News notes and thises and thats

Posted on | September 26, 2007 | Comments Off

The SBA Office of Advocacy reminds us that they are in the thick of their push to get federal agencies to review their regulations, to see if they are outdated, cumbersome or just generally need to be reworked. They have issued a call for nominations for the list of Small Business Regulators Greatest (Worst) Hits:

The smallest of businesses bear the brunt of the business regulations. They annually pay 45 percent more per employee to comply with regulations than big businesses do.

That’s why the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration is issuing a call for nomination of federal rules and regulations in need of review and reform.

If you want to submit a nomination of your least favorite regulations, visit Advocacy’s R3 initiative web site.

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The always excellent Marcia Yudkin notes in this week’s Marketing Minute that business bloggers who forget to post basic information about themselves like their full name, what goods or services they offer, and how to get in touch with them is “surprisingly common.”

Common or not, it’s not smart business. Consider the story she tells:

A few weeks back, a Google alert notified me of a blog entry quoting from my latest Marketing Minute and praising me in general. I like to thank such fans whenever possible, so I followed Google’s link to this blog item.

All I could learn about the blogger, though, was his first name and what he looks like, from an appealing head shot. His “About” page indicated that he works as a coach of some sort, but again his last name was missing. Nor could I find a way to email him, or any link to a page where a reader impressed with his observations could learn about his business services.

This seems like a great big no-brainer to me but, evidently, it needs to be said. If you’re going to do business online, you need to tell people who you are and what you do. Developing relationships with people and impressing them with your expertise is basic online customer acquisition stuff. But if you do all that and then don’t them them how to contact you, then the business blog becomes nothing more than a time-wasting exercise in narcissism, right?

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The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Gov. Tim Pawlenty is one of the good guys when it comes to rural development and small business. He has proposed a new development initiative aimed squarely at small businesses, microbusinesses and startups.

The program will feature such microenterprise development staples as a micro-credit program, microenterprise technical assistance and training, plus tax credits (can’t skip those, can we?) for businesses locating in distressed areas, and revenue bonds for local governments to make critical infrastructure investments.

Pawlenty said the program recognizes that most economic growth in new jobs is occurring in early stages and smaller businesses. It also recognizes that needs in rural and outstate Minnesota may be different from those for larger companies and metro businesses.

“In order to have a healthy state we need to have access to jobs and economic opportunity across the whole state,” Pawlenty said. “People will not stay in parts of the country where they don’t have access to a job or an economic opportunity.”

Nice to occasionally come across a politician with a clue, isn’t it?

[tags]small business, microbusiness, SBA Office of Advocacy, regulations, Marcia Yudkin, Marketing Minute, business bloggers, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, rural economic development[/tags]


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Category: Marketing, Politics, Regs


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