Available Contracts And Health Care Issues Concerning Small Business Owners

March 5, 2014 by

business (8)As the New Year approached many small business owners were eagerly awaiting the Obama Care Act and the choices it would provide for them, as well as the savings they would obtain by shopping for health care for their employees thru the government marketplace. As the technical difficulties ensue, many small business owners were left with health insurance portals that were barely functioning, rendering them unable to even compare or shop for plans for their employees.

To read more about issues concerning small businesses, follow the links below.

Ohio small businesses stumble through the Affordable Care Act

Delays and complicated rules make the process difficult.

Small businesses around Ohio are struggling to sort out the details of the Affordable Care Act. It is unclear whether recent delays in the law help or add to the confusion.

The big Obamacare question for small employers is this: Am I required to provide health insurance to my employees or not?

“And that question is sort of like that underwear commercial: boxers, briefs, depends,” says Paul Tambe with BW Employee Benefits as he speaks to Dayton-area small business owners.

Rules of the game
And yes, it does depend. Here is the basic rule: Companies with less than 50 full-time employees are exempt. Companies with 50 or more need to provide health coverage for their full-timers or pay fines.

But the devil is in the details, and there are a lot of details. For example, full-time means an 30 hours or more per week, averaged over the month.

Kevin Finley with Space Management, a Dayton cleaning service, says his first challenge is just counting his employees.

“When you’re operating a business and someone’s off sick and you want someone else to cover, all of a sudden that person who normally works 20, 25 hours is working 40 hours,” Finley says. “So, you know, it’s a little dicey.

Kasich cabinet touts tax cut, other business-friendly changes

LIMA — While Gov. John Kasich signed the small-business tax cut into law in June, it is affecting people now, Ohio Tax Commissioner Joe Testa said Monday.

With tax season in full swing, small-business owners are seeing results in their pocketbooks of a 50 percent tax cut on the first $250,000 of Ohio net business income. That means if a small business owner earns $100,000 in net income, he is taxed only on $50,000

Testa and other representatives of state agencies spoke at a “Cutting Taxes and Growing Ohio Small Business” event Monday at Veterans Memorial Civic Center. The session was held jointly with Lima Rotary Club and Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce. Cabinet level directors are traveling the state talking about the small-business tax cut and other policies and programs to help small businesses.

Millions of Dollars in Contracts Available for Ohio Small Businesses 

9th Annual Business Matchmaker provides Ohio small businesses networking opportunities

It’s where government and businesses come together, and it’s time for Ohio businesses to register. The Ohio Business Matchmaker runs from 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, 2014 at the Hope Hotel, just outside the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton.

“This is a great opportunity for Ohio businesses to support and grow other Ohio businesses,” said David Goodman, director of the Ohio Development Services Agency. “Not only do we provide small businesses access to numerous buyers at once, we’re finding out what goods and services they provide in advance to connect them with the proper buyers.”

The purpose of the conference is to help Ohio small businesses get contracts. The Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Ohio Development Services Agency partner on this event to get small businesses in front of government buyers who need their products and services. The participating buyers represent city, county, state and federal agencies, as well as prime contractors and other organizations with combined purchasing budgets representing millions of dollars in opportunities

 

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Tax Cuts For Small Business Owners

February 25, 2014 by

business (6)As a small business owner is always nice for you and your wallet to hear that you won’t be paying as much in income tax for 2013 as you did the previous year.  Under the measured passed by the Ohio Legislature last year, small business owners can deduct half of their business income up to $250,000 this year.  That is significant if you considered the amount saved in taxes can be used to invest in the business, or buy machinery that needed to be replaced.

To read more about this follow the links.

Small Businesses Sort Out Affordable Care Act Details

Small businesses around Ohio are struggling to sort out the details of the Affordable Care Act.

As Lewis Wallace reports from Ohio Public Radio  station WYSO, it’s unclear whether recent delays in the law help or hurt the confusion.

The big Obamacare question for small employers is this: am I required to provide health insurance to my employees or not?

