On her first anniversary, the SBA’s Linda McMahon reflects on accomplishments, changes

(This post originally appeared on The Washington Post)

As I wrote here previously, by the time she resigned as chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment in 2009, Linda McMahon had expanded her company from just 13 employees to more than 500 in eight offices across five countries. In late 2016, President Trump appointed her to lead the Small Business Administration, a government agency with a $700 million budget, 68 offices and more than 3,000 employees. So, one year in, how are things going for the former business executive?

“I’m incredibly encouraged by the steps we’ve taken this year,” she told me. “But we still have a lot more work to do.”

Like any good CEO who takes a new job, one of McMahon’s first orders of business upon entering office was to get out and meet her team — and her customers.

So this past year was spent mostly touring the country, visiting dozens of district offices and breaking bread with hundreds of small business owners to hear about what’s working, what’s not and what more the SBA and the federal government can be doing to help them. Her biggest takeaway: small businesses owners like myself — and all those that employ more than half of the U.S. workforce and are responsible for two off every three new jobs — need to know more about her agency.

“My vision is to make sure the SBA is no longer the best kept secret in the country,” she said. “People think of us as loan guarantors, but we’re much more than that.”

Without question, the SBA’s core business is to provide federal guarantees so that banks can offer loans to small businesses that otherwise couldn’t get financing. To that end, business has been booming.

This year alone, the agency is on track to back more than $30 billion in loans which she says has helped create more than 650,000 jobs. Included in that number are $500 million in loans given to women entrepreneurs. Growth in some of its programs, like its 7(A) loans, where small businesses can borrow up to $5 million to purchase machinery, furniture, fixtures, supplies and other materials, has exceeded 20 percent this past quarter as compared to the same period last year.

The agency’s biggest “secret”, according to McMahon, is its growth — for better or worse — in disaster relief loans. During the last wave of hurricanes that hit the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rico, the agency made more than 96,000 loans to small businesses, nonprofits, homeowners and renters totaling more than $5.3 billion.

“It’s the only time that the SBA actually loans money,” McMahon said. “Normally, we’re just the guarantors.”

The agency has come a long way since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina disaster, when many were critical of the government’s slow response times. After last year’s storms hit, McMahon turned parts of their offices into an emergency call center and brought on more than 3,000 additional people to handle the added workload.

Beyond financing activities, McMahon has a point about the SBA: Most of my firm’s 600-plus clients are unaware of the broad range of services the agency can provide, particularly counseling from the experts at SCORE, Small Business Development Centers and other resource partners.

So this year her goal is to make sure that as many small business owners are aware of these resources available to them. She’s doing this by revamping the agency’s website, stepping up their social media presence and continuing to travel around the country, speaking to groups, attending roundtables and meeting with as many small businesses as possible. Also in the works is more outreach to small businesses in rural and farming areas and adding more online financing options for those that have fewer banking choices locally.

“From the beginning, President Trump wanted someone who actually built a business and understood what it’s like to run this agency,” she said. Only one thing was asked of her. “He told me, ‘just do a good job.’”

So far, so good.

Meltdown and Spectre Bugs Could Threaten Your Small Business’s Computers

Nearly every computer manufactured in the past 20 years is affected by Meltdown and Spectre, two momentous computer bugs. And the rollout of the patches is not going well, leading an expert in the field to say it will take years for full implementation.

Fixes for Processor Flaws a Long Way Off

One of those experts is Paul Kocher, who was part of the research team that discovered Spectre. He told Selena Larson of CNN Money, “If you look at how long it’s going to take for all of the relevant software on your PC, including the drivers and such are updated, you’re probably looking at many years before that process is done.”

Small businesses that rely on computers for their daily operations don’t have years. So the questions are what are these bugs, how vulnerable is your computer and are the patches working?

What are Meltdown and Spectre?

Explaining Meltdown and Spectre is a bit complicated. But basically, here is what takes place. When the processor on your computer performs speculative execution and caching, the data is supposed to be isolated and protected.

