Is Your Business Tourism Based? Do You Travel? Read on!

From Frank J Kenney

Let me share a quick story with you.

I traveled the country for 7 months this past year giving presentations and doing research for my book.

I traveled in my RV.

How did I find my next campground or RV resort?

Not once did I use the 2 inch thick book I purchased.

Instead, I Googled “Clovis RV resorts”, for example.

I didn’t go to the websites of the RV resorts that came up in the results.

Instead, I checked out the ratings and comments. If the rating and comments were positive, I then went to the business’ site to check fees and availability.

This is so important for small businesses to realize. I trusted strangers opinions first.

If the comments were strongly negative I moved on to the next listing. Even just slightly negative comments influenced where I would stay and spend my money.

Check out this graphic on how highly we value the opinions of others (friends and strangers).

You don’t fully control your marketing and message anymore.

I gave a presentation this week to an audience of small business folks, arranged through a convention and visitors bureau, on how tourism-related business needed to be active in social media marketing if they wanted a competitive advantage (and stay relevant).

If you have a small business, this next section is very important to your success, now and in the future.

First, understand that you don’t have full control of your marketing. Your customers, and even strangers, are having a bigger and bigger impact.

This is important for you to accept because the old way of advertising and marketing are going away.

Check out these statistic on travelers:

•87% said reviews impacted hotel choice
•84% said reviews impacted method of travel
•78% said reviews impacted choice of dining

Source http://www.stikkymedia.com/articles/social-media-and-the-tourism-industry-statistics

And this truth from the founder of the National Speaker Association: “Since 95% of people are imitators and only 5% initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer.”

If you add up all the facts:

• People trust the opinions of others more than they trust your marketing.
• People can easily see comments and ratings today through an Internet search.
• People are followers by nature.
• No matter how good you truly are, your prospects are going to defer to others when making purchase decisions. It is not fair but that is life.

Now, having said that, what should you do about it?

• Make sure your business is listed correctly in the rating directories like Google and Yelp.
• Encourage your happy customers to post positive comments and give you high ratings. Use signage. Ask.
• Encourage your customers to check-in on Facebook Places and Foursquare. Those are endorsements.
• Make sure that you are listening for your business’ name out on the web. Reshare the positive comments and answer the negative ones professionaly. Turn the bad ones around by being proactive.

Take your first action right now by using Google Alerts. It’s free.

Back to me…

This article caught my eye because I do the EXACT SAME THING! If I’m at my computer and I’m shopping with time, yes, I check websites, photos and such – but on the road, I use my phone or, lately, Ipad – and I ALWAYS check the reviews.  If there are a number of bad ones or some so so and one bad I keep looking.

And?  I LOVE Google Alerts.  I have 4 set up right now to follow us and things I’m interested in.  I recommend our Ambassadors use them for interest areas to be able to be of interest & help to those in their networking circle.  Love Google Alerts.  Free.  Easy.  Free.  Helpful.  Free. Make me look good.  Easy. Free.  Keep me informed.  Did I mention free and easy?

Small Business Advocate: Selling online is an imperative to be successful

By Jim Blasingame, Special to The Commercial Appeal

Continuing the series on small-business responses to poll questions on our e-newsletter and website, recently we asked this question about e-commerce: How much of your annual revenue comes from online sales? Compare your answer to what our respondents said:

– Five percent said all revenue came from e-commerce.

– Fourteen percent said more than half of their sales came from the Internet.

– A little more than half said e-commerce represented less than 50 percent of total sales.

– One-quarter said they had no online sales at all.

E-commerce has been around for a big chunk of the commercial Internet age, which began in 1995 when unencumbered access to the Internet was fully allowed.

In terms of historical marketplace practices, however, e-commerce is just a baby. So I’m actually quite pleased with the mix of responses we received, indicating that 75 percent of small businesses are generating some e-commerce revenue.

But over the next five years, there will be significant increased pressure to generate online sales.

According to the research firm, Forrester, online sales will reach $248.7 billion in the next five years, accounting for 8 percent of total U.S. retail sales by 2014. But the next statistic may be more important (read: ominous) for small businesses.

