Business Keys to Success and Other News

business (7)From January to August 2014 the unemployment rate was been slowly but surely decreasing.  February and March unemployment rate was 6.7% and last confirmed rate was August with a 6.1% unemployment rate. While economists believe the US economy is getting over the bump and jobs are added every month, there is skepticism over how well over the bump we really are.


ADP: Small Businesses Add 88,000 Jobs in September

Small business hiring picked up slightly in September, according to private payroll processor ADP.

Businesses with fewer than 50 employees added 88,000 jobs last month, up from 82,000 in August. Small businesses created 41% of all new jobs in the private sector in September, with 213,000 total jobs added.

“September’s jobs added number marks the sixth straight month of employment gains above 200,000,” said Carlos Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of ADP.
“It’s a positive sign for the economy to see the 200,000-plus trend continue.”

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, which helps prepare the ADP report, added that gains across all company sizes and industries is especially encouraging news for the economy.


Small businesses should focus on five keys to success 

What do small-business owners need to pay attention to this fall? Heath care, Internet security and new technology make the list. Here are five things that small businesses need to be on top of over the next several months:

HEALTH CARE: Small-business owners who bought employee health insurance policies before the end of 2013, sidestepping the law’s requirements for a year, could pay between 10 percent and 20 percent more when it’s time to renew, says Michael Stahl, chief marketing officer of HealthMarkets Inc., a broker based in North Richland Hills, Texas. They’ll also have to decide on plans. Policies issued under the law have significant changes including the requirement that pre-existing conditions be covered. Some owners may decide it’s better if workers purchase their own government-subsidized coverage on health insurance exchanges.

Companies whose coverage took effect Jan. 1 of this year and complied with the law could see increases between 5 percent and 10 percent for 2015, Stahl says. Not all small-business owners will have to make these decisions this year. Employers with 50 to 99 workers have until 2016. Companies with fewer than 50 workers are exempt.


Google AdWords Secrets: What Works for Small Business

Launching an AdWords campaign is one of the most effective ways to grow a small business. Whether you are trying to get the word out about your business or have a special event or sale to promote, launching ads on Google can mean big business in little time.

The Google Display Network (GDN) reaches the majority of U.S.-based Internet users — a whopping 80 percent — giving AdWords advertisers the widest reach possible. Although this is definitely a good thing, it does come with some disadvantages. Because AdWords casts such a wide net for advertisers, launching an effective AdWords campaign requires a finely tuned strategy to reach the right customers and get a better return on investment (ROI).

Launching an AdWords campaign is one of the most effective ways to grow a small business. Whether you are trying to get the word out about your business or have a special event or sale to promote, launching ads on Google can mean big business in little time.

The Google Display Network (GDN) reaches the majority of U.S.-based Internet users — a whopping 80 percent — giving AdWords advertisers the widest reach possible. Although this is definitely a good thing, it does come with some disadvantages. Because AdWords casts such a wide net for advertisers, launching an effective AdWords campaign requires a finely tuned strategy to reach the right customers and get a better return on investment (ROI).


Does your Business Need Mentoring?

business (3)The value of mentoring for entrepreneurs has invaluable benefits to them according to research. Many businesses and young entrepreneurs have acquired insights through mentorship, and have learned from their mentors’ mistakes business acumen that will help them with their business and endeavors.  Business people coming out of an MBA program can benefit the greatest and make fewer mistakes by having a mentor that can guide them and direct them to the right path.


Ohio River Bridges Project means big business for local contractors

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The Ohio River Bridges Project means big business for some local companies.

