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One of the questions I'm asked most often is, "Where do I get money to start my business?" These questions often come with tidbits of other information like reports of bad credit, former bankruptcies, or empty wallets. The truth is it's difficult to find startup funding. Heck, these days it's hard for established, successful business owners t Read More

Both Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain have advanced a broad array of tax proposals that are complex, hard to understand, and on many points, difficult to compare. But the Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, two nonpartisan research organizations, recently published a study that provides the best Read More

The U.S. government has long supported a “big firm” economy with the idea that large companies are the primary drivers of innovation. But that's a recipe for stunted growth. So say Kauffman Foundation executives Carl Schramm and Robert Litan in an article this month's The American. The U.S. economy needs to grow at a 4% annual clip in the futu Read More

Some people may want to test the waters of entrepreneurship before jumping in. Here's one way: Being an independent-sales rep, even selling door-to-door, for companies that sell textbooks or Tupperware. Or cutlery. Read More

More than a million low-wage workers will get a pay raise this week. The federal government's minimum wage is set to jump by 70 cents to $6.55 an hour on Thursday. The hike is the second of three annual increases in the minimum wage that were ordered by Congress last year, following a decade with no increase. Read More

Barack Obama unveiled a tax credit to encourage small firms to buy health insurance for employees. The proposal, elaborated in a conference call with reporters by the campaign's Economic Policy Adviser, Jason Furman, would provide small firms with a 50% tax credit against the cost of employee premiums. To receive it, a company would have to Read More

WHY do some people reach their creative potential in business while other equally talented peers don't? The Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck believes that the answer to the puzzle lies in how people think about intelligence and talent. Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they're ever going to have approach life with Read More

Being first doesn't guarantee success. If anything, being first is fraught with more peril; since you don't have anyone to copy or compare to. And, depending on how innovative your product offering, you might be too early for VCs to get it too, making raising money even harder. Often, when a space heats up, after the first few companies have gone Read More

Smart Business spoke with David Houri about why motivation is nothing without ambition and how failing to communicate your philosophy is like being married for two days and having a change of heart. Read More

People over age 40 participate heavily in word-of-mouth and value personal recommendations and expert opinions, but they have not embraced social networking or blogs despite being heavy users of other online services, according to a ThirdAge/JWT Boom study. Boomers want to connect and interact with others in their communities around shared inte Read More