News about business conditions: the economy, interest rates, labor, healthcare and other key issues


9.21.00    What's Next, a Service That Will Sleep for You?
New companies aimed at saving you time will do just about everything you need to do but can't get to

9.19.00    A Better Patent Office?
It's trying to reinvent itself for the New Economy, but its new rules may lengthen the application process

9.1.00    Laying Claim to Your Ideas
A brief guide to getting started on patents, copyright, or trademarks

8.29.00    Can Personality Science Improve Your Business I.Q.?
Knowing how people fit different psychological parameters can help you make a better blend in your office

8.21.00    Senior Startups
Why older entrepreneurs are turning to a young person's game

8.18.00    Building a Dot-Com the Old
Economy Way
Going from Andersen Consulting to a Net startup takes some adjustment

8.10.00    Hike if You Like
Small biz is raising prices ù and getting away with it

8.8.00    Carrying Hard-to-Find Wines from Napa to the Net
Winetasting.com offers exclusive bottles from some of the valley's top vineyards

7.31.00    Chocolate Explosion
How three Web vendors are scrambling for a bite of the boom

7.21.00    Helping Hands for Homework
Tutor.com sees profits in assisting America's kids with their studies. And it's not alone

6.30.00    Where Business Births Are Still Booming
Some regions are bucking the overall decline in new-business formations

5.16.00    Parting Words from the Fed's Friend of Small Business
Edward G. Boehne says policymakers are paying more attention to entrepreneurs

5.11.00    Riding the Greenback
You can play the strong dollar to a stronger bottom line

5.4.00    Spilling Your Health History Online
Two dot-coms' ideas for cutting employers' health costs raise powerful privacy issues

4.24.00    Selling Their Souls to Be in Silicon Alley
It's not easy — or cheap — for cyberspace entrepreneurs to find office space in the Big Apple's trendiest areas

4.6.00    Market Turmoil? These Dot-Commers Just Party On
At soirees surrounding L.A.'s Internet World confab, nary a word about paper losses, bursting bubbles, or job security

3.22.00    The Big Problems with Small Business Research
In a Q&A, Vanderbilt Professor Richard Oliver talks about the difficulty of doing studies in this field

2.23.00    Divided They Stand
They all want your vote. But what are their views on small-business issues?

2.9.00    Can a Minority Business Be Nearly All White?
A new ownership definition for contract set-asides has minority small businesses in an uproar

2.3.00    Just How Bad Is This Rate Hike for Small Biz?
Expanding companies won't let a quarter-point stop them — but it could hurt

1.31.00    What's Up on the Web
What are your small-business peers doing in cyberspace? What are they planning to do? The answer depends on who's asking, how they ask, whom they ask, and when

1.24.00    Who's Dot and Who's Not?
When it comes to small business, nobody seems to know

1.12.00    East Meets West Meets East: Chinese Networking in Silicon Valley
Asian entrepreneurs' groups hobnob across the Pacific

1.10.00    Commentary: Time to Enlist the Disabled in the Entrepreneurial Revolution
Finally, a new federal program that really goes beyond the old vocational-rehab model

1.5.00    The Elders and the Upstarts
The entrepreneurial elite and MBA students talk about building companies

12.31.99    Fun While It Lasted
Someday, the '90s may look like a fleeting golden age for small business

12.30.99    2000 Reasons Why the Web Will Rule
Office technology will be faster, cheaper, smarter. Take advantage, or kiss your company good-bye

12.29.99    What Comes Next
New challenges will soon confront small business—but there are ways to cope

12.28.99    The New Entrepreneurs
Guess who the heroes are in this technology-fueled age of instant riches? Small-business people, that's who

12.8.99    Floored by Rent Hikes
Space is tight, pushing up costs for small companies

12.7.99    The Bad News about Prosperity: Too Much Work, Not Enough People
Small business won't get much relief in the New Year, the SBA predicts

11.30.99    Join the Globetrotters
More small businesses are hustling to export

10.28.99    Ending the Guesswork about What Makes a Startup Go
Ground-breaking research on new businesses is under way, but it could end up buried in academe

10.25.99    Can Business Incubators Justify Their Existence?
They've brought hosts of startups into the world, but at what price? No one really knows

10.11.99    The Pot of Gold on the Other Side of the Tracks
Harvard's Michael Porter explains why inner-city entrepreneurs are a great investment

10.7.99    Sweet on Small Loans


10.5.99    Taking Inventory


9.27.99    What do HotMail, Exodus, and Junglee Have In Common?
How a South Asian networking group became a prodigious high-tech talent incubator

9.20.99    Before You Raise Prices...


8.31.99    "There Is No One to Hire"


8.30.99    Who's Looking Out for SCORE?
The beleaguered SBA says it can't afford to keep SCORE services free

8.25.99    Who's Afraid of a Quarter-Point Rate Hike?
The Fed's latest move to quell inflation will pinch those who've overindulged on credit

8.9.99    Commentary: Help Lite from the Feds for Inner-City Entrepreneurs
An Al Gore brainchild serves mainly as a PR vehicle for private-sector initiatives

7.26.99    Education: A New Frontier for Entrepreneurs
A startup launched by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen mines the test-prep niche

7.20.99    In Debt — and Loving It
Borrowing can be a boon, especially at today's rates

7.15.99    What's Behind the Surge in Women Entrepreneurs
A talk with Ernst & Young's Gregory Ericksen, author of Women Entrepreneurs Only

7.7.99    Brand-New Businesses Find Bankers Friendlier
The bad news: Banks may be stinting on loans to small companies in the crucial expansion phase

6.15.99    A Case of the Aging-Expansion Blues?
Entrepreneurs get edgy about an economy that's still pretty robust

5.10.99    More Manageable Care

3.29.99    You Gotta Look Hard to Find the Party Poopers
Two new studies show small biz is spending more on high tech and looking to hire, too

3.19.99    Halcyon Days for Small-Business Borrowers
Entrepreneurs can bag loans now at rates not seen since 1994

3.8.99    If There's a Shortage of Techies, Let's Train Some
Some say small biz should invest in education — not headhunters and signing goodies

1.15.99    Why 1999 Looks So Rosy to Small Biz
Despite predictions of a profit crunch, entrepreneurs are investing and hiring

1.11.99    Just What Small Biz Needs — an Even Tighter Job Market
Despite all the talk about layoffs, the jobless rate keeps falling

12.3.98    Fewer Workers Mean Higher Pay at Startups
Stock options and the allure of a new venture aren't enough to get top staff anymore

11.5.98    A Slowdown Isn't All Bad for Small Business
It should take the edge off the labor shortage

11.3.98    Who's Still Smiling About the Economy? Hot High-Tech Upstarts
Closely held companies are more exuberant than their public brethren

10.8.98    A Break for Small Companies on Loan Rates
They're escaping tighter credit that afflicts big companies — for now

9.17.98    In a Global Economy, You're Always on the Front Line
The international crisis hits companies even if they stick close to home

9.10.98    Why Your Company Isn't Worth 20 Times Earnings
Wall Street's ups and downs don't affect the value of private businesses

8.12.98    Holding the New Taxpayer Advocate's Feet to the Fire
W. Val Oveson says he's the taxpayer's pal, but he's already hearing from it critics

8.6.98    The Bank Window Is Still Open
Big lenders say they're not pulling back despite Fed warnings

7.23.98    Small Companies Should Prepare Now for Higher Rates
The Fed also hints that a crackdown on credit is on the way