6 great funds with small portfolios

12:30 PM funds, great, portfolios, Small No Comments

Business Week | By James K. Glassman, Kiplinger

With just 20 to 30 holdings, these slimmed-down mutual funds are nimble enough to outperform the market but still diversified enough to limit risk.

Twenty years ago, in his letter to Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) shareholders, Warren Buffett quoted Mae West, sex symbol of the 1930s: "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful."

The Oracle of Omaha was alluding to diversification, the benefits of which were overrated, he suggested. Explained Buffett: "I cannot understand why an investor . . . elects to put money into a business that is his 20th-favorite rather than simply adding that money to his top choices -- the businesses he understands best and that present the least risk, along with the greatest profit potential." Not to mention that when you own too many stocks, it's hard to keep track of them.

Of course, when you own too few stocks, you run the risk of a huge loss if one of them suffers a calamity. Enron employees learned that lesson the hard way in 2001. If, however, you own everything in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX), the most widely followed benchmark for the U.S. stock market, you will experience less-volatile performance. If a single company in the index were to vaporize, it would, at most, knock 0.3 percent off the value of your portfolio.

There's a happy medium between diversification and what Peter Lynch, the former manager of Fidelity Magellan, once called "diworsification," and it's probably a smaller number of stocks than you think. Consider research about long-term stock-market returns by Joel Greenblatt, the Columbia University professor and hedge fund manager. He found that if you owned the U.S. stock market as a whole, two-thirds of the time the range of returns varied from a loss of 8 percent to a gain of 28 percent. But if you owned just eight stocks, the range of performance was not that much greater: from a loss of 10 percent to a gain of 30 percent.

Daniel Burnside, writing in AAII Journal, published by the American Association of Individual Investors, looked at the market over a 41-year period ending in 2001 and concluded that owning 25 stocks reduced "unsystematic" risk (the risk of not diversifying at all) by 80 percent, while owning 100 stocks reduced that risk by 90 percent -- that is, not much more.

A manageable portfolio holds between 20 and 30 stocks. As long as they are roughly balanced by sector and weighted fairly equally, that number is enough to reduce systematic risk significantly. If you want to eliminate that risk, you can simply buy an exchange-traded fund such as Vanguard Total Stock MarketETF (VTI), which at last report held 3,657 stocks. But if you want to beat the market, you'll need to accept some risk, and the smartest way to do that is by slimming down your portfolio.

The same principle applies to funds. Sure, there are some great funds that own a lot of companies. Fidelity Low-Priced Stock (FLPSX), with 893 stocks, is a good one (the fund is a member of the Kiplinger 25). But I have a soft spot for more-artisanal funds, with small portfolios, low turnover and a founder who has often made the key decisions for decades.

Consider Parnassus (PARNX), launched 29 years ago by Jerome Dodson, a Berkeley political-science major. Dodson is still managing this paragon of socially screened investing. Parnassus owns 46 stocks, or about half the average for a U.S. stock fund, and nearly half of its assets are in just a dozen companies.

In a class by itself is Fairholme (FAIRX), run by founder Bruce Berkowitz, a bargain hunter to the extreme. Fairholme is more hedge fund than standard mutual fund, with only six stocks and a scattering of bonds. Its largest holding, American International Group (AIG), equals a whopping 47 percent of assets.

Both funds have delivered great long-term results, but they are also highly risky. In 2011, for instance, a year the overall U.S. market earned 2.1 percent, Fairholme fell 32.4 percent; the next year, it gained 35.8 percent, beating the S&P by 20 points. Morningstar gives Parnassus a risk rating of "high"; it is 23 percent more volatile than the average fund.

There are less volatile focused funds. ING Corporate Leaders Trust Series B (LEXCX), which turns 80 next year, holds a nearly unchanging portfolio of 22 stocks, headed by Union Pacific (UNP), at 12 percent of assets, and ExxonMobil (XOM), at 11 percent. The fund has beaten the S&P 500 handily over the past ten years, yet the fund's volatility was lower than the overall market's. And the annual expense ratio is only 0.52 percent -- about half that of the typical concentrated fund.

Jensen Quality Growth (JENSX) has been even less risky than Corporate Leaders, although its ten-year return is lower. That may be a decent trade-off: In 2008, when the market tumbled 37 percent, Jensen fell only 29 percent. It's a scrupulously structured fund that tries to keep the weightings of its holdings nearly equal. It owns 28 blue-chip stocks, led by PepsiCo (PEP), at just 5.1 percent of assets.

