The following press release, from 2009 One Woman National Business Conference Honorary Chair Mary Landrieu, introduces the Small Business Jobs Act, a bill to help small businesses stimuluate growth through such means as deducting health insurance costs, better access to capital and tax benefits.


Washington, DC - Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Mary Landrieu (D- La.) today released the Small Business Jobs Act, a bill to help small businesses access capital, stimulate investment in small businesses and promote entrepreneurship - all of which will help small business create jobs.

"Small businesses are the engine of our economy and need to be a critical focus of our job-creation efforts. Helping small businesses helps get Americans back to work," said Baucus. "Our bill will promote entrepreneurship and investment in small businesses and provide small businesses with the vital access to capital they need to create jobs."

"Every day, headline after headline goes to big business layoffs and losses, but in reality it is the small businesses and their employees that are bearing the brunt of this crisis," said Landrieu. "Since the start of the economic downturn, 80 percent of the country's job losses came from small businesses. It is time to turn our attention to the small businesses and entrepreneurs to get Americans back to work.

By providing some cost-effective and commonsense changes to lending, contracting and technical assistance programs, we can build on successful programs implemented in the Recovery Act to help small businesses keep their doors open. Ranking Member Snowe and I have crafted this package to include provisions that we have both advocated for, and I am very pleased with the finished product. As we finalize our package, I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, as well as the other committees, to ensure the swift passage of this legislation."

The Small Business Jobs Act will:

Help Small Businesses Access Capital

• The legislation encourages investment in small businesses by allowing investors to exclude the gains from the sale of certain small business stock from their income for tax purposes if the stock is held for more than five years. This policy helps small business owners access more private capital to finance an expansion and hire new workers.

• The legislation reduces the tax burden for small businesses by allowing them to carry back general business tax credits to offset their tax burdens from the previous five years. Small businesses will also be able to count the general business credits against the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), freeing up capital for expansion and job growth.

• This legislation raises the cap on small business loans to increase lending by $5 billion in the first year after enactment, and refinances commercial real estate debt into long-term, fixed-rate loans, provisions that are expected to be budget neutral and could create or save 200,000 jobs.

• Building on successful initiatives we put in place through the Recovery Act, by making simple and cost-effective changes to the SBA's two largest lending programs and to its microloan program, we were able to pump more than $20 billion into more than 40,000 businesses in our economy. This legislation calls for an extension of these lending provisions through December 31, 2010

Increase Small Businesses' Ability to Make Investments

• The legislation allows taxpayers to write-off more of the cost of purchases for their business, such as equipment and machinery, in the year the purchase is made. The legislation also expands the types of purchases that would qualify for special expensing to include some types of real property, such as leasehold, retail and restaurant improvements. When small businesses are able to deduct the cost of purchases more quickly, they have more cash on hand to create jobs.

Promote Entrepreneurship

• The legislation doubles the amount of start-up expenditures that may be deducted by someone starting a small business, making it easier for new businesses to open.

• The legislation increases resources to support the Office of the United States Trade Representative's small business export promotion and trade enforcement activities. These efforts help U.S. small business exports grow in foreign markets and ensure small businesses compete on a level playing field.

• The legislation allows self-employed individuals to deduct health insurance costs for purposes of paying the self-employment tax.

• This legislation improves the Small Business Administration's (SBA) trade and export finance programs, elevates the Office of International Trade within the SBA and adds export finance specialists to the SBA's counseling programs.

• This legislation establishes the State Export Promotion Grant Program (STEP), which would increase the number of small businesses that export.

• This legislation allows the SBA to waive or reduce the state-matching share of its funding requirement for up to one year to continue providing technical assistance to underserved communities to start and grow small businesses.

Promote Equity

• The legislation promotes tax fairness by preventing small businesses from incurring large tax penalties aimed at large corporations and wealthy individuals investing in tax shelters.

• This legislation removes the red tape and closes loopholes that too often put government work into the hands of multinational corporations, instead of Main Street businesses.

• This legislation makes clear that no single contracting program receives priority over another program when competing for federal contracts.

The legislation is fully paid, closes unintended tax loopholes and reduces the tax gap.

