The Weekend Walkabout

Oil costs hit little guys from all sides

Miles Fiberglass & Composites, a family-owned manufacturing company in northwest Clackamas County, is not just being hurt by soaring petroleum prices. It's getting hammered.

Soaring diesel prices have more than doubled the cost of making twice-weekly deliveries to Eugene, eastern Oregon and Idaho. Raw materials costs -- driven by the soaring price of petroleum-derived resin -- have skyrocketed. And now Miles' owners are watching orders fall as customers grapple with fuel worries of their own: The recreational vehicle industry, Miles' biggest customer base, has dropped about 40 percent of its business.

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Central Oregon Business Expo - ‘The big picture is pretty rosy’

REDMOND — Central Oregon’s housing market downturn, while painful for many, does not reflect the economy’s overall health, the region’s top economic development official said Thursday.

The region’s diversification, enhanced by several years as the fastest growing region in the state, will help it weather what could be an impending recession, said Roger Lee, executive director of Economic Development for Central Oregon, which promotes business growth in the region.

FRIDAY'S FISHFRY

Oops! Last week was Small Business Week! That slipped by me! As indicated by our first story, I am not alone. Which begs the question, why is Small Business Week such a low profile celebration? Cab this be an opportunity to highlight small business and use the week to network and communicate the needs of small business? Communicate to our communities; to our local governments; to our state governments, and to our national leaders!

Next year I'll not let it slip by.

It's National Small Business Week. Should you care?

Monday marks start of National Small Business Week (NSBW), a five-day event intended to spotlight the accomplishments of America's entrepreneurs and draw policymakers' attention to the challenges confronting them. But after more than 50 years, the annual Small Business Administration-run event still remains off the radar of many small business owners.

"That's certainly news to me," said Jason Lazar, who was unaware of a week dedicated to honoring businesses such as his $8-million-a-year firm. Lazar is the co-founder of KeyOn Communications, a wireless broadband provider in Omaha that serves small and rural markets.

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Updated Tax Code Sought

House lawmakers are recommending a series of tax code reform provisions aimed at helping smaller businesses deal with the economic downturn.

In a report issued earlier this month, the House Committee on Small Business unveiled seven measures intended to ease the tax burden on small-business owners. These include a simplified home-office deductions system with an optional standardized deduction, shortened deprecation schedules for new equipment, and enhanced tax incentives for outside investments.

The updated code would also allow self-employed business owners to deduct the cost of health insurance premiums. Many entrepreneurs currently pay taxes twice on their premiums.

"When small businesses lose time and money because of outmoded rules, they can't bring new products and services to market," Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), the committee's chairman, said in a statement. She said the current system undercuts innovation and competition.

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Women business founders rising, but slowly

Where are the Starbucks, Nikes, Amazons, Home Depots and Genentechs founded by women?

This is a question that puzzles those who track fast-growing companies. Few fledgling businesses founded by men or women ever grow into giant corporations, but with women launching twice as many businesses as men, some meaningful percentage of the new giants might be expected to have a woman as keystone.

That women are conspicuously missing is somewhat counter-intuitive to the glass ceiling argument. Only 43 women have climbed the traditional ladder to become CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies in the last 35 years, and fresh research from executive women's organization Catalyst suggests that the pipeline is not exactly filling up with future candidates. Such a track record might have caused the best, brightest and most ambitious executive women some years ago to tire of limited opportunities and set out to control their destinies and report to no man.

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Anti-Small Business Bill Backed by Venture Capitalist Lobby Moves Through House in Record Time

A bill that would give some of the nation's wealthiest investors billions of dollars in federal small business contracts is set to move through the House of Representatives in record time. Last week, Nydia M. Velazquez (D - NY) the Chair of the House Committee on Small Business, introduced H.R. 5819, the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act.

The bill went into mark-up and passed through the House Committee on Small Business on Thursday, April 17th. According to the Weekly Leader, H.R. 5819 could be debated on the floor of the House as early as Wednesday of this week.

This is the second time in less than a year that Rep. Velazquez has proposed legislation that could devastate federal programs designed to assist small businesses.

