Goldman Sachs Group (GS) is teaming with billionaire investor Warren Buffett to invest $500 million to provide thousands of small business owners with college scholarships and boost their access to capital.

Goldman has been criticized for setting aside billions for employee paychecks after receiving billions in taxpayer bailout money.

Goldman's philanthropic effort, called "10,000 Small Businesses," includes a $200 million contribution to community colleges, universities and other institutions to give grants to small business owners to further their education.  More here.

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Here.

Before the layoff, Xtranormal was doing intensive Research in natural language processing, designing automated cinematics (such as finding automatically the right angle and position for a camera in a user-generated video scene), voice generation, all done by a mix of researchers from academy and also engineers. A team was also in charge of "productizing" the results, and a few of the technologies were integrated in current Xtranormal product's lineup.

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Go here.  Interesting site.

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 growing number of businesses are making Facebook an indispensible part of hanging out their shingles. Small businesses are using it to find new customers, build online communities of fans and dig into gold mines of demographic information.

"You need to be where your customers are and your prospective customers are," said Clara Shih, author of "The Facebook Era" (Pearson Education, 2009). "And with 300 million people on Facebook, and still growing, that's increasingly where your audience is for a lot of products and services."

Read more here.

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If the government doesn't pay down the debt and doesn't print money, what's left? Here's where it gets interesting. And Gundlach is very unusual in his thinking. He suspects the government has a strong possibility of at least partially defaulting on its debt.

The default may start in 2013 or beyond as Social Security obligations start to hit, he says. At that point, the government will need to renege on its financial promises to the elderly who paid into the system. And when that happens, the public will demand that the nation's other creditors, including foreign investors, also suffer. That would mean default, something that's been unfathomable for decades.

Read more here.

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Peter Ireland, the "How to Finance Anything" guy over on LinkedIn, said:

Everyone believes that they qualify for investor money. In reality, most people are trying to start what are called "lifestyle businesses." Unfortunately, investors have no interest in risking their money to help you create a pay check for yourself.

So what do you do then? Well, one thing you can do is learn the creative ways that Inc 500 entrepreneurs have funded their startups through both launch and early growth.  Here.

If you're sitting around waiting for some kind stranger to fund you, you are wasting your time.

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The Obama administration outlined plans to increase lending to small businesses by increasing the size of Small Business Administration loans and providing cheap capital to community banks. More here.

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The magic answer depends entirely on the desired target and style of interaction. I have had good luck with Twitter for teleseminars and webinars, also Facebook. For developing real relationships for larger projects, and a more corporate level of connection, LinkedIN is it. I advocate layering your exposure for maximum results. You can certainly prioritize your efforts, but even having a profile on Twitter and FB can provide SEO value that LinkedIN alone typically doesn't. ~ Melissa Galt, Social Media Strategist, Marketing Mentor, Speaker, Author, Entrepreneur, Visionary, Masterminder, Interior Designer

Interesting LinkedIn discussion with many answers.  Here.

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I gave away my product for FREE in exchange for a verified e-mail address! It created 2000 member e-mail list in 3 days and continues to grow about 10 people a day. ~ Christopher Oldcorn, Owner at The Now Group

51 other answers so far to this still-open Linkedin question.

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There was a recent LinkedIn question that asked: Does anyone know of examples or research of how much, on average, it costs to set-up a new internet business - marketing, pr, development, conferences, development, etc?

Particularly interested in hearing from suppliers to start-ups and what you tend to charge. Or, from anyone who knows of recent research into this area. Or, from VCs or PEs who have a sense of what is a "reasonable" amount to have spent on bootstrapping a start-up.

Answers here.

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Many small and midsize American businesses are still struggling to secure bank loans, impeding their expansion plans and constraining overall economic growth, even as the country tentatively rises from its recessionary depths. More here.

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1. The average and median age of company founders when they started their current companies was 40.

2. 95.1 percent of respondents themselves had earned bachelor's degrees, and 47 percent had more advanced degrees.

3. Less than 1 percent came from extremely rich or extremely poor backgrounds

4. 15.2% of founders had a sibling that previously started a business.

5. 69.9 percent of respondents indicated they were married when they launched their first business. An additional 5.2 percent were divorced, separated, or widowed.

More here.

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Interesting LinkedIn discussion here.

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Until this summer, salesman Jorge Ocampo had always been what he calls a W-2 man. Proof was the Mercedes he bought with cash. But he had always longed to be his own boss.

"Almost every day I thought of it," the 54-year-old said.

