Features
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Georgia Manufacturing Falls Below National Index for First Time in 2013
August 05, 2013
Georgia manufacturers experienced lower activity for the fourth consecutive month, falling below the national index for July, according to the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) released today by Kennesaw State University’s Econometric Center in the Michael J. Coles College of Business.
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5 Ways Your Business Can Beat the Summer Slump
August 01, 2013
It’s the dog days of summer, and your small business might be starting to feel like a ghost town. Everybody seems to be working shorter days, or on vacation, or just not ready to shift gears from browsing to buying. You may be thinking of throwing in the towel, but your business doesn’t have to suffer from a summer slowdown.
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The Ugly Truth About Small Business
July 31, 2013
People who know me know that I love being an entrepreneur. There is absolutely nothing like the thrill of taking something that you created out to market. It’s a ton of fun, it’s challenging and it’s so rewarding to know that your future is entirely in your own hands. I really don’t know that anything helps you develop your own sense of self in quite the same way as creating your vision and then working hard to ensure its success.
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No Ifs, Ands or Butts: Get Your Employees Fit!
July 29, 2013
Are your employees sitting at their desks all day? If so, chances are they’re not maximizing their productivity—and they could be racking up your health insurance costs. If you’re looking to build a healthier workforce (one that won’t have as many accidents and illnesses, and saves you money on health insurance and workers’ comp), consider ways to make yourself and your team more active at work.
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How Are Your Road Warriors Spending the Company Dime?
July 26, 2013
Concur Analysis of $50 Billion in Business Expenses Reveals Small Business Travelers are More Active on the Road, Resulting in Higher Spend than Enterprise Counterparts.
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9 Entrepreneurship Principles You Shouldn’t Forget
July 25, 2013
Businesses fail all the time. SBA likes to throw statistics at you such as a 95% failure rate within a year of operation and so on. (But see the definitive small business failure rates.) We visit 9 entrepreneurship principles you shouldn’t forget, to help you be more successful.
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Billion Dollar Baby: U.S. Chamber is First to Hit $1B Lobbying Milestone
July 24, 2013
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has made big news with the filing of a simple quarterly report. When the behemoth business trade group reported its lobbying numbers for the second quarter of 2013 on Monday, it set a new record: The Chamber became the first organization to report total lobbying expenditures of more than $1 billion, according to OpenSecrets.org. What has that gotten them? Not as much as they would like.
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Georgia’s International Businesses Experience Declined in 2nd Quarter
July 23, 2013
Georgia international businesses experienced a slight drop in second-quarter activity due to decreases in both employment and capital spending, which offset increases in new orders and production, according to the Georgia International Business Index.
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7 Ways Savvy Businesses Use Mobile
July 22, 2013
It’s exciting to see small businesses jumping on the mobile revolution. I think it’s more noticeable with small businesses, because we’ve been conditioned to expect “old style” low tech ways of conducting business from smaller vendors. But today that’s simply no longer true.
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How to Take a Summer Vacation From Your Business
July 19, 2013
Summer is a popular time for Americans to set off to their favorite vacation destinations. But for small business owners, taking time off can lead to missed opportunities and missed income.
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How Changing Interest Rates May Affect Your Investments
July 18, 2013
Even if you didn’t take Economics 101 in college, just navigating through the past several years has given you hands-on experience with one of the course’s most valuable lessons: The rise and fall of interest rates is one of the biggest factors influencing global economies, financial markets, and our daily lives. That’s why it is important to have a basic understanding of how interest rate changes could affect not only your wallet but also your investment portfolio.
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Small Business Owners: Healthier, But Less Likely to Be Insured
July 17, 2013
A majority of small business owners (53 percent) believe that running a company improves their health, a recent Bank of America survey indicates. And those in business for themselves are in better shape than those who work for others, a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being survey reveals.
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Are Tough Times Inspiring Better Leaders and Increasing Engagement?
July 15, 2013
Are your employees engaged in their jobs? A Gallup poll measured the growth of employee engagement and which of 12 different occupations tend to boast the highest engagement.
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How Seamless is Your Company?
July 12, 2013
In this months article, Doug Robinson examines what type of employees are found in today's marketplace, and what you can do to make your company and employees more seamless.
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GPA Inks Inland Port Deal to Ensure Growth
July 11, 2013
A new inland port agreement signed today by Governor Nathan Deal, the Georgia Ports Authority and Cordele Intermodal Services will create and expand international markets for regional business. The agreement, which ensures a direct 200-mile rail route to and from GPA’s Garden City Terminal in Savannah, will serve as a gateway to Southwest Georgia and adjacent regions of Florida and Alabama.
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Do Small Business Lending Programs Work?
July 08, 2013
You gotta love the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Their job is to do the research requested by Congress or written into legislation in order to makes sure that government programs are doing what they are supposed to be doing. The GAO was just doing its job when it recently released a report on the implementation of a couple of new Treasury Department small business lending programs created through the Small business Jobs Act of 2010. The finding were so-so.
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How to Select the Right Name for Your New Business
June 27, 2013
While the right name can make your business popular within a short time, the wrong one can doom your prospects. The right name can create a unique business identity, but the wrong one can mar it, along with your chances of success.
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Commentary: If Bernanke’s Superman, Then…
June 24, 2013
The U.S. economy is his kryptonite. On the other hand, Al Lewis of MarketWatch apparently believes that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is the “Man of Steel”. Darton State College Economics Professor Aaron Johnson examines Ben Bernanke's performance.
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Commentary: Time for Deal on Immigration
June 20, 2013
The remaining political oxygen for a debate leading up to Congress's summer recess will be used to fuel the debate on immigration. While it seems like the "debate" over this issue has gone on forever, it really hasn't. The knowledge that America has a huge number of people living and working here illegally has been with us for decades, and many have used the issue to fuel political campaigns and other talking points. Debate on how to actually fix the problem, however, has been sorely lacking -- until now.
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How the IRS Scandal Might Benefit Small Business
June 17, 2013
A few weeks ago, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) admitted that some of its employees improperly subjected to disproportionate scrutiny to conservative groups seeking to set up non-profit status. While you might think that the scandal has little to do with small business, in the strange world of Washington — where everything influences everything else — the scandal has the potential to benefit small business owners in several ways.