Summer’s here in full force and, no matter where your business is located, chances are your employees have caught summer fever. How can you keep employees motivated, engaged and present when beautiful summer days are calling them away?

The big essential for summer management is being realistic. Know that employees will take vacations, want random days off and, yes, stare out the window longingly at about 3 in the afternoon. That said, here are some ideas to help your team enjoy summer without leaving your business high and dry:

Another "Call to Action" you say? Well… (not sounding like Reagan) if you don't mind watching your chances diminish for getting an SBIR/STTR award, or starting a new high tech business utilizing SBIR opportunities, then hit your delete button and relax.

Folks, this is as hard for me to write as it is for you to read, so lets look at a few quick action items you may want to consider. Keep in mind that many of the brightest and most experienced SBIR minds are also deeply concerned with the SBA proposed rules. So are many of the premiere SBIR/STTR guidance and assistance folks such as Fred Patterson (The SBIR Coach), Gail & Jim Greenwood (Greenwood Consulting Group) and John Davis (SBIR Resource Center) who have all written about this situation.

Now the stakes have been raised because Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) and Congresswoman Niki Tsongas (D-MA) have written (but not yet distributed) a Dear Colleague letter to muster support in the House to press the SBA not to adopt several of the anti-small business provisions of their proposed SBIR size standard. The letter hasn't been sent out yet, but please consider asking your representative to sign on to it today. The letter calls for the SBA to respect the congressional intent to keep SBIR as a domestic program for small business.

As you wait for the elevator to arrive after another mediocre day at the office, you give yourself an all-too-familiar pep talk. "I'm better than this, and I've completely had it with this job," you tell yourself. "I'm outta here for good."

As you ride the elevator to the lobby, you visualize your last day at the company. You fantasize about walking into your manager's office, tabling your resignation letter, and cleaning your forsaken cubicle for the final time. You flash your trapped colleagues a half-sympathetic smile, but you're barely able to contain your excitement at the new direction you're about to take. By the time you exit the elevator to the ground floor, the fantasy ends, and your once-slumped shoulders suddenly stiffen with resolve. You're actually going to resign tomorrow!

Our subject for today is the care and feeding of small businesses.

“I love you guys,” Mitt Romney told a teleconference hosted by the National Federation of Independent Business. “I love the fact that you’re working hard to follow your dreams and to build businesses. I — I love you guys. I love the fact that you’re — that you’re working hard to — to follow your dreams and to — and to build businesses.”

To summarize: We love you, guys.

And they’re everywhere! The Small Business Administration defines a small business as one with fewer than 500 workers, and that’s 99.7 percent of everything out there. “There are 5.7 million firms with employees in this country, and about 5.7 million have fewer than 500 employees — rounding slightly,” said Robert McIntyre, the director of Citizens for Tax Justice.

The latest trends in mobile are leading the “gigabyte revolution” which will take us to the one gigabyte per user per day by 2020, says CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks Rajeev Suri.

The evolution of mobile technology will lend itself to an era where connectivity will be a human right and download speeds will be 10 times what they are now.

Suri was speaking at the Korea Communications Conference, which explores the journey of mobility and its future potential.

“Connectivity will be a human right, and it will be about personal context and a family of devices on the same platform. Today we are already starting to see sensors, machine to machine communication and intelligent applications,” says Suri.

How different would conditions be today economically and politically if unemployment were 7 percent instead of its current 8.2 percent? For one thing, some two million unemployed workers would have jobs, and the rate of economic growth would be comfortably above 2 percent, instead of below that pace. This scenario could have been possible if federal aid to states had been bolstered, saving hundreds of thousands of public-sector jobs.

Mr. Obama can make a convincing case that his policies — especially the stimulus and auto industry rescue — helped cushioned the effects of the recession he inherited, which pushed the jobless rate from an already elevated 7.8 percent in January 2009 to 10 percent by October 2009. It has come down, more or less, steadily since then. But it is still higher than when he took office — a point that Mitt Romney and Congressional Republicans have seized upon as evidence of failed policies.

Want inspiration as an entrepreneur? Set aside those books about managing and leadership. This World War II story with a tragic ending might just be the best pure entrepreneurship guide out there.

If you live and breathe entrepreneurship, chances are you've read some of the better books out there on the subject. There are memoirs such as Sam Walton's Made in America and Richard Branson's Losing My Virginity, along with how-to books, such as Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start, Eric Ries's The Lean Startup, and the many, many works by Michael E. Berger.

The European Commission has announced a new €365 million a year innovation partnership scheme aimed at boosting the development of ‘smart’ technologies in cities, EU officials told the press on Tuesday (10 July).  For 2013, €365 million in EU funds have been earmarked for the development of urban technology.

The European Innovation Partnership (EIP) will see private business and the EU executive pool research from energy, transport and ICT to develop a limited number of approved projects.

Examples of mooted projects included silent electric city buses that use digital technology, satellite technology aimed at improving traffic flow, a smartphone application for reserving alternative fuel rental vehicles, and fast charging mechanisms for electric vehicles.

U.S. Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank today announced $1.2 million in Economic Development Administration (EDA) grants to universities in eight states as part of the University Center Economic Development Program, a partnership to leverage university assets to promote American innovation and strengthen regional economic ecosystems.

