SENATE OKs SMALL BUSINESS TAX RELIEF

Measure has the backing of community banks in New Mexico.  Sharply divided along partisan lines, the U.S. Senate passed by 61 to 38, the Obama administration's plan to provide the nation's ailing small businesses with tax breaks and easier access to capital.

How much impact the bill will have in New Mexico is open to question.  The state's community banks support the measure, but for many of them, the problem isn't cheap capital, but lack of qualified borrowers, said Jerry C. walker, president of the Independent Community Bankers Association of New Mexico.

"Having $30 billion available to qualified community banks is a good thing," Walker said, but many New Mexico banks "are sitting on cash.  They're looking for loans.  The business community has to be looking to borrow money before that $30 billion is going to do any good."

Walker estimated that two or three of his association's 49 member banks located in larger markets could use low-cost capital.  He did not know how much of the new money would reach New Mexico.

President Barack Obama and Democratic congressonal leaders desperately wanted to pass the bill -- stalled for months by Republicans -- in hopes it will give Democrats fresh, much-needed talking points to voters worried about the sluggish economy and eager to blame Democrats.

Republicans countered that the bill, while addressing an important need, didn't do enough; Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell charged that it's "needlessly political." The measure would have the Treasury Department administer a $30 billion small business lending fund through small, healthy community banks.  

Small businesses are generally defined as firms that employ fewer than 500 people.   First Communiy Bank CEO H. Patrick Dee said his Albuquerque-based bank would probably participate in the program if its regulations are acceptable.

"Any relatively low-cost capital that is available that can help support lending could improve the profitability of any bank, " Dee said. Increased lending to small businesses "that will help create more new jobs would be a good thing for the economy."  The Senate bill also would provide $12 billion in tax relief for small business. (Journal & wire report).

The 3 Most Overlooked Pieces of the Business Plan

Make your planning real!  Make it help your business! Make it help you control your destiny and manage better!

1. The Review Schedule:  If you don't take an hour or two to review the actual results and compare them to the plan, then you're not really plannning your business. You've let it become a one-time exercise, to create a document, instead of planning as steering and managing your company.

Set aside a regular time, in your company -- it's        

 been the third Thursday or month for years --  TO

 REVIEW YOUR PLAN.  If you don't add this into the  

 planning from the beginning, people will be

 tempted  to think of it as a one-time document.  That

 was and is, a "fairy tale."

2.   The Sales Forecast:  It's hard not to write the cash

flow here, because cash isn't profits, and cash is the single most important resource in business. 

But what is found is that while business-to-business

and product driven business DESPERATELY need to

project cash flow in ADVANCE (because of not

getting paid in cash, and having to generate

inventory), all businesses need to project SALES

because the plan vs. actual impact of sales is the key

to on-going management in changing times.  Your costs and expenses PIVOT on sales.

Yes, you should have cash flow, but in the day to day business, the sales levels DRIVE management activity.  But ONLY if you have that regular review.

3.   Concrete Specific Steps, Milestones, and Lookout Points:  Blue-sky strategy is nice, it can be an invigorating intellectual exercise, but the measurable specifics are what drives business management.

Every element of the business plan should have some way to see later, whether or not it's been implemented.  

Go from vision and strategy to make it happen.  What will it take?

From there, you develop milestones:  dates, deadlines, and budgets, always with specific responsibility assignments.   You want something you can track later so you can have the BENEFIT of management of plan vs. actual results.  Did things happen on time?  Why?, or why not?

And when "lookout points" are used, it means things to watch, built into the plan, to alert you to progress, or lack of it.  For example, did the site get released, and if so, is the traffic coming as projected?  Did the restaurant open, and are we getting the business we'd hoped for?  Plan for those key moments when you look for metrics to see whether or not you need to change assumptions. 

It's like those stairway landings, halfway up the stairs, that you use to put the box you're carrying down and reassess! 

5 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE GIVING UP ON MARKETING

As a small business owner, how many times have you heard small business people say "Marketing doesn't work for my business."  What?  The point is, if you aren't getting all the business you need, then how can you say yon don't need any form of Marketing?

Referral Marketing is the best marketing there is;  when you have a SYSTEM in place to harness its POWER!  THE PROBLEM IS, MOST SMALL BUSINESSESS DON'T HAVE A SYSTEM, THEY JUST SHOW UP AND HOPE...........

If you happen to be one of these folks, there are 5 questions you need to ask yourself before declaring that your business is "immune" to the practice of Marketing:

• Was I doing the right type of marketing?:  Did you attempt to communicate with your customers and potential customers on their terms --  or on yours?  How do they prefer to be contacted?  direct mail, telephone, email?  It's your job to find out and communicate with them accordingly.
• Did I stay with it long enough?:  Sending out one postcard, email or letter does not a marketing effort make.  The key to effective marketing is REPETITION.
• Did I target the right people?:  If you can't list at least 5 attributes of who you wanted to reach in your last campaign, then you missed the mark.  Your business serves a section of the population better than any other.  It's your job to learn  what that section is and go and find them!  Mass marketing to anyone and everyone is a waste of time and money.
• Did I follow up?:  Follow up an email or post card with a phone call or a phone call with an email or postcard....The more we can "touch" our prospective customers, the better our chances of converting them!
• What was my goal?:  What were you trying to achieve with your marketing campaign?  Were you trying to build your email list?  Make the phones ring?  Get foot traffic?  Without knowing what you were trying to achieve (and measuring it) how can you know if it worked or not?

Usually, this is where the "ugly" truth shows up:  it's not that "marketing doen't work, it's that most small business owners don't have the tools and the experience to market their companies effectively.

If you want to get more customers, grow your business, an effective Marketing plan is the only way to get there!