The ChamberPost

Small Business Summit - Temperature Check: Free Enterprise in the Current Political Climate

by Greg Galdabini

Joe Scarborough, the former congressman and current host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” made quite a few interesting and insightful comments at the Small Business Summit on Tuesday afternoon. Here are a few of the highlights:

On the 2010 midterm elections: There are many parallels between the mood of the electorate heading into the 1994 elections, which saw the GOP take control of the House for the first time in decades, and the mood this election year. The outcome of the 2010 elections will be similar, as the GOP will recapture control of the House, according to Scarborough. “You should see this coming like a freight train out of the mist.”

On the Republican Party: The question for Republicans is “have you learned your lessons from your losses in the 2006 and 2008 elections?” Those electoral defeats stemmed from inherited budget surpluses that turned into deficits and costly new government programs such as the Medicare prescription drug benefit when the GOP was in control. Republicans need to show restraint on entitlement spending and be truthful with voters on the poor financial condition of those programs.

On the Obama administration: The GOP will be successful in the upcoming election “because Obama has lost the center of America.” In addition, the president has few connections to or understanding of business. “Obama has not surrounded himself with a single person who has worked in business for a significant period of time…not a single person who understands that when you raise taxes, you stunt growth.”

On the political environment in Washington: Despite being political opponents, President Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill were good friends who spent many evenings enjoying a cocktail and each other’s company.  “We’ve lost that,” says Scarborough. “There’s something wrong when Democrats and Republicans can’t work together.” The enmity between parties is being fueled by media personalities such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. “You can’t root against the president without rooting against the United States.”

On free enterprise: “We’re now in the Talent Age, a technological age where the nations with the best talent wins…we’ve got to let free enterprise be the propeller of our economy.” Scarborough shares small business’ undying optimism. “If you bet against America, you’re going to lose.”

Small Business Summit - Leveraging Social Media to Build New Relationships

by Greg Galdabini

Being a small business owner almost requires that you be social, so it is no surprise that there was standing room only at the Small Business Summit break out session on social media yesterday. Participants walked away with a number of good tips from Erica Pierson and Saïd Eastman, both of Monster Worldwide. Here are a few:

• Start slow. If you’re just beginning to venture into the social media world, get comfortable with one, two, but no more than three social media platforms. Find your footprint before expanding your social media presence. For example, you might start with a blog, then after six months begin a Twitter feed.
• Find out where your customers are. In deciding what social media platforms to use, determine which ones your customers use. For example, many of your customers may be on LinkedIn but few on Facebook.
• Engage your employees but set clear social media policies. Identify the evangelists among your employees and incorporate them into your social media strategy. Be clear about who is authorized to post content.
• Have thick skin. With social media, you’ll receive feedback from customers that you don’t want to hear. Learn to accept criticism and when it’s appropriate to address it.
• Review your security settings. You can implement restrictions in your social media tools to prevent people from accessing your network.
• Don’t forget about video. Many social media users prefer to express their opinions or provide feedback via video. Incorporate video sites such as YouTube in your social media strategy.

Here are a few social media resources for more info:

• http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia
• www.socialmediatoday.com
• www.monsterthinking.com
• http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts

Small Business Summit - Insight Exchange

by Ricardo Harvin

Yesterday, following the great Awards lunch, the next session featured small business owners sharing their stories, and some insights into what it takes to run a successful business, moderated by Colleen DeBaise, Small Business Editor, The Wall Street Journal
.
Maxine Clark, Founder, Chief Executive Bear and Chairman, Build-A-Bear Workshop; Jon Najarian, Co-Founder of optionMONSTER and tradeMONSTER, CNBC Contributor; and Colin Roche, CEO of Pacific Writing Instruments answered questions from Colleen and the audience.

Their stories all shared a common thread - recognition of a market need, and the willingness to put themselves out there to turn the kernel of an idea into reality.

Whether it was an innocent comment from a child frustrated by not being able find the exact product she was looking for, "We could make these", a flash of inspiration from killing time in detention that the shape of toy could be used to reshape an everyday product to alleviate discomfort, to the realization that one successful product and its resulting publicity opened a door to creating an even larger line of related offerings, each of these entrepreneurs took an idea from thought to successful businesses.

They all embody the spirit of free enterprise and the promise that, in America, any good idea has a chance to succeed.

