During last night's vice presidential debate, nominees Joseph Biden and Sarah Palin discussed small business in America, with each mentioning the term twice. Republican hopeful Palin drew first blood on the matter when she accused Biden's presidential running mate, Barack Obama, of proposing to increase taxes on "millions of small businesses ... thus resulting in fewer jobs being created and less productivity."

She was speaking of the democrat's plan to increase taxes on Americans individuals earning $200,000 a year or more, and on households taking in $250,000 a year or more -- a bracket well within the top 5 percent of breadwinners in the nation. Biden shot back: "Ninety-five percent of the small businesses in America, their owners make less than $250,000 a year. They would not get one single solitary penny increase in taxes, those small businesses."

According to FactCheck.org, Obama's plan would not raise taxes on the "overwhelming majority" of small business owners, although a relatively small number of proprietors who file as individuals and who fall into that top income bracket would see increases. Which ticket is really more small-business friendly? As always, you'll be the judge of that in November.

-- Dennis Romero

Citing a run on dogs after the 1996 movie 101 Dalmations became a hit, officials in Orange County, Calif., are warning consumers to wait a few weeks before buying a Chihuahua after they see the comedy Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which opened in theaters nationwide today. Police in Santa Ana, Calif., and an official from the San Clemente/Dana Point Animal Shelter in Southern California told the Orange County Register that they fear families will buy the small dogs only to neglect and abandon them after excitement from the movie, about a pampered pet who gets lost in Mexico, wears off.

It's not yet clear if the film will indeed be a marketing and sales bonanza for pet stores. At a PetSmart in Springfield, Mo., shelves are already stocked with Beverly Hills Chihuahua merchandise, including glasses, berets, T-shirts, sweaters, dresses, toys, shampoo conditioner and cologne--all intended for dogs. Store manager Steve Maples says the location does occasionally sell Chihuahuas but, so far, "we haven't had any increase in sales" as a result of the movie's release.

--Dennis Romero

Think your business has had a bad day? Think twice before you complain to anyone, especially the employees of a Wells Fargo bank branch in La Mesa, Calif., just outside San Diego. That particular branch was robbed Sept. 30. Three hours later, it was robbed again--by a different bandit--according to The Associated Press.

As an admittedly small consolation, both men who robbed the bank already had established criminal monikers: The Hard Hat Bandit and The Chatty Bandit. Who knew word-of-mouth referrals worked so quickly among the criminal element?

There is no word on whether another bailout package is in the works.

Seriously, did the second robber cross paths with the last cops to leave the scene on his way in? Did a member of law enforcement by chance unknowingly hold the door open for The Hard Hat Bandit? Was Barney Fife guarding the place, lone bullet comfortably tucked away in his shirt pocket?

Fortunately, nobody was hurt in either robbery. Banks are prepared for worst-case scenarios like this. Employees are trained how to react. In best-case worst-case scenarios--even bank robberies--customers don’t know what is happening.

Is your business prepared for the worst-case scenarios that can disrupt its daily operation? Do your employees know how to react in the face of adversity--be it a criminal brandishing a gun, an attack by an unseen hacker, a breakdown in the distribution chain, an unhappy customer or an overflowing toilet?

Disaster planning shouldn’t begin with a disaster.

Mike Werling

*UPDATE: Congress on Friday, Oct. 3, passed a revised rescue plan that indeed included the languaged that the American Small Business League opposed.

The American Small Business League, a nonprofit organization that represents small businesses across the nation (100,000 by its own count), today expressed fears that the revised $700 billion financial rescue package being considered in Congress this week could allow the federal government “to completely ignore the federal government’s small business contracting goals,” according to a statement from the group.

The latest version of the Senate bill, which is expected to be quite similar to the one defeated in the House of Representatives save for stronger homeowner protections, could contain language, as did the doomed bill, that would waive provisions of federal acquisition law pertaining to small businesses. “It’s just a typical Bush Administration move where they’ll put something in a bill that doesn’t need to be there just to give themselves more power,” says league president and founder Lloyd Chapman.

Chapman says such a loophole would allow the Secretary of the Treasury to ignore federal rules that direct billions of dollars in government contracts to women-, minority- and veteran-owned small businesses. “This allows the Bush Administration complete leeway to abolish federal contract laws that affect small businesses,” he says.

Entrepreneur is seeking a response from the federal Small Business Administration.

