Bigger businesses in 58 industries will qualify for SBA loans

Last week we reported on rampant confusion about the size of a small business and some Republican leaders' objections to any changes in IRS definitions of small business is right now.

Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced new rules increasing the size standards for businesses in 58 industries within three NAICS sectors: real estate and rental and leasing; educational services; and health care and social assistance. Effective Oct. 24, more than 18,000 additional businesses will qualify as small businesses under the new standards, according to SBA. For some industries, average annual receipts thresholds have been doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled.

Since the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 called for a comprehensive review of all size standards, SBA has proposed new size standards for many industries. SBA says the latest revisions "reflect changes in marketplace conditions" and public comments it received to the proposed rules.

"New size standards will enable more

A report says small business tax cuts don't add up to 18

Throughout their campaigns, President Obama and Governor Romney have each claimed to be the better candidate to support small business. The President has repeatedly pointed to the 18 tax cuts he's made on behalf of small businesses. Do you know which tax cuts he's referring to?

This week CNNMoney dug into the details and the math. Turns out the Obama campaign is counting some cuts twice, and many have already expired. By CNN's count, there were only 14 tax breaks, not 18; 4 have expired, and 5 have been weakened. That leaves only 5 still in full effect for small businesses. Chances are great that you are not benefiting from more than one of them.

The first cut of the five reportedly still in place was made available by the Affordable Care Act; the other four were created by the Small Business Jobs Act. They are:

• a tax credit to companies that pay some health insurance and have 25 or fewer employees with average salaries of $50,000 or less. (A credit that, as we've reported, few

turnovernewleafFor the typical retail small business there is only one thing to think about at this time of year - preparing for the holiday season. But for everyone else there is still the election at the back of everyone's mind. And then there are the usual management concerns, managing your website if you are an online business and for the entrepreneur, the usual startup concerns. The issues are serious for all small businesses - even for celebrities. All of these topics were covered in Yahoo! Small Business Advisor this week. You really should be reading it regularly. If you'd like to see our blog articles regularly, subscribe to our blog rss feed here: http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/adisor/rss. You can also follow us on twitter and facebook to get regular updates about good articles.

If you haven't taken the plunge yet, hopefully some of these articles give you the impetus to start your own business — and if you do, we have tools to help. Besides our domain name, web hosting and ecommerce

A small business is bigger than a breadbox

It's little wonder there's so much confusion about just what exactly a small business is. There are many definitions, and even within the federal government, there are varying standards.

The U.S. Census tracks small businesses with under 500 employees. According to its data, 78 percent are actually self-employed individuals, and more than 95 percent of small businesses have 10 or fewer workers. Only 0.3 percent fall into the 100 or greater category.

For research purposes, the U.S. Small Business Administration generally considers firms with fewer than 500 employees to be small businesses. But to identify candidates for its programs, the SBA defines a small business, depending on industry, based on sales or number of employees. Sales thresholds range from under $1 million to $35.5 million, with $7 million the most common benchmark. Employee number thresholds range from 50 to 1,500 employees, with 500 employees the most common benchmark.

Among the various exceptions to SBA's 500

Small business voters care less about taxes than jobs

George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management says its latest survey of small business owners, conducted with Thumbtack.com, was designed to provide the media, policymakers, and the public at large with a better understanding of what small businesses value in the 2012 Presidential election. In addition to the stunning revelation that more small business owners would reelect President Obama than would vote for Governor Romney, here are some other stats from their recent Small Business Political Sentiment Survey of more than 6,000 small business owners.

The economy/jobs was far and away the top election priority cited by respondents who identified themselves as Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. From a list of 12 polling-booth priorities including "Beating Obama" and "Beating Romney," far more respondents (40 percent) chose "economy/jobs" than any other issue. A distant second concern was "ethics/honesty/corruption in government," the top priority of 13

Surprising small biz election survey results!

Believe it or not, more small business owners say President Obama is a better supporter of small business than Governor Romney, according to results of a Small Business Political Sentiment Survey being widely reported this week.

The survey contradicts the findings of a Yahoo! Small Business Advisor survey, as well as another recent poll of small business owners.

Yahoo's survey, conducted in June and July, asked 250 respondents which candidate would be best for supporting small business issues. Responses mirrored the survey's election forecast: 47 percent said Romney's positions are best for small business, 36 percent preferred Obama's.

And a Manta poll of more than 1,900 small business owners in August revealed that a significant majority—61 percent—said they plan to vote for Governor Romney on November 6.

George Washington University reports, however, that based on its July-August online survey of 6,164 small business users of Thumbtack.com, 47 percent of small business owners will

holidaysalesYes, it is only September, but to be honest this article is already running late. If you sell anything online and especially if you run an online store then you should already be thinking about the Holiday season — gift sales gear up from November 1^st onward. To be really successful you have to be ready to support those sales with changes to your website, to your email marketing, to your social media, and most importantly with your staffing, shipping, fulfillment, and support services. And that does mean starting NOW.

Holiday Dates to Know

The top online shopping days throughout the holiday season are as follows:

1. Thanksgiving Day itself (Nov 22^nd this year)
2. Black Friday (Nov. 23^rd this year. Not as big for online as for offline retail)
3. Cyber Monday (Nov. 26^th this year)
4. Green Monday (apparently eBay's peak shopping day and thus assumed to be a retail peak for everyone — bit of a moving target this but I'd plump for Dec. 10^th)
5. Free Shipping Day (no — I didn't know this was a big one