Archives: February 2009

The Mall vs. Downtown

Posted by: John Tozzi on February 27

In the early '90s, the Macy's in the mall in the city where I grew up closed. The mall wasn't anchored by another big retailer, and it wasn't long before...

High school entrepreneurs pitch their business plans

Posted by: John Tozzi on February 26

Dana Laurie presents her business plan for a natural cosmetics line. Photo by Carlos Varela/Courtesy National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship We've written before about how important it is to...

More Troubling Stories from the Credit Crunch

Posted by: Nick Leiber on February 23

We've been offering strategies for dealing with the repercussions of the credit crunch for months. So a blog post today on the Huffington Post by Palo Alto Software founder and...

Christian Louboutin Says: Let Them Wear A $6,295 Pair of Shoes

Posted by: Stacy Perman on February 20

Retailers of all stripes have been grappling with ways to bring shoppers into their stores, slashing prices, offering giveaways and deploying a host of other enticements. With the economy in...

10 percent: The Local Stimulus

Posted by: John Tozzi on February 19

Yesterday we asked whether promoting shopping at local businesses would be enough to revive the economy in Wilmington, Ohio, from the 8,000 jobs being lost as DHL shuts down its...

Incentives to start a business in New York

Posted by: Colleen Debaise on February 18

There’s nothing like a severance package – and a little help from the government – to spur one to start a business. New York City's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, a former...

How to build a local economy

Posted by: John Tozzi on February 18

On the other side of the state from Youngstown, where a business incubator is helping to stave off the worst effects of the declining industrial economy, Wilmington, Ohio, is trying...

Can entrepreneurs revive the Rust Belt?

Posted by: John Tozzi on February 18

Anita Campbell has a good post about how the Youngstown Business Incubator is nurturing a cluster of software start-ups in the Rust Belt city. The incubator was featured in an...

A Small Business Competition Starts in Secaucus

Posted by: Colleen Debaise on February 13

It’s good to know that small business owners are keeping it real. In recent months, we’ve seen Wall Street chieftains taking the heat for excessive bonuses, private jets, and lavish...

Mobility and Taxes

Posted by: John Tozzi on February 12

I found this nugget in the Small Business Economy Report (on page 201 of the PDF). It's kind of jargony, but it's basically saying that as some companies become more...

Small Business Economy Report

Posted by: John Tozzi on February 12

The SBA Office of Advocacy released its annual Small Business Economy report today. (The PDF, which weighs in at 413 pages, is here.) Since this report mainly looks at data...

Meg Whitman: Small Business Governor?

Posted by: Stacy Perman on February 09

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, considered a champion of small business has announced her intention to run for Governor of California. While national co-chair of John McCain’s presidential campaign she...

More on the size of regulation: The Slaughterhouse Bathroom

Posted by: John Tozzi on February 06

I finally found the passage in Omnivore's Dilemma that I've been hunting for this week, about how regulation written for industrial slaughterhouses affects small farmers who want to sell their...

Opportunity in a Terrible Job Market

Posted by: John Tozzi on February 06

Jobs are disappearing fast, with 598,000 gone in January, on top of nearly as many lost in December. They're disappearing from small businesses. Payroll provider ADP estimates that companies with...

Small business, big regulation, big problems?

Posted by: John Tozzi on February 05

I had a talk today with Steve King, researcher and blogger at Small Biz Labs. King got in touch after reading my post on the tension between regulating industry and...

Banks keep tightening credit

Posted by: John Tozzi on February 03

Banks are still raising lending standards. The Fed released its quarterly survey of senior loan officers yesterday (summary here, report PDF here). 69 percent of banks surveyed reported tightening lending...

$25,000 and Face Time with Michael Dell

Posted by: Nick Leiber on February 02

Today Dell and the National Federation of Independent Business kicked off their sixth annual contest aimed at small companies that are using IT in innovative ways--and don't mind being part...

When will regulation fit the size of business?

Posted by: John Tozzi on February 02

Crafters and other makers of children's products up in arms over the CPSIA are breathing a bit easier this week. Many small business owners have been frantic for weeks because...