Take Note

Midsize Cities Best for Business Large cities no longer offer the optimum climate for business. According to a Harvard University survey, midsize cities are best. The survey measured positive attributes such as access to goods, services and workers and negative attributes such as higher taxes and cost of living, pollution, congestion and crime. Winning midsize cities included Denver, CO; Milwaukee, WI; Portland, OR; San Jose, CA; and Seattle, WA. Know Your Customers Do sporting events draw more attendance than cultural events? No, says the National Endowment for the Arts. Fully 46 percent of American adults surveyed said they attended an arts event in the last year as compared to 41 percent who reported going to sports events, it says. Included under arts were visiting a museum or attending an opera, theatrical, dance, jazz or classical music performance.

There's a Problem? Small businesses too often are ignoring the Y2K problem, which stems from computers failing to recognize dates after December 31, 1999. A study by Wells Fargo Bank shows only one in five small businesses has taken preventive action to deal with the problem. Two of five plan to do nothing and one in five does not even know about the problem. Hiring Unaffected by Wage Hike Generally, small business owners have not suffered because of the hike in minimum wage. Bard College surveyed 568 diverse small businesses and found the 1997 minimum wage hike from $4.75 an hour to $5.15 affected hiring decisions at just 6.2 percent of the firms. Respondents said even a raise to $6 an hour would slow new hiring at just 20 percent of the companies. Today's minimum wage totals $10,712 annually, or $2,090 below the poverty line for a family of three.