Ohio Job Growth, Outsourcing, and Health Costs

November 18, 2015 by

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Many small business paying for health insurance coverage for their employees have seen an increase in their premiums year after year, and they expect 2016 will not be any different. And although paying for health insurance coverage for their employees is an expense that keeps increasing, the alternative is not something they are considering doing.  To retain or attract top workers for their companies, the incentives they offer are as important as the salaries they promise.

For more about this and other news follow the links below.

Should your small business outsource IT?

Depends on how small a business it is.

To outsource or not to outsource, that is the question many small businesses struggle with.

For certain support tasks, like payroll, outsourcing is universally considered the small business protein shake: without it there’s no way to compete with the big guys. But for other business functions, outsourcing is more like the candy bar: it’s tasty at first, but in the end, there’s little real benefit.

IT was once considered a no-brainer for small business to outsource. After all, good IT is expensive and hard to find. Why further stress a fragile revenue stream with another salary?

But in more recent years, IT evolved from a purely supportive department to an integrated revenue driver. For companies who rely on their IT for innovation, outsourcing IT is not a no-brainer; it’s unthinkable.

So what is right for small business: outsourced IT or an internal department? Let’s examine what they need to consider.

Small business health costs: Up this year and next?

The vast majority of small businesses are paying more for health insurance for their employees under the health care law, and many expect their costs to keep going up next year, according to a survey by the advocacy group National Small Business Association.

Ninety percent of the 810 owners surveyed said their costs are up in 2015 over last year, and 84 percent expect to pay more in 2016.

The number of companies that offer health benefits to their employees fell 5 percent to 65 percent this year from 2014, the survey found. The largest decline came in companies with 10 to 20 staffers; 73 percent are offering benefits versus 86 percent last year.

But nearly half the owners provide health insurance to more than 80 percent of their workers. Almost all the owners — 94 percent — believe offering health insurance is important to recruit or retain top workers.

Local entrepreneurs report growth, job gains

COLUMBUS — The Columbus chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s annual EO Global Entrepreneur Indicator shows overall growth and opportunity in central Ohio.

The indicator is intended to reflect top Columbus entrepreneurs’ economic experience during the past six months and their outlook for the coming six months.

Seventy-five percent of those involved in the Columbus survey say employment rose in the past six months; the numbers were 70 percent in Cleveland, 56.8 percent in Cincinnati and 58.3 percent globally.

However, only 60.7 percent of those surveyed locally expect an increase in hiring over the coming six months. That’s in contrast to 80 percent in Cleveland, 67.6 percent in Cincinnati and 62.8 percent globally.

Those surveyed in Columbus reported strong profit and revenue numbers both in the past six months and in their outlook for the coming months, besting the percentages of the other Ohio cities’ entrepreneurs in most cases.

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4 Ways to Increase the Bottom Line

November 16, 2015 by

donk1-300x266The majority of small businesses fail because they aren’t able to generate enough operating capital, they simply run out of money.  But, there are ways to prevent this.  The lack or loss of money is overwhelmingly caused by internal problems.  Contrary to most owners’ beliefs, external forces are responsible for just a fraction of small business failures.

Companies run out of money because the owners won’t or don’t know how to address their structural and operational problems.  Commonly, the actual causes of the typical business’s collapse can be traced to 4 problem areas.  Therefore, if addressed in a timely manner, profit and profit margins can be increased when the problems are identified and fixed.

Key to an efficient operation is putting the right person in the right job.  It’s vital to accurately assess employees’ skills, everyone has strengths and weaknesses.  This is especially true in small businesses where family and friends are often in jobs they aren’t suited for.  Putting people in positions they’re not trained to do or just aren’t capable of doing affects the bottom line. 

Lack of accountability – for owners (who usually don’t hold themselves accountable for their actions), managers and workers – is an enormous problem in workplaces.  This area all by itself can financially affect a business to the point of closing.  Employees, owners and managers must be accountable for their responsibilities and behaviors. 

Another area that directly affects profitability is lack of or poor internal and external communication.  Billions of dollars have been lost simply because somebody didn’t pass on important information, talk over a problem, speak up with a concern or listen enough.  Prioritizing effective communication, at all levels, is a smart fix.