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THE WEEKEND WALKABOUT

Some biz lawyers worry over sustainability effort

As Oregon's economic climate grows ever greener, some say certain strategies designed to cater to sustainability-minded businesses could actually repel companies from incorporating here.

Specifically, a new law that took effect Jan. 1 encourages companies to place within their articles of incorporation provisions authorizing the company to conduct business in a "environmentally and socially responsible manner." The measure, which rose from 2007's Oregon House Bill 2826, intends to steer companies toward practicing green principles.

Oregon is the first state to adopt the policy, devising the initiative as lawmakers hope area companies deploy responsible business practices as they pursue sustainability's "triple bottom line." The phrase refers to succeeding economically while not harming the environment and performing good social deeds.

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Minority business finds way to survive

Eleza Faison began to notice in November that many of the regulars at her three Portland coffee shops weren't so regular anymore.

"I'd ask, 'Where you been?' " says Faison, owner of A.J. Java in North and Northeast Portland. "And they'd tell me they can't afford this every day anymore."

The economic downturn creeping across the nation had arrived at her front door.

Although many businesses struggle when the economy falters, businesses owned by people of color such as Faison, who is African American, are particularly vulnerable, says Sam Brooks. Brooks is founder and president of the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs.

"We noticed over the last year there's starting to be a little sensitivity in the market," Brooks says. "As the economy gets worse, it's becoming more difficult for them to outlast and compete."

Minority-owned businesses tend to be smaller and have access to less capital to sustain them through tough times. Even in a good economy, minority-owned businesses are more likely to go under than white-owned ones, according to the Small Business Administration. People of color run about 6 percent of small businesses in Oregon.

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FRIDAY'S FISHFRY

University of Oregon's venture contest has two winner

For the first time ever, judges of the New Venture Championship at the University of Oregon's business school named two co-winners.

A University of Oregon team, TakeShape, and Brigham Young University's Klymit team each won a $30,000 prize at the Portland event on Saturday. The judges decided to take the first prize of $50,000 and second-place prize of $10,000 and split the total evenly.

The university's 17th annual competition for student entrepreneurs drew 20 graduate teams from universities around the world, including Hong Kong and Australia.

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How to Be a Functional Workaholic

For Brian Kurth, a six- or even seven-day workweek is nothing unusual. In fact it's the norm for the 41-year-old business owner, who also admits he doesn't get much sleep. "I'm usually up until midnight, and back up at 5 a.m.," says Kurth, owner of Portland, Oregon-based VocationVacations -- a company that allows people to test-drive dream jobs. "But it's not work if you love it."

That's the mentality shared by many entrepreneurs eager to grow and build their small businesses. It makes sense when you consider that entrepreneurs, by nature, are hard workers. That's not a bad personality trait to have, but unchecked it can consume entrepreneurs. When that happens, a reliable, hard worker can slowly morph into a burnt-out workaholic.

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Opportunity Knocks for small-business owners

During the past seven years, the Chemeketa Community College Opportunity Knocks program has provided 133 local people with advice for running their businesses more efficiently and handling myriad challenges and decisions that small-business owners face on a daily basis.

"When I got into this group, I started to understand how to run a business better," said Paz Reingans, of PAZ Design Group on North Liberty, who has been in business for 22 years and admitted he either had someone taking care of a lot of logistics or he was "flying by the seat of my pants."

"What helps a lot is that you don't feel like you're doing it alone," he added. "When it seems rather hopeless or you want to throw your hands up and quit — and I've said that more than once — there are some reality checks, good ideas and encouragement. There is a lot of business maturity within the group."

Teams of as many as 12 non-competing business owners, plus two trained facilitators, gather for three hours monthly to share experiences and help each other succeed in and navigate the competitive and volatile world of small business.

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THE WEEKEND WALKABOUT

Growing Your Business In A Recession

Can you grow your business during a recession? Small businesses overwhelmingly plan on doing just that, according to a new survey.

Despite the stagnant economy, nine out of 10 small-business owners see opportunities for their own companies, according to a survey conducted for Intuit, maker of Quickbooks. More than three-fourths expect their business to grow in the coming year.

