Blog on small business, entrepreneurship debuts

Thanks for dropping in. You’ve landed at IBJ’s new blog about small business and entrepreneurship, Small Biz Matters. Glad you’re here.

At Small Biz Matters you’ll find an assortment of news, analysis, tidbits and more. But it’s a work in progress, so chime in about what you like and what you want to read about, and I’ll try to accommodate.

A few words about myself, then I’ll step back and the floor is yours.

I’ve been covering business news in one way or another for 25 years. Some of you know me as IBJ’s original small-business editor, back when the first George Bush was president. Others of you are familiar with the IBJ blog I wrote the past couple of years, NewsTalk. (NewsTalk is archived at ibj.com.) Still others of you read the IBJ sections I edit, Focus and Forefront.

Soon, in addition to this blog, I’ll also begin writing occasional articles on entrepreneurship.

For now, I’ll leave you with the small-business legislative priorities of the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce and the Indiana office of the National Federation of Independent Business. After all, the General Assembly starts Wednesday.

The lobbies hope to minimize any increase in unemployment insurance taxes as the state looks to plug a yawning debt to the federal government to pay claims. The state has been kicking the can ahead for the past couple of years in order to restructure the system during a budget-writing year, which is the primary task of the session.

Both groups also intend to lobby against starting a sales tax on services.

Thoughts?