The Small Business Watchdog

How are small businesses doing in your state? The Office of Advocacy has just published the Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories, to help answer this question. These profiles are brief two-page documents that give policymakers, small business owners, economists, and many others a detailed picture of the economic role of small businesses [...]

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In December, Region VII Advocate Becky Greenwald was a special guest speaker at the Women in Business Small Business Conference and Expo. The event was sponsored by the Nebraska Business Development Center/Procurement Technical Assistance Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Hosting the event was Nebraska Congressman Lee Terry, who recognized 12 women business [...]

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As 2012 winds down, the Office of Advocacy continues to build up an impressive number of achievements working with federal agencies and small business owners to bring transparency to the regulatory process. The synergy between our research and regulatory work continues to strengthen both areas; timely and actionable research is the foundation of efficient and [...]

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All across Region III, diverse institutions are promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in novel and energetic ways. These are exciting developments because they are expanding discourse and making room for disparate groups to deliberately and systematically work together. This was my takeaway from three events in which I recently participated.
In Pittsburgh, the AlphaLab Demo Day featured [...]

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced its intent to withdraw a proposed rule that would have required the use of turtle excluder devices (TEDs) by commercial shrimping vessels in the southeast fisheries.  The rule would have affected an estimated 6,500 shrimp fishermen.  In its regulatory flexibility analysis of the proposed rule, NOAA [...]

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Tomorrow, Kansas City will be humming with the innovation vibe. Two energetic Kansas City–area entrepreneurs, Jabbar Wesley and Eze Redwood—will be launching the city’s first NovelDay at the headquarters of Burns & McDonnell, the international engineering firm.
How many budding entrepreneurs are holding off on implementing a great idea because they lack the confidence to take the [...]

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What will the technological breakthroughs of 2062 look like? No one knows. What we do know, however, is that today’s innovation and entrepreneurship will be their foundation.
This was one of my takeaways from the Office of Advocacy’s symposium marking the 50th anniversary of the Seattle World’s Fair of 1962. A close second was a better [...]

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On September 27th, Chief Counsel for Advocacy Winslow Sargeant and I had the opportunity to visit with the founders of the Jerome Brown Barbecue Sauce Company in Jacksonville, Florida. Jerome, JoAnn, and Katrina Brown welcomed Dr. Sargeant and me to their new 36,000 square foot manufacturing facility. Their new expanded home allows them to manufacture, [...]

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An energetic group of entrepreneurs participated—on stage, in the audience, and online—at Advocacy’s Seattle conference on September 19. The first panel focused on “Small Business Innovators: The Public-Private Relationship.” Moderator Jonathan Sposato noted that in the course of creating their businesses, the entrepreneurs on the panel ran into some issues and looked elsewhere for help.
As I watched [...]

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The Office of Advocacy’s Seattle conference is being webcast live today, and participants everywhere are invited to participate via SuperChat. Small Business and Government: Maximizing Entrepreneurship, Driving Innovation is a day-long, participant-driven conversation about the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in our economy. It’s being co-sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, [...]

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