Youth Entreprenurship Academy Class I Graduation

Words cannot express how proud the Texas Business Alliance organization is of its Youth Entrepreneurship Academy® Class I. Beginning with 15 youths, 13 have been diligent through the seven-month entrepreneurial training program which began February 2010 and will end with a graduation ceremony on August 17, 2010, at the Hotel Derek. Dr. Farrah Gray (pictured left), entrepreneur, author, syndicated columnist and speaker, will deliver the commencement speech. Dr. Gray became a millionaire at the age of 14 and is the author of the bestselling book, "Reallionaire."

 

The 13 new business owners have all started businesses, have developed logos and business cards, are obtaining their DBAs, and currently are completing their business plans.

Look out world! The new business owners are:

• Ashura Bayyan, Aesthetic Liberty
• Xavier Boatwright, FAM Promotions
• Keith J. Davis Jr., 2010 Opportunity is Now Tour
• Patrick Fagan, Tropical Paradise Villas
• KeShawn George, Eanej
• Phillip E. Lopez, PEL ContempArts
• Lydia Martinez, Dream Styles by Lydia
• Faith Miller, Faithful Graphic Design & Photography
• Jacob Ollison, Hi-Rise
• Alexis Taylor, Crafted by Lexy
• Keris Williams, Asher Aurielle
• Kerry Willrich, Willrich Real Estate Group
• Jalen Wiseman, Wiseman Catering & Personal Chef

YEA selection criteria includes: the desire to pursue an entrepreneurial path; community and/or civic involvement, financial need and application completeness. 

Program modules include: the entrepreneur experience, role of entrepreneurs, key characteristics and skills, learning how to spot opportunities, idea generation, business plan creation, marketing, credit management, financial literacy/management, accessing funding, technology, life skills, and community involvement/volunteerism.


YEA is partly funded by an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant awarded by the Gulf Coast Community Services Association (GCCSA) to strengthen its Youth Entrepreneurship Academy® (“YEA”) program. Capital One Bank also is a valued Class I sponsor of YEA, as is Texas Southern University for graciously providing office space, via our host, the TSU Entrepreneur Club.

  Candidates interested in YEA Class II are encouraged to complete an application early. The qualifying application and official application are accessible from the TBA Web site: www.texasbusinessalliance.org (“YEA” page). An application also may be requested by calling 281.213.9554 or emailing info@texasbusinessalliance.org.

 

Sponsors are needed for the YEA graduation. If you are able to support YEA as a table sponsor or individual ticket purchaser, please call 281.213.9554 or email info@texasbusinessalliance.org.

The Right Lane, By Carla Lane, President and CEO, LaneStaffing, Inc.

Customer Service, ITS Your Edge

Bad customer service seems to everywhere!

Unmanned front desks, surly servers, clueless staff, employees talking on the phone, and managers who refuse to acknowledge a customer.

It's no longer an exception; poor service has become the norm.

In an all-too-typical scene, a customer walks into a retail store with a question about where to find a product.

The employee, who is busy and doesn't want to be bothered, gives the customer a curt answer and continues what she is doing without even looking the customer in the eye.

The customer persists, so, with obvious annoyance, the employee begrudgingly turns around and points the customer in the general direction of the product's location. Instead of buying the product, the customer leaves the store, frustrated, vowing to never return.

Most business owners and employees recognize this as a classic example of bad customer service. And yet, this scene is repeated every day. Negativity breeds negativity, and eventually, nobody is happy. One of the single most important aspects of a successful business is good customer service. Studies show that a typical business only hears from 4 percent of its dissatisfied customers. The other 96 percent quietly go away. Of this 96 percent, 68 percent never reveal their dissatisfaction because they perceive an attitude of indifference in the owner, manager or employee.

This statistic is particularly dangerous for businesses because if a dissatisfied customer can't express their complaints to a business, they'll express them through other outlets such as friends, neighbors and family.

A typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to ten people about their problem. One in five will tell 20. Further studies show, it takes 12 positive service incidents to make up for one negative incident. Seven out of ten complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favor. If you resolve it on the spot, 95 percent will do business with you again.

These statistics speak to the importance of taking action. Often an employee perceives dissatisfaction in a customer, but chooses to ignore it and hopes that the problem will go away. However, if the customer then goes away with the problem, the customer will likely never return to the business. This trend is what hurts businesses more than anything.