Paul: And that question is sort of like that underwear commercial: boxers, briefs, depends…

That’s Paul Tambe with BW Employee Benefits speaking to Dayton-area small business owners.

And yes, it does depend. Here’s the basic rule: companies with less than 50 full-time employees are exempt.

Companies with 50 or more—need to provide health coverage for their full-timers or pay fines.

Medina residents explain what they want to hear from Governor Kasich at State of State speech

MEDINA, Ohio – Business owner Amy Douglass came up with a quick list of topics that she hopes Governor John Kasich addresses during his State of the State address Monday night at the Performing Arts Center in Medina.

Douglass, who owns The Interior Design Studio and JK Gift Shop, said she would like Kasich to create a statewide initiative to encourage people to shop at local stores.

“It’s very difficult competing against the big box stores, number one, and there are so many small businesses in small towns around Ohio,” Douglass said.

Another concern she would like discussed is the high cost of healthcare, something she has never been able to provide in 13 years as a small business owner.

Douglass only has four employees and they depend on their husbands for health benefits.

“We just can’t afford to offer it and it’s very important to be able to offer something like that to families.”

Why small businesses won’t pay Ohio’s tax collectors as much this year

With tax season in full swing, small businesses will receive a significant tax cut for income they earned in 2013 under a measure passed by the Ohio Legislature last year.

Those who file their business income on their individual income tax form – a vast majority of Ohio businesses – can deduct half of their business income up to $250,000.

That means if a business owner earns $250,000 in adjusted gross income, he or she can exclude the first $125,000 from their tax return. The exclusion is available to each investor or owner in a business, said Ohio Tax Commissioner Joe Testa.

The cut, a part of Gov. John Kasich’s effort to slice income tax rates, is expected to be worth $1.6 billion to Ohio small businesses.

“It’s pretty significant,” Testa said. “This gives them the opportunity to have more revenue they can put back into their businesses, to grow their businesses by purchasing additional equipment or marketing their products or maybe even adding a full-time person when they only had a part-time person.”

Small business owners earning income at the top marginal tax rate – 5.33 percent – could expect to see a $6,000 benefit, said Ohio Development Services Director David Goodman.

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Akron Ohio Business News

January 21, 2014 by

business (2)The distractions a person doing business from home are innumerable. Not only that, but the tediousness of waking up every morning to go to your office across the hall can be a bit boring. In my opinion, it is way better than fighting traffic and the cold to go to an office downtown.  But, if you are really anxious to escape the home and all the distractions involved, read the article below for some inspiration and to follow more news affecting Ohio.

Akron General back on the prowl

Akron General Health System remains one of the few independent health systems in Northeast Ohio. That was poised to change when Cleveland Clinic and Community Health Systems, a for-profit health care juggernaut out of Tennessee, announced in August they would acquire the health system through a new joint venture.

That deal has seemingly fallen apart, at least for now, and Akron General is on the hunt for new suitors.

It’s possible Catholic Health Partners, the Cincinnati-based health system that through a subsidiary purchased a minority stake in Summa Health System, could make a play for Akron General. Such a deal would make CHP an immediate, big-time player in Northeast Ohio, especially with its recent acquisition of Kaiser Permanente’s Ohio operations. That said, I’m not sure how Summa — Akron General’s larger and much more solvent — competitor would react to the news.

Akron business offers space to work that’s not the coffee shop

The cats, the laundry and other distractions. Not to mention, “the mundane feeling of being in the same place for so long.”

That’s what drove Torrie Fischer to seek out an alternative to working from home.

She’s among a growing number of folks across the country turning to shared work space.

Fischer, a software engineer, landed at Office Space Coworking, or OSC, in downtown Akron. OSC is housed on the ground floor of the historic Everett Building at Main and Market streets.

“This is out of the house and there’s food [eateries] nearby. It’s got a collaborative atmosphere — it’s starting to,” said Fischer, whose job with an international company allows her to work from anywhere.

The new owner of Office Space Coworking, Nick Petroski, encourages that sharing of ideas and is stressing that his operation offers a lot more than space, free Wi-Fi, parking and coffee.

