The ContractGC

Social Media Primer: What’s that mean, again?

bcolsonesq — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:17:56 +0000

Small business owners: Is everybody insisting you need to market yourself via “social media”, but you’re not too sure what that means, exactly? Welcome to the (very large) club! Here’s a link to a pretty good primer of the various social media platforms the kids are using these days. Of course, this will be wholly obsolete by tomorrow, when all the cool kids jump to some new platform, and of course you’ll be doomed to failure if you don’t jump on board instantly.

SBA Small Business Profiles has HIT THE SHELVES!!

bcolsonesq — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:15:57 +0000

The SBA has released its 2011 Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories. Despite the name, its most recent data is from 2009 and 2010. Some interesting data for Massachusetts: Total number of small employers (under 500 employees) in 2009 was 135,404, down from 138,846 in 2008. The number of large employers is also down. The total number of private-sector employees and government employees in 2010 is slightly up or level over 2009, while the number of self-employed is down.

See the full breakdown for Massachusetts here.

State of the Union: What’s it mean for small business?

bcolsonesq — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:15:45 +0000

“We should support everyone who’s willing to work and every risk-taker and entrepreneur who aspires to become the next Steve Jobs… After all, innovation is what America has always been about. Most new jobs are created in startups and small businesses, so let’s pass an agenda that helps them succeed.”

So said Mr. Obama in his 2012 State of the Union address. So let’s talk specifics—what would the administration like to do to help small businesses survive and thrive? In summary:

“Tear down regulations that prevent aspiring entrepreneurs from getting the financing to grow. Expand tax relief to small businesses that are raising wages and creating good jobs. Both parties agree on these ideas, so put them in a bill and get it on my desk this year.”

Unfortunately, these proposals aren’t terribly specific. The President failed to specify which regulations, exactly, he feels are preventing entrepreneurs from accessing financing, and he further failed to identify what kinds of tax changes he would support to provide relief to small business.

[UPDATE: The White House identifies 17 specific tax breaks intended to help small businesses.]

Employment Law for Small Businesses: Confusing, yet incomprehensible.

bcolsonesq — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:41:29 +0000

Ask any small business owner about the biggest challenges they face on a daily basis, and most will have something to say about employment laws. It’s not that they don’t want to comply with their legal obligations, they say; it’s that there are so MANY laws with which to comply, and it’s just confusing, time-consuming, and expensive to follow all these laws, so it’s just easier to ignore the laws and hope nobody complains.

Fortunately, the government recognizes that many employment laws are difficult for small businesses, so many of the more burdensome laws specifically exempt small businesses by stating the law only applies to businesses with more than a certain number of employees. Unfortunately, Congress is involved, so every law specifies a different threshold for business size.

Some provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to employers with 15 or more employees, as do some provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act generally applies to employers with 20 or more employees, as does the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (“COBRA”); the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), 50 or more employees.

Throw in state law, and things get even more confusing. Maternity leave would be covered under the FMLA, with its 50-employee threshold; but it’s also addressed by the Massachusetts Maternity Leave Law, which applies to companies with at least six employees. And the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Law employer mandate applies to companies with at least 11 employees.

Taking the Ostrich approach of ignoring the laws, and hoping they go away, isn’t a very good idea. As your company grows, sit down with your lawyer and make sure you really understand which employment laws apply to your company–and which don’t. Because, as expensive as it can be to follow these laws–it’s much more expensive to get caught violating them.

Tech Tools for Small Businesses

bcolsonesq — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 19:59:01 +0000

This article has nothing to do with the law, but rather describes five free technology tools for small businesses. I’m linking to it because I’m very much an evangelist for two of the products it mentions, DropBox and Microsoft Security Essentials–and because generally, I’ve found open-source and free software to be perfectly adequate for many users.

DropBox is the best off-site data backup solution I’ve used, mostly due to its real-time ability to sync all your data across all your devices (useful for me because I regularly use four different computers); and I’ve found Security Essentials to be a bit more invisible, and less of a drag on the computer, than some of the commercially-available software packages (plus, the price can’t be beat!)