Small Business Confidence in The United States

February 9, 2016 by

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2016 has not been kind to the stock market. The quarter of a percent increase to the interest rate last year scared many people, even though analysts predicted the change would not be felt too much.  Globally, the markets are not doing any better than the US market, and commerce has slow down across the country and industries.  But despite all these issues, and despite the fact the small business confidence it at its lowest since 2014, the small business community feel confident about the labor market in this country.

For more about this follow the links below.

US small business confidence at two-year low

U.S. small business confidence fell in January to its lowest level in nearly two years amid worries about the near-term outlook for business conditions and sales growth, consistent with a recent slowdown in economic growth.

The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday its Small Business Optimism Index fell 1.3 points to 93.9 last month, the weakest reading since February 2014. Still, small businesses remained fairly upbeat about the labor market.

The NFIB said there was little sign that a stock market selloff and December’s interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, the first in nearly a decade, had impacted confidence. Owners’ perceptions of business conditions in six months weakened sharply as did their views of expected sales.

Workers Are Ready To Quit; Small Business Pay Hikes Hit 8-Year High

Americans are ready to quit, while small firms are hiking pay rapidly despite weak sales and gloomy forecasts. Business continue to trim inventories too.

Job Openings Jump; More Workers Quit

Job openings rose to 5.61 million in December from 5.35 million in November, the Labor Department said in its JOLTS survey. The number of hires climbed to 5.36 million from November’s 5.26 million. That’s the highest since September 2004.

Total separations climbed to 5.1 million. Quits hit a 10-year high of 3.06 million, up sharply from November’s 2.86 million. That suggests workers are growing more confident about finding other, better employment.

Wholesale Destockpiling Continues

December wholesales inventories fell 0.3% vs. the 0.2% drop expected. November stockpiles were revised from -0.3% to -0.4%. Meanwhile, wholesale sales fell 0.3% after tumbling 1.3% in November. The data suggest inventories were a slightly larger drag on Q4 GDP than first thought. Q4 GDP growth was initially estimated at a 0.7% annual rate, with other data also signaling downward revisions.

Rural businesses are struggling to recruit young people

Poor public transport, sluggish broadband and a talent drain to big cities is making it hard for countryside enterprises to survive

​face a number of challenges with running my rural Indian cookery school in Somerset. So when I had a chance to question George Osborne at the recent Federation of Small Businesses policy conference in London, I asked: “What assistance will there be to attract skilled young people to settle and take jobs in rural areas?”

Osborne suggested broadband was the answer, much to our amusement. His response missed the point: we do need better broadband, poor internet speeds are an ongoing problem in rural areas, but it isn’t the solution to attracting young talent.

To recruit young people I’m competing with a talent drain into the cities. Many young people who grow up in rural Somerset leave for university in Bristol, Bath and Cardiff and never return. Poor public transport links and living costs put them off. The majority of new people moving to my village are retirees.

 

 

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It’s Time to Get Serious About Strategic Planning

October 6, 2015 by

business (11)It’s that time of year again. The time of year when companies are — or should be — developing their strategic plans for 2016. Compared to larger companies small business owners are in an enviable position. They have more control over the development and execution of their plans. They can have a greater impact on the profitability and success of their business, with significantly less hassles and politics.
But, the downside is they have fewer resources (people, experience and knowledge) to draw from while formulating their plans. Often, in a small business, owners don’t know where to start or what’s needed to put one together and they need to figure it out for themselves. Here are 3 things they can do to fill in these gaps.
Combine data with intuition
Successful planners strike a balance between relying on just their gut or just the numbers. Usually, an owner falls into 1 of 2 camps — the “I don’t even look at the numbers, I go with my gut” guy and the “I’m a by-the-numbers, they don’t lie” guy. Neither is productive for the long term health of the company, good strategic thinkers use both to counterbalance each other.
Develop a trusted group
The most effective planners solicit information from others (i.e., peers, experts, employees, managers, vendors, customers) who’re successful. Because no one can know everything they seek out knowledge they don’t have. They cobble together their own panel of specialists. However, this isn’t group decision making — it’s about owners gathering data and opinions, and then reaching their own conclusions.
Be willing to learn
Questioning and listening aren’t the same thing. We all know people who ask questions, then don’t pay attention to the answer. The best strategic thinkers are open to what others have to say. They don’t substitute someone else’s judgment for their own, but they’re willing to learn from others.

In addition, not only do they seek knowledge, they look for insight from others. Businesses fail everyday because the person(s) in charge made mistakes based on uniformed, misguided assumptions, ideas and biases. Effective planners learn from mistakes and don’t do them again; ineffective planners make the same ones over and over expecting different results.
Successful, well thought out strategic planning relies on good critical thinking skills, which leads to good decisions. As one of our greatest generals Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”.

