By Karen Axelton

Nearly four years after the nation’s financial meltdown, small business owners seeking financing find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Some 90 percent of small business owners say availability of credit is still a problem for small business, reports a new poll by the American Sustainable Business Council, Main Street Alliance and Small Business Majority. The survey of more than 500 small business owners found that 60 percent of small employers have personally faced difficulties trying to obtain loans to grow their businesses.

Getting capital wasn’t always such an issue for entrepreneurs. A 61 percent majority of respondents say it’s harder for them get loans now than it was four years ago, with 29 percent saying it’s much harder. Only 9 percent of respondents say it’s gotten easier to get a loan.

What do small business owners think would help ease the credit crunch? Some 90 percent of business owners support regulatory changes that would make it simpler for community banks and credit unions to lend to small businesses. Another 77 percent support providing incentives for community banks to lend more to entrepreneurs. Specifically, by more than a 2:1 ratio, small business owners support encouraging credit unions to lend more to entrepreneurs by increasing their member lending cap from 12.25 percent of their assets to 27.5 percent of their assets.

A large majority—82 percent of respondents—also supports tighter credit card regulations, such as clearer disclosure of terms and caps on interest rates. In addition, nearly half, or 47 percent, strongly support these kinds of regulations. The survey also found that 52 percent of small business owners have used credit cards to finance their own business.

Another way small business owners think loans could be made more accessible is by reducing collateral requirements. One-fourth of those surveyed have used their homes as a source of capital for their business through a home equity line of credit. With home equity values dropping in many parts of the country, this type of collateral is no longer available to many entrepreneurs.

Finally, the majority of small business owners, or 57 percent, think that reducing the principal on underwater mortgages to the homes’ current market value would boost consumer spending, which would help small businesses regain market share. Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) said the fallout from the mortgage crisis has hurt their businesses by reducing consumer spending and demand.

The poll also asked respondents about some specific proposals put forth in President Obama’s American Jobs Act. The vast majority (69 percent) supports committing $50 billion to new and existing infrastructure projects—such as making improvements to road, bridge and water systems—that would generate new jobs and help increase consumer spending. Another 59 percent favor creating a nationwide wireless network and improving the accessibility of high-speed wireless services, which would benefit both businesses and consumers.

Read the full report here.

Image by Flickr user Rojer (Creative Commons)

Doodle.com

Finding a time to meet with business associates, clients or prospects can be challenging if you’re trying to make everyone’s schedule mesh—especially when you involve more than two people! Take a look at Doodle.com next time you want to figure out who can meet when. No need to register; just enter in the times you are available, then invite the rest of your party to do the same. Need something a little more personal and customized? Go beyond the basic, free version of Doodle.com and check out several priced plans that allow you to brand your calendars, make your transactions mobile and more.

By Rieva Lesonsky

It’s no secret that mobile shopping is hot, hot, hot. In fact, eMarketer estimates there will be 72.8 million mobile shoppers in the U.S. this year, of whom 94.3 percent will use a smartphone to research products and browse the Web. More than half (53 percent) of those users will make purchases on their phones, pushing m-commerce (mobile commerce) sales to $11.6 billion overall for 2012.

M-commerce is still a small part of the retail pie, but it’s growing in importance. Unfortunately, though more users are turning to smartphones to access retail brands, they’re often disappointed in the functionality they find from retailers’ mobile offerings.

December 2011 research by L2 Think Tank cited by eMarketer surveyed beauty/skincare, fashion, hospitality, retail and watch/jewelry brands about their activities online and found that, when it comes to mobile, these companies are falling far short of what customers expect.

The most popular feature for retailers to offer on their mobile sites was ecommerce capability (67 percent) and store locator features (67 percent). When it came to other tools that users might expect to find on retailers’ mobile sites, however, the numbers declined significantly.

Just 44 percent offered mobile product search—which could be a key competitive feature when consumers are out and about looking for a particular product. And only 23 percent of companies had video on their mobile sites, compared to 82 percent who offered video on their regular websites.

