Small businesses

Small Businesses Being Targeted by Hackers

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small business hackerThe Federal Trade Commission sued Wyndham Worldwide hotels last month after poor security allowed $10,6 million in phony credit card charges. After that happened, it put a spotlight on a growing problem for many small and medium businesses and that is that computer hackers are increasingly targeting them.

Activities like this have plagued large corporations for some time, gaining worldwide recognition whenever a hack from Anonymous or LulzSec surfaces. Sony’s PlayStation Network was one of the more recent big name hacks followed by a Russian hacker posting 6.5 million LinkedIn user passwords online. But now hackers are turning to the small and medium-sized businesses of the world, ones that usually have weaker defenses.

One example comes from a mannequin company out of Brooklyn, New York, which lost $1.2 million in only a few hours. Verizon has also analyzed hundreds of data breaches from 2010 and found that 63% of them happened at companies that had 100 or fewer employees.

The surprising part is that this isn’t a new trend. Kevin Haley, Director at Symantec Security Response, cited company research that showed that only 13% of the 1,900 SMBs the firm surveyed felt completely protected against computer threats. In addition to that, a related study showed that 40% of targeted online attacks had gone after smaller businesses.

The big name hackers, like Anonymous, tend to go after big companies that they find are infringing upon privacy, human rights or some other cause. However, the hackers that are looking for a quick score tend to go after smaller businesses with a nice cash flow and lower security measures.

Things are getting worse for small businesses every day. Not only are they getting hit hard by the economy but what money they do make is being taken from them by hackers. What’s worse is that, according to McAfee and Guardian Analytics, hackers are using fraud automation to increase the power and speed of their attacks while tools found on hacker sites also help people illegally tap into company information networks.

If you are a small business owner, you may want to stock up on as much antivirus protection as possible. You don’t have to be completely protected, just more protected than your competition, because a hacker will always take the easier prey.

Source: CBS News – Hackers target small businesses

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Wall Street Lends Small Businesses a Helping Hand

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Wall StreetWe’ve all heard the horror stories of Wall Street, the stories about how the 1% don’t care about anybody but themselves and would rather see others suffer than lend a helping hand. However, that may not be as true as we all once thought as Wall Street marketers have started lending a helping hand to small business owners.

Wall Street giants like Chase, American Express and Goldman Sachs are slowly recovering from some rough times resulting from the recent housing crisis, though each of these companies has found time to extend the proverbial olive branch to small business owners across the country. For example, Chase just announced a $3 million program with LivingSocial that will allow consumers to vote on which small business will receive $250,000 in grants.

Chase has long aimed for small business owners to sell loans though, as Chase Business Card President Richard Quigley stated, “wanted to give grant money to help jump-start deserving businesses.” Quigley added, “We’re doing this now because small businesses are the engine of the U.S. economy.”

This move by Chase is similar to the one used by American Express’ Small Business Saturday event. This event drives cardholders to spend at Main Street small businesses on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and also creates incentives for the business owners to accept the card. In addition to Chase and American Express, Visa is also launching an Olympics campaign aimed at small businesses.

You may be wondering why small business are getting so much attention at the moment from these bigwigs and the reason is simply because there are so many more small businesses now than there used to be. According to Executive Director for Corporate Executive Board, “Through the past two recessions we saw a spike in the net new small businesses — companies are recognizing that.”

Chase is running a two-pronged small-business stimulus program, much like American Express’. Chase’s program is targeting consumers and small business owners with the hopes that this show of good faith will have a halo effect. “They’re both capitalizing on anti-big-business sentiment,” said Maycock.

Maycock added, “You can see ‘Shop Small’ working double duty, at once small business is grateful for driving business, but it also speaks to a shared value with consumers: ‘Let’s get behind the little guy.'” According to American Express Chief Marketer John Hayes, “Cardholders were able to help their downtown, which is what they all want to do.”

Goldman Sachs, which is considered to be the most reviled name on Wall Street, has even committed $500 million to help small businesses grow via things like scholarships, lending and philanthropic support to community development groups. Small businesses are what can turn this economic crisis around and it is good to see some of these bigger corporations getting behind them.

Source: Advertising Age – Small Businesses Get a Boost From Finance Bigwigs

Small Businesses Eligible for Free Consultation from OSHA Professionals

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OSHA logoIf you own your own business, then you are already well aware that you have a legal obligation to make sure your workplace is healthy and safe for your employees as well as your customers. And if you know that, you must also know that if you fail to meet these requirements, you could very well be cited and penalized by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA).

