Small Business Planning and Finances

July 21, 2015 by

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The cost of hiring a new employee does not stop at the salary a business owner pays them.  The cost of recruiting and training can be expensive costs to the small business owner, and one of the many reasons the can hesitate about hiring if they are short in cash.  Keeping a talented workforce is another matter.  The salary and benefits small business owners provide to their employees can be instrumental in keeping individuals with talent in their businesses. To read more about this and other topics, follow the links below.

How Banks Lost Their Groove In Small Business Finance… And Why They May Never Get It Back

Prior to the Great Recession, easy credit conditions prevailed for small businesses. Cash was free flowing, and relaxed lending practices made it relatively easy to secure financing.

After the Lehman Brothers crash and during the ensuing “credit crunch,” volume fell roughly 19% from 2008 until 2012. This general slowdown in lending coincided with stricter requirements placed on borrowers. Financing simply became less available — even for “creditworthy” companies. For the first time in U.S. business history, small business owners frequently were unable to secure credit even from their own banks.

Many banks suffered losses when the housing bubble burst, and they became risk averse. In order to make loans, they often sought three years worth of financial data. Naturally, revenues declined during the recession, and startups were particularly challenged because they had no financial track record to highlight. Historical data from my company’s Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index shows that big bank lending hit rock bottom four years ago in June 2011, when only 8.9% of small business loan applications were granted.

IKE TROTTER — Planning is vital for small businesses

Here in Mississippi and, in particular, the Delta, small businesses are the backbone to our economy. And, equally as important, small businesses can be the glue that brings children back home to run and eventually succeed in the ownership of a business. But, as many know, running a small business today involves a great deal of risk.

Needless to say, a small business normally comprises the largest part of one’s estate.  Unfortunately, most business owners fail to address the need for succession planning because it is human nature to put off decisions concerning death, disability or retirement. But here’s a typical scenario: upon the departure of a business owner, there are three choices for remaining family members; sell the business, liquidate the business or try to continue operating. Because of this, succession planning is critical in carrying forth both an orderly transition of power to new owners as well as providing continuity for employees and existing customers.

A properly drafted buy-sell arrangement that is adequately funded can provide financial protection for both family and business. Designed effectively, the plan can allow surviving family members and owners to enjoy ongoing economic support for succeeding generations.

Small business advice: How to attract and retain loyal millennials

It’s no secret that building and maintaining stable employee relationships saves money in the short term and increases company performance in the long term. But what does appear to be a mystery is how to build those relationships.

Many small business owners haven’t found a way to take advantage of this insight because they struggle to build attractive benefits packages and cultures that appeal not only to the best employees, but also to the most dedicated employees.

Fortunately, there’s new information available that points to a surprising solution to this problem: Small businesses need to hire more underrated (and underrepresented) long-haul millennials.

“Dedicated” and “loyal” might not be terms that you usually associate with millennials, but new research indicates that you might want to reconsider your outlook. Although you wouldn’t want to focus your entire hiring strategy on one demographic, there are two facts about millennials that you need to consider before dismissing this approach.

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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 Business Job Creation, Lending, and Taxes

June 18, 2015 by

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The statistics for the small business community  are looking good for 2015. Small business owners believe and are confident that this year will be more profitable than last year, they intent to hire more employees, and feel confident they will invest more in technology.  Taxes, new regulations, and other costs associated with the running of the business are not pleasant nor foreseeable, but those are some of the limitations that they can, and are used to dealing with in a daily basis.

Read more about this by following the links below.

Small Business, Job Creation, And Why We Should Lend To Young Companies

Any honest conversation about creating jobs in the United States must include the role played by small business. Collectively, these businesses create the lion’s share of new jobs. The current SBA Administrator Maria Contreras Sweet regularly argues that two out of every three new jobs are created there. So when Experian approached me with a new study that explored the impact of small businesses (particularly startups), on our economy and what we could do to encourage more job creation, they had my attention.

As one of the three biggest business and personal credit reporting bureaus, I consider Experian’s advice and perspective very relevant to this conversation. I recently spoke with Peter Bolin, Experian Director of Consulting and Analytics, to talk about the research. When they dived into the data they found that small businesses and startups really do have a direct impact on job creation in the United States. They focused on the 2010 class of startups and looked at the resilience of the overall US economic recovery and how these businesses have performed in the four years since they opened their doors.

New chip credit cards putting squeeze on small businesses

NEW YORK — New credit and debit cards with computer chips are putting the squeeze on small businesses.

