Blog Posts by Adrienne Burke

Daily deal promotions are not sustainable marketing strategies for most businesses

Many business owners who offer "daily deals" promotions wind up losing money, failing to win new customers, or driving away loyal patrons when the coupon crowds descend. Nevertheless, the marketing trend is here to stay. That's the opinion of Utpal Dholakia, professor of management at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, who has become something of an expert on the expanding industry that includes companies such as Groupon and LivingSocial.

Dholakia, who first began researching and writing about small businesses' use of discounted online coupons two years ago, says he was pessimistic about their sustainability. "People are offering their products at half price and only getting one-quarter of the revenue," Dholakia tells Yahoo! Small Business Advisor. "I wrote an entire article this time last year looking at specific deals, and I was extremely negative."

A year later, however, Dholakia says he has found some business owners who are happy with their returns on daily

Of business owners who take vacation this summer, most will work while away.

Nearly half of small business owners say they don't have time to take a vacation this summer. And a large majority of those who do, will work while they're away.

According to a national survey of more than 1,200 small business owners conducted in June and released today by the online small business community Manta, 7 in 10 small business owners will be checking work email and documents on their mobile devices from vacation spots this summer. A majority say they're working more this year than they did last year, and most also say that having a mobile device along will actually help them enjoy their summer break.

But that might be because they'd go through the pains of withdrawal without it. In the office, small business owners say they use their mobile devices frequently. Online communications--email, IM, Skype, and social media--are the most common method by which small business people communicate with customers, vendors, and partners. Just 26 percent interact with customers in

Would extending tax cuts to all create jobs?

When he proposed an extension of Bush era tax cuts for families earning under $250,000 a year, President Obama this week suggested the move would benefit all but two percent of households. But because those earning above $250,000 would experience a tax increase, Republicans characterize the proposal as a massive penalty on small businesses. A bigger tax bill would prevent small business owners from creating jobs at a critical juncture in the US economy, the argument goes.

Jeffrey Cornwall, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Belmont University, explains in The Entrepreneurial Mind blog at the Christian Science Monitor: "Many who fall into this proposed tax increase are entrepreneurs. We know that for every 1% increase in the marginal tax rate that we can expect a 1.5 to 2.0 percent decrease in start-up activity."

In an editorial on the subject, the Wall Street Journal points out: "Congress's Joint Tax Committee—not a conservative outfit—estimates that in 2013 about 940,000

After attempting to appeal to small business owners earlier this week with a proposal to extend Bush-era tax cuts for households with income under $250,000, President Obama today buttered up small businesses again. The White House announced of a set of six initiatives designed to help small businesses expand and create jobs by streamlining some cumbersome processes for getting paid by the government and for getting certain government loans and bonds. The plan also addresses two tax credits.

In a statement, the White House said five of the initiatives are "immediate executive actions" and the sixth is a legislative proposal.

The package aims to help Federal small business subcontractors get paid faster; reiterates the President's support for permitting small businesses to write off up to $250,000 in capital investments in 2013; revamps the Small Business Administration's Small Loan Advantage program; streamlines application paperwork for SBA surety bonds and SBA's Disaster Loan Program;

Gregg Fairbrothers teaches Dartmouth business students to be entrepreneurial.

How can a business owner be more entrepreneurial? That's one of the questions Gregg Fairbrothers tackles in his book From Idea to Success: The Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network Guide for Startups. Fairbrothers managed and started oil and gas exploration and production companies on three continents before switching gears to teach entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. He wrote Idea to Success with Tess Winter last year to walk readers through the process of launching a new company, product, or service from concept to business. Now he pens the Ideas to Success column for Forbes with Catalina Gorla to further explore ideas about what makes a startup successful.

This week, Yahoo Small Business Advisor spoke with Fairbrothers about small business owners and entrepreneurs, which are not necessarily two terms with the same meaning.

YSBA: Not all small business people feel that the term "entrepreneur" applies to them. Do you consider anyone who has

For nearly a decade, Lynn Abbott has relied on eBay to reach buyers for her classic Mustang parts dealership, PonyPartsPlus. In a typical month on eBay she sells around 150 parts to more than 100 customers and generates upwards of $10,000 in revenue. She hands over about 13 percent of that in listing fees, commissions, and transaction fees to eBay and its subsidiary PayPal.
 
As a “top-rated powerseller” she has benefited from good visibility for her products and 20 percent discounts on commission fees each month. But no more. Changes in eBay policies that went into effect last month translated to several hundred dollars in new costs as well as reduced sales for Abbott’s business, she says.
 
Announced in February and implemented in June, eBay’s new policies push sellers to handle orders within 24-hours and offer refunds on returns for up to 14 days. eBay also demands that sellers now ship with tracking to retain "top-rated seller" status. Company spokeswoman Johnna Hoff says the policies

Microbusiness owners are concerned about government involvement in healthcare.

"The government will become too involved with my health care" was the number one concern cited by self-employed people responding to a survey conducted shortly after the Supreme Court delivered its decision upholding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The National Association for the Self Employed conducted the survey of 886 self employed and micro-business owners within hours of the ruling last week.

Half of respondents said they fully or mainly oppose the health care reform law, nearly 60 percent said they disagree with the Court's decision, and half said Congress should now work to repeal the entire legislation. More than 60 percent also agreed that their viewpoint on the health reform law will affect the way they vote in the November elections.

Fewer than one-third of respondents "fully or mainly support the law." Sixteen percent said they see the law as a mixed bag of good and bad changes, and only 3 percent admitted to not knowing enough to form a qualified opinion.

With the Affordable Care Act force you to get health benefits you don't want?

The National Association for the Self Employed, a group that helps entrepreneurs secure benefits including health insurance, has warned that the Affordable Care Act threatens to increase health insurance rates for the self employed by 10-13 percent by 2014. The organization predicts that a section of the bill mandating "essential health benefits" will force insurance companies to expand the minimum benefits they provide, even in high-deductible plans. Self-employed individuals therefore "may have to pay for a health insurance product that they don't need or want," says NASE spokeswoman Katie Vlietstra.

What are essential health benefits? That remains to be seen. According to the Affordable Care Act language, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will define them, "except that such benefits shall include at least the following general categories and the items and services covered within the categories: (A) Ambulatory patient services. (B) Emergency services. (C) Hospitalization.