The final area, improve production efficiency, is a no-brainer.  Some of the benefits include: it’s cheaper to produce the product, requires less rework, increased customer satisfaction, is easier to sell, generates referrals and decreased waste. All of which contributes to increased earnings.

These are 4 main ways a company can increase its bottom line.  If a small business owner is willing to learn some new skills, and consistently apply them, the monetary and non-monetary rewards (i.e. time off, happier employees, secure future, increased quality of life) are well worth it. 

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Motivating Your Workforce

November 11, 2015 by

62227730When you are a small business owner, you concentrate in making sure the success of the company is possible by working hard and having employees that can help you achieve your goals.  Your goal is to optimize employees work to reach the success you envisioned.  Dedicated employees that can help you achieve your goals are an important part of having a business, and many employers fail to engage or value key employees that are an integral part to the success of their business.

For more small business news, follow the links below.

How Business Owners Can Stay Motivated Every Day

One of the biggest challenge that business owners face is motivation. Yes, they are motivated enough to start their business but there is no one really on top of them telling them what to do, how to do it, why to do it. They need to figure it out on their own. Entrepreneurs need to motivate themselves each day to get out of bed and create the perfect business.

That takes emotional fuel and it sometimes runs out. Wouldn’t it be great to figure out a strategy to load up on the emotional fuel needed to stay motivated? Imagine you can drink some kool aid that was legal and you can feel motivated with no low after. Sugar can get you hyper but it will also get you down right after it runs out. Real motivation comes from within. Here are a few strategies that have worked for me.

Create Clarity – The most important thing that you can do to feel great about yourself and your business is to have a clear strategy, purpose and vision. You need to be clear on why you are doing what you are doing. Once you know exactly how you will be spending your time and why you will be doing each thing that you are doing you will have two decisions to make.

Working hard to feel better: The importance of corporate wellness

Your shoulders ache, your head pounds and crashing on the sofa after a long day in the office is the only thing for which you can muster any enthusiasm.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Work-related stress — compounded by poor eating habits and lack of exercise — affects most of us at some stage, leading to low energy levels and, in extreme cases, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers.

While many strive to lead a healthy life, working for more than 40 hours a week inevitably takes its toll, and with the results of a recent IPSOS survey showing that 42 per cent of UAE employees find the workplace stressful, is there more employers can do to improve employee wellness?

“Absolutely,” says Andrew Picken, managing partner at Bespoke Wellness in Dubai, which offers corporate wellness programmes throughout the country.

Going Millennial: The Perks of Hiring Generation Y

Millennials: The Benefits, the Challenges and Why You Should Hire Them.

America’s population statistics are changing, and so is the workforce. Millennials now officially outnumber Baby Boomers 83.1 million to 75.4 million, according to themost recent US Census.

This means the workplace will soon undergo a transformative change—if it hasn’t already.

As more Baby Boomers reach retirement age, more millennials join the workforce. With this  drastic change in maturity comes a dramatic change in style—and we’re not just talking fashion!

Millennials have different takes on life, different motivations and vastly different expectations of the world compared to the generations before them. Businesses that want to remain successful would be wise to keep up with the times and find new ways to appeal to these burgeoning masses.

 

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Entrepreneurial Stubbornness – the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

November 4, 2015 by

59948705Persistence, not listening to the nay-sayers, determination, following your dream: All things which contribute to starting and building a thriving business. All things which are fueled by good old-fashioned stubbornness.  I have yet to meet a successful small business owner who doesn’t have a very large streak of it.  Unfortunately, that’s not always a positive.

The Good

Stubbornness is a positive quality when it’s driving you to create, build and sustain a business.  The desire to “do things my way”  is a powerful motivator.  It’s what keeps you on track to work the long hours and make the hard decisions.  It has built multi-national Fortune 100 companies, as well as the local machine shop.

The Bad

As the saying goes, “There are 2 sides to every coin.”  There’s a bad side to entrepreneurial stubbornness.  It’s human nature to become attached to our own viewpoint – not only do we get stuck in ruts, we furnish them for additional comfort.  This makes it difficult to see other’s (accountants, consultants, employees, managers) points of view and listen to their ideas. 

Ideas which are good for you and your company.  When a company is growing there’s a juncture when the owner should shift from “a one-man show” style of management to a team approach.  Many don’t make that change, they stubbornly hang on to old ideas and ways of doing things, which often leads to the ugly.

