Link: Small Business Gets An Extra $100M | SmallBusinessNewz.
By David A. Utter - Mon, 03/17/2008 - 9:53am.
The White House wanted to eliminate a few programs
John Kerry's Small Business & Entrepreneurship committee wrangled over $100 million more on top of prior requests from the federal budget to support more small business initiatives.
The Small Business Administration received a boost from Senate Democrats last week with an assortment of gains above the White House's requested SBA's budget. Senator Kerry's committee announced they added funding for several initiatives, several of which the Bush Administration tried to eliminate.
Winners among the budget items included increased loan oversight and reduced fees, microloans, contracting assistance, Small Business Development Centers, Women's Business Centers, veterans outreach programs, and technical assistance programs, among others.
"Small businesses create more than two-thirds of all new jobs, yet by refusing to fund important small business programs the Bush Administration has starved entrepreneurs of the resources they need to grow their firms," Kerry said in a statement.
The White House sought to eliminate microloans and the Microloan Technical Assistance program from the budget. The Committee said the $31 million loaned through the program in 2007 helped more woman and minorities in small business than any other program.
New Markets Venture Capital, and Technical Assistance, each received $5 million under the reworked budget blueprint. Both work with job creation and equity investment in low income areas.
Veterans' programs received a greater boost than the original budget offered, as those increased from $743,000 in funding to $2.3 million. With soldiers returning from overseas duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, the change looks like a necessary one for helping them reintegrate into the private sector.
When the small businesses that take advantage of federal programs get to work on marketing themselves, they may be contributors to a big increase in local online advertising over the next three years.
A report from Marchex about local online advertising claimed the $8 billion local online ad market would hit $20 billion in three years.
When they do, Marchex suggested those ads should motivate an action locally. Major brand name companies in particular should be doing this for their local resellers, and those smaller businesses should engage the brand company to build their campaigns with this intent.
With these struggling times in the economy, searching for answers and help is non-negotiable. Most small business owners need all the back up of information they can get their hands on.If you're looking for more information on maintaining and developing your online business, you should check out Vision to Venture, which is 5 live events (April-May 2008) hosted by industry insiders showcasing trade secrets and featuring "Girl's Guide to Building a Million Dollar Business". One of the featured speakers, Susan Solovic, an award winning small business advocate, will be discussing online business promotion that’s easy and affordable. You should take a look at http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/v2v/; the event is completely geared towards us female entrepreneurs and provided by Microsoft. You should also look into their new web service Office Live Small Business, which is so easy to use and features a ton of resources on how to organize and manage an online business. If you have any questions let me know, I work with Microsoft and I'm always around!
Posted by: Tanya Middleton | March 25, 2008 at 04:22 PM
Hi
Right now the economic situation has worsen with recession effects being felt all over the world.
For a small business i would suggest spend more time talking to your customers and less time listening to the talking heads on television. Don't be afraid of the future—take charge of it by asking your customers what's going on. This economy is not going to shut down. If we're in a recession, it doesn't matter. People are still going to buy stuff. It's our job to give our customers the maximum opportunities to pay from us.
That might mean we've got to work a little bit harder. We've got to manage our businesses a little more efficiently.
Regards
Abhishek
http://www.webguru-india.com/
Posted by: Abhishek | February 10, 2009 at 04:15 AM