Valley Small Business Alliance

My pet political issue: Jobs

2010-04-01T22:49:00.000-04:00

OK, I'll go first. My number one political issue is job creation. If you combine unemployed, not looking anymore, and under employed, our unemployment rate is huge and unacceptable. Most of the problem is the fault of the federal government but those issues fall outside the responsibility of our local representatives in Richmond. At the state level we are mainly dealing with competition from other states so my concerns relate to making Virginia as attractive as possible to current and prospective employers. First I am concerned that anti-diversity stances taken by our leading politicians cast us as a backwards, unfriendly, and unstable place to do business. I believe that enthusiastic support for education at all levels, particularly aggressive vocational education, is necessary to provide a well trained employee base. I think existing Virginia employers should be recognized as the economic assets that they are and should receive tax credits for employing Virginia residents. People with jobs spend money with our businesses and pay taxes. To me, job creation is at the top of the important political issues list. WL

We need to decide what we're about

2010-04-01T21:58:00.002-04:00

The time has come for the Valley Small Business Alliance to develop a clear small business related posture with respect to our elected representatives. Simply put we must decide what we want from our representatives and then we must deliver the message in a meaningful way. This process is difficult because it involves politics and we all have strong opinions and our own personal “hot buttons”. I have a few close friends I will discuss politics with and that's as far as it goes. Our Alliance will lose any potential effectiveness if we allow ourselves to enter into partisan political debates.

That being said, I would like to propose a few ground rules that might be helpful in developing our positions with respect to various issues that may arise.

First, regardless of political affiliation, we are all business owners and have staked our futures on the success of our ventures and I believe we are all essentially in agreement on business related challenges and we need to stress our similarities as we continue our policy development.

In our communications with our representatives I think we can assume that any elected representative, particularly those who would attend our meetings, are genuinely interested and supportive of the business community and want to help.

We can all read the newspaper and we all know what is going on in Richmond and Washington and how partisan politics and posturing cloud the issues and impede progress. I don't think we need “updates” from representatives but rather we need to communicate to them what we want and why we want it. I think if we do a credible job at delivering our message, the representatives will appreciate it and will learn from it.

There is strength in numbers. We need to understand that a balanced message delivered by a non partisan group will have more validity than politically motivated communication.

We need to pick our battles well so I would suggest we stick to issues on which we can reach consensus and there are a lot of them. We can leave the politically charged “hot potatoes” to others. We also must recognize that state legislators don't have a lot of control over federal subsidies.

These are simply my thoughts and they are no more right or wrong than yours. I am just trying to get a discussion started. I would think a good place to start would be to develop a list of issues we want to address. Please let the group know what issues are important to your business. Let's learn from each other. I challenge each of you to submit one issue you think should be addressed. WL

Members Step Forward

2009-11-12T21:09:00.001-05:00

I want to recognize several members of our group who have stepped up and volunteered their expertise and services at no cost to enhance our ability to communicate with each other and enhance our image as leaders in the small business community.

Mike Tolbert of Digerati has agreed to develop and host the Alliance web site. If you have any input to offer on what we want to say about ourselves, post your ideas on this blog or just call Mike.

We plan to film all our guest speakers and post a link to their presentations on the web site. Visitors can see what we’re working on or can catch up on a missed meeting. We also plan to tape a 3 minute video of each member to include information about their business and any thoughts they choose to express. Links to these interviews will also be posted on the website for access by visitors. Shannon Orebaugh of CWC/Digerati has offered to coordinate all video production, including providing necessary equipment. Shannon will also provide other audio visual equipment and expertise as we need it for presentations.

Jim Watson of Color Solutions has offered to provide color copy sheets of Member business cards which will be distributed to Members to be used for their reference or for referral purposes. Bring your business cards to the next meeting.

Also please refer to my video presentation at www.youtube.com/lokercpa where I describe a Holiday gift certificate exchange program that I think would be beneficial to most if not all of us.

Again, thanks for the offers to pitch in and make this adventure worthwhile.