Major progress on the Ohio River Bridges Project and the reconfiguration of Spaghetti Junction is taking place. Cranes are up and cement is mixing. Four major components of the bridge project are: ready mix concrete, structural steel, aggregates and asphalt paving.
Advance Ready Mix is working on both the Downtown and East End Bridges. Business has been so good with this project, the company says it’s hiring more truck drivers.
“What percentage of your business is the Bridges Project?” WDRB’s Valerie Chinn asked.
“I’d say right now it’s 10-20 percent of ours,” said Chad Deters, sales manager for Advance Ready Mix. “We still have a lot of other work.”
“It came at a really good time when the economy was down,” Deters added. “It really kick-started our year last year and kept on rolling.”
The company was not working on the Bridges Project when a woman was killed in the crosswalk on the Louisville side of the Clark Memorial Bridge at Second and Main by an Advance Ready Mix truck.


Business mentoring franchise expands to serve Springfield, northwest Ohio

A business mentoring concept has opened a second location to serve northwest Ohio and the Springfield area.

The Alternative Board — a concept of business advisory and executive business coaching boards — is forming another franchise based in Russia (Shelby County), which will serve the northwest of the state. Ed Miller, a longtime consultant, is the owner of The Alternative Board of Northwest Ohio.

“The fact you’re dealing with decision makers and CEOs in this concept, it appeals to the intellectual and academic side, this type of concept,” Miller said.

The board will likely attract businesses in the manufacturing and professional services industries, but its goal is to bring in business leaders from multiple industries to provide many perspectives similar to a board of directors for smaller companies in the $1 million to $8 million revenue range that might not have an established group of mentors.


Support for minority businesses costing Ohio taxpayers

Consumers know you pay more when you buy a product through a middleman who must mark up the price to make a profit.

State government, by its own design, is spending hundreds of thousands of additional taxpayers’ dollars with middlemen as part of its quest to support minority businesses.For many years, when state purchasing officials needed software from Microsoft, they placed orders with two of the company’s authorized resellers.

Now, state agencies buy software through three middlemen created by a contract through which they resell the resellers’ software to the state, an investigation by The Dispatch finds. The minority-business enterprises (MBEs) relay orders to the resellers while tacking on fees of 3 to 4.75 percent of the cost, increasing the expense to the state.


Business Lessons And Information

business (4)Are you a business owner struggling to make your business get ahead? Research and articles about the US economy and its recovery are abundant, all hailing that the US economy is progressively doing better. As a small business owner the recovery may not have reached your business yet, and the truth may differ a bit in your case, but keeping yourself informed and motivated can be the difference between a good and a great year for your business. Follow the links below to read the complete articles.


Four Valuable Business Lessons To Learn From Football

Are you ready for some football? Many Americans spent hours in front of the television this weekend as the 2014 NFL season opened. Regardless of how your favorite football teamed performed (I recognize that half of you are depressed by the outcome), you probably were content just watching your favorite team TISI -0.95% play. But, I’m here to be sure you don’t overlook the business lessons buried in the sport. Here are four valuable lessons you can take from the football season, along with important guidance about where football and business differ.

Build a Successful Team

Each NFL team needs a group of players with complementary skills that together make a great team. In your business, it works the same way. You need skill players, strength players, a great quarterback, and a staff of supporting coaches.


Business leaders downbeat on workers’ prospects

Despite an improving economy and record corporate profits, business leaders are skeptical about their ability to compete abroad and downright pessimistic about the prospect of increasing pay or improving living conditions for American workers, according to a new report from Harvard Business School.

Co-authored by high-profile Harvard professor Michael Porter, the report also identified a “troubling divergence” in the economy, in which most businesses are thriving, as are highly skilled workers, yet middle-class and working-class employees are struggling.

Porter and his team urged business leaders to become more involved in efforts to improve living standards for more workers, such as additional training and education, out of self-interest: a stronger workforce will make their companies more competitive in the global economy.


Business Leaders Worry About Income Inequality And Revolution

Income inequality must have become a mainstream concern because even business leaders worry about it. A newly released survey by the Harvard Business School of its alumni about American competitiveness shows that a “troubling divergence in the American economy” could ultimately sink the country’s prospects. Even as large corporations, the wealthy, and “ highly skilled individuals” prosper, “middle-class and working-class citizens are struggling.” So are small businesses, which are an important source of new jobs. The result is a division of the U.S. into two parts, one small and wealthy, the other comprising the vast majority that finds it more difficult to get by as time moves on.

