Small Business

The past year brought continued financial woes for small businesses across a wide array of industries — but not all of them. In a select few sectors, business is booming and sales expectations are soaring heading into 2013. Small agricultural companies and heavy-duty manufacturers are primed for some of the most rapid growth in the coming months, according to a new report from Sageworks based on financial data from thousands of firms with annual revenue below $10 million.

With only five months left in the federal fiscal year, some agencies are scrambling to meet small-business contracting goals. Each department has its own negotiated small-business goals, which support an overall federal goal of 23 percent. The government has yet to meet this objective, averaging 22 percent over the past five years. This year, the government is at 18.5 percent, short of both the yearly goal and five-year average. The gap may offer an opportunity to small businesses that can grow or diversify their...

SMALL BUSINESS is the cute puppy of American tax policy, along with its related breed, the family farm. Invoke small business, and the inevitable response is the policymaking equivalent of awwww, how sweet . Suggest that a proposed change might hurt small business, and you might as well be advocating torturing puppies. Now we like a cute puppy as well as the next editorial board, and we're all for small business, too. But the problem with the way this argument is deployed is that the facts often do not support the claims of harm.

Reality TV producers dream of people like Sammy and Amy Bouzaglo, the hypersensitive and slightly unbalanced restaurateurs who appeared on Fox's "Kitchen Nightmares" this week -- and then proceeded to publicly melt down on social media , flinging all-capped profanities at the Yelp and Reddit users "working together to bring us down. " The Bouzaglos, who own Amy's Baking Co. in Scottsdale, Ariz., deny posting the angry comments and now claim that their Facebook and Twitter accounts were hacked.

In the past few months, there has been an influx of sentiment claiming that small businesses aren't really that important to the U.S. economy and that politicians spend far too much time worrying about small business. As the heads of the leading national small-business organizations in the United States, we will be the first to agree that politicians do seem to love talking about small business. But that's just talk. What matters, and what these opinion pieces seem to forget, is that very little actually has been done to...

I was dumbfounded when I read that David A. Catania and other members of the D.C. Council had proposed raising the sales tax on items sold at Nationals Park in response to the rent dispute between the city and the owners of the Washington Nationals ["With Rent Unpaid, D.C. May Raise Ballpark Sales Tax," Metro, July 17]. Mr. Catania was quoted as saying that if the team would not pay, other businesses would have to. What? Perhaps Mr. Catania does not realize that businesses only collect the sales tax; it's the...

The fortunes of small business are not solely tied to the local markets in which they operate, but are also affected by national and global events. Keeping a watchful eye on the big picture is key to remaining nimble in such uncertain economic times. If you are starting a small business or continuing with an ongoing business venture this year, here are the areas to keep your eye on in 2012. Market Psychology: Get a pulse on customer sentiment. The December 2011 Consumer Sentiment Index rose to its highest level...

Senior Treasury officials have told the financial bailout program's inspector general that they are considering excluding a new $30 billion small-business lending initiative from the watchdog office's oversight. The message, delivered at a meeting last week, sparked outrage from Republicans, who accused the Treasury of taking revenge on the watchdog for writing a series of scathing reports. Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the bailout, urged the Treasury to reconsider, arguing in a letter that the...

Now may be the best time in years for small-business owners with good credit to shop for a loan. Assuming you qualify. A litany of factors play into whether a small business is considered a "highly qualified" loan candidate, and each bank weighs those factors differently. But if you meet a lender's test, you may hold the upper hand at the negotiating table given the current scarcity of such borrowers. "Banks now are looking for quality borrowers and they are willing to...

Shorty needed a ride home. She got confused sometimes, the result of some undefined mental condition, and wasn't always sure where she'd wandered. Her family knew this about Michelle "Shorty" Knight, all 4 feet 7 inches of her, and that's why they worried. She got in a car. It begins there, with that simple act, a 21-year-old — in many ways still very much a girl — got in a car. Aug. 22, 2002. If she'd looked up in that last moment of freedom, she would have seen a...