When asked to share any advice they had for the audience on how to build and grow a successful company, they all agreed that it's important not to focus too much on what the competition is doing, but to make sure that every step of the way you're focusing first on providing the best product or service, and on great customer service.

Another key element to each of their successes was having good partnerships - each of them relied on professional and personal relationships to help build and grow their companies. The lesson there being that no matter how good you are, everyone needs a hand or second pair of eyes along the way.

There was no pessimism in this group, they're all still pushing forward and Dreaming Big.

Small Business Summit - Celebrating Entrepreneurship

by Katie Wilson

The DREAM BIG Small Business of the Year Award was given out over lunch, but there were so many great entries that we also held DREAM BIG Blue Ribbon Awards Breakfast yesterday to honor the unsung heroes of the American economy--our small business owners and entrepreneurs. More than forty of our seventy-five Blue Ribbon Small Business Award Winners gathered together to be recognized for their smart business decisions, hard work, and their willingness to take risks.

You'd think that bright and early in the morning folks would have been lagging, but not this group. Long days are commonplace for small business owners, especially successful ones like these. They certainly didn't get where they are today by sleeping in or slacking off, in fact quite the opposite. These business owners know what it's like to roll up their sleeves, put in the long hours, and do what needs to be done to get the job done. They embody the spirit of free enterprise.
 
The winners were at the breakfast because their customers, associates, and friends nominated them for the DREAM BIG Small Business of the Year Award. These businesses stood out because not only are they successful enterprises, but they also contribute to their local communities. At the breakfast we announced the recipient of the 2010 Community Excellence Award --an award voted on by the people-- businesses customers, employees, and neighbors.

The winner, Prestige Cleaners from Knoxville, TN, received over 1500 votes confirming what a great company it is and the role Eddie Mannis and his team play in their community. It's also worth mentioning that the runner up, Huls Dairy, from Corvallis, MT, a town of 859, is so beloved by its community, that the Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce raised the money for the Dairy's owners to travel here to D.C. for the summit. These businesses (and others) received honors today, but really we should all feel honored to have them dreaming big and working hard for America every day.

Small Business Summit - Put the Power of the Web to Work for You

by Ricardo Harvin

After the breakfast and the big morning session, everyone had a chance attend various breakout sessions. Naturally, I chose to cover the one hosted by Google's Tom Oliveri, Director of Marketing, Google Apps & Enterprise. He was joined by several small business owners who have been using Google Apps, and together they addressed how Google Apps can help businesses grow and thrive.

Tom started by talking about some key technlogy trends which dovetail with the Google Apps approach:

Cloud computing - The web is becoming the platform for people to share information, communicate, and work with other people. It offers a much richer, fuller, real time way for people to get things done. Consumers are driving the move to cloud technology. They are "in-market", using these tools and technologies, and bringing their expectations into the workplace.

Mobile - More and more becoming a key driver in how people interact with the Internet. More people using more devices and they all need access to their information.

New Media - There's been an explosion in the apps that ride on top of the cloud. This is pushing the cloud, the web, and the expectations of how people interact with information and people. This can lead to an overload where it becomes a challenge to manage the amount of information coming in to them.

Google Apps brings together the benefits of the cloud in a very simple and easy way. It can be accessed online, using any tool with a connection to the Internet and a web browser. Workers can be more productive - accessing information anytime, anywhere, and share that information with customers, partners and coworkers. The business owners then each spoke briefly about how they've used Google Apps to change their business operations.

One company uses technology to drive social change. By using Google Apps, they were able to focus on their passion, not maintaing hardware and applications. They used a web-based spreadsheet to allow everyone to work on one document at the same time, instead of using email attachments, which can easily lead to confusion as to which version is correct.

Google Apps "Allowed us to dedicate and reallocate time, money and manpower to what we really do."

Tom concluded by stating that Google Apps promotes innovation because it makes it easy to use technology, and levels the playing field. 10 years ago it was the large enterprise that drove technology change. Now a small business can access the resources built by Google for a fraction of the cost that it took to build, giving them them the ability to stay technologically current with a minimal investment.

You can free your cash flow by not having to spend money on maintaining the infrastructure.
 
The session was then opened up to questions, here's a sample:

How has Google Apps allowed you to make more sales?

