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Firms Invited to
Submit Proposals to Administer the Assistance 
Governor Kathleen
Babineaux Blanco, Louisiana Economic Development, the Louisiana Recovery
Authority, and the Office of Community Development recently launched the
Small Firm Recovery Loan and Grant (SFLG) Program and the Technical
Assistance (TA) to Small Firms Program, the next phase of a broad package
of direct assistance to businesses impacted by hurricanes Katrina and
Rita.
The programs are designed to stabilize and invigorate thousands of businesses and non-profit agencies in storm-affected areas by providing low-cost financing, as well as strategic planning, marketing, legal and other technical assistance small businesses need to thrive in a post-hurricane environment. The $38 million loan and grant program and $9.5 million technical assistance program are among $332.5 in federal hurricane recovery (Community Development Block Grant) funds that Blanco and the Legislature have committed to economic recovery. Other programs launched in recent weeks provide workforce training and small business bridge loans. The state issued Solicitations for Grant Applications from nonprofits, Community Development Financial Institutions and others seeking to act as intermediaries to provide loans, grants, and technical assistance to small companies and nonprofits. The solicitations are due December 1, 2006, and can be found at http://www.lra.louisiana.gov/rfpmainpage.html. Small businesses and nonprofits are expected to be able to access the services by early January 2007. | ||||||
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| Gulf Coast Office
Opens in B.R.
Louisiana Economic
Development and its partner organizations – Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation, National Urban League, Business Roundtable, and federal
agencies – will host the opening of the second Urban Entrepreneur
Partnership (UEP) Gulf Coast office on Thursday, October 19, 6:00 – 9:00
p.m. The office is located at 327 North Boulevard, Baton Rouge.
This is the second of three UEP Gulf Coast offices being established in the region. The UEP program provides a comprehensive approach to help business owners play a vital role in the economic renewal of the Gulf Coast region. By focusing on the needs of businesses affected by the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the goal of UEP Gulf Coast is to help businesses participate in the rebuilding efforts in the Gulf Coast. The permanent first office opened in New Orleans on September 21, and a third office will be located in Mississippi. The UEP Gulf Coast centers will offer a number of services, including training, coaching and access to financing and procurement opportunities to help entrepreneurs and business owners start and build successful businesses. Through a resource navigator service, the program also will coordinate among existing organizations that offer other business support services. The UEP Gulf Coast is affiliated with the Urban Entrepreneur Partnership (UEP), a national program that combines private, public and nonprofit sector resources to foster entrepreneurship, business development and job creation in historically neglected and economically underserved areas nationwide. Announced by President Bush in July 2004, the UEP founding partners include the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, National Urban League, Business Roundtable, and Federal agencies. | ||||||
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Several local businesses have requested information on how to have their products La. certified by the state. I contacted the La. Dept. of Agriculture, and was told it was quite simple. Anyone interested in certifying their products can click on the link below and click on the “Certified Logo Form” and follow the instructions. In addition to the link below, I also copied the Web site information regarding this process. http://www.ldaf.state.la.us/divisions/marketing/marketdevelopment/certifiedlogo.asp In order to assure the consumer that they are buying authentic Louisiana products when shopping, we encourage Louisiana food producers to include the "Certified Product of Louisiana", "Certified Cajun Product of Louisiana" or "Certified Creole Product of Louisiana" logo on labels and packages of products grown, processed or packaged in Louisiana. | ||||||
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The Baton Rouge Area
Chamber (BRAC) has asked me to assist them with contacting our local
manufacturing companies so that they may perform a workforce survey. The
survey, approximately 45 minutes in length, asks questions about the
company, the employees and the community. Once the information is
gathered, it is then entered into the Synchronist program, which manages
the information. The information can be used to look at workforce trends,
strengths and weaknesses, as well as community strengths and weaknesses.
In addition, the information can be used to address public policy issues.
