Contact Us Submit News Contact Us Write for Us Spark of Genius Series Mashable | The Social Media Guide Business Mashable on Facebook Join Us! This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum , where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. Mobile 2.0 MORE >>

Because, as in many other industries, business is cyclical, these smaller agencies, design shops, and marketing firms tend to exist on boom/bust cycles throughout the year. Other months, when business is slow, managers are left trying to keep their employees occupied and struggle to make the books balance. Small business Start ups MORE >>

Recruiting and hiring can be one of the more painful aspects to running a small business, but job applicants can go far to ease the process for those doing the hiring and, at the same time, improve their own chances of landing the job. Obviously salary is critical, but what about work hours? and is excited to start. Now MORE >>

If you are a small business owner or manager, it really doesn’t matter whether you are in the 50% of Americans who were thrilled about this decision or the 50% who were stunned in disbelief. In addition, tax credits that will kick in for many small businesses will mean savings of as much as 11% on total health insurance costs. MORE >>

The big boys like Facebook may attract all the media hype, but the strongest wage growth these days is actually at small businesses, a new report claims. There are lots of reasons to love small businesses. For the purposes of the index, small companies are defined as those with less than 100 employees. MORE >>