• Colloboration - that means speed and allowing us to get to market more quickly.
• Simplicity of use, can run on any platform, our IT team can now work on what really drives our business. Analagous to switching from generating your own power to using the electric company.
• We have to stay on the edge. In our business, we're never allowed to stay stagnant. We really need to keep up to date with the current trends. Google Apps works the same way - we don't have to wait for new things, they regularly implement new features as they become available.
• Using Google Apps, we've been able to get, more freelancers and colloborate with them, rather than having to hire full-time employees.

What's the benefit of going to the paid version?

• High level of support
• 99.9 uptime guarantee
• More storage
• More integration features (e.g. Outlook with Gmail)
• Security

Do you have access to information when you're offline?

• There is some capability, the best way is to use Google Synch.
• Google Apps will soon have integration with Microsoft Office, which should also have synch capabilities.

Can I work with someone using different program? Yes, you can export Google App files to common formats and share that way.

How difficult was the transition from "feeding the beast" i.e., maintaining your own IT infrastructure, to using Google Apps?

IT was resistant at first, but were able to be reallocated to work that was productive to us. We saw a rebirth when Google Apps came in. With a small business, how you work together is important. As you grow, it's difficult to maintain a colloborative culture. Google Apps allowed us to maintain our culture once we got over the initial hesitation.

What kind of security measures do you use?

• To start with, realize that everything you send via unencrypted email is wide open [and completely insecure].
• By sending a link instead of an attachment you can require authentication, immediately making it more secure than email attachments.
• If you lose a device, you lose your information. With Google Apps you can remotely wipe mobile devices, and also delete cookies, requiring users to re-authenticate into the system.
• Google Apps has administrative features that let you enforce strong passwords and other security measures.

How well does it work for project management? There's some features we'd like to see, and there are a lot of nice features that we use, but it's not a perfect fit. We have other tools that we use internally, but in terms of getting everyone on the same page, it can't be beat.

Look at Google Apps Marketplace for tools that can help you deploy other features.

Small Business Summit - Building a Stronger Business Community

by Sheryll Poe

Small businesses and their communities must partner together to prepare for disaster relief and recovery and economic development, according to panelists at the breakout session sponsored by the U.S. Chamber’s Business Civic Leadership Center here at America’s Small Business Summit.  The session was moderated by BCLC’s Benjamin Erulkar.

Lt. General Don Dardis and Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Shannon Meyer discussed how they brought their city and businesses back from disaster after the 2008 Iowa floods, when 85 of the state’s 99 counties were declared disaster areas. The state is an example of businesses and governments working together to recover from the estimated $8 billion in damages. Dardis noted that approximately 75-80% of businesses have been able to reopen. “Now the goal is to keep them open,” he said.  Dardis noted that while many federal agencies and support networks exist for helping homeowners, the same could not be said for helping businesses recover. “States need to address business needs from day one,” Dardis said.

Meyer, who’s local chamber of commerce has been instrumental in helping businesses in Cedar Rapids reopen, says she recommends chambers and local governments focus on the five C’s: collaboration, confidence (be ready to step in), control/credit (be willing to let go), communication, and creativity (be prepared to do non-traditional, chamber work).

Lafayette Consolidated Government City-Parish Mayor-President Joey Durel and Rob Guidry, President and CEO of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce told the packed room about their efforts to bring fiberoptics to Lafayette. The issue, Durel said, was one of free enterprise and future job growth. However, the fight with large corporate communication companies who felt they would have to compete with the municipality for future customers, ended up going all the way to the state Supreme Court. It also put the Greater Lafayette Chamber in a difficult position since many of the telecom companies at the heart of the fight were also large chamber members. However, Guidry said, the municipality moved ahead and haven’t looked back.  Thanks to the $110 million bond voted on by the community, Lafayette Utilities System has installed and is running a vast fiberoptics system that has attracted investments from Canada and Disney.

The Dream Big Small Business of the Year Award Goes To…

by Brad Peck

This is my favorite session of each America’s Small Business Summit, hearing the stories and seeing the emotion and dedication our small business owners bring to their life’s work. That and the fact that our National Anthem always chokes me up a little bit, particularly when there are no Orioles fans present (regional joke).

Chamber Chair Bob Milligan introduced Brian Cornell from Sam’s Club, sponsor of the award, who said he was amazed at the stories he heard at the Summit, and how evident it was that small business does indeed dream big. Small business exemplifies the spirit of entrepreneurship that fuels the American Dream. Their dedication and resiliency will lead to a strong economic recovery in the United States. Sam’s Club serves 600,000 small business owners every day – wow. Have seen a big need and they are expanding to help small business get access to capital. They are launching a pilot program today to provide SBA loans to their members throughout the country.