A strong concentrated fund that specializes in midsize companies is FPA Perennial (FPPFX). It owns 30 stocks and has an annual turnover rate of a mere 2 percent (suggesting that, on average, it holds a stock for 50 years). The portfolio favors industrial and consumer cyclical stocks and contains no banks or real estate companies. The risk level is average.

Unfortunately, three of the best concentrated funds closed to new investors at the end of last year. But keep an eye on them; if the market drops and investors bail out of stock funds, they could reopen soon. One is Sequoia (SEQUX), a 43-year-old fund managed by Robert Goldfarb, with 42 stocks and one-third of its $8 billion in assets concentrated in just three companies: Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX), a Canadian drug maker; Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway; and retailer TJX (TJX).

The other two, Yacktman Fund (YACKX) and Yacktman Focused (YAFFX), were founded by Donald Yacktman, who has lately ceded much of the funds' management responsibilities to his son Stephen. Focused has 37 stocks; Yacktman has 43. The portfolios are similar. Turnover is in the single digits, so if you're willing to plagiarize, you can simply copy the holdings and own the individual stocks yourself. Top holdings for both funds are PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble (PG) and Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA).

Finally, don't forget the best-known concentrated portfolio of them all: the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU), which you can buy as a SPDR-sponsored ETF nicknamed Diamonds (DIA). The Dow's 30 stocks have returned virtually the same as the S&P 500 for the past decade, with very little difference from year to year. That's proof -- if you need it -- that 30 stocks is enough.

The question, however, is whether your objective as an investor is merely to replicate the market. If it is, then buy Diamonds or, to be slightly more daring, a fund such as ING Corporate Leaders. But if you really want to try to thump the averages, you have two choices: Do it yourself by assembling your own portfolio of 20 to 30 stocks, or put yourself in the hands of someone like Berkowitz or Dodson, for a fee of about 1 percent a year. If you select the latter course, don't put all your eggs in the concentrated-fund basket. But some eggs, certainly.

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How to retire on a small budget

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| By By Kathleen Peddicord, U.S. News & World Report

If your money is tight in your retirement years, you might want to consider moving overseas.

A woman named Hazel, now in her 90s, raised five children with her husband in southern California in the 1950s. One day a neighbor came over and proudly announced he had set aside $500 for his daughter Loretta's college education. Hazel envied that neighbor. Hazel and her husband had nowhere near that much money. How was she going to put five kids through college?

No one knew. But Hazel went out and got a job as soon as her kids were a little older, saving what she could for the kids' college. In the end all five kids graduated from college, and somehow the bills got paid with Hazel's savings, student loans, scholarships based on financial need, summer jobs, and after-school jobs.

I think life often turns out like this. We wring our hands about not having enough money--in this case, to send the kids to college — yet we somehow get the job done in the end. We find a way.

Americans are going through similar hand-wringing today over retirement. Hazel's five kids and 80 million other baby boomers are reaching retirement age. As a group, boomers have nowhere near enough money to retire. In a recent Employee Benefit Research Institute poll, 57 percent of the U.S. workers surveyed report less than $25,000 in total household savings and investments excluding their homes. The survey also found that 28 percent of Americans have no confidence they will have enough money to retire comfortably — the highest level in the study's 23-year history. So no one knows where the retirement money will come from.

I'm reminded of Hazel and her five kids to put through college. She and the kids somehow managed it. And I'm sure that most Americans will somehow manage it, perhaps, I’d suggest, by moving overseas.

Let's be clear. Money rarely falls from the skies, even if you move overseas. And the truth is that it costs as much or more than in the U.S. to live in many places around the world. Even low-cost countries like Thailand and Mexico have become more expensive as the dollar weakens against the local currencies. So if you lack the money to retire, you're going to have a tough time of it regardless of where you choose to live.

Still, for those on a budget, I see three advantages to moving overseas:

Those of us who have lived abroad for some time have met many retirees who seem to live on nothing at all. They happily wander throughout the expat community, often in bars or cafes, without spending any money. These people live in very small quarters, what the English call a bedsit and New Yorkers call an SRO (a small room with a bed and a shared bathroom down the hall). Bedsits have largely disappeared in the developed world. But you still find them in Latin America and Southeast Asia, in cities and small towns.

