Ohio Small Business News

April 20, 2016 by

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Last Oct. 2015 the Unemployment rate for the state of Ohio was a 4.7%, and since then it has been increasing slowly, but surely to a 5.1% as of last month. A small increase to be sure, but it does make you wonder whether there are better times to come for the state, or things are going to progressively get worse.  Small businesses in Ohio are not as optimistic as they were last year, and some are still wondering wether the minimum wage increase will have other ramifications for their businesses.  For more news bout Ohio, follow the links below.

The State of Small Business: Ohio

As part of our yearlong project “The State of Small Business,” Business News Daily plans to report on the small business environment in every state in America. In this installment, we asked a few of Ohio’s roughly 1 million small business owners about the challenges and opportunities of operating in their state. Here’s what they had to say.

Ohio’s economy has had its ups and downs over the years, experiencing decline long before the rest of the nation felt the effects of the financial crisis. In the years preceding the recession, Ohio’s manufacturing sector was hollowed out, contributing to a drop in per capita income and a drastic slowdown in growth. And while the unemployment rate has plummeted, the labor force has shed nearly 300,000 workers since its peak in late 2007, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And as employment rises, so does the demand for skilled or experienced labor, and business owners find it progressively harder to hire the employees they need at the cost they want.

However, in 2008 — amid the recession — Ohio’s per capita income started to gain compared to the national average, and the U.S.’ seventh-largest economy has seen some bright spots. Despite a difficult decade — between 2004 and 2014, the compound annual growth rate of Ohio’s GDP was an anemic 0.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) — entrepreneurs in Ohio are seeing promise again. For small business owners in the Buckeye State, the sentiment is tepid optimism that a fledgling startup community and the return of manufacturing in the form of tech-focused companies will propel the economy forward in the years to come.

While small business owners acknowledge that there are some downsides to increasing wages for their entry-level workers, many of these business owners also find positives in doing so, new research finds.

Nearly 60 percent of small business owners said they favor raising the minimum wage, and the same percentage said they would likely vote for a state or national candidate who supports a minimum-wage increase, according to a study from Manta, a provider of products, services and educational resources for small businesses.

The results were released as both California and New York recently approved measures to gradually increase their minimum wages to $15 per hour.

The majority of small businesses surveyed are already paying their employees above what’s required. The research revealed that 40 percent of small business owners pay entry-level employees “far above” the required minimum wages in their areas of operation, while 38 percent pay “slightly above” the minimum wage. Just 14 percent are paying the state or local minimums, and only 9 percent are paying the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

Small Business Confidence Hits New Two-Year Low

Small business confidence fell to a fresh two-year low in March amid persistent worries about sales and profits, the latest indication that economic growth braked sharply in the first quarter.

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said on Tuesday its small business optimism index dipped 0.3 point to a reading of 92.6 last month, the lowest since February 2014.

It has declined from a reading of 100 in December 2014 and has pushed further off its 42-year average of 98.

“A ‘chartist’ looking at the data historically might conclude that the index has clearly hit a top and is flashing a recession signal. The April survey will decide whether or not the alarm should be rung,” the NFIB said in statement.

The soft reading fits in with recent economic data on consumer and business spending as well as wholesale inventory investment that have suggested economic growth slowed sharply from the fourth quarter’s 1.4 percent annualized rate.

 

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Cybercrime; Is Your Business Vulnerable?

March 9, 2016 by

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Big and small business are vulnerable to cybercrime.  Many small businesses frequently do not have the budget necessary to protect their data from a cyber attack, thus making them more vulnerable. For many small businesses the financial hardship they endure due to this crime leaves them unable to recover for many years, setting back their business and profits for the near future.

For more about this topic, follow the links below.

 Hacked! Business bank accounts vulnerable to cybercriminals

It’s a chilling moment when a small business owner discovers hackers have stolen thousands of dollars from the company checking account.

Cybercriminals took an average of $32,000 from small business accounts, according to a December survey of owners by the advocacy group National Small Business Association. And businesses don’t have the same legal protection from bank account fraud consumers have.

The Electronic Funds Transfer Act, passed in 1978, states that it’s intended to protect individual consumers from bank account theft, but makes no mention of businesses. Whether a business is protected depends on the agreement it signs with a bank, says Doug Johnson, a senior vice president with the American Bankers Association, an industry group. If the business hasn’t complied with any security measures required by the agreement, it could be liable for the stolen money, he says.

