Archive for July, 2009

Competition in High Capacity Telecom

July 31st, 2009 admin

Choices for consumers – including small businesses – in the telecommunications arena have expanded rapidly in recent years. Contrary to claims and concerns from various politicians and/or regulators, the market is vibrant, innovative and competitive.

However, on July 7, The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Justice was taking a look at telecommunications firms: “The review is expected to cover all areas from land-line voice and broadband service to wireless,” including exclusivity deals between wireless carriers and cell phone/handheld device makers.

On the previous day, U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, chairman of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, sent a lengthy letter to Christine Varney of the DoJ’s Antitrust Division and Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Kohl declared: “I am concerned that the concentrated nature of the cell phone marketplace could lead to future price increases for [text messages] and other cell phone services relied upon by millions of Americans.” While saying he supported more choice and competition, he got much his market information wrong (such as the actual prices of texting) and went on to support or call for rules and regulations that would restrain investment in wireless and other broadband infrastructure; have spectrum allocated according to political preferences rather than sound economics; and reduce investment and innovation in phones/handsets (such as iPhone, BlackBerry, et al).

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Cash Flow: The Life Blood of Small Business

July 31st, 2009 admin

Nice article in yesterdays Tulsa World talking about how important the cash flow statement is to bankers who are reviewing small business loan applicants and their business plans. When we are reviewing business plans and coaching a client who will be presenting their plan to a bank for consideration, we make sure the client understands their cash position and how it plays in to their future cash projections. The banker will be looking closely at your projected cash flow from the time the loan is received to ensure that there will be enough cash coming in to the business to:
  • Run the business properly
  • Pay salaries
  • Pay back the loan

So here are some things to keep in mind as you project cash flow:

Do the numbers make sense? What changes to the business make your numbers believeable?
Finally, keep the numbers conservative.
The Small Business Development Center at the University of North Florida has workshops that address this topic. SBDC Certified Business Analysts are available free of charge to review your plan and discuss your cash position and projections so that are a useful tool and a strong indicator of your capacity to pay back a bank loan.
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Connecticut Tax Hikes

July 31st, 2009 admin

Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, a Republican, apparently has given up on tightening the state’s budget, and given up on helping the state’s economy, by proposing a bevy of increased taxes.

According to the Hartford Courant, Rell’s tax hikes include jacking up the state’s cigarette tax from $2 per pack to $3 per pack, which comes on the heels of a 2007 increase from $1.51 to $2. Also, Rell called for a 10 percent increase in the tax on alcohol, and a three-year, 10 percent surcharge on corporate profits (moving the top corporate tax rate from 7.5 percent to 8.25 percent).

As for the Democrats that run the state legislature, they want a higher cigarette tax as well, but also are seeking a big jump in the state’s personal income tax rate (moving the top rate from 5% to 7%) and the imposition of a 15 percent (down from 30 percent) surcharge on corporate profits (shifting the top rate to 8.625 percent).

The Courant reported: “Overall, Rell is seeking to raise taxes by $391 million, while the Democrats intend to raise taxes by $1.8 billion over two years.”

In Connecticut, taxpayers, including entrepreneurs, small businesses and investors, face bad ideas from a Republican governor, and even worse proposals from Democratic state lawmakers.

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How To Measure What Your Small Business Does ….. And Focus Your Efforts On What Makes You Most Efficient

July 31st, 2009 admin

Flynet is currently in the process of developing a dashboard portal to enable smaller businesses to take advantage of the advances in business intelligence and dashboarding.

A Dashboard is a visual display that can be linked to your existing Computer Software, such as Excel, Sage and many others that organizes and presents information in a way that is easy to read. Measurements are displayed automatically in the form of analogue gauges, dials, traffic lights or visual graphs on a web page. This means measurements can be easily taken and presented ‘live’ or on an hourly, daily, weekly monthly basis.

Benefits of a Dashboard to your business …..

Focus: Defining the metrics that are most important to your business allows you to tune out everything that isn’t related to those key measurements. As a result, you’ll find that focus on the areas that make you most efficient.

More Insight: Companies that monitor and visualize key metrics can spot threats and opportunities faster than companies that don’t.

Your metrics will give you keen insights into what’s happening within the four walls of your business as well as the ability to compare your business with overall trends in your industry. Dashboards provide a framework for making business decisions.

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Support for ObamaCare?

July 30th, 2009 admin

The Wall Street Journal just reported that the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll shows that more people oppose than support the health care agenda being pushed by the President and Democratic leaders in Congress.

The Journal noted:

Support for President Barack Obama’s health-care effort has declined over the past five weeks, particularly among those who already have insurance, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found, amid prolonged debate over costs and quality of care.

In mid-June, respondents were evenly divided when asked whether they thought Mr. Obama’s health plan was a good or bad idea. In the new poll, conducted July 24-27, 42% called it a bad idea while 36% said it was a good idea.

Among those with private insurance, the proportion calling the plan a bad idea rose to 47% from 37%.

People have good reason to be skeptical of what would be, in effect, a government takeover of health care in this nation, with an accompanying rise in costs and decline in quality of care.

Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council

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Everyone’s at Risk – Combating the Increasing Threat of Online Fraud and Identity Theft

July 30th, 2009 admin

IRS Stakeholder Liaison Phone Forum

Date: August 19, 2009

Cost: FREE

Location: The convenience of your home or office

This IRS phone forum is for:

• Tax professionals

• Attorneys

• Payroll professionals

• Industry partners

• Small business organizations

• Small business owners

• State and local governments

Learn about:

  • IRS identity protection efforts
  • Process for reporting tax-related identity theft
  • Victim assistance
  • IRS efforts to combat online fraud targeted at taxpayers
  • How to report phishing schemes targeted at taxpayers


Sign up now for the event of your choice

• Select the time that works best for you

Note: Time zones shown are Daylight Saving Time.

