Lankford Pushes Flexibility Act to Limit Small Business Regulation

Senator James Lankford (R-OK) has introduced The Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2017 aimed at streamlining and improving the regulatory process for American small business.

Co-sponsored by Senators Chuck Grassley, who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Jim Risch, chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, the bill seeks to prioritize the needs of small businesses with passage of any new regulations that might impact them.

“Small businesses are responsible for nearly two-thirds of the job growth in America, so it is important that Washington fully analyzes regulatory impacts on small businesses before a rule is finalized,” said Lankford in a release from his office on the new bill.

“This bill is desperately needed because federal agencies frequently use loopholes in the process to avoid the full economic analysis of a proposed regulation on small businesses. The Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act will ensure that the needs and priorities of small business are fully taken into account early in the rule making process.”

3 Features Business Software Desperately Needs

I’m going to be blunt. Some of the best companies in the world use genuinely terrible software. It can be slow, complicated, have limited abilities, hide critical information, be boring to look at, or all of the above. All of those problems take a toll on employee morale and productivity. These are key factors that data shows to have a significant effect on overall company success.

Gallup estimates that disengaged or unhappy employees cost the U.S. economy $450 to $550 billion every year in lost productivity. Yes, that is billion with a ‘b’, meaning there are millions of employees who go to work every day and are ineffective or unmotivated. While business software is not the only cause of those problems, it is a known contributor.

Bad software can make simple tasks tedious and frustrating. Simple things like finding important documents, communicating with colleagues and finding out when company events are happening can require navigating through a labyrinth of boxes and windows and forms in the company’s software.

So why is company software built so poorly? According to Sean Nolan, a thought leader in modernizing business software and the CEO of Blink, it is the fact that software developers aren’t keeping users in mind from the beginning.

10 Tips for Connecting With Customers Online

If you want your business to succeed online, you can’t just sell to customers — you have to actually connect with them. Luckily, there are tons of different ways you can do this. And members of our small business community are well versed in all of those different techniques. Check out some of their top tips below.

Learn the Do’s and Don’ts of Connecting Through Instagram

If you use Instagram for your business, then you have access to a great tool for connecting with customers and other members of your target audience. But there are some do’s and don’ts to consider when using the platform. Lexie Lu elaborates in this post on Design Roast.