• 

  Family Ties Put Companies in Bind

  In family-run small businesses, strained relationships between relatives can become even more tense when finances are tight.
  

• 

  A Company Fueled by Athletes' Sweat

  Clif Bar co-founder Gary Erickson traveled race-to-race to hook high performers on his his healthy snack.
• 

  Forming an S Corporation

  Whether you're starting a business from home or opening a large-scale operation, you'll need to decide on the best legal structure for your new company. Part four of a five-week series.
• 

  Starting Career Over Solo

  Roughly 7% of workers in the U.S. today are self-employed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And many say they landed in this position due to an unexpected financial hardship such as a job loss or salary reduction.
• 

  Tool Firms Seek U.S. Aid

  Cash-strapped small and midsize companies that supply critical parts to industrial giants are seeking a $30 billion U.S. loan-guarantee program and pressing General Motors to speed up payments.
• 

  Insurance Tax Breaks for Self-Employed Individuals

  How to claim this otherwise hard-to-get health-care deduction.
  
  • Good Year, Bad Year: There's Tax Breaks Either Way
  • The Best Tax Breaks for Small Business
  • PHOTOS: Tax-Time Tips
• 

  When Business Credit Scores Get Murky

  Credit scores are often touted as the make-it-or-break-it factor for business loans, but even entrepreneurs with high business credit scores may have trouble getting financing.
  
  • Vote: Should biz lenders tap personal reports?
  • Video: A Great Credit Score Won't Cut It
• 

  A Bump in the Road? Prepping for Pregnant Employees

  For some business owners, creating a maternity or paternity policy isn't top of mind— until a staffer becomes pregnant.
• 

  How to Weatherproof Your Business

  The debate over global warming isn't going away. Are you prepared for the next storm?
• 
  Subscriber Content Read Preview
  

  Tech Wealth Gap Widens

  A handful of cash-rich companies are consolidating power in the tech industry, using their wealth to expand into new businesses and making it harder for small competitors to break through.
  
  • Chart: Flourishing in Tough Times
• 

  Bank Failures Threaten Small-Business Lending

  The U.S. Treasury Department is concerned the steady pace of bank failures could keep many small businesses from gaining access to new credit as the economy rebounds and companies seek to expand.
• 

  Three Best Ways to Export

  Exporting may seem daunting, but it can open up a whole new market. Here's how to navigate the process.

• Loan Squeeze Thwarts Small-Business Revival

  The travails of two Michigan companies illustrate the tough choices their community bank must make.
  
  • Follow the Flow: A Vicious Circle
  • Video: The Economy's Vicious Cycle
  • Readers React: "Opportunities go wanting'
• 

  The Best Tax Breaks for Small Business

  Scrambling to get your taxes in order? Don't miss these small-business write-offs.
  
  • Good Year, Bad Year: Tax Breaks Either Way
• 

  Social-Media Updates Could Spell Trouble

  Some employees are over-sharing on social-media sites, causing embarrassment and possible financial harm to small enterprises.
  
  • Readers React: Employee Fraud, Who's to Blame?

• Gloom at Small Firms Clouds Outlook

  Small firms are lagging far behind big companies in the early stages of the economic recovery, a dichotomy that is likely to slow the upturn.

The Next Big Thing

• 

  Sizing Up Promising Young Firms

  Pacific Biosciences, which makes DNA-sequencing instruments, came out No. 1 in a ranking of the 50 venture-backed companies in the U.S. with the greatest potential.
  
  • Next Big Thing: Top 50 Venture-Backed Companies
  • Video: Pacific Biosciences Speeds DNA Sequencing
  • Venture-Capital Firms Caught in a Shakeout

• Enterprise

• 

  Entrepreneurs Mixed on Social Media

  Services like Facebook and Twitter have become a popular marketing tool for small firms, but new evidence suggests social media may not be as effective as hoped.
  
  • Vote: Does social media marketing work?

• This Week's Tip

• 

  Forming a C Corporation

  Whether you're starting a business from home or opening a large-scale operation, you'll need to decide on the best legal structure for your new company. Part three of a five-week series.

• How I Built It

• 

  A Housewife Inventor Builds a Homespun Empire

  Entrepreneur Debbie Meyer cleans up with kitchen gadgets – and leaves the $100 million mark in the dust.

Venture Capital Dispatch

• It's A Family Affair At Beverage Maker Hint
• A Venture Capitalist's Take On Health-Care Reform
• The Daily Start-Up: Health Care, Check. Is Energy Next?
• Shunning 'Traditional Paradigm,' Easton Capital Shifts LS Focus

• See All

  RSS Feed

Vote and Discuss

• • Should lenders tap personal credit reports to determine business creditworthiness?
  • Do you believe marketing businesses through Twitter and Facebook works?
  • Which industry will draw the most venture capital funding in 2010?
  • See more polls, discussions and hot topics >>

Management Headlines

• 

  Firms Use Outside Adviser to Judge Executive Pay

  DuPont has discovered a way for fending off shareholders who want a voice in how it compensates its top bosses: Get an outside second opinion.
• Subscriber Content Read Preview
  

  E*Trade Fills Its CEO Post

• Feinberg to Review Pay at Bailed-Out Firms

Small Business How-To Guide

• How to Decide if Entrepreneurship is Right for You Starting a business is a lot like becoming a parent. Not only do you have to prepare for your start-up emotionally and financially, but you have to be committed to its constant needs until it's mature enough to hum along on its own. And even then (much like a child) it will always need you in some capacity, no matter how old it gets.
  
• How to Create a Disaster Plan

• See All

  RSS Feed

Building Your Business

• 

  The Ultimate Start-Up Challenge?

  Companies on this week's Next Big Thing list detail strategies for dealing with rapid expanision.

• From Wall Street to Mancakes: A Lawyer Turns to Cupcakes

• Services Combine Social Media, Marketing

Technology

• 

  The Tangled Web Site

  Designing a web site for a small business can put the 'error' in 'trial and error.

• Three Best Ways to Build an iPhone App

• Firms Get Hand With Twitter, Facebook

Financing

• 

  A Plea for Direct Lending

  Proposed legislation calls for the Small Business Administration to help small-business owners find willing lenders and, as a last resort, issue the loan directly.

• The Promise and Peril of Plastic

• Asset-Based Lending Grows in Popularity

Franchising

• 

  McDonald's Plans $1 Summer Drinks

  McDonald's executives have been trying to sell franchisees on the offer of $1 soft drinks in recent weeks at regional meetings.

• Quiznos Carves Out Broader Niche

• Living With Chains

Columns

• 

  Small talk

  By Colleen DeBaise

  Advice on Patenting Ideas, Marketing Jewelry and the Costs of a Family Restaurant

• 

  On franchising

  By Richard Gibson

  Burger King Franchisees in a Pickle

• Enterprise

  By Staff

  Family Ties Put Companies in Bind

• See all WSJ columnists,
  get RSS feeds and sign up
  for their email alerts