Looking Back On 2013's Small Business Challenges

Some federal contractors couldn't get paid. Companies that wanted Small Business Administration -backed loans had to wait longer for approvals. HIRING In January, small businesses added 106,000 jobs, according to payroll provider ADP. But optimism about a small business hiring boom dissipated as the number of new jobs fell in February and then averaged nearly 70,000 through October. Owners said they weren't planning to add workers because they didn't have the sales to justify the expense, or they didn't need to hire to grow, according to an American Express survey back in the spring. Uncertainty about health care also made them wary. Through most of the year owners stuck to those plans, but near then end of the 2013 there was a glimmer of hope. ADP reported that small businesses created 102,000 new jobs in November. More insight that could bode well for small business hiring next year, came from a Bank of America survey. Thirty-one percent of owners questioned in the fall said they planned to hire, and 56 percent of those owners said they needed employees to boost business in 2014. That could be good news for the broader economy because more than 99 percent of U.S.

5 Small Business Mistakes To Avoid In 2014

Prices start pretty low for this kind of marketing, so now is a good time to look into it. 3. Being chained to your computer:In some ways, its fantastic how rarely a small business owner feels a need to leave their computer to do business. Tasks that used to mean travel (whether its just to the next room or across the world) now can happen without ever having to get up from your desk. That is undeniably pretty cool. But at this point, maybe its time to stop being amazed at the coolness and convenience of modern business technology, and start actually examining which old-school methods are worth holding onto. This tech audit will surely look different for every small business, but weve found this is a good bottom line to aim for: do everything you can to preserve face-to-face interactions. Just trust us. Any time its possible, suggest a coffee or lunch meeting instead of volleying emails all day. It can end up being a time saver, not to mention the invaluable forging of relationships that result from personal contact especially during a time when its increasingly rare. Simply meeting in person is enough to make you stand out and stick in someones mind. Be that person. 4. Blaming the government for anything:Yes, Obamacare . Yes, government shutdown. Yes, fiscal cliff. Listen, the government has undoubtedly been active in the past year in a lot of ways that are impactful for small businesses. Were not saying these issuesdontmatter to you and your business.

13 Small Business Tasks to Complete By the End of 2013

Build Your 2014 Map Dont forget the big picture while youre working on the smaller tasks at hand. You need a vision for your future. Where are you going in 2014 and what are your goals? Hold Annual Reviews Its the perfect time to discuss performance with your employees and let them know how they can help the company run at its peak performance. Take time to praise them and listen to their concerns one on one. Hold an Open Forum Your employees work with your customers day in and day out. Thats why theyre often the best people to help suggest ways to make your customers happier. Hold a year-end forum that encourages your employees to share any ideas they have. This is one of many ways to keep your employees happy and show them that you value their input. Review Your Insurance Policies Oftentimes insurance policies are drawn up and then forgotten about until theyre needed. At that time, business owners personal information management may realize that they dont have adequate coverage. Go ahead and review your policies with care it could potentially save you a lot of money. Touch Base with Your Best Customers Let your customers know that you appreciate their business. Take some time to find out if theres anything else you can do to improve or help improve their experience with your business. Send a letter or survey out its a simple way to show you care about your customers needs and encourage constructive feedback. Check Out Your Business Cards Youre probably handing out your business cards to a bevy of people. Review your business cards to make sure all of your information is accurate and up-to-date and that the layout matches that of your website. Look Over Your Budget The reason you prepare a budget is to compare it to your performance and see how youre doing. Check and see what you did right and where you can improve. The power of a budget is in the analysis.

