The Entrepreneur

If there’s one thing Americans should have learned from the recession, it’s the importance of diversifying risk. Middle-class households had too much of their net worth tied up in their homes and were too exposed to stocks through 401(k)s and other investments. Despite the hit many Americans took, there’s little sign they’ve changed their dependence on homes as the mainstay of their wealth. Last year, Christian Weller, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, looked at Federal Reserve data for households run by those over 50. The number of families with what Weller calls “very high risk exposure”—a low wealth-to-income ratio, more than three-quarters of their assets in housing or stocks, and debt greater than a quarter of their assets—had almost doubled between 1989 and 2010, to 18 percent. That number didn’t decline during the deleveraging years from 2007 to 2010; its growth just slowed to a crawl. The Fed will conduct a new wealth survey in 2013, but don’t look for a ...

Joe Stewart’s day starts at 6:30 a.m. in Myrtle Beach, S.C., with a peanut butter sandwich, a sugar-free Red Bull, and 50,000 or so pieces of malware waiting in his e-mail in-box. Stewart, 42, is the director of malware research at Dell SecureWorks, a unit of  Dell ( DELL ) , and he spends his days hunting for Internet spies. Malware is the blanket term for malicious software that lets hackers take over your computer; clients and fellow researchers constantly send Stewart suspicious specimens harvested from networks under attack. His job is to sort through the toxic haul and isolate anything he hasn’t seen before: He looks for things like software that can let hackers break into databases, control security cameras, and monitor e-mail. Within the industry, Stewart is well-known. In 2003 he unraveled one of the first spam botnets, which let hackers commandeer tens of thousands of computers at once and order them to stuff in-boxes with millions of unwanted e-mails. He spent a ...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ( WMT )  had the worst sales start to a month in seven years as payroll-tax increases hit shoppers already battling a slow economy, according to internal e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News. “In case you haven’t seen a sales report these days, February MTD sales are a total disaster,” Jerry Murray, Wal- Mart’s vice president of finance and logistics, said in a Feb. 12 e-mail to other executives, referring to month-to-date sales. “The worst start to a month I have seen in my ~7 years with the company.” Wal-Mart and discounters such as  Family Dollar Stores Inc ( FDO ) . are bracing for a rise in the payroll tax to take a bigger bite from the paychecks of shoppers already dealing with elevated unemployment. The world’s largest retailer’s struggles come after executives expected a strong start to February because of the Super Bowl, milder weather and paycheck cycles, according to the minutes of a Feb. 1 officers meeting Bloomberg obtained. Murray’s...

It hasn’t drawn much attention, but Facebook’s first annual earnings report contains an accounting gem: a multibillion-dollar tax deduction for the cost of executive stock options and share awards. Even though  Facebook ( FB )  reported $1.1 billion in pre-tax profits from U.S. operations in 2012, it will probably pay zero federal and state taxes —and even receive a federal tax refund of about $429 million—according to a Feb. 14 statement from Citizens for Tax Justice. The tax-research and -lobbying organization says companies such as Facebook should treat stock options the same in their reports to shareholders as they do in their tax filings. Citizens for Tax Justice calls the tax footnotes in Facebook’s Jan. 30 financial statement “an amazing admission,” but there’s nothing illegal about the breaks the company is claiming. Companies like Facebook are allowed to treat the cost of non-cash compensation, such as stock options, as an expense that reduces profits, ess...

Facebook OPEN Big Break for Small Business Contest Official Rules NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Facebook OPEN Big Break for Small Business Contest (the "Contest") starts on June 19, 2012 at 9:00AM Eastern Time (“ET”) and ends on July 15, 2012 at 11:59PM ET ("Contest Entry Period") . ELIGIBILITY: Contest is open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia, who are of legal age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence (and at least 18) and who are owners of a for-profit small business with $10 million in annual revenue or less. Please note: Owners of small business that sell or promote any of the following are not eligible to enter or win: pharmaceuticals, drugs, drug paraphernalia, pornography or sexual aids, diet aids, gambling, liquor, tobacco or firearms/weapons. In addition, any small business that has been featured in any American Express OPEN advertising in the twelve (12) months prior to the st...

By:  Nellie Akalp  |  AllBusiness.com  |   Contact Filed In:   Legal   and   Finance We’ve rolled into 2012 and for entrepreneurs, the new year offers a great opportunity to start a new venture and turn your vision into reality.   If 2012 will be the year you begin your business, there are a few things you've got to keep in mind in order to make your business official. And the sooner you address the legal matters, the better.  To help you sort through the legal ins and outs of starting a business, here are some of the top questions new entrepreneurs ask: Do I need to incorporate my business?   Many small businesses consider themselves too small to worry about incorporation.  However, whether you're a self-employed PR consultant or wedding planner, incorporating or forming an LLC (Limited Liability Company) can be a smart idea. Here's why: Liability protection:  The LLC and the Corporation (C ...