In the countdown to the nation’s fall over the edge of the fiscal cliff, small business advisors and advocates are imploring Congress and President Obama to come together.

While many small business owners remain paralyzed with uncertainty about 2013 budgeting, others are taking action. Based on the assumption that Congress will not reach an agreement in time to avoid the cliff, about half of business owners are making changes to prepare for higher tax rates next year, according to results of a survey conducted by financial information company, Sageworks.

The survey conducted between December 12-18 collected online responses from 164 Sageworks clients, who are accountants and business advisors to privately held businesses. The responses reflect what those professionals hear from those they advise:

• More than half of accountants surveyed said their business clients were making changes in their companies in response to fiscal cliff uncertainty.
• Almost 30 percent said their business clients

In online opinion pieces this week, two leading observers of small business economics criticized the Obama Administration and Congress.

American Small Business League President Lloyd Chapman released a statement and blogged on the Huffington Post his prediction that “the Obama administration will try to use the momentum from the fiscal cliff debate to justify plans to dismantle the Small Business Administration” by folding it into the Commerce Department. Chapman questions the Administration’s estimates that such a move would save $3 billion over 10 years. He calls the potential agency merger “just a scam to direct 100 percent of federal contract dollars to large corporations.”

Chapman argues that “eliminating federal programs for America’s chief job creators would be economic suicide” and suggests that instead, the President should “triple the SBA’s budget and supercharge every federal program for the nation’s 27 million small businesses.”

In a blog post titled The Decline of Small

chart: IEGC and Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business and Management

What’s a great way to accelerate sales and job growth for your company? A private equity investment or, even better, venture capital funding can translate to significant growth for small and medium-sized businesses, according to two finance professors who studied thousands of workplaces with 500 or fewer employees. The fact might seem like a no-brainer, but the data are dramatic.

One caveat: Securing that kind of financing can be especially challenging if you’re a minority, female, or foreign business owner, the study showed.

The publication, Did they build that? The role of private equity and venture capital in small and medium-sized businesses, released by the Institute for Exceptional Growth Companies and Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, documents Graziadio professors John Paglia and Augus Harjoto’s research into the performance of more than 8,000 workplaces that had received such financing between 1995 and 2009.

Their study showed that, versus

Small Business Administrator Karen Mills and Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced today that their agencies have partnered on a new program designed to help citizens who are receiving unemployment insurance to start their own businesses.

The program, targeted at state agencies and state legislators, will deliver resources at the state level so that all 50 states can provide self-employment assistance in the form of financial assistance, entrepreneurial training, and other resources to unemployed residents interested in launching businesses and creating new jobs.

The launch of the SBA/DOL Self-Employment Assistance Center website follows the release of a DOL guidance earlier this year governing state Self-Employment Assistance, or SEA, programs. The guidance—contained in the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, which provided $35 million for states to create SEA programs and expand entrepreneurship opportunities—offers assistance and model legislation for

New York Democratic Senator Kristin Gillibrand is grabbing headlines in her state this week for pushing her colleagues to vote on the Small Business Lending Enhancement Act. The legislation, introduced by Colorado Senator Mark Udall in 2011, would address ongoing complaints about limited access to business loans by raising a cap on commercial loans that credit unions are permitted to make, based on a percentage of their assets.

Senate Bill 509, as it is known, "would amend the Federal Credit Union Act to advance the ability of credit unions to promote small business growth and economic development opportunities, and for other purposes." It has been sitting in the Banking Committee since March 2011.

According to a report published by public media aggregator Innovation Trail,

Passing the act would mean that credit unions could gradually increase their lending capability through a tiered system, with a new upper cap of 27.5 percent. Senator Gillibrand says passing this act would increase

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

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

In a post-election panel discussion Monday evening this week, the Economist's Matthew Bishop asked five Washington insiders whether they believe Congress and President Obama will arrive at a deficit reduction plan in time to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. Tax increases and spending cuts will automatically go into effect in the absence of such a plan on January 1.

The panelists at a technology industry conference represented a spectrum of political ideologies: Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes, a two-time GOP presidential nominee; Hill + Knowlton Strategies U.S. President and CEO Dan Bartlett, who was White House Communications director under George W. Bush; AOL founder Steve Case, Chairman of President Obama's Startup America Partnership; Markle Foundation President Zoe Baird, former associate counsel to Jimmy Carter and a Clinton nominee for Attorney General; and Andrew Rasiej, the founder of Personal Democracy Media.

All five panelists, Republicans and Democrats alike, said they