New Meeting Hopefully was a Slam Dunk

2009-11-12T09:27:00.002-05:00

We kicked off our new super-charged version of the Valley Small Business Alliance with 20 folks in attendance. After a short invocation, we took advantage of the $9 (tip included) breakfast at the Village Inn in Harrisonburg. The group dispersed itself and sat around 4 tables with 4/5 folks at a table where they worked at getting to know one another. Following the meal, Wayne welcomed the folks and stressed the objectives of the organization:

• Promote Small Business
• Exchange Ideas among Ourselves
• Promote & Support one another & all other small business people
• Be willing to give input and share ideas
• Give input on speakers you want to hear
• Speak out through local media
• Remain Non-political but rather be on one mind in support of small business
• Take a non-partisan stand but always be on the side of and a proponent of small business
• Have a good time doing all of the above

He also explained the duties that both of us would be responsible for:
• Securing Speakers – we will solicit your support
• Maintaining Blog – Dick to Explain
• Maintaining Contact Information and sending out notice

At that point, I pointed out the upcoming known speakers:
• December – Kenny Brooks, head girls basketball coach, JMU
• January – Helen Modly, Executive VP of Focus Wealth Management, Washington, DC, a monthly columnist for Morningstar and HorsesMouth.com as well as writer for WSJ, to talk about social networking
• Future Months – Emmett Hanger – Virginia State Senator
• Future Months—Randy Gilbert, Dr. Proactive, a guy in our back yard of Mt. Jackson who teaches you how you can become the “expert” in your trade or business through the use of the internet

Then in closing I spoke briefly about the blog and if you made it this far, you understood at least something I said. I also explained that our location will at the Village Inn until we outgrew it.

In talking with Wayne, he plans to update you guys on the some great news we have as we move forward. In the mean time, learn how to be interactive on this blog. If you don't already have a Google profile, set one up. Please post your thoughts!! Let us know how you think it went and ideas you may want to incorporate. We never intended this organization to be a dictatorship so please, post your comments!!!

Valley Small Business Alliance Kicks off in High Gear

2009-11-04T13:32:00.007-05:00

As the interest in the Valley Small Business Allicance continues to grow, we have decided to kick the whole operation into high gear. If you are presently a business "owner", consider this as a formal invitation to attend the Valley Small Business Alliance group that will meet the 2nd Wednesday of each and every month at 7:00AM. Our very first meeting under the new format will begin at 7:00AM, Wednesday, November 11th at the Village Inn on Route 11 South of Harrisonburg. At this meeting, we will discuss the objectives of the group as well as introduce you to the web blog as a medium for the exchange of ideas.

This will be a very unique group of people in that they will all be small business owners in the area that will meet once a month, exchange ideas and network among themselves as well as to listen to a speaker that will focus on some area of small business. If you have not already been formally invited, consider this as your invitation. All we ask is that you send an email to r.halterman@murphybusiness.com by the Monday preceeding that Wednesday's meeting. By the way, the cost of your breakfast including gratuities will be $9.

At present, we have commitments from Kenny Brooks, JMU head basketball coach to speak about motivation at the December meeting, Helen Modly, a world known financial planner and writer for the Wall Street Journal as well as Forbes, etc. and Emmett Hanger will be joining us as a speaker in April. We also invite you to turn in names to Wayne and I as possible speakers.

We look forward to seeing you there and feel sure you have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Christmas Shopping Strategy

2009-10-07T16:45:00.000-04:00

As you can probably guess, my advice for shopping in the upcoming Holiday season would be to shop local merchants only and try to buy products made locally or at least made in the USA. My second choice would be to buy only “made in USA” products from large retailers. To assist you in finding products, I visited a selection of online sites and searched for “Made in USA” to determine which retailers were carrying their weight in assisting our domestic labor force recover lost jobs. It was chilling how far we’ve fallen when I got to the large retailers but judge for yourself.

Amazon.com www.amazon.com Literally tens of thousands of selections: largest result by far.

REI www.REI.com 5006 products

Shoebuy www.shoebuy.com 1856 total items, 356 shoes. Try buying USA shoes anywhere else. I use these guys. They’re great.

Campmor www.campmor.com 182 items

Eddie Bauer www.eddiebauer.com 49 items

Sears www.sears.com 473 items (Yes, only 473 items)

JC Penny www.jcpenney.com 295 items

Walmart www.walmart.com 120 store items, 1062 total internet items if you count all the colors separately.

Best Buy www.bestbuy.com 11 items

Kmart www.kmart.com 7 items (Incredible)

LL Bean www.llbean.com LL Bean won’t even allow you to search “made in USA” and for good reason. The only domestic product they carry, and I searched a lot, are the uninsulated gum boots they started with. The worst of the worst.