The cards being rolled out by banks and credit card companies are aimed at reducing fraud from counterfeit cards. As chip cards are phased in, magnetic stripe cards, which are easier for thieves to copy, will be phased out. Businesses of all sizes face an Oct. 1 deadline to get new card readers and software that can handle chips. Most estimates of transition costs for small companies vary from the low hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars due to the wide range of equipment used.

If businesses don’t meet the deadline set by companies including MasterCard, Visa and American Express, they can be held liable for transactions made with phony chip cards.

Small Business Owners Want a Fair Share of Their Taxes Back

New Jersey’s Small Business Development Centers are pushing again for an increase in their state funding — which would in turn make the centers eligible to have federal funding increased to the program in a state with one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates.

The network, formally called America’s SBDC New Jersey, says it had its state support slashed in former Gov. Jon Corzine’s term from $1 million down to $250,000 — and then survived an attempted cut to zero in Gov. Chris Christie’s administration. The state Legislature restored that $250,000, but the funding has been frozen at the same level since Christie’s first year in office, 2010.

Officials with the group argue that’s too little — especially because restoring the $1 million state matching funds would bring back almost that much in federal support for the small-business centers.

By its own figures, SBDCNJ helped 534 clients start new businesses last year, and “helped its clients create and save 15,089 jobs.”

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What’s Your Disgruntled Customer Plan?

June 16, 2015 by

64510516Whether you’re an established, successful small business or a start-up you probably have a sales and marketing plan to attract customers.  After all, providing a product or service to them, for a profit, is one of an entrepreneur’s key goals.  A great deal of up-front time, money and sweat equity is spent on finding and selling to consumers.  But, what about after the sale?

At the beginning of the sales process the focus is on the person, the potential client.  How can the product make their life and business better?  All good sales people know that learning what the client wants, their perception of what the service can give them, is paramount to making the sale.  The billion dollar advertising industry was built on linking emotion to a product. 

After the sale, the focus naturally shifts to getting the service to the client.  Unfortunately, this is where the sales plan usually stops, or is incomplete and falls apart.  The attention of the seller can become more focused on the product or service they are providing, while ignoring or marginalizing the person they’re providing it to.  The following is an example of this disconnect.

Kevin wanted lawn care services for his business.  He met with George, the owner of a landscaping company, and was impressed with George’s understanding of what he was mainly looking for — “decent, no hassle maintenance”.  However, the lawn often became overgrown and unsightly, resulting in Kevin contacting George repeatedly. 

At first, he was apologetic and would send a crew within 2-3 days.  Then George started to complain that he didn’t have enough crew to keep up with the overall demand.  He even became angry at Kevin’s “not understanding his situation”.  Kevin wasn’t interested in excuses, didn’t renew his contract and posted a negative review on a consumer website. 

Upon completion of the sale George prioritized himself and his difficulties with his business over his customer.  He knew that hassle free maintenance was primary for Kevin, yet he didn’t take steps to make sure he was satisfied. Having a sales strategy that stopped at the sale, with no provision for good quality customer service, cost George current and future clients.

A good sales plan is all encompassing and ongoing.  It should include the “how tos” for finding customers, as well as the “how tos” for keeping them.  Unfortunately, many business owners work hard to get customers only to lose them through poor execution of the service and poor treatment of the client.

A comprehensive sales strategy includes policy and procedures which address the inevitable disgruntled customer, because addressing their complaints is still a component of selling to them.  If not for the hassle and George’s attitude Kevin would have renewed his contract, because the mowing was sufficient.  Good customer service can elevate the value of a mediocre product and bad customer service can undermine the value of a good one. 

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Small Business Jobs and Updates

June 11, 2015 by

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Analysts and policymakers are confident the state of the economy is getting better.  The reports about job openings are encouraging, and job openings have reached the highest percentage this past April since the year 2000.  One of the concerns now is the ability of these business to fill such mention openings.  The skill necessary businesses are looking for in candidates to fulfill their demands is not there, therefore businesses are still looking.

Follow the links below for more information about this topic.

U.S. job openings hit record high; small businesses upbeat

U.S. job openings surged to a record high in April and small business confidence perked up in May, suggesting the economy was regaining speed after stumbling at the start of the year.

The economy’s stronger tone was reinforced by other data on Tuesday showing a solid rise in wholesale inventories in April, in part as oil prices stabilized.