The problem, according to the analysis of what these executives have said, is that to be economically strong, the U.S. must compete in the global economy while supporting and advancing the standard of living for its citizens. The financial results of large corporations show success in the first area. Standards of living are another matter:


Women In Business

business (10)There are more than 9 million companies that are owned by women.  They employee close to 8 million people, and together they accomplished sales close to 1.5 trillion dollars as of this year. With those statistics one wonders why it is still hard for a business woman to get a loan from a bank or get the same benefits than their male counterparts get. To read more about this topic and to read more about Ohio’s economy outlook, follow the links below.


Ranking state economies: See where Ohio falls

Ohio’s economy is something of a mixed bag, at least according to Business Insider, which has ranked all 50 states.

The Buckeye State ranks No. 25.

Here’s what Business Insider has to say about Ohio:

“Ohio has a disproportionate number of manufacturing and health services jobs. However, Ohio’s scores on our measures were very much a mixed bag:

On the bright side, Ohio’s unemployment rate dropped sharply over the past year, from 7.4% in June 2013 to 5.5% in June 2014.

The housing market in Ohio, on the other hand, is not recovering as quickly as it is in many other states. Ohio saw a small 0.1% drop in housing prices between Q1 2013 and Q2 2014.

Similarly, Ohio faces demographic challenges, with the working age population shrinking by a marginal 0.1% between 2012 and 2013, one of only 13 states to show a decline in this population.


Women small business owners struggle to get loans

NEW YORK (AP) — Women are a growing force in the business world, but if they own a company, they may still struggle to get a loan from a bank.

Carrie Charlick and Marcia Cubitt have $4 million in sales but have been rejected for $500,000 credit lines since 2012. Their 11-year-old company, Essential Body Wear, sells women’s underwear at parties at customers’ homes. That’s a problem for bankers, Charlick says. Because the Detroit-based business doesn’t have a traditional structure and sells directly to the public rather than retailers, banks keep saying no.

“We don’t have receivables and we don’t own a building,” she says. “We don’t have collateral.”

Male loan officers have also made inappropriate comments about the fact the company sells lingerie. Charlick is convinced that they have a problem with women-owned businesses.

Women owners have long been at a disadvantage getting loans. Some states required husbands or other male relatives to co-sign business loans until the practice was outlawed by the Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988. But women’s business loan approval rates are between 15 percent and 20 percent below men’s, according to the online lending marketplace Biz2Credit.com.

Several factors contribute to the problem. Banks historically have been gun-shy about small businesses, and that caution increased due to stricter government regulations after the 2008 credit crisis. Often, women-owned businesses are young, making them look risky to lenders.


Greg Abbott celebrates growth in women-owned businesses in Texas, overlooks meaningful details

In an email blast, Greg Abbott’s campaign said Texas businesses owned by women flourished with Barack Obama in the White House.

Abbott, the attorney general and Republican gubernatorial nominee, wasn’t saluting the Democratic president. In the July 10, 2014, email message, Kim Snyder, Abbott’s deputy campaign manager, called Texas the “land of opportunity – especially for women.” Texas does better than other states, Snyder wrote, adding: “Let’s compare: the growth rate of women-owned businesses in Texas has nearly doubled that of the nation since President Obama has taken office.”

A reader, bringing the email to our attention, wondered about the described growth rates.

To our inquiry, Abbott spokesman Avdiel Huerta said by email Abbott’s near-doubling reference was based on reports by American Express OPEN, which American Express describes as the leading payment-card issuer for small U.S. businesses.

According to the 2013 State of Women-Owned Businesses report, Huerta said, there were 8,617,200 woman-owned U.S. firms, including 737,300 in Texas, in 2013. In 2007, AMEX said there were 7,793,139 woman-owned firms nationally and 610,007 in Texas, Huerta said.