Forrester also predicts that by 2014, over half of all retail sales will be influenced by online product and company research before customers make a purchase. The reason this stat is so significant is because of another piece of research that produced this astonishing number: Half of small businesses do not have a website.

Regardless of size or industry, no business can expect to be successful in the future without a web presence. Even if you don’t sell online, you must be available online so prospects can find you the way people are looking today. Here are two words that make having a website even more of an imperative: local search.

Local search is increasingly replacing the phone book or dialing 411. Even when customers don’t expect a business to have e-commerce capability, like a restaurant or dry cleaners, they do expect to be able to find you online, with product offerings, directions and a clickable phone number.

If you don’t have a website, get one; today you can actually get a simple one for free. And unless you sell nuclear products or Stinger missiles, please, find a way to offer e-commerce to your customers; It’s not free, but it’s no longer cost-prohibitive.

Write this on a rock …

Serving customers online is not an option, it’s an imperative

Small businesses & health insurance

If you are  small businesses, with fewer than 25 full-time workers, pay average annual wages below $50,000, and provide health insurance while covering at least 50% of the premium cost you are probably eligible for a tax credit under the recently passed health care reform legislation.

An eligible small business could qualify for a tax credit of up to 35% of premiums paid in 2010.  With the cost of health insurance, that could be significant!

Go to this link at irs.gov for more information.  Additionally, Senator Feingold’s office has created a small business tax credit calculator to give you an idea of the credit amount for your business.  Click HERE to get to it.

Small Business Session for Businesses in NE Wisconsin

CONGRESSMAN KAGEN

Hosts

“FINANCING AND GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING FOR SMALL BUSINESS”

May 7^th, 2010

Lawrence University

711 E. Boldt Way Appleton, WI 54911

Warch  Campus Center

8:30am Registration

(Julie Esch Hurvis  Room)

LEARN HOW TO DO BUSINESS WITH THE GOVERNMENT

MEET WITH LENDERS TO REVIEW FINANCING OPTIONS

MEET WITH SBA AND WISCONSIN PROCUREMENT REPRESENTATIVES

RSVP: Amanda at 920-380-0061 or Amanda.dietrich@mail.house.gov

Some Wisconsin legislative updates

Received yesterday word that:

Among the bills the Assembly will take up is AB 767.  The legislation is the first proposal developed by Wisconsin’s Partnership for a Stronger Economy, a bipartisan working group of businesses and lawmakers formed to develop new ideas to create jobs.  Among other things, the legislation would give small businesses a majority vote on the Small Business Regulatory Review Board and create a small business advocate at the Department of Commerce.

Also scheduled was a vote on Senate Bill 190.  Small businesses are often victims of hidden automatic renewal clauses in equipment and service contracts.  The clauses can negatively impact small businesses’ bottom line with unexpected costs, hurting their ability to grow.  SB190 would provide greater consumer protections for small businesses by requiring advance written notice of contract renewals, similar to what landlords provide to residential tenants.

“Small businesses are the engine of our economy, creating 65 percent of new jobs over a recent 15-year period,” said Representative Nelson.  “With this proven record of success, we need to give them the tools and resources they need to expand and create jobs.”

Yesterday (Wednesday), Governor Doyle signed into law the American Jobs Act which the Assembly passed earlier in the session. The new law would prevent the state from using taxpayer dollars to purchase goods and services from companies that outsource jobs to other countries.

What States and Cities Are Doing to Help Small Businesses

From our friend JD Milburn at Wisconsin Main Street sent this interesting article:

While Washington debates how to help the country’s struggling small businesses, states and municipalities have stepped up with an array of initiatives to stanch closings and save jobs.

The local approaches are as varied as subsidizing wages for new hires, running a $100,000 regional business-plan competition and giving out grants to help small manufacturers reposition themselves. Some states and cities are using federal stimulus dollars, and others are mixing federal, state and private dollars.