Analysis: Forced Lending To China Smes May Risk More Harm Than Good

Analysis: Forced lending to China SMEs may risk more harm than good By Pete Sweeney and Gabriel Wildau SHANGHAI/WENZHOU, China Tue Nov 19, 2013 4:07am EST Email Print 1 of 3. A worker wearing a mask pulls a cart loaded with limestone at a mill in Quzhou, Zhejiang province October 22, 2013. Beijing's strategy to reroute money away from state-owned giants towards smaller firms to help fuel the economic transformation behind its reform plans is less of a success than it may seem on the surface. Picture taken October 22. Credit: Reuters/William Hong SHANGHAI/WENZHOU, China (Reuters) - Beijing's strategy to reroute money away from state-owned giants towards smaller firms to help fuel the economic transformation behind its reform plans is less of a success than it may seem on the surface. Lending has increased in line with Beijing's orders. But banks have found loopholes allowing them to lend to state-owned firms and some borrowers are local-government-owned, operating in saturated sectors Beijing is trying to consolidate, aggravating the risks facing the financial sector rather than alleviating them. Some lending is even being routed to real estate, a market Beijing is trying to cool as prices soar, one researcher said. These factors highlight the struggle China faces in trying to reform its financial markets while preserving a dominant role for the state, a combination underlined by a 60-point reform plan to redraw China's economy and social fabric announced last week. "Despite efforts for many years by every level of government to alleviate financing difficulties for small and medium enterprises, there hasn't been a substantive improvement," said Ye Xixi, director of the finance department at Wenzhou University City College, whose research focuses on small-and-medium enterprise (SME) financing. "In fact, in recent years there are signs it's getting worse." Regulators classify SMEs differently. China's bank regulator, for example, says they are companies with assets of less than 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) or annual sales of less than 30 million yuan. Regardless, economists estimate they account for 70 percent of China's output and create 80 percent of its jobs, so many reformers say it is these companies, not China's stable of massive but inefficient state champions, that should lead China's economy in the future. Beijing wants nimble, innovative firms focused on selling services to domestic consumers to steer the economy away from its current credit-intensive, state-driven model. MISMATCH In entrepreneurial Wenzhou, a coastal city of 9 million people south of Shanghai, a centre designed to meet the needs of small business is struggling to meet loan demand because banks are wary of lending. "Demand for loans is heavy, but for a large portion of borrowers, lenders aren't willing to lend," said Xu Zhiqian, general manager of the Wenzhou Private Lending Service Centre, located in a zone testing financial reform. "They think the risk is too large." Xu said only about half of the pool of funds made available by would-be lenders has been used for loans. Wenzhou made headlines in 2011 when a wave of local firms defaulted on informal loans, prompting local officials to warn that businesses would be decimated if the city was not thrown a credit lifeline by Beijing. Nationwide, official data shows that lending to SMEs has increased as ordered, but still accounts for just about a fifth of all loans, small compared with the sector's economic output. LOOPHOLES To be fair, lending to small businesses is a banker's nightmare: they are hard to appraise, light on assets and quick to capsize when economic winds change. Beijing has ordered state-owned banks to lend to smaller companies but bankers say there are loopholes that allow them to meet the quotas through lending to state-backed entities. "We're government-owned. The company is state-owned; really our relationship is like that of brothers," said a loan officer at Bank of Communications, who declined to be identified. "This is why small and medium-sized enterprises don't get financing from state-owned banks. It's not like they're good or not good. We discriminate against them because they're not one of my brothers." Another state banker, a loan officer, said banks have depended on requiring collateral for loans rather than assessing risk. A lack of ability to assess risk prevented many banks from lending to smaller companies, he said. The solution is to use a variety of accounting tricks to disguise loans to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as SME loans, such as making loans to small subsidiaries or paying small suppliers on behalf of SOEs, he said. DOWNMARKET Unlike more market-orientated economies, in China "SME" is not synonymous with either private ownership, efficiency, or innovation; many small Chinese companies are owned or controlled by local governments, operating in sectors swamped with overcapacity - like solar power, shipping and steel. So even if these companies are knee-deep in debt and facing dismal business prospects, banks will issue loans to them because they know ultimately the taxpayer is on the hook. Even local government financing vehicles are defined as SMEs, said Anne Stevenson-Yang, managing principal at J Capital Research. She was referring to a type of financing vehicle associated with an explosion in local government borrowing that accompanied China's response to the global financial crisis. She said many smaller Chinese banks, locked out of lending to premium SOEs, had moved downmarket to lend to LGFVs and SME associations that aggregate loans. But this funding rarely ends up with genuinely innovative small firms, she said. "Generally, the associations don't pass these loans to small firms but instead lend at higher interest rates to real estate developers or other attractive targets, with the participation of member SMEs." OTHER MARKETS Alternative funding channels have also provided little success. A "junk" bond market designed for SME corporate debt is virtually dormant. Outstanding volumes are less than 0.5 percent of all corporate bonds issued in China. "Third board" over-the-counter equity markets launched around China have mostly flopped due to a lack of interest from firms wanting to list or from investors, many of whom are suspicious of such markets. "The valuations are very low, there's no liquidity, and it gives you forever the stain of being traded on that market," said Peter Fuhrman, chairman of investment bank China First Capital. "You are clearly better off trying to do a private deal." Furhman said investors in junk bonds and OTC markets were only interested if a state-owned firm would guarantee the issuer. Beijing stamped out a practice of SOEs selling guarantees for a fee after it became clear that the third-party guarantee system, which had been harnessed to help SMEs get bank loans, had devolved into an opaque market where guarantors frequently pledged the same collateral multiple times, while dabbling in shadow banking on the side. CIVILISED WORK UNIT For viable Chinese small businesses, access to capital is not the major challenge. Entrepreneurs told Reuters that getting loans was less of a problem than the policy hoops necessary to stay in business. Wenzhou-based Kingapple Home Textile Co Ltd, which has 100 employees and makes bed sheets, blankets and pillows, has few problems getting bank loans, General Manager Su Zhonghai said. His major problem, he said, was onerous labor laws and rising costs. Small companies also face a wider regulatory environment in which government approval, even symbolic, plays an outsized role. Kingapple, for example, is seeking to renew its certification as a "Civilized Work Unit", which requires companies to "diligently study and implement Deng Xiaoping Theory, the 'Three Represents' Important Thought, and Scientific Outlook on Development,(and) resolutely carry out the Party line." There are no explicit benefits attached to the certification, a county propaganda official said. But certified firms would be treated favorably when seeking land or administrative permits. (Additional reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Neil Fullick) FILED UNDER:

Rbs Brings In Lawyers To Review Treatment Of Ailing Small Firms

RBS brings in lawyers to review treatment of ailing small firms By Matt Scuffham Email Print A logo at a Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) branch is seen in the City of London March 6, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Toby Melville Critic of RBS business lending had own complaint against bank Mon, Nov 25 2013 LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) has appointed law firm Clifford Chance to conduct an inquiry into the treatment received by small business customers in financial distress, responding to suggestions it closed down viable businesses too quickly. The move comes after an independent report by former Bank of England deputy governor Andrew Large, which was commissioned by RBS, recommended the bank look into concerns over its treatment of struggling small businesses. RBS has also been accused by government adviser Lawrence Tomlinson of pushing struggling small firms into its "turnaround" unit, so it can charge higher fees (on the basis they have defaulted) and take control of their assets. "To ensure our customers can have full confidence in our commitment to them, I have asked Clifford Chance to conduct an inquiry into this matter, reporting back to me in the new year," RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan said in a letter to Large on Monday. Large told Reuters that Britain's financial regulator was almost certain to take action in relation to the accusations if they are found to be true, adding the bank had taken the findings of his report "very seriously". "I merely looked at the assertions themselves which were clearly very serious. If they are found to be true it's almost certain the regulator will take quite an interest in it," he said. Business Secretary Vince Cable demanded an urgent response from Britain's financial regulators and from RBS, 82 percent owned by taxpayers following a 45 billion pounds ($73 billion) government rescue during the 2008 financial crisis. Asked on BBC radio if a criminal investigation should be launched he said: "That's for the regulators and the police to establish, whether there is a case. The authorities need to establish whether there is something worse than unethical behavior actually going on here". The regulator has so far declined to comment. Tomlinson, a businessman hired as an adviser by Cable's department in April, said RBS had engineered businesses into default in order to move them into its so-called Global Restructuring Group (GRG). Tomlinson said that maneuver enabled the bank to generate revenue through higher fees and the purchase of devalued assets by its property division, West Register. Britain's Federation of Small Businesses said: "The regulators need to investigate the findings of both the Tomlinson and Sir Andrew Large reports and swiftly address any issues raised to restore trust in the banks." SIGNIFICANT STRESS Yet the scrutiny of GRG could expose a contradiction in what RBS had been asked to do following its bailout - stabilize its finances at the same time as boosting support for small firms. RBS said GRG had successfully turned around most of the businesses it worked with. "In all cases RBS is working with customers at a time of significant stress in their lives. Not all businesses that encounter serious financial trouble can be saved," it said. GRG is run by Derek Sach, a former executive of British private equity firm 3i Group (III.L). It is part of the bank's non-core division, run by Rory Cullinan, front runner to become head of RBS's internal "bad bank", which is being created after the government decided against breaking the bank up. Cullinan has overseen a reduction in the group's non-core loans from a peak of 258 billion pounds to around 40 billion. The latest RBS allegations come as banks in Britain and beyond continue to be the focus of public disquiet. Tapping in to popular mistrust of the financial sector, the government has ordered Britain's financial watchdog to probe Co-op Bank after the arrest of its former chairman as part of an investigation into the supply of illegal drugs. Tomlinson was hired by the business department in April as an "entrepreneur-in-residence" to help address the needs of small and medium-sized businesses". He runs LNT Group, based in the north of England, which has annual revenue of 100 million pounds and interests from construction to care homes. ($1 = 0.6178 British pounds) (Additional reporting by William James; Editing by David Holmes and Mark Potter) FILED UNDER:

Group Business Software Ag : Social Business Vendor Benchmark: The Experton Group Places Gbs In The "leader" Quadrant

This was determined by analysts from renowned IT http://www.facebook.com/AddressBookSoftware market research company Experton Group in their recently published "Social Business Vendor Benchmark 2013". For the very first time, they put market-relevant social business software products and services in 9 categories to the test. To do so, the Experton Group investigated 100 social business offerings from relevant German providers between August and October 2013, following a standardised, proven method. Under Integration Services, they positioned GBS, with its GBS AppDesigner solution, in the Leader quadrant. "With GBS AppDesigner, we are opening up completely new possibilities, providing specialist departments with an intuitive tool for creating social business applications. Processes that were previously lengthy and complex are now experiencing a completely new agility and flexibility", explains Constanze Zarth, COO at GBS. With the GBS solution, employees can create web-based applications and use them in combination with modern collaboration methods, without the need for any programming knowledge.