Ohio’s Unemployment Rate and Other News

business (4)The national unemployment rate for July was 6.2%, a bit higher than the Ohio unemployment rate of 5.7%. Compared to the 7.5% unemployment rate in 2013, things seem to be going in the right direction for Ohio. And although the recession seems to have slowed lending for small businesses, small business owners are still optimistic that things are heading in the right direction.

To read more about small business news follow the links below.


Ohio jobless rate posts small hop to 5.7% in July

Ohio’s unemployment rate edged up to 5.7 percent in July, as the number of those out of work rose and the total with jobs dropped from the prior month.

The state reported Friday that non-farm employment sank 12,400 jobs from June to nearly 5.3 million last month, helping push up the jobless rate from 5.5 percent in June. About 323,000 Ohioans were out of work in July, the Department of Job and Family Services reported.

The state’s jobless rate in July 2013 was 7.5 percent.

But the state said 24,400 more individuals were working in July than a year earlier. Adding the most jobs over the 12 months was the goods producing sector, up 14,700, and professional and business services segment, up 17,000 positions.


Who’ll pick SC peaches? Immigration policy gridlock stymies farm labor

The heated tempers of the nation’s border states are driving the debate over immigration policy. States such as South Carolina, though, are reckoning with a different set of challenges: a skimpy agriculture labor market and cumbersome immigrant worker programs that go unfixed amid partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill.

Over 20,000 U.S. farms employ more than 435,000 immigrant workers legally every year, according to 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture census data. Thousands – probably tens of thousands – more are employed illegally. In the fruit orchards of the Carolinas, farmers confront a blue-collar labor vacuum.

“Because we’re not a border state, it’s definitely harder to get people over this far from the border to work,” said Chalmers Carr, the owner of the East Coast’s largest peach grower, South Carolina’s Titan Farms. “2006, 2007, even 2008, we had a very robust economy and there were not enough farmworkers then. And there’s truly not enough farmworkers now, legal or illegal.”


Small-Business Lending Is Slow to Recover

Lending Remains Far Below Pre-Recession Levels; Things ‘Aren’t What They Used to Be’

Small-business lending by banks is rebounding but remains far below prerecession levels, forcing entrepreneurs in places like Carroll County, Ga., to seek other financing sources. WSJ’s Angus Loten joins MoneyBeat with the details. Photo: Carrollton Mainstreet.

CARROLLTON, Ga.—Brandi Shirey wants to borrow at least $20,000 to expand the birthday- and wedding-cake business she started four years ago after leaving her job as a bookkeeper.

Demand for the cakes, which sell for $150 to $500, overwhelms her home kitchen. She plans to use about $2,000 from her savings to move into a nearby storefront next month. But the 28-year-old Ms. Shirey believes her credit record and financial paperwork have to be bulletproof before she dares approach a bank for a loan. “It’s time to grow,” she says, but things “aren’t what they used to be.”


Effective Meetings – Be Quick on Your Feet

business (10)There are many trends and fads in business.  Some of them take hold and become part of the status quo and others fade away.  One of the current fads, which may develop into a standard operating procedure, is the concept of stand up meetings.  The idea is developing legs (pun intended) and becoming more common.

While it may be seen as innovative in the sit down meeting business culture it’s not a new concept.  Julius Caesar didn’t allow his commanders, or anyone else, to sit during battle planning strategy sessions in the field.  During World War I some military leaders only had stand up meetings.

The current stand up meeting idea may be traced to a group of software developers.  In 2001 they published the Agile approach to software development.  This method divides projects into smaller and more manageable components.  In daily stand up meetings participants quickly update their peers using 3 criteria: what they’ve done since yesterday’s meeting; what they’re doing today; and what obstacles stand in the way of getting the work done.

One of the objectives of this approach was to drastically reduce or eliminate the long-winded, self serving, CYAing and dishonest reports which are presented in many meetings.  Another goal was to get people to participate, collaborate and be more creative – to stop shopping and playing Candy Crush on their devices.