Often these people take up housesitting once they get to know other expats. The bedsit then becomes a storage room that they can sleep in between gigs. Housesitting offers the chance to live in bigger, better housing and even get paid for it at times. It's not too bad if you're forced to live on $1,000 a month.

Most retirees in the U.S. collect more than $1,000 a month from Social Security. But I know a woman who retired on less than that. She moved to Thailand and spent her life savings to buy a town house and a motorcycle. Her small check now goes a long way, covering utilities, a little gas for her motorcycle, low-cost health care, and then all the things that make life worthwhile. She found a way.

Downsizing back home, if you're forced to do it for budget reasons, makes you feel bad. Sure, you can handle the blow to your self-esteem. But you can avoid that blow altogether if you move overseas and into a new community with new faces and new outlooks.

The first move takes a lot of work. You get rid of stuff, set up an internet-based banking routine, maybe sell your car and house and go through the emotional hit of leaving behind a lifetime of familiar people, places, things and joys.

Once you've made the first move, succeeding moves become easier. So if the first country you choose becomes too expensive, dangerous or dull, you can easily move again. You may even follow one of your house-sitting clients to a new country, if that client has come to rely on you for six or seven months each year.

Perhaps you will find yourself among the 28 percent of Americans reaching retirement with very little money saved, with only a small Social Security check to carry you through. If this is the case, you'll have to be creative to make retirement work. But you'll find a way. One option, if you enjoy trying new things and approach life with a spirit of adventure, would be to retire overseas. You'll have at least three things going for you.

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Small businesses, which are still the feeling of 'fiscal Cliff' pinch

11:00 AM businesses, cliff, feeling, fiscal, pinch, Small, still, which No Comments

SIA wee, CNBC.com - 5 days

Small business confidence was virtually flat in January as the contractor failed to recoup losses from the in the December hysteria over the so-called "fiscal cliff."

This is the finding of a monthly survey by the National Federation of independent business. The group said on Tuesday that its small business optimism index only 0.9 points to 88.9 last month from 88 points in December 2012 lined.

Although a tax deal was reached in January of tax increases and spending cuts, the benefits are hard for a large part of the main road remained - a traditional driver of new jobs in the last economic downturn. (Read more: in the middle of 'Fiscal Cliff' deteriorating stalemate, main street)


"The only good news is that it ', moves not down'." If small businesses publicly traded companies, the stock market in a shambles,"said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Darling. "While the corporate profits as share of GDP at record levels, small businesses fight make still make a profit" he sadly prepared statement in one.

The current monthly reading among small business owners showed kick-off also low expectations for future growth - clearly no good way, 2013.

Expectations for improved terms and conditions remained generally low. Create actual creation of jobs and job wasn't enough to keep pace with population growth improved nominally, but plans yet.

The NFIB also noted that sales trends, reporting declining sales mostly remain negative for small employers with more owners.

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Small businesses are tax security, political uncertainty

11:00 AM businesses, political, security, Small, uncertainty No Comments

Allison Linn, NBC News

Shouted Jeff Schneider ever recently its busiest November and December, as the tax preparer small business information, such as the fiscal Cliff negotiations could affect their taxes.

"It was incredible," said Schneider, who directs SFS taxes and accounting in Port St. Lucie, Florida

The last minute offer to avert the fiscal cliff of left clients at least to know what their tax bills would look like.

But Schneider said that he will stop some gripes in the midst of the ongoing political bickering over the debt ceiling, spending cuts and other issues. This is despite the fact that some speak even about their business expand or the opening of new locations.

"If you speak they tell the people face to face, that the economy stinks, but they're talking about as economically, politically", said Schneider, whose kunden include doctors, dentists, a pawn shop, and even an oxygen bar.

It is no secret that the Americans fed up with all the political squabbling over taxes, spending and debt of the Federal Republic. For some small business owners, the frustration with fear is whether or not coloured: they are concerned that the Congress will hurt the economic recovery the inability to find common ground, and cut into their business.

Bill Darling, Chief Economist, who said the National Federation of independent businesses, one of four companies the small business trade group in December said that it was a bad time to expand because of the political uncertainty. This is despite other signs that the economy is slowly better in areas such as housing and employment.

He said that many small businesses also reported that issues such as insecurity, Government, politics, and health costs involved their top issues.

He said "things, which you think, that companies make, was way down on the list". "Government dominates the top of the list."

