NASE Staff Blog

NASE At Small Business Financing Forum [Guest Post]

NASE Staff — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:06:51 GMT

Posted by Kristie Arslan – Yesterday’s Small Business Financing Forum hosted by Treasury and the Small Business Administration could have been more aptly titled "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs". That is what is really on the mind of the Administration. As Treasury Secretary Geithner stated, “America's small businesses are critical engines of job growth and have historically led us out of recessions. But to play that role they need access to credit.” With small businesses continuing to struggle in the current economy, finding access to capital has become increasingly more critical to an entrepreneur’s survival and their ability to maintain and grow jobs.

Participating in the forum was NASE’s General Counsel, Mike Beene, taking up the cause of the self-employed. Here is what he had to say about his experience:

The President asked that 100 people come together to give him ideas on how to get financing flowing to small businesses. The Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, and Administrator Karen Mills of the Small Business Administration led the group, which included some inspirational entrepreneurs with great ideas. These small business owners expressed their frustration with the difficulty of getting capital. Add to that several pro-business Senators and Representatives and the leaders of the lending world, large and small. I am pleased they thought that the NASE was important to the process.

The Treasury building sits on the same property as the White House. The event took place in the Cash Room, which until 1976 was open to the public for the purchase of treasury bonds, bills and other products. Secretary Geithner told me that the room is so detailed and beautiful because the government wanted buyers to feel confidence in the products they bought. Unfortunately, modern security precludes this arrangement and so we were left with a beautiful meeting room.

The most often cited reasons for our members to be denied financing is their credit score. I raised this to the group and received support from others that in this difficult economic time lenders need to look at a bigger picture. There seemed to be acceptance of this suggestion, especially when coupled with business counseling.

There was also a lot of discussion about the importance of community banks and credit unions. All of these things are being put into a report for the President by Administrator Mills. Some of these ideas can be implemented by regulators, while some would require action by Congress.

Two things excited me about the meeting: the hope across the political spectrum to get private money flowing, and that entrepreneurs are still innovating and running their businesses despite the roadblocks they face, an important message for all of us.

To watch the Small Business Financing Forum, visit the SBA Web site.

From Wall Street to Main Street?

NASE Staff — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Posted by Molly Nelson - Goldman Sachs announced this week that it will be spending $500 million to help thousands of small businesses bounce back from the recession. Working with its largest shareholder, investor Warren Buffet, Goldman is offering business and management education, mentoring and access to capital to 10,000 small businesses.

While there has been some criticism that Goldman is only reaching out to small businesses in an attempt to bolster its public image, the company says it has been working on the program for almost a year.

The plan includes:

$200 million to pay for small-business owners to get business and management education at local community colleges and other places
Mentoring and networking services
$300 million in loans and grants to small businesses

Readers, do you think this is a PR stunt on Goldman's part? Will you look into getting involved in part of their program? Would you accept help or funds from them for your business? Let us know in the comments!

Paid Sick Leave

NASE Staff — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Posted by Molly Nelson - According to You're the Boss, Congress is feeling some pressure to enact mandatory sick leave laws as a result of the swine flu pandemic. The Obama Administration has backed the Healthy Families Act, which guarantees seven sick days per year for companies with 15 or more employees.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) also introduced temporary legislation that would require companies with 15 or more employees to guarantee five paid sick days for employees that are sent home or encouraged to stay home.

Do you offer paid sick leave to your employees? How many days per year? Do you feel that federal mandatory sick leave would place an undue burden on your business?

Boosting Holiday Sales

NASE Staff — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Posted by Molly Nelson - Looking for an advantage in your holiday promotions? According to Business Week, joining a buy-local campaign and marketing with authenticity can help boost sales.

For more information on buy-local campaigns, check out this article from the most recent issue of Self-Employed magazine.

Small Biz Health Care Roundup (11/13)

NASE Staff — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Posted by Kristin Oberlander - Here's a sampling of this week's top health care reform articles. If you find an article or blog that you think should be considered, drop us a line at media@nase.org.

