The economy has left many small businesses in the dust when it comes to unfair trade practices. Bigger and more powerful businesses have started scalping the talent from smaller businesses. The scary part? Sometimes there is nothing that small business owners can do about it.

CNN  reports how one small business owner almost lost it all because her employees were stolen away from her by a larger rival. Ms. Debra Killian details how she lost 10 of her employees to her rival. Not only did her rival allegedly steal her employees, but it also allegedly stole her pending loans which were worth close to a $1 million dollars, her client lists, and her confidential files.

The worst part was that after fighting a lengthy legal battle that lasted four years, she ended up with a losing verdict on all counts.

While many small businesses want to hire more employees, many small business owners feel that they can not afford the benefits that come with a new hire.

A press release from Intuit, Inc. states that: "The latest Intuit Payroll survey from Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq:INTU) finds that nearly half of the small business owners surveyed, 44 percent, are planning to hire new employees within the next 12 months. At the same time, many small business owners believe that benefits are key to attracting new hires but are finding them difficult to afford."

Many small business owners say that they are in a bind. In order to attract the talent that they need in order to succeed, they need to offer benefits such as healthcare and retirement benefits.

As we wrote about in a previous post, small business owners cite healthcare costs as a major hurdle faced by their business.

In a National Small Business Association press release, the President of the organization has stated that "The number of small-business owners who are able to provide health insurance to their employees has dropped from 67 percent in 1995 to 38 percent in 2008. NSBA members voted health care reform their number one priority for 111th Congress--addressing the failures of our health care system simply can not wait yet another year."

Since healthcare reform is such a hot topic for small business owners, here are some key points of each of the proposed bills being discussed in Congress right now.

The key points (which are discussed in Forbes) will help you gain a deeper understanding of what each of the bills holds for you as a small business owner.

As you have read in our previous posts in Small Business Social Media 101, 102, and 103, Facebook plays a pretty vital role in growing your small business.

However, it can also bring about some issues of oversharing from you, your employees, and even your customers. 

Using Facebook to vet job applicants is becoming more common too. In fact, 30% of today's employers are using the social media site to do just that.

This can be seen as harsh, but when the economy is tough it can seem like a necessary measure. You may do it in order to protect your business from job applicants who have illegal recreational activities, may potentially embarass you and your business, or just have a poor work ethic.

Here are five tips that you can learn for yourself and pass along to your employees in order to put your business' best face forward on Facebook.

The New York Times does a great job of outlining these tips.

Small business owners may have to rethink their wellness rewards programs because of new rules and regulations under the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act; which is known as GINA.

GINA was introduced as a safeguard to protect against employers and health insurers collecting genetic information from individuals and using it to make decisions about health coverage, hiring and firing and promotions.

However, lawmakers have made it very clear that GINA will influence the way employers conduct their wellness rewards programs.

For a small business, finding the right number of employees is a delicate balance.  And though economic times may pose a formidable hurdle in the present, visionary entrepreneurs are often looking to the future and imaging how their ventures will be able to grow, expand, and still output quality goods and services. 

According to a survey released by Intuit this week, it looks like small business may be ready to start recruiting new players to the team.  Over 40 percent of small business owners polled said they are planning to hire new employees sometime over the next year.  Sixty percent of small business owners anticipate their business will grow in the next year.

If you are small business employer in Colorado, snow may not be the only precipitation falling from the skies this winter.  Colorado minimum wage is anticipated to drop from $7.28 an hour to $7.24 per hour on January 1, 2010, one cent below the federal minimum wage.

The Department of Homeland Security has projected that worker absentee rates could reach 30% or even 50% this flu season, as reported by the Sacramento Business Journal.   A survey by the Harvard School of Public Health was also cited as finding that only one-third of companies reported that they could continue business as usual if half of their workers were absent for two weeks. 

The U.S. has had 9,000 confirmed cases of H1N1 flu (swine flu) so far, with worldwide numbers topping 350,000.

What can your business do?

Here are five steps you can take now, cherry-picked from the earlier post  on the subject: 

For small business owners who wear many hats in the course of a single day, playing HR specialist can be among the most challenging of those roles.  And if this week's U.S. Supreme Court nod to let stand a $35.6 million verdict against Family Dollar Stores for unpaid overtime pay to store managers is any indication, it can prove to be an employer's most critical responsibilities as well.

One major source of confusion, and the basis for the Family Dollars Stores suit, is whether to classify workers as exempt or non-exempt (hourly).  In the case of Family Dollar Stores, store managers claimed violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act by classification of managers as exempt employees, not eligible for overtime pay.  However, a jury found that the plaintiffs should have been classified as hourly workers and thus should have been receiving overtime pay.  Though the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed the facts of the case, in the end they decided against hearing an appeal on the matter, thus solidifying the verdict amount and judgment against the defendant store.