Archive for June, 2009

SBA Small Business Loans :ARC Loan Update

June 18th, 2009 admin

The SBA’s ARC Loan program started June 15th. As of today it is known that Wachovia Bank, Regions Bank, and BB&T are participating. It is thought that Suntrust and Banco Popular may also be a participating bank but this is not confirmed. Contact the bank directly to get a loan application. Contact your own bank and ask if they are participating.
We believe that these banks are only doing ARC Loans for existing account holders. We will be glad to assist any small business in our 18 county service area in preparing a loan package and provide technical assistance as needed. Stay tuned for updates.
America’s Recovery Capital (ARC) loans are deferred-payment loans of up to $35,000 available to established, viable, for-profit small businesses that need short-term help to make their principal and interest payments on existing qualifying debt. ARC loans are interest-free to the borrower, 100 percent guaranteed by the SBA, and have no SBA fees associated with them.
The ARC loans can provide the critical capital and support many small businesses need to make it through these tough economic times.

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An Odd Take on Business Taxes in Oregon

June 18th, 2009 admin

Last week (June 13), The Oregonian ran an article with an odd take on taxes in Oregon.

The article – titled “Business taxed more, people still taxed most in Oregon” and written by Brent Walth and Bill Graves – opened: “Oregon businesses will continue to enjoy one of the lowest tax burdens in the nation even after the Legislature voted last week to raise their taxes.”

Really?

As for the tax hikes, the state’s corporate minimum tax based on sales revenue (i.e., a gross receipts tax) was increased; the corporate income tax rate was increased to 7.9% (previously 6.6%); and personal income tax rates were increased, with new rates of 10.8% and 11% added on the top end of the rate structure (previously, the top rate was 9%).

Previously, Oregon had a heavy tax burden for businesses and entrepreneurs. For example, the state ranked 34th on the SBE Council “Business Tax Index 2009.”

Now the state will have the highest state personal income tax rate in the nation. And by the way, most businesses – more than 90 percent – pay the personal income tax as sole proprietorships, partnerships, S-Corps, etc. The corporate income tax rate will move from the middle of the pack to one of the more burdensome.

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How To Pick A Name For Your New Business

June 17th, 2009 admin

There are many sites that generate random names (for businesses or other things), so many that I’ve stopped bookmarking them. But while they might loosen up your mind for a brainstorming session, if you really want to name a new business, I doubt you want a name chosen at random.

As for doing a search on the availability of a name, there are several places you’ll need to do that, depending on where you plan to do business. I’d start with the USPTO trademark database, because if someone else has trademarked the name you’re thinking of, you have to start over and come up with another one. But you’ll also have to check the corporate/LLC databases for your state and the fictitious business name database for your county.

Dot-o-mater is a great website for generating a business name. It’s primarily geared toward Web 2.0 companies, but I find it can be used for anything. It has a simple mode of just generating pseudo-random names and a more sophisticated, and I find more useful, mode of combining different permutations of prefixes and suffixes to generate unique names. It also has a very useful feature to bulk check which domain names from the list are unregistered.

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Almost half the nation’s Internet users now take part in online social networks. Attend our workshop June 26th

June 17th, 2009 admin

Mark Harden, who writes for Bizjournals notes that almost half the nation’s Internet users now take part in online social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, almost twice the rate of a year ago, The Conference Board reported Tuesday.

Of Web users, 43 percent use a social networking Web site, up from 27 percent last year, the nonprofit global research group said in its quarterly Consumer Internet Barometer.

The most popular site is Facebook, used by 78 percent of social network participants, followed by MySpace (42 percent), LinkedIn (17 percent) and Twitter (10 percent).

The survey tracks about 10,000 Internet-equipped households nationwide.

It said seniors age 55 and older are quickly increasing their use of social networks, up from 6 percent last year to 19 percent this year.

Women are more likely than men to use social-network sites (48 percent versus 38 percent).

The majority of users log on at home, The Conference Board said, with a quarter logging on at work, and 10 percent connecting through their phone.