The preliminary field reports, as well as a small group of research studies, show that stand up meetings meet these goals.  In 1998 Allen Bluedorn, a business professor at the University of Missouri, found that standing meetings were about a third shorter than sitting meetings, while the quality of the decision making was about the same.

A 2014 study by Markus Baer and Andrew Knight, Washington University St. Louis, found that people who stand up in a meeting are more creative, collaborative, pay better attention and less likely to be bored.  They open up and contribute to the discussion more than seated people.  Also, participants were less territorial with their own ideas, while being less critical and hostile towards others suggestions.
(Side bar – In addition to the idea of stand up meetings, managers might consider adopting an overall non sedentary workplace strategy.  Research is showing a correlation between sitting too much and poor emotional, physical and mental health.  The sale of standing up desks has increased dramatically as people become more aware of the benefits of standing vs. sitting during the work day.)

Standing up during meetings, and during the work day, makes good sense and is shown to be an effective business practice on a variety of levels.  Optimistically, it’s a fad that’s on its way to being a standard practice.  After all, the idea worked pretty well for Caesar while he was conquering most of Europe.


The BWC Settlement Agreement

business (8)After a long battle and many years of unfair rates to small business owners, the BWC has to pay $420 million to small businesses all across Ohio.  The ruling came last Thursday and agreed with a ruling from 2013 that states that the BWC must refund millions of dollars to small businesses owners. Now that settlement has been reached many small businesses should be getting refunds ranging from a few pennies to millions of dollars according to some reports.

To read more follow the links below.


Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation reaches $420M settlement agreement over rigged premiums

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation has reached an agreement to pay $420 million to settle a years-long legal battle over allegations it overcharged business owners for workers’ compensation premiums.

The agency would create a fund to repay the more than 250,000 businesses that were overcharged between 2001 and 2008, according to the settlement disclosed Wednesday.

In a class-action lawsuit filed in 2007, thousands of mostly small-business owners accused the bureau of rigging the system to benefit participants of a special group-rating plan. They asked for $1.3 billion in damages then.

The Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals in a scathing decision in May called the system “a cabal of Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation bureaucrats and lobbyists for group sponsors who rigged workers’ compensation insurance premium rates so that for employers who participated in the BWC’s group rating plan … it was ‘heads you win,’ and for employers who did not participate in the group rating plan … it was ‘tails you lose.’ ”


Columbus Small Businesses Endorse Same Sex Marriage

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Over 250 small businesses in Columbus endorsed same sex marriage on Monday, many saying it would boost business.

“When legislators talk about jobs, jobs, jobs they need to think about this,” said Mark Dempsey, owner of Dempsey’s restaurant.  “When you go to get married there’s a celebration involved. There’s the wedding reception, the wedding itself, there’s flowers, there’s cakes, there’s wedding rings.”

Dempsey’s downtown restaurant is no stranger to politics.  On the walls you can find pictures of everyone from Warren G Harding… to Tip O’Neill and the Gipper… to honest Abe.

Dempsey was joined by other Columbus small business owners today to endorse marriage equality in Ohio.


Kasich approved increase in Ohio’s small business income deduction

Ohio Governor John Kasich recently signed a bill that, among other things, increases the small business income deduction from 50% to 75% of the first $250,000 in net business income.

In an effort to grow Ohio’s economy, last year the Ohio budget bill included significant tax law changes to deliver a $2.7 billion tax cut to individuals and businesses, over the course of three years. The changes included:

• A small business tax cut that enables owners/investors to deduct from taxable income 50% of the first $250,000 in net business income.

• A 10% personal income tax cut to be phased in over three years. In 2013, Ohio tax rates were reduced by 8.5%.

• New assistance for lower-income Ohioans in the form of an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) equal to 5% of the amount claimed for the federal EITC.