We don't have the ability to keep people that are already happy with our product or service. The average business spends six times more to attract new customers than it does to keep old ones. Yet customer loyalty is in most cases worth 10 times the price of a single purchase.

The first step is recognizing tendencies toward bad customer service. But how do businesses improve their overall customer service? Below are some basic tips:

Like What You Do

If you don't love what you do, get the heck out. If you love what you do, it will be evident and people will know it. People who have a bad attitude about what they do will reflect their attitude onto everyone around them, including customers. Like most everything in life, good customer service always comes back to attitude.

If you believe your customers are a pain in the butt, guess what - you're right. What you say, what you do, and what you think are the same thing.

Learn to Adjust Your Perception
Because good customer service depends on a good attitude, a bad attitude will surely diminish any facade of friendliness. Employees should analyze what is causing their negative outlook and make a conscious effort to change, rather than cover it up with a false smile.

Establish Rapport

Customers will do business with people they like. Employees gain this approval by establishing rapport, or a positive connection, with a customer. Rapport can be established by simple gestures such as calling a customer by their name, recognizing mutual interests, asking questions, and making eye contact. The customer instantly recognizes the employee as someone who cares about their well-being, and is more likely to do business with the company.

Won't you spend more money to go to a car dealership where you've been treated well? Develop a genuine interest in and admiration for your customers. So what happens when an employee doesn't establish rapport? The customer automatically meets that employee with more suspicion, which leads to distrust, which leads to potential conflict.

Avoid a Standoff

Many times businesses find themselves locked in an argument with a complaining customer that becomes impossible to resolve. The way to prevent this is to avoid the argument in the first place. Step back, analyze where the customer is coming from, and form a solution from their standpoint, not yours.

Be Reliable, Be responsive and Be Credible

Local cable and utility companies are a prime example businesses that do not possess these qualities. When a customer calls up in need of service, they give vague ideas of when they'll be there ("sometime between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m."), sometimes don't show up at all, and are generally indifferent to customers' concerns. Because of this behavior, they have lost nearly all credibility in the public eye.

On the other hand, businesses such as Mercedes-Benz, Ritz Carlton Hotels, and Disneyland have all gained reputations for immaculate customer service, where employees are always nearby to cater to customers' every need at any time. These businesses gained this reputation with years of training their employees to put the customer first.

"The customer's perception is everything. People pay for peace of mind. They want security, integrity, and the assurance that if there is a problem, it will be promptly handled.

All of these tips come down to the platinum rule, or to "treat people like they want to be treated." This rule takes the Golden Rule a step higher, forcing the employee to assess exactly what the customer wants and act accordingly, not just act as they would want to act in the same situation.

Any attitude in good customer service fits in the "as if" clause. Always act "as if" you are the only personal contact that the customer has with the business, and behave "as if" the entire reputation of the business depends on you.

The 'as if' clause puts you where you need to be. The bottom line comes down to relationships and how you treat others.

Carla Lane, President and CEO, Lane Staffing, Inc.

Working Moms, can we really have it all?

Can we really have the life of our dreams? Loving husband, well behaved kids, thriving business? As women, we often struggle with feeling bad for not putting enough time into our business, or to the kids, or partner—or just as importantly, ourselves.

If you relate to this, you are in good company. Even our First Lady, Michelle Obama struggles with work/family balance and while campaigning for our president, was quoted by NPR as telling a mainly female audience: “I’m always living with the guilt that if I’m spending too much time at work, then I’m not giving enough time to my girls. And if I’m with my girls, then I’m not doing enough for work — or you name it. It’s a guilt that we all live with in this room. Can I hear an amen?”

Like many of my women friends and colleagues, I’ve tried on varying sizes of career and motherhood at different times. I have a husband who is a wonderful father and a true parenting partner. I love my kids and I don’t regret one moment I spent with them instead of chasing career goals. I love my job and owning a business and feel as if I am walking in my purpose. I am very much grateful for all of these blessings and don’t want to come off as a complainer. BUT!! I am so tired of trying to do it all.

