THE REPORT BLOG

2010 Budget – Planning for the Great Unknown

It's that time again – the time to plan for the coming year and figure out our budgets. However, this year’s planning will be quite different from what we’ve experienced in the past. Most of us have no idea what to expect in 2010. And that is all the more reason to start the planning process early.

In our October issue, contributor Alan G. Badey provides tips on how you can prepare for the upcoming year. For example, many firms have had a difficult time maintaining their available credit in the down economy; so if your business plan requires an infusion of capital in 2010, now is the time to research your company’s options. Meet with your banker or other financial advisors as soon as possible to find out what needs to be done before a loan is actually needed. For more tips, read on. 

Do Small Companies Have the Advantage When Doing Business in China?

In preparing for our upcoming event "Hidden Opportunities and Challenges of Doing Business in Asia," I was speaking with China business expert (and event panelist) Savio S. Chan, who told me that he has seen plenty of large companies (he specifically cited the seemingly bullet-proof Apple) make mistakes in China. According to Savio, it isn't about the size of the company, the secret of success in Asia is partnering with the right people overseas. The saying, "it's who you know," certainly holds true. In fact, Savio wrote about a family-owned service provider from Long Island that was able to enter the Chinese market for NY Report's October issue.

If you are doing business in Asia, or are just thinking about it, you can request an invitation to the above mentioned event by visiting www.nyreport.com/asiabusiness.

Peter Shankman Tells Us What We Are Doing Wrong With Social Media

In our most recent “5 Minutes With…” we talk with Help a Reporter Out (HARO) founder and digital PR expert Peter Shankman. Shankman discusses how he was inspired to start a social networking outlet for journalists – which has now grown to 85,000 members – and how the site has made nearly $1 million in its first year. The PR guru also discusses how we may be using social media wrong. Read more. 

Don’t Let Swine Flu Affect Your Business

While national and local government officials have established guidelines to help us protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our employees against the H1N1 virus (wash hands and use hand sanitizer, get vaccinated, etc.), as business owners, we have to take extra precautions to ensure the health and safety of our business as well.

NY Report contributor Larry Kagan outlines what you can do to lessen the impact this flu season will have on business continuity. One precaution I will be taking in my own business will be to ensure all employees have the capability to work remotely in case a swine flu epidemic threatens to interfere with the company’s ability to function. Larry also outlines some legal issues employers will face while trying to deal with a swine flu crisis.

Small Business CEOs Define the “New Normal”

A recent survey by Citibank found that most small business owners have changed the way they do business. About a third say that during the recession, they’ve made permanent changes in the way they do business and 41% say they have at least made temporary adjustments, including:

- Nearly four in 10 are asking current customers for more business and for referrals.

- About one-third are doing more networking with other small business owners.

- About half are cutting back on payroll services and employee recruiting services.

- 42% say they’re making greater use of their company’s website to generate business leads and sales.

These survey results reaffirm what I’ve been hearing from many other business owners. Small businesses are adapting to "the new normal” way of doing business in today’s slow-growing economy. That is why I am looking forward to NY Report’s upcoming event, “Conquering the Crisis: How Clever Small Business Owners are Adapting in the New Economy” on October 6th. This exclusive event features several CEO roundtable discussions on topics such as: upgrading your staff, managing cash flow, marketing without breaking the bank, and keeping customers happy – all framed in a post-economic crisis environment.

While the event is invitation only, NY Report in print and online will provide extensive coverage of the day’s findings. For more information, visit nyreport.com/crisis. 

Reader Reaction to "Government Failing Small Business"

Joel Moskowitz, president of Tools for Working Wood, submitted the following response to my "Letter from the Editor - Government is Failing Small Businesses (and Yet Expects So Much More from Us)." What are your thoughts on the subject?

Dear Rob,

For someone who publishes a magazine that I find so darn useful, I find it shocking that your editorial has such knee-jerk, inside-the-box thinking. Someone has to pay for health care. If it's private or public it doesn't matter; it's still an added cost. If it's the law and an added tax then it raises costs for everyone and there is no competitive downside.

