According to the latest economic reports, our economic recovery continues to be very fragile and slow. The index of leading economic indicators rose in October for the seventh straight month but by less than it did in September. Jobless claims were down and stock prices were up.

New home construction was down by almost 11 percent, the lowest number in six months. Hopefully, the extension of the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers until April 2010 will fuel new home construction in the months to come.

Retail sales were up 1.4%, based mostly on automobile sales. Only 0.3% of that amount were non-automobile sales.

Industrial production inched up by just a little due to the small increase in retail sales and inventory reduction stalled. The Consumer Price Index did not indicate any need to worry about inflation.

One worry is that the unemployment rate will rise even higher than 10.2% where it is now. These statistics show that we will enter 2010 in a slow and shaky economic recovery.

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Believe it or not, there actually are government grants available for small business. They are only in certain industries and competition is fierce, but they are certainly worth checking out. There are some size limitations and other eligibility requirements.

Grant applications are notoriously long and time-consuming to write. Not only that, but they are difficult to write. If you decide to write a grant application, you might want to get some help, perhaps from your local Small Business Association or SCORE office.

Check out eligibility requirements and available government grants at Grants.gov.

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In a surprisingly (to me) development, Bloomberg News reported today that Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathway, the largest shareholder in Goldman Sachs, and Goldman Sachs are teaming up to join President Obama's initiative to help 10,000 small businesses. The initiative ranges from counseling to helping small businesses find funding.

The 10,000 Small Business Initiative will be chaired by Buffet, Michael Porter of Harvard Business School, and Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs.

When announcing this initiative, Blankfein apologized for the role Goldman Sachs played in the Wall Street crisis in 2008, acknowledged that his company was in the wrong, and stated that they want to play a part in the recovery to make up for it. They have paid back the TARP money they received, with dividends.

This sounds good. We'll see how far it will go!

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In a recession, one of the problems small business has is translating the sales dollars they do generate into profits. Why? Because of their expenses. Even when sales drop, many expenses, like overhead, remain the same. Some expenses drop when sales drop. Cost of goods sold, for example, tend to drop when sales go down because they are variable costs.

How do you measure whether your sales dollars are translating into profits? One of the best ways is to calculate the Operating Profit Margin Ratio. A high operating profit margin ratio shows good cost control on the part of the company and/or that sales are increasing faster than costs.

Take a look at your income statement and calculate your operating profit margin ratio. See what you can find out!

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