Acknowledging that these are tough times for small business owners, Governor Crist and the state legislature have decided to reduce the hefty increases proposed for Florida’s unemployment tax. But the two-year reduction plan could end up costing business owners more in the long run.
Florida was supposed to raise the tax on January 1 to replenish the state fund, which ran out of money because so many unemployed people claimed benefits.

In Think and Grow Rich, perhaps the greatest success manual ever written, Napoleon Hill says that one of the most important elements for achieving great success and riches is making sure that you have a Master Mind Group of extremely smart people to advise and help you.
I have followed this recommendation for more than two decades, starting with study groups in college and continuing to the group of ten business leaders who currently gather at my home once a month to share knowledge and provide mutual support. There is simply no way to overstate the value of having such experts on your team.
Now, not everyone has access to a Master Mind Group of brilliant business thinkers, but there is another way you can benefit from the wisdom of the greatest businesspeople in the world: Read the right books.

For two years, Horst and Luisa Ferrero have been on a mission to create a dedicated children’s hospital. It’s a personal cause for them, but the hospital could also bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue to the region.
October 10, 2007.
It’s a date Horst and Luisa Ferrero can’t forget. It’s the date their son Sebastian died as a result of a series of preventable medical errors that occurred at a pedeatric outpatient clinic at Shands at the University of Florida.
Since then, the Ferreros have focused on a plan to build a hospital specifically for children in Gainesville. In the process, they’ve started a movement that could revolutionize health care for the area’s youngest residents and create a huge economic engine for the city and Alachua County at large.

Thanks to $14.74 million in federal grants, more than 60 local employers will be creating new jobs in the next month.
The 656 positions are being subsidized with federal stimulus money through September 30, when the grants end. Between now and then, they will cover 95 percent of each worker’s salary and benefits.
If the program works as expected, it should boost the economy in the short-term, says Angela Pate, executive director of FloridaWorks, the workforce development board in Gainesville.