Small Business Trends

Small Business Trends | December 05, 2016

Small businesses in California that can’t access capital through traditional lenders have another option. Opportunity Fund is an organization that provides microloans to small businesses. Since it was founded in 1994, the organization has loaned more than $164 million to more than 5,500 businesses. And in its 2016 fiscal year, Opportunity Fund provided over $60 million in loans, with a special focus on helping minority owned businesses, though that is not a requirement to obtain funding....

Small Business Trends | December 21, 2016

It’s the time of year when a lot of people think of others. Small business owners are no different. In fact, you could argue that small business owners may be exceedingly generous when it comes to donating to charity. New data from Funding Circle shows just how selfless small business owners really are. Turns out, just about every other small business owner donates to charity regularly. And they plan to do so this year just as they did last year....

Small Business Trends | December 23, 2016

Want to live stream video content for your business in 2017? If so, you just got another option. Recently, Twitter added a live broadcast feature to its iOS and Android apps. And speaking of apps, Kickstarter just released open source versions of its iOS and Android apps to help independent developers and startups looking to build their own apps. These headlines and more are included below in this week’s Small Business Trends news and information roundup....

Small Business Trends | December 28, 2016

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate Wednesday for only the second time since the 2008 recession, citing falling unemployment and low inflation as key factors in its decision.According to Fed Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen, the country has seen sustained economic growth over the past few years, including nearly 2.3 million net new jobs (PDF) in the previous four quarters alone, and an inflation rate running at a low two percent....