Archive for April, 2009

New Small Business Sales Tactic:Giving it Away!

April 30th, 2009 admin

Times are hard and with sales down and customers not buying, how does one maintain the business relationship? This USA Today article describes how some small businesses are giving away goods and services to maintain customer loyalty. This is happening in Northeast Florida as well. Get the story here.

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Small Business Pay in a Down Economy

April 29th, 2009 admin

Think it’s easy to run a small business – especially in a tough economy? Think again.

Consider an April 24 Wall Street Journal report titled “Entrepreneurs Cut Own Pay to Stay Afloat.” Two key points:

• “A number of small-business owners have stopped paying themselves as they struggle to keep their companies afloat. It’s impossible to know just how many owners are affected. But in a sign of the breadth of the trend, 30% of 727 small-business owners and managers surveyed by American Express Co.’s small-business services division said recently that they were no longer taking a salary. That’s a troubling sign for small businesses, which have created a significant share of the new U.S. jobs in recent years.”

• “It’s not uncommon for owners to give up salaries from time to time to give their companies a temporary lifeline, but business advisers and owners say the prevalence of salary cuts now is unusual even for a recession.”

Being a small business owners often is about sacrifice in order to keep paying employees, or just to keep the business going.

Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council

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Insights On Business Plans For Small Business

April 29th, 2009 admin

What are the primary goals of your business plan? You must answer this question before diving into a bunch of templates. Most templates are cookie cutters and may not achieve what you’re trying to do. Raising capital? Figuring out your business model? Researching the market and competition?

You need to know who you are writing it for and why. If you have this figured out you’re ready to roll. Some people these days will try to convince you a business plan is not necessary and is a waste of time. Unless you are a super lean high tech startup that “opinion” is a lot of hot air. There may be some truth in it ….. but the process of sitting down and writing it all out is an invaluable process.

If you want a good outline for a captial raising plan (not a template) try the Sequoia guys. They know what they’re doing.

Sequoia

You can also use the information from MyOwnBusiness.org.

This is their business plan section: MyOwnBusiness

You can download all 14 sections of the plan at: MyOwnBusiness Download

For a guide to follow (use what applies ….

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Can I deliver on my article title?

April 28th, 2009 admin

OR should I narrow my topic further?
1. Your article title should be specific, to the point, and  completely deliverable. If you are struggling with
delivering all the information promised in your article  title, consider splitting your topic into 2-3 separate
articles.
2. Acid Test your article title: Will your readers feel  satisfied and have their expectations met by your
article body content after reading your article title?
3. In terms of content supply and market demand for  information, it is true that there is a huge demand for
information on broad topics, but that comes with a  huge supply of content to meet the huge demand. I.e. Your article can get lost in the shuffle.
4. You may find a market advantage by answering the  long-tail demand of a niche topic by looking at the
more specific, narrowly defined questions your market  is asking for you to answer.
Get FREE Website Content

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Report on the Economic Health of Small Business in Florida

April 28th, 2009 admin

Article Written By
Dr. Rick Harper, Director
University of West Florida
HAAS Center for Business Research and Economic Development

Key Ingredients for
Florida’s Economic Recovery

Small businesses are responsible for the majority of job growth
in the private sector—addressing the insurance and tax problems will allow them to grow and ensure Florida’s recovery.

It’s again a pleasure to be asked to write about the economy for the Florida Small Business Development Center Network. I only wish I were writing about the economy of several years ago rather than now.  The Bad News is that local, state and national economies are unlikely to recover rapidly from the economic crisis.  The Good News is that if we respond correctly—to windstorm insurance and property tax challenges—Florida can again lead the nation in economic growth.

Florida has been hit as hard as almost any state by an economic slowdown that progressed from sub-prime mortgages into a full-fledged recession.  We are particularly vulnerable because we were at the forefront of a lending and building boom that now looks as if it will take substantial time to unwind.  The housing boom and hurricane rebuilding stimulated economic activity and sales tax revenue poured into state coffers through 2006.  It seemed reasonable to expect that the coming wave of baby boomer retirees would choose to make their home in Florida and that our growth rate, which had long been at least double the national rate, would increase still further.  Property prices nationally rose at greater than historic average due to low interest rates, aggressive lending and, as it turns out, lax regulation, but they rose especially rapidly in Florida.

The national bubble burst and left us with several problems.  The breakdown of incentives that traditionally brought population growth and economic opportunity to the State is one.

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Britain’s Anti-Entrepreneur Tax Hike

April 28th, 2009 admin

Just to show that bad economic policy is in no way limited to the United States right now, Great Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced that the nation’s highest marginal income tax rate will be hiked to 50 percent.

That’s a 25 percent increase from the current top rate of 40 percent. The 50 percent rate would kick in at $220,000 in annual income.

A Washington Post story on the issue reported two interesting points:

• “[T]hose who will pay the higher tax argue that it is a significant deterrent for an entire generation of entrepreneurs who have grown up paying no more than 40 percent of their income in taxes. Britain had a top rate of 83 percent in the late 1970s and a top rate of 60 percent until 1988, when the rates were slashed and simplified.”