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Stay Competitive by Revising Your On-the-job Training

September 16, 2015 by

64735957On-the-job training — we’ve all experienced it and have the horror stories to prove it, particularly those of us who’ve worked in small businesses.  Small businesses are notorious for believing they provide training, but we know differently.  The in-depth, educational program most provide is somewhere along the lines of “go over there and watch what Steve is doing”.

In the past companies had the luxury of time — employees, competitors, processes, customers and especially technology moved slower.  People had time on the job to increase their skill level by learning from Steve and others like him.  But, more is expected out of systems, businesses and people now. 

Employees and managers are required to know more, do better and keep up at a faster rate.  They have skills and knowledge that’s likely to become outdated in years rather than decades.  Small businesses are struggling to keep up — let alone stay competitive — and many are falling dangerously behind. 

This is partly because of outdated or non-existent training programs.  The old way of doing, or not even doing, on-the-job training doesn’t work anymore.  The needed skills and knowledge increasingly has to come from outside the company.  The “old-timers” need to be “schooled” by new hires or consultants, who have the expertise no-one in the company has.

There’s a shortage of skilled workers in many industries and it’s not going to get better any time soon.  One of the ways a small business owner can combat this scarcity is to take control of the problem by developing, and following through with, a compressive training program.  A program focused on building an up-to-date, efficient workforce.

Ideas like selling globally, social media marketing, lean manufacturing and supply change management, create opportunities to increase market share and profit.  However, with these opportunities come challenges.  The small business owner who’s willing to take responsibility and create the employees he needs will meet these challenges and grow.

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Starting A Small Business and Succeeding

September 10, 2015 by

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Many small business owners enjoy the fact that they are in control of their business and their future.  At the beginning of their endeavors, willing to take the many responsibilities that a small business entails, it is not only smart but cost effective.  As the business grows, the ability to delegate and give responsibilities and control over various aspects of the business become more of a difficulty for many small business owners, and some of them do not welcome the change. Follow the links below to read more about this topic.

9 Steps That Will Help Your Chances of Starting a Successful Business

If you are unemployed, underemployed or unhappily employed, the idea of taking control and becoming your own boss might be sounding pretty sexy right about now. Plus, the past decade has shown us that jobs aren’t quite as dependable as perhaps we previously thought.

However, the success rates for new business are quite scary too, with the majority of all new businesses failing in just a few years’ time. While there is never going to be a “sure thing,” if you are thinking of leaving your job to hang out your own shingle, there are significant benefits to preparing before you take the leap.

Here are nine ways to make sure that you are prepared before you start your own business, so that you can give yourself the best chances to succeed. These are adapted from my bestselling book, The Entrepreneur Equation.

Maybe It’s Time to Let Go of Control in Your Business

How much control do you really have in your business? Do you know what to do with it? Does having it help you or hold you back in your business? What about when you want to change something? Does control help you then? 

Growing a business is one of the most life changing experiences on which you will embark. It’s challenging, exhilarating, exhausting, scary, fun and my goodness, some days it can be downright hard.

Why is it hard?

Because it involves change, trust and letting go of control.

Surrendering to change means letting go of being in control. Yet, as much as we want our lives to be different the truth is, we don’t like it much when our illusion of being in control is challenged. The feeling that we are in charge of our lives gives us leverage in our attempts to avoid the experience of loss. Yet, these efforts to circumvent loss are the very foundation of our excessive anxiety and worry. – Katherine Woodward Thomas (Calling In The One).

Instead of Flexing Authority, Leaders Should Influence Employees

When it comes to managing employees, most employers tend to take one of two key leadership approaches. There’s the “power/authority” approach, where it’s their way or the highway, or the “influence” approach, where the goal is to get employees on the same page and empower them to make decisions that will have a positive impact on the organization.

In today’s work world, employees want to feel like they are a part of the decision-making process. Millennials, especially, want managers who give them the freedom to do their jobs and trust they will deliver.

In fact, in a 2014 survey of 16,637 millennials worldwide titled Millennials: Understanding a Misunderstood Generation, nearly half of people in this age group from North America want a manager who “empowers their employees” above all else.

Clearly, for those who manage the fastest growing part of today’s workforce, it’s time to take the focus off of the power/authority approach and on to the influence approach. Here are three areas where the influence approach is especially useful in the office:

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Succession Planning – Protect Your Future Now

July 16, 2015 by

59948705It is a given, among professionals who work with them, that small business owners are bad at succession planning.  It’s also a given that being bad at it is entirely normal.  The owner who follows a well thought out and executed plan culminating in a successful retirement is the exception rather than the rule.