Speculative execution is used by computer chips to essentially predict the future enabling them to execute functions faster. It starts working on probabilities before you make a choice by tackling multiple logical branches.

Caching is used to speed up memory access by using a small amount of memory storage called CPU cache. Because it lives on the CPU and speculative executions are also stored in cache, issues with protected memory arise.

If this vulnerability is exploited, hackers can gain access to data which until the discovery of these bugs was deemed protected.

You can take a look at the video by RedHat to get another perspective on the bugs.

Affected Computers

The flaw in the processors goes back 20 years so most if not all brands will be affected. Intel did introduce a fix but later warned computer companies to wait before implementing the patches. Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Firefox have issued fixes so you can go to their sites and get more information by clicking on the name of the respective company.

If you want a more detailed explanation, the Google Project Zero team has the information here.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "Meltdown and Spectre Bugs Could Threaten Your Small Business’s Computers" was first published on Small Business Trends

Trump Addresses Small Business in State of the Union Address, But Leaders Say More is Needed

President Donald Trump noted small business and even invited two small business owners and one of their employees to sit with First Lady Melania Trump to watch the speech.

Trump delivered his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night and spent a large portion of that time focused on the economy. And while many small business leaders praised the administration’s efforts thus far, some also added more is needed.

Small Business in the State of the Union

Here’s what the President said during his State of the Union speech regarding small business:

Small business confidence is at an all-time high. And just as I promised the American people from this podium 11 months ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history. Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small businesses.

Small businesses have also received a massive tax cut, and can now deduct 20 percent of their business income.

Here tonight are Steve Staub and Sandy Keplinger of Staub Manufacturing — a small business in Ohio. They have just finished the best year in their 20-year history. Because of tax reform, they are handing out raises, hiring an additional 14 people, and expanding into the building next door.

Keplinger and her brother, Staub, are co-founders of Dayton, Ohio-based Staub Manufacturing Solutions. They say that the policies Trump has pushed forward in his first year in office have revived their business and even made good on a promise to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., to the benefit of their company, specifically.

Their company is a member of the National Association of Manufacturers and Keplinger and Staub met with Trump at the White House last year and in 2016. Trump also visited their facility in Dayton to hear what changes he could make to help small businesses.

“In welcoming NAM member manufacturers to the State of the Union, President Trump has once again demonstrated that manufacturing workers are at the center of his agenda and that manufacturers not only have a seat at the table in this administration, they also have the best seats in the House,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons, in a prepared statement.

“Thanks to regulatory relief and tax reform, Staub Manufacturing Solutions is able to invest in its employees’ future with raises, bonuses, new hires and an expanded facility. Manufacturing workers are seeing the same good news every day at other companies across America. Small manufacturers are at the heart of the NAM and our industry. They are the strength of our economy and our country, and it is tremendously encouraging to have a President who is eager to recognize their contributions to the state of our union with the whole nation watching,” Timmons said.

Check out this video NAM produced ahead of the State of the Union to feature Staub:

In the time since the President visited the company, Staub Manufacturing has grown from 23 employees to 37. Prior to this, the company founders say they were struggling to make payroll.

Reaction from the business community was largely positive but called on Trump for more help for small business.

National Small Business Association President and CEO Todd McCracken said in his own prepared statement following the speech:

“In addition to highlighting the current high levels of small business optimism, President Trump correctly emphasized the importance of tax reform to business — something NSBA ultimately supported. However, NSBA continues to press for action on the pieces of the small business tax agenda left out of the most recent reform, the need to address tax complexity, parity among all forms of business, and  the looming U.S. debt.

“President Trump highlighted his plans to provide federal funds for infrastructure projects with an emphasis on innovation –something that ought to deeply involve the most innovative business sector in the U.S.: small business,” McCracken added. “Doing business with the federal government is an extremely convoluted process for small businesses, and any kind of broad spending initiative that seeks innovative approaches must make small-business involvement a pillar, and remove barriers to their participation.”

McCracken concluded by explaining: “President Trump emphasized the economic growth and low unemployment we’ve seen in recent months. Small business access to credit and capital, however, continues to lag — a fact that prevents many smaller companies from fully participating in the ongoing national economic growth. According to data from NSBA’s forthcoming Economic Report, more than one-quarter of small businesses still cannot obtain adequate financing.”

Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council President and CEO Karen Kerrigan echoed those sentiments. She largely cheered the speech but also called on Trump to open access to more funding for small business.

In her own statement, Kerrigan said:

“President Trump delivered a powerful address about the state of our nation and how pro-growth policies have lifted the economy and small business optimism. Building on his policy successes by advancing the next layer of small business priorities will fuel the dynamism and energy that our economy needs to extend opportunity and the promise of the American dream to everyone.”

Kerrigan added: “Several issues that small business owners want to hear more about include efforts to lower health costs, and improve access to growth capital and global markets. These are key areas that will boost entrepreneurship and small business growth. We look forward to working with the Administration and his team on these specific issues, as well as all of our priorities for small businesses and entrepreneurs.”

To counter that sentiment, Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY), the leading Democrat on the House Small Business Committee, said Trump came up short for small businesses. In her statement to the press, received by email, Velázquez said:

“President Trump had a chance tonight to reach across the aisle, but instead opted for partisan rhetoric and empty promises. By failing to offer meaningful solutions to issues like immigration and infrastructure reform, the President yet again turned his back on America’s millions of small businesses.”

She added: “Our economy and the small business sector continue to benefit from policy decisions made under President Obama and the small business confidence numbers cited in the President’s speech reflect that economic inertia.”

“In other areas, the President’s proposals tonight directly threaten our small business sector,” Velázquez said. “Immigration and entrepreneurship have long stood as twin pillars fundamental to American prosperity. Immigrants start businesses at rates double that of the broader population and, by demonizing immigrants, the President threatens to undermine what has long been a key ingredient to our economic success.”

She  added: “One thing is clear — America’s small businesses deserve a better deal. As lawmakers, it is our duty to cross party lines and develop lasting policies that ensure entrepreneurship remains the bedrock of the American dream. There was little substantive in tonight’s speech to suggest the President is ready to give our entrepreneurs the support they need to succeed.”

Did you watch or listen to Trump’s State of the Union?

You can watch the full address here:

What were your reactions to the speech? Let us know in the Comments section below.

Image: WhiteHouse.gov/YouTube

This article, "Trump Addresses Small Business in State of the Union Address, But Leaders Say More is Needed" was first published on Small Business Trends

Polymail looks to unify business email tools into a single web app

 If you’re more of a Gmail power user (or even semi-power user) and other email services geared toward work, you’ve probably installed plenty of plugins like Rapportive to make your job a little bit easier. And while it’s all fine to try to pull together a suite of plugins to make that a little bit easier, a startup called Polymail is hoping to rope that all into a single hub… Read More

How tax reform bonus payments can save your business a ton of money

(This post originally appeared on Fox Business)

This week FedEx (FDX), Walt Disney (DIS) and Verizon (VZ) joined the growing list of big companies, such as AT&T (T) and Wells Fargo (WFC), that have announced plans to financially reward employees with either one-time bonus payments, broad salary increases or other financial perks. So far, over 260 companies have dished out benefits and more are expected to do so. It’s been good PR for them and of course for the president and the Republican Congress that passed the legislation.

But did you notice something? Some companies were able to make this announcement almost immediately after the bill passed and before the year ended. But quite a few didn’t, including the nation’s largest employer, Walmart (WMT). The mega-retailer announced on Jan. 11 that it would be giving out bonuses of up to $1,000 to some of its employees. 

How are these corporations able to pay out bonuses for 2017 even though they didn’t announce their intentions until 2018? Shouldn’t these bonuses be a 2018 thing? Not at all. And not only that, many companies — small, medium and large — may not realize that they could be doing the same, right now, and reaping huge tax savings. Are you?

First of all, and before you go any further, talk to your accountant. I’m not your accountant, so I don’t know everything about your business. But here are a few rules of thumb. If your business is not on the cash method of accounting — therefore you use the accrual method — then there is a very good chance that you can declare a bonus now for 2017 and take the deduction on your 2017 business tax return as long as you pay it out by March 15. The rule is further explained hereOpens a New Window..