Analysis: Forced Lending To China Smes May Risk More Harm Than Good

Analysis: Forced lending to China SMEs may risk more harm than good By Pete Sweeney and Gabriel Wildau SHANGHAI/WENZHOU, China Tue Nov 19, 2013 4:07am EST Email Print 1 of 3. A worker wearing a mask pulls a cart loaded with limestone at a mill in Quzhou, Zhejiang province October 22, 2013. Beijing's strategy to reroute money away from state-owned giants towards smaller firms to help fuel the economic transformation behind its reform plans is less of a success than it may seem on the surface. Picture taken October 22. Credit: Reuters/William Hong SHANGHAI/WENZHOU, China (Reuters) - Beijing's strategy to reroute money away from state-owned giants towards smaller firms to help fuel the economic transformation behind its reform plans is less of a success than it may seem on the surface. Lending has increased in line with Beijing's orders. But banks have found loopholes allowing them to lend to state-owned firms and some borrowers are local-government-owned, operating in saturated sectors Beijing is trying to consolidate, aggravating the risks facing the financial sector rather than alleviating them. Some lending is even being routed to real estate, a market Beijing is trying to cool as prices soar, one researcher said. These factors highlight the struggle China faces in trying to reform its financial markets while preserving a dominant role for the state, a combination underlined by a 60-point reform plan to redraw China's economy and social fabric announced last week. "Despite efforts for many years by every level of government to alleviate financing difficulties for small and medium enterprises, there hasn't been a substantive improvement," said Ye Xixi, director of the finance department at Wenzhou University City College, whose research focuses on small-and-medium enterprise (SME) financing. "In fact, in recent years there are signs it's getting worse." Regulators classify SMEs differently. China's bank regulator, for example, says they are companies with assets of less than 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) or annual sales of less than 30 million yuan. Regardless, economists estimate they account for 70 percent of China's output and create 80 percent of its jobs, so many reformers say it is these companies, not China's stable of massive but inefficient state champions, that should lead China's economy in the future. Beijing wants nimble, innovative firms focused on selling services to domestic consumers to steer the economy away from its current credit-intensive, state-driven model. MISMATCH In entrepreneurial Wenzhou, a coastal city of 9 million people south of Shanghai, a centre designed to meet the needs of small business is struggling to meet loan demand because banks are wary of lending. "Demand for loans is heavy, but for a large portion of borrowers, lenders aren't willing to lend," said Xu Zhiqian, general manager of the Wenzhou Private Lending Service Centre, located in a zone testing financial reform. "They think the risk is too large." Xu said only about half of the pool of funds made available by would-be lenders has been used for loans. Wenzhou made headlines in 2011 when a wave of local firms defaulted on informal loans, prompting local officials to warn that businesses would be decimated if the city was not thrown a credit lifeline by Beijing. Nationwide, official data shows that lending to SMEs has increased as ordered, but still accounts for just about a fifth of all loans, small compared with the sector's economic output. LOOPHOLES To be fair, lending to small businesses is a banker's nightmare: they are hard to appraise, light on assets and quick to capsize when economic winds change. Beijing has ordered state-owned banks to lend to smaller companies but bankers say there are loopholes that allow them to meet the quotas through lending to state-backed entities. "We're government-owned. The company is state-owned; really our relationship is like that of brothers," said a loan officer at Bank of Communications, who declined to be identified. "This is why small and medium-sized enterprises don't get financing from state-owned banks. It's not like they're good or not good. We discriminate against them because they're not one of my brothers." Another state banker, a loan officer, said banks have depended on requiring collateral for loans rather than assessing risk. A lack of ability to assess risk prevented many banks from lending to smaller companies, he said. The solution is to use a variety of accounting tricks to disguise loans to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as SME loans, such as making loans to small subsidiaries or paying small suppliers on behalf of SOEs, he said. DOWNMARKET Unlike more market-orientated economies, in China "SME" is not synonymous with either private ownership, efficiency, or innovation; many small Chinese companies are owned or controlled by local governments, operating in sectors swamped with overcapacity - like solar power, shipping and steel. So even if these companies are knee-deep in debt and facing dismal business prospects, banks will issue loans to them because they know ultimately the taxpayer is on the hook. Even local government financing vehicles are defined as SMEs, said Anne Stevenson-Yang, managing principal at J Capital Research. She was referring to a type of financing vehicle associated with an explosion in local government borrowing that accompanied China's response to the global financial crisis. She said many smaller Chinese banks, locked out of lending to premium SOEs, had moved downmarket to lend to LGFVs and SME associations that aggregate loans. But this funding rarely ends up with genuinely innovative small firms, she said. "Generally, the associations don't pass these loans to small firms but instead lend at higher interest rates to real estate developers or other attractive targets, with the participation of member SMEs." OTHER MARKETS Alternative funding channels have also provided little success. A "junk" bond market designed for SME corporate debt is virtually dormant. Outstanding volumes are less than 0.5 percent of all corporate bonds issued in China. "Third board" over-the-counter equity markets launched around China have mostly flopped due to a lack of interest from firms wanting to list or from investors, many of whom are suspicious of such markets. "The valuations are very low, there's no liquidity, and it gives you forever the stain of being traded on that market," said Peter Fuhrman, chairman of investment bank China First Capital. "You are clearly better off trying to do a private deal." Furhman said investors in junk bonds and OTC markets were only interested if a state-owned firm would guarantee the issuer. Beijing stamped out a practice of SOEs selling guarantees for a fee after it became clear that the third-party guarantee system, which had been harnessed to help SMEs get bank loans, had devolved into an opaque market where guarantors frequently pledged the same collateral multiple times, while dabbling in shadow banking on the side. CIVILISED WORK UNIT For viable Chinese small businesses, access to capital is not the major challenge. Entrepreneurs told Reuters that getting loans was less of a problem than the policy hoops necessary to stay in business. Wenzhou-based Kingapple Home Textile Co Ltd, which has 100 employees and makes bed sheets, blankets and pillows, has few problems getting bank loans, General Manager Su Zhonghai said. His major problem, he said, was onerous labor laws and rising costs. Small companies also face a wider regulatory environment in which government approval, even symbolic, plays an outsized role. Kingapple, for example, is seeking to renew its certification as a "Civilized Work Unit", which requires companies to "diligently study and implement Deng Xiaoping Theory, the 'Three Represents' Important Thought, and Scientific Outlook on Development,(and) resolutely carry out the Party line." There are no explicit benefits attached to the certification, a county propaganda official said. But certified firms would be treated favorably when seeking land or administrative permits. (Additional reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Neil Fullick) FILED UNDER:

New Business Owners Get Advantages When Utilizing Ezcheckprinting And Virtual Printer Software

BSI Financial Services Selects Specialized Business Software's Docunym Solution

Customers need only to enter the date, payees name and amount payable to the payee. This check writer will automatically convert numbers to words. Customers can write and print a check with just a few clicks. New customers can download and try this software free at http://www.halfpricesoft.com/check_printing_software_download.asp In addition to its new compatibility with QuickBooks online version, this check printing software also includes many more features that make check printing easier, faster and less costly for small businesses: Add a company logo and other customization design features for a professional, corporate look to company checks Easy to use and learn, even for people who dont have an accounting or IT background No limit to the number of accounts that can be used Write an unlimited number of checks Prints MICR characters accepted by most banks (for use with laser printers) no need to order expensive checks pre-printed with bank information Use blank check stock or pre-printed checks in check-on-top, check-in-middle, or check-on-bottom formats Include signature image on checks to save time signing checks Customization report features that are easy to use Save time by printing multiple checks with one click Export and import of check data for use with ezTimeSheet, Excel file, QuickBooks, Microsoft Money, and other accounting software. Customers can make sure the check software is right for their company without obligation before purchasing.

BSI Financial selected Docunym for the solutions ability to streamline document management and provide secure access for their clients. The company has saved both https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFIpwcqrWOE time and money using the technology equal to two full time employees. Lengthy transmission times and complex approval processes are greatly reduced through the solutions seamless document retrieval and indexing capabilities. Docunym also monitors IP addresses and assigns security access to users according to their needs. In addition to creating operating efficiencies, Docunym allows us to deliver greater transparency in loan servicing operations and reporting, which is critical to our clients and their regulators and investors, said Gagan Sharma, BSI Financials president and chief executive officer. Every Docunym feature is designed to save mortgage servicers both time and money, thereby enhancing their ability to better serve their customers, said Steve Wiser, president and founder of Specialized Business Solutions. With secure cloud document management and workflow, BSI Financial has achieved greater speed and efficiency in conducting their business. About Specialized Business Software Since 1999, Cleveland-based Specialized Business Software hasdeveloped custom technology solutions for insurance, mortgage and financial services companies to enable them to improve business processes, operate more efficiently and increase profitability. SBS custom technology solutions automate routine tasks on behalf of the user, eliminating the need for spreadsheets and manual processes. For more information, please visit www.specializedbusinesssoftware.com . For more information on Docunym, please visit www.docunym.com . About BSI Financial Services Led by a seasoned team of financial industry professionals, BSI Financial Services provides mortgage subservicing, default solutions, loan quality control and business process outsourcing services. Leveraging its global delivery model and 20 year performance track record, BSI offers clients customized solutions that improve service quality, lower costs and reduce turnaround time. An approved servicer with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD, VA, Federal Home Loan Bank and several private investors, BSI was nominated for Servicer of the Year in the 2011 Mortgage Technology Awards competition. BSI Financials business operations are located in Titusville, Penn. and Irving, Texas. For more information, visit www.bsifinancial.com . Contacts:

U.s. Small Business Hiring Up Despite Government Shutdown

U.S. small business hiring up despite government shutdown WASHINGTON Wed Nov 6, 2013 12:07pm EST Email Print A job seeker (L) makes her pitch to a recruiter at the Colorado Hospital Association health care career fair in Denver April 9, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. small businesses stepped up hiring in October, despite uncertainty brought by a partial shutdown of the federal government, a survey showed on Wednesday. The National Federation of Independent Business said small business owners added an average of 0.11 workers per firm last month, reversing September's decline. "In spite of the government shut-down, employment rose among small firms in October," the NFIB said in a statement. The increase in hiring by small businesses is an encouraging sign for the economy amid estimates that the 16-day government shutdown could have sliced off as much as 0.6 percentage point from fourth quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth. The NFIB's findings come ahead of the release on Friday of the government's comprehensive employment report for October, which is expected to show that the shutdown held back hiring. Non-farm payrolls are forecast to have risen by only 125,000 jobs last month, according to a Reuters survey of economists, down from an increase of 148,000 in September. The NFIB survey found that 12 percent of small business owners throughout the country added an average of 3.5 workers per firm over the past few months. That was a slight improvement from prior periods. About nine percent of businesses, the smallest share since 2006, reported laying off an average of 2.8 workers. "Reports of workforce reductions have reached sub-normal levels. But owners report sub-par levels of hiring, so job growth remains anemic," the NFIB said. There was a slight increase in the share of business owners reporting hard-to-fill job openings. There was also a modest increase in the number of employers hiring temporary workers. Temporary employment is seen as a harbinger of future hiring, but could also indicate reluctance by employers to take on full-time workers because of uncertainty related to health care regulations and the economic outlook. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli) FILED UNDER:

U.s. Delays Online Health Insurance Enrollment For Small Businesses

U.S. delays online health insurance enrollment for small businesses By David Morgan Email Print A man looks over the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) signup page on the HealthCare.gov website in New York in this October 2, 2013 photo illustration. Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Wednesday postponed online health insurance enrollment for small businesses under Obamacare for one year, a move quickly seized upon by critics as proof the healthcare reform law should be delayed or replaced. The announcement affecting businesses with 50 or fewer workers was the latest in a series of delays that have diminished the scope of President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Administration officials said the delay stemmed from the need to focus on fixing HealthCare.gov by a Saturday deadline for having the enrollment website working smoothly for most visitors from the 36 states it serves. The online market portal has been hobbled by technical problems since its launch on October 1, frustrating millions of Americans seeking information on new individual health coverage required under the law. "It was important for us to prioritize the functionality that would enable consumers individually to shop and enroll online in coverage," said Julie Bataille, communications director for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency responsible for the Obamacare marketplaces. Online enrollment for small businesses was originally expected to be available on October 1. Administration officials say they now plan to offer web-based enrollment services by November 2014. Republicans, who want to repeal or fundamentally alter the law, pounced on the fact that the announcement came on the eve of the Thanksgiving Day holiday when many Americans are distracted by travel and family activities. Last summer, the administration delayed the law's coverage mandate for larger businesses just before the July 4 Independence Day holiday. "The administration is doing its best to bury the latest confirmation that this law was not ready for prime time," Representative Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement. The National Federation of Independent Business, a trade group that asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obamacare in 2012, blasted the announcement as a new burden for employers. "It probably matters little to people in Washington that the failure to get the small business exchanges online adds yet another onerous paperwork requirement for job creators," the organization said. Employers seeking coverage through the federal Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, marketplace will be able to enroll off-line through insurance companies, agents and brokers, the administration said. Until now, SHOP enrollment had been available only through paper applications. Administration officials said insurance agents and brokers already serve many small businesses, so the avenue should be familiar to those who want Obamacare coverage for their employees. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees are not required to offer insurance to their workers and have a one-year enrollment period, versus six months for individuals. (Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington and Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Michele Gershberg, David Brunnstrom and Philip Barbara) FILED UNDER:

Arab Information Management Services

Aims offers the highest levels of services in IT from view computer operations and supplies to consultancy for governmental agencies as well as the private sector. We manage integrated projects with the most qualified consultants and specialties recruited from all over the world. For more details about AIMS, please visit us on: www.aims-kw.com. Vacancies at Arab Information Management Services Find the latest vacancies advertised in 2013 by Arab Information Management Services.

Information storage and management predictions for 2014

IDC forecasts that the volume of digital data will grow 40 - 50 percent per year clearly indicating that Information Storage and Management will remain in vogue and a big focus area for CIOs across sectors. With new buzzwords emerging such as Software Defined Datacenters, integrated backup appliances etc. we believe that 2014, will continue to see these new trends gaining momentum. As cloud based storage, backup and disaster recovery become commonplace, managing and protecting data will also be a focus area for enterprises and SMBs. Below are the 2014 predictions for Storage and Information Management: Rise of SoCloMo Social media, cloud computing and mobility will continue to be disruptive and challenge businesses with an immense amount of information spread across various platforms including public clouds and mobile devices. With data levels rising, the amount of valuable information being stored in these platforms will rise causing SMBs to increase their focus on having a sound Information Management strategy in place and businesses will be tasked to discover new ways to not only protect their information, but also manage it. In the coming years, we will witness the effects of social media, cloud computing and mobility to play an important role in transforming the way Datacenters currently operate, which brings me to my next point. Evolution of Datacenters We, at Symantec, believe that 2014 will be the year where Software Defined Everything' will start taking shape with companies with trends such as Software Defined Storage and Software Defined Networking leading this charge. With the explosion of Information, we believe that SMBs will begin to rely more heavily on Datacenters. In order to increase overall efficiency, we will see the concept of Software Defined Datacenter, which virtualizes the server, network, and storage levels, gaining more prominence. SDDC will bring in a more efficient and centralized model of utilizing IT resources. As part of the Software Defined Datacenter, Software Defined Storage will also be regarded as a key development in the storage space, allowing increased flexibility in how SMBs can store information Software-defined storage has the potential to spellthe end of over-provisioning as storage can be allocated more accurately from a wider pool. It also frees organizations from the cost overheads associated with proprietary storage. Increased adoption of Cloud Storage Companies who use traditional storage have been put under pressure with increasing storage capacity requirements and costs impelled by data deluge forcing companies to now look at the cloud as more than just a buzzword. As a result, companies are increasingly warming up to the promise of deploying cloud storage in the enterprise to harness its benefits, i.e., flexibility, simplicity, fault tolerance. In Symantec's 2013 Avoiding the Hidden Costs of the Cloud survey we found that more than 90 percent of Enterprises in India are at least discussing cloud. In 2014, we believe that Cloud Storage will become seen as a more important requirement for SMBs to better manage their information. Integrated Backup Appliances We will see companies replacing their traditional solutions with integrated systems such as integrated backup appliances, to deal with the vast amount of information they have, which is only set to increase in 2014. Integrated backup appliances combine source and target deduplication, backup software, replication, snapshots, security and cloud integration in a single appliance and managed from a central location. In fact, we believe that integrated backup appliances are the answer to deal with the challenges of data deluge enterprises are facing today.

