Good news has arrived for the small business community. While the Bush Administration has reduced the SBA's operating budget by 30% since 2001 (source INC.com), the Senate has restored more than $100 million in funding for this important source of small business capital.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to increase the SBA's core small business programs by 45% over the President's request for 2009. The bill increases funding for Small Business Development Centers by 24%, Women's Business Centers by 13%, microloans to $20 million from zero, contracting assistance by 87%, and veterans outreach programs by 62%.
Full text of this release can be found here.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Finding Evidence for Customer Behavior Adjustments
One of the realities I have discovered as a financial leader is it takes some savvy to search out the Truth on which to act. You need sound data to make good decisions, yet the marketplace is not structured to provide it directly. The average news source, whether right wing, left wing, or neither, is driven by a need for readership. Readership, sadly, is a measure of people reading, and people pursue the sensational. The sensational does not usually include the Truth, maybe some small "t" truths, but not the one you seek. Luckily, the advent of blogs and special interest websites has greatly improved the sources of good information.
The price of gas, cost of oil, why it has gone up, and what you can/should do about it, is a good example. The Truth, supported by substantial evidence, is the complicated fact that the price of oil is primarily driven by worldwide supply and demand factors. While supply is relatively fixed in today's environment, demand has been growing greatly. US consumers are still a substantial part of the demand curve. So while no short fix will help much (i.e. opening ANWR would provide less than 1% of current global production), a long term reduction in consumption will. This is born out buy recent statistics on gasoline demand sited at The Big Picture, a wonderful source of macroeconomic data. Easy to see from the chart that as the price of gasoline has gone up, demand is declining, and as a result the price will start to stabilize.
Your read should focus on these real behavioral changes. Consider what a long term adjustment in driving will do to your customer base and therefore your business, and adjust accordingly.
The price of gas, cost of oil, why it has gone up, and what you can/should do about it, is a good example. The Truth, supported by substantial evidence, is the complicated fact that the price of oil is primarily driven by worldwide supply and demand factors. While supply is relatively fixed in today's environment, demand has been growing greatly. US consumers are still a substantial part of the demand curve. So while no short fix will help much (i.e. opening ANWR would provide less than 1% of current global production), a long term reduction in consumption will. This is born out buy recent statistics on gasoline demand sited at The Big Picture, a wonderful source of macroeconomic data. Easy to see from the chart that as the price of gasoline has gone up, demand is declining, and as a result the price will start to stabilize.
Your read should focus on these real behavioral changes. Consider what a long term adjustment in driving will do to your customer base and therefore your business, and adjust accordingly.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Batten Down the Hatches, a Slowdown is Coming
David Leonhardt at the NY Times is correct about the sorry state of our economy, further bolstered by today's learned comment:
Leonhardt further addresses the fact that we have deeper problems going forward, the toughest one is that we are not creating enough good new jobs. It's a relative lack of innovation caused by our poor recent performance in education. As I have argued in the past, we need to keep all of the college educated folks we can, including the foreign ones, in order to create enough good jobs here. Let's see if this is something the new President will address, as "No Child Left Behind" has not been the answer.
“Six straight months of job losses are the strongest evidence yet that the economy has slipped into a recession of uncertain depth and duration,” said Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland School of Business.In Leonhardt's article he rates the chances of a recession at 75%. I would tend to agree.
Leonhardt further addresses the fact that we have deeper problems going forward, the toughest one is that we are not creating enough good new jobs. It's a relative lack of innovation caused by our poor recent performance in education. As I have argued in the past, we need to keep all of the college educated folks we can, including the foreign ones, in order to create enough good jobs here. Let's see if this is something the new President will address, as "No Child Left Behind" has not been the answer.
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