Many people are uncomfortable with, and resistant to, planning for their retirement.   But, this is especially true of the independent entrepreneur who’s the heart, soul and brains of his organization.  He finds it difficult, often impossible, to give up control of all he’s built over years.  His mantra is “there’s time, it’ll all work out”. 

Unfortunately, it usually doesn’t work out and this belief sets the organization up for failure.  The number 1 reason companies don’t survive into the next generation is the lack of a properly implemented succession plan.  According to a 2013 Small Business Administration (SBA) study only about 30% of businesses survive a transfer of management into the 2nd generation. 

This number is alarming when you consider that family businesses comprise 90% of all  small business in the country and 88% of owners want to pass it on rather than sell it (SBA, 2013).  The only succession plan most of them have is to be an absentee owner, while the successor — a family member or key employee — runs a profitable concern which will support him in his retirement. 

Therefore, most successors aren’t successful and the company doesn’t survive the transfer of power.  Not only does this leave him with no retirement it often leaves him with debts and a tarnished reputation, because there was no proactive plan.  Too often when the average owner is ready to relinquish control and retire he’s already run out of time for a successful changeover. 

There’s no one size fits all plan so it’s important to seek outside help for organizational, management, financial and legal issues which will arise.  Effective succession planning is a challenging task, but worth the reward.  It’s good stewardship of your company’s, employee’s, customer’s and family’s future. 

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Small Changes You Need To Do To Help Your Business

June 4, 2015 by

Having a website nowadays is not longer enough.  If your website is not optimized for mobile devices, you are loosin54640451g sales.  But before you spend the time and money optimizing your website for mobile devices, make sure it is good enough for desktops before spending the money elsewhere. Ask yourself these questions: Does my website load in less than 2 seconds? If the answer is no, you need to fix that before going any further.  Research has shown that if a website takes longer than two minutes to load , more than half of  your visitors leave without ever seeing if you have what they wanted. Is the content relevant? Good content can engage you potential customer and offer basic information they may need.   To read more about this and other topics follow the links below.

5 Things Your Small Business Should Do This Summer

Summer is almost here! While a vacation is definitely recommended, don’t spend the whole summer relaxing.

Here are five things your small business should definitely do this summer:

1. Get a Mobile Website

Look around when you’re walking down the street. Almost every person is attached to a smartphone. About 40 percent of consumers prefer to use their phone to search for businesses and services on the internet. Is your website mobile-optimized? If not, why not? Make it easier for potential customers to find you. Mobile-optimize your website.

6 Small Business Tips from a Pet Mediator

Big businesses, like Walmart and Apple, seem to just roll along on the momentum of their success and power.

However, small businesses don’t have that luxury. You fight for every little success and every advantage to get ahead of the competition. Some small businesses are so small, most people have never heard of them before.

For example, have you heard of a pet mediator?

Debra Hamilton, Pet Mediator

Pet mediator. What will we come up with next?

What The Small Business Tax Break Actually Does

The immediate tax deduction for small business announced in the Federal Budget has been broadly welcomed, but what may have been missed is the fact that what the Government doesn’t collect now, it will collect later.

As part of the $5.5 billion small business package at the centre of its latest Budget, the Federal Government announced it would allow businesses with turnover less than $2 million to immediately deduct the cost of any individual asset purchased up to the value of $20,000, from Budget night through to the end of June 2017. The estimated cost of this accelerated depreciation measure to revenue is estimated at $1.75 billion over the four years of forward estimates.

But what should be noted about this measure is that it doesn’t change the eligibility for tax deductions of these assets; it simply changes how quickly a small business is able to receive the tax deduction.

Under the existing simplified depreciation rules for small business, an asset costing over $1000 would be depreciated at 15% for the first year, and 30% thereafter, until the taxable value of the asset pool is $1000 or less, at which point the full amount can be written off.

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Small Business News

March 3, 2015 by

59948705At the beginning of starting a new venture, an entrepreneur or small business owner forgoes many of the financially crippling costs of starting the new business, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Hiring an accountant or a small business coach may seem financially impossible in the beginning, but as you travel the business road ahead you realize how important having the right people helping you is for your business.

Follow more business news below.

Ohio repeats as No. 2 in ‘Site Selection’ rankings 

Ohio came in second in the country in Site Selection magazine’s annual economic-development rankings. Ohio cities big and small also fared well in the rankings released yesterday.