The General Services Administration has failed to fully pay 1,334 federal contractors, shorting them by more than $3 million since 2008, according to a House committee report released Thursday. The amount may not be large, but lawmakers on the Republican-led House Small Business Committee emphasized the importance of such companies. "Contracting with small businesses is good for the economy and it's good for the taxpayer because small companies bring cost-savings to the federal government," Sam Graves (R-Mo.)

NEW YORK — Baby boomers preparing for retirement are driving a surge in small business sales, as they find more and more buyers confident enough in the improving economy to expand their own businesses through acquisitions. In the first three months of this year, the number of sales that closed jumped 56 percent from the same time in 2012, according to BizBuySell.com, an online marketplace for small businesses. Retirement was the No. 1 contributor to business sales in...

THE BACKBONE: An improvement in small business sentiment gave investors a reason to push stocks back into record territory Tuesday. The Russell 2000, an index of small company stocks, climbed 1.3 percent. The index is up 16.1 percent this year and is outperforming the Standard & Poor's 500. GOLDILOCKS REDUX: The prospect of more stimulus from the Federal Reserve is also underpinning the rally. The economy is growing fast enough to help corporations boost profits but not...

NEW YORK — Small business owners were a little more optimistic during April but are generally still cautious. That's the finding of a survey released Tuesday by the National Federation of Independent Business. The NFIB's Index of Small Business Optimism rose 2.6 points to 92.1 last month, erasing a drop of 1.3 during March. The index was compiled from the survey of 1,873 NFIB members. The index has averaged 90.7 since the recession, reflecting concerns about the economy and...

Many small-business owners worry that a new tax on insurance providers in the health-care law will mean higher premiums for them, undermining the law's capacity to lower their health-care costs. Starting next year, the federal government will charge a new fee on health insurance firms based on the plans they sell to individuals and companies, known as the fully insured market. Meanwhile, the provision exempts health-insurance plans that are set up and operated by businesses...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp. will reach out to high tech businesses this summer, offering part of a $3.3 million loan program funded by casino revenues. Thirty percent of the funds will be set aside for tech start-ups. In partnership with the agency, the Chesapeake Innovation Center, a county-funded tech business incubator, will approve these loans. Renée Winsky, executive director of the center, said Maryland is a center for producing...

Reality TV producers dream of people like Sammy and Amy Bouzaglo, the hypersensitive and slightly unbalanced restaurateurs who appeared on Fox's "Kitchen Nightmares" this week -- and then proceeded to publicly melt down on social media , flinging all-capped profanities at the Yelp and Reddit users "working together to bring us down. " The Bouzaglos, who own Amy's Baking Co. in Scottsdale, Ariz., deny posting the angry comments and now claim that their Facebook and Twitter accounts were hacked.

California and Massachusetts may still be the premier destinations for young, high-growth firms, but when it comes to the best spot for traditional small businesses, look no further than Texas and North Carolina. Austin, Tex. took the top spot on The Business Journals' annual rankings of the premier cities for small businesses for the fourth consecutive year, while Houston came in at No. 8. North Carolina also placed two metropolitan areas on this year's list, Raleigh (No. 4)

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced plans Wednesday to boost access to credit for small businesses, promising changes in banking aimed at bringing down the usurious lending rates that have long been viewed as an obstacle to growth and an impetus for illegal immigration to the United States. For generations, would-be Mexican entrepreneurs have gone north in search of the seed money needed to start a business back home, while others resort to informal lending networks whose annual interest...

by J.D. harrison The Small Business Administration plans to shift some funding away from basic counseling programs for new and small businesses to help finance advanced training for slightly larger companies, part of the agency's efforts to nurture the economic recovery even as the government reins in spending. In its latest budget proposal, the agency announced plans for a new $40 million entrepreneurship education program designed for owners of mid-size,...