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Small Businesss Link of the Week: Melissa Data

June 17th, 2009 admin

Melissa Data is an information delivery service company that provides cost effective data solutions, helping businesses increase their revenue revenue.

Some of the innovative products this company offers include list services, direct mail operations, data cleansing, mailing software, list services, address management tools and high quality up to date, sales leads and mailing lists.
Melissa Data also helps businesses prevent inaccurate, incomplete and undeliverable addresses from entering a database.

Melissa Data also provides a free lookup service of more than 30 databases. The service offers reference data on ZIP code maps, congressional district maps and U.S. home sales by ZIP code. According to the firm, more than 500,000 users have accessed its lookup service.

The information is fun and free. If you are collecting data where zip codes can be helpful, this site is for you. We searched under Business Count by Zip for 32216 in Jacksonville and found out there are 4,797 businesses located there. We then looked up Nonprofits by Zip and found 135 in 32256. The list also told us what IRS 501 entity they were and listed the value of their assets.

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Good News on Inflation … For Now

June 17th, 2009 admin

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation registered 0.1 percent in May. In April, the change in CPI changes was flat.

Over the past 12 months, the CPI actually declined by 1.3 percent – the biggest drop since April 1950.

So, no one should be worried about inflation, right?

Well, two issues are worth pondering.

First, keep in mind that the numbers reported today are backward looking. It’s like trying to drive a car by looking in the rear view mirror. Bottom line: Just because inflation has been tame in recent months does not mean it will be tame looking ahead.

Second, since inflation results from too much money chasing too few goods, business owners and investors should be wary given the unprecedented expansion in the money supply by the Federal Reserve over the past nine months.

So, we have good news on inflation … for now. Looking ahead, there are real concerns. Barring some miracle pulled off by the Fed, inflation will be picking up. The only question is: When?

Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council

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Good Ideas on Government and the Private Sector from Senator Thune

June 16th, 2009 admin

U.S. Senator John Thune (R-SD) issued a press release on June 11 with two excellent ideas regarding government and the private sector.

The first was the introduction of the Government Ownership Exit Plan, which would “require the federal government to end its ownership of private entities acquired under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) by July 1, 2010. The bill also prohibits the future acquisition of new or additional ownership interests in private firms through the use of TARP funds and prevents the federal government from making management decisions in private companies in which it has an ownership interest.” If the Treasury Secretary sees a reasonable chance for future gains in assert values, the divestiture deadline could be extended to, but not beyond, July 1, 2011.

Thune notes that over the past 15 months, the federal government has acquired direct ownership stakes in two car manufacturers, multiple financial institutions, and 532 banks. That’s disturbing.

Thune correctly stated: “Government ownership and control of private business crowds out investment, innovation, job creation, and diminishes the entrepreneurial spirit that made America an economic superpower by instead adding hundreds of billions of dollars to our national debt.

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Judge Sotomayor and Property Rights

June 15th, 2009 admin

In a recent SBE Council Cybercolumn, I looked at President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor. The piece focused on what businesses should be asking when it comes to a Court nomination, and how, in some key areas, Sotomayor generates questions and uncertainty.

One of those areas was property rights.

I noted: “Most worrisome, she joined an order in the 2006 property rights case of Didden v. Village of Port Chester that supported a town seizing private property for use by a developer. The decision lined up with the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 Kelo decision that trampled all over the U.S. Constitution and the private property rights of individuals and small businesses. This a fundamental issue, and individuals and small business owners should be concerned.”

The Monday, June 15, New York Times ran an important article with more details on this case.

The Times reported:

The ruling in Didden is not popular among some property rights and constitutional law professors. Eight of them filed a brief in 2006 unsuccessfully urging the Supreme Court to hear an appeal. “This is the worst federal court takings decision since Kelo,” said Ilya Somin, who teaches property law at George Mason University and helped write the brief.