“With Office Space Coworking, you get access to a community,” Petroski said. “You can get access to the person sitting right next to you. You can get feedback on an idea.”

To build that community, Petroski, 28, has begun sponsoring educational, as well as social events.

Tressel isn’t at Akron to be ‘an ornament’

Former Ohio State football coach has had his influence with Zips expand significantly.

If the last 24 months have proven anything about Jim Tressel, it’s that he’s no ornament.

Two years ago next month, Mr. Tressel joined the University of Akron in what was then a largely undefined administrative role — one that carried the weighty title of vice president for strategic engagement. The controversial hiring came less than a year after the Northeast Ohio native resigned as Ohio State University’s head football coach in the wake of a scandal involving a group of his players and his failure to report violations to the NCAA.

“There might have been some skepticism when I came to work here,” Mr. Tressel said in an interview last Tuesday, Jan. 7, with Crain’s. “People thought, “He’s going to come here and kind of be an ornament and go out to lunch occasionally and ask someone for money.’ I understand why people might have thought that.”

 

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Small Business Owners Challenges For 2014

December 27, 2013 by

business (3)2014 will certainly be a year of many changes for the small business community.  The Affordable Care Act will surely be a component of the uncertainty they feel, and the possible financial increase they expect because of it.  Read more about this and other topics by following the links below.

The Advantages and Challenges of a Remote Workforce

Remote employment options are becoming increasingly popular for businesses and employees alike and the relationship can be mutually beneficial to all parties involved. Businesses have access to a much larger hiring pool, and can generally save on salaries and office space, while the employee saves on commuting and relocation costs as well as more flexibility in their work and personal time.
Automattic, software provider to blogging giant, WordPress, has been utilizing remote workers since 2005. Although the company is based in San Francisco, it employs workers from around the globe from as many as 26 different companies, according to an article published at Businessweek.com.

Staff and employers save with remote work

Automattic benefits by saving money on salaries. Instead of paying their staff based on wages appropriate for San Francisco and Silicon Valley, pay is based on the employee’s physical location. While that doesn’t benefit the employee necessarily, it does allow someone living as far away as Bangladesh a job opportunity without the added expense and inconvenience of relocating to California.

Small Business Majority — 2013 Spells Year of Big Changes, Uncertainty for Americas Small Business Community

With the end of the year fast-approaching, America’s small business community looks back over the past 12 months of enormous changes and gridlock in Washington that has left them closing the books on 2013 with mounting uncertainty. The small business community across the country continues to face these challenges with 2014 on the horizon.

From the implementation of the Affordable Care Act to Congressional dysfunction in Washington resulting in a government shutdown and sequester, 2013 has become a year of big changes and lingering vulnerability for America’s smallest businesses.

Story ideas for what America’s small businesses have faced in 2013:

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the online portion of the federal Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) marketplace through HealthCare.gov will be delayed longer than previously expected. Instead of the online marketplace, small employers who wish to purchase insurance through the SHOP can still do so by working with a certified broker or directly through an insurer—exactly the same way they purchase insurance now.

Next Obamacare crisis: Small-business costs?

Think the canceled health policies hurt the Obamacare cause? There’s another political time bomb lurking that could explode not too long before next year’s elections: rate hikes for small businesses.

Like the canceled individual health plans, it’s another example of a trade-off that health care experts have long known about, as the new rules for health insurance prices create winners and losers. But most Americans won’t become aware of it until some small-business employees learn that their premiums are going up because of a law called — oops — the Affordable Care Act.

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2013 Tax Advice For The Small Business Owner

November 26, 2013 by

business (4)While you may be thinking turkey, and your children or grandchildren may be thinking Santa Claus, many small business owners are thinking about calling their accountant to settle their business finances for the year and see where they stand.  There is possibly nothing more important for a small business owner than to have a knowledgeable accountant that can take care of these important matters for their business. Tax laws and tax breaks for businesses are changing or expiring yearly, talking to your accountant about the changes that will affect you and your business are extremely important, don’t wait till the last minute, and talk to them today.

Follow the links to read more about this topic.