This is really important because it can save you, your company and your employees a lot of money. It’s all about timing. Tax rates — both corporate and individual — are much higher in 2017 than they are now in 2018 thanks to tax reform. Smart business people — the executives and tax advisors at JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Home Depot (HD) and others — know that the best strategy in this environment is to legally accelerate deductions in 2017 and defer as much income as legally possible to 2018. Why pay more when you don’t have to?

Want to be even smarter? Don’t pay the bonus in cash. Instead, contribute it to your company 401K or defined contribution plan for your employees. The same rules apply. But there are greater benefits. For starters, you’re helping your employees save more for their retirement, and that’s always a good thing. More to your benefit, the more you contribute for your employees, the more you’re able to contribute for your own retirement without coming into restrictions imposed by these plans’ discrimination rules. Everyone wins.

Actress Maisie Williams to launch Daisie, a social app for talent discovery and collaboration

 Actress Maisie Williams, best known for her role as Arya Stark on Game of Thrones, is the latest celeb to venture into tech entrepreneurship, with the launch of a new company aimed at connecting creatives, called Daisie. Available later this summer as a mobile app, Daisie will offer a platform where creators can network, like, share and collaborate on projects within a social networking… Read More

Juniper Square raises $6M for its real estate investment platform

The real estate industry was relatively slow to adapt technology, but it’s now quickly catching up. That means that virtually every part of the industry is seeing a lot of startup activity. Juniper Square, which today announced it has raised a $6M Series A round, is tackling the real estate investment side by helping investment managers raise and manage outside capital for their projects. Read More

How Michelle Weinstein Built a Business as the Pitch Queen

As a small business owner, you have to constantly be selling. It’s not just about selling products to customers, either. You have to sell investors on your company, sell new employees on jobs with your business and sell ideas to clients.

Michelle Weinstein, a.k.a. The Pitch Queen, is well aware of the importance of selling. She recently spoke with me as part of Small Business Trends’ exclusive Smart Hustle Report, where she discussed her journey to entrepreneurship and the important lessons she’s learned along the way.

“In the world of being an entrepreneur and working for yourself and starting your own company, you are always pitching yourself,” she said.

A former financial analyst, fitness coach and meal planning service provider, Weinstein has built up her sales experience in a variety of industries. She’s pitched to major outlets like Costco and the Vitamin Shoppe and appeared on Shark Tank.

Now, she shares that knowledge as a strategist and online using platforms like Facebook Live and her podcast, Success Unfiltered. She mainly focuses on high value selling. But she also offers some valuable insights for any business owner that could use some sales help.

Check out some of the top tips from the discussion below. You can listen to the full episode here for even more insights.

Sales Pitch Tips

Take Lessons from Every Situation

You don’t have to be pitching a huge investor to learn valuable sales lessons. Weinstein actually says she learned some of her most valuable lessons by working as a cocktail waitress when she was 18.

She explains, “All of these things relate to everything I do today and what I teach today. It is about building rapport and relationships.”

So whether you’re crafting a major pitch or just asking for a raise at your day job, you can take it as an opportunity to craft your pitching skills.

Listen for Pain Points

But when it comes to pitching, it’s not actually all about what you have to say. It’s more important to listen to the person you’re selling to. Specifically, Weinstein says, you should listen for complaints or pain points so you can find ways to frame your product or service as a solution.

Weinstein says, “The number one thing for you to work on when it comes to pitching whatever it is, especially if it’s a high ticket offer, that you’re doing about 20 percent of the talking and 80 percent of the listening.”

Actually Ask for What You Want

From there, you have to learn how to actually ask for what you want. According to Weinstein, too many entrepreneurs craft great pitches that leave out a specific call to action.

Weinstein says, “I would say a lot of us start businesses and have these great programs and then you’re on the phone with a client or you’re pitching to raise money and you never even ask for the money. You don’t ask for the sale.”

