Small Businesses

A noncitizen of the U.S. can come to this country and start a business under an E-2 treaty investor visa for an investment as low as about $50,000. And that business owner, as well as members of his or her family, can live here legally as long as the business is a going concern. But meeting the requirements of the E-2 visa is not easy, and if the business hits hard times, the owner can lose the right to stay in the country. First of all, the visa applicant must make a "substantial" investment in the planned business, according to the U.S. State Department, that is "sufficient to ensure the successful operation of the enterprise.

After months of trading blame and criticism from afar, President Obama and GOPcongressional leaders will meet Wednesday to discuss the economy - and, presumably, trade blame and criticism in person, more politely. The bipartisan gathering at the White House, the first since late February, is billed as a discussion of legislative solutions to the sluggish economy. The White House says President Obama will push House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

With financial help for the nation's small businesses locked in a congressional imbroglio and bank loans still tough to get, many smaller firms are turning reluctantly to high-dollar lenders of last resort. Across the nation, small businesses are paying private lenders annual rates of up to 36% plus fees to get the cash they need to buy inventory, pay their mortgages and meet payroll. These private lenders say they're supporting small businesses at a time when credit is scarce, providing loans that help borrowers fix their credit scores or buy equipment to expand.

LegalZoom.com Inc., an online provider of legal services for consumers and small businesses, has filed to raise as much as $120 million in an initial public offering. The Glendale company was founded in 1999 and offers self-help legal documents such as divorce and bankruptcy forms, real estate leases, prenuptial agreements and wills. The company has been credited with helping shake up the legal industry by making it simple for people to bypass lawyers. LegalZoom has served about 2 million customers during the last decade, it said in its filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

LegalZoom.com Inc., an online provider of legal services for consumers and small businesses, has filed to raise as much as $120 million in an initial public offering. The Glendale company was founded in 1999 and offers self-help legal documents such as divorce and bankruptcy forms, real estate leases, prenuptial agreements and wills. The company has been credited with helping shake up the legal industry by making it simple for people to bypass lawyers. LegalZoom has served about 2 million customers during the last decade, it said in its filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hey, small businesses of California, Google wants to help you build a website. On Thursday the company launched a program called "California Get Your Business Online" that offers small businesses in the Golden State the opportunity to get a free customizable website, as well as access to in-person training on how to build a successful online business. Google will spring for the domain name and provide free Web hosting for the first year, then businesses will pay $2 monthly for the domain name and $4.99 monthly for Web hosting.

Workers taking cigarette breaks here will have to go outside beginning Monday when the city's new smoking law goes into effect. The hotly debated tobacco control ordinance, approved by the Santa Clarita City Council in June, bans smoking at most indoor job sites. It also prohibits cigarette vending machines in the workplace. But restaurants, bars and small businesses were given some leeway under the new law.

The crowd stood at the corner of San Pedro and Boyd streets, a bustling shopping area near L.A.'s Skid Row, waiting for stragglers to arrive before descending on the store. But this mob wasn't an angry one. It had gathered on a recent Saturday afternoon to spend money at a small cafe and boutique. Dubbed a "cash mob," members of the group, many of them young professionals, had arranged the event through social media. Over the course of an hour, the shoppers plucked soy candles, pillows, purses and ornate jewelry from the shelves.

Nelson Davis runs a video production company in Hollywood with six employees. He used to pay all of his workers' health insurance premiums. As rates continued rising -- they've doubled over the last few years -- Davis cut back to paying only half of healthcare costs and required workers to handle the rest. Now he's thinking about cutting back again and covering only 40% of the insurance premiums. And the way things are going, Davis said, he wouldn't be surprised if his share dropped to 25%. "You have to look at it with a cold, clear eye," he told me. "There's very little you can do -- either scale it back or stop offering it."

Nearly half of all Americans in the private sector work for a business with fewer than 50 employees. These firms have always struggled to provide health benefits. And as healthcare costs have skyrocketed in recent years, many have been forced to drop coverage. Today, fewer than half of firms with 10 employees or less provide health benefits, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. The new healthcare law is designed specifically to help small businesses, although not all businesses will qualify for the aid. Here are some of the ways the law may work out for employees and employers: If I work for a small business, will my employer have to provide health benefits?