Here are some examples:

A 100 Percent Hiring Subsidy

San Francisco is using federal stimulus funds to give immediate aid to small-business owners. Its $25 million program reimburses owners for 100 percent of the wages for certain new hires. So far, restaurants, cafes, delivery services and even law firms have hired nearly 1,800 people through the program, called Jobs Now.

Employers do have to pay for Social Security and unemployment insurance, and the program requires those hired to have been unemployed for 30 days or longer. More than 800 businesses have signed up for the program, and the city is pushing to extend it beyond its September expiration.

At first, said Steven B. Falk, chief executive of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, “businesses had to warm up to the idea of turning to the government for hiring. Now, small businesses are telling me this is the motivation that pushed them to hire.”

Encouraging Customer Loyalty

A Cleveland-area small-business council is trying to shore up its 17,000 member businesses with a program that encourages consumers to patronize locally owned enterprises instead of big-box chains or Internet sites.

Last year, the Council of Smaller Enterprises began a Web site called “I Buy NEO” — that’s Northeast Ohio — where consumers can search for discounts and bargains at participating local businesses. So far, about 300 businesses as diverse as art galleries and home-improvement stores have signed up to offer rebates or discounts. About 11,000 cards, which cost $10, have been sold. “When a resident buys locally,” said Dan Roman, the council’s director, “independent studies have found 68 cents of each dollar stays in the community.” The current average for the region is 43 cents.

There is no charge for small businesses to join, and about two dozen companies have been signing up each month. Even though the program’s $150,000 budget for marketing, Web development, printing and postage is modest, Mr. Roman says, sales activity tied to the loyalty cards has increased 40 percent over the last six months.

Training for Laid-Off Workers

Last June, the Michigan Small Business and Technology Center began to train laid-off workers to start new ventures.

So far, 527 people have taken the course, which the center offers in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. To date, 160 people in the Michigan program have introduced new business ventures, and more than 125 owners of existing businesses have enrolled in separate courses to bolster their chances of surviving. Another 1,000 would-be entrepreneurs are expected to complete the program this year.

The unemployed workers, many laid off from the auto industry, come to the program with an idea for a small business and must search for capital on their own. The program, said a spokeswoman, Jennifer Deamud, “preps the company for a loan and makes connections for the owner.”

Of course, the training is no guarantee of success. Only about half of the enterprises are likely to survive beyond three years, according to the Kauffman Foundation, which has been offering training since March 2009, in New York City, Philadelphia, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota.

When Tracy Pospeshil, 37, of Fenton, Mich., lost his job at an automotive supply company, he enrolled in Michigan’s program and started a new business last spring selling engine-warming heaters for trucks and buses. He says he’s on track to make a mid-five-figure income by this summer.

Helping Small Manufacturers Retool

Connecticut is using state money to set up a matching grants pilot program to help its small manufacturers — many of them in the aerospace industry — aim at the growing medical products market. The state budgeted $250,000 and is accepting applications for grants of $5,000 to $25,000, said Deborah Santy, director of the Connecticut Small Business Innovation and Research Office.

Firms applying must provide at least three years of financial information, be located in Connecticut and be registered as a manufacturing company and keep their manufacturing in the state. Ms. Santy said she had received more than 60 applications for the program so far. Kristen Muschett, chief executive of aerospace test-equipment maker Habco, said the $35,000 matching grant was helping her explore the feasibility of manufacturing and marketing a new machine that helps stroke victims and other neurologically impaired patients learn to walk again.

Providing On-Site Financial Expertise

Last year, North Carolina began a $600,000 pilot program called BizBoost to help the Charlotte area rebound from the big-bank layoffs. The program has provided financial guidance to 158 small businesses, typically with 10 or fewer employees, since last fall.

In January, Gov. Beverly Perdue announced the program would be expanded to the entire state, with $2.4 million in state and federal funds that will be used to add additional experts, including accountants and managers with small-business experience. The goal is to help small businesses with the nitty-gritty of managing cash flow and lining up financing. “We are helping businesses manage their customer base, restructure their debt and position themselves to grow,” said George McAllister, regional director of the North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center.

