Big Stimulus for Small Business
from Forbes
For those of you who have been mystified by the federal government's recent handling of the economic crisis, here is another overlooked head-scratcher to add to the list: Why has the SBA been MIA from the menu of policy solutions? That would be the oft-ignored Small Business Administration, which has a proven record of getting capital to small businesses through its 7(a) guaranteed loan program - one of the government's more successful economic initiatives - as well as its disaster loan and rural investment programs. More

Five Ways to Kill a Great Marketing Plan
from Entrepreneur
A good marketing plan is like a battle plan or a game plan; it should serve as a guide and a blueprint for the actions you need to take to grow your business. It should also have some flexibility because as you start testing and measuring tactics, you'll need to shift strategies from time to time, to capture or gain share in a particular market. That said, a good plan doesn't need to be complicated. More

Who's Business Is It, Anyway?
from Inc.
Mistakes are part of business, and we all make them. Most of them, the author found, are the product of faulty reasoning. He is constantly running into people who are about to make a major change in their business for reasons that have nothing to do with what's best for them and their company. Usually it's because their emotions have gotten in the way. More

Managing in a Crisis
from BusinessWeek
History has shown that crisis breeds opportunity. Business leaders may have to cut costs to survive 2009, but the smart ones are also out there looking for prospects. They are willing to take the type of bold move that IBM made during the recessionary days of 1981 when CEO John R. Opel aggressively rolled out the company's landmark personal computer just as PC demand soared. Even in the current downturn, there are companies like AT&T, which recently announced plans to buy two companies for a total of $1.2 billion. "A recession creates winners and losers just like a boom," observes Mauro F. Guillen, a professor of international management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. More

After Weak Holiday Sales, Retailers Prepare for Even Worse
from The New York Times
On Thursday, many chains reported the worst holiday shopping season in decades, and the stores are entering the new year so weakened that some might not survive. A wave of corporate failures that has already taken out stores like Sharper Image and Linens ’n Things is expected to grow substantially worse in coming months, sending some of the well-known names of American retailing into bankruptcy. More

Wave of Bankruptcy Filings Expected from Retailers
from The Wall Street Journal
Drained by the worst consumer-spending slump in decades and burdened by debt, U.S. retailers are expected to begin a wave of post-holiday bankruptcy filings, altering the landscape at malls and on main streets across the country. Retailers are particularly vulnerable in the current downturn after a decade of buoyant consumer spending, which encouraged them to overexpand and overborrow. Now, the banks and private investors who financed the boom are pulling back. More

STORES Magazine 2009
from Deloitte
STORES’ Global 250 article identifies the 250 largest retailers around the world, an outlook for the global economy, an analysis of market capitalization in the retail industry and a discussion of ten major trends affecting retailers. More

It’s Not Just You: Retail Sales Slump 2.7 Percent in December
from MarketWatch
Excluding a 0.7 percent decline in auto sales, retail sales recorded their biggest drop since record-keeping began in the early 1990s, falling 3.1 percent. And with both gasoline and autos excluded, sales fell 1.5 percent, the largest drop since September 2001. "The holiday season was truly disastrous," wrote Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics. The nation's retail sales have fallen for six months in a row now - the longest decline on record - with the declines accelerating as the economy weakened in the final quarter of the year. Sales data were revised lower for both October and November, to declines of 3.4 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. More