Bob Love took the stage to talk about believing in and achieving your dreams. Not to listen to the detractors and the naysayers, when they say you can’t, you show them that you can. Funny story, over the course of your life you will earn the average salary of your four closest friends – the lesson? Hang out with successful people! But on the serious side, invoking the lesson of Michael Vick, if you want to be successful surround yourself with successful people, if you want to be powerful, hang out with powerful people.

Love had a severe stutter growing up and into his NBA career. While he was playing basketball he never got the chance to do TV interviews or endorsement deals. His friends would laugh at him and tell him that he would never graduated high school or college. But he dreamed big, and he worked hard, and today he gives speeches for a living. He never played the victim, he did the work and he rose up, and that is the American Dream.

There are some mistakes that you can’t take back and there are some missed opportunities that you can never recapture. The difference in effort between success and mediocrity is small, the difference in effort between mediocrity and failure is small; but the differences in outcome are huge. So practice hard and practice what you preach.

Love left the stage to a standing ovation and then the inspiration continued with the awarding of awards to our Regional Winners. A video was shown for each winner and they were, in a word, awesome. Will get those online tonight for you. Check them out here. And then it was time, the big one… and the DREAM BIG Small Business of the Year Award goes to…

Fintech from Tampa Florida!!!

A big round of applause and a great speech from Fintech’s Scott Riley:

“We all have refused to let this recession kick our behinds, it is getting better and we will emerge from it stronger.”

Small Business Summit – With the Issue Experts

by Brad Peck

As Herman Cain reminded us yesterday it is unfortunately not enough for our small business owners to be engaged with their customers and employees, they also have to deal with the government. The Chamber is the voice of business in Washington, but we are only as loud as our members are engaged, as Bruce Josten reminded them:

“Every success that the Chamber achieves is made possible by members like you.  We not only appreciate all you do; we know our success depends on your involvement.”

Bruce then covered the key issues facing America’s small businesses.

The Chamber has long supported reforming the health system, to lower health care costs, but we had to oppose the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, because we believe it will actually increase costs. With our member’s help we did get a few victories but with the enactment of the bill big changes are coming in the next few months, bigger changes will come in January and the biggest changes will come in 2014 and 2018.  Some of these provisions may never happen – 2018 is 4 Congressional elections and 2 Presidential elections away. For us, health reform is not over.

Bruce talked about the requirement Karen Kerrigan mentioned yesterday, in 2012 companies of all sizes will have to file a 1099 form with the IRS for business-to-business transactions aggregating $600 or more for the purchase of goods and services – a big burden on small businesses.  We support repeal of this provision and owners should talk about it when on Capitol Hill tomorrow.

Beyond healthcare we are facing uncontrolled and unsustainable deficits result in a crushing mountain of federal debt. The debt-to-GDP ratio rises from almost 63% this year to nearly 90% by 2020. These debt levels will weaken the dollar, lead to higher interest rates, rising inflation, lower job growth, and ultimately, a lower standard of living.

There are proposals that would raise the marginal rate on the upper income brackets, and raise the rates on capital gains and dividends, all of which are likely to reduce savings and consumption. When you hear “raise taxes on the rich” hear “raise taxes on small business owners whose enterprises are structured as a pass through entity.” Or in Bruce’s words “the very people we are looking to create jobs and drive the economic recovery. “

One example is a proposal that would significantly increase payroll taxes paid by S corporation shareholders. The tax would: apply to capital investments made by businesses engaged in the service sector, hurting their ability to invest and create jobs; add to the tax code’s complexity by creating new categories of business activity that will have to be defined and litigated; and set the stage for future increases in payroll taxes on more capital-intensive sectors as Congress endlessly searches for new streams of revenue. This proposal would unfairly increase taxes on small and family-owned businesses and is, unfortunately, just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to looming tax proposals.

Bruce then talked about trade – see here – and closed with the positive note that organized labor’s top priority “Card Check” has not been passed by Congress, “But, we must remain vigilant and be prepared to fight this fight on other fronts as labor leaders turn to the National Labor Relations Board to accomplish what they couldn’t through legislation.”