Tax strategies for small-business owners

If you’re running your own business, then finding time to keep up on money-saving tax strategies can be a challenge — one that’s complicated by the fact that tax laws are constantly changing.

Here are three simple tax strategies to keep in mind as Dec. 31 approaches.

1. Run the numbers

The best thing you can do before year-end is get your accounting up-to-date and figure out whether you have a profit or loss, said Eva Rosenberg, an enrolled agent who publishes TaxMama.com and is a contributing writer for MarketWatch.

It’s best to do that now, while you still have time to make adjustments. Otherwise, “there’s no way to plan,” Rosenberg said. “I’ve seen too many people come to me and say, ‘Look, I have a $100,000 loss for the year’” — only to discover that the business owner has failed to correctly account for some item, such as inventory.

Small business advice: Hurry, these four tax breaks expire at the end of the year

Fifty-five federal tax breaks are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. Usually, many of these expiring tax provisions are extended at the last minute, but this year is shaping up to be different.

The pressure for additional revenue, combined with political gridlock, has greatly increased the likelihood that many of the most advantageous provisions will not be extended or will be reduced significantly. This challenges business owners to make difficult decisions before the year ends without knowing what rules will be in effect in 2014.

We’ve sifted through all the expiring tax provisions and narrowed the list down to the four most important expiring breaks that every small business should consider taking advantage of before the end of the year.

Use Sec. 179 expensing/bonus depreciation opportunities

Current law enables firms to deduct the cost of purchasing assets like equipment, furniture, and computer software now instead of over a set period of years. The 2013 expensing limit is $500,000, and it is scheduled to drop significantly to $25,000 in 2014. The deduction begins to phase out when total qualified purchases for the year exceeds $2 million. If you have equipment needs, consider purchasing them in 2013

5 Social Security tax truths

While you hear a lot about the federal income tax, you don’t hear much about the Social Security tax. That’s odd because it’s just as expensive as the federal income tax for many folks, especially the self-employed. Here are five apparently little-known truths about how the Social Security tax works and how much it can amount to.

1. Social Security tax can be a big number if you’re an employee

As an employee, your wages are hit with the 12.4% Social Security tax up to the annual wage ceiling. Half the Social Security tax bill (equal to 6.2%) is withheld from your paychecks. The other half (also 6.2%) is paid by your employer, so you never actually see that half. Unless you understand how the tax works and closely examine your pay stubs, you may be blissfully unaware of how much the Social Security tax actually costs.

The Social Security tax wage ceiling for 2013 is $113,700, and it rises to $117,000 next year. If your wages meet or exceed the ceiling for 2013, the Social Security tax hit for this year is a whopping $14,099 (12.4% x $113,700 = $14,099). Once again, half of that will come out of your paychecks, and your employer will pay the other half.

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Time Management

November 13, 2013 by

business (10)Keeping up with the theme for this month, here are three articles with information for you that will shed some light to the way you use your time when running a small business. As a small business owner, wasting time in a daily basis is not something you can afford, but do you manage your time efficiently? Read the articles below to find more information about this, and hopefully, if you are not already doing it, manage your time more efficiently.

The 80/20 Rule of Time Management: Stop Wasting Your Time

Small-business owners waste their time on what I call $10 an hour work, like running to get office supplies. Meanwhile, they forgo the activities that earn $1,000 an hour, such as sending the right email to the right person, or negotiating a lucrative contract, or convincing a client to do more business with you.

Entrepreneurs don’t realize the same 80/20 principle — the adage that 20 percent of customers equal 80 percent of sales — applies to every dimension of business. And that includes time management.

We entrepreneurs are extremely prone to rationalize, “I can do it myself.” Then we spend six hours trying to extract a virus from our computer or fix a leaky faucet.

Sure, we may be competent to do that little job. And sure, sometimes you have to do everything when you start out. But now you’re doing a $10 or $20 per hour fix-the-faucet job and you’re not doing your No. 1 job, which is getting and keeping customers. That job pays $100 to $1000 per hour.

Many a promising business has been killed by those little jobs. When someone says “time management,” you probably think of time logs, goal lists, and “Getting Things Done.” But getting busy is not what makes you rich.

