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Recently, many states, including California, Vermont and New York have adopted or are considering laws that permit a unique business classification called “benefit corporations.” Benefit corporations are companies that aim to balance both socially-minded business principles and profits.

Until now, legal requirements for corporations focused on one goal: profits. Today, benefit corporations add the legal duty of companies to achieve profits while also focusing on socially responsible activities — also known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Start-up businesses and existing small businesses would be well-served to adopt a benefit corporation structure. Companies that seek to establish sustainable principles as part of their business and marketing strategy and, more importantly, their corporate DNA, are positioned for long-term success.

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Mark Kelly spent 25 years as a fighter pilot and served in Iraq and Afghanistan before retiring from the U.S. Air Force in 2009.

After entering civilian life and earning a master’s degree in engineering management, the retired colonel started looking for opportunities to run a small business and asked FranNet, a franchising consultant, to help him with ideas.

One of those ideas was computer services franchisor TeamLogic IT, which is waiving its normal $40,000 franchise fee for the first 10 qualified veterans who apply. TeamLogic is one of hundreds of franchises that responded to the International Franchise Association’s “Operation Enduring Opportunity” campaign, which urges franchisors to hire and recruit 75,000 veterans and spouses and 5,000 wounded vets by 2014.

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Of all the peculiar places businesses advertise, a man's backside may top the list. But in the world of mixed martial arts, it's the most visible space on a fighter's shorts. For sponsors, that makes it the money spot, and, according to Bobby Harris, founder and CEO of BlueGrace Logistics, it's worth every penny.

Sponsoring a Nascar team or having the company logo on the Green Monster in Fenway Park may be the dream of every sports-loving business owner. But for most, the hefty price tag for a major sports sponsorship is out of reach. Niche sports, by contrast, can offer a worthwhile marketing experience at a fraction of the price. "Dollar for dollar, you just can't compare the value," says Harris.

Since it was founded in 2009, BlueGrace Logistics, based in Riverview, Florida, has sponsored more than 20 fighters. Why MMA? Harris got the idea to sponsor fighters after a chance meeting with Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight Jon ("Bones") Jones in a hotel lobby in Las Vegas. Not yet a big fan of the UFC, Harris didn't know what to expect from someone who gets kicked in the head for a living. So he was pleasantly surprised to find that Jones was a smart, charismatic guy, who, Harris says, "holds himself like a champ."  » Read More

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What lengths will an entrepreneur go to in order to get his start-up off the ground? As anyone who is embarking on a new business venture knows, money is tight, and if someone believes that they have a successful idea, they may resort to extreme measures in order to make that idea work. Eric Simons is an entrepreneur that has shown he is willing to do whatever it takes.

Simons, now 20, had been part of an incubator program that focused on education, called Imagine K12, which took place at AOL’s

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[AOL  Loading...      ()   ] campus in Palo Alto, Calif. According to CNet, he worked tirelessly on his start up, ClassConnect, which develops tools for teachers to build and discover lesson plans. He was part of an official incubator program for four months, but once that ended, he decided to stay to continue working on the project.

Because AOL never deactivated his security badge, he spent the next two months working 12 to 16 hours a day at the AOL offices, sleeping on couches, and using the gym facilities to workout and shower. Free food from the cafeteria meant he rarely left the building, all the while evading security.
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For those of us stuck working on the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend, a survey that concludes that "Summer Fridays" makes employees more productive gives us pause.

First, we're working today. Does that mean we are less productive than those lucky people who have jobs that allow them to take Fridays off, or have half-days on Fridays from Memorial Day through Labor Day? Who's to say I'm not productive?

Not Patron Spirits, sponsor of the survey, who reported that 75 percent of those surveyed said that having a Summer Friday policy would make them more productive workers.

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Small-business owners are leaning right leading up to the U.S. presidential election. Forty-nine percent of business owners plan to vote for presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, while 32 percent of respondents say they'll support President Obama, according to a report released this week by Manta.

In Manta's last poll in January, the president was the clear winner against the Republican field as a whole, but received just 34 percent of the total vote. Now, with Romney emerging as the GOP favorite, Obama appears to face a challenge among business owners — although Romney is yet to earn support from all the 61 percent of small-business owners who planned to back a Republican in January.

 » Read MoreIn the eight swing states shaping up to be the central election battleground, small businesses favor Romney even more, Manta found. Of the small-business owners surveyed in those states, 53 percent said they'll vote for Romney, while 32 percent said they will choose Obama.

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The MacLaren brothers are third-generation dairy farmers, but they will likely be the last in their family.

After working all their lives on the hillside farm in Vermont that their grandfather bought in 1939, rising to milk cows at 3 a.m., even in blizzards and sub-zero temperatures, they decided to call it quits, auctioning off their roughly 200 cows and equipment ranging from stalls and hoof trimmers to tractors and steel pails.

The sale marked the end of the last dairy farm in Plainfield — a small town that once had several dozen — and the 14th dairy farm to go out of business in Vermont this year. A few small dairies have opened, but overall, the number of farms continues to drop in a state long known for its milk and cheese. Farmers say they can't make ends meet when milk prices are low and feed and fuel costs keep going up.

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Thanks to high-profile successes like the Pebble: E-Paper Watch and Double Fine Adventure, crowdfunding has exploded in interest amongst businesses as an alternative to venture capital or angel investment.

The recent passage of the JOBS Act, which legalizes limited equity sales for publicly-backed projects, promises to further open the floodgates for enterprising startups. However, many inadvertently confuse these campaigns as fundraising efforts, because they call on the general public for support. Here are five reasons why crowdfunded endeavors are secretly more akin to consumer marketing efforts.

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