Maybe the late-night infomercials are right: You can make a million bucks while sitting at home in your pajamas. Or possibly, from your sailboat.
StartupNation.com, together with Microsoft Office Live, just announced the winners of this year’s home-based business competition, called the Home Based 100, and the top finisher, FETCH! Pet Care, scored $3.5 million [...]
My colleague Christina Binkley writes today about how many small fashion designers are jumping on the “buy local” movement and opening local stores to sell their apparel straight to consumers – rather than the traditional model of selling through other retailers.
It’s win-win, she writes: Customers get to meet and consult with designers directly and take [...]
As President-elect Obama unveils his Cabinet members, some small-business owners and organizations anxiously await who he’ll pick to run the agency charged with helping them.
Some of the names floating around as potential next Small Business Administration leaders include Fred Hochberg, who leads Obama’s SBA transition team and was former acting SBA administrator; Annette Taddeo, a [...]
A Senate investigation into a nonprofit that was designed to help veterans start a small business found that its executives wasted “hundreds of thousands of dollars of the $17 million in federal funds it has received since 2001,” the Washington Post first reported last week.
The probe found gross mismanagement and lavish spending by the [...]
First the good news: Gasoline prices plummeted a record 29.5% last month. That might not be such great news for Exxon Mobil, but it’s good for everyday commuters - and for the tens of thousands of flower shops, house-cleaning businesses and plastics makers that have been pummeled this year by high petroleum prices. Prices of [...]
Last week, I explored the French Quarter neighborhood in New Orleans. I found it exactly as often described: lovely, quaint, and teeming with life. I was taking pictures along Bourbon Street when I detected a distinctive sugary smell that made my mouth water. I headed toward the direction of a small unassuming shop, and found [...]
Editor’s note: On Mondays, we’ll be interviewing 2008 Top Small Workplaces winners about their companies and the unique workplace practices that help make them successful. You can read the full 2008 Top Small Workplaces package here. You can also nominate a business for Top Small Workplaces 2009 here.
At most companies, there are big incentives to [...]
We’ve written about the many mistakes small businesses make when venturing into social media like Twitter, blogging and Facebook. But then what’s the right way?
An article in today’s WSJ offers some smart and practical advice on how businesses can better take advantage of social-networking and other social media. The authors interviewed 30 executives and managers [...]
Angel investing dollars expected to drop 10% this year, compared with 2007. Next year, could see even more declines. [Angel Capital Association]
Need a sweet-paying gig? Become a YouTube video star. [NYT]
The Small Business Administration releases new lender oversight rules. [Marketwatch]
Learn how to franchise a business. [BusinessWeek]
If you can’t find the “rules” section on [...]
Entrepreneurship experts like to point to the impressive list of companies launched during recessions, including Microsoft and Southwest Airlines – evidence, they say, that bad economies aren’t such bad times to start businesses. But there’s little good data that prove recessions actually are good times to start businesses – or whether it’s just that you [...]