The opportunity came June 2 when he was laid off from a high-tech company. Unlike the millions of people drawing an unemployment check, he enrolled in a little-known program approved by Congress that gives the jobless the weekly cash benefit but also trains them to run their own business.

And the newly minted small-business owner gets to keep the profits, too. More here.

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Business incubators help emerging growth companies survive and grow during the start-up period when they are most vulnerable.

I was reminded of these during my recent TalkSourcing radio interview with Julia Stone - she shares one and I was wondering if any of you had considered this option when starting a business?

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Q: Hi, Steve. With the current strain on the economy, we all know that businesses are looking for ways to better compete in their markets and grow in the downturn. We have noticed that many small businesses are capitalizing on their flexibility and pivoting their businesses to enter new markets. Agree? - Deanna 

A: I know of very few small business people who would trade their lot for a gig with a big business, even given the steady paycheck and benefits that would come with it. The lack of freedom alone would likely emotionally pummel most small business owners (and in fact, probably did - that is why they left).

More here.

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When you first decided to go into business for yourself and open up a company on your own, were there ever doubts to whether you thought you could make it successful.  Are you operating as an LLC or a Sole Proprietorship?

Surprised there are so many?  Here.

23. Your income will be the average of your 5 closest friends, so pick them wisely.

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There is so much conflicting advice out there - Watch your overhead! Advertise more. Advertise differently. Don't cut your marketing budget right now. Get into social networking, etc. Can I just say that I have been through several recessions and I am still around. What works? What has always worked? Provide a good service at a fair price. Be smart. React. Treat your people well. It's not really a secret. - Reggie

Read more on what works today in business here.

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In virtually every business, the first customer is the hardest to land. While the Starship Enterprise may go "where no one else has gone before," customers follow where others lead. If you're a consultant, prospects want to know who your other clients have been. If you're a dentist, you're going to get most of your patients from previously satisfied patients. And no one wants to go to a completely empty restaurant.

Whether you're serving consumers or other business, you've got to have a track record for prospective clients or customers to feel comfortable. What a dilemma: you have to have customers to get customers. But how do you get the first customers?

Answer here.

The percentage of small businesses offering health care coverage has withered, employees pay more and health costs have shot through the skyscraper's roof.

Here's how it really works for small businesses:

• You're interviewing two candidates for a job. One is in his 20s - he'll cost less than $200 a month for health insurance. One's in her 50s - she'll cost more than $700 a month. Our current health payment policies contribute to age discrimination.
• You look at your income statement. By far, your fastest growing cost is your health insurance. Small businesses pay nearly 20% more than big corporations. So, you decide to not hire, use independent contractors, or end health insurance altogether.
• You want to leave a lousy job and start a business, but you can't afford health insurance. You never launch the business that might one day employ others.
• You get laid off. You become self-employed. You can't afford COBRA, so you go without health insurance and pray you don't get sick or injured.
• You pay hundreds of dollars a month for insurance. But your co-pay and deductible is still thousands of dollars a year. You - or your employees - hesitate before going to the doctor. Your condition gets worse.

More here.

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In a first, but likely not last for Facebook, a retailer is setting up shop inside the popular social-networking site.

Flower and gift retailer 1-800-Flowers.com plans to announce Wednesday it has opened a retail store to let people shop for its products directly through Facebook.

The Carle Place, N.Y.-based company was already a pioneer in using a 1-800 number as its name. The company went online in 1991 and three years later it became the first merchant on AOL. 

More here.

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Q: Since the Securities and Exchange Commission has missed massive scandals, like Bernie Madoff, how can investors protect themselves?

Answers here.

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One common misunderstanding is that declaring bankruptcy will ruin your credit. If you're at the point of even considering bankruptcy, it's likely that your credit is in tatters anyway, notes Ms. Porter. 

More here.

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Three weeks after Curtis Kimball opened his crème brûlée cart in San Francisco, he noticed a stranger among the friends in line for his desserts. How had the man discovered the cart? He had read about it on Twitter.

For Mr. Kimball, who conceded that he "hadn't really understood the purpose of Twitter," the beauty of digital word-of-mouth marketing was immediately clear. He signed up for an account and has more than 5,400 followers who wait for him to post the current location of his itinerant cart and list the flavors of the day, like lavender and orange creamsicle.

"I would love to say that I just had a really good idea and strategy, but Twitter has been pretty essential to my success," he said. He has quit his day job as a carpenter to keep up with the demand.

More here.

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