Image: Michelle Weinstein

This article, "How Michelle Weinstein Built a Business as the Pitch Queen" was first published on Small Business Trends

Polarizing Brands Not Exactly Hurting, But Should Your Small Business Get Into the Act?

Morning Consult and its survey of 336,370 Americans has revealed the most polarizing brands in the country aren’t exactly hurting for business. The top 10 brands are directly or indirectly related to the President, with Trump Hotels taking the number one spot.

This is the inaugural survey of Morning Consult’s Most Polarizing Brands designed to rank brands, companies and organization deemed the most divisive between Republicans and Democrats. The top 30 brands were selected from a pool of 1,900 organizations in a survey carried out online from October 3, 2017, to January 2, 2018, from a national sample of U.S. adults.

While becoming a polarizing brand can have negative consequences, it doesn’t seem to be affecting these large businesses. The same probably can’t be said for small businesses, especially if they are located in an area where the demographic is not supporting their political views.

Here are some of the highlights from the survey.

The most unfavorable brands for Democrats included Trump Hotels at 55 percent, Fox News at 43 percent, and Diet Pepsi at 39 percent. Republicans also listed media outlets not particularly enjoyed by the President in the top 10, but the NFL came in first at 49 percent followed by CNN with 48 percent. Interestingly Republicans and Democrats share a dislike of one particular brand. Diet Pepsi also came in third with Republicans at 39 percent.

Independents had a different take on what was really unfavorable because Diet Pepsi was tops at 45 percent, Diet Mountain Dew was second at 41 percent and Red Bull was third at 35 percent.

The split among respondents was 32 percent Democrat, 34 percent Republican, and 34 percent independent.

For Republicans, media companies dominated the top 30 taking all the spots from number two all the way to number 15, as well as others down the line. The division was down Democratic and Republican lines, with Trump supporters choosing the same likes and dislikes as the President. And for Democrats, brands associated with Trump were disliked.

In sports, the NBA and the NFL were preferred by Democrats, while NASCAR and the NHL were favored by Republicans. But when it comes time to order pizza to watch the big game, Papa John’s, Little Caesars, and Pizza Hut, were favored by Republicans over Democrats by a wide margin.

What about big box stores? Walmart was the choice for Republicans while Democrats preferred Target.

Obviously, small business owners are often cautioned against becoming political in marketing or communication. All though there are obviously exceptions.

If you are marketing political T-shirts favoring a particular point of view or an online media channel with a distinct political viewpoint, becoming political in your marketing might make perfect sense.

It should also be remembered that not all the brands in question took a public political stand and most have strong enough business models to survive shifting sentiments. So small business owners must decide before being branded political whether the designation will help in the long run.

Images: Morning Consult

This article, "Polarizing Brands Not Exactly Hurting, But Should Your Small Business Get Into the Act?" was first published on Small Business Trends

Nuro’s self-driving vehicle is a grocery-getter and errand-runner

 Not every self-driving car has to be able to move passengers from point A to point B. Take, for example, Nuro: The startup just revealed their unique autonomous vehicle platform, which is more of a mobile small logistics platform than a self-driving car. The company, which has been working away in stealth mode in Mountain View until now, has raised a $92 million Series A round led by Banyan… Read More

Zoho Transactions Approval Aims to Reduce Mistakes in Purchase Orders

A new feature called Transactions Approval from Zoho will lower or get rid of mistakes made during sales and purchase transactions within the Zoho Finance apps, the company says.

With this new feature, you and your employees will be able to verify and approve transactions within Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice and Zoho Inventory apps. Having an approval workflow in place will translate into fewer mistakes and more efficient operations.

For small business owners who count on different employees to carry out more than one task, the chances of making mistakes become that much higher. With a manual process, sales and purchase transactions can have conflicting information on them. And often times the mistakes are not recognized until they are further down the pipeline.

By the time the discrepancy has been identified, you might’ve already sent invoices to your customers. This will not only result in more work for your company when trying to repair the damage, but it could also negatively affect the relationships you have with your customers.

