Small business owners react to Obama Health Care Bill

Small business owners employee about 80% of the population!
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I am a restaurant owner, and I have had this restaurant for over 16 year. I have over 10 employees currently, some part-time, and some full time. It is not I don’t want to provide health care for my employee, I just can not afford. Obama’s health care plan will put me out of business. My business just does not have extra money pay for employees health care. With the minimum wage increase to $7.25, my business is going to under a lot of pressure. I really don’t know what else to do, I already work over 70 hour a week try to save some labor cost. I just want to Obama give our small business break. All small business owner work really hard to try to stay in business. I know a lot of small business owner don’t even have insurance for themselves.National health plan will kill business.

— Shirley

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Starting up in an economic downturn

Thinking about starting a business or buying a business but you’re unsure of these “economic” times? Just look at the other Arkansas start ups that were born out of hard times in this article by David J. Sanders:

Starting up in an economic downturn

Only the strong survive economic downturns like the one we’re in now. And sometimes, seemingly clairvoyant individuals – entrepreneurial, inventive and resourceful – demonstrate vision and know-how by starting up enterprises that succeed during difficult times.

While many companies file for bankruptcy or vanish altogether during recessions, others can trace their beginnings back to depressed economic periods. At least six Arkansas-based companies fit that criterion:

• Murphy Oil
• Deltic Timber
• Baldor Electric
• Tyson Foods
• Dillard’s
• Wal-Mart

The one-time start-ups turned publicly traded companies are the focus of a new policy memo from the Arkansas Policy Foundation entitled, “The Darkest Hour is Before Dawn,” in which the group’s executive director, Greg Kaza, captures those companies’ humble beginnings.

read the full article via ArkansasNews.com

Chrysler gives heave-ho to 789 dealers, 8 in state

Chrysler LLC on Thursday told 789 of its new-vehicle dealers, including eight in Arkansas, that it will terminate their franchise agreements, forcing them to stop selling Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep products in less than four weeks.

Chrysler is breaking contracts with about a quarter of its 3,188 retail outlets nationally. It has 36 dealerships in Arkansas.

Chrysler has received $4 billion in federal loans and has been operating in bankruptcy protection since April 30. Its sales this year are down 46 percent compared with the first four months of last year, and it reported a $16.8 billion net loss for 2008.

Bad news for car sellers will continue today.

General Motors Corp. will notify 1,000 to 1,200 of its dealerships that it will not renew their franchise agreements when they expire in September 2010. As many as 30 of GM’s 86 dealers in Arkansas could be eliminated, said Dennis Jungmeyer, president of the Arkansas Automobile Dealers Association.

Read the Full Article: Arkansas Democrat Gazette

What “darker side” of Dickson Street?

On the Fayetteville Flyer the community is discussing the recent coverage by 40/29 of the “Darker Side of Dickson Street” which you can read and watch here. Here is a clip from the article at FayettevilleFlyer.com written by Todd Gill:

40/29 News’ Tiffany Stewart recently was allowed to follow the Fayetteville Police Department as officers patrolled the Dickson Street area one evening. The report aired this weekend and twice referred to a “darker side” of Dickson while showing footage of a few kids who’d had too much to drink and were being arrested for public intoxication or disorderly conduct.

To be honest, I just shook my head and nearly forgot all about it … until this afternoon. As I was skimming through some Twitter messages, I noticed that The Morning News’ Skip Descant was covering today’s Advertising and Promotion Commission discussion which was centered around the future of the Walton Arts Center.

It seems to me that 40/29 is misinforming in an effort to pull the Walton Arts Center into Benton County? Businesses are flocking to the Down Town Fayetteville Area & the Chamber is doing a great job! This report has some local business owners wondering “Where is the ‘rest of the story’?”

You be the judge. Check out the comments from the community at the FayettevilleFlyer.com!

From Unemployed to Employer: Providing more options at the NWA Job Fair

By Ray Ellen, Intermediary with CBI-Sunbelt in Lowell, AR

View this article at my Column on Newsvine!

On Monday, May 4^th, 2009, CBI-Sunbelt attended the NWA Job Fair at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers, AR. It started at noon and lasted until seven that evening. As I walked back through the lobby at 11:45, I could not believe my eyes. The line was all the way out the door of the JQH Center! People were eagerly awaiting new opportunities and a chance to find something better for themselves. I could not wait to tell them what WE had to offer!

So why were we there? Are we always looking for new, high quality brokers and advisors? Yes! Was that our primary reason for setting up a booth at the job fair? No!

The number one reason we attended the job fair was to locate “corporate refugees” and inform them about our “401(k) Rollover Plan for Buying a Business”. Many of these refugees are former executives, managers, and supervisors who have recently been laid off and are now looking for an income. Many have leadership or executive experience as well as access to a 401(k). They are perfect candidates to buy a good business and start working for themselves.

About the 401(k) Rollover Plan

In addition to our Premier Lending Partner (PLP) program that has opened up more financing options for buyers (while the rest of the credit market is tightening), we also offer the option for buyers to use their 401(k) retirement plan without tax or penalty to buy a business. As recently reported by ¹Worth Sparkman in the Arkansas Business Journal;

[CBI-Sunbelt] works with the Whitlock Pyle Group in Houston, which can take a 401(k) or any approved retirement account, and roll it into a new 401(k) profit sharing plan that will help fund a “C” corp. The result is that a buyer can typically use some or all of their retirement savings as the down payment on a business. As long as the business performs well, the retirement savings continue to grow.

