THE REPORT BLOG

What is Jason Finger Doing Next?

Today over lunch, Jason, NY Report's May cover story subject, told me about his summer plans. He is going to Hawaii for five weeks with his family. Ok, maybe that isn't earth-shattering news, but the story behind his trip is one that any business owner can appreciate.

Jason and his wife Stefanie had plans to go to Hawaii for their honeymoon several years ago. Before they went, Jason received an invitation to speak at a national food service event at the same time they had planned to go on their trip. Like any smart business owner would, before he committed, Jason asked his wife if he could speak at the event (which would mean putting off their honeymoon). Recognizing the opportunity, Stephanie said yes. But, she not only wanted an IOU on Hawaii but "dividends" (like Jason, Stefanie is a lawyer). Hence the five week trip this summer. Have fun guys!

How Can You Find Funding? Go to Entrepreneur Week

It’s hard to believe no one (i.e., me) thought of this sooner. This April 20 – 24, NY Report will be a media sponsor for New York City Entrepreneur Week. The goal of this program is to match budding entrepreneurs with experienced startup mentors, angel investors, and venture capitalists. Some of the participating mentors include Rod Underhill, founder of MP3.com; Jeff Stewart, founder of Mimeo and angel investor; Jim Anderson, Co-Founder of About.com & CTO of Dorthy.com; and Eduardo Saverin, Co-Founder of Facebook.com. One of the highlights of the program is a 21-company business plan competition with a full day of customized training developed exclusively for the select participants of the event.

I will be speaking at 10:30 am on Friday and am looking forward to hearing from other business owners as well. Visit www.nycentweek.com for more information.

The New York Enterprise Report Closes First Round of Funding

I just wanted to share this wonderful piece of news with you. I am proud that our media platform is continuing to be a valuable resource for business owners and the small business community as a whole and thank you for your continued interest and support.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact Information:
Beth Silver
Doubet Consulting
Bsilver@doubetllc.com
(212) 472-4340

As Many Publications Succumb to the Economic Crisis, The New York Enterprise Report
Expands on its Position as a Platform for Small Business

New York, NY, February 25, 2009 -- RSL Media LLC, publisher of The New York Enterprise Report (www.nyreport.com ), the only media that exclusively caters to small businesses in the New York tri-state area, today announced it has closed its first round of private funding. Among the prominent investors in this round of funding is Norm Brodsky, legendary entrepreneur, including CitiStorage, and columnist for Inc. Magazine.

In an economic climate that has in recent months seen many publications scale back or fold operations, The New York Enterprise Report, producers of small business seminars, networking events and the highly acclaimed Small Business Awards, in addition to publishing print and online versions of The New York Enterprise Report, will use this funding to provide even greater resources to small businesses and further capitalize on its local and national ad- based revenue model. "Our reputation as a trusted platform geared toward the small business community has enabled us to grow as advertisers are looking for targeted and multiplatform advertising vehicles," said Publisher and Editor-and-Chief Robert Levin.

Mayor Bloomberg echoed this sentiment recently in his State of the City Address. "Half of all New Yorkers in the private sector work in a small business, and believe me, I appreciate how difficult it is to start and run one."

"The New York Enterprise Report has an extremely compelling platform where small businesses can share ideas, connect with each other and get real advice and feedback," said small business expert Norm Brodsky. "This investment highlights my belief that the small business community needs the right resources for business to grow."

About RSL Media:

Since 2003 RSL Media LLC, through its publication The New York Enterprise Report (www.nyreport.com ) features articles written by leading experts to help business owners and senior decision makers grow their organizations. In addition to its print and online properties, The New York Enterprise Report has many programs to connect marketers with small business owners and executives including events, direct mail campaigns, and custom publishing.

Stimulate the Economy, One Referral at a Time

Make a Referral Week is a grassroots initiative giving entrepreneurs their chance to stimulate this sagging economy by pledging to make at least one business referral. During the week of March 9th, entrepreneurs are encouraged to find new business for members of their professional networks, and to follow up on those referrals. The program, sponsored by Duct Tape Marketing along with many others, hopes to create 1,000 new business relationships during the week. For more info, and to pledge, go to makeareferralweek.com.

Will Overtime Lead to Layoffs?

Once upon a time, employers had all of the leverage. They worked people, including kids, ridiculously hard, and for little money. Then came minimum wage, age and overtime rules. I think almost everyone would agree that given the time these rules were enacted (first half of the 20th century), they were the right thing to do.

