Home Wealth Project
Extensive Research On How To Build Wealth From The Comfort Of Your Own Home.
5 Current Social Media Stories That Mean Good Things For Your Business
Jul 20th
| There are too many happenings everyday in the social media space for any single business owner to keep up with. Today’s web is fast, and very, very… |
|
||||
View full post on Home Wealth Project Riot!
ROI Doesn’t Mean ‘Return on Ignorance’
Jul 8th
| Too many companies are diving into social media without thinking a project through. Brian Solis has some thoughts on a better way to use these new… |
|
||||
View full post on Home Wealth Project Riot!
SMB Lending is Up. What Does That Mean for You?
May 3rd
Image: AMagill/Flickr
The current recession has hindered many people from receiving loans. According to a survey conducted by American Express, nearly one in five small businesses are unable to access the capital needed in order to effectively operate their business. Lacking funds, small business owners have tapped into their personal savings accounts and personal credit. Nearly 42% of small business owners rely on their credit cards for capital.
That said, there does seem to be hope for small business owners. One recent report states that the Small Business Administration’s chief loan program has secured double the amount of loans during a three-month span compared to last year alone. During the second fiscal quarter, SBA’s lending program backed 16,558 loans and lent out a whopping $3.7 billion. This total was twice the amount processed in last year’s quarter.
The 2009 Recovery Act has had an effect as well. It set aside $375 million funds to temporarily remove fees for SBA loans in order to increase a fraction of each loan. More than $24 billion in small business loans have already been processed through the Recovery Act. The SBA has also encountered a lack of funds on a total of three occasions. Because of this, President Obama has signed a legislation that encompasses an additional $40 million that carries the plan through April.
During his State of the Union address, President Obama expressed that the main objective for 2010 was to create more jobs for America. If small businesses have more money in their pockets, the government estimates that they will generate 65% new jobs for the U.S.
It’s no wonder that both lenders and borrowers favor the latest provisions.
Melissa is a writer based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as debt management programs & debt consolidation at Resource Nation.
View full post on Business Pundit
FTC Privacy Review Could Mean Trouble for Online Marketing – Advertising Age – Guest Columnists
Apr 18th
 |
If the already-tenuous internet-advertising economy were to be obliterated by the stroke of a pen. LOL, right? |
|
||||
View full post on Home Wealth Project Riot!
JP Morgan Chase’s Big Profits Don’t Mean Much
Apr 14th
JP Morgan Chase reported a net income of $3.3 billion in Q1 2010. Their profits, which are up 57% from Q1 2009, came largely from trading. The JP Morgan report comes the same week the Dow went above 11000 for the first time in 18 months.
Traders are happy. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon stated he is optimistic about the economy. But where’s the context for the rest of us?
For big banks, making profits off investments means borrowing money at a record-low interest rate, then reinvesting it into bonds, commodities, currencies, and other securities with higher yields, according to AP reporter Stevenson Jacobs. That could all go down the toilet if interest rates rise. Although loan losses are slowing down, banks still aren’t making nearly as much off consumers as they are from their investment spread. The AP has more:
And although the big banks starting with JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Wednesday are expected to have good news, analysts say their continuing rebound is unlikely to boost lending. Banks are still conservative about loans, while consumers and business remain wary about adding to their debt burdens. Losses on residential real estate have slowed, but a wave of commercial real estate defaults is hammering small and midsize banks. Analysts forecast that trend will continue through 2010 and beyond.
That’s forcing even big money-making banks to set aside billions of dollars, money that will protect against losses but that will also eat into profits. Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup may have to allocate a combined $33.2 billion over the next two years just to cover home equity losses, according to CreditSights Inc.
“Things aren’t as bad as they were six months ago, but that doesn’t mean everything is rosy,” said Paul Miller, a managing director for FBR Capital Markets. “We still think normalized (bank) earnings are still two years off at best.”
Along that line, analysts don’t see lending picking until unemployment falls from its current level of 9.7 percent and small and midsize businesses start expanding.
That last point on small and midsized businesses expanding doesn’t look good yet. SMB owners still aren’t optimistic, according to the Wall Street Journal. Jobs don’t look rosy, either. The people most excited about the so-called economic recovery seem to be economists, the media, and, naturally, the heads of big banks.
The verdict? Chase made money, thanks to low interest rates. The Dow is up. But jobs, small businesses, and government policy are still shaky. I’ll believe in a recovery when I see it.
View full post on Business Pundit
Does the Rise of Temp Jobs Mean the Recession is Really Over?
Mar 19th
The ranks of temporary help workers have increased for the past five months in a row, according to recently released Department of Labor figures. The Wall Street Journal reports that the number of Americans employed in temporary jobs rose 47,500 in February to 2 million—but at the same time, overall employment declined.
While staffing firms nationwide are reporting increased business as firms prepare for economic recovery, they say hiring is still nowhere near pre-recession levels.
In past recessions, temporary hires have been a leading indicator that companies are getting ready to hire permanent employees. The Associated Press reports that after the recession of 1990-1991, for example, temporary hiring picked up in August 1991 and permanent hiring increased almost immediately after that. After the recession of 2001, temporary hiring increased for three straight months in summer 2003, and permanent hiring began in the fall.