Taxes are not the only problem it says has the potential to hurt small businesses. The small business trade group has been an outspoken opponent of President Barack Obama health care plan, the affordable care Act. The Group was a lead plaintiff in the proceedings of the Supreme Court, which tries to stop the plan.

Dark mountain said that it is too early to say whether political concerns and Government bonds ease in January, now that the fiscal Cliff problems are fixed. Congress is still on other issues such as the nation of credit recording limit and possible federal spending cuts scramble. Both could rely with the Government or else small business owners damage, the agreement on government spending.

But some say that for many small business owners with whom they work together, the fiscal Cliff negotiations were the major possible distraction, because it directly affects their taxes.

"When finally made the compromise, I think a general sigh of relief, at least something was, what had happened there", said Kim Loewer, a tax practitioner, operates Lower and employees in Weyridge, VT. "The uncertainty was gone away."

Now, many of the MOM and pop shops he works with know what are their tax liabilities, said Lower, that they can better plan for things like hiring and expansion.

In General, Lower, said that his customers that the entire spectrum of advisers to retailers lead - usually reports that business is going well.

"I don't hear as much about the economy not more where is", he said. "I think that right now, from the point of view of my clients, we have seen, to do better this year, an uptick in the economy (and) their business."

Schneider, the tax preparer in Florida, said that he will be expanded advertising efforts and social media for its own accounting and bookkeeping for small businesses. This is on the theory that more money for marketing draw in more customers, even if the economy is not so strong.

He is even in his wife, interior designer, to combat the effects of the recession and the weak economic recovery.

He said 'I your Feng Shui my Office made so that I could get rid of the bad mood'.

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Small businesses struggling to recover from Sandy

4:00 PM businesses, recover, Sandy, Small, struggling No Comments

Reuters
After filling trays with ruined inventory, advised many owners of New York City shops and restaurants wait for emergency loans and insurance or to try to finance their recovery by Sandy Superstorm personally.

Progress is uneven on lower Manhattan's trendy Avenue C, which was heavily flooded the historic storm over the past week.

Demand was a still unheated hardware store doing a cleanup and busy trade but a supermarket on the next block equipment was still closed and in disarray, one and one half week after Sandy flooded their basement and selling floor. A bar and a beer shopping on the other side of the road was open, but serve a limited menu for less than the usual customers.

"We have not the product to sell and we have to sell, not the people," said Zach Mack, co-owner of ABC beer co., which last week flooded for days save power.

The massive storm lashed ashore Oct. 29 and caused widespread flooding in New York and New Jersey, to more than 50 billion $ results in economic losses. The recovery effort, already by hindered sustained power outages and fuel shortages, was dealt another setback this week when a nor blew through Easter, provides the range of the first snow of the season.

With PSTN always still down, companies lose they say potential sales because they accept non credit card payments and insist on cash.

Recovery of the destroyed camps and equipment is slow because many suppliers were lost in flooded halls have and deliveries have been stopped if truck is either damaged or were not gas found after the crippling storm.

"It is by the fact, people here get so their own lives in order, they are not go out again put together," Mack said, though election night drew a decent crowd for his company.

How other entrepreneurs neighborhood told Mack that he was for emergency loans from the Federal Administration for small businesses and the city of the application.

The emergency increases Mayor Michael Bloomberg loans for small and medium-sized businesses by Sandy on $25,000 affected, and they are interest-free for the first six months. Around 1,000 companies have asked about the loan, said a spokeswoman for the Mayor.

On Friday morning low-interest loan of up to $2 million crowded more than 200 entrepreneurs Community Center neighborhood learn more about the loan request a gymnasium of the city and the SBA, offers. Many had complaints about utilities and grants referred to rather than loans should be.

After a weekend, filling a dumpster with flood damaged goods, hardware store owner Monica Pedreros said she would rather plunge into their savings as an emergency loan to take, they say new debt could not afford.

Laura Tribuno, co-owner of a nearby restaurant of Austrian cuisine, with a scaled-down menu again manufactured, said that it had requested in order to determine whether it was for the emergency loans but was undecided are, whether they were created in the value of interest.

C Avenue entrepreneurs say they have begun, claims file, but some are paralyzed by everything from telephone and Internet outages of the absence of an accounting staff still dealing with their own personal crises of the deadly storm.