The Ugly

There comes a time when an owners’ refusal to modify his inflexibility crosses the line from poor management skills to self destructive behavior-“the old way is good enough, no  one is going to tell me what to do”.  Resulting in — due to the owner’s unwillingness to recognize and adapt to changing ideas, technologies, employee’s needs and market requirements — a bankrupt company. 

Good entrepreneurial stubbornness often turns bad and ugly over time.  Owners fail to understand that we all need to evolve if we are to thrive in an ever changing world, and we have to be willing to listen to others to do so.  As Benjamin Franklin said, “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”

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Is SEO For The Small Business Owner?

October 29, 2015 by

Customer Relationship Management business chart on a digital tabFor some businesses SEO sometimes does not make sense.  It is no wonder then that many of the small businesses in the United States are not engage in trying or using SEO for their business. If you are a small business owner you may not have the budget or the incentive to undertake SEO as well. And although many businesses struggle to measure the ROI when hiring a company to do they search engine optimization, it is important to be aware of the benefits SEO brings to businesses when they do it well.

7 Credit Card Perks for Small Business Owners

You won’t get these sign-up bonuses and introductory APRs with consumer cards.

Owners of both new and established small businesses can benefit from a broad range of valuable perks offered with credit cards. Business credit cards not only provide a means for building and establishing business credit, but they can assist in record-keeping, preserving cash flow and separating business and personal finances. Much like consumer credit cards, the right business card can offer a plethora of rewards that you can redeem for flights, hotel stays and cash back on purchases.

Here are seven significant credit card perks for small business owners.

1. Valuable sign-up bonuses. Many credit cards offer a range of one-time promotions designed to attract new cardholders and business owners. These promotions might include sign-up bonuses allowing you to earn hundreds of dollars if you meet a specific spending requirement within a few months of opening the account. Sign-up bonuses may also award enough miles and points that you start out with free airline flights or hotel stays, simply for using your credit card.

Why Aren’t More Small Businesses Using SEO?

For more than a decade, thousands of businesses have enjoyed the benefits of high rankings in Google searches (and searches on competing engines) thanks to their SEO efforts. Larger corporations pour hundreds of thousands of dollars and allocate entire departments to gaining more online visibility, but even small- to mid-sized businesses can use a fraction of that budget to get more traffic and sales.

However, according to a recent survey by the Small Business Authority (SBA), less than 50 percent of small business owners in the United States think of inbound traffic from search engines as an “important” source of future business. Another 14 percent declared themselves unsure.

It’s also worth noting that only 17 percent of surveyed small business owners are actively investing in SEO. However, a startling 39 percent of business owners aren’t investing in any marketing strategies whatsoever, indicating that SEO alone may not be the problem.

How will the candidates help small business?

​All politicians express support for small business. These enterprises are the engines of our economy and represent the entrepreneurial grit that has made this country great. Unfortunately, these rhetorical commitments to Main Street have not always been accompanied by meaningful actions. As a result many small businesses are finding it difficult to launch or grow, while others are failing altogether.

Since the misdeeds that led to the financial crisis of 2008, the federal government has adopted a myriad of regulations and requirements designed to reduce risk-taking by Wall Street. The quest for safer banks and greater financial stability is a good thing. However, we must be careful of what we wish for. The most stable financial system is one with no lending at all and many small businesses today are struggling to find credit.

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The U.S Economy

October 21, 2015 by

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For a long time federal regulations have been known to help the big enterprise and not the small business owner.  Regulations are costly  for the small business owner, and to be compliant means to spend cash that they may not have, or borrowing cash that they may not get. The difficulties that the federal and local governments put the small business owner through means the big enterprises are able to capitalized in the small business owner closing their doors. For more news about this and other topics, follow the links below.

Small Business Loses Out On US Economic Development Incentives, As States Favor Large Companies

When Manhattan Running Co. decided to buy a building in the northeastern Kansas college town it has called home for seven years, the owners were confronted with a $120,000 renovation. It was hardly a small sum for a new business with just 10 employees, and included in the expense was about $20,000 to make the building wheelchair accessible and compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Actbuilding regulations. 

“In a business like ours, we don’t get a lot of people in wheelchairs,” Manhattan Running co-founder Trey Vernon, a former Oklahoma State University runner, said. “We totally support ADA, but it can be difficult for a business of our size to cover the costs. Any kind of break on investments we’re forced to make would help.”