However, you may not know that the OSHA regulations can be both unwieldy and costly, especially if you are a small business owner. When it comes to inspections by the OSHA and the improvements that undoubtedly follow, many small business owners have no idea where to begin. Fortunately, there are some programs designed to help, including a free on-site consultation provided by the OSHA itself. What could be more beneficial?

In 2010 OSHA’s program visited nearly 30,000 businesses where free consultants offered confidential, non-punitive advice to small business owners. The best thing about these consultations, as you have probably already noticed, is that if an OSHA finds that you are in fault of a guideline or code, you won’t be cited. The consultants are there to help you get everything in order. They will help identify problem areas, give you advice and even help establish management systems and train your employees.

But even though a consultant helps you out, this doesn’t mean you are off the hook; you may still have some work to do. After you get a detailed report from your consultant, you will be expected to fix the problems and make the necessary changes by an agreed upon date. Obviously,the overall goal of the plan is to help your small business become OSHA compliant.

Source: Reuters – OSHA Offers Free Consults to Small Businesses
FindLaw – OSHA Offers Free Consults to Small Businesses


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$410 Million in Small Business Loans Given Out in Missouri

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Clint ZweifelMissouri, or at least its State Treasurer Clint Zweifel, is very generous with its small business owners as Zweifel stated that he awarded 1,400 low-interest loans to farmers and small businesses last year with the total amount of the loans equaling $410 million, a new record to say the least.

This number is up 40% from the $356 million in loans given out last year. 2010 was the first to set a record in loans since $356 million was given out back in 1992. The loans are made available through the Missouri Linked Deposit program. Farmers and small business owners from around Missouri saved an estimated $7.2 million in interest (nearly 30% on the cost of the loan) according to Zweifel.

In 2011 the St. Louis region, which encompasses St. Louis City and the counties of Crawford, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, St. Charles, St. Louis, Warren and Washington, received over $99 million from 150 low-interest loans for farmers and small business owners according to a statement from Missouri State Treasurer’s Office spokesman John Galloway.

Nearly 130 loan providers with 350 different branches throughout the state offer loans through the program. Times are tough and it is definitely reassuring to see that so many people can get the help they need from their elected officials when they need it. If only the White House would take note.

Source: St. Louis Business Journal – Missouri awards $410 million in small-business loans

Small Business IT Needs Grow, Creating Expansion for CMIT Solutions

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CMIT SolutionsBeing a franchised network of IT consultants to small businesses, CMIT Solutions is expecting to expand from 130 locations to 500 locations across the nation and from only having units in 32 states to all 50 states within the next couple of years. CMIT attributes the growth to the growing needs for IT in small businesses across the country.

According to President and CEO of CMIT Jeff Connally, “Research shows that more than eight of every ten small businesses handle their IT needs in-house. But as technology becomes more complex, with cloud computing and other web-based platforms, they’ll have to adapt by outsourcing their IT packages and CMIT Solutions is perfectly positioned to fill that market niche.”

CMIT Solutions estimates that within the next five years, 75% of the small businesses that handle their own IT in-house will have to pay for the type of managed IT services offered by CMIT Solutions. The company offers many IT services including the 24/7 monitoring and maintenance service CMIT Maintenance and the business continuity package CMIT Guardian.

Frank Picarello, CMIT COO and member of CompTIA’s executive board added, “That 82% that handles its IT in-house — it’s not that they want to do that. They’d much rather run their businesses than manage their IT needs, but most don’t think that they have world class alternatives. They’re looking for the kind of affordable consistent IT services that can help them stay competitive. You realize, ‘Wow, there’s an enormous opportunity here.’ The market is ripe for a franchise model like ours.”

The Computer Technology Industry Association gathered some data that identified 2 million small businesses in the United States that meet three key criteria: They earn at least $2 million a year, have been in business for at least two years, and are in industries that rely on IT. Of those, 82% handle their IT needs in-house.

In addition to that, the data discovered that of the nearly 18,000 U.S. vendors that provide managed IT services, no single company has more than a 1% market share. And finally, the data also discovered that small businesses estimated their technology expenses increased by 65% from 2008 to 2009 and an additional 24% from 2009 to 2010, with expenses projected to increase indefinitely.

Source: Market Watch – Growing Small Business IT Needs Create Massive Expansion for CMIT Solutions Franchise


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More and More Small Business Owners Turning to Social Media Sites

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social mediaA large number of small business owners are starting to discover that social media does not have to be a painful process or one that is restricted to the younger generation. As a result of this revelation, many of those entrepreneurs that are deciding to take advantage of social media sites say that they’re reaping big rewards aside from being able to commune with customers.

