Archives: June 2009

A Small Employer's Campaign to Reform Health Care

Posted by: Greg Spielberg on June 30

Like most business owners, BusinessWeek reader Mike Draper is concerned about balancing his employees' health benefits with his business' expenses. In 2006, after paying out of pocket at a county...

A Call for Bankers with "Guts to Do What's Right for Business Owners"

Posted by: John Tozzi on June 26

I want to highlight a great comment that a reader, a former commercial banker named Sheila Spangler, left today on our story about rising business bankruptcies: As a former commercial...

Richard Branson Still Thinks Like An Entrepreneur

Posted by: John Tozzi on June 26

Virgin founder and Chairman Richard Branson visited BusinessWeek Wednesday to record an interview with Stacy Perman, based on some questions submitted by readers: Afterward, Branson joined BW staff for an...

The Independent Coffee Shop vs. Starbucks Debate

Posted by: Nick Leiber on June 25

By educating consumers about decent coffee, Starbucks made it possible for independent coffee shops to gain a foothold in communities across America. That's one thesis in Bryant Simon's new...

One Million New Non-Employer Businesses

Posted by: John Tozzi on June 25

Just out from the Census: The U.S. added a million new non-employer businesses in 2007, for a total of 21.7 million. Together these businesses had sales of nearly $1 trillion...

Best Businesses to Start

Posted by: John Tozzi on June 24

I came across two takes this morning on industries where there are growth opportunities for entrepreneurs even in this recession. First, sometimes BusinessWeek columnist Tom Taulli over at BloggingStocks offers...

Behind the Business Bankruptcy Statistics

Posted by: John Tozzi on June 23

Whenever I write about business bankruptcies, I have to go back to this paper by Robert Lawless and Elizabeth Warren. Published in the California Law Review in 2005, it's called...

Fading Customer Loyalty: A Risk and Opportunity

Posted by: John Tozzi on June 23

Customer loyalty is wobbling. The Wall Street Journal looks at how small companies have to court regular customers today. Businesses can't take loyalty for granted anymore. Among big U.S. brands,...

What’s the future of small business credit?

Posted by: John Tozzi on June 19

What’s the future of small business credit? We’ve been writing and thinking a lot about this lately. It’s a peculiar time: We’re in the middle of a recession that was...

Entrepreneurship: The New Mid-Life Crisis

Posted by: Nick Leiber on June 18

This is a guest blog by Emily Schmitt, who joined BusinessWeek's Small Business team and Investing team in June. An entrepreneurial boom is on its way, but don't expect it...

ARC Loans Offer Small Businesses $35,000 For "Immediate Hardship"

Posted by: John Tozzi on June 16

Small businesses that have been recently profitable but are having trouble meeting debt payments can now apply for Small Business Administration-backed bridge loans to help. These loans are designed to...

Next Generation Networking?

Posted by: Amy Choi on June 11

Entrepreneurs with the Big Idea are always looking for the Big Break. Two small business owners in Boston have decided that a meeting with Richard Branson, eclectic entrepreneur extraordinaire, will...

Why Seven Out of 10 Executives Would Prefer...

Posted by: Nick Leiber on June 10

...not to work at large corporations. This is a guest blog by Emily Schmitt, who joined BusinessWeek's Small Business team and Investing team in June. Here's a telling take on...

Kiva to Facilitate Loans to Small Businesses in the U.S.

Posted by: Nick Leiber on June 10

The Kiva offices in San Francisco in 2006. One of the biggest problems for most aspiring entrepreneurs is access to startup capital. Take Lucy Whittle, 54, an unemployed woman...

The Counter: Restaurant (Re-defining) Success in a Recession

Posted by: Stacy Perman on June 09

When last we heard from Jeff Weinstein, the man behind the hip and popular burger eatery, The Counter, it was 2008. At the time, Weinstein had developed a loyal following...

Sibling Business Partners

Posted by: Stacy Perman on June 08

I'm working on a story about business partnerships and am interested in talking to individuals who have gone into business with their siblings. Do you have a business with your...

Small Business Loan Demand Rising at Community Lenders

Posted by: John Tozzi on June 05

I had an interesting chat today with Mark Pinsky, CEO of Opportunity Finance Network, which is an organization of financial institutions that focus on low-income and low-wealth communities. These mostly...

How to Get Close to Customers

Posted by: John Tozzi on June 04

Intuit CEO Brad Smith dropped by the BusinessWeek office yesterday to take Five Questions from readers in a chat with Reena Jana, BW's innovation editor. Off camera, Smith told us...

Small Companies Up Quotas for Salespeople

Posted by: Amy Barrett on June 03

So with the economy in the tank it would seem like a tough time for sales reps. And guess what? It's getting tougher. According to CSO Insights, a Boulder, CO-based...

Medical Marijuana in LA: A Growth Industry?

Posted by: Stacy Perman on June 03

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, entrepreneurs have driven a truck straight through a loophole meant to limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles....

Another Way to IPO

Posted by: Nick Leiber on June 02

Now this sounds like a promising idea, given what had been a prolonged IPO drought. Backed by venture capital firms and institutional investors, a company named InsideVenture just introduced a...