This initiative falls under BRAC’s business and retention program. Any
local manufacturer interested in participating can call me to set up an
appointment, Jamie Mabile Delatte, 225- 978-3159.
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Dane Revette with the
La. Economic Development (LED) department is asking for a listing of all
grain elevators and/or storage facilities in the parish. In addition, all
properties of 40 acres or more that might be available for purchase and
construction within a five-mile distance from above requested grain
elevators. Electronic data is preferred so that information can be
transmitted via e-mail. Please send information to Jamie Mabile Delatte at
jamie_delatte@bellsouth.net
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Steve Jones, West Feliciana Community Development Foundation’s CEO, was elected chairperson of LaCAEDA and has already put together, along with the executive committee, a go forward plan for the organization. | ||||||
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The La. Capital Area Economic Development Allies (LaCAEDA) represented the capital region at the most recent American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, Ca. More than 7,000 people from around the world attended to make production and distribution deals visiting booths and viewing full-length movies and trailers. | ||||||
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| J.D. Ryan and Gail P. Hiduke |
Today, the growth in
the number of female entrepreneurs is over twice the rate for men. And the
growth of minority female entrepreneurs is even higher. According to the
National Foundation for Women Business Owners, "there are an estimated
10.6 million privately-held firms in the country." These firms employ 19.1
million people and generate sales of $2.46 trillion. More than 1 million
minority- women-owned businesses produce more than $180 billion in sales.
We have included a few helpful organizations and websites that will
provide training, resources, assistance, and possibly even help in
securing funding. Most of these organizations have local chapters and
centers to help you directly in your own community. Finding other women
dreaming the same dream and possibly even a few mentors may be an
incredible boost to your business.
- National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) http://www.nawbo.org ; (800) 55-NAWBO - National Foundation for Women Business Owners (NFWBO) http://www.nwfbo.org ; (202) 638-3060 - Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT) http://www.owit.org - Women's Business Centers (listing of centers by state) http://www.onlinewbc.gov J.D. Ryan and Gail P. Hiduke. Small Business: An Entrepreneur's Business Plan Seventh Edition. United States of America: Thomson South-Western, Inc. 179. | |||||
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| Coleman Peterson. Mike Losey, Sue Meisinger, Dave Urlich |
It all begins here.
Someone once asked Sam Walton what special training programs he instituted
to have such upbeat, customer-focused associates. Sam reportedly thought
for a moment with a quizzical look on his face and then asked, "Why not
hire friendly upbeat people?" Much of our personnel energy and resources
are, in fact, devoted to fixing or improving the initial hiring decision.
We invest significantly in improving and upgrading technical skill or in
improving or correcting workplace behaviors. A great example at Wal-Mart
is addressing the classic retail challenge of employee turnover.
As we analyzed our situation, we noted that our turnover had increased steadily from a baseline in 1994 (the year I joined Wal-Mart and began measuring) to 1999 when we established stronger retention strategies. During this time, our internal and external environment had begun to change. Internally we were expanding from a purely general merchandise business of small hometown store of 40,000 square feet to 180,000 square-foot "supercenters" that offer groceries as well as general merchandise. Many of these new operations were also 24/7; that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What a significant shock to a store's operating system! Additionally, in 1994, there were still many states with "blue laws." That is, their retail operations were not open on Sundays. As this has changed state by state, the dynamics of running a nonstop operation accelerated us to another level. A final consideration was the "war for talent." The economy had gotten a second wind and unemployment dropped from 6.6 percent to 4.3 percent from 1994 to 1999. Employment appeared to be plentiful, and many job holders opted for frequent job changes. At Wal-Mart, we embarked on a strategy to reduce our rising turnover. Part One of the strategy was Get. As we looked at our recruiting strategies, we realized that the starting point for turnover is when we hire and who we hire. Many of us do a great job of hiring our own turnover, and examples abound. An associate leaves within the first 90 days because of a conflict in schedule or a preference to work in another area. Were these things discussed before the job offer was made? Or there appears to be attendance or punctuality problems that cause us to focus more on corrective discipline than training job skills and customer-related skills. Then we ask, "Was there something in the person's background that I should have known?" What