#SmallBizHowTo: How To Get Financing For Your Small Business

Getting financing, for many entrepreneurs, is about as much fun as going to the dentist. You’ll need to figure out what you need, get your financial paperwork in order, and be prepared for rejection. But it’s also crucial. After all, every business needs cash to grow – and one of the big reasons that entrepreneurs fail is lack of funds.

Last week, Forbes asked small business owners, entrepreneurs and those who had dreams of launching a new operation to tweet us questions about getting funding. We got questions from all over the world – from as far away as Abuja, the capitol of Nigeria. The main questions focused on the key inter-related issues of what to do first, how to get financing, how to know if you’re getting a good interest rate, and what to do if you have less-than-stellar credit. Others sent questions about specific industries, such as food. I’ll address four of these questions in detail below.

Women in Small Business: Cracking the Glass Ceiling

Recent headlines have celebrated the success of women chief executives at Facebook, IBM, General Motors and other corporate giants. But this misses a much bigger story: women-owned small businesses – already numbering nearly 10 million – are starting up at twice the rate of men-owned businesses, and they are succeeding despite an all too real glass ceiling. At the same time, women in Congress are leading the legislative fight to crack that glass ceiling and level the playing field for women-owned businesses.

As the lead Democrat on the Senate’s Small Business Committee, I’ve had countless conversations with businesswomen from across the US. They are proud to be successful business owners and job creators. But they tell disturbing stories of barriers confronting women entrepreneurs that aren’t encountered by their male counterparts. They face longer odds in getting access to credit and capital, winning government contracts, and accessing the business counseling they need to succeed.

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The U.S and Ohio Economies

October 14, 2015 by

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The Ohio unemployment rate has slowly but surely being decreasing over the last few months.  Back in March the unemployment rate was at 5.1%, and in August it was 4.7%. Compared to the U.S as a whole, Ohio is just a bit better than the national average and the small business confidence seems to have increased for a couple months now. For more about this and other topics, follow the links below.

US small business confidence edges up, sales a worry

U.S. small business confidence rose marginally in September as stock market volatility raised concerns about sales growth, suggesting the economy was expanding at a moderate pace.

The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday its Small Business Optimism Index gained 0.2 point to 96.1 last month. It said that level was consistent with a 2.5 percent annualized growth rate.

“Financial markets did not provide any encouragement to owners, instead providing volatility that only a trader could like. This produces uncertainty,” the NFIB said.

Seven of the index’s 10 components eked out small gains last month, while the share of small business owners expecting stronger sales volumes in the next few months fell six points.

Why Small Businesses Are Feeling An Economic Crunch

ATTN: Baby Boomer-Aged Small Business Owners

Congratulations, you’re one of the 4 million Baby Boomers who currently own and operate American companies. You deserve credit for building strong brands and reputations, for employing countless others, for providing for your families and communities, and for effectively living out the American Dream. But as strategic as you’ve been in business, you’ve likely kicked the succession-planning can down the road and continue to do so. That’s a mistake, and hopefully this gets your attention.

Basic Facts

You and your peers represent roughly 66% of all domestic businesses with employees.

You, being a member of the generation born between 1946 and 1964, began turning 65 years old in 2011 at a rate of about 10,000 people per day and will continue passing that age milestone through 2029.

In Business, Does Size Matter?

Conventional wisdom says that startups and closely held companies should be far more nimble, less bureaucratic, and less political than large corporations. But that’s more myth than reality. In the real world, small businesses are just as likely to be poorly run and dysfunctional as big enterprises. Perhaps more so.

I was just commiserating with a friend about the company where she works. “It’s hard to believe such a small firm can be so screwed up,” she said. “You’ve heard of silo mentality between departments and divisions? We have silos of like one or two people. It’s nuts.”

“Size doesn’t matter, at least not when it comes to organizational dysfunction,” I said. “There are great leaders, lousy leaders, and everything in between. Big or small, they determine how their companies function … or don’t.”

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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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Habits of Successful People You Should Emulate

September 24, 2015 by

59948705Emulating successful entrepreneurs’ habits to achieve success  does not necessarily mean we will achieve it, it just means that we may in the process acquire certain habits that will be beneficial for our business. Every entrepreneur is different, and their businesses and processes are widely diverse as well. By acquiring and fostering better habits and applying them in our business will help us achieve the success we are looking for.

