FastUpFront Small Business Blog

While the human price is paramount and therefore cannot be measured, what impact does terrorism have on business, especially small businesses that may not have the resources available to large corporations to recover? Whenever there is a threat or attack gas prices increase, job security decreases (as businesses are forced to close or reservists are [...]

With the new year underway, you may have an urge to just put your head down and plow forward- especially if 2012 didn’t treat you or your business so kindly. But, one of the biggest mistakes that we on a societal level tend to make is that we fail to apply the lessons of the [...]

The new year hasn’t even arrived, yet many small business owners may be wishing the clocks would go backwards. With big issues such as the Fiscal Cliff and the early stages of health care reform slated to go into effect on January 1st, there’s little wonder why. But even if 2013 looks a bit rough [...]

Is it just me, or does it seem like the pace of business is increasing exponentially with every passing year? Each year has certainly brought its own game-changing technological advances and platforms that have affected the way businesses communicate with their customers and market their products and services. 2013 promises to be no different. But [...]

As 2012 comes to a close and the new year looms ahead, small business owners have a got a lot on their minds, and it isn’t just their holiday sales. According to the Bank of America Small Business Owner Report put out last Thursday, the majority of the nation’s small business owners are wary about [...]

Now that the presidential election is over, and the dust has settled a bit, we are left to speculate about what the next four years will bring. Whether or not you supported President Obama, it is hard to deny the uncertainty that still reigns supreme. There is much ado about fiscal policy, about staggering national [...]

According to several recent surveys, such as NFIB Small Business Optimism report mentioned in my previous post and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Q2 Small Business Study, small business owners are currently concerned about their tax requirements, a situation that has been exacerbated by the fact that the economy remains listless despite all the stimulus [...]

A few days ago, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) released their monthly Small Business Optimism Survey, and it ain’t pretty. Not only has optimism among small business owners taken a nose dive, but growth-building activities such as hiring, making capital outlays, and increasing inventory have seemingly slowed down across the board. For the [...]

Last week, the Obama Administration announced that it is taking a series of “immediate actions to help small businesses” survive and thrive in the challenging economic conditions we, as a nation, continue to find ourselves in. But many small business owners are left wondering if Obama’s efforts are either immediate or enough to make any [...]

As the year winds down and the dust begins to settle it’s getting pretty clear which businesses came out winning and which businesses won’t even be walking away with a consolation prize this holiday season.   Front and center in the headlines: Amazon.com’s continuing dominance in online sales fueled by a series of incredibly strategic [...]