Archives: October 2008

A Big Banker Calls for Injecting Small Banks With Bailout Money

Posted by: Stacy Perman on October 30

New York Times business columnist Joe Nocera gave up his Executive Suite column today and instead published an email sent to him by the veteran of a large bank with...

Jarvis: Trickle up

Posted by: John Tozzi on October 29

Jeff Jarvis today has this nugget about how health care policy affects the entrepreneurial climate, as an aside in a post criticizing the handling of the bailout: Making health care...

Ralph Nader: Why Small Business Owners Are the True Capitalists

Posted by: Stacy Perman on October 28

For the past four decades, consumer advocate and lawyer Ralph Nader has been instrumental in uncovering government and corporate waste and abuse and has organized millions of citizens to...

Small business snapshot: More credit cards, less travel

Posted by: John Tozzi on October 27

A couple of nuggets from a survey out today by AllBusiness.com of 305 small business owners: One-third of business owners sampled reported having trouble getting credit for their companies. Credit...

Small business health insurance: paying more for less satisfaction

Posted by: John Tozzi on October 24

Small businesses are less satisfied with their health insurance plans than large companies, and fewer small firms offer health plans today than at the beginning of the decade. That's according...

Starting A Business, With Those Skills Learned In Texas Prison

Posted by: Colleen Debaise on October 23

Now here’s something you don’t see everyday: A program that helps convicted felons turn the talents they’ve learned in prison – such as making and peddling “hootch” (bootleg liquor) and...

Small business loans from credit unions way up

Posted by: John Tozzi on October 22

One more indicator of credit conditions for small businesses: credit unions are originating a lot more business loans this year. Credit unions, which are not-for-profit, membership-based financial institutions, have not...

The Impact of Dropping Oil Prices on Three Austin Businesses

Posted by: Stacy Perman on October 22

When oil prices surged, reaching an all-time high of $147.27 a barrel in July, small businesses like many, found themselves on the precipice of yet another painful hit to be...

Beware of Unintended Consequences

Posted by: Amy Barrett on October 22

Entrepreneurs have hardly been overwhelmed by government efforts to help them weather the current economic storm. So some may have cheered on Oct. 20 when the Small Business Administration asked...

Pay Day For Deliverymen

Posted by: Stacy Perman on October 22

Second verse, nearly the same as the first: Yesterday, I wrote about the arrest of two supermarket executives in Brooklyn accused of cheating their immigrant workers out of hundreds of...

Big Greed On Small Street

Posted by: Stacy Perman on October 21

In the tsunami of news regarding the economic crisis and government bailout, the narrative that has formed largely follows the line of a greedy Wall Street swindling the victims of...

Where do you see signs of the recession?

Posted by: John Tozzi on October 21

Several friends in other parts of the country have asked me in the last couple weeks what New York is like in these days after Wall Street’s collapse. I wish...

CraftNetwork: Making fair-trade sustainable

Posted by: John Tozzi on October 16

Yesterday I got a chance to chat with Chris Benz, founder of fair-trade exporter of artisan-made goods CraftNetwork. (Benz got in touch from Indonesia, where he's based, after we wrote...

McCain and Obama on Taxes for Small Business Owners

Posted by: Nick Leiber on October 16

Whose tax policies are better for small business owners? That's a question that continued to be raised in last night's final presidential debate, with both candidates using the example of...

A New Worry for 2009: It's Not Health Care

Posted by: Colleen Debaise on October 14

It's rare when the cost of health care doesn't top a list of small-business concerns. These days, however, it's the faltering economy that's got business owners the most worried, according...

More (Gloomy) Numbers for Small Business Owners

Posted by: Stacy Perman on October 10

This week American Express Open Economic Pulse Small Business Monitor released a survey based on the responses of 602 small business owners across the country. If attitudes and confidence help...

US entrepreneurs turn to microfinance

Posted by: John Tozzi on October 08

We've written about Kiva, the microfinance site that connects lenders with entrepreneurs in the developing world who need small loans. But it looks like US entrepreneurs are increasingly turning to...

Mrs. Fields: After the Cookie Crumbled

Posted by: Stacy Perman on October 07

In August, we reported on this blog that cookie and frozen yogurt franchisor Mrs. Fields planned to file for bankruptcy protection in order to help restructure its business. According...

And the Recession Will be Green…

Posted by: Stacy Perman on October 07

I often get all sorts of interesting pitches in my inbox. Many try targeting their pitch to current events. So it was with great, um, bemusement that I read...

Philippe: Celebrating 100 Years in Business

Posted by: Stacy Perman on October 07

In these times of economic uncertainty, rampant bankruptcies and businesses closing all around, it is nice to hear about one business that runs counter to both conventional wisdom and...

A Safe Business That's Thriving

Posted by: Stacy Perman on October 06

While many small businesses are being squeezed during this economy, one outfit is actually seeing an uptick: Baumann Safe & Alarm Company in St. Louis, Missouri. “We have been fairly...

A Competition That Encourages Art and Commerce

Posted by: Nick Leiber on October 02

We've written fairly recently about ways artists can market themselves and their work as well as the dilemmas they grapple with when doing so. So my ears perked up when...

$200,000 for the business plan that keeps young talent in New Orleans

Posted by: John Tozzi on October 01

A New Orleans nonprofit is offering $200,000 to the business idea that can retain the networks of talented young people who came to help rebuild the city after Hurricane Katrina....