Retailers aren’t doing much better when it comes to mobile optimization of email. Although 78 percent of the companies surveyed were using email marketing, the majority (53 percent) sent emails with links to their standard website, which might not be mobile-friendly. Only 24 percent sent users an email message that was optimized for mobile viewing, and even fewer used mobile-friendly links (such as links to mobile apps or mobile-optimized websites).

Although eMarketer doesn’t specify, I’m assuming this survey focused on big-name retail brands. If even these companies aren’t yet taking advantage of the mobile market, the situation for small businesses is probably even worse. But that doesn’t give you an excuse. In fact, it should spark your competitive energies. If big companies are ignoring the mobile niche, you’ve got a chance to gain ground. So if you’re not taking steps to capture these customers, what are you waiting for?

Image by Flickr user rayand (Creative Commons)

Wunderlist

Still looking for a way to get organized? Some “organizer” applications take more time to learn than the tasks you actually need to get done. Or maybe you need to organize a project—and that means you need to organize your team as well. Wunderlist offers the solution to both your problems by making the interface simple and allowing you to share task lists with friends, partners and associates. You can print tasks, send them by email or share them in the cloud. Reminders will keep you on schedule; a drag and drop feature lets you organize your tasks easily. Use on the Web or from an app on your mobile device.

By Rieva Lesonsky

Are you looking for new employees? Well, don’t feel your search is limited to those in your own backyard. I’m not talking about virtual employees or outsourcing, either: A new study by CareerBuilder of workers nationwide found nearly half (44 percent) of respondents would willing to relocate for a career opportunity. In fact, CareerBuilder says that off laid-off employees who found jobs in the past year, 20 percent relocated to do so.

At the same time, more employers are struggling to find skilled workers–and are willing to pay to import talent to their city. Thirty-two percent of employers in the survey said would be willing to pay to relocate new employees this year; 19 percent would pay a smaller first-year salary so they could give a relocating employee a signing bonus.

Which types of workers are most in demand? The top areas for which workers were most willing to pay to relocate employees all relate to technology or to revenue-generating jobs:

• Engineering – 30 percent of employers
• Information Technology – 23 percent
• Business Development – 21 percent
• Sales – 21 percent
• Financial – 16 percent
• Marketing – 13 percent
• Legal – 11 percent

If you’re looking for workers out of your area, you might want to check out CareerBuilder’s new site, CareerRelocate.com, which targets workers who are seeking employment outside of their area. Employers can post jobs and find candidates. Job candidates can search by keyword or category search to see where the most and fewest opportunities are for their skills; view jobs in different cities; compare salary averages and standard of living in different cities; and research homes, property values, mortgage quotes and moving and storage costs.

More than three-fourths of workers who relocated in the last year said they didn’t regret the decision. But if you’re planning to hire workers from outside your area, you should be aware of the top problems workers cited with relocating:

• Cost of living is higher – 26 percent
• More stress on the family unit – 24 percent
• Difficult to make new friends – 18 percent
• Feeling homesick – 16 percent

Knowing what issues your new employee is dealing with can help you be proactive in supporting them so they feel valued and welcome at your company.

Image by Flickr user Marxchivist (Creative Commons)

e-SignLive.com

No one likes to wait for the signed document to show up in the mail, but a live signature is still required for many business contracts and forms. e-SignLive.com offers a free high-tech solution and an alternative to the pen-on-paper signature. Signers can sign from any device, and there’s no software to download. You can even have multiple signers, and everything is customized to the authentication level you require. If your business requires similar documents be signed over and over, you can create a template to use multiple times. Also, set a due date so signers know when the signature deadline is coming up.

By Karen Axelton

Small businesses who obtain government contracts know that the U.S. government is a desirable client. But how are small companies doing when it comes to landing federal contracts or subcontracts? American Express OPEN’s second annual government contracting survey of more than 700 active small government contractors found they are facing some challenges, partly because federal government contracting spending was down 14 percent in 2011 compared to 2010. Here’s what else the study found:

Small businesses are spending more trying to obtain federal contracts. In 2011, active small business contractors invested an average of $103,827 in both time and money in seeking federal contracting opportunities—up 21 percent from the previous year ($86,000).

