With a debut in time for back-to-school shopping, Sasha Fierce for Dereon offers a more wearable version of what designer Tierry Mugler designed for the pop star’s concerts. Against a mainly black backdrop of fake leather and body suits are bold details and accessories, such as mixed silver and gold chains and denim rips lined with mesh and lace.

In comparison, parent label Dereon showcases billowy materials, vivid colors and exotic prints, with input of sister Solange as well as mother Tina.

“The [Sasha Fierce] line really exudes a different side of my personality, which I am grateful I can express,” Beyonce said to Women’s Wear Daily.

Featured in the upcoming line are sportswear, outwear, handbags, footwear, eyewear, jewelry and lingerie. The collection will wholesale from $25 to $75.

The administration’s Certified Development Company (504) lending program traditionally provides long-term, fixed-rate financing for assets like real estate, heavy machinery or other improvements. But as of last Wednesday, it now permanently allows small business owners to refinance such debt, as long as it is used for expansion purposes.

“This is one more piece of the Recovery Act that is going to have a direct impact and put more money in the hands of small business owners just when they need it most,” said Karen Gordon Mills, head of the Small Business Administration, in a statement.

But the timing of such changes is a bit off, according to experts and analysts of 504 lending programs. They say that few businesses can currently afford to expand, to leave such good intentions unused.

According to Scott Shane, professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University, few small business owners may also feel up to the task. In May 2009, just 5 percent of business owners felt that the following three months would be “a good time to expand.”

This is a drop of 11 percent from nearly two years ago, according to data Shane cumulated from the National Federation of Independent Business. And while positive feelings unexpectedly spiked last September, overall trends speak volumes about the confidence level of such business owners.

“Small business owners’ views of the expansion-potential of the economy may have turned the corner, but we have a long way to go to get back to the point where a lot of small business owners think it’s a good time to expand,” Shane wrote Monday for the New York Times.

As president of Mercantile Capital Corporation – a conventional, for-profit 504 lender – Christopher Hern suggests fully lifting any restriction on refinancing, to really stimulate small business lending. Bob Coleman, publisher of Small Business Administration newsletter Coleman Report, agrees.

“This is another program stymied by too much regulation and will not deliver the intended stimulus desired by Congress and the Administration,” he commented to the New York Times.

Small business owners – will you take advantage of the new 504 lending program anytime soon? Why or why not?

Amy

A: Advertising more right now makes intuitive sense to me, but does it make actual real business sense?  Maybe, but maybe not.

Intuitively, one thing that is clear right now is that people are looking for a bargain;  customer loyalty is a bit of any oxymoron as customers are generally more interested in saving money than patronizing their favorite businesses. As such,  advertising can put your business in front of these potential customers.  That is my intuitive take.

But a really interesting new book calls into question that very premise (which is actually also the premise of the question above) as well as other sacred cows of conventional business wisdom.  The book is called Duck and (Re)Cover by Steven S. Little (Note: Steve is an associate of mine as this book is published by John Wiley & Sons, who also publishes my Small Business Bible).

In the book, Little points out that this piece of conventional wisdom – that advertising more in a recession leads to increased sales growth – is essentially an urban myth.

The book explains that if you Google the terms “recession” “advertising” “study” and “sales growth” – you end up with millions of pages that essentially say something like “The results of a study indicate that businesses that maintained or increased their advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession averaged significantly higher sales growth.”

The book notes that the study is then cited ad-nauseum by anyone who wants to get you to advertise more right now, for example:

• The radio station that cites the report to explain why people need to advertise on its station now more than ever
• The PR firm, saying that marketing with them in a downturn is critical
• The freelance copywriter who is looking for clients

So Little decided to find out what this study actually says. It turns out that all of these sites are talking about the “McGraw Hill Research Laboratory of Advertising Performance Report #5262.” Little discovered that what report #5262 actually says and what the millions of sites citing it think it says are not nearly the same thing.

In fact, Little found that report #5262 expressly states that there is no “causality” between advertising in a recession and sales growth, that the study only looked at public companies, that these companies had sales more than $1 billion a year, and that the study took place in 1985.