House Democrats Eke Out A Victory On Health Reform [Commentary] (NASE Staff Blog) - "The House bill is important because it sets the stage for what might be in a final reform bill. Unfortunately, the legislation doesn't do much to help the self-employed and micro-business get immediate relief from high health costs. The only quantifiable item providing bottom line cost relief to small businesses in H.R. 3962 is a tax credit. Unfortunately, this credit does not begin until 2013, leaving the self-employed to sweat it out for another three years."
Entrepreneurs In Congress Say No To Health Care Reform (NY Times - You're The Boss Blog) -"[Whether] Republican or Democrat, they overwhelmingly voted against the health care reform bill that passed late Saturday."
November Poll: Give Us An Update On Health Care Reform! (The Journal Blog) - "Just in case you’ve been hiding from the headlines, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a health care reform measure last weekend, by a razor-thin 5-vote margin."
Health Care Reform: You'll Learn To Love It (Politics Daily) - "I know you conservatives are upset about the health care reform bill clearing the House, but let me spin it another way for you."

What Customers Want

NASE Staff — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Posted by Molly Nelson - Even though you can't read your customers' minds, SmallBusinessNewz has a great recap of a survey on holiday trends conducted by Deloitte that lets you come pretty close.

Perhaps not surprisingly, consumers indicate that social media will have a large role in their shopping experience this year. The survey found that:

7 percent of consumers plan to use social media during their holiday shopping
60 percent plan to use it to find discounts, coupons and sales information
25 percent say they will likely purchase a product this holiday season based on an online recommendation
34 percent say that online consumer reviews and ratings influence their buying decisions more than advertising

For more, read the SmallBusinessNewz post and the fully survey from Deloitte.

Building a Nest Egg for your Employees

NASE Staff — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:12:00 GMT

Posted by Maureen Petron -- Retirement planning and saving is hard enough for micro-business owners. But add in a few employees, and the issues compound – what plan, what paper work, what contributions…

The IRS recently launched a new Web site to help answer these questions. The IRS Retirement Plans Navigator helps small employers find the plan that’s right for their business.

It focuses on three main components: choosing a plan, maintaining a plan, and correcting a plan (if you’ve made a mistake).

It even has a pretty extensive plan comparison table. Check it out and start helping your employees save for their future.

P.S. If you still have questions about retirement plans, ask our tax and business consultants at TaxTalk and ShopTalk 800.

Hat tip: Small Business Trends

Snail Mail Scams

NASE Staff — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:00:00 GMT

Posted by Molly Nelson - Most of us know by now not to provide sensitive personal information like Social Security and bank account numbers in response to an email from someone claiming to be a long-lost family member wanting to share an inheritance of millions of dollars with us.

While this sort of scam seems obvious because of how ridiculous/too good to be true it is, according to this article on OPEN Forum, some con artists have moved on to pretending to be the federal government to take advantage of unsuspecting small business owners.

The article quotes an identity theft expert who states that over one-third of "all businesses that receive bills in the mail for products or services they never asked for actually pay the bills."

Check out the article for more tips on identifying these scams and how to protect your business.

House Democrats Eke Out A Victory on Health Reform [Commentary]

NASE Staff — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:05:00 GMT

Posted by Kristie Arslan - I am one of those people who like to maintain a healthy work-life balance. I usually do my best not to bring my work home with me, but not so this weekend. I spent most of my Saturday watching C-SPAN and subjecting both my husband and eight-month old daughter to the debate in the House of Representatives on health reform. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment!

The big debate culminated with a late night vote on H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, in which the House Democrats eked out a victory by a margin of 2 votes (220-215, with the Democrats needing 218 votes to win.) What does this mean for the self-employed? Honestly, nothing just yet. The House vote signals that the first quarter of the health reform game has just concluded and there are still three quarters to go.

The House bill is important because it sets the stage for what might be in a final reform bill. Unfortunately, the legislation doesn't do much to help the self-employed and micro-business get immediate relief from high health costs. The only quantifiable item providing bottom line cost relief to small businesses in H.R. 3962 is a tax credit. Unfortunately, this credit does not begin until 2013, leaving the self-employed to sweat it out for another three years.

Additionally, the credit is ONLY available to assist those who decide to purchase health coverage through the new Exchange or health marketplace the bill creates. Thus, micro-businesses who like the insurance they have but need financial assistance will have to drop their current coverage and find new insurance in the Exchange to obtain the tax credit.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act includes the contentious "public option," providing for a government-run health insurance plan while also mandating that all Americans must purchase coverage and employers with over $500,000 in payroll must provide group coverage to their workers.

In this difficult economic time, reform should make accessing health coverage easier and more affordable for small business. It seems the legislation passed by the House will likely make it more difficult, and worse, more costly for our nation's entrepreneurs to obtain health coverage.

