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Dear FSB: Can I apply for a business license online? Is there a place to find out if a business license is required for a particular state and business? How soon after publishing a DBA does one need to get a business license/sales permit?

I am 60 years old, but my company is even older. My great-uncle started it in 1921, when women wore feathers in their hats. But when bare heads came back into style, the company needed to evolve from a feather-dyeing firm to more of a full-service provider.

As owner of the real estate appraisal company Golf & Land Economics, Barbara Hanley is usually immersed in deals that will turn open space and woods into putting greens and fairways. But today she is in Westport, Mass., a town 30 miles east of Providence, scrutinizing the roof on a decaying barn that sits in a quiet pasture.

Dear FSB: My friend and I are planning to buy an existing business. My friend owns a house, but has no equity, and I'm in the process of buying a house. Will purchasing one affect our chance of getting a business loan from a bank? What would be best - to buy a house first, or buy the business first?

Soaring oil and gas prices and a swooning housing market are stretching household budgets to the breaking point -- and many Americans are falling behind on our bills.

JPMorgan expects its employees to do as they are told, when they are told, says a financial industry recruiter, while Bear Stearns brokers are not used to being told anything.