Site Selection magazine Governor’s Cup Competition issues rankings based on economic-development projects per capita and total projects.

Ohio repeated its 2013 performance by coming in second in both competitions among the states.

Corporate tax reform will hurt small business, unless 

Corporate tax reform will pose a big problem for America’s small businesses unless Congress tackles the ‘pass-through’ problem. By letting firms deduct dividends distributions, lawmakers could erase many of the tax complications business owners currently face.

Tax reformers agree the United States needs a more competitive corporate tax system. To be competitive the 35 percent corporate tax rate must come down. But the trade-off for a lower corporate tax rate – the elimination or reduction of deductions and credits – will cause big problems for America’s small businesses.

Their taxes will go up with no offsetting reduction in their individual tax rate.

That’s because most small businesses – and 94 percent of all US businesses – organize themselves as pass-through entities. Sole proprietorships, S corporations, partnerships, and limited liability corporations taxed as partnerships are called pass-through businesses because their profits, gains, deductions, and credits are not taxed at the corporate level and instead pass through to the owners’ individual tax returns. This makes the owners’ returns mind-numbingly complex, but they put up with it because it’s cheaper than paying corporate tax.

The Essential Small Business Resource Is Already Working for You

As a small business owner, you’re probably paying a monthly fee for a bookkeeper, accountant or a CPA. Most likely, you’re turning to these professionals for standard tax, bookkeeping and auditing services only, but your accountant is probably knows your financials as well as you, if not better. Your accountant can be your partner to build a solid financial strategy.

Here’s what to look for in an accountant to get the most out of the relationship:

A trusted advisor.

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Ohio Small Business News and other Stories

February 20, 2015 by

54640451There may be small businesses that believe social media or marketing will be the answer to some of their financial woes, when in fact, having a quality product that consumers want and need may be the answer to all of our problems. Marketing and social media can help a business promote their products and services, but they cannot sell them. Knowing how to use social media, and knowing what to expect from their use is crucial to any small business owner. Follow the links below for more information about Ohio small business news.

Success Story: Ohio

By Dan O’Brien

Police Officer Invents ‘Bolo Stick’ to Protect Schools.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The device is remarkably simple: a steel bracket and anchor pin that affixes to the base of a door, preventing an intruder from opening or forcing that door open.

What’s even more remarkable is that no one else has thought of it until now.

“I’ve been a police officer for 28 years, I’m an instructor at the police academy,” says William Barna, inventor and owner of the Bolo Stick, a security tool that he is marketing to local schools and hopes to sell across the country. The name of the product is derived from a common police term, “Bolo,” short for “be on the lookout.”

Over the last several years, Barna, a resident of Howland, became interested in how school systems responded to security threats, such as a potential gunman in the building. All followed the “Alice” plan, an acronym for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate. “They would shut the doors, lock them, shut the lights and pile desks and chairs in front of the door to make it harder for an intruder to come in.”

Should Ohio’s minimum wage be increased to $10.10?

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The low-wage workers’ movement, which successfully lobbied last year for minimum wage hikes throughout the country, could rally to increase Ohio’s minimum wage to $10.10.

Last week, state Sen. Kenny Yuko, Democrat of Richmond Heights, introduced Senate Bill 25 that would give minimum wage workers in Ohio a $2-an-hour raise in January 2016. The state’s minimum wage is currently $8.10.

Artheta Peters of Cleveland, who earns the current minimum wage after 13 years as a home health care worker, said she is underpaid for providing one-on-one care to the sick and elderly. She is among the home health care workers who demonstrated locally last year as part of the national fast-food workers’ strikes. Peters and her fellow home health care workers rallied, not only in solidarity with fast-food workers, but also to demand a $15 minimum wage in their field.

Beware Of Small Business Wire Transfer Scam

Late last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a wire transfer scam alert for all small businesses in the United States. According to the FBI alert, between October 2013 and December 2014 a total of 1,198 complaints from U.S.- based companies were received dealing with wire transfer scams. Losses from these incidents totaled more than $179 million. The FBI also reports that the scams can follow a Ransomware incident, and may involve a fraudster contacting a vendor and requesting a change of payment to an alternate fraudster-controlled bank account.

How To Mitigate This Type of Scam

If you’re a small business owner, you may be at risk for this kind of scam. The FBI recommends the following mitigation steps for these types of scams:

  • Keep all of your anti-virus software up-to-date.
  • Educate your workforce about security best practices.
    • Be sure that any changes to payments via electronic transfer are verified with an employee of the bank and at a phone number that you utilize for assistance.
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Small Business Tax Cuts

February 18, 2015 by

64002400The tax reduction small business owners are taking advantage this year is the 75% reduction on the first 250,000 in income. The new tax cuts the governor of Ohio is proposing may seem like a good deal to many small businesses, until those businesses can see, the tax cuts will be minimal. For more news about small business news and what is happening in Ohio, follow the links below.

