Small Business BlogABC Small Business Blog - News, reviews, and opinions from ABC's editors

Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

ABC On Your Side: The Facts about FACTA

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act requires credit card receipts print only truncated portions of the credit card number used for the transaction. Those out of compliance face fines and civil lawsuits, which is the problem. The law has turned into a gold mine for trial lawyers who bring suit against small businesses they find in violation. This abuse must be stopped and ABC is stepping up to stop it.

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

Should You Encourage Your Employees to Connect Online?

There is a growing tendency within companies for employees to connect with each other online in social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and such. Is this, however, all its cracked-up to be, or are there problems lurking in the cyber-shadows?

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

New Legislation to Help Small Business with Healthcare

Three senators, Durbin (D-IL), Snowe (R-ME), and Lincoln (D-AR) have introduced legislation for consideration in the upcoming Congressional healthcare reform debate that is designed to make insurance more available and affordable for the employees of the nation’s small businesses and for millions of self-employed individuals.

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

Franchise Decisions: Do You Honor Corporate Specials or Not?

When you own a franchise, you are generally free to ignore corporate promotions. That is the letter of the law. The question is, should you?

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

The Swine Flu and Your Business

Someone once called schools “cesspools of disease” for the ease with which sickness can be passed from one student to another. Well, the same goes for the typical office, especially when it comes to something like the current swine flu. Here are some ideas on how to keep your employees, your workplace and yourself safe.

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

Energy Saving This Year Could Lead to Tax Savings Next Year

The American Recovery and Reinvestment (ARRA) of 2009—The Stimulus Package—contains a number of new or expanded tax benefits on expenditures to reduce energy use or create new energy sources. The IRS is encouraging individuals and businesses to see whether they are eligible for any of these new energy tax provisions.

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

The Lessons of New Coke: Protect Your Brand

Today is the anniversary of what is, perhaps, the worst branding, marketing and public relations disaster since the Hindenburg—New Coke. It was 24 years ago today that the Coca-Cola decided to “improve” on an iconic American brand and began to learn a powerful lesson that would make them regret their decision. I wrote about this a year ago, but the lessons haven’t changed and so, on this anniversary, perhaps it is time to revisit the story of New Coke.

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

Protect Your Network: Five Mistakes Businesses Make

Your information is your business, and protecting it should be one of your top priorities. Still, there are a handful of mistakes that you can identify and rectify today that will save you all kinds of grief tomorrow. Here are the tips.

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Kim Fenolio
Kim Fenolio

Happy Earth Day with a Free E-Book

A free e-book that provides tips on how to save the environment and money.

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

Protect Your Investments: Spotting a Bad Financial Advisor

You work hard in your business, and once the tax man has siphoned-off his share, you want the rest to work for you. Unless you are knowledgeable in the markets, that means going to a financial advisor, but how do you know if you have a good one, someone you can trust? Here are some tips.

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

After the Tea Parties: Where is the Best Tax Climate?

Tax Day turned into Tea Party Day for a quarter of a million Americans tired of abusive tax policies, bailouts and so on. While the demonstrations made a real and strong statement, the question is, where can you and your business go for the best deal on taxes? We have the answers.

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

10 Things You Should Know About Amended Tax Returns

Tax Day is tomorrow and hopefully you have already filed, but filed or not, there is always a chance you will have to make a change to your return. That is called an amended return and here is what the IRS has to say about it.

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

COBRA Catch 22

When President Obama’s stimulus bill was passed, a provision in the legislation allows laid-off employees to get COBRA health insurance through their former employers at 65% off. Sounds like a great deal, right? Well, there is just one little catch…

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

Scareware and the Conficker Virus

We all heard the dire warnings of the April Fool’s Day attack of the Conficker Virus. Little did we know at the time that after April 1st passed, Conficker would show itself as part of a scareware scam.

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Charles M Cooper
Charles M Cooper

Stand Out in the Market

In hard times, you have to make your presence in the market even stronger, and make sure that your customers not only return, but become the best advertising you can have. Here are some tips on doing precisely that.

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