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December 9, 2008

Today's news

The SBA, Bad ESOPs and More Twitter

Posted by Ryan McCarthy at 12:01 PM

Credit crunch hits SBA lending. The SBA's Community Express loan program has been drastically cut back in recent months because of the credit crisis and a rule change, the Journal reports. Community Express loans, small loans that are 85 percent guaranteed by the government and require no collateral, have been increasingly popular as other sources of credit dry up. But a rule requiring that the loan program only account for 10 percent of all of the SBA's 7(a) loans has forced the agency to institute strict caps that are leaving some companies out in the cold. In other news, Washington inched closer to a $15 billion bailout for three large money losing companies.

SBA Administrator to become a cabinet position? Sen. Olympia Snowe thinks that's just one of several changes that should be brought to the SBA.

When ESOPs go bad Employee Stock Ownership Plans or ESOPs have long been touted as a way to get your workers (literally) invested in your company's performance. One downside of an ESOP, of course, is that much of your company's financial risk is shifted to your employees. Your company fails and your workers pay. Case in point, per The New York Times: The now-decimated employee holdings at the Tribune Company, which filed for bankruptcy on Monday. More on ESOP's here from Jack Stack, CEO of SRC Holdings, last year in Inc.

What to do when your startup dies. The author of Diary of a Failed Startup, a blog about the history of a dot-com that was not to be, writes about coping with failure, trying to figure out what's next, and lessons he has learned. "The big one: startups are out there, not in your head. You get ideas by engaging with the world around you. That can mean potential customers, or experts in the field, or lead users, or friends, or even potential investors. It's really tempting to hole yourself up in your room
and code, but unless your idea is spot on (and almost no ideas are), this is
a recipe for failure." Sound advice.

Annals of human resources. A front page story in the Wall Street Journal details the curious—some might say creepy—HR policies of Emirates, the state airline of Dubai. "The airline meticulously recruits attractive young men and women from around the world," the Journal reports. "High heels are a must when...in uniform even on the ground. Both men and women are expected to get manicures and facials. Innocuous onboard flirting is condoned: Emirates' rules require attendants to politely accept a business card if it's proffered by a passenger."

Twitter as the leading edge of customer service? Silicon Valley VC guru Guy Kawasaki has a great breakdown of how to use the micro-blogging service as a business tool. And Kawasaki takes a peak into the culture at Zappos.com. (See Inc.'s coverage of Zappos' use of Twittter here, and check out Max Chafkin's story on Twitter's founder, Evan Williams here).

Annals of travel. For other airlines in search of new revenue streams, Joe Sharkey of the New York Times proposes (in jest) a novel idea: airlines charge $15 per passenger not to have one's stuff stolen. The TSA has fired 465 officers for theft in the past 5 and a half years, and paid out $1 million this year in claims for missing or damaged baggage. And even if your iPod makes it through security, you may be losing money on your frequent flier miles. Historically,reports the Wall Street Journal, a frequent flier mile was worth 2 cents, but the value has fallen to about 1.2 cents over the past few years.