The ball is now in the Senate's court, where it will be much more challenging for the majority party to gain passage of a health reform bill. The bills in the Senate are equally devoid of cost-saving measures for the self-employed. We still have a chance to craft a reform bill in the Senate that will actually help micro-businesses. The goal now is to get all of you entrepreneurs out there to contact your Senators and tell them that when it comes to health reform, they must start paying attention to the needs of our nation's 22 million self-employed Americans.

Got Gift Cards?

NASE Staff — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:00:00 GMT

Posted by Molly Nelson - Personally, I don't feel too strongly one way or the other on gift cards. While I enjoy the thrill of the chase of finding the perfect present for someone, sometimes a gift card offers the peace of mind that the recipient will be able to pick out what they want, instead of what I think they want.

My personal feelings aside, I had no idea how much the average shopper likes gift cards, and how it might help small businesses to offer them. According to the National Retail Federation, gift cards have been the "most requested gift" for three years running.

Additionally, gift cards are no longer the exclusive domain of larger businesses, as "there are several companies dedicated to helping small business owners establish gift card and customer-loyalty programs" according to All Business' Small Business Blog.

Let us know in the comments if your business currently offers gift cards, or if you might consider offering them in the future.

[Hat tip: Small Business Newz, The Small Business Blog]

NASE Members Attend Presidential Speech on Health Reform

NASE Staff — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Posted by Kristie Arslan - NASE Members recently had the opportunity to visit the White House to listen to President Obama discuss health reform and why it is important to small business in this current economic climate. Take a look at what these members had to say about their experience and the President's remarks:

"For me, being able to be there while the President of the United States spoke about small business was a once in a lifetime opportunity. As he spoke about health reform, it truly made sense and I felt that it was something that was needed for small business. As President Obama stated, if a small business does not have health insurance for their employees, it is not because they don’t want to offer it, but they just can’t afford it." --NASE member Tiffany Washington, owner of Washington Accounting Services in Waldorf, Maryland.

"As always I felt that the president spoke very well. While I think he has the best interests of the nation at heart, he is still missing some key elements with health care reform, and the tax burden small business owners face is still being ignored. The more the President and congressional leaders reach out the the micro-business groups like the NASE, the more knowledge they will gain on the needs of the American people and the small business owner, whom the President says is the backbone of our nation. The tax relief the NASE is looking for is not present, the exchange is unclear since the House and Senate disagree and the fact that this plan supposedly will save the nation money, is not clearly yet defined." --NASE member Josh Levine, owner of Electra Entertainment LLC in Ellicott City, Maryland."

"I was honored to be asked to The White House to hear President Obama share in person his concern for small businesses in America. He was right when he said health care reform was critical to the success of small businesses across America - health care costs nearly put me out of business this year. I have been a successful small business owner for 20 years, with employees, and have absorbed the rising costs of health care, while watching my profits go down. But this year, the expense went from high to outrageous. Thanks to the help I received from NASE to find a new health plan, I was able to significantly reduce my costs and maintain this business that I worked so hard to build over the past two decades. President Obama is right, expansive reform is needed, and needed quickly, or the make-up of this country will change significantly, as small businesses all across America will crumble and die." --NASE member Tina Schott, owner of Schott Management Group, a small association management practice in Herndon, Virginia.

For more information on NASE's position on health reform, visit NASE in Action.

Small Biz Health Care Roundup (11/6)

NASE Staff — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Posted by Kristin Oberlander - Here is the latest news on health reform as it relates to small businesses. Submit articles for consideration at media@NASE.org.

GOP Health Bill Focuses On Lower Costs (Politico) - "[House Minority Leader John] Boehner hasn’t released the full details of the bill but has said that it would make it easier to buy insurance across state lines, impose strict limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and allow individuals and small businesses to pool their resources to buy insurance as a group. That is designed to boost their purchasing power to help lower individual premiums."
The GDP, Small Business and Health Insurance Reform (White House Blog) - The title is pretty self-explanatory, but the article also links to a study that shows how reform will bring down business costs for entrepreneurs.
Congress: Stand With Small Business, Support Health Reform (Huffington Post) - OpEd piece from U.S. Public Interest Research Groups.
Survey: Most Small Businesses Expect 2010 Rebound (Denver Business Journal) - Half (52%) of small-business owners expect business to pick up next year. Concern about health care costs ranked as a top short-term worry.