It’s very much like riding a playground seesaw. Sitting in midair with feet dangling, knowing how careful you need to be to maintain that all important teetering balance. The slightest move could send you catapulting skyward or crashing down. The only difference is our attempts at achieving balance centers around the workplace instead of the playground. Balance is not a steady state of being. It's a position one can maintain only through constant vigilance.

So back to the initial question, “Working Moms, can we really have it all?” Of course you can! The question is, “Can you really have all it all at the same time?”
I didn’t know how to verbalize my philosophy until I had a moment of epiphany. Oprah calls it an “Aha! Moment”. While reading a book about a woman struggling and failing to juggle family and work it occurred to me, the secret is not more hours in the day, or cloning (wouldn’t that be wonderful?) but, to just be the best you can be each day and to say, “NO!” We can’t do everything or be everything to everyone.

For most of us, it is the hardest thing in the world is to say: “I’m going to do my best and I’m going to keep the long term in mind and know that it’s not always going to be this hard to balance. I just have to get through it, and know it does get easier as the kids get older.”

Focus on what you want and figure out how you want your life to be. Then choose the action or actions that lead to your goal. One of my goals is to have a daughter who feels good about herself. Her grades are tied very closely to her confidence. Thus, no matter what WE study together and Thursday nights are spent drilling spelling words.

No matter what all important mixer is scheduled for Thursday, if on Wednesday at bed time she has not mastered each word, then alternative plans have to be made for the mixer. Maybe I spend only an hour at the mixer or instead of personally attending I send a member of my staff. But we will know each word by bed time on Thursday. It’s important to her, so it’s important to me.

At the heart of the work/family balance challenge is regret. Every choice leads to action and inaction. Sometimes those actions benefit our families more than our careers. Other times we put our lives and families on hold and focus on work. But instead of focusing on balance, perhaps we should consider regret and making decisions that we don’t regret.

Maybe the more relevant questions are these:


• In the long run, what decisions will lead to greater regret?
• Will there ever come a time in my life when I look back on a given decision and wish I had a do-over?
• What can I do now to minimize regret down the road?

My best advice is to keep your eye on the long run and know that if you have to say no to something, you have to say no. I have to remind myself of this often, when I’m feeling guilty about some phone call I didn’t return or email I failed to read. We have to let go of the guilt! And I am first to admit letting go can be tough, due to unrealistic societal expectations and unrealistic expectations we have of being “Super Woman”. Letting go means that we acknowledge what we accomplished at the end of the day and let go of the rest.

For me, sometimes closing the deal takes precedence over a homemade dinner. Always, my daughter’s volleyball games, my son’s soccer games and listening to my husband’s long stories over margaritas at Pappasitos usurp the networking mixer. I don’t have it all, all of the time. But the parts I do have ... mean everything!

By Tracy Taylor-Smith

The inaugural year for the TBA was indeed groundbreaking and successful! The TBA organizational foundation was established, great partnerships were developed, and the small business community gained a new advocate. While some may look at the year 2009 as a challenging year, I say the economic slowdown gave the small business community an opportunity to improve their craft and services. I say the past year gave us time to examine our goals and priorities. So, don’t look back and ponder what happened last year, let’s move forward to greatness!

In 2010 and beyond, I ask that we commit to working together to increase spending with small businesses and MWBEs; commit to building new, and trusting, relationships; commit to working in the community to develop our youth and future stakeholders; commit to improving our civic relationships and diversity programs; commit to operating our businesses with integrity and transparency; commit to developing our employees and encouraging them to be the best; and commit to providing excellent customer service.

TBA has the programs, training opportunities, and the support system that we need to assist us with our business goals and commitments. We cannot be satisfied with minimal contract gains and mediocre service levels. We must continue to strive to become prime contractors and emerging corporations who deliver quality products and services with excellence. In order to accomplish this, we must continue to develop ourselves and our companies. Let’s engage ourselves in the benefits and programs that the TBA has created for the MWBE and small business community.

I am truly excited to be a part of the TBA, and honored to work as the TBA Chair for this term. As the new chairperson for the TBA, I am challenging us to move beyond networking; on to growing business relationships, opportunities and contracts, healthy and profitable companies, and fruitful succession plans.

Please join me and the TBA Board of Directors as we move this fantastic organization to the next phase of greatness!