Businesses owned by minorities invested more than the average—an average of $139,709, fully 56 percent more than small businesses owned by Caucasian men and women.

Women, overall, were spending less time and money pursuing federal contracts. The average investment by women-owned firms was 30 percent less than that made by men-owned firms.

Small businesses are bidding less often. Even as they spend more on their average bid, small firms are bidding far less. Both in prime contracting and subcontracting, bidding activity has declined by nearly half.

So what does it take to succeed in federal contracting? Here are three tips:

Be persistent. The small business contractors in the survey reported that they had to submit an average of 4.4 bids before earning their first prime federal contract. Once they did land that first procurement opportunity, however, things got easier. Two-thirds of active small business contractors reported they have performed more than one federal contract. On average, it took these firms just under a year after their first procurement to win their second contract.

Be selective. The study found that when it comes to bidding on contracting opportunities, there is
a law of
diminishing returns. Businesses that bid on six or more contracts in a three-year period saw their success rate fall below the overall .379 “batting average.” American Express OPEN suggests the best strategy is to concentrate on just a few procurement opportunities annually; don’t submit more than two or three bids per year.

Be patient. The average success rate in obtaining prime contracts was 38 percent. However, success rates were significantly higher among small businesses that had been seeking federal contracts for 10 or more years (53 percent success rate) compared to those who had been seeking federal contracts for three years or less (20 percent success rate).

Has your business bid on government contracting opportunities? Have you found it growing easier or more difficult?

Image by Flickr user Donkey Hotey (Creative Commons)

Experiment.ly

An online ad campaign shouldn’t be planned with the attitude, “Let’s throw something out there and see what sticks.” Experiment.ly lets you test and measure the performance of many aspects of your ad campaign before you sink unnecessary dollars into your efforts. You can test anything–buttons, text or images–and there’s no need to get a designer or programmer involved. It’s easy to use, with drag and drop features, so you can quickly create different versions of an ad and see which version tests the best. A free version can get you up to 5,000 unique visitors a month. Other payment plans exist if you want a more extensive campaign.

Digital PR Guidebook

PR News Online has compiled more than 300 pages of social media ideas and tactics in a downloadable guide aimed to help anyone with a desire to improve their social media prowess and become an expert at today’s hottest marketing method. Learn how to master Facebook, integrate mobile into your marketing plan, use SEO to boost your press releases and more. Find out whether you need to add video to your marketing strategy and how Google + fits into the social media playing field. Chapters also include case studies, SEO and content curation. Downloadable and print versions are available for $399.

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

Will your business be affected by the new 1099-K form the IRS is rolling out this year? Business Finance reports that businesses accepting payments by credit card, debit card, gift card or online payment options such as PayPal, you could be getting 1099-K forms in the mail.

The form or forms will be sent to you payment settlement entities such as banks if gross payments to your business by that entity in 2011 totaled 1) more than $20,000 and 2) more than 200 transactions. Payment settlement entities report the information to the IRS as well; the forms are due to small businesses by today, January 31.

The new reporting requirement was created as part of the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 and is intended to make sure that merchants accurately report their income from credit and other payment cards. The goal is to increase compliance in reporting income among merchants, and over 10 years, the new requirement is expected to raise more than $9.5 billion in taxes on income that would otherwise have gone unreported or underreported.

Business Finance says the 1099-K forms will include contact information on both the entity filing the tax return and the payee; the gross amount of merchant card or third-party network payments the payee received in 2011, detailed by month. If your company gets a 1099-K, you must report the amounts on your business taxes.

If you sell products and services, you might get a 1099-K and a 1099-MISC reporting the sale of the same service, Business Finance notes. If so, you will have to contact the entity that issued the forms and ask them to correct the error, or they will be reporting your income twice to the IRS.

You can find detailed explanations about 1099-K forms and information on how to report the income on your tax forms at the IRS website.

Image Courtesy Karen Axelton