Grow Smart BusinessUMDNetwork Solutions


Small Business Success Index

Index Score*   Grade
75 marginal
Capital Access 67
Marketing & Innovation 70
Workforce 79
Customer Service 91
Computer Technology 74
Compliance 90
*Index score is calculated on a 1-100 scale.
homepreneur

Search Articles



Compliance is Easy. If You Love Regulations.

March 9th, 2010 :: Steven Fisher
On February 16, Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business released the findings of their Small Business Success Index survey.  The index is designed to track the competitive health of the small business sector over time, and the results are always interesting.  Scores in 6 categories are graded; compliance got an A-.
The area of compliance, including complying with laws and regulations, keeping customer information secure, and keeping up with laws and regulations. Small businesses are generally successful in this area and have been for the last 12 months the report has been done. This is not bad but there are still some things to address.

Don’t Let the Man Get You Down

According to the SBSI report, even though compliance is not a problem area, 54 percent of owners feel that government regulation is becoming more burdensome. This sentiment has also grown in the past year, raising the question of why small businesses have these concerns. One possible explanation for the perception of increasing burdens may be the economy and how it affects the behavior of governments. Local, state and federal agencies may be becoming more stringent in the enforcement of fines and seeking new ways to tax small businesses in an effort to make up for their own revenue shortfall. One example is real estate assessments, an area where local governments are often accused of exaggerating values when they need to raise revenue.

Protect and Serve….Your Data

The other side of compliance is keeping customer information secure. This does tie into regulations that might apply to some data (HIPPA, Sarbanes-Oxley) but overall companies are up on the technology and have implemented systems to secure and protect data. Where they feel the pressure is the aforementioned burden of government regulation. Currently, small businesses feel they can comply but are concerned that any more regulation might cause them to incur infrastructure and personnel expenses that they are not able to support putting them out of business.

Download the SBSI Report Right Now

If you are reading this on the web site, GrowSmartBusiness.com, you should see a link to the report or if you don’t or a looking at this in a feed reader, you can get the report at http://growsmartbusiness.com/wp-content/files/SBSI_February_2010.pdf.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogplay
  • email
  • MySpace
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Buzz

Get more small business resources from Network Solutions
Tags: ,
Posted in Compliance, Small Business Success Index | View Comments

Comments are closed.

blog comments powered by Disqus

 
The Network Solution Digital  Community Solutions are Power Grow Smart Business Womens Grow Business UnintentionalEntrepreneur