CHANTILLY, Va. - Arguing that President Obama's policies have harmed small businesses and divided Americans, Mitt Romney pledged Wednesday that he would ease regulations, increase domestic energy production and reduce taxes to right the nation's economy. “Democrats say they like a strong economy. They just don't like business very much and you see the economy is made up of nothing but business and so we have to encourage entrepreneurs. I will make America a great place for entrepreneurs again, for small business, for women-owned business, for men-owned business,” Romney told supporters in a warehouse in the suburb of Washington, D.C. Romney made the remarks in front of a group of female small business owners in an overt appeal to female voters.

My wife and I arrived as legal immigrants from Canada four years ago at the age of 63 to be closer to our three children. Having lived in Canada most of our lives, we never contributed to Medicare. Right now I am self-employed and have a small-business health plan through Kaiser. The premiums have escalated from $450 per month to $1,228 per month, with a very high deductible. I am afraid we may have to return to Canada, where we enjoyed free health care. I am sure that many parents who join their children in the U.S. are in the same situation and would like to know what other options are available.

Our one shared national moment of fiscal soul-searching is behind us for another year — of course I refer to the filing of tax returns — but tax reform theater in Washington, like the melody in the old Irving Berlin song, lingers on. So while individual and business taxpayers watch to see whether any tax reform plan has any chance of passage, the Obama administration's "Buffett rule" proposal succumbed Monday to the threat of filibuster by...

The crowd stood at the corner of San Pedro and Boyd streets, a bustling shopping area near L.A.'s Skid Row, waiting for stragglers to arrive before descending on the store. But this mob wasn't an angry one. It had gathered on a recent Saturday afternoon to spend money at a small cafe and boutique. Dubbed a "cash mob," members of the group, many of them young professionals, had arranged the event through social media. Over the course of an hour, the shoppers plucked soy candles, pillows, purses and ornate jewelry from the shelves.

After six months of improving confidence, the mood of small businesses in America turned sour in March - with plans for job creation and expectations for sales growth, profits and business conditions all falling from the prior month. The new report Tuesday from the National Federation of Independent Business, a leading small-employer lobbying group, adds to the worries after the disappointing job growth in March, when the economy generated just 120,000 net new jobs.   Consistent with the national jobs reports, the federation's survey found that actual hiring over the last few months were the best since early last year.

SACRAMENTO — Aetna, the state's third-largest health insurance company, is raising rates for thousands of small-business customers to a level that state insurance regulators call "excessive. " California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on Thursday criticized Aetna Life Insurance Co. of Hartford, Conn., for raising health insurance group rates by an average of 8% a year for about 77,000 employees of small companies. The rate increases, which took effect April 1, were as high as 21% in some cases, Jones said.

Dear Karen: Can you suggest budget marketing techniques? Answer: Form a marketing partnership with a business that already reaches your target customers. "Results can be impressive, because you come in as a trusted partner of an established brand, and it costs you nothing," said Shel Horowitz, coauthor of "Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green." You can also join forces with other small companies to form a larger marketing entity, Horowitz said. Social media is essentially free and you can use it to build long-term relationships with potential customers as well as to announce promotions and new products.

HAVANA — Olga Lidia Garcia sat back and surveyed the length of her empire: a storefront with seven busy manicurists, scrubbing, clipping, buffing, gluing and polishing to the bounce of salsa. The shop, decked out in oversize Oriental fans and racks stocked with a Day-Glo rainbow of nail polishes, shares the street-level space with a tiny photo studio. Garcia, wearing a tumble of frizzy hair, electric-blue dress and dangling golden hoop earrings, is manicurist-in-chief. This is a good day. "Look at this," Garcia said, a note of wonder in her voice.

WASHINGTON - Congress gave final approval to a popular but increasingly controversial bill designed to make it easier for small businesses to raise money, even as consumer advocates warned that the measure could usher in a new era of investor fraud. In a rare burst of bipartisanship, the House approved the measure, 380 to 41, on Tuesday, sending President Obama legislation that represents one of his job-creation priorities. The legislation would loosen regulations on small businesses and start-up firms seeking to attract needed capital, including through public stock offerings.