Still, Mr. McAllister conceded, it is hard to measure the program’s success. One client, John Meeks, owner of AppleBlossom Insulators, said his insulation business got help from a BizBoost expert who did a financial analysis of his books, developed cash-flow projections, helped him ready his finances to seek an angel investor and helped him produce a 5 percent increase in revenue in a tough year.

Loans and a Business-Plan Competition

In Missouri, Charlie A. Dooley, chief executive of St. Louis County, had heard complaints from owners who could not get bank loans, so he decided to spearhead a new small-business loan program called Boost. The program is administered by the St. Louis County Economic Council and uses county funds and a $5 million line of credit from PNC Bank, a Pittsburgh-based financial institution that had recently bought a St. Louis bank.

The program is aimed at owners who want to purchase land, machinery, equipment or buildings but do not have adequate income or net worth to qualify for conventional bank loans. The maximum loan is $500,000, and in the few weeks since Boost was announced, Mr. Dooley said, more than 100 owners have applied.

The county also started a business-plan competition featuring $100,000 in cash prizes and in-kind professional services. The competition, with money provided by the St. Louis-based financial services firm, Edward Jones, will announce its winners in June. So far, it has received applications from more than two dozen hopefuls, including would-be microbrewers and laid-off scientists.

Helping Businesses Expand

Last year, Florida introduced a state-financed program to help businesses keep their employees by expanding their customer base. The GrowFL program helps established companies identify new markets, research industry developments and maximize their use of social media. The program has a team of business analysts whose assistance is free to companies with at least $1 million in annual sales and 10 or more employees.

So far, the program, operated by the Florida Economic Gardening Institute, has enrolled 13 companies, including a Jacksonville industrial pump manufacturer that is trying to locate new customers after sales declines forced it to lay off workers. Another 72 established companies are in the pipeline for help. Gov. Charlie Crist has asked the legislature to add $3 million to the program’s $1.5 million budget.

Other areas, including Portland, Ore., have started similar programs.

5 economic indicators to keep an eye on!

I thought this was a great article …

Small Business Economic Indicators

• By DIANA RANSOM

When you’re a small-business owner, issues like whether you can afford to give your assistant manager a raise or whether your dinner bread will be delivered on time loom larger than the trade deficit and crop results. Yet, the nation’s employment outlook factors into your hiring decisions and the truck that delivers your bread runs on gas — so keeping an eye on the bigger picture can help you avoid cost surprises. “If [you know] consumers are spending more in October, that might give you a bit more confidence if you’re a retailer going into the Christmas season,” says Chad Moutray, the Small Business Administration’s chief economist.

While the economic recovery is still tentative — and credit remains tight — small-business owners could help themselves in 2010 by monitoring the macroeconomic picture. Already, members of the Board of Governors and the presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks, have projected that the U.S. economy will expand between 2.5% and 3.5% this year. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is expected to fall to between 9.3% and 9.7% from November’s rate of 10%, and economists from Morgan Stanley expect that a more sustainable recovery will sink in, as the financial markets improve, risky assets continue to fetch higher prices, and bank lending improves.

In the absence of your own economist or strategic planning office, what indicators should you keep an eye on? Here are five that often matter most to small firms.

Real Personal Consumption Expenditures
Also known as consumption, this indicator, which tracks the inflation-adjusted price changes in consumer goods and services, accounts for 70% of the country’s gross domestic product — that is, the basic measure of a country’s overall output. Basically, this indicator will shed light on whether consumers are spending and how much. “When the public is hording money, small businesses are going to feel that more than anyone,” says Moutray.

Big companies can often lean on hefty credit lines to get them through rough patches, while many smaller firms don’t have the same luxury. (For the most recent consumption release, click here.)

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/pi/pinewsrelease.htm

Consumer Confidence
Similar to consumption, consumer confidence and consumer sentiment figures attempt to gauge consumer attitudes toward the economy. The more confident consumers are about the economy and their own financial pictures, the more likely they are to spend. “What we’re telling our clients is, closely follow the economic indicators, which can point to a recovery in demand trends,” says Bonnie Riggs, an analyst for the market research firm NPD Group. “When consumer confidence moves in a positive direction, they’ll see [business] traffic pick up.”

