Opinion

Let the Sequester Cut SBA Loan Guarantees

By Scott Shane - Mar 11, 2013 - 2 Comments

These days, the director of virtually every federal agency is writing to Congress to outline some disaster looming for its constituency as a result of the sequester that cut $85 billion from the federal budget. The Small Business Administration (SBA) is no exception. Its former director, Karen … Read More

Microbusiness Economic Trends: Into the Future

By Dawn R. Rivers - Jan 10, 2013 - 1 Comment

I never thought I'd hear myself saying this -- or see myself writing this -- but I do believe I have reached the point at which I have said everything I have to say about microbusinesses ... sort of. It's not that there nothing left to be said about them. But, in order to get at that other stuff … Read More

Call for All 50 States to Adopt Self Employment Program

By Kristie Arslan - Mar 23, 2012 - Leave a Comment

Legislation extending the U.S. payroll tax deduction in February included changes to the Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) voluntary program that allows states to pay a self-employment allowance to unemployed individuals who are in the process of establishing businesses and realizing the dream of … Read More

President Obama Elevates SBA Head to Cabinet, Sends Mixed Signals

By Anita Campbell - Jan 15, 2012 - 18 Comments

President Obama announced on Friday that he was elevating Karen Mills, Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, to be part of his Cabinet. She already reported directly to the President. Elevating the position to Cabinet level signifies that he considers the role important and … Read More

What’s An Entrepreneur’s MBA Degree Really Worth?

By Tim Berry - Mar 9, 2011 - 31 Comments

I’m an entrepreneur. The last time I was an employee was in 1983. So what did I get from my MBA studies? It wasn’t about earning power. I quit the fancy high-paying MBA job I’d recruited into just a few weeks after graduation. I went back to the consulting firm I’d worked with while I … Read More

Making Your Voice Heard as a Small Business Owner

By Rieva Lesonsky - Nov 10, 2010 - 9 Comments

Politics has been on everyone’s mind lately due to the recent midterm elections. In California, where I live, there was much debate (as always) about whether certain propositions on the ballot would actually help citizens—or were simply smokescreens for big businesses to profit. And two of the … Read More

12 Seconds That Changed Everything

By Joel Libava - Aug 24, 2010 - 7 Comments

The concept of time, when you really start to think about it, is strange. Take seconds, for instance. How long can you stay underwater without having to come up for air? Twenty seconds? Thirty? Forty? A minute? I'll bet that those seconds seem really long. Do you think that 12 seconds is a long … Read More

3 Deadly Threats Against Small Businesses Today

By Andy Birol - May 16, 2010 - 14 Comments

Despite the economy apparently growing for government and corporations, most small business owners I work with are increasingly terrorized by the unholy alliance of big business and government. Across political parties, this alliance is creating an increasingly toxic environment for small … Read More

Why Small Business is Fed Up with Government

By Chuck Blakeman - Jan 28, 2010 - 21 Comments

"what really grinds the gears of small business owners is the near-complete inattention by lawmakers on who creates jobs." So said Kimble Fletcher Ainslie in a Cato Institute article from December 20, 2001 titled "Bush Ignores Small Business." Eight years later under a different president, … Read More

Will 2010 be the year of Start-Up America?

By Melinda Emerson - Jan 27, 2010 - 16 Comments

On January 24th 2010, New York Times Columnist Thomas L. Friedman wrote an op-ed piece titled, "More (Steve) Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs," which gave advice to President Obama as he puts the finishing touches on this week's State of the Union speech. He wrote "We need to make 2010 what Obama should … Read More

Small Business Owners, Only YOU Can Save the Economy

By Anita Campbell - Feb 8, 2009 - 18 Comments

Who appointed small business owners as the savior of the U.S. economy? Harken back to that old commercial with Smokey the Bear "only you can prevent forest fires." Steve Rubel of Micropersuasion picked up on a similar theme about a year ago when he satirically wrote that "Advertisers, Only You … Read More