Almost two-thirds of small-business owners said in October that the credit crunch is affecting their ability to do business, and a small portion of those said they’d been forced to lay off workers as a result, according to a survey by American Express.

For more than two years, I have represented the businesses of the Northern Kane County Chamber of Commerce, which serves members in Carpentersville, East Dundee, Gilberts, Sleepy Hollow and West Dundee.

In a challenging economy, you must find new ways to make marketing work more effectively, get more out of marketing investments, and measure and account for marketing decisions. In short, you must make changes. Doing the same things in an uncertain econom

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/963925/bank_of_china_it) has announced the addition of the "Bank of China - IT Sales Opportunities - 2008" report to their offering.

On Monday, Congress will start to investigate how the financial mess on Wall Street happened. While the financial industry waits for the government to implement the $700 billion bailout plan, the lack of credit is not only hurting the national economy, it