5 Ways I Automated My Small Business 

I’m no Tim Ferriss.

I mean, I don’t have my life down to a four-hour work week or anything. However, as my children get older, it seems my available (quiet) daytime hours are slowly reduced, while my clientele and potential profits are way up. The nature of my business (I’m a freelance communications consultant focusing on the written word) requires long swaths of quiet writing time. So, I did what any Ferriss fan would do. I figured out ways to make sure my quiet daytime hours were reserved solely for writing, and learned to cut hours — even minutes — out of my schedule in the most efficient ways possible. Here’s how I automated my small business.

Problem 1: Computer Maintenance
Last week I wrote about rookie mistakes that new writers might make. One of those was neglecting file backup, which can be done easily and automatically via the cloud using any number of services (I personally use Mozy while my husband/officemate has recently discovered Box). Another way that my computer steals time from me is through regular maintenance, which either takes effort and time on my part, or clogs up my computer’s processes in such a way that it’s useless to me for about an hour.

Strategies: 20 ways for small businesses to save time

If you’re a small-business owner, I’m sure you’ll relate to my morning:

• Inbox with 115 new e-mails.

• Important customer with a difficult question about a big order.

• 10 a.m. conference call with a hot prospect.

• A new employee needing training.

• A meeting about updating one of our products.

• Someone tweeting me.

• A phone call to my accountant about taxes.

And my column is due this afternoon.

Wow! So much to do, so little time. Every small-business owner faces the same dilemma: How do we ever manage to get anything finished with so many things on our to-do list?

Small-business owners and entrepreneurs constantly are being tugged in many directions, so they need to make the most of almost every minute.

I’ve come up with 20 time-saving tips for your small business:

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Issues Affecting Your Business

November 5, 2013 by

business (7)With the many issues small business owners deal with every single day, the health care law is one of the most important ones affecting them right now.  Headlines about the health care law are everywhere, illustrating the condition business owners and individuals are finding themselves into, while figuring out the options for health insurance for them and their employees.

You can read about this topic and others by clicking the links below.

Small business owners remain confused, misinformed about the health care law

It has been more than three and a half years since the health care law was signed, yet many small-business owners say they still don’t understand the legislation and what it means for their businesses, according to a new study.

Others, meanwhile, think they know more than they really do.

Half of small-business owners say they are only somewhat confident, not very confident or not at all confident that their company will be compliant with the law, parts of which create important new insurance requirements for certain employers. One third say they are not familiar with law, according to the first installment of a three-year health care study by the National Federation of Independent Business, a small-business lobbying group in Washington.

The new health care law has spent the past month in the political spotlight for all the wrong reasons, as its new online insurance marketplaces for individuals and small businesses have suffered a glitch-filled rollout. Just last week, it came to light that the site for employers would not be fully functional until the end of November, a month later than expected.

The Good News for Small Retailers Is That Shoppers Love You

Small retailers have lots of concerns this holiday season: A shorter than normal holiday shopping period, fallout from the government shutdown affecting consumers’ confidence and spending, and competition from big-box and online retailers with more sophisticated digital marketing tactics.

But there’s some good news that could potentially offset those difficulties: The 2013 Deluxe Annual Holiday Shopping Survey reports that consumers have a lot of goodwill toward small, local businesses and a great willingness to shop there.

More than one-third (35 percent) of consumers say they are going to shop at local, small businesses this year, an increase from the 27 percent who planned to last year. Of those, 57 percent are specifically doing so because they feel it is “important to support local businesses.” In addition to those who already plan to shop at small businesses, the vast majority (95 percent) of respondents say it’s important to support local independent businesses.

Thanks to a False Sense of Security, Small Businesses Are Skipping Cyber-Protection

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) should be paying more attention to the growing threat of cybercrime – but they are not. Despite overwhelming statistics that show this group to be at risk, more than three-quarters in a recent survey said they feel confident that they are not – and are failing to take protective measures.