Help your friends and neighbors have a happy holiday season by taking the time to shop well. CWL

September Meeting a Success

2009-10-05T10:00:00.001-04:00

Our September breakfast meeting was interesting as the people in attendance shared their marketing strategies. After our discussion, everyone came away with some new ideas.

Our next meeting on Wednesday October 7th is at Shoney's in Harrisonburg and starts at 7 a.m. Our next topic will be health insurance options.

Jerry Sheets of BB&T Shomo and Lineweaver has graciously offered to explain the various products available today and answer any questions we may have.

As always, bring your appetite, your experiences, and your questions.

Report of August Business Meeting

2009-08-27T13:18:00.000-04:00

The August Breakfast Meeting was a success with 7 people attending. I would describe the conversation as exploratory with each of us learning about the business activities of each other.

Join us for breakfast on September 2 to talk about Marketing.

We'll change the tone of the September breakfast and talk about a specific topic, small business marketing. Essentially, we can pick each others' brains for marketing attempts that worked and ones that didn't work. Hal Dubois, a local marketing consultant, will join us to provide his input as well. Again, we'll meet at Shoney's in Harrisonburg, Wednesday September 2 at 7:00 a.m.

Bring your Appetite and your marketing war stories.

The New Economy

2009-07-27T15:39:00.000-04:00

The following article will appear in the LOKERCPA.com August newsletter, Common Cents. To receive the free monthly newsletter by email, go to www.lokercpa.com and register where indicated on the home page.

The New Economy

Is this the new normal? Is this economy what we can expect from now on? I suspect that this may be the new reality that we small businesses have to adapt to. What engine is going to power our “recovery” from the current state of affairs?

It won’t be our once mighty manufacturing base churning out products to sell to the world. The last two administrations in Washington stood by as our manufacturing jobs were given away. “Free Trade” has a whole new meaning now.

It won’t be the government. Neither party understands the needs of Main Street. Sure, we get some lip service from the Republicans but they are as incapable as the Democrats in recognizing that American jobs are the fuel that drives our economy. We need massive help from the government in the form of tax breaks for using American labor. Companies who move production jobs or compel their suppliers to move production jobs to low wage areas of the world where child labor, pollution, and direct government subsidies create artificially low labor costs, must not be allowed access to our markets without a tax structure that levels the playing field. Let’s talk about Fair Trade for a change.

It won’t be Wall Street. Publicly traded companies have no loyalty; no soul. Their only allegiance is to their stockholders’ immediate gratification. For example, we, the taxpayers, bailed out G.M. who now plans to repay us by shifting substantial production of new models to China. Why do we invest in these Companies? Why do we invest in foreign markets to assist foreign companies when Main Street so desperately needs investment capital? I suspect that Wall Street has ceased to be the financial funding source for American capitalism and has become something more sinister that does not benefit either capitalism or our country.

Forget the big banks. Alan Greenspan summed it up when he said his greatest error was believing that unregulated banks would act in their own best interest. The banks instead have proven that greed drives these bloated unmanageable behemoths who have been allowed to accumulate far too much influence in competing financial sectors. We learned this lesson once in 1929 but the politicians have no memory, only the need for campaign contributions.

So it’s up to us, Main Street, to carry the load. How do we do that?

We must invest in ourselves, our companies, our employees. When we fund our retirement plans, why not consider investing a portion in cash in our local banks who will loan the money back into our community? We need to form alliances with each other and pledge to use local sources for goods and services. We spread the word to our customers and our employees to support local businesses and local jobs. We communicate our beliefs to our elected representatives. We vote against all non-responsive incumbents in the state legislature and in congress. We work with the political party of our choice to get business people to run for public office.

We are Main Street. We are the purest remaining form of American capitalism. We are the only group in this country with the ability and the will to maintain and improve our communities. We have a lot of work to do. CWL

Join Us for Breakfast

2009-07-13T15:36:00.000-04:00

Join us for breakfast the first Wednesday of each month at 7:00 am at Shoney's in Harrisonburg. There may only be a handful of us but great things start with small steps. Place faces with names and start networking. The next date will be August 5, 2009.

We look forward to seeing you!

Our Mission

2009-07-13T15:32:00.001-04:00

This is the first posting to our new blog. We want to provide a forum for discussion of small business issues, exchange information, refer business, assist each other with co-marketing possibilities, or any other small business topics you wish to explore. We will attempt to accomplish this by providing a monthly breakfast meeting where anyone who is a "business owner" can come an listen to a variety of speakers on topics that are primarly suited for a small business owner.