We could get into a much bigger discussion on how employees have a lot more power and how the country has changed to a knowledge-based economy, but that isn't the point I want to make. 

Companies large and small are laying off people by millions.  While companies are trying to cut costs, they need more productivity. At the same time, wouldn't employees who are getting laid off kill for the opportunity to put in more hours to keep their jobs?  Unfortunately, overtime rules prevent a "non-exempt" employee from agreeing to work say an extra 5-10 hours per week in exchange for keeping their jobs. And by the way, if the employee and company did agree on the employee working more hours, in comes the state department of labor to take up precious time for an employee audit and probably assess a fine.

I am not suggesting that companies use the economy as an excuse to get cheap labor. But I am sure some sort of relaxation of overtime rules will help alleviate the unemployment situation and help people put food on the table.

NY Report Featured in bMighty

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Gayle Kesten for the website bMighty.com. It was a rare opportunity for me to talk about the magazine – the ideas behind it, where it’s going and the people I’ve interviewed for it in the past.

Gayle also runs a great blog for small businesses called Small Biz Resource.

Incredible Insight into the Mess on Wall Street

Last night, at 3am, I had a great opportunity to catch up on some reading and read a great article by Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, and etc) on the recent (and maybe somewhat permanent) fall on Wall Street.
 
If you are curious as to what happened, and how it happened, this article describes it to you in vivid, easy to understand detail.

Shop for a Good Cause

GoodSearch.com, a Yahoo! powered search engine that donates a penny to your favorite charity for each search, recently launched the equally humanitarian GoodShop.com.

Founded by MSNBC’s Your Business host and MC of the 2008 Small Business Awards JJ Ramberg and her brother Ken Ramberg, GoodShop.com partners with retailers who donate a percentage of each purchase (as much as 37%) made through GoodShop.com to a charity of choice. And because the prices are no different from the retailer’s main websites, it’s a great way to get your last minute shopping done while giving to a good cause.

Pissed-Off Small Business Owners to the Rescue

In the five-year existence of NY REPORT, we have never gotten involved in political editorial or even small business advocacy.  Our mission is to deliver how-to content from experts to help business owners increase revenue, reduce costs and build value, and I never wanted to lose that focus. However, in the current economic situation, it is impossible to stay true to our mission without getting involved. 

I am still an optimistic entrepreneur, but I am also really furious.  I am not furious about the fact that the economy is bad; economies go up and down in cycles. I understand that the recent — and future — government bailouts are necessary to protect the economy from cratering. But small businesses are paying the bill while many high-level banking and financial services executives who were responsible for making the economic situation much worse have made their money. More specifically, I don’t care if these executives made loans to people that they shouldn’t have or invested in financial instruments that they didn’t understand. I do care that they personally made millions while they helped exacerbate a bad economy and we (via the government) have to bail their companies out. Do you know what happens when small business owners take a big risk and it doesn't work out? We go out of business. In addition, the typical business owner will be personally on the hook for the company’s debt. There is no push from lobbyists to bail us out.  Actually, now that I think about it, a small business doesn’t even have to take a risk to go out of business. The deepened recession due to the reasons and perpetrators I mentioned above combined with the nearly frozen debt market can put a good company out of business. Talk about irony.

And the government hasn’t helped.  Among other things, it encouraged financial companies to make loans to people who couldn’t afford them. Now, the government is making the situation harder on us by writing new tax proposals (e.g., MTA’s payroll tax hike), increasing enforcement (e.g., state audits to find incremental revenue), and proposing more pro-union rules (e.g., revising the union ballot legislation). This seems counterproductive considering that half the country’s private sector workforce is employed by small business and it is Main Street that will drive the GDP as well as create the most new jobs in 2009.

The media is not helping much either. The truth is bad news sells, and that is what the media is selling us now. By focusing on the bad news, they are making the situation worse by perpetuating fear.  Without question, these are tough times, but all news is not bad news.  I know plenty of business owners who believe they will continue to grow in 2009. Somehow these stories never make the papers, let alone the front page.

What can you do? There are several advocacy organizations that focus on small business, such as the NFIB and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. Also, as Jim Blasingame said in our December issue, stop watching the talking heads on TV and start calling your customers more often to ask how you can help them. At NY REPORT we will continue to provide expert content to help you protect and grow your business in the magazine (see our January "Success Guide"), at our events, on the Web and with webinars (for the latest listing see www.nyreport.com/events, which is updated frequently).