did I miss? Very early in my career, after having done college recruiting for some time, I took a class in selection and testing as a part of my graduate school curriculum. As the professor was orienting us on the first day of class, he stated, "Remember that the face-to-face interview is probably the most invalid selection process that exists!" Of course, I was stunned by this obviously erroneous statement because I felt that my ability to "size up" a candidate across the table was foolproof. I learned later that there is much to know about hiring decisions and how to ensure that your selections are adding to the strength of the team. The good professor's point was that there were (and are) many behavioral instruments and validation processes that can help up maximize the focus and training around picking good people, which encompassed everything from selection training classes to computer-based training on interviewing techniques. These efforts contributed significantly to our part in the energy applied in the two remaining key areas--Keeping and Growing good people. Coleman Peterson. Mike Losey, Sue Meisinger, Dave Urlich. The Future of Human Resource Management. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005. 39-40. | |||||
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| Hatten S. Timothy |
Your mission
statement sets the broadest direction for your business. SWOT and
competitive analyses help you refine or change that direction. The goals
that you set must stem from your mission statement. Goals are needed
before you can build a set of strategies. As the cliché goes, "If you
don't put up a target, you won't hit anything."
Goals need to be: - Written in terms of outcomes rather than actions. A good goal states where you want to be, not how you want to get there. For example, a goal should focus on increasing sales rather than on your intention to send one of your brochures to every address in town. - Measurable. You must be able to tell whether you have accomplished a goal. To do so, you must be able to measure the outcome you want to accomplish. - Challenging yet attainable. Goals that are too easy to accomplish are not motivating. Goals that are not likely to be accomplished are self-defeating and decrease motivation. - Communicated to everyone in the company. A team effort is difficult to produce if some of your players don't know the goals. - Written with a time frame for achievements. Performance and motivation increase when people have goals accompanied by a time frame as compared with open-ended goals. Writing usable goals isn't easy at first. If you state that your goal is to be successful, is that a good goal? It sounds positive; it sounds nice. But is it measurable? No. How can you tell whether you have achieved your goal? You can't, because there is no defined outcome. There is also no time frame. Do you intend to be successful this year? By the time you are 90? Goals need the characteristics listed previously to be useful. Although you will have only one mission statement, you will have several business-level goals that apply to your entire organization. Each functional area of your business (for example, marketing, finance, human resources, and production) will have its own set of specific goals that relate directly to achieving your business-level goals. Even if you are the only person performing marketing, finance, human resource management, and production duties, these areas of your small business must still be addressed individually. - Your mission statement describes who you are, what your business is, and why it exists. - A business-level goal describes what you want you overall business to accomplish to achieve your company mission. - A function-level goal describes the performance desired of specific departments (or functional areas, such as marketing, production, and so on) to achieve your business-level goals. - A strategy is a plan of action that details how you will attain your function-level goals. In the final stage of goal setting, specific strategies are developed to accomplish your goals. For example, a marketing strategy might be to hire Jerry Seinfeld to be spokesperson for your new standup comedy computer program. This strategy should help you attain your function-level marketing goal of capturing 20 percent market share of the total comedy software market. Your marketing goal should help you attain your business-level goal of increasing third-quarter profits by 8 percent, which in turn ensures that you accomplish your company mission of satisfying the entertainment needs of lonely computer operators and thereby earn a profit. Function-level goals and strategies must coordinate with one another and with business-level goals for the business to run smoothly. For example, the marketing department may develop a strategy of advertising on the Internet that will bring in orders from all over the globe. This result is great as long as the production department can increase capacity, the human resource department can hire and train enough new employees, and all other areas of the business are prepared. Each functional area must see itself as an integral part of the entire business and act accordingly. Timothy, Hatten S. Small Business Management: Entrepreneurship and Beyond. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 89-90. | |||||
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