While Congress and President Obama come down to the wire on fiscal cliff negotiations, small business owners hold their breath for a solution that will not be an economic setback for them or their customers. After averting the cliff however, there is still much to be done to improve conditions for small business in the U.S. We asked small business owners around the country what else they'd like to see from the federal government in the coming year.

Seven entrepreneurs in seven industries answered the question: "What is the most important thing President Obama and Congress could do in the next year to improve the outlook for your small business?" Here are their seven (quite different) answers:

Lenore Davies, Partner, Pripstein and Davies Architects, Wyncote, Pa.

We are a very small business; an architecture firm of 2 people. Our industry has been decimated by the economic downturn. We specialize in small projects, predominantly residential renovations and additions. Our clients

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Image: www.sizeup.com

The Small Business Administration's new Online Learning Center offers a cool—and potentially very useful—tool for owners of existing small businesses as well as entrepreneurs investigating startup ideas. It's a widget from SizeUp, a company that was featured in a TechCrunch Disrupt event last year for its mission to deliver big-business-level intelligence to small businesses.

SizeUp's tool is designed to provide a small business owner with what a high paid consultant might provide for a large business: data that show how your business stacks up against the competition in your geographic area, insight into your customers, and clues about the best places to advertise.

I gave SizeUp a test drive to see what it could tell me about how my own small side-business—a one-woman wedding decorating operation based in Fairfield County, Conn.—compared to others.

I didn't get far: entering my industry and geographic location into the widget prompted the message: "There is not enough data for your

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holidaycrowdsWe are in full flow for the holiday season now and retailers are hoping that consumers are going to be cracking open their wallets and pocketbooks. We just finished the biggest shopping weekend of the year and reports are mixed. It was clearly a huge success for online retailers with more sales than ever before. For example, here at Yahoo! Small Business we say an overall 8% increase in dollar sales volume from last year. But traditional retailers are reporting mixed results. Analysts suggest that we need the rest of the holiday shopping season to remain strong. With that in mind, here are four tips for upselling and cross-selling that hopefully will be helpful over the next month. We continue to hear that business credit is a serious issue for small businesses of all kinds (not just retail) and that access to credit is still very tough. So it's a good idea to maximize your opportunities by building good business credit. Finally - as a great example to us all, here's an interview with

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chart: Sageworks

Despite all the good publicity around Small Business Saturday, sales have been shrinking for the smallest retailers while their larger competitors are seeing strong growth this year.

According to data from Sageworks, which provides financial analysis services to private companies, 2012 will be the worst sales year for privately held retailers with annual sales of below $1 million since 2009.

Those small retailers have posted a nearly 3 percent drop in sales year to date. Meanwhile, privately held retailers overall are seeing a nearly 6 percent increase in sales volume this year, and  privately held retailers with annual sales of more than $10 million have seen a roughly 11 percent increase since last year. Sageworks data does not cover publicly traded companies such as Walmart, Kohl's or Target, but spans retailers from small Mom & Pops to privately-held chain stores.

Sageworks analyst Libby Bierman says the firm's data shows that the smallest retailers are seeing a setback after two

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Consumers spent $59.1 billion over the Black Friday weekend. Less than 10 percent of that went to the small businesses that represent more than 95 percent of all retailers, according to the National Retail Federation.

Nevertheless, the National Federation of Independent Businesses reports that the holiday shopping season is off to an auspicious start for small business. A survey released today by NFIB and American Express reports that consumer awareness of Small Business Saturday jumped to 67 percent from 34 percent just two weeks ago, contributing to $5.5 billion in spending with independent merchants on November 24. The figure is $100,000 more than predicted by pre-holiday surveys.

This weekend's was the third annual Small Business Saturday. According to NFIB's national survey of 1,000 men and women conducted on Saturday and Sunday, nearly half of those aware of the event shopped on Saturday.

NFIB CEO Dan Danner said in a statement that support of small firms, retailers, restaurants,

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As we enter into the busiest shopping season of the year, I thought it might help merchants to think about the upselling and cross selling techniques their sales associates use.

I think we have all become accustomed to upselling, and I understand the benefits and why it is so important - if done right. I've been in stores where I have spent a lot of time searching for a product, and understand the frustration that comes with not being able to find what you are looking for. Sales associates are there to help the customer find what they are looking for and make them aware of products that they may not know are available. If done right, this can improve and expedite the customer shopping experience. If done poorly, it can run a good customer out the door, never to return.

According to business dictionary, upselling is "a sales strategy where the seller will provide opportunities to purchase related products or services, often for the sole purpose of making a larger sale".

For example, I

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buildingcredit

As your entrepreneurial spirit shines through and you embark on your new venture, it is important to separate your business and personal credit. A mistake many new business owners make is using their personal credit to open lines of credit for their startup. Using your personal credit history can be problematic for several reasons. Not only will it increase the number of inquiries made to your personal credit profile, but it will also prevent your business from building its own credit.

Establish an Identity for Your Business

You need to register your business with state and local governments in order to begin building credit for the entity. A sole proprietorship can register in the form of a DBA (Doing Business As). However it may be more prudent to register as a Corporation or LLC (Limited Liability Company), which decreases the liability of the owner and adds more separation between business and personal finances.

Regardless of how you register your business, it is important to

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infographic: National Federation of Independent Businesses

Most small business owners will be sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow unsure of whether or not to be grateful for what's in store for them in the coming year. That's because few have any clear idea how the two biggest issues on the table in Washington today--the approaching fiscal cliff and the Affordable Care Act--will impact their small business next year. That's a recipe for indigestion.

Government agencies and small business organizations are rising to the occasion to help you understand what might be in store for you if, indeed, the nation goes over the so-called cliff, and when the Affordable Care Act goes into full effect. Here are some resources they offer.

The Affordable Care Act and your business

The Department of Health and Human Services posted information to its website this summer to help entrepreneurs understand the implications of the Affordable Care Act specifically for small business. Now, the National Small Business Association is helping owners keep up

Read More »from Still wondering what a fiscal cliff and healthcare proposals mean to you?