States with growing economies present better opportunities for high-achieving college graduates, whether they wind up in wage and salary employment or self-employed, according to a working paper released by the SBA Office of Advocacy last week. The paper, entitled Educational Attainment, “Brain Drain,” and Self-employment: Examining the Interstate Mobility of Baccalaureate Graduates, 1993-2003, uses the [...]

The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) hosted two teleconferences last week to instruct reporters on what the self-employed can expect in a post health-care reform world and the picture was not necessarily pretty. According to the NASE’s Kristie Arslan, executive director of the organization’s legislative office, there are several matters in the health care [...]

Last week, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship held yet another hearing on the subject of small businesses and health care reform. This latest in the multi-year series is perhaps most readily distinguished by the determination of both Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration to get this done, as close to right now [...]

The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) is getting a little hot under the collar about proposals for health care reform. Or, to be more specific, they are perturbed by the lack of help for the self-employed to be found in those proposals. Although policy makers understand that small business stakeholders are deeply engaged here, [...]

A little over a month ago, the House Small Business Committee held a hearing to discuss Congressional efforts at health care reform, in search of bipartisan consensus on broad principles for said reform. Last week, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship took its turn to host a roundtable to discuss small businesses and [...]

Another item from previous sessions of Congress that has returned for an encore is the Equity for Our Nation’s Self-Employed Act of 2009 (H.R. 1470), introduced by Congressmen Ron Kind (D-WI), Wally Herger (R-CA), Suzanne M. Kosmas (D-Fla.) and David G. Reichert (R-WA). The bill is another gem of bipartisan legislative simplicity, the bulk of [...]

Possibly you will remember the plan hatched in Congress calling for merchant account banks to collect and verify the taxpayer identification numbers (TINs) of the vendors whose transactions they processed and report those amounts to the IRS. In addition, if they could not verify a TIN, they would be required to withhold 28% of that [...]

The sign says “Beware of CHICKEN” and, yes, that really is a chicken. Welcome to upstate New York, home of nonemployer microbusiness Silver Top Graphics and its owners Dan Flanagan and Lisa Tait.