Businesses fail to prepare as cybercrime surges globally

Cybercrime is now the second most reported economic crime and has affected at least a third of organizations in the past 24 months, yet many businesses are still underprepared, a PWC report has found.

According to the Global Economic Crime Survey, cybercrime has jumped from being the 4th to 2nd most reported kind of economic crime, behind only asset misappropriation. Meanwhile, the losses associated with cybercrime are huge and growing, but an alarming number of businesses don’t have a plan in place.

The report finds that only 37% of organizations have a cyber incident response plan, despite the fact that 61% of CEOs said they were concerned about cybersecurity. This backs up the findings from last week’s RSA Conference report, which found just one in seven security chiefs report directly to their CEO, despite rising concern within their businesses.

Around 50 respondents to the PWC survey said they had lost in excess of $5 million, while a third of these said the figure was greater than $100 million. According to the Wall Street Journal, the percentage of companies reporting losses of more than $1 million as a result of cybercrime attacks doubled since 2014.

 Chris McCarty: Protect big, little data against cybercrime

​You probably know about the big breaches. JP Morgan Chase. Home Depot. Target. Maybe you even read a few of those juicy emails between Sony executives bashing Angelina Jolie and Will Smith. I can imagine your reaction: “That’s crazy, but what’re the chances it happens to me or my little company?”

The chances are much greater than you think. In November, during a data breach and privacy law program in Chicago, I attended a session presented by Wesley Hsu, the executive assistant U.S. attorney who headed up the Sony investigation. Here a few statistics provided by Mr. Hsu that should open the eyes of anyone in business:

Every day, there are twice as many cybercrime victims as newborn babies;

There are 50,000 new victims each hour, 820 new victims each minute and 14 new victims each second;

The total number of estimated cybercrime victims over the past year is greater than the combined populations of the United States and Canada.

 

 

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Small Business Confidence in The United States

February 9, 2016 by

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2016 has not been kind to the stock market. The quarter of a percent increase to the interest rate last year scared many people, even though analysts predicted the change would not be felt too much.  Globally, the markets are not doing any better than the US market, and commerce has slow down across the country and industries.  But despite all these issues, and despite the fact the small business confidence it at its lowest since 2014, the small business community feel confident about the labor market in this country.

For more about this follow the links below.

US small business confidence at two-year low

U.S. small business confidence fell in January to its lowest level in nearly two years amid worries about the near-term outlook for business conditions and sales growth, consistent with a recent slowdown in economic growth.

The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday its Small Business Optimism Index fell 1.3 points to 93.9 last month, the weakest reading since February 2014. Still, small businesses remained fairly upbeat about the labor market.

The NFIB said there was little sign that a stock market selloff and December’s interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, the first in nearly a decade, had impacted confidence. Owners’ perceptions of business conditions in six months weakened sharply as did their views of expected sales.

Workers Are Ready To Quit; Small Business Pay Hikes Hit 8-Year High

Americans are ready to quit, while small firms are hiking pay rapidly despite weak sales and gloomy forecasts. Business continue to trim inventories too.

Job Openings Jump; More Workers Quit

Job openings rose to 5.61 million in December from 5.35 million in November, the Labor Department said in its JOLTS survey. The number of hires climbed to 5.36 million from November’s 5.26 million. That’s the highest since September 2004.

Total separations climbed to 5.1 million. Quits hit a 10-year high of 3.06 million, up sharply from November’s 2.86 million. That suggests workers are growing more confident about finding other, better employment.

Wholesale Destockpiling Continues

December wholesales inventories fell 0.3% vs. the 0.2% drop expected. November stockpiles were revised from -0.3% to -0.4%. Meanwhile, wholesale sales fell 0.3% after tumbling 1.3% in November. The data suggest inventories were a slightly larger drag on Q4 GDP than first thought. Q4 GDP growth was initially estimated at a 0.7% annual rate, with other data also signaling downward revisions.

Rural businesses are struggling to recruit young people

Poor public transport, sluggish broadband and a talent drain to big cities is making it hard for countryside enterprises to survive

​face a number of challenges with running my rural Indian cookery school in Somerset. So when I had a chance to question George Osborne at the recent Federation of Small Businesses policy conference in London, I asked: “What assistance will there be to attract skilled young people to settle and take jobs in rural areas?”

Osborne suggested broadband was the answer, much to our amusement. His response missed the point: we do need better broadband, poor internet speeds are an ongoing problem in rural areas, but it isn’t the solution to attracting young talent.

To recruit young people I’m competing with a talent drain into the cities. Many young people who grow up in rural Somerset leave for university in Bristol, Bath and Cardiff and never return. Poor public transport links and living costs put them off. The majority of new people moving to my village are retirees.

