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How Connecticut Is Fighting for Small Business

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Connecticut is home to big corporations such as General Electric, United Technologies, Hartford Financial, Aetna and Xerox , among others, but small businesses account for about 93% of the state's employers.

As the state, like others, struggles to come out of the recession, it's critical for it to encourage companies to not only hire and stick around as they grow, but to provide a friendly environment for small businesses to launch.

Gov. Dannel Malloy signed a jobs bill in 2011 to help stimulate the state's economy. Connecticut's unemployment remains above the national average. As of March, the state's unemployment rate was 8%, down from its peak of 9.4% in the third quarter of 2010, but still higher than the current national average of 7.6%, according to the Labor Department. ...

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16 Handles Aims to Win in Frozen Yogurt Consolidation

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Up and coming frozen yogurt chain, 16 Handles believes that it has what it takes to be successful in the crowded industry.

Founder and CEO Solomon Choi opened the first store in Manhattan's trendy East Village in 2008. It now has 37 locations across six states through franchising. It plans to more than double that amount by the end of 2014.

16 Handles has some big shoes to fill though. Frozen yogurt sales topped $760 million in 2012 with TCBY, Red Mango and Pinkberry controlling half of the industry, according to IBISWorld. ...

Rogers: Inside the Busiest Restaurant in Afghanistan

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:40:06 EDT

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (TheStreet) -- Wander into the T.G.I. Friday's in the middle of Kandahar's vast military base and it's hard to believe you're in a war-torn corner of central Asia.

Nonetheless, this is no ordinary restaurant, as evidenced by the cluster of marines chilling in one of the booths, and, more ominously, the bomb shelter just a short dash away.

T.G.I. Friday's is one of around 50 businesses that make up Kandahar Boardwalk, undoubtedly one of the world's strangest retail centers. Forming a broad circle around an 8-a-side soccer field, basketball courts and a street hockey rink, the dusty, wooden Boardwalk is a thriving social and shopping hub for off-duty personnel. ...

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What to Do Before Your Employees' Gossip Goes Viral

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 08:30:00 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- These days you'd be hard pressed to find a professional job seeker without a profile on LinkedIn , a Facebook page or a Twitter account. It's obvious the way we communicate has changed -- but should it affect the way we hire and manage employees?

An overwhelming majority of companies -- 92% -- use social media to recruit, according to a recent survey by Jobvite. But what happens once an employment offer is made? There are no definitive rules on how to manage social media in the workplace, but there are steps you can take to ensure your employees and your lawyers "like" your policies and #understandtherules.

We checked in with legal and workplace experts to find answers to some of the most frequently asked workplace social media questions. ...

3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: Dec. 14

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 10:42:25 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. Food incubators launch startups. Reuters has a great story on the growing number of incubators and accelerators offering communal programs for food entrepreneurs, allowing the startups to cash in on the growing "foodie" movement.

Similar to tech entrepreneurs, food-based startups often need help to get started, from defraying the costs of the gourmet ingredients to needing space to prepare their goods, whether it to be sold at farmers markets, food trucks or boutique retail establishments. And that's where the growing number of incubators and accelerators, such as the Organic Food Incubator and City Cookhouse in New York City to the ARK in Arkansas come in. ...

3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: Dec. 11

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:40:34 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. GoDaddy has a new CEO. Domain-services provider Go Daddy named Blake Irving, a former Microsoft executive and the former chief product officer of Yahoo! , as its new CEO.

Irving will assume the position on Jan. 7, the company says, succeeding Scott Wagner, a member of KKR, who has been serving as interim CEO since July. ...

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3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: Nov. 30

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:33:07 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. Business owners turn pessimistic in post-election environment. Small-business owners as a group are now the most pessimistic they have been since the third quarter of 2010, according to the latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index.

The index fell 28 points to negative 11 in the survey conducted Nov. 12-16, including business owner concerns about their future financial situation, cash flow, capital spending and hiring over the next 12 months. ...

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3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: Nov. 21

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:49:47 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. Small business advocacy group urges the end of Bush tax cuts. The American Business Sustainable Council and Business for Shared Prosperity are urging lawmakers to end the Bush-era tax cuts as part of any solution to the fiscal cliff.

More than 600 small-business owners and executives took part in the letter sent to every member of Congress, according to the Huffington Post. ...

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3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: Nov. 19

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:29:42 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. A strategy for avoiding a Petraeus-like email scandal. Here's a way to have a foolproof plan to avoid the email disaster suffered by David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell. The "plan is so effective and perfect that it doesn't even involve any adjustment in personal behavior, standards of marital fidelity, or anything else of the sort," according to TheAtlantic.

"Never put anything in an email message, to anyone, that would cause you serious problems if it fell into the wrong hands," author James Fallows writes. ...

3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: Oct. 26

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:40:53 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. Best small and midsize companies to work for. This week the Great Place to Work Institute announced its annual winners for the ninth annual Great Place to Work Best Small & Medium Workplaces list.

The lists, which ra n in Fortune magazine, welcomed 18 newcomers to the list and saw five companies that have made the list every single year since the inception of the rankings, CEO Susan Lucas-Conwell says. ...

3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: Oct. 25

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:25:38 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. Small-business election issues go beyond taxes and health care. Taxes and health care aren't the only issues on the minds of small-business owners this election season. According to a monthly survey by The Wall Street Journal and Vistage, the economy, access to capital, immigration and even net neutrality are critical issues.

"Neither candidate has done a convincing job to demonstrate that the small-business owner will be better off under his administration," Joel Shulman, associate professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., told the Journal. ...

Janska's Erickson Breaks Mold for Older Entrepreneurs

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 06:00:00 EDT

Janska's Jan Erickson is the third successful women entrepreneur to be profiled in our October series celebrating National Women in Small Business Month.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (TheStreet) -- Jan Erickson was 52 when she launched the hugely successful Janska clothing line.

Coming from restaurant management, she says she never dreamed she would be a successful entrepreneur, but it was a dream that led her on this path. ...

3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: Oct. 23

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:35:28 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. Romney's immigration law will pressure small businesses. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney vows there will be less regulation for small businesses under his leadership, but his support for an immigration law currently in 18 states could mean an extra step in the hiring process for all businesses, according to CNNMoney.

The government program called E-Verify requires business owners to check the legal status of all new workers against Social Security and immigration records. ...

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3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: Oct. 22

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:34:27 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. Franchise lending drops. Franchisee credit access in September dropped on a year-over-year basis and from the prior month, according to the latest International Franchise Association/BoeFly Franchise Lending Index.

Franchise lending fell 2.01% in September compared with credit access in September 2011. It was the first drop after eight consecutive months of year-over-year gains. Lending rose 6.32% from August 2011 to August 2012. ...

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3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: Oct. 19

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:42:05 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. Another day, another depressing pulse of small-business owners. Small-business owners are less confident that the economy will strengthen next year, according to the latest The Hartford 2012 Small Business Success Study. The survey found that just one-third of small-business owners polled expect the economy to strengthen next year, compared with 61% who expected the economy to strengthen in the company's spring Small Business Pulse survey.

Despite their economic outlook, 68% of owners say they are moderately to extremely successful, largely consistent with results last year. ...

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