Candle Maker Blyth Rejects Takeover Offer From Cvsl

Candle maker Blyth rejects takeover offer from CVSL Fri Nov 15, 2013 4:16pm EST Email Print (Reuters) - Candle maker Blyth Inc (BTH.N) rejected an unsolicited acquisition proposal from direct seller CVSL Inc (CVSL.PK), saying the offer was not supported by committed financing and may leave it saddled with debt. CVSL last month proposed to acquire Blyth for $16.75 per share, or about $270 million. CVSL advisers indicated that the company did not have the capacity to raise more debt, Blyth said. Any debt raised to finance the deal would therefore be based on Blyth's leverage capacity, the company said in a statement. The offer also required the company to use its cash to repay existing debt and did not address its working capital needs, Blyth said. "Based on the Blyth board's initial comments, it is not clear to us that they have a full understanding of our proposal," Chairman of CVSL's investment committee John Rochon Jr. said in a statement later on Friday. The company said it would amplify its proposal to Blyth in due course. CVSL, formerly Computer Vision System Laboratories Corp, sells hand-crafted baskets and a line of products for the home, including pottery and cookware, through a network of independent sales representatives. Blyth has retained Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz as legal advisers and Jefferies LLC as financial advisers. Blyth's shares closed down 4 percent at $12.00 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. (Reporting by Aditi Shrivastava and Maria Ajit Thomas in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian) FILED UNDER:

10 Open-source Alternatives For Small Business Software

You can manage debtors, creditors, invoicing, bank reconciliation, and more. TurboCASH has comprehensive report features, and it can be configured for different currencies and industries to meet the needs of small businesses around the globe. Project Management: OpenProj There are a lot of moving parts involved with keeping a project on track. You need to manage and allocate personnel, budget, and other resources, and monitor milestones and deadlines. Microsoft Project is a great tool for the job, but it will set you back $456 per userand its fairly complex for the needs of many small and medium businesses. OpenProj works with several file formats including Microsoft Project. Save a ton of money by using OpenProj instead. It gives you very similar features andcapabilities, including Gantt and PERT charts, work breakdown structure, resource breakdown structure, and more. And its similarity to Microsoft Project guarantees a gentle learning curve. CRM: SugarCRM Keeping track of prospects and leads and having tools available to manage your customer relationships is critical for growing your business. Salesforce.com has established itself as a leader in this area, but it runs about $300 per year per user. SugarCRM is offered in several editions so you can expand its capabilities as your business grows. SugarCRM is a full-featured open source platform that provides similar features. SugarCRM Community Edition is free, and as your business and needs grow, you can move up to the Professional, Corporate, Enterprise, or Ultimate editions for a fee. No matter which version you use, you have access to the source code so you can modify the CRM tool to meet your needs. File archiver: 7-Zip WinZip is the de facto standard for file compression software, with a powerful set of tools and options for compressing and decompressing files in a variety of formats.It wont break your budget, http://www.facebook.com/AddressBookSoftware but it does cost $30 per license. 7-Zip offers file archiving with 256-bit AES encryption. As an alternative, consider 7-Zip . It works with a broad range of compression formats, just like WinZip.

U.s. Delays Online Health Insurance Enrollment For Small Businesses

U.S. delays online health insurance enrollment for small businesses Email Print A man looks over the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) signup page on the HealthCare.gov website in New York in this October 2, 2013 photo illustration. Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Wednesday postponed online health insurance enrollment for small businesses under Obamacare for one year, a move quickly seized upon by critics as proof the healthcare reform law should be delayed or replaced. The announcement affecting businesses with 50 or fewer workers was the latest in a series of delays that have diminished the scope of President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Administration officials said the delay stemmed from the need to focus on fixing HealthCare.gov by a Saturday deadline for having the enrollment website working smoothly for most visitors from the 36 states it serves. The online market portal has been hobbled by technical problems since its launch on October 1, frustrating millions of Americans seeking information on new individual health coverage required under the law. "It was important for us to prioritize the functionality that would enable consumers individually to shop and enroll online in coverage," said Julie Bataille, communications director for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency responsible for the Obamacare marketplaces. Online enrollment for small businesses was originally expected to be available on October 1. Administration officials say they now plan to offer web-based enrollment services by November 2014. Republicans, who want to repeal or fundamentally alter the law, pounced on the fact that the announcement came on the eve of the Thanksgiving Day holiday when many Americans are distracted by travel and family activities. Last summer, the administration delayed the law's coverage mandate for larger businesses just before the July 4 Independence Day holiday. "The administration is doing its best to bury the latest confirmation that this law was not ready for prime time," Representative Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement. The National Federation of Independent Business, a trade group that asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obamacare in 2012, blasted the announcement as a new burden for employers. "It probably matters little to people in Washington that the failure to get the small business exchanges online adds yet another onerous paperwork requirement for job creators," the organization said. Employers seeking coverage through the federal Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, marketplace will be able to enroll off-line through insurance companies, agents and brokers, the administration said. Until now, SHOP enrollment had been available only through paper applications. Administration officials said insurance agents and brokers already serve many small businesses, so the avenue should be familiar to those who want Obamacare coverage for their employees. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees are not required to offer insurance to their workers and have a one-year enrollment period, versus six months for individuals. (Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton in Washington and Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Michele Gershberg , David Brunnstrom and Philip Barbara ) FILED UNDER:

Sec's Gallagher Calls For Exchanges To List Small Start-ups

SEC's Gallagher calls for exchanges to list small start-ups By Sarah N. Lynch Email Print WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. regulator on Wednesday called for the creation of new "venture exchanges" that would be exempt from certain costly regulatory rules so that small start-ups could more easily list and raise capital. "The key to establishing venture exchanges is to create a platform which could encourage smaller companies to enter our public markets while at the same time providing adequate protection for investors," said Daniel Gallagher, a Republican member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, in prepared remarks at a futures industry conference in Chicago. "The hope is that companies would be able to get public financing through listing on these exchanges and then be able to move onto more robust and liquid markets in the future." Gallagher's comments in support of new venture exchanges come as the SEC continues working to implement provisions of the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. The JOBS Act loosened a variety of federal securities regulations to help make it easier for small businesses to raise money and go public. Its provisions include a so-called IPO "on-ramp" which lets companies of a certain size file draft registration statements confidentially with the SEC, disclose less information about pay for executives and directors, and gauge the interest of sophisticated investors prior to filing IPO documents with regulators. But some have said these measures still fall short and more needs to be done to encourage smaller companies to list. Earlier this year, a panel of experts convened by the SEC urged the agency to help foster the growth of new venture exchanges that would only focus on listing small companies. Whether these exchanges would be operated by new companies or by existing players in the space such as NYSE Euronext or Nasdaq OMX remains to be seen. But Gallagher said in order for them to work, the agency would need to tailor the disclosure requirements to small startups and exempt the exchanges from many of the current regulatory requirements. On the disclosure provisions, Gallagher said that small start-up companies should be governed by a framework of rules that is "geared towards more basic, clearly material information" and which also would permit them to be excused from some of the periodic financial reporting requirements other public companies face. "The goal would be to require less disclosure overall while focusing on the most important, material information in order to reassure investors that companies are not acting inappropriately or fraudulently," he said. As for the rules governing the exchanges themselves, Gallagher said the SEC should consider scaling back certain requirements such as Regulation NMS, a set of rules that govern pricing and access to market data. In addition, he suggested letting smaller companies choose their trading tick size and limiting the liability on boards and management so that they can make their tick size decisions without the fear of "second guessing" by plaintiffs' lawyers. "Through well-designed venture exchanges governed by scaled, sensible regulation, small companies would be provided with a proper runway for them to grow while at the same time providing investors with the material disclosures they need to make informed decisions," Gallagher said. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Nick Zieminski) FILED UNDER:

Us Army Gets Caught Allegedly Pirating $180 Million In Software

10 open-source alternatives for small business software

30, 2013, 12:30 AM 23,294 15 Email U.S. Army/Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod See Also The Spoils Of War: Sheriffs, Police Nationwide Getting Armored Vehicles Left Over From Iraq The U.S. Army is opting to settle a copyright infringement case for $50 million after a software developer demanded $225 million in damages over the alleged installation of software without licenses, Brian Fung of The Washington Post reports. Back in 2004, the Army hired Apptricity to create a software application that could keep track of where its soldiers deployed. The company delivered a handful of server and device licenses for $4.5 million that year, and the service purchased more about five years later. According to Apptricity's complaint however , the Army installed the software on nearly 100 servers and more than 9,000 devices. The company found out their software was being copied after an Army official mentioned "thousands" of devices were running the software, during a presentation attended by Apptricity employees, according to the BBC. And when the Army found out, the company alleged it tried covering its tracks. "Apptricity discovered that ... the Army had engaged another contractor, Future Research Corporation of Huntsville, Alabama, to reverse engineer a portion of Apptricity's software application suite and proprietary framework architecture to replace certain infringed intellectual property rather than pay business organization software for the license shortfall," the complaint read. The company went on to explain it found out through the Army providing them one of the reverse-engineered copies of the software. Email

But Office Home & Business 2013 will set you back $220 per user, and an Office 365 subscription runs $150 per user per year. LibreOffice is compatible with Microsoft Office file formats. LibreOffice offers the same general functionality in a free package. It works with the standard Microsoft Office file formats, so youll still be able to open and view Office files from others, or share your LibreOffice documents with partners or customers who use the Microsoft suite. It also integrates with Content Management Systems and online document storage for easy collaboration. Email: Thunderbird Email is the primary method of communication for most businesses. There are a number of paid and free email clients available, but Microsoft Outlook is one of the most widely used. Outlook is part of the Microsoft OfficeHome &Business package, as well as themore expensive Microsoft Office Professional suite, or it can be purchased separately for $95. Thunderbird Filelink lets you email large files by uploading them to an online storage provider and sharing the link with the recipient. You can save that $95 per user, though, by switching to Thunderbird for your email. Developed by Mozillathe makers of the Firefox Web browserThunderbird provides comprehensive features including tabbed email, integrated chat, smart folders, and phishing protection. And, like Firefox, its customizable via add-ons. Calendar: Lightning Another function that most businesses rely on Microsoft Outlook for is the calendar. With all your appointments, conference calls, sales meetings, and deadlines, you need a robust calendar tool to manage your days. Mozillas Lightning integrates with Thunderbird for email-related calendaring tasks. Mozilla also has a free tool to fit this need. Lightning integrates with Thunderbird to manage your scheduling, send and receive meeting invitations, and manage events and tasks. You can expand its capabilities with add-ons. Accounting: TurboCASH Its no surprise many businesses rely on Quickbooks to keep their books. The Intuitsoftware helps manage quotes and proposals, invoicing, accounts payable, accounts receivable and more, all from an intuitive interface. But Quickbooks optionsstart around $150. TurboCASH helps you keep track of the money going into and out of your business.