So on this, and every other issue, stay tuned.

Small Business Summit – Dreams Are Free, So Free Your Dreams

by Brad Peck

More on the Awards breakfast later but just wanted to post on Sheila Johnson’s great speech “From Hoops to Hospitality: One Woman’s Free Enterprise Success Story.” We were worried about traffic for a bit, but right on time Johnson took the state to rousing applause. She noted the “Dream Big” theme which reminder her of an old saying “Dreams are Free, so we should all free our dreams.”

And sometimes dreams come from the most unlikely sources.  The business plan for BET was originally pitched by another group as a network for the elderly. When it was rejected, Johnson and her team pulled it from the trash, asked if they could borrow it, replaced “senior citizen” with “African-American” and BET was born.  As Johnson noted it took them ten years to be “an overnight success.”

Johnson talked about the difficulty in launching a new business in the current economy, but in the end it all comes down to perseverance.  When you are wearing 5 hats and working 7 days a week you have to have a passion for what you do.  Quoting entertainer, and savvy businesswomen, Dolly Parton, Johnson reminded everyone that “If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain.”

Johnson also gave the eager crowd some sound advice:

During tough times consumers are not only looking at price but also at value.  If you focus on the basics and provide great customers service you will be positioned to succeed when the economy has fully recovered.

Let your daughters engage in sports. They will learn teamwork, they will learn how to communicate, they will learn how to negotiate, and they will learn how to succeed.

To reinvent the Mystics she wanted to establish a culture of accountability, a culture of long-term commitment and a commitment to not only doing the right things, but doing things the right way.

There is a huge opportunity being missed to market to women.  It drives her nuts that sponsors ignore this opportunity. Small businesses need to embrace the power of the female economy, need to market to women, earn their trust and their loyalty.

To look ahead, you need to look around.  We can all be mentors, we can all be role-models, and we can all help someone else succeed. There are many women who want to be entrepreneurs but face barriers to getting access and credit. Investment in women creates great benefit for society as a whole – we need more and Johnson closed by urging everyone to get in the game.

Small Business Summit - Private Sector Jobs are the Best Social Welfare

by Abram Olmstead

Go to the Hill tomorrow and give ‘em hell!  With typical enthusiasm and candor, U.S. Chamber President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue, initiated the second day of America’s Small Business Summit.  While offering a brief overview of the Chamber’s efforts to represent small business interests relevant to issues of the day—i.e. health care, access to capital, financial regulatory reform, immigration, energy and environment, etc.—Donohue was careful to note that “Our recovery is going to come from the bottom up, not the top down...That’s why I’m not too worried about the long-term prospects for the economy.”

Donohue warned however, in the words of President Ford, “A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.”

• We just passed a massive, expensive health care bill. Nobody knows what’s in it.
• Financial reform is moving through the Senate as we speak with major consequences for both Wall Street and Main Street.
• Sens. Lieberman and Kerry have introduced a climate change bill. It’s 1,000-pages long and we are reviewing it carefully. We need to determine how it will impact businesses and consumers, how much it will cost, and exactly how it would work.
• We have a tax extenders bill. We may be starting yet another debate on immigration reform. And the list goes on and on.
• All the while, politicians here in Washington are expanding the scope and reach of government and ringing up unsustainable deficits.

“When big companies and small companies come to Washington to lobby for lower taxes, they have their own interests in mind – they form a circular firing squad around the government, and they often end up shooting each other”, said Donohue.  

We’re going to back to basics:

“The Chamber’s goal in building our free enterprise campaign is to bring you all together—to increase effectiveness—and achieve mutually beneficial reforms.   We can all agree about the need for open capital markets, limited regulation, and the spirit of a dream—the ability to dream big!  So far, we’ve had 300 meetings around the country to encourage young people to embrace an environment where these things can exist.  There isn’t any free lunch in this business.  This challenge will require hard work, a clear strategy, and an absolute vision for where we want to go.”

“We need to take a certain amount of risk to gain benefit.  Free enterprise is the system that says you can fail—fall right on the floor—and get back up again, and again, and again.”

As the Chamber’s small business members prepare to descend on Capitol Hill tomorrow, Donohue heralded the appropriateness and urgency of their voice.  “While you’re there, remind them that the best social welfare program is a good-paying job—and that you know a little bit about creating those!” said the Chamber’s President.