Check the Index of Consumer Sentiment, which is tabulated by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. Also, look to the Consumer Confidence Index, which is released by the Conference Board, a research firm in New York.

http://www.sca.isr.umich.edu/main.php

http://www.conference-board.org/economics/consumerConfidence.cfm

Producer Price Index
Businesses that make products will want to pay close attention to the Producer Price Index, which measures prices at the producer level, before they get passed on to consumers. This indicator speaks directly to how much businesses pay for their materials. When this indicator rises, most businesses will want to raise prices to keep up with higher costs. However, boosting one’s prices during a downturn may be counterproductive, as consumers are looking for savings. In this scenario, a business’s profit margins tend to get squeezed, says Moutray. By tracking the price changes within the production pipeline, however, businesses can anticipate possible inflationary pressures and make changes accordingly, he says.

U.S. Dollar
Another inflation gauge is the value of the U.S. dollar. When the greenback falls against other currencies, U.S. exports look more attractive to some foreign buyers. However, within the U.S. it may take more dollars to purchase the same materials — effectively, causing producer prices to rise.

To track whether or not this is happening, look to commodities prices. The price of gold, for example, often increases when the value of the dollar slides, says Moutray. A good resource for checking the price of gold futures is the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Also, check how the dollar performs against a basket of trade-weighted major currencies, the U.S. Dollar Index Futures.

Unemployment Rate
Though it’s a lagging indicator, the unemployment rate, currently at 10%, can be useful for business-planning purposes, says Riggs. For example, because unemployed workers tend to skip eating breakfast out, morning sales have dampened at many restaurants. However, if the jobs picture suddenly improves, that could lead to an uptick in demand for breakfast and cause business owners to ramp up production and potentially hire more staff.

To get an even clearer sense of the labor market, however, Josh Lerner, an investment banking professor at Harvard Business School’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, suggests looking at the local unemployment rate. “We’re in a period where there is tremendous heterogeneity across regions of the country, and, as such, using a one-size-fits-all measure isn’t as helpful as local figures.” (For states’ rates, click here.)

Write to Diana Ransom at dransom@smartmoney.com

http://www.bls.gov/web/laumstrk.htm

Legislation being introduced to help small businesses with funding

We all know that getting financing is imperative for all businesses, but especially small businesses to not only grow and thrive but simply to survive.

I’ve received notice of new legislation being introduced to do just that …

State Representatives Peter Barca (D-Kenosha), Andy Jorgensen (D-Fort Atkinson) and Ted Zigmunt (D-Francis Creek) on Tuesday introduced Assembly Bill 532, which creates a program called the Wisconsin Capital Access Program (WCAP), which would expand access to credit for businesses in Wisconsin.

“This proposal expands on a highly successful Capital Access Program which has been in operation in Milwaukee since 1992,” said Rep. Zigmunt. “The State of Wisconsin’s commitment would be funded by a one time appropriation of $350,000 in state money, which could leverage as much as $13 million in lending to businesses”

The program encourages financial institutions to offer loans to small and medium-sized businesses that are slightly riskier than those that would be traditionally approved under conventional underwriting by establishing a loan loss reserve fund. The lender and the borrower pay a small percentage of the loan amount as an up-front insurance premium which is matched by the state and deposited into the reserve fund for the lender to use as additional collateral on the loan.

“The program is not a handout to failing businesses or a taxpayer free-for-all,” said Rep. Jorgensen.
“An additional benefit is that the program has a rather low cost for a large reward,” said Rep. Barca.
Zigmunt added, “Many of my district’s Main Street businesses could benefit from the WCAP by gaining the financing they need to buy equipment and make payroll.”

Daryll Lund, President of the Community Bankers of Wisconsin, says his group is backing the bill, as is the Wisconsin Bankers Association.

