small businesses

Seeking cooperation in a polarized climate, President Barack Obama called on Congress Tuesday to act quickly on bipartisan measures that would extend tax breaks for small businesses and help startup companies raise money. He said he would sign the legislation "right away."

The dream of Raphael Alvarez was to open a salon. His timing, it seemed, could hardly have been worse: Finding a loan was impossible, and his original location was snatched away. But Alvarez still managed to start his small business, without help from a big financial institution, in this desperate economy. Here's how he did it.

You may already be familiar with many of the independent retailers in your home town, but how do you find mom-and-pop shops when you're traveling? The 3/50 Project's new iPhone app might help. It links users to its directory of small businesses, so visitors can support the local economy.

As the creation of new jobs slows and layoffs continue, small businesses keep hiring. ADP is betting those companies will continue to buck the trend. It's setting up new services to capitalize on that growth.

The more lenient lending policies enacted by the Federal Reserve last month have so far failed to increase demand from small businesses, indicating that the federal government's attempts to spur the U.S. economy through more aggressive monetary policy may need more time to take effect.

A key index that measures small business lending rose 16% in September, its second consecutive month of double-digit increases. That rise in the Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index is a strong signal that the U.S. economy is finally back on the road to recovery.

A majority of Americans may be down on the economy, but 75% of small business owners feel that they will meet or beat their goals by the end of this year, according to a recent survey by Ink from Chase, the business card portfolio from Chase Card Services. "What surprised us this year was the...

CIT Group (CIT) reported that net earnings for the second quarter jumped to $142.1 million, or 71 cents per diluted share, from $97.3 million, or 49 cents per diluted share, in the previous quarter. Net income rose thanks to gains on sales of assets and recoveries of pre-FSA (fresh start...

Lots of people mourned when Portland, Ore. coffee shop and brightly lit, family-friendly cafe, Sydney's, announced it was closing this Friday due to losing its lease. "Irreconcilable differences," the owner said. Why? Everyone asked. It was so popular with parents whose children attended the...

Two weeks after billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam was handcuffed and walked out of his New York apartment by authorities at dawn, the roster of corporate brass at some of America's biggest companies brought down by the Galleon scandal continues to grow. On Monday, former Advanced Micro...