 

 

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Entrepreneurial Stubbornness – the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

November 4, 2015 by

59948705Persistence, not listening to the nay-sayers, determination, following your dream: All things which contribute to starting and building a thriving business. All things which are fueled by good old-fashioned stubbornness.  I have yet to meet a successful small business owner who doesn’t have a very large streak of it.  Unfortunately, that’s not always a positive.

The Good

Stubbornness is a positive quality when it’s driving you to create, build and sustain a business.  The desire to “do things my way”  is a powerful motivator.  It’s what keeps you on track to work the long hours and make the hard decisions.  It has built multi-national Fortune 100 companies, as well as the local machine shop.

The Bad

As the saying goes, “There are 2 sides to every coin.”  There’s a bad side to entrepreneurial stubbornness.  It’s human nature to become attached to our own viewpoint – not only do we get stuck in ruts, we furnish them for additional comfort.  This makes it difficult to see other’s (accountants, consultants, employees, managers) points of view and listen to their ideas. 

Ideas which are good for you and your company.  When a company is growing there’s a juncture when the owner should shift from “a one-man show” style of management to a team approach.  Many don’t make that change, they stubbornly hang on to old ideas and ways of doing things, which often leads to the ugly.

The Ugly

There comes a time when an owners’ refusal to modify his inflexibility crosses the line from poor management skills to self destructive behavior-“the old way is good enough, no  one is going to tell me what to do”.  Resulting in — due to the owner’s unwillingness to recognize and adapt to changing ideas, technologies, employee’s needs and market requirements — a bankrupt company. 

Good entrepreneurial stubbornness often turns bad and ugly over time.  Owners fail to understand that we all need to evolve if we are to thrive in an ever changing world, and we have to be willing to listen to others to do so.  As Benjamin Franklin said, “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”

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Strategic Planning For Small Business Owners

October 7, 2015 by

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Developing a business strategy is for many small business owners a fundamental step that they cannot afford to ignore.  Hiring a business consultant to brainstorm ideas and the steps to put this strategy in place is imperative for the success of the strategy.  Many small business owners ignore the importance of not only developing the strategy , but implementing it as well.  Consistent effort should give you the results that a good implemented strategy can bring to your business. For more about this and other news follow the links below.

STRATEGIC PLANNING: Planning for the future

When you bring up the term “strategic planning” to most company owners, you normally get some hesitant stares and mumbled words. Most owners think strategic planning is only for large companies and the time and resource commitment is too large for them to bear. If done properly, it does not have to be so at all. When most companies really think about how much time they think about and discuss all of the future needs of the business, it probably adds up to more time than an actual planning process would take.

Many companies think they have a strategic plan, but what they really have is a one-year operating plan or budget. A strategic plan looks at all phases of the business over a longer time horizon, normally five years or more. It helps companies set a long-term direction that drives short-term activities and behaviors, and helps allocate time and resources to future endeavors, challenges and opportunities that are out there. We all hear “be proactive, not reactive” all the time — a strategic planning process makes you do just that. You can plan for more than you think you can.

 

The 5 Steps of Strategic Planning for a Small Business

Strategic planning for small business is not a process that is completed overnight–or even within one week. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), planning for growth should include a “high level review of the different elements of your business,” almost as if you were “describing” your company for the first time.  Take a close look at the marketplace, delineate the precise “needs you are trying to satisfy,” and describe to yourselves (to owners and top managers) exactly how your “products and/or services” are meeting the needs of your target “consumers, organizations and/or businesses.” Honestly evaluate your “competitive advantages,” and your “competitive weaknesses,” within your industry and locale. Then, take your time within each of the following business areas.:

Is budgetting drowning strategic planning in your organisation?

​“The budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations”…Jacob Lew

We can hardly see any organisation that does not have a well outlined budget in place. Organisations often rely on their budgets to guide them. It is not out of place to have a budget, but it is not enough to rely only on budget in driving the vision of the entire organisation.

Most organisations have missed it. How? They have allowed the budget to drive the organisation’s vision. Such organisations have worked day and night to develop a well outline budget but may not have realised the need to develop a strategic plan first. For the purpose of clarity, your organisation’s vision and the strategic plan are what drive your budget, and not vice versa.

Organisations that are reactive in their operations have low level of planning effectiveness. They allow the budget alone to drive the plan for the entire organisation. They also view planning as synonymous with financial objectives alone. Some other organisations are traditional in their planning effectiveness, and surprisingly are even better than the reactive organisations.