12 Habits That Set Ultra Successful People Apart

Ultra successful people delight themselves by blowing their personal goals out of the water. They succeed along many different dimensions of life—their friendships, their physical and mental health, their families, and their jobs (which they are not only good at but also enjoy).

TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that ultra successful people have a lot in common. In particular, 90% of them are skilled at managing their emotions in order to stay focused, calm, and productive.

These super successful folks have high emotional intelligence (EQ), a quality that’s critical to achieving your dreams.

5 Skills That Are the Foundation of Entrepreneurial Success

Entrepreneurship requires many skills, from financial planning to human resource management, and it’s at times both intimidating and frustrating. Fortunately, if you’ve got a good idea and the commitment to making it work, most of these skills can be picked up along the way. Throughout the course of your business ownership, you’ll make mistakes, learn valuable lessons, and gain experience that teaches you these skills over time.

Unfortunately, this style of learning can sometimes come too late. Some skills need to be learned early on, or else their absence could spell a tragic fate for your business.

If you’re planning on becoming an entrepreneur, or if you’ve just entered the world of business ownership, learn these five skills as early as possible:

7 Successful Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter (Plus Their Best Tweets)

Total madness.

Five-hundred million daily jolts of information, reshuffled every second, weighed up for what value they hold. Each with an average lifetime of 18 minutes.

But let me tell you a secret: virtually all of Twitter just equals noise. Smoke. Stuff you don’t want and can’t use. So why bother?

Because every now and then, it works. You discover an invaluable piece of advice, a powerful insight or a link to an incredible resource.

How? Simple: when you select people to follow and pay attention to, do extra diligence. Take discernment to an extreme.

Yes — you can (and should) follow the Richard Bransons and the Bill Gateses. No doubt they have plenty to offer.

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Ohio Small Business News

September 16, 2015 by

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The small business sector has long been considered a big job creator for the United States economy. Small businesses have a long history of creating jobs and employing over half the workforce in the United States. It is no wonder then that the federal government has disburse millions of dollars to support the small business sector in Ohio. For more about this and other topics, follow the links below.

U.S. small businesses feel mixed impact from China’s economy

NEW YORK: China’s economic problems have been a windfall for some U.S. small businesses — and pose a threat to others.

A nearly 40 percent plunge in the Shanghai stock market since mid-June, a response to the country’s weakening economy, has sent Chinese investors looking for safer investments. Some are focusing on U.S. real estate, including the condos Peggy Fucci’s real estate brokerage sells in Miami. She’s sold six condos to Chinese buyers in the past month, twice what she’s typically sold in that amount of time.

“It’s the insecurity of continuing to lose your [stock market] investment,” said Fucci, CEO of OneWorld Properties.

Chinese buyers, who pay an average $1.2 million for the condos in a downtown Miami development where she’s sold some homes, want them as an investment rather than a place to live, she said. Fucci is heading to China this weekend on a sales trip, optimistic that she’ll find more buyers.

Feds give Ohio over $18 million for small businesses

Ohio has received more than $18.7 million in State Small Business Credit Initiative funds to help small businesses access capital to grow and create jobs, the U.S. Treasury Department announced recently.

To date, more than $55 million in initiative funds have been disbursed to the Ohio Development Services Agency to support small businesses and the local economy.

“Small businesses are the nation’s leading job creators, and the State Small Business Credit Initiative connects sources of capital to the small businesses that need it,” said Jeffrey Stout, director of the initiative, in a statement.

“The funds announced … will continue to support loans and investments in Ohio’s small businesses,” Stout said.

TAX TIPS: Ohio budget bill provides considerable tax savings for local business activity

Ohio’s operating budget for 2016 and 2017 calls for reductions in tax rates that could prove important to small business owners in the Buckeye State.

This summer, Gov. John Kasich signed into law the two-year Ohio budget bill that expands deductions for small businesses and reduces tax rates on business income and individuals. Kasich originally called it his “Blueprint for Ohio.”

Perhaps most significant is an exemption on a certain portion of business income for Ohio small business owners that do business as an S corporation, limited liability company or sole proprietorship.

The provision does not apply to C corporations, but any business that is structured as a pass-through entity so that its income flows directly from the business to individual shareholders for tax purposes.

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