The Fall 2011 Attitudes and Outlook Survey, put on by Constant Contact, an email marketing firm, has shown that small businesses are becoming more aware of the desire of customers for engagement. As a result, the companies are responding by actively “listening” to their clients on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and company websites.

What many small business owners are beginning to realize is that not only are social media sites a great way to stay in touch with customers, but they also offer unique advantages that can help their small businesses in ways they may not have initially thought.

One benefit is cost savings. Since Constant Contact’s last survey six months ago, the firm discovered that small business owners who said that they’re allocating time to social media marketing climbed to 81%, an increase from the 73% reported six months ago. When asked why, 83% of small business owners named cost savings as their #1 reason to market online.

Another benefit is ease of use. An additional 67% of small business owners stated that social media marketing is easier to master and use. That is an increase from the 54% in the last survey. In addition to that, it was also discovered that 51% of owners found out that their customers prefer to use media channels, an increase from 38% six months ago.

Finally, improved efficiency is another benefit to using social media sites. 45% of those surveyed said that they were drawn to the fact that social media marketing doesn’t consume a lot of their time. This figure is also up from the 32% that was recorded in the survey six months ago.

Facebook was pinpointed as the #1 site among those surveyed with an overall 96% approval rating. An additional 76% say they use Twitter, though 86% said they preferred Facebook for actually using social media tools. 60% of owners found Twitter to be useful for their marketing channels with another 55% saying they found Linkedin makes a lot of sense as a marketing tool for their business.

Source: Entrepreneur – More Small Businesses Extol the Benefits of Social Media

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October Sees an Increase in Small Business Optimism

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small business increaseOctober was a good month for small business owners as optimism in the industry saw an increase of 20% in the month to top off at 53%. What makes this even more remarkable is that optimism saw record lows in the previous months according to SurePayroll’s monthly Small Business Scorecard. The scorecard includes hiring and wage data for the top 35 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas and surveys national small business owner optimism each month.

The scorecard revealed there continued to be a flat or decreasing hiring on a national level for the month of October, the thirteenth straight month in a row. Hiring totaled a year-to-date decline in hiring of 2.9% though the company did note that this downward turn has been slowing since September. Wages also remained down slightly for the year as well.

In addition to that, the survey also found that small business owners have their minds set on long-term growth and also indicate that the current administration and presidential candidates should be focusing on putting our country’s fiscal affairs in order. Other issues addressed in the optimism survey were that 51% of small business owners reported that the most critical issues related to job growth are budget balancing, reducing the deficit and stabilizing the housing market.

What’s more is that 45% of small business owners also think that some form of flat tax would have a positive impact on hiring, with 44% thinking that a flat tax would have no impact on hiring whatsoever. In addition to that, roughly 11% thought that a flat tax could have a negative effect on hiring.

According to President of SurePoll Michael Alter, “Optimism is like the fuel that drives small businesses. With small business optimism taking such a strong upswing, we can be hopeful that hiring and wage trends may follow. While hiring is down, a closer look at the numbers shows the decline is slowing. And while wages appear flat, they are in fact up just a bit from this time last year. That coupled with rising optimism makes me think next month may be even brighter for small business.”

MSA data from the scorecard has shown that for the seventh consecutive month, the South remains the only positive region in the country for hiring. The South has also experienced minimal month-over-month growth in hiring. The Northeast, Midwest and West stand in direct contrast to this trend as these areas continue to show negative month-over-month growth. Year to date the South is up 0.5%  while all the other regions are negative.

In addition to that, the survey also found that small business owners continue to to rely on contractors to meet their needs versus hiring new employees. Contractor use also showed a month-over-month increase of 1.3% . SurePayroll’s Scorecard compiles data from over 30,000 small businesses and exclusively reflects the trends affecting the nation’s so-called “micro businesses”, or those businesses with an average of eight employees.

Source: eWeek.com – Small Business Optimism Jumps 20 Percent in October

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Controlling Employee Spending Puts Small Business Owners At Ease

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spending moneyIn any kind of business, whether it be big or small, employers have to trust their employees. It’s a common fact that if there is a lack of trust in a business, then the business will inevitably fail. However, better management of employee expenses can also create a more efficient workplace as well as a more productive workforce.

A recent study of Citizens Financial Group/Mastercard discovered that 55% of all small business owners believe that better management of employee expenses will reduce costs as well as benefit their business. In addition to that, 40% stated that more control over employee spending would give them more peace of mind.

The study also showed that 36% of small business owners use a cash reimbursement system in order to enable their employees to pay for day-to-day business expenses while 32% say that they use a company credit card or debit card. Furthermore, 29%  have stated that they have petty cash funds available with 21%  stating that they use their own personal credit card.