Meet Congress’s new small business leaders

Rep. Steve Chabot can empathize with small business owners. Before launching his political career – and between his two stints in Congress – the Ohio Republican and seasoned attorney owned and ran his own law practice in Cincinnati.

“We were a small storefront law office, and we had to deal with all the things that come with running a business,” Chabot said in a recent interview on the Hill. “I have seen firsthand the challenges that are faced by small business folks.”

It’s that experience that lured Chabot onto the House Small Business Committee when he first arrived in Washington 1995. After 19 years on the panel (he lost a reelection bid in 2008 only to win back the seat two years later), Chabot last month took over as chairman. He replaces Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), who stepped down in keeping with self-imposed term limits.

Tea Party’s Disastrous Tax Cut Experiment Comes To Ohio

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) wants to mimic a tax cut experiment that has already brought fiscal calamity and public service cuts to a state 600 miles west of his.

Kasich describes his $696 million tax cut as a helping hand to small businesses. But the design of the cut would put the bulk of that benefit into the hands of just a few high-income business entities with a handful of employees while providing just a few hundred dollars each to the vast majority of the people who would benefit, according to an analysis by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. For nine out of every 10 companies that would benefit from the Kasich cut, the total yearly savings would be $364 or even less.

For the remaining 10 percent of companies affected, savings could be as high as $8,000 a year, a number that Kasich administration officials acknowledge is far too low to create even a single job per company. Instead of pitching the cut as a direct job creator, the officials are marketing it as an “every little bit helps” move for hardworking entrepreneurs.

How social media can make your small business go gangbusters

Social media is constantly being touted for its brand-building power, and rightly so. But many small businesses fail to reap the expected benefits from their investments of time and money in social media, largely because they haven’t fully grasped the unwritten rule of social media marketing: It’s not which tools you use, it’s how you use them that spells the difference between profitable performance and lackluster results.

Like professional marketers, successful small business owners target their social media activities for maximum impact. While their competitors are adrift in a sea of tweets and blog posts, savvy strategists focus and fine tune their social-media plays. Consider three social media campaigns that generated big results through careful targeting:

  1. When Denver-based Sword & Plough launched its business to recycle military surplus material into tote bags and related products, it had a bold idea and grassroots support, including a $6,500 award from Harvard’s Pitch for Change competition. The firm’s start-up financing strategy focused on building its network of contacts via social media as the springboard for a Kickstarter campaign.
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3 Reasons Why People Succeed

January 21, 2015 by

54642287There is an old saying; “Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it” (Mark Twain). The same can be said about success – everybody talks about it, but very few people do anything about it. They rarely do anything about it because everybody has faults that keep them from achieving their goals, dreams and desires.
But, successful people persevere in spite of their faults, while others fail because of them. There are many reasons why some people succeed when others, who’re just as smart and talented, don’t. Below are 3 of the reasons why people succeed.
They take personal responsibility – Two of the most common defense mechanisms are rationalization and denial. Successful people work to minimize both behaviors; they don’t make or accept excuses from themselves. They take responsibility for and are always learning from their constructive and unconstructive actions.
They’ve learned that when they’re accountable they’re also in control. When they’re in control they can keep their attention on what’s really important – spending resources on finding solutions. People who expend their limited resources (time, money and energy) on making excuses and justifying their behavior aren’t people who look for solutions.
They don’t blame outside circumstances – The lack of time and money is a universal issue for individuals when they’re trying to achieve their goals, as is the drain of energy due to too many outside demands. These situations are nothing new or unique for anyone.
The difference between successful people and everyone else is that they don’t blame these circumstances for their difficulties. Their answer to these problems is a resounding – “so what”. They understand that adversity is a given in trying to get ahead and never a good reason to give up.
They have high standards – Unsuccessful people accept mediocre behavior from themselves. They cut corners, take shortcuts and are believers in “good enough”, which produces work that has to be apologized for, redone or fixed and compensation made.

In addition, the successful know mediocre behavior is short-sighted and it leads to distrust and broken relationships. They hold themselves to a higher standard where exceptional work is the only acceptable way. They understand that focus, dedication and hard work are the only things that lead to their dreams.
The definition of success is a very personal one. It’s unique to each individual and only they can know if they’ve reached it. Unfortunately, most people say they haven’t attained it. A final word from Mr. Twain, “There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.”

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