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Small Business News

January 28, 2015 by

59350241There are many tax advantages that came into effect for this year for small business owners, and cutting more taxes is one the things Rep. Steve Chabot wants to accomplish now that he is Chairman of the House Small Business Committee. Cutting taxes and regulations are a top priority for the Representative, and the small business community cannot fail to benefit from this agenda. Follow the links below for more news about small business.

Small business lending in Ohio shifts toward institutional investors

The biggest obstacle to opening a small business in Ohio is still financing, and Juanita Darden-Jones can tell you all about it.

Darden-Jones plans to open a coffee and wine shop in downtown Dayton called Third Perk this summer, which will mark two years since she first contacted CityWide Development Corp. about getting help raising the money for the equipment and renovations to open the shop.

“Small businesses are almost impossible to finance,” Darden-Jones said. “Banks are not very kind to us.”

The equipment for the coffee shop cost at least $30,000, and Darden-Jones expects to invest about $30,000 in renovations to the store. But that doesn’t include any coffee, food or wine inventory costs.

Small business lending in Ohio is becoming dominated by institutional investors as approval rates at big banks remain rather slim, and small bank approval rates are decreasing.

Big banks improved their small business lending approval rate to 18.5 percent by December 2014, up from 15.9 percent in January, but still lag behind the national rate of 21.1 percent, according to the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index.

Small business agenda: Target taxes, regulations

NEW YORK (AP) — Cutting regulations and taxes are on Rep. Steve Chabot’s must-do list for small businesses.

The Ohio Republican, who became chairman of the House Small Business Committee when Congress took office earlier this month, plans to continue the committee’s focus on how the government burdens small companies.

“If there’s one thing government can do for small business it’s to get the heck off their backs,” Chabot says. “We do over-regulate them. We do overtax them.”

PRIORITIES

Chabot plans to hold hearings to advocate for small businesses, as did his predecessor Sam Graves, R-Mo. Chabot says the committee will focus on the health care law and regulations issued by the IRS and Environmental Protection Agency.

Chabot also plans to push for tax relief for small businesses. He noted that when the Republican-led House passed tax bills in the past, the legislation stalled in the then-Democratic led Senate. He’s looking for more progress in a Congress now controlled by the GOP.

“We think we have a much better chance at advancing a whole range of tax reform issues,” Chabot says.

What an Ohio fire truck company tells us about globalization and free trade

Think free trade deals will help small businesses? It’s a lot more complicated than that. 

For 125 years, some small portion of America’s fire trucks have come from Columbus, Ohio. That’s where the family-owned Sutphen Corp. produces shining red masses of steel and aluminum, loaded with ladders and tanks, the kind of vehicle that towns buy as a promise to keep citizens safe.

But when the recession hit in 2008, Sutphen knew that the United States wouldn’t be enough.

“We saw that we were totally dependent on the U.S. economy, especially municipal funding,” says Ken Creese, the company’s director of sales and marketing. Sutphen’s orders had dropped by some 40 percent, and they were starting to lay people off. They needed new markets, stat.

To find them, the company looked to a country better known for selling stuff to America rather than buying it: China. They hired a vice president for international relations, began responding to solicitations by local governments, and quickly started filling orders. Now, about 11 percent of the 250 trucks Sutphen makes per year sell overseas — not only in China, but Venezuela, Colombia and Peru. Just last week, the company signed a $3.8 million deal with a Chinese fire department.

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Tips To Grow Your Business for 2015 and Other News

December 4, 2014 by

business (5)As 2014 comes to an end, small business owners and organizations start thinking and strategizing for the coming year. Many companies begin the year with new budgets for different departments, and strategies for their marketing campaigns are reevaluated again if they are not working, or if they need to take a different direction. Healthcare packages and other financial incentives for their employees can be evaluated to compare prices and offer them better choices than the previous year.  Follow the links below to read more about small business news, and ways to promote your business for the coming year.

11 Foolproof Ways to Grow Your Small-Business Facebook Following

Your business may have a solid marketing strategy, but are you an effective Facebook marketer?

Facebook estimates that it is home to more than 30 million active small-business pages. How will yours get noticed? How do you turn one fan into 1,000? Here are 11 creative (and perfectly legal!) methods to generate a Facebook following that convert likes to sales fluidly:

1. Make your Facebook page home.
Once you have set up a comprehensive business page, request a personalized web address, such as www.facebook.com/ENTMagazine. Promote your new hub of business across your other social media profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter etc.) and on printed marketing collateral including business cards, highlighting: We’re on Facebook!

