Small businesses make modest progress in September

According to one recent report, small business hiring increased in September, albeit at a slow pace.

Intuit's recently released Small Business Employment and Revenues Indexes grew by 0.2 percent last month, translating into around 40,000 new workers. The study also showed that monthly incomes rose by an average of 0.6 percent. According to economist Susan Woodward, who worked on the study, the results showed that the change was minimal given the slow rate of growth. She also added that more people were starting their own businesses than in recent years.

"This month's indexes bring both good and bad news," said Woodward in a statement. "After five years of declining self-employment beginning in January 2007, we began seeing a big comeback starting in November 2011."

In many cases, national organizations will hold events to help small businesses. In one recent example, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the Small Business Administration hosted the first National Encore Entrepreneur Mentor Day to give older people better networking opportunities, The Washington Post reports.

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