3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: Feb. 16
NEW YORK (
) -- What's happening in small business today?
1. Why Linsanity is good for small business.
Just a few weeks ago, the name Jeremy Lin wouldn't have been very recognizable. But since the Harvard-educated pro-basketball player scored 25 points in one of his first games playing for the New York Knicks, "Linsanity" has recently spread far and wide across social media;
Madison Square Garden's
(MSG) - Get Report
stock has risen; and there's new life in
area sports bars
, according to
Huffington Post
.
|
For instance, Cafe 31 Sports Bar & Grill, next to the Garden, started promoting with Knicks and Lin signs, has added a Lin burger to the menu and plans to eventually add Lin eggrolls.
Partner Paul Vellios says the number of Asian-American customers have risen substantially since Lin became a starter, and there's been "exponential" growth in business overall, according to the article. Linsanity is "good for the economy, the image and the spirit of the city," Vellios says in the article.
New York City neighborhood bars and restaurants are also benefiting from the dispute between
Time Warner
(TWX)
and MSG that has blacked out the games for many local viewers.
The manager of Stout NYC says not only are they seeing a wider demographic of patrons coming to watch the game, but customers are staying longer. "They're not just staying for the first quarter or coming before and after the games. They're staying for the whole game," the manager says.
2. Payroll tax cut extended.
Congress reached an agreement late Wednesday to
extend the payroll tax cut
and benefits for long-term unemployed workers until the end of 2012. The bill would continue the tax cut for 160 million workers and jobless benefits for several million others, according to
The Associated Press
.
While the
payroll tax cut
extension has run into opposition from Republicans, GOP legislators, given the election year, have set their resistance aside for now on the hotly contested issue.
3. New York City boosts small-business opportunities.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday announced a host of initiatives between the NYC Department of Small Business Services and various partners to help
minority and women-owned businesses
compete for city contracts.
The value of the new contracting opportunities available through the "Compete to Win" program is more than $17.2 million.
One of those initiatives is a collaboration with
American Express
(AXP) - Get Report
OPEN to foster government contracting opportunities. Under the initiative,
, businesses will get help forming teams to bid on larger government contracts or new contracting opportunities. The program is designed to educate business owners on how to create well-orchestrated matches with other businesses and market to the government as well as other firms, AmEx says.
The program will host four educational and matching events and two more webinars throughout 2012.
-- Written by Laurie Kulikowski in New York.
To contact Laurie Kulikowski, send an email to:
Laurie.Kulikowski@thestreet.com
.
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http://twitter.com/#!/LKulikowski
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