Parsing Secretary’s Geithner’s speech to small business

From Reuters Blogs

Small Talk: Parsing Geithner’s speech to small business

It appears the magic number for American small businesses is 10, as in the sudden urgency to help smaller companies after the U.S. unemployment rate jumped over 10 percent last month for the first time in a quarter century. After a year with Wall Street at the top of everyone’s agenda, Main Street is now taking center stage.

Suddenly new lending programs are being announced, town halls are hastily being arranged and political heavyweights from across the financial and ideological spectrums are falling over themselves to propose their plans for how to get small businesses back on track and hiring.

Over the past month, everyone from President Obama, to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and to billionaire investor Warren Buffett have addressed the issue. Yesterday was Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s kick at the can (watch the video of his speech here), when he chaired a forum on small business financing with FDIC head Sheila Bair and SBA chief Karen Mills.

Geithner said the first part of the recovery was to stabilize Wall Street in order to prop up sagging earnings so investment portfolios stop taking such a beating and hard-hit firms stop laying off employees. “That rise in earnings is not simply because banks are particularly smart or clever,” insisted Geithner in front of an audience of small business owners and lenders.

Geithner added that now that the banking sector has been stabilized, the next step is to get banks lending again to small businesses, which he called “the engines of job growth” and which have historically led the country out of recessions. “It’s because the taxpayers of the United States and their elected representatives decided that to save the economy we had to act to stabilize the financial system. All banks – strong and weak – benefited from those actions and banks bear some responsibility for the extent of the damage caused by this crisis and they carry a substantial obligation to help our communities get back on their feet.”

CRISIS MANAGEMENT 101

Geithner went on to give a brief, but informative, lesson on credit crisis management, stating:

“The basic cycle of financial crises is that credit is cheap and easy to get for a time. Banks relax their standards too much leading to excess lending and excess leverage and then when the crisis hits, banks tend to slam on the brakes, shift to reverse, banks pull back – not just from companies that are at more risk of failure, but from all companies – and this hurts the prudent and the conservative; those with impeccable credit histories as well as those who simply borrowed more than they could afford. Now although the demand for credit necessarily falls in recessions – particularly a recession following a long period of excess borrowing – the risk is that banks overcorrect, forcing viable businesses to layoff workers, reduce wages, close factories and defer investments and left to the market this process can feed on itself. A credit crunch can amplify a recession, slow recovery, cause more businesses to fail, unemployment to rise, putting more pressure on banks to cut credit lines for fear of higher defaults. And if this seems unfair and unjust, if it seems counterproductive to economic recovery and job creation, it is. And that’s why it’s so important in financial crises for governments to act aggressively to break financial panics, to make sure banks are able to fund at reasonable rates and that the overall banking system has enough capital to provide credit.”

Don’t you just wish Mr. Geithner had been your economics professor in university?

Geithner added that small businesses are more reliant on banks for credit and that that credit takes longer to start flowing again after a recession. As a stat, Geithner said just 30 percent of large businesses get their credit from banks, whereas that figure is closer to 90 percent for small businesses. Combined with the fact that small businesses generally have fewer capital reserves to ride out a downturn – usually a personal credit card or by leveraging personal assets, like a home or retirement savings – and if they were unlucky enough to have those with a bank that made bad loans, then they could find themselves in a very tough position.

“This is a very hard problem to solve. It’s something you can’t fix easily and it takes a co-ordinated mix of different strategies and policies.”

Geithner then broke down the Obama Administration’s plan to help small businesses in 6 steps, which are as follows:

1. Provide direct support: Recovery Act, which included tax-relief measures and boosted government-backed lending to small businesses through the SBA.
2. Support small business lenders: New legislation that would provide low-cost capital to community banks, or CDFIs, that serve the hardest-hit areas across the country.
3. Repair securiturization markets: TALF (Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility) program which has helped lower the interest costs on asset-backed loans.
4. Provide guidance to lenders: This is the role of the FDIC’s group, led by Bair, of independent bank supervisors and regulators who will take on the added responsibility of making sure bank examiners don’t overcorrect by pulling back too much on lending to small businesses.
5. Support expanded efforts: Refers to additional programs run by lending agencies like the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM)
6. Put pressure on banks to start using federal assistance programs: This mainly refers to the top 19 banks that were given taxpayer funds under TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) to start participating more in SBA lending programs, or to simply start loaning more directly to small businesses.