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How To Improve Your Business Efficiency

June 15th, 2009 admin

An important key focus every business should not over look is improving the efficiency of their business. If you can save X hours a week this will increase your profit by around X%. If you don’t know what the “X’s” are …. you need to figure it out. Those are numbers you should always consider any any planning and decision making. This will ensure you continue to deliver a consistent and quality service to your clients.

You can start by identifying the largest bottlenecks …. and then started working through the list in order of priority (biggest positive impact on your bottom line).

Here’s some example actions you could consider ……..

* Develop a process document for each product. Create templates for meeting agendas and brainstorming sessions

* Set up a default diary (e.g. Monday – planning, Tue-Thur – client work and business development, Fri – review, finance management and product development)

* Reorganize the documents in your computer system as per the flow of your business e.g. business planning, marketing and sales, client work, financial management, product development

* Purchase and set up ACT!

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Article Writing: Paragraph and Grammar Structure

June 15th, 2009 admin

Coherence literally means “to stick together”.  Coherence in paragraph writing means that all of the ideas in a paragraph support the topic sentence of your paragraph and allow the reader to easily understand the ideas you want to express.
Paragraph coherence can be achieved by using major and minor connectors, these are also called “transitions”.
Major Connectors: Major connectors help organize the main points of your paragraph. These can also be expressed as bulleted or numbered lists.
Examples:
* First,
* Second,
* Third,
* Finally,
* In conclusion,
* To summarize,

Minor Connectors: Minor connectors provide coherence to a paragraph by connecting the sentences within each of the main parts of your paragraph.
Examples:
* In addition,
* Others include,
* …,but… * also
* That is,
* For example,
* For instance,

Paragraph Unity means that the paragraph is about only one main idea or topic.  All the sentences in the paragraph (topic, supporting/detail sentences and sometimes, the conclusion sentence) are telling the reader about one main topic or idea. If you have a sentence that is not directly related to your main topic, your paragraph is considered to “lack unity” or the sentence is “off-topic” and should be removed from the paragraph.
Each paragraph in your article is a sub-division of your complete article topic.

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Smart Businesses are Planning for Rebound, Staying Ahead of Competition.

June 15th, 2009 admin

Joyce M. Rosenberg writes in this Associated Press article, that visionary small businesses are preparing now for the turnaround and will be poised to take advantage of new growth while their competition only slowly awakens.  If you don’t have a plan, you need to create one. If you have a plan, it probably needs updating. Contact the UNF SBDC. We can help you prepare for the future.

LOOKING FOR THE REBOUND

Many small businesses plan for the economic upturn

NEW YORK— No one knows when the economic recovery will begin, but many small-business owners are getting ready for it. They’re marketing, reworking business models and looking at possible real estate deals. Some are even hiring on the expectation an upturn is not far off.
Donn Flipse, owner of Field of Flowers, floral superstores in Boca Raton and Davie, Fla., said he’s moved away from “thinking in the short term, business is bad, I’ve got to really cut my expenses and keep it tight,” and is now saying, “business is going to get better, so I’m going to do something to position myself to do even better than my competition.”
Flipse has been looking at all aspects of his operations, trying to ensure that they’re working efficiently.

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Cell Phone Tax Idea Hurts Small Firms and their Workforce

June 12th, 2009 admin

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) declared that a move by the Internal Revenue Service to impose new federal income taxes on individuals with company-issued wireless devices is a picky initiative that will impose more burdens and costs on small firms and their employees.

According to a Wall Street Journal news report, millions of Americans could face higher income taxes due to a portion of their annual employer-issued phone expenses being assigned as a fringe benefit.

Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of SBE Council, said: “Health benefit taxes, cell phone taxes – what’s next? This is another nuisance tax that will add costs and burdens for small businesses and their employees. There will be increased tax compliance costs, and lost business for the wireless industry and manufacturers as many firms will simply choose to cancel contracts. None of this is good for the economy, or makes sense.”

The Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy reported in 2005 that the per-employee cost of regulation for small business was already a staggering $7,647. Tax compliance for small firms is 67 percent higher than for larger businesses, according to Advocacy’s study.

SBE Council chief economist Raymond J.

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