“This is more confirmation that the economy is indeed emerging from that soft patch in the first quarter and can still pick up even faster in the next few months,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York.

American small businesses just gave us some more incredibly bullish news about the job market

The labor market is rolling. 

On Tuesday, the National Federation of Independent Business, a conservative lobby group, released its latest small business report, which showed that its small business optimism index rose to 98.3 in May.

But the really positive part of the report isn’t the headline reading — though this did rise to a 5-month high — but the incredibly bullish commentary on the labor market.

The Importance Of Relationships In Scaling A Small Business

​In my Forbes series The Insiders, I share the highs and lows associated with launching and scaling a small business, all through the chronological lens of our own experiences building VerbalizeIt.

In my most recent post, I discussed our fears of not being able to accelerate quickly enough during our time in the Techstars business accelerator program. The focus was on ensuring we had technically-inclined teammates to facilitate our growth.

Another critical component to our earliest successes was the non-teammate relationships we developed, most notably with our mentors, advisors, and advocates. These individuals contributed more to our early growth than we could have ever achieved on our own, resulting from their extensive experiences and network of relationships.

How do entrepreneurs find and convince the right advisors to take part in their journey?


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Some People Get All the Luck – Be One of Them

June 5, 2015 by

64002400There are thousands of legends about businesses becoming successful because the owner was in the right place at the right time, he was lucky.  But, if you look closely at them you’ll find, that while “uncontrollable” good fortune may have played a part in the success, that isn’t the whole story.  The real story is how the owner made his own “controllable” luck.

Many mangers think good fortune is uncontrollable (such as winning a bid or having good weather for the company picnic) and they either have it or they don’t.  But, you can increase your chances of being lucky.  Often, what’s perceived as, uncontrollable events can be managed to increase the odds of working out in your favor. 

For example, anyone who has bid out a job has multiple stories about companies (who they wanted to award the contract to) who’ve knocked themselves out of the running.  They weren’t unlucky — their bids were incomplete, sloppy, late or unrealistic, all things they had control over.  Also, in northeastern Ohio there’s a better chance of having good weather for your picnic in June, not April. 

If you look closely at most “his successful business is due to luck” stories you’ll find they usually have 4 things in common.  One of them is that there is a dose of luck involved.  But, the other 3 are more important.  Each story shows a person augmenting his good fortune through controllable behaviors, which you can also do.

Pay attention – Put down the cell phone, step away from the computer and get out of your office, building and comfort zone.  The beginning of any successful venture is to recognize that the opportunity is there.  There are few things more important in life (work, family and friends) than paying genuine attention to what’s going on around you.

Do the work – After you get the idea take logical and practical risks to do something about it.  Ideas are usually worthless until they’re put into action through a lot of hard work.  In every success story there’s always someone, sometimes many people, who did the work.  As Thomas Jefferson said, “I’m a great believer in luck, I find the harder I work the more I have of it”.

Seek out information – The average small business owner gets insulated, which leads to tunnel vision.  Success isn’t a solo act; every business success story has multiple characters in it.  Steve Jobs was brilliant, hard working and lucky.  One of the things he learned to do was to seek out and listen to what people had to say, and then use the information to better his product.  He was relentless in his quest to learn more and do better.

There are some things you can’t do anything about – you’re betting on 3 of a kind and your opponent wins with her straight.  But, you can increase the chances of winning by knowing your rival’s tells (pay attention), learn the odds, rules and psychology of the game (do the work) and continue to develop your skills (seek out information).  Luck is a combination of controllable and uncontrollable actions and events. 

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Expansion Loans – What to do Before Going to the Bank

May 18, 2015 by

59350241Successful small businesses owners occasionally need additional working capital.  The company is stable and profitable, but the cash flow is unable to support a large expenditure for growth (i.e. additional square footage, new employees, needed equipment, adding a product line).  In these situations traditional banks are still the provider of choice for most small companies.

However, due to new regulations resulting from the Great Recession, owners are finding it difficult to get the money they need.  Even if they’re veterans of the old system and were able to secure financing in the past, they’re finding the old rules don’t apply anymore and are having trouble getting financing now.  And rookies are quickly becoming confused and frustrated by the loan process.

So, what do you do?  Planning, patience and follow through are the keys to getting an expansion loan — three things that most small business owners are not very good at.  But, the banks have the money you need and you have to follow their rules to get it. Here are 3 things to do that will help.