With his plan outlined, Geithner emphasized the most important step is to get bipartisan support for The Administration’s measures.

“It’s very important that members of Congress work with us to create the conditions that make it more likely that small banks are willing to come take advantage of these programs,” said Geithner. “That means they have to have confidence that if they take capital from the government they will not have to face a change in the rules of the game tomorrow. They need to be confident that if they participate in these programs they’re not going to face conditions in the future that will lead them to regret participating.”

Fascinating stuff …

Some small business lending news – plus some good news!

Started our meetings today on the De Pere Area Chamber’s new Bridges to Business program with Jayne Black at PAi.    No matter the current challenges with the employment numbers it will not be long before we are once again scrambling for talent with the skill sets to walk into our business and be productive members of our staffs.  If we can shorten the new employee “learning curve,” that makes us all more profitable.   Keep your eyes open for more information on this very exciting new program!  If you want a sneak peak, contact Brian Lueth here at the Chamber or at blueth@deperechamber.org.

Our friends at QuickStart (www.quickstrt.com) sent out this update on small business lending today:

We all have heard “banks are not loaning money,” and “it is impossible to get a business loan right now,” and “now is a bad time to start or expand a business.”  We beg to differ!  Yes, we recognize that this is a challenging time; however, we also feel it brings opportunities for business owners.

Yes, it’s true that credit is tight, especially with the larger national banks.  However, our local community banks and credit unions are still very good sources for small business loans.  The Small Business Administration (SBA) has made changes to encourage lending with its Small/Rural Lending Advantage Programs and its 7(a) Loan Guaranty Programs.  These programs offer no fees and a 90% loan guarantee.

In addition to the Small Rural Lending and 7(a) programs, the SBA announced in June two new loan programs for established businesses.  The ARC Loan Program is a 100% guarantee  loan to help struggling businesses.  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 other new loan program is the Floor Plan Financing Program aimed at Auto, RV, and other dealerships. Floor plan financing is a line of credit that allows dealers to borrow against their inventory, and then repay that debt as they sell their inventory or borrow against the line of credit again to add new inventory.
Whether you are looking to start a new business, purchase an existing business or are an established business looking to improve your cash flow, now is the time to look into the great loan programs that the SBA has to offer.

Just returned from a ribbon cutting at Trends n Things new Olde School Square location in Ledgeview!  Wine tasting and snacks plus great products!  A number of us were grateful for the opportunity to get some holiday shopping taken care of and, yes, I may have purchased a bottle of wine.  What?!  It’s Friday!  Besides, life is too short for bad wine.

Finally for today, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue just released its November 2009 Wisconsin Economic Outlook. While the news is not yet good, it is beginning to improve – and isn’t that the first step to recovery?  A few tidbits from the report:

The outlook has slightly improved since the June release. The current Wisconsin outlook calls for a peak-to-trough job loss of 143,000 or 5.0% of total employment, compared to the 155,300 (5.4%) job loss expected in June.

Trade, Transportation and Utilities is the largest employment sector in Wisconsin, representing 19% of total employment. The forecast for that sector calls for a 4.0% decline in 2009 and 0.1% in 2010.

While the economy may be in recovery, employment continues to fall, with more than 7 million jobs lost through September. The Wisconsin economy also entered recession at the end of 2007, losing 138,900 jobs between December 2007 and August 2009. Though not yet on a recovery path, the dramatic declines seen in Wisconsin employment the first four months of the year will stop.

The outlook contains a forecast of the Wisconsin and the U.S. Economy, plus a special report with a forecast for each of Wisconsin’s 12 metropolitan statistical areas. To view the November 2009 Outlook, please follow the link below:  http://www.revenue.wi.gov/ra/0911/0911.html