3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: Mar. 12

NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. Entrepreneurs are explaining the choice not to grow a business. Here are three reasons from Whitestone Partners principals Doug and Polly White on why small businesses don't always have to follow the "grow or die" mentality.

Some business owners want to avoid risk and maintain their work-life balance. Other business owners want to avoid overbearing regulation. And some business owners want to avoid having to delegate responsibilities, particularly when it comes to major decision-making or hiring and firing.

2. Small-business tax misperceptions are persisting. Staying on top of the ever-changing tax code is not exactly a productivity promoter at a small business. Still, as owner it is your job to be aware of the changes, since ignorance is most certainly not bliss in this scenario. That being said, a surprising number of small businesses, unaware of eligible business deductions, tend to overpay on their taxes.

Some of the more common tax-code misperceptions: All start-up costs are immediately deductible (businesses can deduct up to $10,000 of start-up costs); overpaying to the IRS makes you "audit-proof" (rather, the best way to do that is to properly document your expenses); being incorporated enables you to take more deductions (the self-employed qualify for many of the same deductions); a home office deduction is a red flag for an audit; requesting an extension on your taxes is an extension to pay taxes; and finally, part-time business owners cannot set up self-employed pensions.

3. Ways the new Facebook betrays small business. At least one small-business owner and social-media consultant is not impressed with Facebook's new timeline design, saying it benefits big business more than smaller companies. Jay Baer lists 14 reasons to back up his theory.

Among the reasons: What small business has already existing appropriate photography to place in the cover image slot? More importantly, since Facebook wants businesses to act like people, they ban promotional material from the cover image slot, making it all the more necessary to dedicate an employee to managing the social media site. He also critiques the fact that Facebook nixed the default landing tab, which made it easy to drive fan behavior.

Another problem with the new design is that if a small business is not active on a regular or daily basis, it will become glaringly obvious. And yet aother problem is the creation of "milestones" to flesh out a firm's history. Baer ask what small business has time to adjust these?

-- Written by Laurie Kulikowski in New York.

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