According to Head of Commercial Cards for Citizens Financial Group Stephen Wooters, “With 65% of small business owners using either a cash reimbursement system or a petty cash system to reimburse employees for company expenses – and another 31% handling all expenses themselves – the conclusion is obvious: This is not the most efficient way of running a business. So they should take advantage of easy-to-implement technology to provide the spend management solutions they need to succeed.”

It was also reported that 35% of small business owners wished they had an easier way to track and control employee expenses. In addition, 28% said that managing employee expenses is one of the things that they hate most about being a small business owner.

Source: Gaebler.com – Small Business Owners Think Controlling Employee Expenses Will Lead To Cost Savings

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The Small Business Administration Sets a New Record for Loans

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ApprovedIn recent SMB news, the Small Business Administration set a new record in the last fiscal year for its government-guaranteed loan programs. The Small Business Administration approved $30.5 billion in loans for the 2011 fiscal year which officially ended on September 30. That is a dramatic increase from the 2010 fiscal year numbers of $22.6 billion and the previous record of $28.5 billion recorded in 2007.

Over $12 billion in Small Business Administration loans were approved in the first quarter alone with borrowers and lenders taking advantage of breaks, or higher loan guarantees and reduced fees, that expired on January 1, 2011. However, the number of Small Business Administration loans only slightly increased from 60,711 in 2010 to 61,689 in 2011.

One reason for this is that Congress has increased the maximum size of 7(a) loans from $2 million to $5 million. This increase, along with a reduction in the number of 7(a) loans under $150,000, resulted in an increase in the average size of a 7(a) loan from $237,996 in 2010 to $365,508 in 2011.

This new trend towards bigger loans is, however, very good news due to the fact that it shows that successful small businesses are using Small Business Administration loans to expand and hire more people. In addition to that, bigger loans also tend to have lower default rates as opposed to smaller loans.

On the downside, businesses that need smaller loans may not be getting the help they need from the Small Business Administration. Agency Administrator Karen Mills stated that the Small Business Administration is addressing this problem by providing incentives to lenders in order to make smaller loans and allow community development organizations to make 7(a) loans to businesses in low-income areas.

The number of 7(a) loans that went to startups increased from 14,472 in 2010 to 15,561 in 2011 though the percentage of loan dollars that went to startups decreased from 25% to 23%. Even though lending to minorities did increase in 2011, lending to businesses owned by women declined from 18% of total loans in 2010 to 17% in 2011.

In addition to that, the $30.5 billion total does come with a few asterisks. The Small Business Administration did not actually make that volume in loans and couldn’t by law. That number represents the gross total not counting the $2 billion in canceled loans. Plus, the Small Business Administration’s 504 program, which is primarily used for real estate, usually includes two loans, one backed by the Small Business Administration and the other a conventional loan.

The Small Business Administration counted conventional loans in its 504 total of $10.3 million because those loans were also paired with Small Business Administration-backed loans. Despite that, the Small Business Administration still had a record year no matter which way you look at it.

Source: Portfolio.com – SBA Sets Loan Record

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Number of Self-Employed Individuals Decreases

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self-employmentEven though small businesses are looking at the future optimistically, the number of self-employed small business owners is declining. As of August there were 14.5 million people who were self-employed, a decrease of 2.1 million from the most recent peak in December 2006.

The number of “incorporated” self-employed individuals, the same ones that incorporate in order to gain legal protection as well as other benefits, started to decline back in 2008. One month ago 5.1 million people were in this category, a decrease of 726,000 from August 2008.

According to Scott Shane, Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University, this decline is “troubling”. This particular category, which typically represents businesses that hire more employees than “unincorporated”  self-employed businesses, was actually showing prosperous growth before the recession hit according to Shane.

The 9.4 million unincorporated self-employed number has hardly changed since last spring as it is balancing at its lowest level in the past 25 years according to BLS Economist Steven Hipple. There are many contributing factors that coincide with this drop-off such as financial issues, vocational moves and psychological worries.

People who are receiving unemployment benefits are also worried about trading in a steady check for the particularly risky world of self employment, which has the potential to bring in big bucks, but also has the potential to drain what little money you may have left.

Even if you think you have a business idea that seems highly profitable, you still have to factor in a cost-benefit analysis to see if losing the benefits of a steady job working for somebody else is worth  the risk. If that wasn’t enough to deter some, other people who already run their own business are also worried.

A little more than half of the people who are self-employed with little to no employees under them have an overall lack of confidence in the future of their businesses. Take this and compare it to the 36% of small-business owners who feel the same way as of a 2011 mid-year report and the numbers speak for themselves.

Source: USA Today – Fewer people choose to be self-employed

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