2. Analyze your advertising efforts.
Through the admin panel of your page, or the Adverts Create Tool, you can orchestrate simultaneous marketing campaigns on your budget. The benefit of Facebook advertising initiatives is that it tracks your customers’ responses in real figures. Examine what works and engineer your efforts according to that response.

 Can small business help Russia bear West’s sanctions? Putin hopes so

 Moscow — Admitting that Russia has suffered a “difficult” year and faces what now looks to be permanent ostracism from the West, Vladimir Putin on Thursday argued that the current economic malaise is a matter of national security that will determine the country’s ability to survive.

That appears to make it official: the Kremlin now believes that it’s locked into a replay of the cold war, which it does not intend to lose this time. “We are ready to meet any challenge of the times and win,” Putin said.

But in a startlingly new appeal, Putin said in his annual state-of-the-nation address that the way forward is to liberalize the economy and let small business flourish in Russia.
The Russian president rolled out a series of liberal economic reforms in his state-of-the-nation speech today, saying that clearing away bureaucratic red tape and offering tax breaks to small business would soften sanctions’ bite.

Top Retirement Strategies: Small Business Owners

As a small business owner, you are completely responsible for your own retirement planning. Unless your small business is just a side job, you don’t have an employer to set up a retirement plan or choose a set of possible investments for you, and you’re definitely not getting a pension. Further, if you have employees, you may feel responsible for helping them plan for a successful retirement.

This article will discuss the considerations and retirement savings plans that you, as a small business owner, should consider when planning for both your own retirement and that of your employees.

Develop an Exit Strategy

It might seem strange that developing a business exit strategy should be one of your first considerations when planning for retirement. But consider this: The small business you spend your life building might become your largest asset. If you want it to fund your retirement – and if you want to actually stop working – you’ll have to liquidate your investment.

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Are you Ready for Retirement?

July 31, 2014 by

business (9)There are many compelling reasons why business owners should pay more attention to their retirement plans.  Often times the responsibility to fund a pension plan for them and for their employees fall on the shoulders of the business owner and more times than not it is relegated for a later date that never comes. Here are three compelling reasons why you should talk to an accountant and financial advisor to help you plan for your future.

  1. It is a financial responsibility you have to your employees and yourself to secure a future that will provide financial stability later on.
  2. Talk to an accountant or financial advisor for potential tax benefits for your business when setting up a retirement plan.
  3. Having a retirement plan can secure your top performers or attract new ones that can benefit your business.

Read more about this and other news by following the links below.

Preparing Small-Business Owners for Retirement

Advisers also can help clients figure out what to do with their time after they retire.

Small-business owners often are so busy working that they don’t take time to plan for their retirements.But that is clearly a mistake, financial advisers say.In turn, advisers are helping these entrepreneurs more accurately value their businesses as well as their personal expenses, and figure out how to spend their time once they…

Small business hiring cools off in July

Not quite the blistering pace reported in June.

Hiring by small businesses cooled off this past month, mirroring a similarly modest slowdown across the broader economy, according to a new report.

Small employers added 84,000 workers in July, down from a two-year high of 126,000 new positions added the month before, according to payroll processing firm ADP. Initially, the company had reported that small businesses (fewer than 50 employees) had added 117,000 jobs in June.

Overall, the economy added 218,000 positions in July. While that’s down from 281,000 last month, it’s otherwise the highest monthly total since November.

Workers are finally getting raises again

One more sign that life is improving for American workers: paychecks are finally growing faster.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that workers’ wages and salaries grew by a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent during the second quarter, the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2008.

Wages and salaries only make up 70 percent of total compensation, including benefits. Total compensation costs as a whole also grew by a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent during the second quarter.

Though it’s true that wage growth was much faster before the Great Recession, the news is still a sign that the labor market is tightening, as increased demand for labor helps boost paychecks.

 

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Marketing Tips and Tools you Must Know About

July 21, 2014 by

business (4)The Ohio Small Business Development Center offers great advice and solutions for those entrepreneurs wanting to start a business in the state of Ohio.  From the planning stage to filing legal forms and permits the center offer steps, forms, phone numbers and links to the web sites you may need to begin your journey.  For the marketing and other tools you may need to compete with the big guys, here we offer you articles that can offer you solutions to some of your business decisions for now and in the future.