For a magazine that has mentioned more than once that not paying the founders a salary and calling it sweat equity means you don't have a real business (or some such idea), not having an insured workforce also means you don't have a real business. It's a stupid way to save money because:

1) Top employees will demand health insurance in order to stay with you.

2) It's far, far easier to recruit top talent if you offer insurance.

3) It makes a lot more sense for employees to be able to go to a doctor when needed than to have sick people wandering around the workplace (and complaining).

If insurance were easily affordable, more and more people would take the plunge away from big companies to start-ups of all sorts. The only real issue is if insurance should flow through the employer and if there should be a public option. On the former case I don't think employers should be responsible for medical care, and the smart companies (Wal-Mart for instance, at least occasionally - I don't know their current opinion), have argued for an individual public option - but which such unimaginative thinking from the business community that isn't going to happen.

Since private insurance has shown no great efficiency over various public plans I can understand why the insurance industry has fought a public option tooth and nail, but certainly competition is competition. I pay taxes for protection against fire, crime, invasion and stability, and for an organized business environment, so I see no reason why adding another form of protection, such as medical care should not be included.

Personally as a president of a small company I would like to get out of the insurance business and concentrate on making money.

Sincerely,
Joel Moskowitz

Preview of Exclusive Interview with Internet Pioneer Kevin P. Ryan

The former CEO of DoubleClick talks with NY Report about leaving the $3 billion company he helped build, the unique and profitable structure of AlleyCorp, and much more. Read a sneak preview of my interview with one of Silicon Alley’s founders.

How to Get Press in the Digital World

Just as media is changing mediums - from newsprint to Internet - your public relations has got to change with it. This shift starts with the basic tool of any PR push - the press release. While it is still important to write a compelling release with relevant content, small businesses also have to pepper their releases with hyperlinks and write with SEO principles in mind. This month, NY Report contributors Nancy A. Shenker and Marijane Funess provide ten tips to hone our writing skills to personalize our news, know our audience and stay away from those pesky superlatives. Read the article here.

 

Do You Need to Get Involved With State and Local Government?

The needs of small business, historically, have been overlooked by legislators at the city and state levels. Small business owners are so busy with the day-to-day challenges of running a business, that too often we are not engaged in the political process. But John R. Rathgeber, president and chief executive officer of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA), provides some ways that small business owners can rally together and make their voices heard. Read this.

How Small Business Gets Branding Wrong

At BDI's B2B Social Communications: Case Studies & Roundtables there were some terrific presenters that discussed how some companies are using social media effectively. The panel discussions were followed by roundtables and I participated in two of them. One of the biggest takeaways from the event was how many B2B and small businesses in general don’t seem to understand what building a brand is about, among other things, reducing the sales cycle. If a buyer knows who you are and you have a trusted name, the buyer will skip many steps to validate your company. Of course, social media is just one way you can build up your brand, along with advertising, PR, etc. So, small businesses really need to think of branding as something that will help them sell more stuff faster.

Some of the presentations, particularly Intuit's, also showed how companies are using social media to generate business. Earlier this year Intuit launched their "Small Business United" campaign. One of the things I liked about it was that for much of the campaign, Intuit made a conscious effort to make the campaign about the business owner ("the hero") and not Intuit.

Are Your Personal Mental Barriers Affecting Your Business?

As busy business owners, we barely have time to breathe amidst client and vendor meetings and assessing accounts, let alone solving the day-to-day problems we face. These distractions can block us from developing new strategies for growing our businesses. This month, NY Report contributor Joe Nunziata offers five steps for breaking through these types of mental barriers that could be hindering our success.

Joe suggests changing how you think about the problems in your business. For example, if your business is not turning enough sales, focus on the reason for slow sales and don’t just scramble to try to get more sales. Set up an action plan that looks at factors like the economy, competition, or staff changes. For more suggestions, read “Are You Holding Your Business Back?” 

 

What is the New Normal for Small Business?