McAfee has announced findings from a joint survey with Office Depot that revealed surprising security misconceptions among SMB owners. More than 1,000 SMBs participated in the Office Depot Small Business Index survey last month, and a super-majority (66%) felt confident that their data and devices are secure and safe from hackers, with 77% responding that they haven’t been hacked.

The results are at odds with industry research that has revealed these same businesses are actually prime targets of complex and evolving cyber threats. Almost three-quarters (72%) of data breaches investigated by Verizon Communications’ forensic analysis unit in its latest Data Breach Investigations Report were focused on companies with less than 100 employees, for instance.

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Small Business Finances

October 30, 2013 by

business (9)Small business owners have many things to do when running their business; from managing their sales team, looking after the finances and keeping inventory, to a countless number of tasks they have to achieve to have their business running smoothly and efficiently. Learning about the finance part of the business is a tricky yet important aspect that a lot of small business owners neglect.  For more about this topic follow the links.

Smart ways to handle small business finances

Thinking about starting a small business or need help running one? Finances are one of the most difficult parts in managing your business.

In this week’s Money Quick Tips video, USA TODAY contributor Regina Lewis looks at some of the key moves you can make to help get your finances on track and your business running smoothly.

Go Ahead: Ignore Your Profit and Loss Statements

If a company is making huge profits this year but will not make any profits in the future, it is worthless in the eyes of an investor. But if it loses money this year and next year–and may lose money for a few more years–it can still be very valuable in the eyes of an investor.

Amazon had negative net income in 2012 and basically reported zero net income this year to date. And yet it is worth $166 billion in the eyes of investors.

This is because companies are worth the present value of future cash flows, not current cash flows, and certainly not past cash flows.

Amazon is not the only company that is plowing back all of its incremental profits into growing its business. This is very common for enterprise software companies as well. Salesforce has made or lost a small amount of money every year for the past four years, but it has grown its revenue from $1.3 billion to over $3 billion in those four years. And its market value has gone from $12 billion to $32 billion in the same time frame. Workday hasn’t made any profits in the last four years, in fact the net losses have been increasing. But, the stock has doubled in the past year and the company is now worth almost $14 billion.

The lesson here is that you can’t just value a company by taking its current performance into account–you need to have a view towards its future performance. You also need to understand why the company is not currently profitable.

M&T Bank top lender to small businesses in Central New York

Syracuse, NY — M&T Bank has once again topped the list of the most active lenders to small businesses in Central New York, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

For the eighth year in a row, M&T Bank topped all large commercial banks in the Central New York region and the SBA’s entire 34-county Syracuse district. In fiscal year 2013, which ended Sept. 30, M&T assisted small businesses in Central New York with 70 loans at a value of $7.6 million and district-wide with 150 loans totaling $17.1 million, SBA Syracuse District Director Bernard Paprocki said.

The loans were made under the SBA’s 7(a) program. The SBA does not make direct loans to small businesses. Instead, it guarantees a portion of loans that are made by private lenders to small businesses. Under the 7(a) program, loans are provided to establish a new business or to assist in the acquisition, operation or expansion of an existing business.

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Small Business Owners Retirement Plans

October 16, 2013 by

business (10)As more and more Americans are reaching the age of retirement, there are many questions about their retirement plans and whether they can afford to retire. According to this year’s figures, 57% of households say they have less than $25,000 in savings and investments.  28% say they have less than $1,000. Furthermore, small business owner’s retirement plans for their employees are minimal if they exist at all. If you are a small business owner interested in starting a 401(k) plan for your employees, read the articles below to read more.

The Sorry State Of Small Business Retirement Plans

Workers of the small-business world: I’m worried about you. In particular, I’m worried about your retirement.

A bruising new study from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies tells a tale of two retirement systems in the U.S. workplace: one for employees at large companies and an inferior one for those at small firms.

If you work for a business with fewer than 100 employees, there’s a far greater burden on you for even the prospect of having a comfortable retirement.

The Burden on Small Business Employees

“Workers at small companies need to be even more savvy about their retirement benefits than those at large companies, given the lag of those benefits at small companies,” Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center and author of the report told me. “It’s incumbent on small-company workers to help bridge those gaps on their own.”

