3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: June 25

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

1. What small businesses should know about the possible outcomes of the health-care ruling. The Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of President Obama's health care reform should be out this week. Besides upholding the law, there are three options that could be ruled by the Supreme Court: striking against the individual mandate, striking the mandate and its associated insurance reforms, or invalidating the entire law, according to The Washington Post.

Overturning the whole law would mean that small businesses will be back to where they were in 2009: there will be no federal requirement to offer affordable coverage and costs will rise as restrictions on premiums and medical loss ratios as well as tax credits will likely go away, the article says.

If only the mandate is repealed, "look for private insurance availability to dry up," the article says.

If the mandate and other insurance reforms are struck down but other changes remain, there could be some provisions that will benefit consumers and businesses over the long term, but it is unlikely they would improve insurance costs, according to The Washington Post article.

2. Water bill "drowns" Las Vegas bar. A Las Vegas bar that's more than 20 years old is being forced to shut its doors later this week over its water bill, according to Fox Business.

A new pricing structure by the Southern Nevada Water Authority is causing Larry's Hideaway in Las Vegas to pay more than $400 a month for its water bill, the last straw for the tiny bar that's already been hurt by the poor economy.

Nevada was one of the worst hit areas of the housing crisis. And due to the lack of growth over the past seven years, the water authority has seen a "drastic" drop in revenue for fees associated with new buildings, according to the article. Apparently the answer is to collect more from commercial buildings, rather than residents.

3. Twitter tips for small-business owners. Once you've got the basics of social media engagement covered, what's the next step? Here are five "can't miss" Twitter tips from Mashable.

Scheduling tweets with platforms such as HootSuite or Tweetdeck is a great way to manage your social sharing, but don't forget to follow up on any responses from your followers.

Similarly, familiarize yourself with platforms to keep track of phrases or hashtags that are relevant to your business.

Don't rely on searching only for users using your Twitter handle when they mention the business -- you could miss out on tweets where you are mentioned. The writer suggests using Topsy.com to search for mentions of your business.

Don't forget to let the "personality" of the business shine through while tweeting.

Finally, stay on track by using the host of free tools available on the Web, including Bitly.

-- Written by Laurie Kulikowski in New York.

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