New Vintage Showcase Opens in Elgin

On December 1, 2012, a new store, owned by Lisa Madrid, opened its doors in downtown Elgin.  It's located at 225 E. Chicago (at the corner of Villa and Chicago), in the old Carswell's Carpeting location.  Like all new businesses, the journey from concept to realization was fraught with complications and challenges.

It was just a year ago that Lisa visited the ISBDC at ECC for the first time to discuss the steps necessary to open a retail location specializing in the resale of 1940s through 1970s furniture and other household items.  Lisa had been collecting items for a long time - so much that her house was bursting at its seams.  She felt the Carswell location would be ideal from the beginning, but it took months before she was ready to settle into that spot.

We always recommend that a new business must begin with a business plan.  In addition to creating the Business Plan, Lisa needed a contract for the dealers that would display items in her shop.  She also needed to make certain the lease agreement would suit her needs.  The ISBDC provided counseling on all of these items.

Lisa says that her biggest challenge now is marketing.  To minimize marketing expenses, Lisa has had to be creative.  You'll find her on the internet at www.retro-a-gogo.net and on Facebook.  (Visit these sites to view some of her vintage treasures.)  She offers coupons, participates in a local rewards card program, participates in organizations that promote local businesses, advertizes through online websites that are magnets for those interested in estate sale items, and partners with local businesses that share her flair and cater to a similar market segment.

Three months after opening, Retro-a-GoGo is brimming with vintage goods, all artfully displayed.  Store hours are Thurs-Sat 11-8, Sun 12-6, Mon & Tues 11-8 (Closed on Wednesdays).

Small Businesses Leading Nation's Economic Recovery

Office of Advocacy Issues Report on the Small Business Economy, 2/11/13 - The economic environment is turning around for America's small businesses despite some lingering challenges from the recession that hit the nation in 2008-2009, according to a new report released today by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy, an independent office that serves as the voice for small business within the federal government.

"The Small Business Economy 2012 demonstrates that small businesses have been at the core of our economy's growth over the past few years," said Dr. Winslow Sargeant, Chief Counsel for Advocacy.  "Thanks to hardworking small business owners across the country, 2011 represented the second full year of economic expansion since the peak of the recession in 2009, with small businesses representing half of the private-sector output.  We still have a lot of work to do, but this report tells an inspiring story:  output, business income and profits are rising for small businesses, and bankruptcies and unemployment are declining."

The Small Business Economy, an annual report published by the Office of Advocacy for over 30 years, provides detailed information on the performance of America's small businesses.  For the second year in a row, Advocacy released the full report in an online format.  "This report provides a rich collection of information about small business contributions to the economy and trends over time, and is once again available in an online format, increasing the accessibility and usability of the information," said Sargeant.  Highlights of the tables in this year's report include the following:

Overall

Manufacturing sales, which dropped between 2005 and 2009, were up 11.7 percent between 2010 and 2011.  That's similar to the 11.2 percent increase in 2009-2010.  After falling from 2005 to 2009, the income of our smallest businesses (proprietorships) increased by 6.0 percent from 2010 to 2011. Corporate profits, which also declined in 2005-2009, increased by 7.9 percent in the same period.  Startups or births of employer firms were still below pre-downturn levels - 533,945 in 2010 compared with 668,395 in 2007, but they increased from 2009 to 2010.  On the other hand, closings or deaths of employer firms, which reached a new high of 680,716 in 2009, declined to 593,347 in 2010.

Employment

Small firms with fewer than 500 workers outperformed large firms in net job creation in three of the four quarters of 2011, similar to a pattern that has existed since 1992 in periods when private-sector employment rose.  In contrast, job losses prevailed in almost all firm sizes for the first quarter of 2008 through the first quarter of 2010.

Demographics

Among the self-employed, certain demographic groups saw large increases in 2010-2011, particularly Latino, Asian, black and urban self-employed workers and the 55+ age cohort that reflects the large baby boom generation.

Financing

Total business lending continued to increase by June 2012; the rate of decline slowed for small business loans of all size categories.  Funds raised by venture capital firms increased, and disbursements increased to levels comparable to those in 2006.

How to Keep Your Business Vibrant

Keeping a business performing at its peak can be just as challenging as starting one. You might think that if your business survives for 7 or 8 years, you're in the home stretch. But, you cannot relent. Becoming complacent can turn a thriving business into one that's lost its edge, resulting in reduced revenues, dwindling profits, loss of income for the owners, or worse.

Complicating things, if the business employs family, there is a dependency on it for income, not just for yourself, but for multiple family members. Typically, the first owner has the greatest passion for the enterprise, but as additional generations come into the business, the passion often dissipates over time.  

Owning a business is hard work, no matter what age the business is. To use a sports metaphor, you can't afford to take your eye off the ball - ever.  

The question is: how can you keep the business vibrant? How can you continue to motivate yourself and others who work in the business - family included - to run at peak performance levels?  

Unfortunately, owners and employees get accustomed the status quo. They don't necessarily realize it as its happening. They do the same thing, day in and day out, and it becomes routine. Complacency has crept in without their even being aware of it. But one day, they notice that things aren't going as well as they should.  

You have to continually raise the bar. In sports lingo, if you want to hit faster pitches, you have to practice hitting faster and faster pitches. It's the same in business. You need to establish performance indicators that keep the pulse of the business in view and that measure progress from one reporting period to another. You have to find ways to stimulate the desire to change, and not accept yesterday's results.  