As things stand, Chapman points out that the federal government has already diverted federal small business contracts to major corporations, some of them based overseas. A Department of the Interior Inspector General report (PDF) from July states that federal small business contracts have gone to the likes of Home Depot, John Deere and Starwood Hotels. “Fortune 500 firms are getting billions of dollars a year in federal small business contracts,” Chapman says.

“Let’s put a provision in the rescue package that says they can no longer do that.” --Dennis Romero

When Paul Newman died over the weekend, he left behind not only a canon of postwar films unparalleled in Hollywood--Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Color of Money--but he also bequeathed the legacy of one of the most successful marriages of star power and consumer-product branding ever to hit supermarket shelves.

The ace actor and expert race car driver cofounded the Newman's Own brand of salad dressing in 1982 with friend and author A.E. Hotchner. The idea was to use Newman's name and image to sell food products that would benefit charity. The brand's lineup--each product uses an artist's sketch of the late thespian--has since expanded to include spaghetti sauce, lemonade, wine and other products. The company claims to have donated all profits, nearly $250 million since its inception, to nonprofit organizations. One of the beneficiaries has been the Hole in the Wall Camps--summer getaways for children with serious illnesses.

While many entrepreneurs probably think they could benefit from having a Hollywood legend endorse their products and services--with change to spare for charity--experts argue that Newman's Own has more than big-screen pedigree going for it. "Paul Newman changed the mode of a celebrity getting into the food business," says John L. Stanton, food marketing professor at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. "If consumers didn't believe profits were going to charity, if they didn't think the product tasted good or wasn't good for them, they wouldn't buy it."

He notes that many celebrity-endorsed food ventures, from Planet Hollywood restaurants to the supermodel-endorsed Fashion Café chain, have failed to launch. A celebrity's good name, he says, only guarantees entrée to free press and initial consumer interest: The brands must bring consumers a quality experience in order to see them return again and again. For that reason, Newman's Own will likely live on. "As long as they mange the legacy and live up to the promises to charity Paul Newman made," the professor says, "it can go on for a long time." --Dennis Romero

OK, so the nearly $1 trillion Wall Street rescue is all but assured, but the benefits to small business remain to be seen. In the long run, more credit should become available for entrepreneurs who need funding to start a business or expand an existing one, but for now it’s the big players who will lap up the taxpayer-sponsored river of capital.

Even if the plan works perfectly and the federal coffers become flush with cash over the next several years--decades?--how can this be seen as anything other than a catastrophic failure of a system that is supposed to self-regulate as a way to avoid such collapses?

While the feds and the fallen financial gurus on Wall Street sort out this 13-figure debacle--even sports agents have to cringe at numbers that big--there is another $1 trillion small-business owners can do something about. The Small Business Administration estimates that business owners in the U.S. spend $1.1 trillion annually to comply with federal regulations. Now may not seem like the time to get into a deregulatory fervor--since deregulation is largely responsible for the credit and mortgage mess we are in--but too many rules for businesses are outdated, shortsighted or just plain silly. And they need to be removed or updated.

To that end, the SBA’s Office of Advocacy, through its Regulatory Review and Reform (r3) initiative, is asking business owners to nominate federal rules that are in need of review and reform. Once compiled, the list will be whittled down to a Top 10 list and r3 will submit the suggestions to the appropriate federal agencies. Click here to learn more and nominate a rule.

“Changing markets, technology and competition make it imperative that federal agencies periodically review how their current regulations affect small business,” says Thomas M. Sullivan, chief counsel for Advocacy.

Among the mandates on the 2008 Top 10 list, one in particular could help the widest range of entrepreneurs: Simplify the home office business deduction. SBA is calling for a rule to permit a standard deduction for home-based businesses. With 53 percent of all small businesses run from the home, kinda makes sense.

The rules that make the 2009 list are up to you.

Upwards of $1 trillion. That’s what kind of commitment the Treasury Department is making with its plan to buy up the bad mortgage loans that are throttling the U.S. economy. The bailout plan as written calls for $700 billion, but no one really knows how much the questionable loans add up to, so it could reach $1 trillion. A trillion. That’s a one with 12 zeros after it.

Numbers like that don’t even make sense to the average American consumer. How can someone earning $100,000 put that into perspective? Well, if you saved $100,000 per year without benefit of earning interest, you’d have to save for 10 million years to be a trillionaire.

What are some other ways to think about a trillion? Well, try these on for size:

• No matter how long you think your day has been, it’s still made up of 86,400 seconds. In a mere 31,546 years (allowing for the fact a day isn’t exactly 24 hours)—that’s 11,522,176 days—you will have lived for roughly 1 trillion seconds. Get back to us on that whole climate change thing.
  
