Self Made - The Archive

It could be your local cupcake shop, neighborhood deli or even your friendly accountant -- all local entrepreneurs fueling not only their local economies, but our national economy as well. One of the things they all have in common is that they are part of a growing movement in America called the small business community. With every dollar you invest in a local, small business, the true entrepreneurial spirit of America continues to thrive. According to the Small Business Administration, more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year.

Posted by Katie Vlietstra-- The Small Business Administration (SBA) is our nation's direct link between the administration and America's small business community. The agency provides benefits such as advocacy and support, loans and access to capital and entrepreneurial development to ensure the small business community continues to move our economy forward.

Nearly one year after Karen Mills announced her resignation as head of the Small Business Administration, President Obama announced the nomination of Maria Contreras-Sweet to lead the organization pending Senate confirmation.

Another holiday season has come and gone and hopefully all of your best wishes came true. Most of us are now focused on the New Year with high expectations and new commitments for success. And in many cases that includes those high minded New Year’s resolutions that probably include losing a few pounds or maybe just striving to get in shape. Committing to better health is a great way to start the year whether that includes a better diet, a daily walk or short jog, or maybe even just one less dessert each week. The key is to just pick something and then stick to it long enough to build a habit that leads to the result you want.

Individuals and families will see a little less in their paychecks starting January 1, 2014- wage earners and self-employed individuals who make more than $200,000 (individual) and $250,000 (couple) will be assessed an additional .9% Medicare surtax on top of the existing 1.45% Medicare payroll tax as well as a 3.8% Medicare tax on unearned income (investment dividends, rental income, interest and capital gains on property).

As you may have noticed, Facebook rolled out their star rating system onto business pages last month. In reality, the star rating system has been in place on Facebook's mobile app for places for quite some time. However, November is when they officially rolled it out for business pages on the standard browser version of Facebook.

Earlier this week, the NASE submitted a statement for the record to the House Ways and Means Committee in response to the committee’s hearing on the status of the ACA enrollment. In the NASE statement, we expressed our concerns that leading up to the October 1st launch, the administration was not providing sufficient details and answers regarding the Exchange Marketplace. With the lackluster launch, we are now asking congress to eliminate the open enrollment deadlines for the 2014 calendar year and to delay the individual mandate penalty for one tax-filing year.

As many of you already know, starting at the beginning of the month, the Government shut down for 16 days. Standard & Poor estimates that the shutdown cost the U.S. economy $24 billion during that span. While many government employees were directly affected, they were not the only ones. Many small businesses felt the effects of the shutdown in every corner of the country.

Last week, we released an infographic to increase awareness about the upcoming changes to Health Care and how it relates to the twenty three million self-employed in this country. Next week, on October 1st, national and state health care Exchanges will begin open enrollment. Currently, the federal government has provided limited details and incomplete information which makes it difficult to plan and make decisions regarding your health care in the future.

Earlier this year, we here at the NASE announced a partnership with the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) and Fundable to launch a crowdfunding contest. The contest was a great success for many small businesses and the winner that emerged was The Cookie Bar from Las Vegas, Nevada.

The SBA’s Office of Advocacy annually publishes a report that tracks lending to small businesses. The report shows how small businesses are financed, or in the worst case, denied the financing they need. This could be the banking industry’s worst nightmare. Small businesses are too important to the economy to be heckled by lenders. This analysis provides the critical answers on how much they are heckled and why.

Joe Pielago of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. received the NASE Future Entrepreneur award in 2009. After four years at the University of San Francisco, he recently graduated with a BS in Business Administration. Read on to join us in catching up with Joe.

The Obama administration took some muscle out of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by pushing the Employer Mandate implementation to 2015. The administration has started marketing efforts, but this mandate must be a hard sell. The policy calls for any business that employs over 50 full time workers (30 hours per week) to provide insurance for their employees.

The NASE has created to two page brief that highlights the Affordable Care Act and its impact on America's smallest Businesses. It is a great tool that breaks down the complicated legislation and makes it easier to understand.

Last week, the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE), the nation’s leading resource for the self-employed and micro-businesses, and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council), an advocacy and research organization for entrepreneurs, partnered with Fundable, a crowdfunding platform partner focused exclusively on startup companies, to launch a contest helping startups and existing business fundraise to start or grow their company.

Irregular power surges, voltage drops (brown outs), and outages can all cause irrevocable damage the internal components of your computer - find out how you can protect yourself.

Posted by Javan Porter - If President Obama is the coach of the team for creating new jobs, his quarterback is small business. The coach may lay out the game plan but small businesses play the game. Small businesses have created two-thirds of new jobs in America. The President as the coach understands the importance of such a strong quarterback and has issued a proclamation announcing this year’s National Small Business Week for June 17th to 21st.

As a micro-business owner, you must make difficult decisions that carry ramifications that reach far beyond your office walls. Although the high health insurance costs that your employees face may worry you, an opportunity for you as the business owner to offer assistance is through a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA).

Wondering how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) may impact your business, or how to achieve health business growth? Two webinars happening this week might have the answers you need.