Small Business

A New York mom with two kids in college and income worries wants to relaunch her old catering business -- which would help the family budget and let her resume a career she loved. Where can she find the start-up money? DailyFinance's Laura Rowley whips up a few ideas.

ReceiptLoader, an iPhone app that has been downloaded thousands of times, was the brainchild of Pablo and Francisco Tirado, brothers who grew up almost like twins, despite a 1.5 year age difference, on the island of Puerto Rico. Personal experience with the impossibility of elegantly tracking paper receipts gave them the idea for a recession-proof business.

With U.S. unemployment continuing to top 9%, just having a job is enough to make many of us feel grateful. But one job isn't always enough. The new order of the day: combining two jobs to make a livable salary. Do you have the drive it takes to be a successful moonlighter or 'moonpreneur'?

The macaron is a filled cookie about the diameter of a half dollar coin that has become a foodie currency in its own right in recent years. It's simple in concept, but near impossible to get right -- and for the first time, Laduree, the French bakery and tearoom that made them famous is opening a U.S. boutique. So, let them eat cake!

The dream of Raphael Alvarez was to open a salon. His timing, it seemed, could hardly have been worse: Finding a loan was impossible, and his original location was snatched away. But Alvarez still managed to start his small business, without help from a big financial institution, in this desperate economy. Here's how he did it.

You may already be familiar with many of the independent retailers in your home town, but how do you find mom-and-pop shops when you're traveling? The 3/50 Project's new iPhone app might help. It links users to its directory of small businesses, so visitors can support the local economy.

As the creation of new jobs slows and layoffs continue, small businesses keep hiring. ADP is betting those companies will continue to buck the trend. It's setting up new services to capitalize on that growth.