Do the planning – Before you fill out the paperwork and submit it to the bank you must to do your homework.  Talk to someone at the bank and get an idea of what’s required for a successful loan application.  Do you have a good credit score and a large enough customer base?  Do you know what your debt-to-income ratio is? 

In the loan process your good intentions don’t count — banks aren’t interested in your open-ended visions and imprecise ideas.  This is strictly a tangible numbers game.  They’re interested in how the changes you’re proposing are going to create a profit, which will repay them with interest.

Have patience – Based on the planning you’ve done you now know what’s required to submit a successful loan application.  However, after the planning stage you may be unable to submit it right away.  You might need to pay down some debt, increase your credit score, clean up your existing credit line, or implement a new sales strategy. 

Patience, time and sticking to a comprehensive plan is often the intermediate step for many businesses.  They find that their financial house has to be put in order before they can successfully get a loan.

Follow their procedures – It’s baffling to lawyers, accountants and bankers how often small business owners are their own worst enemies.  They consistently make the loan process much more difficult than it needs to be and sabotage themselves. 

The average owner started their business so they could do things their way and not have someone else tell them what to do.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t work with banks.  It’s simple, but not easy, to learn to speak the bank’s language, find out what they want and give it to them.

Many successful businesses have failed because of poorly conceptualized and implemented expansions; experienced business bankers have seen it too many times.  Although, at times, it may not seem like it, responsible owners and bankers want the same thing.  They both want a successful, profitable business, which will strengthen the community. 

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The State of the Small Business in the U.S

April 15, 2015 by

business (5)We are past the point of expressing as a nation, any shock to the news that the United States is trailing behind other developed nations in terms of education. But, when one starts talking about business, we believed that we are a nation to be emulated and look up to what other developed nations should be doing, or trying to achieve.  It is with trepidation to find out that the United States now ranks 12th – Yes, you have read it correctly – among developed nations concerning business start up activity.  So, what is the government doing to fix this? Can they fix it? Or better yet, do they want to do anything about it? Follow the links below for more information about this and other topics.

Is the estate tax killing small farms and businesses?

“Here in South Dakota, we are land rich and cash poor, leaving roughly one-third of South Dakota farms vulnerable to the death tax, based on cropland values provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The death tax imposes a tax rate as high as 40 percent on family farms, ranches and small businesses, which hurts economic growth by discouraging savings and development.”

–Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), opinion article in the Rapid City Journal, April 13, 2015

“This tax doesn’t just hit the big guy. It hits the little guy—like the small business and the family farm. It is both unwise and unfair, and it needs to go.”

–Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), hearing at the House Ways & Means Committee, March 25, 2015

“I believe that the estate tax is politically misguided, morally unjustified and downright un-American. It undermines the life work and the life savings of farmers and small- and medium-sized businesses in Georgia and across the nation.”

Small business tax concerns with SHOP

Initially created with the goal of helping small businesses comply with the requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) has not been meeting expectations.

According to Don Donner, CEO and president of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), “Almost no one is using the SHOP exchange, according to the government’s own enrollment data, and to the extent that there are subsidies available in the form of tax credits, they are complicated, temporary, and too small to offset the costs.”

A February 26, 2015, letter from Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business, to Sylvia Burwell, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, highlights these concerns, with a focus on problems associated with incorrect SHOP tax forms that were recently sent out by HHS.

Policy Points: How Tax Inversions Hurt Smaller Businesses

Everyone’s “favorite” day of the year is less than 24 hours away – Tax Day. And the big question is: Have you filed your return yet? (If you haven’t, stop reading this and go take care of that. This will still be here when you’re done.)

By now, most people have (hopefully, anyway) sent in their returns. Some have probably gotten a pretty decent refund; others might be a little disappointed at their bill.

One thing you can always count on come April 15 is some griping about how much Americans pay in taxes. Nobody likes paying them, after all. But as Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote, “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” Everything people rely on the government for, from public safety to infrastructure, health care and education, is paid for with your tax dollars.

It’s easy for this to get lost in the mix – especially when you find out you owe more than you thought you would – but paying taxes is one of the most important things Americans do for their country. Name a program that matters to you, and your tax dollars — and those paid by businesses — help make it possible. What makes it work is that everyone recognizes the burden is not only on them: Everyone has taxes to pay, and everyone has to chip in for the services we all rely on.