Marketing Tips and Tools you Must Know About

business (4)The Ohio Small Business Development Center offers great advice and solutions for those entrepreneurs wanting to start a business in the state of Ohio.  From the planning stage to filing legal forms and permits the center offer steps, forms, phone numbers and links to the web sites you may need to begin your journey.  For the marketing and other tools you may need to compete with the big guys, here we offer you articles that can offer you solutions to some of your business decisions for now and in the future.


6 Marketing Ideas Small Businesses Can Learn From Big Brands

Marketing veteran Rob Schuham spends a lot of time encouraging big brands to act like small companies. Be nimble, he advises, be creative, be agile. Take a risk, he tells them, and act like a startup.

And when major clients on his roster at Denver-based Match Action Marketing have listened to his counsel, they’ve backed some groundbreaking campaigns that are instructive not only for their Fortune 100 brethren, but to the little guys, as well.

“If you get a marketing program right, you can set a category on its head,” said Schuham, CEO of Match Action. “The big guys have scale, so they can be kind of a beta test for innovative marketing. Small companies can find useful data points and adapt some of those tactics for their own purposes.”


Three tools every small business can’t do without

Technology can make or break a small business, both at launch and when success has it scaling up. Here are three-must haves to ensure professionalism, maximize productivity, build market share and save money for businesses with 1-10 employees.

Telephony

The phone is still the most common way that your customers, partners and suppliers will communicate with you, so don’t cut corners. But don’t spend more than you have to, either.

For starters, get a dedicated business number. There are services that offer a free basic phone number, or, based on your business needs, you can get a low-cost monthly subscription virtual PBX service, like Cloud Phone, that allows you to get a toll-free or local number with more advanced business features, such as ability to add employee extensions.

Next, decide whether your employees really need deskphones or whether tablets and smartphones are a better fit for their work styles. If it’s the latter, eliminating deskphones can easily save a couple hundred bucks up front in hardware, plus $30 or more per month per employee in service fees. Those savings are a major reason why so many businesses are ditching deskphones in favor of VoIP softphones on tablets, smartphones and laptops.


Why Your Content Isn’t Going Viral (Infographic)

You wrote a kick-butt blog post.

You worked for days on that video.

You stretched all of your graphic design muscles to make an infographic.

And no one shared any of it.

Ouch. You have good content, but it just can’t seem to get any shares.

It doesn’t have to be that way anymore. Who Is Hosting This has  an infographic that explains why your content won’t go viral, and how you can make it do so next time. Here are a couple of the infographic’s tips:

1. Appeal to emotions.


Should Ohio Raise the Minimun Wage Again?

business (3)The 2014 Ohio minimum wage beginning this past January went from $7.85 to $7.95 a bit more than the Federal national wage of $7.25, and now the small business community supports a higher minimum wage that some experts believe is good for the economy.  For more news about this and other topics follow the links below.


Why we still don’t know how many small businesses signed up through Obamacare

And why it’s probably not very many.  

In contrast to the widely publicized enrollment numbers on the health care law’s individual marketplace, there’s apparently no way to know how many business owners and employees have signed up through the law’s new small-business exchanges.

By all indications, though, it’s not very many.

One House Republican has twice asked federal health officials to provide data on how many owners and employees have enrolled in and paid for plans through the law’s new insurance marketplaces for small businesses. Since the launch last fall, the employer portals, known as SHOP exchanges, have suffered even more technical problems and delays than the exchange for individuals and families.

“The SHOPs opened, although without online enrollment and many promised features, on October 1, 2013,” Rep. Sam Graves (Mo.), chair of the House Small Business Committee, wrote in his latest letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the exchanges. “Over seven months later, we still do not have any federal and some state SHOP enrollment data.”


A Higher Minimum Wage Is Good for Business

Small business owners realize the benefits of higher pay and a stronger consumer class.