But things may be different this time around. At least right now, it doesn’t appear that many temporary employees have a chance of becoming permanent hires.”I think temporary hiring is less useful a signal than it used to be,” John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo, told the AP. “Companies aren’t testing the waters by turning to temporary firms. They just want part-time workers.”
What’s the difference this time around? One factor is lack of confidence in the economic rebound. With credit markets still tight and consumers not buying, businesses are reluctant to add permanent employees to the payroll.
Another is political uncertainty. With the House and Senate still wrangling over health-care issues, many employers don’t want to hire until they know what additional health-care costs might be for permanent workers.
A $17.6 billion jobs bill that passed March 17 will give employers exemption from payroll taxes for any new employee they hire the rest of the year (as long as the employee had been out of work for 60 days) and will give a $1,000 tax credit for every new employee kept on the payroll for 52 weeks. But opinion is divided as to whether these measures will truly stimulate hiring as long as small businesses still have difficulty accessing credit and capital.
Does the Rise of Temp Jobs Mean the Recession is Really Over?
View full post on Small Business Trends
Automatic IRAs: What Would They Mean to Small Business?
Mar 11th
Among the raft of recent proposals that President Obama announced during his State of the Union address was a plan to help Americans increase their retirement savings.
As reported by AP, the proposed package would guarantee all Americans access to a retirement plan through the workplace, increase tax credits to reward retirement savings, and increase regulation of 401(k) plans.
The proposal small-business owners will be most interested in is the “automatic IRA.” The proposed program would require employers who don’t offer a retirement plan to enroll employees in a direct-deposit individual retirement account. (Employees would have the choice to opt out.) Companies that have 10 or fewer employees or have been in business less than two years would be exempt.
Some 78 million workers do not currently have access to a retirement plan through the workplace. According to The Retirement Security Project, automatic enrollment has been shown to strongly increase participation in retirement plans, especially among low- and middle-income workers.
Supporters of the automatic IRA idea point out that it would be fairly simple for most small businesses to implement, and would help small companies compete with bigger ones that offer retirement benefits.
AARP, which supports the plan, notes that automatic IRAs are simplified accounts owned by individuals–not employer-sponsored retirement plans—so they are much less complex. There are no plan-qualification rules or IRS approvals; you don’t have to comply with ERISA; no employer contributions are required; and the employer has no responsibility to choose, hold or manage investments. Employers simply serve as a conduit helping employees put their own money into their own IRAs. Employers who don’t offer direct deposit would send contributions to the IRS along with tax withholdings.
A survey by the National Federation of Independent Business showed that nearly 50 percent of small businesses with 10 to 19 employees use an outside payroll firm. Of those that do payroll in-house, more than 80 percent use software. For companies that use payroll providers or software, automatic IRAs would easily integrate into the systems they already use. To offset administrative costs, employers would get a tax credit of $25 for each employee who chooses to save in an automatic IRA (up to $250) for two years.
Most companies that still do payroll by hand would be exempt from the proposal, although they could participate if they so desire.
Editor’s Note: this article was previously published at OPENForum.com under the title: “What Would Automatic IRAs Mean to Small Business?” It is reprinted here with permission.
Automatic IRAs: What Would They Mean to Small Business?
View full post on Small Business Trends
Passing People By Can Mean Missed Opportunity
Feb 27th
A good friend of mine, Patti Salvucci, runs dozens of networking groups in the Boston area. A while back, Patti was visiting one of the groups she oversees, and she made an unlikely and very remarkable connection. This is one powerful story . . .
A true master networker, Patti arrived early for the networking meeting in the private meeting room at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. She noticed an older gentleman setting up coffee mugs for the meeting and when she struck up a conversation with him, she was extremely impressed by the tenor of his voice. She asked him what he had done before he retired.
He told her he’d been a commentator for CNN but had decided to find less hectic work and move closer to his daughter. He now managed the owner’s suite at Fenway and enjoyed reminiscing about the famous people he’d met while in the radio business: John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and others. Patti was astounded.
Later, when the meeting was in full swing, one member, Don, announced that he would like to do a radio talk show someday and was looking for contacts who could help him pursue that dream. After the meeting, Patti directed Don’s attention to the gentleman in the back of the room and told him that the man used to be a commentator on the radio. Don was flabbergasted. It was better than any contact he could’ve expected, and it happened at the very meeting in which he asked for it.
The irony was that Don had seen the man on many occasions, but it had never occurred to him to strike up a conversation. After all, the man obviously had little in common with him. What could he possibly have to offer? . . . Obviously, a lot. 
This story is a great lesson to all of us that we really don’t know whom we could be standing next to on a daily basis and that taking the time to find out a little bit about the people we cross paths with can bring great rewards.
![[Facebook]](https://networking.entrepreneur.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[LinkedIn]](https://networking.entrepreneur.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[Mixx]](https://networking.entrepreneur.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/mixx.png)
![[Reddit]](https://networking.entrepreneur.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](https://networking.entrepreneur.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](https://networking.entrepreneur.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](https://networking.entrepreneur.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Yahoo!]](https://networking.entrepreneur.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
View full post on Networking Now