What do you think?

DO NOT REPLY!

A few posts ago, I referenced a newsletter from The DiJulius Group about identifying and eliminating negative cues around your business. Today, I received 3 email newsletters (only 1 of which I opted-in for) that said something along the lines of "Do not reply to this email." While I understand that these are often auto-replies, I think this not only sends a negative message, but it’s just plain dumb. Don't you want to hear from your customers- no matter how they reach you?  Maybe, just maybe, they are interested in buying something from you but just didn’t notice, or bothered to click on, the image as instructed? Who knows, maybe they want to just reply and get more info before making a purchasing decision?
 
By the way I am, as we speak, making sure NY Report isn’t guilty of the same…

NY Report Holiday Reception: A Perfect Storm

NY Report and Verizon Wireless hosted a Holiday networking reception in Times Square on Monday night. It was a packed house full of NY SMB’s movers and shakers networking and enjoying hors d’oeuvres, all while checking out the new Blackberry Storm.

For those of you who missed the sold out event, some of the attendees included: Inc. magazine columnist and serial entrepreneur Norm Brodsky; Dave Bagatelle of Heritage Bank(who just held the largest fundraiser in New York State for stand-alone startup); Wendi Caplan-Carroll of Constant Contact; Ilana Eberson of NYCBNG, a 3,000+ member professional networking organization; Jeff Stewart, founder of Memeo, Urgent Career and many others, along with other notable persons in New York’s small business community.

Stay informed of all our upcoming events by signing up for the NY Report newsletter here.

Can You Hear the Twitter?

The free social-networking tool Twitter is gaining a lot of momentum in the mainstream press. Companies (like Zappos) are already leveraging this service to help push their brands, and The Wall Street Journal wrote up a very nice introduction to Twitter for those of us who still have no clue what it is and what it’s for.

Check out the article here. 

NY XPO 2008

I know a lot of you are excited about the annual NY XPO at the Jacob Javits Center tomorrow. For those of you attending , please feel free to stop by the NY Report booth (#1625) and say hi. We may even ask you to be a part of our video testimonial.

Turn Off the Talking Heads

No, I’m not talking about the band. I’m talking about the so-called experts you see on TV and hear on the radio spewing a lot of negativity and alarmist reactions to the daily business news. Now I am not trying to paint a rosy picture, but I am telling you that constant exposure to the news is not good for your psyche.

In our upcoming (December) issue, Jim Blasingame, the host of The Small Business Advocate radio program discusses the current economic climate and he made a great point. He said to stop listening to the talking heads and start listening to your customers. He's right - allowing yourself to be preoccupied with analysis of the current financial crisis and how it affects the global economy at large only serves to distract you from the realities your company is facing. Why create false negative expectations based on something you heard someone (with no knowledge of your business) say? As business owners, we shouldn’t be bothered too much by what the media are saying because, simply put, we’ve got a business to run!

A more productive use of our time would be to speak more with customers. Ask them about their business. Find out how else you can serve them. Put a plan in for you and your team to routinely call your customers and you will find new opportunities to serve them.

My Night at Small Claims Court

The other night I found myself at small claims court because an advertiser hasn’t paid their bills. Actually they ran 4 ads but only paid for the first 2 and never returned calls for payment. So we took them to small claims court.

When I arrived at the waiting area, I immediately heard someone calling my name. Turns out it was an NY Report reader and advertiser who was getting sued by a client. When I got into the court room and the clerk started calling the calendar, I heard the name of another NY Report advertiser (I believe they were a claimant but they didn’t respond to the clerk).

Now I am wondering if seeing two of our advertisers there was a coincidence, a reflection of a small world or sign that litigation is just a part of “doing business.”

The defendant, the party we are suing, never showed up and I had no objections about using an arbiter vs. judge/court. My attorney told me that while I waive my right to appeal, I also don't have to spend the entire night in court by using an arbiter. So I sat in another   waiting room for about 45 minutes until I was finally called into a room to speak with the arbiter. She asked me what happened so I gave her the story and showed her the proof I had brought (signed insertion orders and etc). While she wouldn't tell me definitively if she was going to rule in my favor, her implications were clear that she would (plus, it didn’t hurt that the advertiser paid for 2 insertions out of the 4 agreed on).

She further said that they could make a motion to "vacate" the decision, which means it could go back to court (meaning another night or 3 on this matter - which is only for about $4200). And even if they don't contest it, I still need to collect and that is an entirely separate endeavor.