All the Single Ladies [Women Business Owners]

NASE Staff — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Posted by Molly Nelson - Did you know that one in four American businesses are women-owned? Or that those businesses created or maintained 16 percent of all jobs in a range of industries? The Center for Women's Business Research found these facts and more in a recent report. The research also found that only 20 percent of women-owned businesses had employees.

According to the New York Times, executive director of the National Women’s Business Council Margaret Barton, a bipartisan federal advisory group that helped pay for the research, sees those 80 percent of women-owned businesses without employees, "as an area of great growth and opportunity."

Women business leaders from the Center for Women's Business Research, National Women's Business Council and other groups are taking this research to the Obama Administration, the SBA, and the small business committees in Congress to try to ask for more resources and new programs to help women business owners.

Are you a woman business owner without employees? Would new federal programs help you hire employees?

Can You Afford Health Coverage After Reform?

NASE Staff — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:30:00 GMT

Posted by Kristie Arslan - The House Democrats released their new and improved health reform bill (H.R. 3962). Summary: House Health Bill Summary- Oct2009.

Leadership is clamoring to get the votes it needs to pass the bill out of the House this month. A big feat since many are concerned about the cost (over $1 trillion dollars), the inclusion of a government-run, public insurance option and other contentious issues.

Due to the limited provisions providing immediate cost savings or assistance for the self-employed in the House legislation, as well as in the other Senate reform bills, the NASE is concerned that coupled with the new benefit requirements, micro-businesses and the self-employed could pay more for health insurance post-reform than they do currently.

According to comments sent by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to Congress on Monday, the average premium that citizens would pay based on the three lowest-cost plans under the House bill would be:

$5,300 for an individual (single) policy
$15,000 for a family policy

The House reform legislation includes a tax credit to assist those who decide to purchase health coverage through the new Exchange or health marketplace the bill creates. The tax credit would be available on a sliding scale for those making below 400% of the poverty level. Thus, a single person making below $43,320 or a family of four with a household income below $88,200 would qualify for some percentage of the tax credit.

Based on CBO estimates:

A single person making $38,300 could pay around $6,100 annually for health insurance after any government assistance.
A family of four making $66,000 could pay $10,000 per year for coverage after assistance.

Is this more or less than what you are currently paying for health coverage?

Your benefit packages will likely be richer and more comprehensive after reform. Are you willing to pay the costs projected for coverage after reform if you receive more comprehensive insurance?

Remember, under reform all Americans will be required to purchase coverage or pay a tax or fee -- Will you be able to afford health coverage if this reform bill is passed?

Share your thoughts with us here on our blog or send your comments to advocacy@nase.org.

Take a Break, Read a Magazine

NASE Staff — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:56:00 GMT

Posted by Maureen Petron -- The last issue of Self-Employed magazine for 2009 hits member mailboxes this week, and I’m sad to see this year’s issues come to an end.

Like a mother to her children, I know I’m supposed to say that I love all issues of the magazine equally. But in 2009, we really produced some excellent magazines. (If I do say so myself. And I do.)

It stared back in January when we increased the magazine to 32 pages. We included an additional “advertisement” from an NASE benefit vendor, and added three more pages of feature stories. And because I wasn’t sure that just by looking at those “advertisements” you could tell that the only products promoted were NASE benefits, we added a banner at the bottom of each page telling you just that.

And why do I have the annoying “quote marks” around advertisement in the paragraph above? It’s because they are not advertisements in the way you normally associate magazine ads. Because the NASE believes in its benefits package, and because we want to make sure you know the benefits available to you as an NASE Member, we don’t actually charge our partners for that space. The entire Self-Employed magazine is supported by your member dues.

So I’m excited for the November issue of the magazine, and it’s not just because the member on the front cover looks surprisingly similar to a friend of mine!

Inside, you’ll find our cover story on how NASE Members control debt. You’ll also learn how smart investments helped NASE Member Tiffany Washington catch our eye, and receive a $30,000 achievement award from the association.

Don’t miss the informative article about re-negotiating your lease, or why hiring Generation Y employees could help your business.

And finally, you’ll want to check out the member profile of Kim Overton. She produces and sells the SPIbelt, a product I stumbled upon in March and told you about.

Let me know which are your favorite articles, or what topics you want Self-Employed to cover!