Surprised at this optimistic outlook? In previous recessions, many small businesses actually grow by taking advantage weakened competition and big company cutbacks.

So when the people at Quickbooks asked me what I’d like to know about the current state of small business (I was paid for my involvement), I wanted to see whether entrepreneurs shared my sense that even in a bad economy, there’s reason for hope.

FRIDAY'S FISHFRY

The Innovation of "Future Banking"

Future Banking integrates design, technology and creative ideas into the environment of regular banks, turning them into innovation labs.

The Trend Description: CScout already reported about different examples of Future banking. All of them present themselves with a stylish and user-friendly atmosphere, offering customers of any income level a more fun approach to dealing with their finances. Concepts include open spaces for art, state of the art technology to make banking more independent and flexible, free seminars for first-time customers and a fun atmosphere to meet and learn about the money market.

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Running a small business is no easy task -- and neither is finding employees to help keep the business going.

In a recent Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, 74 percent of small business owners who hire paid employees said it was difficult to find qualified employees -- up from 65 percent in March 2005. The major barrier to finding and hiring qualified employees was the cost of providing benefits and insurance -- cited by 58 percent of those surveyed. Forty-four percent said it was the actual task of finding talented employees that was most challenging.

When small business owners are unable to afford to hire new employees, nearly half (47 percent) said they turn to family members for unpaid help. Of those, 57 percent say they ask for help from their spouses, representing nearly one-third of all business owners surveyed.

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You Can't Buy Happiness, but You Can Rent It for Awhile

Vocations Vacations: An Oregon Business - Test Drive Your Dream Job.

Marie Kerwan was a high-ranking sales executive in information technology, successful and well-paid -- but totally dismayed.

The Alexandria, Va., resident was "burnt out," by her job, she said, and took time off while trying to figure out what to do next. She had an itch to move into the television or film field, but didn't know how to do it.

She turned to VocationVacations, an Oregon firm that enables people to test-drive their dream jobs. Some of the Portland-based firm's clients sign on to determine if they want to start a small business in a certain field, while others, like Kerwan, scope out a possible career change.

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Native entrepreneurs and tribal leaders gather

American Indian entrepreneurs, business experts, tribal leaders and others interested in Native economic development will gather April 15 and 16 in Portland for the Pacific Northwest's largest American Indian business conference: ONABEN's sixth annual Trading at the River Conference & Tradeshow.

The tradeshow, co-hosted by the Oregon Native American Chamber, runs concurrently with the conference and is free and open to the public. The public is invited and encouraged to meet and support local Native businesses and other enterprises of interest to the community.

This year's conference theme is ''Honoring Native American Women Business Owners and Leaders.'' This theme is explored by the Trading at the River keynote speakers: community leader Helen Wai, a Native Hawaiian consultant who specializes

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Small Business Shouldn't Get Too Big Too Fast

Every small-business owner naturally wants to grow the business. But recent events indicate that growth -- when not planned properly -- can be as fatal as it is intoxicating.

Indeed, wherever you look these days, the dark side of poorly planned business growth is rearing its ugly head.

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Internet scam targeting small business

The Better Business Bureau has issued an alert about a scam where con artists are bilking small business owners out of money when they use the Internet for loans and grants, according to the Better Business Bureau of North Central Texas.

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Small Businesses Outsource Two or More Business Functions

Best practices report examines differences in outsourcing between small businesses and larger enterprises. What functions and to what extent as well as the rationale and benefits differ.

Small businesses use outsourcing to replace the significant amounts of time and money they are wasting to refocus on core competencies. The key drivers for small business outsourcing were ranked as follows:
1. Free up executive time
2. Enable on-demand access to specialist expertise not available internally
3. Reduce costs
4. Gain access to best practices processes and best-of-breed technology and tools
5. Gain the ability to scale up and down more efficiently than through the use of internal operations, by shifting the risk of scale to outsourcers (document procedures, M&A experience, incentive pay for productivity and quality)
6. Improve performance: ensure industry-standard service levels, automate manual processes and activities

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New Tech Firms and Portland's City Core

Cool spaces attract talented workers, defying the economic downturn

It turns out that empty-nesters with excess discretionary income are not the only ones who gravitate to Portland's urban core.