For now, companies rely on their customers and the generosity of others. Many entrepreneurs said providers have offered, give them more time to pay bills, and some already wearing gloves, masks and boots strangers on their doorstep, and helps to drain basements and ruined the roadside equipment arriving towing.

"they made, what seemed like an insurmountable task of much go faster," Mack said.

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Tips to help small businesses survive hard times

6:00 PM businesses, Small, survive, times No Comments

There are over 27 million small businesses operating around the country, so how do you grow your company? msnbc's J.J. Ramberg, author of "It's Your Business," shares tips to give you a leg up on the competition.

Unlike Humpty Dumpty who took a fall and couldn’t be put back together again, there are a lot of small business owners out there who seem to have a sixth sense about how to take a fall without breaking!

Either through good luck or good sense, some entrepreneurs seem to have a knack for making the right moves at the right time to keep their businesses solvent.

TV news reporter JJ Ramberg, and two of her producers, Lisa Everson and Frank Silverstein, have been keeping track of these so-called "naturals" ever since the economy went south more than four years ago. They’ve just published a book of practical advice and usable wisdom from these natural born survivors called: "It’s Your Business: 183 Essential Tips that Will Transform Your Business."

BOOK EXCERPT: ‘It's Your Business’: Getting your company off the ground

Here’s a few of the survival stories from those who’ve learned from the school of hard knocks.

The soft touch

Meet Paige Arnof-Fenn (Tip No.108), owner of the Boston-based marketing company Maven’s & Moguls. When the work dried up, Paige went on a "listening tour." Instead of pitching new business to people who couldn’t afford it, she offered to meet former clients to talk about their current problems and long-term plans, with no strings attached. Now that the economy is showing some small signs of life, Arnof-Fenn reports that many of those same people are now hiring her.

The sharp elbows

Mike Michalowicz (Tip No.104), founder of New Jersey-based Obsidian Launch, took a more aggressive stand. “When a competitor goes out of business, immediately call the phone company and ask to have their number redirected to yours.” He told us. “You’ll have to train your staff to politely explain that the company they intended to reach has gone out of business, and you can provide them with excellent service.” Same goes for URLs as well. You might have to call the business and persuade them to sell you the Web address, but it might well be worth it.

The fancy dance

Juliea Kushnir (Tip No.84), owner of New Jersey-based Tax Solutions, kept herself afloat not by offering profit-killing discounts and price reductions, but by increasing "value" instead. She says she offered packages of services with a few extra bells and whistles (that didn’t actually cost her much to add) but made her services stand out from the crowd while keeping her fees at the same level.

The modern David and Goliath

Tom Egelhoff (Tip No.142), owner of smalltownmarketing.com, says one of his clients didn’t throw in the towel when the big box stores came to town. Instead, he beat them at their own game. How? By charging less for popular products than the big guys did. Are you wondering how he still turned a profit? While a small company can’t compete with a big chain on price for every product every day, it can beat them on price for a few hours on a few products on a given day. “Once you’ve got them into your small town store,” Tom said “then you can get them to return by showing off your better customer service, your more convenient location and the other competitive advantages that make small-business shopping more enjoyable.”

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Small business owners growing more pessimistic

5:00 AM Business, growing, owners, pessimistic, Small No Comments

Small business owners grew more pessimistic about the outlook for the economy during September as employment and sales remained weak.

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said on Tuesday its optimism index fell 0.1 point to 92.8 last month.

The decline is a sign that the U.S. economy is taking a hit from uncertainty over the possibility of tax hikes and government spending cuts next year, said William Dunkelberg, chief economist at the NFIB.

“Owners are in maintenance mode -- spending only where necessary and not hiring, expanding or ordering more inventories until the future becomes more certain,” Dunkelberg said.

Dunkelberg said uncertainty over the outcome of the upcoming Presidential election is also probably hurting sentiment.

The U.S. economy has grown at a lackluster pace this year, which has reduced President Barack Obama's chances of winning the November 6 election. Opinion polls point to a very tight race between Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

And looming over the economic outlook, the federal government is scheduled to tighten its belt severely in January unless lawmakers pass an alternative plan.

The survey did have some bright spots. The number of owners who believe this is a good time to expand their companies rose 3 percentage points. And the number of owners who expect business conditions to improve in six months gained 4 points.

But the number of business owners who plan to create jobs fell 3 points, while the number who plan to reduce their payrolls rose 2 points. More than a fifth of the survey's participants said weak sales are their biggest business problem.

