On October 1, merchants were required to have special new credit and debit card payment terminals in place that are designed to accept special "chip" credit and debit cards.

In September, President Obama issued an executive order titled "Establishing Paid Sick Leave for Federal Contractors" that requires companies that do business with the Federal government to provide their employees with at least seven days of paid sick leave each year, including paid leave to allow for family care.

A law passed in 2010, Dodd-Frank, designed to reduce corporate and Wall Street fraud, has certainly been making headway toward its intended goals. However, an unintended side effect of the law has been increasing difficulty for small businesses to obtain loans from their community banks and credit unions.

A quarterly survey of CEOs of small to mid-sized business, called the Vistage CEO Confidence Index, conducted by Vistage (www.vistage.com) every quarter since 2003, is showing that, while CEOs of small and mid-sized business were somewhat optimistic about things in general in Q1 2015, they report less optimism in virtually...

As noted in a recent article on this website, a National Labor Relations Board decision that expands the definition of "employer" is expected to have a big impact on small businesses that make their livings as contractors, subcontractors, or employment agencies for commercial customers.

A recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling may end up either turning some small business owners into corporate managers, or causing them to lose large numbers of their commercial customers.

According to a recent report from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), frivolous lawsuits cause headaches for a lot of companies, but small businesses are sometimes the most frequent targets and also end up being particularly hard-hit as a result.

This infographic provides the latest stats on the best and worst tax systems for small businesses.