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The State of the U.S. Economy and other news

April 2, 2015 by

64002400Depending on whom you ask, the economy of the United States is a hot topic for any business owner, or analyst willing to delve into it.  For Ohio small business owners the health of the state’s economy is always an important part, and the changes that can affect their business are always a hot issue.  Tax changes, especially changes that affect them particularly are viewed carefully by them and are not always welcomed. For news about the state of the U.S economy, follow the links below.

Ohio’s major chambers of commerce rap John Kasich’s tax plan as divisive and bad for business

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In a letter to Gov. John Kasich, nine key chambers of commerce from around the state wrote that his tax reform proposals will shift tax burdens, cause friction and hurt businesses.

The chambers, while pledging to work with Kasich and legislative leaders in the future, said they don’t believe Kasich’s tax proposal will help to bolster Ohio’s economy.

“The proposed plan does not look to create greater efficiency within government in order to support tax cuts,” they wrote in their letter to Kasich and the leaders of the Ohio House and Senate. “Instead, this plan shifts the tax burden from one group to another, pitting different types and sizes of businesses and individuals seemingly against each other while government spending continues to grow.”

Has American Business Lost Its Mojo?

​Over the past three decades, the American economy has become less vigorous. An extensive body of evidence shows that the public focus on the success of high-tech companies like Apple and Google masks an overall downward trend in key measures of business vitality.

“Business deaths now exceed business births for the first time in the thirty-plus year history of our data,” note Ian Hathaway and Robert E. Litan, economists at the Brookings Institution, in a May 2014 essay, “Declining Business Dynamism in the United States.”

There is widespread support for their assertion. Jim Clifton, chairman and C.E.O. of Gallup, wrote in a January 2015 essay, “American Entrepreneurship: Dead or Alive?”:

Until 2008, start-ups outpaced business failures by about 100,000 a year. But in the past six years, that number has suddenly turned upside down. There has been an underground earthquake.

The Cleveland Flea: Why sellers are sold on it 

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Flea started two years ago with 40 businesses participating. On April 11, when the Flea starts its outdoor season, about 160 businesses will be selling. And Flea organizers say there’s a long wait list to join the party. I posed the following three questions to a handful of Flea vendors:

*How has participating in the Flea changed your business?

*What’s the best part of the Flea?

*What do you hope to see for the Flea in the future?

And here is what they said:

What they sell: Specialists in interior design, estate sales, antiques, mid-century modern, gifts and things

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The Legalization of Marijuana in Ohio and Other News

March 25, 2015 by

business (10)Legalization of Marijuana raises different views and opinions depending on whom you ask.  Some argue that the legalization of marijuana will boost the local economy by the tax revenue the state will collect.  The prohibition enforcement costs the state will save by legalizing marijuana are in the millions according to some research.  The incarcerations due to marijuana related charges cost the prisons $1 billion dollars a year.  The savings and tax revenue that legalization will save the state are in the billions, so what are the cons for this issue?

Follow the links below for more news happening around Ohio.

Petition Wants To Make Ohio The Fifth State To Legalize Marijuana

A group in Ohio wants the state to join Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska in the legal recreational marijuana club, with a new petition to amend the state’s constitution.

The petition from ResponsibleOhio must collect 300,000 signatures before the amendment making marijuana legal medically and for recreational use could be put to a vote in November, reportsCNNMoney.

The group is made up of investors from several companies who want the state to allow residents 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of pot for personal use and allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for some medical conditions. Residents could also grow a limited amount of cannabis plants at home.

Pew study finds auto title loans as harmful as payday loans

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Title loans are just as toxic as their payday loan cousins, according to a new report from Pew Charitable Trusts.

“They fail to work as advertised. They’re overwhelmingly unaffordable,” said Nick Bourke, director of Pew’s small-dollar loans project.

Like payday loans, auto title loans are marked by triple-digit interest rates and balloon payments that make them hard to pay off.

The Pew study sheds light on auto title lending ahead of a field hearing Thursday in which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to map out a rule that could cover not only payday lending but other high-cost small loans.

Ted Cruz: Small business are going out of business ‘in record numbers’

​Republican Sen. Ted Cruz became the first big-name politician to announce a 2016 presidential bid during an address at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

Cruz, of Texas, asked the audience to “imagine” (a word he used 38 times) what he believed a conservative administration could accomplish.

“Think just how different the world would be. Imagine instead of economic stagnation, booming economic growth,” Cruz said. “Instead of small businesses going out of business in record numbers, imagine small businesses growing and prospering. Imagine young people coming out of school with four, five, six job offers.”

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