• “Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber called it ‘the final nail in the coffin’ for the British economy. Actor Michael Caine threatened to move to the United States because of it, and one of Britain’s top soccer coaches said it could undermine the national sport… Critics say the measure, which targets those who earn more than about $220,000 a year, will create a brain drain and a new era of class warfare, undermining entrepreneurial spirit when it is most needed, while doing little to rescue the nation’s wheezing economy.”

This tax increase has nothing to do with sound economics, and everything to do with class warfare.

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Pushed Into the Waters of Entrepreneurship

April 27th, 2009 admin

For many, entrepreneurship is part of the American Dream. They want to own and run their own business.

Others – sometimes called reluctant entrepreneurs – get pushed into entrepreneurship. That is, they lose a job, and find that starting up and running their own business might be a better option than again working for someone else.

In the current tough economy, it can be a difficult decision. Once laid off, does it make sense to try to find another job, when businesses overall are shedding employees, or should one take the plunge into the entrepreneurial waters during a time of economic uncertainty and worry.

The April 27 New York Daily News ran a brief, but interesting piece on a few individuals choosing the small business ownership route, and served up some insights. In part, the Daily News reported:

It took being laid off twice in six months for Judy Goss to decide to launch her own business… Her career moves are what many people who’ve been shown the door think about: Is it better to look for a new job when few companies are hiring, or is now the right time to be your own boss?

Making the best decision will depend largely on your finances, risk tolerance, the type of business you want to launch and your drive…

Having a cash cushion is critical, said certified financial planner Scott Brewster of Park Slope, Brooklyn, because cash flow can be so unpredictable.

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Atlanta Business Chronicle: SBA misses deadlines on

April 27th, 2009 admin

We are hoping that there is relief in sight so that our clients at the UNF SBDC  have better access to loans. The U.S. Small Business Administration is the smallest Federal agency in our government and this may well be a part of the problem. Another issue may be that the SBA’s team surrounding Administrator Karen Mills has only recently come on board.

Atlanta Business Chronicle – by Kent Hoover Special to the Atlanta Business Chronicle

The Small Business Administration has implemented only two of the eight provisions that
were included in the economic stimulus bill to boost lending to small firms.

On March 16, the SBA eliminated fees on the agency’s 7(a) and 504 loans, and increased the
maximum government guarantee on 7(a) loans from 85 percent to 90 percent. The actions have
stimulated SBA lending; the agency is approving 28 percent more loans each week than it was before the changes.

“We feel encouraged by these types of numbers,” said SBA spokesman Michael Stamler.

Year-to-date lending numbers, however, remain far below last year’s levels.

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Do Your Potential Customers Forget About You? – Tom Kulzer

April 27th, 2009 admin

Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person’s need for information quickly!

But, after you’ve delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most small businesses online, you don’t.

When you don’t follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him.

Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn’t receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.

Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?

Following up with leads is more than just a process – it’s an art.

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Washington Biz Journal: SBA Team Picked

April 27th, 2009 admin

Tucker Echols Staff Reporter

Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Mills is filling out her management team.

Mills, who was confirmed by the Senate on April 3, has named a baker’s dozen of executives to help run the agency.

Heading Mills’ executive team will be Ana Ma as chief of staff. Ma has served as chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva and in various positions in the Department of Labor. Ma is from Tucson and a graduate of the University of Arizona.

Other advisers to Mills include, Sara Lipscomb as general counsel; Penny Pickett as senior adviser to the administrator; Jonathan Swain as assistant administrator for communications and public liaison; Christopher Chan as special assistant to the administrator and scheduler; Subash Iyer as special assistant to the administrator; and Kimberly Peyser as confidential assistant to the administrator.

Darryl Hairston will serve as associate administrator of the office of management and administration. Joseph Jordan will be associate administrator of government contracting and business development.

Toby J.G.

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USA Today:MBA Grads Create Their Own Jobs by Launching Firms

April 27th, 2009 admin

New hiring is down dramatically, and new grads are in the fiercest competition for jobs since the late 70′s. This USA Today article discusses the entrepreneurial attitude of thes grads in the wake of a down economy. Here at the SBDC, we are getting local grads from JU and UNF (as well others), who seek to create their own niche through entrepreneurship.
By Kim Thai and Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY
Faced with a bearish job market, many soon-to-graduate MBAs have dismissed the idea of making their marks — and big bucks — at Wall Street investment banks. Instead, a bevy of B-schoolers are launching fledgling firms.

Among the planned ventures: food companies, technology firms and real estate development.

“We have seen an increase in students wanting to take the entrepreneurial route,” says Roxanne Hori, director of career management at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. “More students have come forward and said, ‘I think I’m going to start my own thing.’ “

Kellogg MBA student Tiffany Urrechaga, 36, had hoped to break into education management after graduation. She previously had worked as a preschool teacher and a consultant.

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