I was a guest on Jim Blasingame’s Small Business Advocate radio show yesterday. Jim and I spoke about how business has fundamentally changed forever. It is now tougher than ever to generate revenue, profits are shrinking and marketing techniques are vastly different than before. Of course, we discussed how small businesses need to change to thrive in the "new normal." Listen to the interview here.

 

Minority/Women-Owned Status Not What it Used to Be?

I recently spoke with an employee of a $40MM+ woman-owned business. He said that while they used to get 30% of their revenue because of their women-owned status, they now only get 5%. Even government is setting aside fewer projects designated for women and minority-owned businesses. He did say that companies that largely target women (e.g., cosmetics) still benefit from minority and women-owned status in a similar fashion to how they did years ago. 

If you want to find out what certification can or cannot do for your business, this list of resources may help.  

Can Financial Statements Help You Predict the Future?

As we settle into our new economic realities and the shock of the recession begins to subside, how can we ensure that we do not grow complacent? How can we be better prepared for tough economic times that may lie ahead? Scrutinizing our companies' financial information and taking steps to better recognize the onset of a downturn - whether it be a global situation or a crisis in our own business - is the place to start. 

This month, NY Report contributor Terri Coffel offers tips for analyzing financial information to find warning signs of lurking economic troubles. For example, regularly checking in accounts receivable may give you an early indication that a major client is having financial trouble. Read more here.    

Are You Pissing Your Customers Off?

In a recent newsletter from John DiJulius, a customer service guru, author of What’s the Secret To Providing a World-Class Customer Experience, and NY Report contributor, he discusses a study published by the Harvard Business Review that examines the question: "If customer satisfaction creates loyalty, and loyalty produces profit, then why do so many companies infuriate their customers with contracts, hidden fees, fine print and unnecessary penalties?"   
 
Companies such as banks, credit cards and cell phone carriers profit from customers who fail to understand the rules about minutes used, minimum balances, or overdrafts. DiJulius points out that these strategies may be profitable in the short term, but in the world of social media and the far reaches of user generated web content and blogs, public sentiment spreads like wildfire and can damage a company's reputation quickly. DiJulius goes on to detail the warning signs of customer-unfriendly practices in a company:

o Do you have rules you want your customers to break because doing so generates profits?
o Do you make it hard for customers to understand or abide by your rules?
o Do you depend on contracts to prevent customers from defecting? 
 
While companies that monopolize their markets may get away with company-centric policies, anyone of us with at least one competitor cannot afford to take our customers for granted. 
 
Download a free preview of the article to see more unfair practice warning signs. 

Kick Your Employees Out!

Like most smaller businesses, some members of our team have strategic and tactical responsibilities. Also like most smaller businesses, everyone has plenty to do so it is hard to find uninterrupted time to just think. This week I encouraged Daria, our editor, to spend a couple of hours out of the office (James, marketing and events manager is next). She came back with a list of seven ideas after spending time at the magazine rack at a Barnes and Nobles.

One of the ideas, putting page numbers on the "cover lines" on the magazine covers, is really very simple. (Our readers are busy so let's help them find stuff faster). Yet, we hadn't thought of it sitting in brainstorming sessions in the office.

As the list of dual responsibilities includes me (to a large extent), I schedule think sessions out of the office myself. In fact, I have been doing this for years. The idea for the Small Business Awards came from one of these sessions. It is now a marquis program for the tri-state area. I don't think I would have developed the idea in the office with the phone ringing, email and other distractions.

One more thing - I have found that these sessions are far more productive without a laptop (or at least without Internet).

Mandatory 9 Sick Days for Employees?

The NYC Council just defined the fine line between having 9 and 10 employees. The Council  has posed legislation that mandates employers of more than 10 employees to allot 9 paid sick days for each employee working for a company and 5 paid sick days for workers at companies with under 10 employees. A violation charge of $1000 is defined in the proposal as well. What do you think about this mandate? 

The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce is conducting a poll and would like to hear your thoughts.