If your business revenues are not where they should be, you need to determine your next steps to get back on track. It could be time to sell, time to promote an employee with potential to help you turn things around, or time to transition the business to the next generation. Whatever the situation, it's probably time to take a deeper look at what issues are holding the business back.  

Consider having the ISBDC do a comprehensive business assessment to evaluate both functional and financial performance. The interview process typically takes two hours, and can occur at your business location. The ISBDC will prepare a thorough report that reviews the current "health" of your business with recommendations for revitalizing it. This process will result in a clearer vision of where you are and what you need to do to reinvigorate the business and the staff, and ultimately, to grow profits.

Retirement Reallity Check

When It Comes to Retirement - Small Business Owners

Need a Reality Check

What are your retirement plans? Are you expecting to sell your business and retire on the proceeds? Do you dream of passing on your business to your kids?  A new global survey of small business owners’ succession plans by Sellability Score found that small business owners’ expectations for retirement have changed. Since 2008, almost half of business owners over age 50 have delayed their retirement due to economic conditions.

Despite the delays in retirement, all is not doom and gloom. Some three-quarters of business owners surveyed say they expect to exit their company in the next 10 years, and 40 percent expect to exit in the next five years. More than half of the business owners had already owned their companies for at least eight years.  What do small business owners expect to happen to their businesses when they leave?

Passing a business down from one generation to the next is becoming less popular; just 1 in 10 surveyed say they expect to pass their business on to their kids. By comparison, 61 percent expect to sell it to an outside buyer, while 10 percent expect to sell the business to a partner or key employee.

Meanwhile, 14.5 percent plan to essentially work until they drop, and 8 percent plan to just shut the business down entirely when they retire.  When they do leave their businesses, one-third of respondents expect the sale of their businesses to fund at least half of their retirement. However, those dreams might well turn out to be pipe dreams, given that a whopping 90 percent of business owners don’t have a formal exit plan in place.

The survey findings also suggest that small business owners may be underestimating the complexity of selling a business. Just one-third say they expect selling their business to be difficult. However, the majority of businesses in the study were in service industries—which often find it more difficult to sell since these businesses are more likely to be dependent on the owner’s personal efforts to land and keep new business.

If you ask me, it’s time for a reality check. First, whether or not you’re planning to retire in the next few years, a succession plan is important for every small business to have. Not only will it make selling your business easier when the time comes, it can also protect your business should anything happen to you unexpectedly.

Second, if you’re expecting the sale of your business to be easy, you’re likely in for a rude awakening. If you haven’t already done so, start now to work with your attorney and accountant and get advice on how to build value in your business.    That way, you’ll be better positioned for a successful—and profitable—sale that will see you into a happy retirement (or a whole new venture, if that’s what you choose to do).   Do you have a succession plan for your small business?

You will find this entire article, written recently by Rieva Lesonsky by clicking on: http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/10/retirement-small-business-owners-need-reality-check.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SmallBusinessTrends+%28Small+Business+Trends%29

SMS-4Sale Business Profile

You’ve heard the expression “you need to work on your business, not in it.”  It may sound trite, but this story, about Ron Cregier and his SMS-4Sale business, certainly proves that point.

Ron Cregier retired from the corporate world back in February 2010.  The allure of owning his own business, making his own decisions and making the big bucks sounded like the way to go.  He had an idea – to deliver mobile marketing services - and he had 35 years of IT experience he could leverage.  He thought “Everybody needs IT support.  Right?“

Well, as it turned out, not exactly.  He was confident in his technical expertise, as existing customers were pleased and other IT companies were calling him to help with projects.  His problem was that he just wasn’t building the customer base he needed to support his business.

When Ron first came to Small Business Development Center at Elgin Community College, Ron explained his business concept.  SMS-4Sale focuses on the mobile marketing environment by providing businesses with services to connect with their customers and prospects via mobile phones.  SMS-4Sale also offers a management service that allows a business to outsource their mobile marketing strategies and platform management for a monthly fee.  During this past September, SMS-4Sale launched his Mobile Marketing Club to send merchant coupons to mobile phones.

Ron’s thinking was that, unlike a mobile app that can only be used by Smartphones, the Mobile Marketing Club sends a text message with an embedded link to a mobile web page containing the coupons for download.  This approach allows the Mobile Marketing Club coupons to reach ANY mobile phone with text messaging and internet access turned on.  Conceptually, a mobile coupon is like a paper coupon, except that a mobile coupon is always available on the mobile phone, as opposed to paper coupons that are easily lost and need to be printed, cut and carried in a purse or wallet.

Ron came to the SBDC for help in sales and marketing.  Sybil Ege, Ron’s SBDC advisor, asked Ron to identify his business goals and objectives, which of course are at the heart of a business plan.  Ron had always thought it was more important to spend time being technical and staying on top of new and evolving technologies, than writing a business plan.  But as the discussions proceeded, Ron realized his technical focus was actually hurting his business, and that continuing down that path was actually one of the biggest mistakes he had made so far.  He saw that without articulating business goals and objectives, he would lose sight of what he was trying to accomplish.

These discussions were eye-opening for Ron, as it helped him look at his business from a completely different perspective.  Taking Sybil’s advice, Ron formulated his business plan.  This whole process has helped Ron better articulate what his business is all about in networking circles, and has led to increasing his customer base.  Ron is now busier than ever with 3 new clients, 3 prospects in the wings and a whole new line of businesses that has brought on 10 new clients, just in the last 6 weeks.