NCET

Credit card companies are canceling your accounts. Student loans, home mortgages, and auto loans are all getting harder to obtain, and the big bank where I have an account is insolvent; how about yours?  

Starting today, a range of next-generation financial services companies, all of whom employ technology in innovative ways, have teamed up to market some much-needed help to consumers with the Uncrunch America campaign. Like a team of of financial Superfriends, Lending Club offers personal loans through a peer-to-peer model. Read more:

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Thinking about starting a business? Make sure you’re cut out for it first.

In this bleak economy, lots of people are contemplating striking out on their own — whether they’re frustrated job seekers or people who are already employed but getting antsy about their company’s prospects.

For some people, entrepreneurship is the best option around, a way to build wealth and do something you love without answering to somebody else. But it’s also a huge financial gamble — and some people, unfortunately, will discover too late that it’s not the right fit for them.

Building a successful business can take years filled with setbacks, long hours and little reward. Certain personalities thrive on the challenge and embrace the sacrifices. But it can be a hard switch for someone who has spent years sitting in a cubicle with a steady paycheck.

So, how can you figure out whether you’re suited for self-employment? We spoke with entrepreneurship researchers, academics and psychologists to come up with a list of questions you should ask yourself before making a big leap. Entrepreneurs, of course, come from all sorts of backgrounds, with all sorts of personalities. But our experts agreed that certain attributes improve the odds people will be successful and happy about their decision. Read full story:

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Expo helps people seeking to start their own business in shrinking job market

By JENNIFER ROBISON – LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

People stroll the aisles at the Small Business and Entrepreneur Expo on Friday at South Point. The expo is projected to nearly triple its attendance from last year, an official said.

Local civil engineer Bill Bolduc has lost his job twice in the last year.

Rather than fret about his fate, though, Bolduc decided it might be the perfect time to launch his own company. Bolduc said he’s eyeing an engineering niche that few others serve, and working for himself could be his best opportunity to jump back into the labor force.

"I’ve never owned a business. I’ve thought about it often, but I’ve always had someone offer me a great job," Bolduc said. "Why take the risk and not make any money for that first year if someone’s offering you a job? But no one is offering me anything right now, so I have to make business for myself."

His interest in opening a startup led Bolduc to the Small Business and Entrepreneur Expo on Friday at South Point. Bolduc had plenty of company: The free show, a production of Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, was set to nearly triple 2008’s expo attendance through Friday night, said Dave Archer, chief executive officer of the center. Early registration numbers indicated that as many as 1,500 visitors might attend the expo, which also featured educational sessions on raising capital, marketing, networking and writing business plans. That’s up from 600 in 2008. The number of exhibitors jumped from 62 a year ago to 100 Friday.

Read entire story here

Liming Zhang, an assistant professor in the University of Nevada, Reno’s College of Science, has received a prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship for his growing potential as a research chemist. Zhang has now received two of the top national awards for young researchers, also garnering a $500,000 National Science Foundation CAREER Award last year.

The two-year, $50,000 Sloan Research Fellowship supports the work of exceptional researchers early in their academic careers and often at pivotal stages in their work. Past recipients of the fellowships, founded in 1955, have gone on to win 38 Nobel prizes, 14 Fields Medals (mathematics) and eight John Bates Clark awards (economics).

Zhang, 37, is one of 21 young chemistry professors to earn a Sloan Fellowship this year, with winners coming from institutions such as Harvard, California-Berkeley and MIT.

“This is a great honor, and I’m especially proud to be able to represent our university,” Zhang said of the Sloan Fellowship. “This honor shows that we do have the facilities and capacity to do the kind of science that people will be able to pay attention to.

“I would really like to thank my colleagues and co-workers in the Department of Chemistry, as well as my students. Without such great students and postdoctoral research associates, an accomplishment like this wouldn’t be possible.”

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