"These $1.2 million EDA investments in University Centers nationwide are examples of the Obama administration's commitment to investing in higher education so that our students have access to the skills they need for 21st century jobs," said Acting Secretary Blank. "The eight grants announced today will help American universities support the entrepreneurship and job creation that are vital to economic growth in each of these regions."

During a freewheeling brainstorming session about how to get more of the research out of hospitals and universities, and into the hands of companies to make them into products, the senior vice provost for research from Drexel University, Deborah Crawford, put out a passionate idea: that a research university has a duty to its country to support aggressive technology transfer.

Here’s her full statement, which came near the end of the “Whiteboarding Tech Transfer” panel at MedCity CONVERGE:

There are plenty of mobile health apps — about 40,000 some media reports reckon — and investment has surged.

Last year, about $439 million was invested into 70 deals for healthcare startups that develop mobile health apps along with tools for online social networking, according to a Dow Jones Venture Source report published earlier this year.

But as Ted Driscoll, a technology partner with venture capital firm Claremont Creek Ventures sees it, investors interested in the mobile health space could be turned off by companies with products that can’t be protected from would-be copiers. Theoretically, patents are only supposed to be issued if products are unique and different, but it doesn’t always turn out that way.

The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) today announced 22 awards totaling $3.1 million for the second round of the FY2012 Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF). The awards were made to 20 organizations from academia, the research community and industry across Virginia for the purpose of funding targeted areas of research with commercial promise aligned with the Commonwealth Research and Technology (R&T) Strategic Roadmap.

The second round of the CRCF solicitation brought in 90 eligible proposals, totaling nearly $14.6 million, and spanning a spectrum of industries identified in the Roadmap as priority areas for Commonwealth investment. Awarded projects represent the areas of advanced manufacturing, aerospace, communications, cyber security, energy, environment, information technology, life sciences and modeling and simulation.

Cash-burning R&D-stage biotechs have big appetites for cash, which is typically addressed with an equity-based diet.  It’s also supported through corporate partnerships and other less dilutive means such as grants and foundation funding.  But another important and often under-appreciated source of capital are the debt markets – taking a loan out to provide working capital for further R&D.

One might ask why and how a company that won’t have profits for a decade can raise any money through the issuance of debt, but it happens frequently, and the “venture lending” business is actually very robust.  Players like Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Oxford Finance, Hercules Technology Growth Capital, and Horizon Technology Finance (and many others) are all very active supporters of emerging life science companies.

Babson College startups are receiving support this summer in Undergraduate and MBA Hatcheries located on Babson's Wellesley campus.

As part of the John E. and Alice L. Butler Venture Accelerator Program, the Hatcheries provide a vibrant atmosphere conducive to sharing ideas and information among student teams, faculty, executives-in-residence and visiting entrepreneurs.

The Hatcheries function like incubators where student entrepreneurs have access to professional and semiprivate workspace to grow their businesses. Student businesses go through an application process before they are selected. Teams are awarded space in the Hatcheries one term at a time.

As I think about the primary success factors in the first year of Contactually, and how it differs from previous ventures I’ve undertaken or observed, staying motivated is one of the most crucial factors. Given that your new venture is, by default, a failure, having the mental strength to keep the fire going in your heart – and in your team – is an incredible challenge.

Statistically, you’re going to crash and burn. Why get out of bed this morning?

In some of my past ventures, the moment I hit any serious doubt (competition, marketing issues, stagnant metrics, users deactivating, technical challenges, negative feedback), I could almost watch in the mirror as the passion for my idea slowly faded away, to be replaced by something else in my notebook of ideas.

It may sound like a pretty obvious thing to say but the single most important people for a startup is its users. While it is true to say that investment can criticial, and staff help drive a business, a service or product has to have users in order to attract both of those in the first place – with very few exceptions.

All startups are inherently focused on their users to help them grow, but that same focus needs to be maintained when companies are in a less successful position, or perhaps even a downward spiral towards closure.

If you want to find the U.S. states and regions with the brightest future, look west. Gallup analysis shows that the West North Central, Mountain, and Pacific regions are likely to be the best areas to live in 20 years, based on the strong economic, health, and community foundations they are building today.

The best place to live in 2032 will have tackled unemployment, financial worry, healthcare costs, obesity, and education challenges. It will be a place where most residents are healthy, optimistic, employed in good jobs they love, and enthusiastic about their communities.

I saw an email from a CEO the other day. In it, he said “I” over and over again. There were numerous places where he referred to “my company”, “my team”, “my product”, and “my plan.”

It bummed me out. I know the people on “his team” and they are working their asses off. The company is an awesome company and the CEO is a great leader. But there was a huge amount of “we” in the effort and when I read the note, all I could think about was how demotivated I would be if I was on “his team” and heard “I I I.”

In today's economy, it's easier than ever to start a company: with the rise of angel investors and crowdfunding, raising money has never been easier -- while technological changes mean startups need only a fraction as much cash as they used to. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean there's less risk.

In fact, the risk equation has simply moved from the startup phase to the endgame. As IPOs become increasingly rare, more and more emerging companies are looking to be acquired - but there can't possibly be buyers for them all.

The University of Denver Office of Technology Transfer has formed a partnership with the Innovation Center of the Rockies to help commercialize inventions and intellectual property developed by DU researchers.

The university said ICR, a non-profit organization, was chosen after a national search. The organization will provide a program manager who will work closely with DU researchers and the school's technology transfer office to translate technical material into understandable language, identify potential commercial uses, and work with a mentoring team.