Small Business Crunches Numbers

Small business has fought the health-care bill as too costly. That made Saturday’s vote bitter to many of the nation’s roughly 30 million such entrepreneurs, if welcome to some.
“With unemployment at a 26-year high, the punitive employer mandates and atrocious new taxes will force small business owners to eliminate jobs and freeze expansion plans at [...]

Small Business Gets Breaks in House Financial-Overhaul Bill

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are adding sweeping exemptions to financial-regulation legislation that would benefit small businesses, a move that is irking some consumer groups and liberal lawmakers who contend that could compromise the effectiveness of the overhaul.
Bills currently under consideration in the House exclude thousands of community banks from oversight by the proposed Consumer Financial Protection [...]

Growth Through Innovation

Innovation can steer a company’s strategy, even in tough times (BusinessWeek)
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Godiva Goes to the Supermarket

In 1926, a Belgian boutique began selling smooth, indulgent chocolates in a luxe gold box. The upscale approach has worked well: Godiva has grown into a $500 million product sold at more than 10,400 stores around the world. Now the chocolatier is going mass market. While adhering to its original recipes, Godiva is selling lower-priced [...]

Hershey’s Arrested Development

Buried within Hershey’s (HSY) Web site is a section that invites consumers to pitch their own ideas for new products. “We are seeking innovative concepts,” it reads. “What’s your big idea?”
Hershey could certainly use the help. The innovation cupboard at the $5.1 billion chocolate maker has grown bare. In the mid-2000s, Hershey regularly launched over [...]

Obama’s 25 Ways To Rebuild America

Obama’s Mega-Dollar Wish List
On Sept. 21, the White House released its Strategy for American Innovation: Driving Towards Sustainable Growth and Quality Jobs. In the white paper, President Barack Obama outlined the “grand challenges of the 21st century,” broad issues affecting industries from health care to transportation. Here’s a look at 25 big ideas that could [...]

Business Groups Push Hard Against the Senate Bill

Employers are blasting the Senate’s plan to create a new public health-insurance program — a sign of how businesses are becoming increasingly uneasy about Democrats’ proposals to overhaul the health system.
.Lobbyists for employers thought they had staved off a public plan in the Senate after the Finance Committee opted not to include the idea in [...]

Now Is Not the Time for Caution Our special report looks at how innovation can steer a company’s strategy, even in tough times

In times of economic hardship, businesses are more tempted than ever to batten down the hatches. After all, management literature agrees: Transformative innovation involves taking a risk with absolutely no guarantee of a payoff. And who would want to get tangled up in that type of strategy just as a company’s core business is struggling? [...]

Small Business Faces Sharp Rise in Costs of Health Care

As Congress nears votes on legislation that would overhaul the health care system, many small businesses say they are facing the steepest rise in insurance premiums they have seen in recent years.
Insurance brokers and benefits consultants say their small business clients are seeing premiums go up an average of about 15 percent for the [...]

White House Plans Small-Business Aid

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will announce initiatives Wednesday aimed at boosting credit to small businesses, as the White House tries to address a complicated issue many believe is dragging on the economy.
The White House will move to increase the caps on Small Business Administration loans and to make it easier for small banks to [...]