Enabling Zoho Transactions Approval Features on the Apps

When you enable the Transactions Approval on the Zoho apps, every transaction can be set up to require approval before it is sent out to customers, suppliers or vendors. Individuals who have been designated to make the approval will be able to verify the transactions and make any corrections if they are needed before they are approved.

Catching mistakes early in the process delivers a more accurate inventory, accounts receivable and overall delivery of products and services to customers and business partners.

Once the feature has been enabled and a transaction is sent for approval an in-app notification is sent to the designated individual. This means you don’t have to make phone calls, send emails or physically locate the contact person to get a signature. They can sign into the app, verify the transaction and make the approval.

Approval Workflow for Your Business

Having an approval workflow in place should improve the productivity of your company and increase the efficiency of the processes you have in place. While in the past this meant physically tracking down the necessary individuals for their signatures, digital technology has eliminated the different pain points associated with the procedure.

If you implement an automated approval system for your business, it can move projects along faster, reduce late payments, ensure deliveries and improve customer service. The Transactions Approval from Zoho does this for your books, invoices and inventory.

If you want to start using Transactions Approval, you can go to the help documentation page of Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, and Zoho Inventory to get started.

Images: Zoho

This article, "Zoho Transactions Approval Aims to Reduce Mistakes in Purchase Orders" was first published on Small Business Trends

Spotlight: Main Squeeze Juice Co. Seeks Natural Product Niche

More and more consumers are clamoring for products made with all natural ingredients. And when it comes to juices, smoothies and bowls, Main Squeeze Juice Co. obliges.

The company fills an important need in a growing industry. Read more about it in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.

What the Business Does

Offers healthy juices, smoothies, acai bowls and cleanses.

Main Squeeze’s Marketing Director Adam Stelly told Small Business Trends, “Main Squeeze’s mission is to make healthy easier, and our nutritionist-designed, superfood-centric menu does exactly that. The entire menu offers a daily source of plant-based nutrition packed with natural and quick energy and includes items like cold-pressed juices and superfood smoothies, along with one-, two- and three-day juice cleanse programs, wellness shots, and acai bowls created from organic and wild-harvested acai berries from the Amazon rainforest in Northeast Brazil.”

Business Niche

Using only natural ingredients.

Stelly says, “We’re known for that because those attributes mentioned above are very important to our customers’ experience, and we are dedicated to making each visit in our store a one-of-a-kind, top-notch experience. When you present quality in even the smallest details and create a unique experience, your brand and its offerings suddenly become more memorable.”

How the Business Got Started

Out of a yoga studio.

Stelly explains, “Our four co-founders originally owned and operated a yoga studio. They later began to sell juice to their clients to have a supplemental revenue stream. With those additional products they realized they had something special and saw opportunity in both the juice and superfood smoothie segments. That realization lead to the creation of Main Squeeze Juice Co.”

Biggest Win

Taking small steps on a daily basis.

Stelly says, “As a newcomer to the booming juice industry, we enjoy even the small wins and victories that come daily. Taking pride in every step and exhibiting quality outcomes at every opportunity is what produces the “big win.””

Biggest Risk

Switching up the juicing operations.

Stelly explains, “For a time we used High Pressure Processing (HPP) and decided to switch to fresh pressing. Fresh pressing, while more difficult and time consuming, yields a higher quality product (which is what our customers look for and deserve). The risk is we could’ve spent a bulk of valuable resources on developing the new system, but the results are turning out incredibly well and our product has never tasted better.”

How They’d Spend an Extra $100,000

Beefing up advertising efforts.

Stelly adds, “We’re confident that anyone who tries our products will instantly become lifelong customers but we need to entice people to try the product—advertising can help with that.”

Office Environment

Dog-friendly workplace.

Stelly says, “The most fun tidbit is that we have a dog-friendly office and encourage our team members to bring their dogs to our corporate headquarters. We do everything we can to create a positive and productive workplace for our team.”

* * * * *

Find out more about the Small Biz Spotlight program

Images: Main Squeeze Juice Co./Facebook

This article, "Spotlight: Main Squeeze Juice Co. Seeks Natural Product Niche" was first published on Small Business Trends