According to the American Cancer Society, more than 40,000 women will die from breast cancer this year. Currently, there are more than 2 million women living in the U.S. who have been treated for the disease. Though it's a cause that deserves year-long attention, October is designated as Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Over the years, more and more people and companies have joined the fight against breast cancer. Think of all the pink ribbons plastered on products ranging from Yoplait's "Save Lids to Save Lives" campaign to Target's "Pink Ribbon" items like pendants and spa robes. In addition to Yoplait's "Save Lids" program, the company is also advocating the cause to business owners and inspired individuals with its "Yoplait Champions" contest. Yoplait will select 25 people who've made extraordinary efforts in the fight against breast cancer and will donate $1,000 in each of their names to the charity of their choice.

If your business involves shipping internationally, you've probably filled out more than a few of the tedious customs forms that go along with shipping packages across the border or overseas. Now, UPS is providing "paperless" service to help both your business and the environment. The new "UPS Paperless Invoice," which will be introduced in January, will eliminate the need for paper commercial invoices. The service allows shipments to clear customs using electronic data in place of the paper forms. The electronic system should reduce the chance of making an error, which many customers are prone to do when filling out the lengthy paper customs documentation. "UPS Paperless Invoice saves time, money and trees," said Kurt Kuehn, UPS senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. "It saves our customers time and resources by reducing office supplies and staff time associated with customs paperwork. It also gives our customers an easy, painless way to make a positive environmental impact by eliminating paper."

In addition, UPS announced another program, "UPS Returns," which will help companies shipping internationally facilitate faster and easier returns. With this system, package recipients will be able to receive the international return label and commercial invoice via e-mail, standard mail or from the UPS driver picking up their return.

The September 2007 SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard, an economic indicator that tracks the health of U.S. small businesses, reported a rebound in owner optimism, increased small-business hiring and higher small-business salaries.

The percentage of owners saying they are optimistic about the economy fell to 69.5 percent last month but rebounded to 78.3 percent in September, after the Fed lowered interest rates.

"Much of the concern we saw last month regarding the subprime real estate crisis seems to have dissipated," notes SurePayroll president Michael Alter. "It looks like we may have a softer economic landing than most of the pundits expect."

The SurePayroll Hiring Index ended the month at 10,788, a 34-point increase (32 percent) from August. September marked the tenth straight month of hiring growth in the small-business economy. Salaries also continued to rise, albeit at a slow clip. The SurePayroll Pay Index was 1,053 at the end of September, up two points (17 percent) from the end of August. Year to date, small-business hiring is up 3.3 percent and small-business salaries have increased 3.5 percent.

The SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard is based on payroll records of over 18,000 companies who use SurePayroll's payroll service. For more details on SurePayroll's analysis, visit SurePayroll's website.