Five years ago this month, the minimum wage reached the lofty sum of $7.25 per hour, the last step in a series of increases Congress set in motion in 2007. It hasn’t been raised since, and after taking inflation into account, the minimum has fallen to an adjusted level of only $6.54. That may change soon. Support for a higher minimum wage now comes from an unlikely source: the owners of America’s small businesses, and CEOs of some the nation’s largest and most respected brands. Meanwhile, recently published research shows that wage hikes at a modest level don’t kill growth and jobs. In fact, the states that have raised their minimums have enjoyed above-average economic growth.

Last week the American Sustainable Business Council and Business for a Fair Minimum Wage released a report of a scientific national poll of small business owners. The poll involved a live telephone survey of 555 small business owners, with between 2 and 99 employees each. Respondents spanned the political spectrum, all regions of the country and a broad cross-section of industries.


Net neutrality important to small businesses, customers

Let me offer the following small-business parable:
Lou owns a small business, a pizzeria, in a city with only one highway.
Everyone must use this one highway to get to work, go shopping, see a movie and connect with friends. It’s a critical infrastructure for the whole community.
Lou uses the highway for home delivery of his pizzas and to get supplies for his restaurant.
Until now, everyone in the city could use the highway equally. But the on-ramps to the highway are privately owned.
Even though the highway was built with government money, one day the on-ramp owners decided to create a fast lane. Now you have to pay them a lot to get anywhere if you want to get there quickly.

Lou’s competitors — huge national pizza chains — can afford to pay this toll. But Lou can’t, so he’s always stuck in the slow lane, which is more crowded than ever.

When a football fan orders one of Lou’s pizzas, it arrives in the fourth quarter instead of at halftime. Lou loses a lot of customers because the highway isn’t open to everyone equally.


BWC and Other News

business (1)News about Ohio and what is happening in the state are important to all of us.  News about the Ohio Bureau of Workers compensation refusal to pay small business across Ohio what it owes them is not only negligent but devastating to the morale of Ohio Businesses and the local economies.  Small business owners deal with a myriad of issues in a daily basis, making government issues not only hard for them to do but impossible to fulfill is an obstacle and encumbrance to the well being of our economy.


Pressure Mounts On Gov. Kasich To Force BWC To Pay Back Small Businesses

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Pressure on Gov. John Kasich to pay back hundreds of millions of dollars to more than 250,000 small businesses is mounting.
An NBC4 investigation into overcharges that sunk thousands of small business across Ohio is now going statewide.

An advertising campaign based on the NBC4 investigation is set to air on TV Friday, asking Kasich to get involved in the payback.

Ron Foreman is front and center in an ad campaign aimed directly at Kasich.

“I gathered my family together and told them, ‘Things are going to have to change because Daddy is going to have to file bankruptcy,'” Foreman said in the commercial.


Kasich plans small-business swing to 3 Ohio cities 

HAMILTON, OHIO: Ohio’s governor will focus on small businesses in a swing through three western Ohio cities.

Gov. John Kasich has Tuesday stops in Hamilton, the Dayton area and Tipp City. The Republican is seeking re-election this November. He will begin the day at Hamilton Caster, a business that makes casters, industrial wheels and other products and dates back more than a century in the Butler County seat.

A campaign announcement with the National Federation of Independent Business/Ohio is planned there. The small business association recently announced its endorsement of Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine’s re-election.


Ohio entrepreneurs should learn about new health coverage options: Grant Lahmann

Pundits and politicians from Ohio to Oregon have spent years bemoaning the new health care law and its impact on the economy, and on small businesses, in particular. But the law has been in full effect for six months now, and the real-life implications of it are anything but dismal.

A recent report shows the Affordable Care Act actually increased the gross domestic product for the first quarter of 2014, and here in the Buckeye State, almost 155,000 individuals, self-employed and small business owners and their workers have already found affordable insurance through the new insurance marketplace created by the health care law.

In case you’re not already familiar with it, Ohio’s marketplace has two branches — one for individuals, the other for small businesses. The individual marketplace is available to any self-employed individual or small business employee whose employer doesn’t offer insurance. Open-enrollment for the individual marketplace is closed, but enrollment for 2015 begins on November 15 this year.