About the Job Fair

With the NWA unemployment rate hovering around ²5.4%, we knew there would be a big turnout. In 2008, organizers stated that they had about 1,500 participants and expected that number to double this year. Most of the patrons were only searching for a job that provided some form of immediate income or salary, but we asked them to think outside of the box; be their own boss; buy their next income and then we showed them how! We saw a lot of “job seekers” smile and realize that they do have more options, even in this economy. We gave them opportunity and asked them to think differently about their future. The response was exactly what we had hoped! Almost everyone we talked with had at least thought about owning their own business, if not owned a business previously. Job seekers walked up to our booth looking for a “job” and left thinking as an entrepreneur, a future business owner. There are many leads to follow up with and I hope to attend more of these in the future!

It was a pleasure to be a part of and just one more way that we, CBI-Sunbelt, help people sell and buy businesses!

¹source: Arkansas Business Journal
²source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Deficit spending reaches 2 Trillion

This is breaking news… There will be more information released today. I will try to update the sources as the information is released.

Sources:

• 5/12/09: Video1:  FOXBusiness.com
• 5/12/09: Congressional Budget Office Monthly Review – April: [pdf] [html]
• 5/11/09: USAToday: Budget Deficit to Top 1.8 Trillion
• 5/11/09: Video: Ron Paul on FoxBusiness with Dave Asman
  

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.” – Thomas Jefferson

ANB Failure Proves Costly

SPRINGDALE — The failure of Roger’s-based ANB Financial bank has cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $819.4 million as of March 31, the agency said.

But in terms perhaps less tangible, the region has paid in lost jobs, vacant real estate and a host of charitable contributions lost when the bank ceased operations.

Federal regulators descended upon ANB Financial a year ago, locked the doors, deemed the bank insolvent and sold its $235.9 million in local deposits to Pulaski Bank and Trust.

Pulaski Bank — through its parent company Iberiabank — purchased eight of the nine ANB branches. More than 200 people lost their jobs. Iberiabank retained 60 of ANB Financial’s branch employees, according to Beth Ardoin, spokeswoman for the bank.

“That was about the number working in the branches at the time of the purchase. However, we did not retain any of the mortgage company employees, corporate back-office staff or executives,” Ardoin said.

ANB and its subsidiaries employed around 283 at the time of its failure, according the bank’s last quarterly filing with the FDIC.

via The Morning News

Arkansas’ First Nanomanufacturing Plant Set to Open

Arkansas’ first nanomanufacturing facility is set to open in Springdale.

Duralor LLC, a Springdale-based producer of high-performance coatings and coating processes for cutting tools and machine-wear parts, announced Tuesday that it will open a production and R&D site May 29. The facility, located in the Springdale Technology Park, will also house NanoMech’s headquarters and joint research operations. A subsidiary of NanoMech, Duralor competes in the $20 billion global cutting tool market.

Duralor manufactures cubic boron nitride (cBN) coatings for cutting-tool applications currently in use with a global automotive manufacturer and in the heavy-machinery industry under the product name TuffTek®. Diamonds are the only cutting surface harder than cBN, but are unsuitable for hardened steel machining.

via ArkansasBusiness.com

Small businesses need tax breaks, access to credit

Anxiety pervades the small-business community of Texas and the rest of America. Owners are struggling to make payroll, to build inventory, to keep the doors open another day.

Over the past year, the mortality rate has accelerated, and you can see evidence of that on Main Street of any city or town across the country, where there are “For Rent” signs and empty windows.

Despite the much-publicized bailouts of giant firms with staggering economic stimulus plans, there has been little financial assistance from the federal government for small business. Now, however, President Barack Obama has unveiled a $15 billion recovery plan that leaves many small-business owners wondering whether it’s a classic case of too little too late.

via Houston Chronicle

digg_url = ‘https://nwabiz.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/small-businesses-need-tax-breaks-access-to-credit’;

FRB: Press Release–Federal Reserve, OCC, and FDIC release results of the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program–May 7, 2009

Federal Reserve Press Release
Release Date: May 7, 2009
For release at 5:00 p.m. EDT

The results of a comprehensive, forward-looking assessment of the financial conditions of the nation’s 19 largest bank holding companies BHCs by the federal bank supervisory agencies were released on Thursday.

The exercise–conducted by the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation–was conducted so that supervisors could determine the capital buffers sufficient for the 19 BHCs to withstand losses and sustain lending–even if the economic downturn is more severe than is currently anticipated. In a detailed summary of the results of the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program SCAP, the supervisors identified the potential losses, resources available to absorb losses, and resulting capital buffer needed for the 19 participating BHCs.

The SCAP is a complement to the Treasury’s Capital Assistance Program CAP, which makes capital available to financial institutions as a bridge to private capital in the future. Together, these programs play a critical role in ensuring that the U.S. banking sector will be in a position of strength.

Statement by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke

Overview of Results (333 KB PDF)

Related information

• Joint statement by Federal Reserve, Treasury, FDIC, and OCC on Treasury Capital Assistance Program and Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (May 6, 2009)
• The Supervisory Capital Assessment Program: Design Summary (287 KB PDF)
• Agencies to Begin Forward-Looking Economic Assessments (February 25, 2009)

2009 Banking and Consumer Regulatory Policy