3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: July 6

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. Small business hiring picks up. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees added 93,000 jobs in June, higher than figures from May and April but below the average 100,000 jobs added in the first quarter of the year, The Associated Press said Thursday, citing an ADP report.

Coming on the heels of a separate jobs report by Intuit(INTU) suggesting that businesses with fewer than 20 employees created a preliminary 70,000 jobs in the four-week period ending June 23, the data could mean that small businesses are feeling more confident about the economy.

ADP estimates businesses added an overall 176,000 jobs last month up from the revised number of 136,000 in May, according to the AP.

The ADP survey can deviate sharply from the Department of Labor's nonfarm payroll report.

According to Friday's jobs report from the Department of Labor, companies added just 80,000 jobs in June, lower than what economists were expecting, but still ahead of the May job figures. The Labor Department said unemployment held at 8.2%.

2. Entrepreneurial lessons from a drug dealer. Jeff Henderson, these days known as 'Chef Jeff,' learned a lot from his days as a crack cocaine dealer, where he was making up to $35,000 a week.

After five years selling crack and nearly 10 years in prison, Henderson cleaned up his act and went on to become the first African-American chef at the Bellagio. He is now a successful entrepreneur and founder of the Henderson Group, a catering, publishing, multimedia and consulting firm. He credits his drug-dealing days for lessons in entrepreneurship, according to the Huffington Post.

"The same traits that a successful drug dealer has are the same traits any legitimate entrepreneur has," Henderson told HuffPo. "You have a product, you have a marketing plan, you have a vision, you build relationships. You outsmart, out-strategize the competition."