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Symposium on End of Economic Downturn?

July 29th, 2009 admin

National Review Online asked the following symposium question this week:

Now that the stock market is beginning to rally and profits are once again being reported, we called and asked them what they make of this good news. Did TARP work, or at least help? Should President Obama get credit? Will he?

I chipped in an answer, along with several other economic and financial experts.

Check it out here.

Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council

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Small Business Resources – 9 Tips For Online Success

July 29th, 2009 admin

This contribution is from Jen Woglom Ohs of Boomerang Websites. The article outlines tips for online success specifically geared towards small businesses. There are resources listed here at Small Business Resources cafe to accomplish much of what Jen recommends. For example …. professional website design and website hosting.

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I hear every excuse from small businesses as to why they aren’t online. Many find the process too daunting or too expensive to even try. And unfortunately, many of those that are online aren’t utilizing all the tools available to find any real benefits. The truth is, having an online presence is no longer expensive, time-consuming or too difficult for you and your business to do. It does, however, require a little planning and foresight. So, to help get you going, we’ve put together 9 tips to help ensure your success online.

9. Get a professional design.

Template sites are a quick and easy way to get online and announce to the world that you’re an amateur. If you want to be taken seriously by colleagues, clients and potential customers, you need to take your brand seriously. This includes your website.

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Maximize CPM

July 28th, 2009 admin

One factor outweighs all others in achieving the best CPMs possible: quality high-value traffic.
In the current economic climate, the days of burning through end-of-quarter budgets from lofty advertisers are unrealistic. Advertisers are increasingly looking to achieve their CPA performance goals while spending less on pure branding campaigns.
Publishers need to adjust.
To maximize your potential and deliver high CPMs, you need to be aware of your click-through rates and improve the performance conversion rates of your users. Matching campaigns with your user demographics will help this. One simple example: gaming campaigns work well on gaming traffic. Ideally, advertising should be an appealing part of your overall site content.
Too many ads seen in one day by your audience also hurts eCPMs. Frequency cap your traffic to generate higher CPMs. The first view is always the best quality, so displaying the ads with a “freq cap” of 1/24 can be a standard request from advertisers. Keep in mind that certain ad sizes and placements always perform the best: 300×250 medium rectangles and 728×90 leader boards are often the best performing sizes. Picking obscure sizes can result in not having the creatives to run in the placement, as there is a lack of advertisers and, thus low CPMs.
Placement is critical to performance too.

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Commerce Secretary Locke and Emissions Tariffs

July 28th, 2009 admin

It’s bad enough when the U.S. energy secretary and the Democratic leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives talk favorably or vote in favor of protectionist trade measures in the name of fighting so-called manmade global warming, but the U.S. Commerce Secretary as well?

In case you missed it, speaking before the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai earlier this month, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, according to Reuters, said:

It’s important that those who consume the products being made all around the world to the benefit of America — and it’s our own consumption activity that’s causing the emission of greenhouse gases, then quite frankly Americans need to pay for that.

Reuters went on to report:

Though U.S. President Barack Obama has expressed concern about the House “carbon tariffs”, Locke said it was an open question whether he opposed them or not. “The president has not taken a position on any particular element of the legislation,” Locke said. “It’s simply premature to talk about individual pieces of the legislation without seeing it in its totality,” Locke said, noting the Senate still has to pass its version of the bill.

Wait a minute, shouldn’t the Commerce Secretary be a strong voice for free trade, and reduced costs on businesses and consumers?

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High-Tech Immigrant Entrepreneurs

July 27th, 2009 admin

Immigrants are critical to the well-being of the U.S. economy. And that most certainly includes immigrant entrepreneurs.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy released a new study by David Hart, Zoltan Acs, and Spencer Tracy, Jr. titled “High-tech Immigrant Entrepreneurship in the United States.”

Among the findings of a survey of “rapidly growing high-impact, high-tech companies” were:

• “We find that about 16% of the companies in our sample had at least one foreign-born person among their founding teams. This estimate is lower than that found in most previous studies of high-tech immigrant entrepreneurship. Nonetheless, our data show that immigrants play a crucial role in this vital economic activity.”

• “Policymakers are rightly concerned that government should sustain a healthy climate for starting and running high-impact, high-tech companies like those in our sample. Immigration policy, as it affects highly educated and highly experienced foreign-born individuals who might be drawn into high-tech entrepreneurship, is an important element of that climate.”

The full study can be read here.

What are the necessary policy measures? Provide broadbased tax and regulatory relief to spur entrepreneurship and investment in general, while implementing immigration reform that opens more doors for legal immigration.

Raymond J.

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America’s Best Companies ….. Helping Small Businesses Grow

July 27th, 2009 admin

Who They Are …..

America’s Best Companies (ABC) is a nationwide small business organization headquartered just outside Chicago, dedicated to helping small business owners stay in business, grow their business, and make more money in their business. They have been built on the strong belief that small businesses are the most important companies in America and the cornerstone of our communities. They built America’s Best Companies to help protect the future of small business in what is, with the influx of big-box corporate chains, an increasingly competitive environment. They always welcome your feedback to to better serve you and help shape the future of ABC and your local business community.

What They Believe…..

The future of small business depends on the commitment of independent business owners to join together. Thousands of small businesses close each year due to increasing competition from big corporations. ABC was built on the basic philosophy that small businesses are the most important companies in America. Their member dues allow them to gain leverage and significantly impact public awareness to make a difference for small business. ABC can only function effectively for small businesses with the support and active involvement of its membership.

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