karen E. Klein interviews experts and distills their insights -
Smart Answers
How Are the SBA’s Loan Programs Doing?
The Small Business Administration is pushing to expand loan availability and streamline its loan-guarantee approval process. Approvals in the last two years set records, but it's unlikely that pace will continue -
Taxes
Tax Prep Basics for Small Business Owners
A tax pro urges employers and the self-employed to organize paperwork, raise questions, and understand deductions -
Benefits
Small Employers Add Jobs, Obamacare Opportunities, SBA Cuts Overblown: March 11
A daily roundup of the most compelling stories about small business and entrepreneurship
Read
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Smart Answers
Advice for Small Employers Confused by Obamacare
What size businesses are affected? Does it pay to drop coverage? Industry experts weigh in on a handful of common questions about the law's forthcoming requirements -
Advice
Advice for Small Employers Confused by Obamacare: Part 2
Can benefits vary depending on employee type? Are multiple businesses counted in employee tallies? Industry experts weigh in on questions about Affordable Care Act requirements -
Advice
Marketing Secret: Think Form, not Just Function
Everything your company does sends a message to its customers, so it pays to invest in improving how products and services work and look -
Advice
Paying Yourself When You Start a Business
To avoid cash-flow problems and hassles with the IRS, understand the implications of taking money from your business for personal use -
Marketing
How to Run an Effective Social Media Program
Which platforms work best? Manage them yourself or delegate? Spend time or money? As social media grows in influence, businesses need to answer these questions -
Advice
Time to Sell? Setting a Price for Your Cash Business
To determine the value of a services business, calculate the "seller’s discretionary earnings"—the total financial benefit the owner derives from it each year -
Policy
Struggling Cities, From Detroit to New Orleans, See Startups as Saviors
Efforts are spreading to lure tech entrepreneurs to places not known for their tech scenes -
Advice
Integrated Marketing: If You Knew It, You'd Do It
The glut of places to advertise makes it easy to confuse customers with contradictory messages. Execute a strategy that integrates all your efforts -
Advice
How to Lower Your Company's Property Taxes
To convince officials to reduce a company's tax burden, build a case backed with data and get peers and politicians to support it -
Advice
Corporate Social Responsibility: Distinction or Distraction?
Showcasing the ways your company helps society is good marketing if they are aligned with your mission—and potentially damaging if they’re not -
Advice
Breaking Into the Energy Drink Business
First, determine how to raise the $100,000 you'll likely need to launch your product. Then evaluate whether to hire a consultant or go it alone -
Advice
Great Product. Now, How to Sell It?
Getting a new product from the factory to store shelves can be a minefield for entrepreneurs -
Advice
How Social Media Is Changing CRM
New customer relationship management tools are letting companies communicate with customers rather than just thrust messages at them -
Benefits
How to Hire: Seven Questions for Mort Mandel
A nonagenarian who turned an auto parts shop into a $2.8 billion company describes the importance of picking 'A' candidates instead of 'B's -
Smart Answers
Cutting Health-Care Costs for Aging Employees
Employees who don't participate in a company plan are still counted in its rating pool. To reduce costs, offer an attractive retirement plan
Shared
-
Policy
Struggling Cities, From Detroit to New Orleans, See Startups as Saviors
Efforts are spreading to lure tech entrepreneurs to places not known for their tech scenes -
Advice
Marketing Secret: Think Form, not Just Function
Everything your company does sends a message to its customers, so it pays to invest in improving how products and services work and look -
Advice
Advice for Small Employers Confused by Obamacare: Part 2
Can benefits vary depending on employee type? Are multiple businesses counted in employee tallies? Industry experts weigh in on questions about Affordable Care Act requirements -
Advice
Time to Sell? Setting a Price for Your Cash Business
To determine the value of a services business, calculate the "seller’s discretionary earnings"—the total financial benefit the owner derives from it each year -
Marketing
How to Run an Effective Social Media Program
Which platforms work best? Manage them yourself or delegate? Spend time or money? As social media grows in influence, businesses need to answer these questions -
Smart Answers
Advice for Small Employers Confused by Obamacare
What size businesses are affected? Does it pay to drop coverage? Industry experts weigh in on a handful of common questions about the law's forthcoming requirements -
Advice
How to Lower Your Company's Property Taxes
To convince officials to reduce a company's tax burden, build a case backed with data and get peers and politicians to support it -
Smart Answers
Cutting Health-Care Costs for Aging Employees
Employees who don't participate in a company plan are still counted in its rating pool. To reduce costs, offer an attractive retirement plan -
Advice
Paying Yourself When You Start a Business
To avoid cash-flow problems and hassles with the IRS, understand the implications of taking money from your business for personal use -
Advice
A Branding Exercise for Your Business: Write a Book
Start with the title. If the process shows your business doesn’t stand for much, that'll help you improve your marketing -
Advice
Integrated Marketing: If You Knew It, You'd Do It
The glut of places to advertise makes it easy to confuse customers with contradictory messages. Execute a strategy that integrates all your efforts -
Advice
Breaking Into the Energy Drink Business
First, determine how to raise the $100,000 you'll likely need to launch your product. Then evaluate whether to hire a consultant or go it alone -
Benefits
How to Hire: Seven Questions for Mort Mandel
A nonagenarian who turned an auto parts shop into a $2.8 billion company describes the importance of picking 'A' candidates instead of 'B's -
Advice
Starting a Business While Raising Kids Alone
Determine how you'll support yourself before you earn enough to raise a family; then research the idea and build a network -
Advice
Hidden Bias: Why You Should Pitch After Lunch
A candid blog post from the “Harvard of entrepreneurship” shows how unexpected factors influence decisions
Discussed
-
Policy
Struggling Cities, From Detroit to New Orleans, See Startups as Saviors
Efforts are spreading to lure tech entrepreneurs to places not known for their tech scenes -
Advice
Advice for Small Employers Confused by Obamacare: Part 2
Can benefits vary depending on employee type? Are multiple businesses counted in employee tallies? Industry experts weigh in on questions about Affordable Care Act requirements -
Marketing
How to Run an Effective Social Media Program
Which platforms work best? Manage them yourself or delegate? Spend time or money? As social media grows in influence, businesses need to answer these questions -
Advice
Paying Yourself When You Start a Business
To avoid cash-flow problems and hassles with the IRS, understand the implications of taking money from your business for personal use -
Smart Answers
Advice for Small Employers Confused by Obamacare
What size businesses are affected? Does it pay to drop coverage? Industry experts weigh in on a handful of common questions about the law's forthcoming requirements -
Advice
Marketing Secret: Think Form, not Just Function
Everything your company does sends a message to its customers, so it pays to invest in improving how products and services work and look -
Advice
Time to Sell? Setting a Price for Your Cash Business
To determine the value of a services business, calculate the "seller’s discretionary earnings"—the total financial benefit the owner derives from it each year -
Advice
Breaking Into the Energy Drink Business
First, determine how to raise the $100,000 you'll likely need to launch your product. Then evaluate whether to hire a consultant or go it alone -
Advice
Small Businesses Team Up to Land Federal Contracts
Subcontracting and partnering can help entrepreneurs break into the lucrative world of government work -
Advice
How to Lower Your Company's Property Taxes
To convince officials to reduce a company's tax burden, build a case backed with data and get peers and politicians to support it
Feed
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Businesses will collect more than $9 billion by one estimate. Small ventures likely settled more quickly and for less than their larger counterparts
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