So, as Little concludes, the McGraw-Hill study and its ‘advertise more’ conclusion only tangentially relates to you if you own “a relatively large industrial company with a business-to-business advertising bent” and you think a study that is more than 20 years old can help you in the 21st century (P.11).

Little’s point, and the point of the book, is that you need to examine closely your business beliefs, especially those relating to how to deal with “the choppy waters of a recession.” Yes, advertising more may make sense for you, but if it does, it is not because of some old study that is oft misquoted, it is because that is what your business today, properly analyzed, requires.

And that is what this book does. It helps business owners analyze the state of their business accurately and then it prescribes various ways to see and seize the opportunities that are out there. It is, as the subtitle suggests, “the embattled business owner’s guide to survival and growth.”

As Little told me last week, “in a time like this, opportunities will become available – but you have to get yourself ready for them. That is what the book is designed do” The trick, he says, is not to over-compensate, or do nothing, or to do what you have always done (because the market has changed now) but to use logic to make smart choices.
This is a really good book. I say check it out.

Today’s tip: Another piece of conventional wisdom given to small business owners is to ‘get a board of advisors.’ But where do you find them? Where do you find business mentors, other business owners, entrepreneurs to commiserate with, etc.?

Here’s a resource you may not know about: PartnerUp.com is a great site that offers entrepreneurs the chance to meet and partner up with other entrepreneurs, find mentors, network, and more.

Do take advantage of programs offered though your state government, including the Department of Commerce and Chamber of Commerce. A quick online search for “(your state) small business grants” may also prove to be fruitful.

Do not start searching through the U.S. Small Business Administration. The agency does not offer grants to start up or expand small businesses. However, it does offer a variety of loan programs for such financing.

Do remember to search for grants provided by private and non-profit institutions, especially if you are a woman or minority business owner.

Do not completely disregard the federal government in your search. Grants.gov acts as the clearinghouse for a number of small business grant programs, Just make sure to do an advanced search for “small business” to find them.

On a final note – do make sure, regardless of where you apply, that you and your business meet the specific grant program requirements. This may include but is not limited to location, sales revenue, purposes of funding. If the program is rather extensive, then consider hiring a professional grant proposal writer to help with your application.

However, applicants must prove themselves worthy before reaping any rewards, through a rather extensive application process. Each grant program holds their own requirements, though in general, applicants can qualify if they meet these few:

• Your business is small enough. Such size requirements are typically determined by the U.S. Small Business Administration. For all wholesale trade industries, this means 100 employees or less, according to clearinghouse Grants.gov.
• Your business has big impact. Most grant applications require that you send a business plan and proposal letter with your application. With these, they want you to demonstrate how their money would be put to good use. (For help, refer to Bplans.com for a number of business plan templates, and the Small Business Administration for a basic template.)
• Your business can still hire for help. Though you can easily apply for smaller grants – ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars – yourself, bigger grants could require more help. Consider hiring a professional grant letter to write up a proposal letter, an accountant to write up your business plan, or both.
• Your business can afford to wait. Some steps of the registration process can take one day, some can take three – and then, your application may only surface after months of sifting by the grant agency.

Have you tried applying for a small business grant? If so, what was your experience like?

Economists made predictions ranging from zero change to a 2.3 percent gain, according to Bloomberg. And while they had initially feared any sign of inflation, actual prices suggest that they now have no need to worry.

“There’s no story on inflation here, and deflation doesn’t seem to be a concern,” said Anika Khan, Wachovia economist, to CNN.

Most of the major increases and decreases since last month occur in food and energy prices, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Otherwise, other wholesale prices remain essentially the same.

Prices for apparel and other fabricated textiles, in addition to non-wood commercial furniture, turned up incrementally after falling down in April. On the other hand, prices for perfume and cologne decreased after observing slight increases.

In comparison to last year, wholesale prices for finished goods are down by 5 percent – though much of this decrease is due to cuts in food prices. However, excluding food and energy, prices have actually risen by 3 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Such behavior is a stark contrast from the 9.8 percent year-over-year increase in July 2008, 1 27-year high.