The survey’s findings are in line with results from other small business surveys that show business owners are cautious.

The payroll service company ADP said last week that small businesses slowed their pace of hiring during September. There have been mixed readings on how much owners are willing to borrow, but the conflicting signals do point to small companies being very careful about spending for hiring or expansion.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Small business gives health ruling thumbs up

7:00 AM Business, gives, health, ruling, Small, thumbs No Comments

Tammy Krings doesn’t understand what the fuss is all about.

The small business owner from New Albany, Ohio thinks the Affordable Care Act the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Thursday will help lower the cost of providing health care to the 160 employees at her corporate travel agency, TS24.

“I was very happy about it,” Krings said after the court's decision. ”It will be positive for our organization.”

That puts her in stark contrast to small business advocacy groups, which argue that it will raise costs, add uncertainty to their businesses and put a damper on job creation.

Not so, says Krings. She said her company’s health insurance premiums will rise much more slowly than the 30 percent a year increases she’s been paying in recent years. By prodding younger, healthier workers to sign up for coverage, she said, the law will help offset the cost of covering older workers who consume more care.

“We don’t have the balance of healthy people on our program,” she said. “Our little business is, I think, a very micro example of what the country faces at large.“

Business groups reacted viscerally to the news that the high court upheld the law.

“Small-business owners are going to face an onslaught of taxes and mandates, resulting in job loss and closed businesses,” according to Dan Danner, President and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, which sought to strike down the law.

“Left unchanged, (the law) will cost many Americans their employer-based health insurance, undermine job creation, and raise health care costs for all," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue.

“This law will have a dramatic, negative impact on every employer and employee in the United States and further constrain job creation and economic growth,” according to Matthew Shay, CEO of the National Retail Federation.

With Thursday’s ruling, the 2010 health care law will continue to be phased in over the next five years. When fully implemented, it’s expected to provide health coverage to about 30 million currently uninsured people, extending coverage to more than 9 in 10 eligible Americans.

Some provisions are already in effect. Young adults can stay on their parents' insurance up to age 26. Insurers can't limit how much a policy pays to each person over a lifetime. Co-payments for preventive care have been eliminated.

For months, small business groups have complained that uncertainty about the health care law had produced a chilling effect on job growth, as employers postponed hiring decisions until the law’s legal foundation was settled.

To be sure, some uncertainty remains. Various specific regulations, for example, have yet to be written by the Department of Health and Human Services.

GOP vows to press for repeal
Republicans have vowed to continue to press for the law’s repeal, a prospect that will depend heavily on the outcome of the November election. Even if they fail in that effort, the sweeping scope of the law makes it likely that Congress will make changes in the next few years as its wider impact is felt.

"There have to be some tweaks,” said Mike McAllister, CEO of Humana, one of the country’s largest health insurers. “This is a big bill and in these cases there are things that have to be done in the next handful of years to make it better.”

One of those “tweaks” will likely center on the tax breaks the bill provides for the smallest businesses, who have complained loudly about the $2,000 per worker penalty that the law imposes on companies that don’t provide health coverage. That fee is partially offset by a tax credit for companies with 25 or fewer workers.

Some opponents of the bill have argued the tax credit provision could prompt very small companies to stop hiring once they reach 25 employees, or even fire workers to take advantage of the credit.

Under the health car law, all businesses with 50 or more employees must provide health care benefits to those employees by 2014. MSNBC"s JJ Ramberg joins NewsNation to discuss.

Krings said that argument doesn’t make much sense. “Maybe I’m just not as smart as these other guys,” she said. “But the fact is when I need people I hire them regardless of a tax credit or a tax break. A tax itself does not dictate how I manage my business.”

Newly created insurance markets are expected to make it easier for individuals and small businesses to buy affordable coverage.

The law also includes provisions to shift some of the cost of health care from employers to their employees, who will spend more of their own money when they seek medical care. The goal is to prompt patients to shop around for care rather than consume health products and services without regard for cost.

“People will have cost sharing, which they will manage out-of-pocket,” said Robert Kocher, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution. “That’s going to lead to market-based competition and tools coming on the market that show you the price that you'll pay for different providers. Those will vary by as much as 300 to 400 percent. That allows consumers to move towards the lower-priced, better-quality providers.”

Krings said she expects that cost sharing will help contain the overall cost of care and save money for companies like hers.