6 Marketing Ideas Small Businesses Can Learn From Big Brands

Marketing veteran Rob Schuham spends a lot of time encouraging big brands to act like small companies. Be nimble, he advises, be creative, be agile. Take a risk, he tells them, and act like a startup.

And when major clients on his roster at Denver-based Match Action Marketing have listened to his counsel, they’ve backed some groundbreaking campaigns that are instructive not only for their Fortune 100 brethren, but to the little guys, as well.

“If you get a marketing program right, you can set a category on its head,” said Schuham, CEO of Match Action. “The big guys have scale, so they can be kind of a beta test for innovative marketing. Small companies can find useful data points and adapt some of those tactics for their own purposes.”

Three tools every small business can’t do without

Technology can make or break a small business, both at launch and when success has it scaling up. Here are three-must haves to ensure professionalism, maximize productivity, build market share and save money for businesses with 1-10 employees.

Telephony

The phone is still the most common way that your customers, partners and suppliers will communicate with you, so don’t cut corners. But don’t spend more than you have to, either.

For starters, get a dedicated business number. There are services that offer a free basic phone number, or, based on your business needs, you can get a low-cost monthly subscription virtual PBX service, like Cloud Phone, that allows you to get a toll-free or local number with more advanced business features, such as ability to add employee extensions.

Next, decide whether your employees really need deskphones or whether tablets and smartphones are a better fit for their work styles. If it’s the latter, eliminating deskphones can easily save a couple hundred bucks up front in hardware, plus $30 or more per month per employee in service fees. Those savings are a major reason why so many businesses are ditching deskphones in favor of VoIP softphones on tablets, smartphones and laptops.

Why Your Content Isn’t Going Viral (Infographic)

You wrote a kick-butt blog post.

You worked for days on that video.

You stretched all of your graphic design muscles to make an infographic.

And no one shared any of it.

Ouch. You have good content, but it just can’t seem to get any shares.

It doesn’t have to be that way anymore. Who Is Hosting This has  an infographic that explains why your content won’t go viral, and how you can make it do so next time. Here are a couple of the infographic’s tips:

1. Appeal to emotions.

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Financial News For The Small Business Owner

February 6, 2014 by

business (5)According to the ADP National Employment Reports small business created 78,000 jobs in January. The highest employment contribution among small businesses was from businesses with less than 20 employees and that accounted for 56% of the employment contribution growth. Analysts as well as small business entrepreneurs are eager to begin the New Year with great news about the economy.  Follow the links to read more about financial news and Obamacare.

What small business owners should know about the new Obamacare report

Despite some media reports, the health care law isn’t killing 2.5 million jobs.

Congressional budget analysts on Tuesday released revised estimates concerning the economic footprint of the health care law, spawning another round of headlines declaring that Obamacare will take a massive bite out of workers’ hours and eliminate millions of jobs.

Thing is, that’s not what the report said at all. In fact, the nonpartisan group’s predictions actually refute some of the warnings from small business leaders — namely, that the law will force employers to trim hours for their current workers and think twice about hiring new ones.

Still, there are some other areas of the law that the group says may indeed have unwanted side effects for companies.

Bank of America boosts small business lending as it hires even more bankers

Bank of America said Tuesday that it made almost $11 billion in new loans to U.S. small businesses in 2013. The bank also plans to hire 200 small business bankers this year, many on the West Coast.

The bank’s pace of small business lending last year was up 26 percent over 2012. California’s largest bank has seen small business loan originations rise every month on a year-over-year basis for the past three years. That may reflect the bank’s initiative to hire 1,000 small business bankers that began in late 2010.

Emily Shanks, BofA’s small business banking region executive for the West, based in Concord, told the San Francisco Business Times in May 2012 that the hiring, which included 31 small business bankers in the Bay Area up to that point, allowed for more face-to-face meetings between bankers and small business owners at their place of business.

When counting both new and renewing financing, BofA’s small business lending exceeds $22 billion.

GroupMe Founder Gets $3.4M to Make Small Business Loans More Accessible With Fundera

In the past five years, the number of bank loans under $1 million has dropped by more than 20 percent. This puts small business owners, arguably the driving force of our economy, at a severe disadvantage when it comes to starting a business.

But Jared Hecht, co-founder of startup success story GroupMe, alongside cofounders Rohan Deshpande and Andres Moran, is today launching a totally new service called Fundera, built specifically to facilitate small business funding through alternative lending.

Fundera has received a total of $3.4 million in funding from Khosla, First Round Capital, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, and various angel investors including Strauss Zelnick, Rob Wiesenthal, David Rosenblatt, and David Tisch.

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