To attract top talent, software companies are briskly filling large, open spaces in older downtown Portland buildings with fresh faces, ideas and energy.

In the past two years, dozens of software companies have taken root or expanded in downtown. Some have kept adding space in the district even amid worries of a broad economic slowdown. The trend has gradually given downtown a burgeoning tract of the tech scene, traditionally concentrated in Portland's western suburbs.

Two crucial factors are driving the trend: Software companies -- particularly those focusing on social networking, online advertising and finance -- are thriving. And a hip office in a central location can be a competitive edge in attracting top-notch staff.

"Software companies have always tended to go toward these types of creative spaces, but this is now a full-grown phenomenon," said Harvey Mathews, executive director of the Software Association of Oregon. "I get calls from people from all over the place, and all of them want this Old Town, downtown, brick funky space."

THE WEEKEND WALKABOUT

Small Business - Smiling in the Face of Adversity

While joblessness is on the upswing and reports show that employers shed jobs in March, new data reveal that small firms are hiring.

"It has to be tough to grow a business in this economic climate. It's like being a goldfish swimming upstream into a fire hose," said Michael Alter, president of payroll processing firm SurePayroll. "Yet, despite the odds against them, the SurePayroll small business scorecard data shows definitively that small businesses have been increasing their payrolls."

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Taking Care Of Tax Business

Small business owners represent the fastest-growing segment of professionals in this country. Regardless of the industry, these entrepreneurs have their hands full everyday adhering to a business plan, managing daily cash flow, negotiating credit lines, overseeing operations and ensuring their overall business turns a profit.

The deadline to file one's taxes is fast approaching and keeping up with changes in the tax code can be both time-consuming and confusing. Following is a sampling of tips taken from the The Ernst & Young Tax Guide 2008 that apply to the busy small business owner.

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Four Oregon cities make list of best places to live, start company

Four Oregon cities have been tabbed by a business magazine as being among the top 100 places to live and start a company.
Portland, Corvallis, Eugene and Bend made the list compiled by Fortune Small Business. Salem did not.
Portland ranked sixth, trailing Bellevue; Georgetown, Texas; Buford, Ga.; Marina del Rey, Calif.; and Bethesda, Md.
Corvallis was 48th, Bend was 87th and Eugene was 96th.
The magazine gave cities a score for the ability to launch a business and a score for the city's livability.

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FRIDAY'S FISHFRY

U.S. banks say 'No' to small firms

Although it may be too early to determine how hard small businesses will be hit by lenders' credit woes, last month, a U.S. Federal Reserve report found a third of banks in the United States had tightened lending standards for small business, making it harder to get the credit necessary to expand or, in some cases, stay afloat.

Soundings of business owners are mixed because credit availability is not uniform across the country: More than half of respondents to the U.S. National Small Business Association's recent online poll said their business had "been impacted by the credit crunch in recent months." But the National Federation of Independent Business, said more than a third of its members responding to a February survey said they were borrowing normally; only 4% reported difficulty getting a loan.

Advocates argue small businesses are a mainstay of employment, even in economic downturns. "Microenterprises continued to create new jobs even during the 2001 recession," said Amy McKenna Luz, president of the U.S. Association for Enterprise Opportunity. When the auto, telecommunications and other major industries were laying off people, microenterprises (with five or fewer employees) continued to add jobs --about 4.5 million from 2000 to 2005.

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Gresham mayor issues 'Green Power' challenge

Will people in fiscally conservative Gresham pay more for electricity to help save the environment?

City Hall hopes so.

On Monday, Mayor Shane Bemis issued a "Green Power" challenge: He's asking at least 300 local Portland General Electric customers to switch to one of PGE's renewable power options between April 1 and June 30.

The alternate energy sources come from wind power or biomass -- energy derived from the breakdown of organic matter.

The city demonstrated its own commitment this year by increasing its green-power purchase from 852,000 kilowatt-hours of energy to 1.8 million kilowatts of wind power for city operations. That's almost 13 percent of Gresham's annual electricity usage for municipal facilities, including city hall, the operations shop, and fire stations. It's also enough to reduce yearly carbon dioxide emissions -- a major contributor to global warming -- by about 1.6 million pounds. The positive impact equals not driving 1.8 million miles.