“Once you create that kind of transparency, that’s going to cause the consumer to take pause and say 'Wow: why is this so expensive?'” she said. “That’s part of what is broken. There hasn’t been this transparency. There hasn’t been the personal responsibility to care so much about it."

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Small business confidence climbs to year-high

4:47 PM Business, climbs, confidence, Small, yearhigh No Comments

WASHINGTON — U.S. small business confidence rose to a one year high in February as more owners reported plans to rebuild stocks after 56 months of inventory liquidation, hinting at a pick-up in domestic demand.

The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday its optimism index increased to 94.3 last month - the highest reading since February 2011 - from 93.9 in January. It was the sixth consecutive month of gains.

Last month, 14 percent of the NFIB's 350,000 members reported an increase in inventories, up three points from January. The share of businesses still reducing stocks fell four points to 20 percent in February.

The figures are not adjusted for seasonal variations.

"This is good news for economic growth, as many firms will be ordering new inventory to satisfy customers who are gradually increasing in numbers," the NFIB said in a statement.

The NFIB survey adds to a list of data, including employment, to suggest the economy is now firmly in a self-sustaining growth phase.

Government data on Friday showed job growth exceeded 200,000 in February for a third straight month, with the unemployment rate holding steady at a three year low of 8.3 percent.

A build-up of inventories helped to boost gross domestic product in the fourth quarter.

Economists believe businesses have little appetite to add more stocks, which could see growth this quarter slowing from the fourth quarter's 3 percent annual pace.

In the NFIB survey, plans to increase inventories increased five points in February. The number of business owners reporting stocks were "too low" exceeded those viewing inventories as "too high."

"Overall, it appears that small business owners have reduced inventories to acceptable levels given the outlook for sales growth," the NFIB said.

In February, more business owners expected sales to increase than in January. While the survey found little signs of inflation, despite a spike in gasoline prices, one in five business owners plan to raise prices over the coming months.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters.

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Small business confidence in December

10:19 AM Business, confidence, December, Small No Comments

Small businesses grew more confident in the economy of the future in December mark a fourth month straight to improve to an optimistic outlook for terms and conditions and a survey showed published real estate profits on Tuesday.

The National Federation of independent business, said his small business optimism index rose 1.8 points to 93.8.

Eight of the index 10 components were either improved or flat. Half he won due to reduced concern about business conditions six months in the future, the NFIB said.

The index is still in recession territory, but 6 points under the pre-recession average and more than 10 percentage points or more at the same point in the recovery from the recession of 2001.

The gains in the index are supported the view that economic growth will pick up in 2012, but the gains are not likely be significant if the index sharper, increases the group, said.

The NFIB reported earlier this month that small businesses to cut staff in December. The percentage of companies reporting, that the reduction in employment remained relatively low, but increasing the employment rate, although larger, percentage losses will not make up and historically low for an extension.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters.

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Small businesses back leading labour market

4:44 PM businesses, labour, leading, market, Small No Comments

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

A "now setting" characters and job applications will be outside of the soon to-be-open ACE hardware store in San Rafael, Marin booked California

By John W. Schoen, senior producer

Small businesses are kind of mood in a setting.

Take Tammy Krings, owner of the travel solutions agency based in Columbus, Ohio. To their employees from 125 from 65 more people boost because large companies chasing higher growth markets outside the United States.

"Where they have consolidated their travel in the United States or North America, they now say we want to search for opportunities in these other markets," Krings said.

How the labour market back is slow on the track, comes much of the setting of small businesses that have survived the storm of the past four years. Job offers and setting plans in December meeting of the second-highest level since the recession of 2007 December survey of the National Federation of independent businesses.

A number of strong signals might be translated in a positive surprise Friday, when the Government in one of the most closely watched December publishes economic reports of the month employment figures. On average, analysts estimate that the economy added 155,000 jobs last month from 120,000 in November. But this is unlikely to move the unemployed rate much of currently 8.6 percent, according to briefing.com.

"Large enterprises are not growing employment;" is it all during the recession small businesses, "said NFIB Chief Economist William dark mountain." "The orders now come back." The hairdresser, five chairs have to work and dropped to three, if people spending-cut now again and again to five.

The pick-up in hiring shows the unemployment rate to 8.6% of 9.0 percent in a series of economic reports, starting with last month's decline. On Thursday reported payroll processor ADP payroll, that a net gain of 325,000 jobs showed his monthly economic survey of enterprises in December, about twice as what to expect economists 204.000 private jobs were added in November after reporting.

