We see all sorts of conflicting  reports about whether the decrease in small business lending is caused by meager demand or stingy supply.  But the research usually comes from different institutions.

Now it looks like people within the Federal Reserve are reporting divergent opinions.

Small business CFOs and finance executives are often stuck using retail online banking solutions to run their businesses and manage finance, as banks and solution vendors badly miss the mark in offering the functionality that companies of this size need. Such is the finding of a new report out by consultancy Celent.

The report says that current solutions for small businesses are often a mishmash of consumer products with bolted-on cash management features. Many of the systems on offer in this space have decades-old navigation and layout, and have a lot of catching up to do in order to come close to satisfying this unique group of customers.

The Obama administration and the SBA may have tried recently to loosen small business lending through new legislation. But a new study shows they have a long ways to go to reach small companies-or even to get them to understand what the SBA does.

 A study from CIT Group, which surveyed more than 300 small business owners, found that around 50 percent of respondents didn't know what the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act was or how it might help their companies. The study was conducted before the bill was signed into law. Still, it's legislation you'd think small businesses would have noticed, since it does such things as eliminating borrowers' fees, raising the loan guarantee to 90 percent from 75 percent, and increasing loan limits.  It also creates a $30 billion lending fund to community banks.

As portrayed by its opponents, the reinstatement of the estate tax could lead to the demise of small businesses across the country. "The estate tax falls hardest on those who maintain a family business, often forcing family business owners to sell the business in order to pay the tax," according to the website, www.nodeathtax.org.  

The numbers tell a slightly different story. According to a 2009 report from the Congressional Budget Office, the 17,400 taxable estate tax returns filed in 2007 (for 2006), represented .7 percent of adult deaths that year. About 2.1 percent of farmers and 2.4 percent of small business owners who died in 2005 had to file estate tax returns, the CBO reports. Of those, almost all had sufficient liquid assets to pay the tax, particularly considering that heirs can spread payments over 15 years.

It may not be as sexy as the latest iPhone or iPad apps, but Google is reaching out to small businesses with a new range of finance and management apps geared specifically at SMEs, and have promised to launch new small company tools each Tuesday.

In its first release, companies can take advantage of accounting and finance app Outright, which provides automated data gathering from various external sources, such as banks and payments service providers, like Paypal.

Prediction: Over the next 10 years, one big barrier to entry for startups--access to cash--won't be an issue.

Those are some of the conclusions of a recent report from Emergent Research and Intuit  that discusses small business trends over the next decade.  

Small business owners have much to ponder this week as tax cut discussions and a potential repeal of an onerous accounting change passed under the Health Care Reform Act hit the spotlight.

Much dialogue in the media this week has centered on how the Obama administration will address the extension of Bush-era tax cuts to top-tax-bracket taxpayers. Underscored as part of that conversation is the impact the withdrawal of those tax breaks will have on small business.

Goldman Sachs has announced a partnership with small-business and microfinance developer Opportunity Finance Network to launch the 10,000 Small Businesses CDFI Small Business Financing Initiative.

Opportunity Finance Network is an organization supporting community development financial institutions (CDFIs) that provide small and micro businesses in the US with development loans—in particular for low-wealth and low-income individuals and companies.

The contraction in lending to small companies is a result of deteriorating revenues, not a slowdown in demand.

That, at least, is the conclusion of a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It studied 426 small businesses last summer and found that demand for loans actually has increased, but banks have been turning more companies down. And that, of course, flies in the face of other research that shows the lack of lending is due to fewer businesses seeking loans.

We're moving towards a "barbell" economy and it's a trend that will impact companies of every size.

That's one conclusion of a recent report on small-business trends over the next decade, from Intuit and Emergent Research. Specifically, the prediction is that there will be fewer, larger global giants on the one end, a narrow middle of mid-sized firms that increasingly will be gobbled up by big players, and a big group of small and micro businesses at the other end.