• A $1 bill is roughly six inches across. It would take 10,560 of them to stretch one mile. The circumference of the Earth is roughly 24,902 miles. A trillion $1 bills would circle the Earth not quite 3,803 times.
  
• If our government felt like spreading that $1 trillion around to every citizen of the U.S., all 300 million of us would get $3,333.33, with a little left over for a barbecue.
  
• A Population Reference Bureau survey estimated in 2002 that the all-time world population was 109 billion. That means everyone who has ever lived could have almost $10 if the $1 trillion were split up evenly.
  
• Need a way to keep your children busy? Ask them to count to 1 million. Have them do that 1 million times, and they will have counted to 1 trillion.
  
• The land mass of Los Angeles is 469 square miles, or 156,899,635,200 square inches. One trillion $1 bills would cover L.A. 95 times.
  
• If stacked, a trillion dollar bills would reach a height of roughly 65,000 miles—a little more, a little less depending on the wear and tear of the bills. For reference, the farthest the moon ever gets from us is 252,088 miles.

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ll never be faced with any sort of economic indicator that reaches beyond the trillions, but in case you’re interested, the number after 999,999,999,999,999 is 1 quadrillion—15 zeros and a whole lot of people wondering who makes this stuff up.

Young men and women intrigued by entrepreneurship can learn more about it during Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 17 to 23. 

The worldwide initiative is designed to inspire, connect, inform, mentor and engage the next generation of entrepreneurs, defined as people under 30 years old.

More than 60 countries around the world have signed on as participants. During the week, a series of events will be held on international, national and local levels. Activities will include invention competitions, entrepreneurship film festivals, networking events, school-based activities and local entrepreneurship summits.

While global in scope, at its heart the week is a local initiative reflecting the customs and entrepreneurial culture of each community. After all, what works in Boise, Idaho might be quite different from what works in Bangalore, India. For example, the Netherlands is launching its version of the week from the floor of Euronext, and Chile is planning a 10K race.

Global Entrepreneurship Week was initiated by the Kauffman Foundation in the U.S. and Make Your Mark in the United Kingdom. Global sponsors are Ernst & Young, IBM and NYSE.

For more information, visit the website. --Eve Gumpel

Imagine being the best in the world at something you love. Or being acclaimed as the greatest of all time. That's what Michael Phelps has achieved--becoming the greatest Olympian after winning eight gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It all adds up to 14 career gold medals for Phelps. Many are calling him the greatest swimmer of all time.

Entrepreneurs could take a page from Phelps' book when it comes to dedication. To become a focused swimmer, he had to channel his ADHD, for which he took Ritalin as a child. After losing an Olympic event in 2000, at the age of 15, he immediately began training to improve. He swims 50 miles a week and consumes 12,000 calories daily to keep up his almost super-human strength.

That's how many people are defining him: super-human. "He is just a normal person, but maybe from a different planet," Russia 's Alexander Sukhorukov said after Russia placed second to the United States in the 800-meter freestyle relay Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

The AP reported that another swimmer offered his coach an alternate theory about Phelps' greatness: He's a superior swimmer from the future who traveled back in time to swim off the charts in Beijing.

Many a would-be entrepreneur has had a daydream similar to that scenario: "If only I could be a time traveler, I'd go back, invest in Google and have tons of money for a startup now."

But wouldn't it be so much better to instead think, "What can I do now that will put me in that place in four or five years?"

That's the attitude that took Phelps up a steady ladder of success from the games in 2000, to four yeas ago at the 2004 Athens Games, where he won six gold medals, to today.

The world needs entrepreneurs just as it needs Olympians--both inspire and drive people to be better at what they do. Now is the time to think up your own Olympic-sized regimen. --Elizabeth Wilson

Self-made billionaire Bill Bartmann, an entrepreneur who started seven different businesses, is launching a resource guide aimed at keeping business owners from failing during an economic recession.

At a cost of $100-per-year, business owners or would-be entrepreneurs get access to tips ranging from "what business should you be in" and "how to expand your business" to "basic steps to borrowing money."

More than 30 tutorials presented by Bartmann come with the package. Lecture topics include:

• How to write a clearly defined objective. Determine what you want to accomplish and how to propose a business plan.
• How to write a clear marketing plan. Who will buy, why they'll buy and how they'll find out you even exist.
• How to reduce operational expenses and increase your marketing budget proportionally. Learn how to get a higher return for money spent.

For more information, please visit www.billionaireu.com. --Elizabeth Wilson