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INNOTECH CONFERENCE SPEAKERS FOCUS ON THE FUTURE

InnoTech Oregon, the regional business and technology conference held April 16-17 at the Oregon Convention Center, is bigger than ever in its fifth year. Speakers and panel topics include clean-tech and innovation-focused panels, including the keynote speaker, Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything and CEO of New Paradigm.

Keynote Speaker:

Tapscott guides his audience through one of the most profound cultural and economic changes of recent history by showing how unprecedented masses of people can participate in the economy by using technology and open-source systems. He explains his view of the economy of collaboration that is astronomically changing business in a very real way.

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Rural Development: Rural Oregon besieged by state cutbacks

When Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day) resigned in protest from Federal Forest and County Services Taskforce Thursday, it was in response to what many rural officials see as a serious problem: rural Oregon is getting hammered economically, they say, and the state government is making the situation worse.

“Within the past 60 days, including the Legislative Supplemental Session, we have witnessed elimination of the Office of Rural Policy, the defunding of Rural Development Initiatives and the release of a report from the state economist marginalizing chronic unemployment in rural areas of the state,” Ferrioli said in his letter.

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Green lobbyists seek grass-roots love

With the Senate set to tackle two complicated pieces of global warming legislation after its spring break, green-energy lobbyists used the recess to ramp up grass-roots support in key congressional districts.

Interest groups aiming to weigh in on the cap-and-trade bill and the renewable energy tax credits filled congressional district offices with volunteers and flooded local airwaves with commercials.

Both bills would provide tremendous growth opportunities for solar and wind power, make carbon emissions more expensive for polluters and increase the country’s energy independence. And both bills would rely keenly on Republican swing votes to get the job done.

The House recently sent the Senate a bill that would reroute $18 billion in oil industry tax credits to develop wind and solar power, a move decried by much of business and industry. The Senate is also considering a global climate bill sponsored by Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) that could slash carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2050 through a cap-and-trade program.

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Energy: PGE to Buy Turbines for Biglow Canyon Wind Project Expansion

Portland General Electric Company (PGE) (NYSE:POR) and Siemens Power Generation, Inc., part of the global Siemens Energy Sector, today announced they have executed agreements for PGE to buy 141 turbines to complete construction of its 25,000-acre Biglow Canyon Wind Farm in Sherman County, Ore.

“Biglow Canyon Wind Farm is a major investment in renewable energy and resource diversity for PGE customers,” said Jim Lobdell, PGE’s vice president for power operations and resource strategy. “Siemens has the right product and know-how to help ensure the project will be completed efficiently and perform as promised.”

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New Website Creates Community, Opportunity for Small Business

The free online site Briz.com provides exposure and networking opportunities. It also empowers small business to stay in contact with customers.

Small businesses now have a new powerful ally on the Internet with the launch of Briz.com, the first Web site that creates local communities and opportunities for small business owners. And it's free.

Briz.com allows small business owners to create a thorough business profile to enhance business relationships, share information, and stay in contact with their clients, customers, and/or suppliers. Briz offers small businesses free exposure to their current market as well as new markets.

"Social networking for businesses is what Briz.com is all about," says Michael Librizzi, founder of Briz.com. The site was designed to make it as easy as point-and-click for small business owners; no computer knowledge is needed to get started.

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Rural Development: Investment is effective, say rural leaders

For 20 years, the State of Oregon funneled part of its lottery revenue to a regional and rural investment program. In the 2005-2007 biennium, each dollar of the state’s contribution was leveraged to bring in more than $26 in federal and private funding for economic development projects.

Despite this record of success, and support from Gov. Ted Kulongoski to increase the budget for the program, the Ways and Means Committee at the Oregon State Legislature, under Cochairs Sen. Kurt Schrader (D-Canby) and Rep. Mary Nolan (D-Portland) cut the funding to a bare-bones minimum. A budget note from Sen. Schrader mandated half the funding be used to develope a six-year prioritized list of needs and issues and a list of infrastructure development needs for each region.

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