Large companies (with 500 or more employees) 37,000 jobs, survey, added to so was most of the setting of small to medium-sized companies.

Many economists sound caution on the ADP data say that the number of seasonal factors have distorted. But with other data, that on a positive job Outlook added.

In a separate report said on Thursday, the Ministry of labour of the applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to a seasonally adjusted 372.000. That's 11 percent lower than the same period last year and the lowest level since June 2008. is generally A pace of new applications under 375,000 considered setting is strong enough to reduce the unemployment rate.

There were other signs a pick up the setting in the service sector. An index of the Institute for supply management-order group tracked rose to 49,4 of 48.9 in November. A reading below 50 means total employment, the levels over 50 shrink, which extend they are. In the ADP report, created by small businesses 148.000 jobs, 130,000 of them in the service sector.

As the job market improves, it takes some time, rent again the large pool of workers after the biggest financial collapse since the great depression. Despite the sharp decline in the unemployment rate last month report is hardly strong enough the current speed of growth, with the growth of employees to keep.

The recovery of the market place will remain likely to unequal on the various regions of the country and industry. The two sectors, the most job losses in 2011--Government and financial services - suffered are expected to continue in this year again, according to John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, gray & Christmas, the consulting firm fight, that tracks mass redundancies.

Setting also received a boost in the year 2012 of new small businesses have even created. As she took recession 2007 small businesses at a rate were not faster as new were created. This trend reversed in the spring of 2010: Companies are now started at a rate that exceeds the error is.

Many of these old jobs, but replaced require quite different skills through new positions. This is, why many laid-off workers have a hard time finding work.

Krings, applied, for example, new technology, service to customers around the world outside of normal office hours in Ohio. This has meant for workers with a new set of skills search.

"We need talent, but had a very difficult time trying to secure it," she said. "We need multilingual people." We need people who have traveled the world, but also understand the the technical side of what we are doing. "These kind of people are hard to find."

Insight into some much promising employment reports with CNBC's Steve Liesman.

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102.000 Cupcakes! Small bakery burned by GroupOn

7:49 PM 102000, bakery, burned, Cupcakes, GroupOn, Small No Comments

LONDON - a bakery owner was forced to 102.000 muffins, swamped by customers who take their cut-price GroupOn offer, according to reports Tuesday.

Rachel Brown typically offered a 75 percent discount on 12 muffins, will cost $40 (? 26), the BBC reported.

However Brown under - estimated the popularity of the deal and was not to deal with when 8,500 people for $10 (? 6.50) signed bargains.

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Browns need a cake bakery, which bring employs eight staff in reading, UK, temporary agency workers by an agency for work, had to - meet the orders at a cost of $19,500 (? 12,500) erase their profits for the year.

She lost it between $2.90 (? 2.50) and $4.70 (? 3) for each batch sold, the BBC reported.

"Without a doubt, it was my worst ever entrepreneurial decision," she told the BBC. "We had thousands of orders pouring in so far as really we had not expected to have." "A much larger companies would have overcome difficulties."

Chicago-based GroupOn sold Internet coupons for everything from spa treatments for cosmetic surgery.

Company sign up in the hope of getting new customers from the first transaction or additional goods sold to the purchaser during her first visit.

GroupOn was evaluation of the Division to $13 billion, earlier this month to $20 per share.

Brown, the business has been running for 25 years, was quoted in the Daily Telegraph saying: "we are proud to make cakes of exceptional quality but I had my usual employees in contract workers bring had nearly the same capabilities." I was very worried about the falling standards and hated the thought of someone breaking down.

"My bad employees were one of them having to away on all hour slog - came even on 03 because they couldn't ' t for fear of sleep," she told the newspaper. "We always work is still to make, the money lost and will not do this again."

Heather Dickinson, head of international communications for GroupOn, told the BBC, there was no limit to the number of coupons that could be sold.

"We go every company a tailor-made, individual approach based on the history of similar offers,", she said adding that the company "Contact" with need was a cake.

She told later msnbc.com: "we are working closely with small business, but ultimately, they know their best companies and what they are able."

She added: "having a national business wanted to run a cake with us, but we advised them in some cities have, so that they themselves too much would not."

© 2011 msnbc.com reprints

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