Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Celebrate Small Business Saturday

This Saturday, November 27, is the first ever Small Business Saturday.  The day after “Black Friday,” the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season, is being promoted by American Express and other partners as a day to patronize your locally-owned small business.

To back up its promotion, American Express is offering a $25 credit to the first 250,000 people who pre-register a credit card and spend at least $25 at a small, independently owned business on November 27.

The Small Business Saturday campaign on Facebook offered $100 worth of Facebook advertising to the first 10,000 businesses to sign up, along with free promotional materials. As of Friday, almost 1,000,000 Facebook users have hit the “like” button for Small Business Saturday. 

The Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau is one of 21 major sponsors for the event across the country.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

SBA Raises Maximum Loan Sizes

The U.S. Small Business Administration has implemented a major element of the Small Business Jobs Act: increasing maximum sizes in several of its loan programs.

“Across the country, there are small businesses owners who are in a position to take that next step to grow and create jobs, and these larger loan sizes provide another tool to help them do just that,” SBA Administrator Karen Mills said.  “Whether they’re in the start-up phase and could use a microloan or are looking to take advantage of lower real estate prices and interest rates to buy a new building to expand, SBA loans can now be an even greater resource to help entrepreneurs and small business owners get the capital they need.

“Additionally, temporarily increasing the cap on SBA Express loans from $350,000 to $1 million will allow more small businesses to take advantage of the streamlined approval process for working lines of credit and other capital they need,” Mills said.

Under the Jobs Act provisions, SBA has permanently increased 7(a) and 504 limits to $5 million from $2 million, and for manufacturers and certain energy-related projects seeking 504 loans, to $5.5 million.  The maximum for International Trade and Export Working Capital loans also has been increased to $5 million.

SBA also permanently increased microloan limits to $50,000 (from $35,000), helping larger entrepreneurs with start-up costs and small business owners in underserved communities. It also raised the limit on Export Express loans to $500,000 and made the program permanent.

The limits on SBA Express loans have been temporarily raised to $1 million for one year.  These loans offer a streamlined application process with reduced paperwork and approval often in a matter of days.  Unlike traditional 7(a) loans, SBA Express loans carry a 50 percent guarantee and can be used as revolving lines of credit – to help restock inventories and support larger revenue sales – which are particularly critical for small businesses as they emerge out of the recession.

SBA previously implemented the alternate size standard that was included in the Jobs Act. That provision expands eligibility for SBA-backed loans, increasing the alternate size standard to include small businesses with less than $15 million in net worth and $5 million in average net income.

The bill provided the agency with new funding to support an estimated $14 billion in lending to small businesses with the extension of higher guarantees and reduced fees in the top two loan programs, first implemented as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The Jobs Act also includes more resources to help increase lending to small businesses. The State Small Business Credit Initiative will support $15 billion in lending through local programs and the Small Business Lending Fund will provide capital to local, community banks to increase their lending to small businesses.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Seven Steps to Managing Your Time in Your Family Business

In a typical family business, the owners wear many hats. As the business grows, it gets harder and harder to juggle all the tasks and duties that the manager of the family business must accomplish in a day.

Here are 7 steps to help you manage your own time:
  1. List all tasks and rank them by their importance.
  2. Plan and estimate the time required for every task.
  3. Prepare a list of no more than 20 tasks you need to do in one day, sorted from the most important to the least.
  4. Ensure that all listed tasks are necessary. If any task is not really essential, delete it from the list.
  5. Determine whether anyone else, in your organization or outside it, can do any of listed tasks for you. Assign that task to the appropriate person.
  6. Organize your remaining tasks systematically and logically in the most efficient order, keeping in mind which tasks are the most important to complete by the end of the day.
  7. Once you start, focus on a single task and delete it from your list as soon as it is completed. Avoid switching back and forth between tasks.

If you follow these 7 simple steps, you will find that you are once again in control of your day!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Family Business Network International Summit comes to Chicago

The 21st Family Business Network International Summit will be held in Chicago on October 1-2, 2010. This year's theme is "Innovation: Keeping the Family Business Vibrant for Generations." Keynote speakers include Chris Galvin, former Chairman and CEO of Motorola; Admiral William Owens, former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and current Chairman and CEO, AEA Holdings Asia; and John Elkann, Chairman of FIAT and EXOR (Agnelli Family).

"This year's summit investigates the role of innovation through an array of exceptional speakers who will include Moira Forbes, publisher of ForbesWoman, Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, Chairman of Champagne Taittinger, Boja Pascual Gomez-Cuetera, Grupo Leche Pascual board member and Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO of SC Johnson," adds Andrew Keyt, director of the American Chapter of FBN and Executive Director of the Loyola University Chicago Family Business Center.

The sponsor of the summit, The Family Business Network, is a nonprofit leading international family business organization which gathers family business owners from all over the world.
More than 500 CEOs, owners and family owners of the world's most powerful global families from 40 countries will discuss how they combine their deep-rooted traditions with a higher level of risk taking to continually innovate. Participation is limited to members of family businesses, CEOs of family owned businesses or by special invitation from FBN International or its chapters.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Escaping the Family Business

In her regular bnet.com column, Evil HR Lady (Suzanne Lucas) gives a number of tips to a woman who wants to find a gracious way to get out of her family business. The tips include: leave sooner rather than later; change careers, not just jobs; say maintaining the relationship is the most important thing; after you find a new job and leave, express regret; set clear boundaries; be unfailingly positive about your new job; and be unfailingly positive about the family business, unless it’s failing then be sympathetic.

You can read the complete article here.