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Community News
Autumn Days in Bear Lake
As part of Autumn Days in Bear Lake, businesses are asked to put up a scarecrow up every year in October. Dixie Hoeh, the Honor Bank Bear Lake branch manager, would like to thank Marilee and Denny Johnson, who created the scarecrow display, and Sharon and Winston Churchill for the cornstalks and gourds. |
 | | CLICK ON THE GROCERY BAG TO LEARN MORE |
| CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR $200 OFFER |
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Demonstrating Strength
Apologize
Defer to others
Avoid shortcuts
Tell the truth
Offer kindness
Seek alliances
Volunteer to take the short straw
Choose the long- term, sacrificing the short
Share credit and be public in your gratitude
Demonstrate respect to all, not just the obviously strong
Risking the
appearance of
weakness takes strength. And the market knows it.
By Seth Godin
[blogmailfromseth@yahoo.com] |
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Member FDIC
Equal Housing Lender |
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Positive Economic News
Retail Experts see Rosier Holiday season
October 6,2010
(Reuters) - Retailers should see their best Christmas sales in four years as consumers now show some inclination to spend money despite a minimal recovery in the economy, according to series of recent forecasts.
Still, discounters are likely to be among the most popular shops because consumers remain cautious, experts said.
The National Retail Federation forecast on Wednesday a 2.3 percent increase in sales in November and December, which would be the best performance since 2006. But even that increase would leave holiday sales below the $452.79 billion posted in 2007, before the housing bubble burst and the stock market tumbled.
Consumers are still selective about what they buy and continue to focus on price, the NRF said. High unemployment a tepid economic recovery have held back spending, even though the recession officially ended in 2009. Read the full story here. |
Troy Noble
Commercial Lender, Vice President
You may be asking yourself what the Small Business Jobs Act means to you. From an SBA lending perspective, below are the changes that will most benefit small businesses.
Fee Reductions: Extends the authority for 504 and 7(a) fee reductions and the 90% 7(a) guarantees through December 31st, or until the $505 million in appropriations to support them is used.
Maximum Loan Amounts: Permanently increases the loan maximum on 504 loans, including public policy loans, to $5 million, except small manufacturer loans and energy loans are increased to $5.5 million. Also increases the maximum amount of 7(a) loans to $5 million gross and $3.75 million net (or guaranteed amount). Increases SBA Express limit to $1MM for one year.
Debt Refinancing: Establishes a temporary two year program of business debt refinancing through the 504 program independent of the usually required job creation/preservation goals of one job for $65,000. This enables 504 to be used for refinancing of qualified existing debt without business expansion.
For more information, from the SBA click here, or contact an Honor Bank commercial lender.
Benzie & Manistee Counties:
Pamm Laing | office: 231.639.1784 | pamml@myhonorbank.com
Traverse City, Lake Ann & Buckley
Troy Noble | office: 231.941.5251 | troyn@myhonorbank.com |
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News You Can Use
 Leverage Online Technology
A recent Citibank survey finds that most small business are not using social media tools to help their businesses grow. Over 500 small business executives were surveyed and here are some of the findings:
- 37 percent have not used a website for marketing or expanding their business
- 84 percent don't sell their products or services online
- 62 percent don't use email for marketing
The survey also revealed a disconnect between how entrepreneurs think about word-of-mouth marketing:
- 63 percent think word-of-mouth is the most effective marketing;
- Yet, 81 percent don't used social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
Good ol' Facebook
All three may not be right for your company, but you owe it to yourself and your company to explore the possibilities. Probably the most accessible is Facebook. There are several websites and blogs that offer Facebook tips for businesses. The two most important are to make sure you create a "fan page" for your business and invite customers to "like" you. Your business is not an individual so as a business you're not looking for friends. It's important to get your page set up correctly from the start. The second most important Facebook strategy is to have a Facebook strategy. Questions to consider are: What message do you want to convey? And, how often will you post?
Click here for full story
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