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Everything you thought you knew about overtime may be wrong. The number of small businesses facing overtime suits has exploded since 2004, when the U.S. Department of Labor revised the FLSA to clarify which workers are exempt from overtime laws. In doing so, it boosted the number of protected employees. Read More

The slowing economy and the possibility that we're headed for a recession are worrisome subjects for small business owners, whose biggest concern is how to keep sales coming in when customers are becoming shy about spending. Read More

Rohit Bhargava shares some insights that he gleaned while attending the Consumer Electronics Show. He mentions important tips that I see people violating all of the time at trade shows. For example, keep your booth away from your competition instead of keeping them together. Normally, I'd disagree with the tip "Spend on the giveaways, not the bo Read More

If you think you know the best day or time to follow up on a Web-generated lead, you're probably wrong. Here's a peek at one marketer's results from a study on this issue. Read More

A White House plan to boost the nation's sagging economy will do little to help small businesses over the long haul, critics say. The proposed plan, which includes up to $145 billion in temporary tax cuts, is aimed at encouraging business owners to "expand their operations, create new jobs and inject new energy into our economy," President Bush Read More

Listening to your customers and to the business can be the critical difference between winning and losing. The right methodology, the right data, and the right tools can help you listen to your business -- and even smaller companies have more data available today than ever before. Read More

There is nothing more important in starting a business than learning all you can about your potential market. Most entrepreneurs have an instinctive confidence in their product or service -- but without first-hand market research, it's only a hunch. The first step is to conduct a "SWOT" analysis: analyzing your business's strengths, weaknesses, Read More

For men 18 and older, TV advertising is no longer the main influencer in purchasing decisions - just 22% say it is (down 8 points), compared with 24% who now cite advertising inserts as the most influential medium, according to the Customer Focus: Decade of Data report from Vertis Communications.

Overall, 27% of total adults survey said they t Read More

The brain is often envisioned as something like a computer, and the body as its all-purpose tool. But a growing body of new research suggests that something more collaborative is going on - that we think not just with our brains, but with our bodies. A series of studies, the latest published in November, has shown that children can solve math prob Read More

Small-business lobbyists on both sides of the aisle will do their best to keep health care reform near the top of the next president's agenda. The difference, it seems, in this election: They are looking to compromise. Both sides have come a long way since 1993, when the United States' largest small-business lobbying group, the National Feder Read More