Despite the time and effort, I think it is important to go after people in court that owe you money - especially if they are not responsive.

By the way- I got a call the next morning from the company we were suing, eager to pay their balance as they did not want to go to court.

Pictures from the 2008 Small Business Awards

Here are some pictures I wanted to share from this year's Awards Gala. For more pictures from the sold out night, check out our Facebook page.

  

 

Thank You...

Now that the dust is starting to settle on the 2008 Small Business Awards, I just wanted to use this forum to once again thank everyone who made all of it possible. Without the following people and companies we could not have made this event as successful or as memorable as it turned out to be.

First the sponsors: Atlantic Bank, who sponsored the Mergers & Acquisitions award category; Capital One Bank, who sponsored the Green Business award; CareerBuilder, who sponsored the Human Resources & Leadership Award; M5, Time Warner Cable, and Backup My Info! (also a best practice winner that night), who sponsored the reception; and the participating sponsors - Abel PEO Services; Cortel Business Solutions, HUB International, and Microsoft.

The winners of the 2008 Small Business Advocate Awards: James Barrood, Bo Burlingham, Kenneth Knuckles, Golden Seeds and Workshop in Business Opportunities.

The finalists and winners of the 2008 Best Practice Awards:

Green Business
Design & Source Productions, Inc. (winner)
Go Green Displays
Green Apple Cleaners
Greenstreet Construction, Inc.

Human Resources & Leadership
Backup My Info!, Inc. (tie)
Consultants 2 Go
Cyrus Innovation
MSD Visual (tie)
Scarano Architect, PLLC

Mergers & Acquisitions
Fuel Outdoor
Net@Work (winner)

Sales & Marketing
Advantage Payroll Services
American Christmas Inc. (winner)
EtQ, Inc.
Message Medium
Natalie Weinstein Design
sweetriot
VIP Smiles
Visual Merchandising International DBA Fabulous Fit

Technology
BuzzBack
Cases By Source, Inc.
Children's Progress (winner)
e-Scrap Destruction
Future Tech Enterprise Inc. 
Ultraflex International, Inc.

And of course, to everyone who attended this year’s event. Thank you for making this year’s gala another networking event of the year!

The 2008 Small Business Awards

NY Report’s 3rd annual Small Business Awards were held last week, and I am still reading through all the feedback from attendees. They say you can’t really judge the success of an event until the day after, and if there’s any truth to that saying, then this year’s gala was a resounding success.

The small business community, particularly in a city like New York, is an often overlooked community. Yet, we are often the foremost innovators when it comes to business practices and leadership, so I’m glad to say that the Small Business Awards has become the definitive event for giving small companies their due recognition.

We are currently working on putting pictures and videos from the sold out event, along with a list of the big winners, so stay tuned.  

2008 Small Business Awards Tickets Almost Sold Out

As of this posting, tickets to our 3rd annual Small Business Awards Gala are nearly sold-out. To me, it’s a sign that this community of business owners and decision makers has embraced the idea behind the awards gala - a gathering of like minded entrepreneurs on a night that acknowledges their achievements while at the same time connecting them to each other.

If you’re still on the fence about attending this year’s awards, check out these testimonials from previous gala attendees. But remember, there are only a few tickets remaining. You can register for the gala here.

You Are Not My Friend on LinkedIn (Maybe on Facebook)

Minutes ago I ignored yet another connection request on LinkedIn. I keep getting random requests from people I don't know. As far as I can tell, the purpose of LinkedIn is to build connections through friends and clients – people you actually know in person. So lets say I do accept a request from a random person, and one of these “connections” I don’t know wants me to introduce them to someone I actually do know? How can I possibly feel comfortable doing that?

A basic tenet of networking is to “build a relationship first,” yet these people think the first step in building a relationship is to try to connect with me almost anonymously via the web. On top of that, they send one of those generic requests (as opposed to sending me something that acknowledges the fact that we don't know each other).
 
What I have done on occasion, when someone I don’t know sends me a request and they seem like a person I wouldn’t mind getting to know, is to suggest that we briefly speak first before I introduce them to my LinkedIn network.
 
Now on Facebook, where it is not so much about introductions and more about... well I am not sure what it is about (but it is kind of fun), I feel comfortable accepting most invitations.

That’s the main difference I see between the two social networking mediums. So, what will it be friends? Business or pleasure?