Three Myths Keeping Small Businesses From Starting A 401(k)

Small businesses employ nearly one-third of U.S. workers and are a major part of our nation’s economic engine.  But an issue that continues to be discussed in Congress and state governments is how do we help more small businesses offer a retirement plan?

Ninety-nine percent of businesses with over 500 employees provide 401(k) plans or similar retirement benefits to their employees.  The numbers for small businesses are much lower.  In fact, our latest research on businesses with less than 50 employees shows that only about 24 percent offer a 401(k) plan.  This means a large number of Americans are not likely to be as prepared financially for retirement as those who have access to a retirement plan.

And while there are many sound reasons for small businesses to start a retirement plan, there are also some myths and pockets of misinformation clouding the picture. Following are three of the most-commonly cited myths (along with the real facts) to be aware of.

How business owners view money, retirement

Benefits and Retirement:

• When it comes to health benefit plans, 47% of respondents currently offer some type of plan. Almost half (44%) offer employee health benefits, 20% offer flex health and benefit plans and 8% offer healthcare spending accounts.

• Only 11% currently offer an employee wellness program.

• Just 37% of companies that have a health benefits plan also offer a retirement savings plan.

• A majority (54%) of small business senior decision makers feel that the financial security of employees who retire from their company is a reflection on their company and on them personally.

• Of those owners without a plan, reducing employee turnover (28%) or attracting top talent (17%) are important motivators for implementing one.

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U. S. Small Business News

October 9, 2013 by

business (7)We are bringing you the latest news that is happening in the U. S. this week. From technology that helps small business do their job better and allows them to grow those while maintaining some level of tranquility, to the latest criticism of the Obama Care Act. Click on the links to follow the rest of the stories.

Digital tools play big role in small business growth

Tweet, Vine, Pin, Post. Update a blog. Like a Facebook status. Network via LinkedIn. There are myriad options for small business owners to connect with customers, peers and others via digital media.

Yet, these entrepreneurs also have to balance budgets, keep track of accounts receivable, manage payroll and sell their products and services.

With limited time and financial resources, it can be incredibly difficult to figure out the most efficient and effective ways to embrace the rapidly expanding digital world.

If a small business owner shuns social media, he or she could miss out on big marketing opportunities. But if too much time is spent seeding such sites, other important duties could fall by the wayside.

The Business End of Obamacare

Of the countless reasons that congressional Republicans hate the Affordable Care Act enough to shut down the government, the most politically potent is the claim that it will do untold damage to the economy and cripple small companies. Orrin Hatch has said that Obamacare will be “devastating to small business.” Ted Cruz argues that it is already “the No. 1 job killer.” And the vice-president of the National Federation of Independent Businesses called it simply “terrible.” So it comes as some surprise to learn that Obamacare may well be the best thing Washington has done for American small business in decades.

Economists want to know faster what’s happening in small business

WASHINGTON — Politicians extol the virtues of small businesses as an engine of the U.S. economy, but often leave out a very important flip side. They also have a shorter life span than larger firms, and thus toss more people into joblessness, making them disproportionately the generators of unemployment. .

Yet there’s no good way to know what’s happening in those small businesses fast enough. That’s particularly true in times of crisis, such as 2008, when employers were shedding jobs by the hundreds of thousands every month and the lack of real-time data about small business was troubling.

A bipartisan small business fix

As Congress confronts issues of tremendous policy and political implications in the next few weeks including a continuing resolution to keep the government open, federal debt ceiling debates, and numerous healthcare, immigration, and energy proposals, one bill is quietly making its way through Congress which is bipartisan, pro-small business, pro-job growth, and a long overdue fix for professionals who work in the sale of private businesses.

HR 2274, the Small Business Mergers, Acquisitions, Sales, and Brokerage Simplification Act of 2013 is an excellent bipartisan bill, one whose time has come, and Congress should get it done before the end of the year.  It’s not a sexy bill, not one that prime-time TV will be talking about, and not one that will evoke a question in the next presidential debates, but it’s a bill that does have teeth and it is a serious and substantive piece of small business legislation.

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