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Hawai'`i SmallBiz Week Newsletter from The Business Research Library (BRL) |
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| OF THE HAWAI`I
SMALL BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT CENTER
NETWORK A Partnership Program between the University of Hawai`i at Hilo and the U.S. Small Business Administration | ||
| 27 Oct. 1998 | A Summary of News for Small Business in Hawai`i | Vol. 2 - Issue 16 |
HAWAI`I
•WebNet World Conference 1999 Coming to Hawai`i
•Maui County Code Online
•Hawaii Company, PER, Inc., Wins National SBA Award
•Hawai`i Ranks Worst O Small Business Survival Index
NATIONAL
•68% of America's Fastest-Growing Firms Use Business Plans
•Most Available Employee Benefit Is Time Off
•Survey Reveals Marketing As A Small Business Weakness
•Small Business Needs Tips For Pitching To InvestorsINTERNATIONAL
•(No International story in this issue)
HAWAI`I
WEBNET WORLD CONFERENCE 1999 COMING TO HAWAI`I
WebNet, October 30 - November 4 1999 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village,
Honolulu, Hawai`i, is organized by the Association for the Advancement of
Computing in Education (AACE) and hosted by the University of Hawai`i. This
annual conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the exchange
of information on research, development, and applications of all topics
related to the Web. Proposal submissions for papers, panels, tutorials,
workshops demos/posters, corporate sessions, and special interest groups
are due by February 5, 1999. While there are Keynote and Invited Speeches
delivered by internationally recognized technology experts, WebNet is more
of a particpatory event where attendees play an important, interactive role,
offering valuable feedback and insight gained from their own experiences.
Although WebNet encourages commercial participation, it is not a trade show,
and there is not an exhibition. Instead, the conference uniquely relates
and displays commercial activities throughout the WebNet program in the
form of Corporate Sessions and other presentations by companies.
(AACE, www.aace.org/conf/webnet/call99.html)
MAUI COUNTY CODE ONLINE
Maui County Council Chairman Pat Kawano recently announced that the
Maui County Code is now available on the Internet at www.bpcnet.com/codes/maui.
The online code contains a table of contents and a search engine. Kawano
commented that providing the county's ordinances on the Internet helps to
make government more accessible.
(Maui News, 17 October 1998)
HAWAII COMPANY, PER INC., WINS NATIONAL SBA AWARD
Per Inc., a Honolulu general contracting company headed by Eric Soto,
was recently honored as the U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBAs)
National 8(a) Graduate of the Year. The 8(a) program is the SBA's business
development intitiative that helps disadvantaged firms attain viability
in the economic mainstram. There are more than 6,000 small businesses enrolled
as participants. According to Mr. Soto, the financial and developmental
assistance extended to PER by the SBA made a signficant contribution toward
the success of the company. The firm has worked on many high-profile projects,
including a major renovation of Hawaii's Straub Medical Center, which resulted
in substantially lower utility costs. In addition to general contracting,
PER is heavily involved with the sintallation of large-scale automatic fire
sprinkler systems.
(SBA Press Release, 21 September 1998)
HAWAI`I RANKS WORST ON SMALL BUSINESS SURVIVAL INDEX
Hawai`i ranks worst among the 50 states in terms of the Small Business
Survival Index, following Oregon and Minnesota. South Dakota, Wyoming, and
Nevada topped the list, in that order. According to the Small Business Survival
Foundation, Hawaii’s lone benefits are the lack of a death tax beyond
the federal pick-up level and fairly low property taxes. On the other hand,
Hawai`i imposes the highest personal income and capital gains taxes, high
sales levies, extremely high unemployment, health insurance and electric
utilities taxes, high workers’ compensation costs (going from bad to
worse over the period 1986 to 1995), and a very high crime rate. The Small
Business Survival Foundation is the research and educational arm of the
Washinton, D.C.-based Small Business Survival committee, a nonprofit, nopartisan
small-business organization. The report can be found its entirety at www.sbsc.org/sbsi/welcome.html#highlights.
68% OF AMERICA'S FASTEST-GROWING FIRMS USE BUSINESS
PLANS
Cooper's & Lybrand's recent survey of rapid growth firms indicate
that two-thirds of rapid growth firms have written business plans. Coopers
& Lybrand's "Trendsetter Barometer" survey interviewed CEOs
of 441 product and service companies identified in the media as the fastest
growing U.S. businesses over the last five years. The surveyed companies
ranged in size from approximately $1 million to $50 million in revenue/sales.
Half of these CEOs say their comapnies are recognized as high tech firms.
Growth firms with a written business plan have increased their revenues
69 percent faster over the past five years than those without a written
plan. Those with written plans use them to manage more business functions.
In addition, over the past two years, firms with written business plans
achieved a far higher proportion of revenues from new products or services.
It was also found the CEOs value their plans and tend to keep them current.
The plan's importance increases as the company grows and becomes more complex
to manage. For more information, see www2.us.coopers.com/eas/trendset/172.html.
(Coopers & Lybrands's Trendsetter Barometer, 4 February 1998)
MOST AVAILABLE EMPLOYEE BENEFIT IS TIME-OFF
Time-off for recreation and other purposes was the most frequently available
employee benefit for full-time employees in small private industry establishments
in 1996, according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. Four-fifths of full-time employees
received paid vacations and holidays. One-half received paid sick leave,
and more than one-fourth received another form of short-term disability
protection in addtion to, or in lieu of, paid sick leave. About 2 out of
3 full-time employees participated in employer-sponsored medical benefit
plans. Medical benefits, retirement plans, and life insurance were often
available, but less prevalent. These and other findings are available from
the fourth Employee Benefits Survey (EBS) of small establishments in private
industry. The 1996 survey covered 39.8 million full-time and 14.1 million
part-time employees in private establishments with fewer than 100 workers.
These workers reprsented just over one-half of all employees in
the private nonagricultural sector. More information available at http://stats.bls.gov:80/news.release/ebs.nws.htm.
(U.S. Dept. of Labor Press Release, 15 June 1998)
SURVEY REVEALS MARKETING AS A SMALL BUSINESS WEAKNESS
According to a recent survey by Dun & Bradstreet, entrepreneur's
are doing a poor job of marketing their businesses. The survey found few
small businesses use formal marketing tools to identify new opportunities.
Only about half prequalify customers and prospects. Word-of-mouth marketing
and
referrals remain their primary marketing means and most do not use unsolicited
e-mail and Web site marketing. Most small businesses react to customer inquries
rather than to practively reach out to prospects. Only one in five small
businesses strategically plan how to market its products
and services. One problem is that small businesses, with their limited resources,
pursue too many opportunties, instead of developing a more targeted approach.
Companies using formal techniques, such as market research and market-share
analysis to identify new markets, are in the minority. (Entrepreneur
Magazine, September 1998)
SMALL BUSINESS NEEDS TIPS FOR PITCHING TO INVESTORS
Norm Brodsky tells Inc. readers what investors expect when a small business
makes an investment pitch. In the business plan, investors expect to see
how much they can expect to make on their investment. Investors do not want
to invest in furniture, equipment or other fixed assets. They want
to take advantage of leverages, i.e. leasing rather than owning. Investors
do not like to see that the small business is planning on keeping some of
the investment for themselves, rather small businesses should make sure
the investor gets their investment back first. Figure out the investor's
"investment plateau" (a level at which they are willing to investment)
before approaching and come in as close to that plateau as possible or risk
a rejection. Plan the investment strategy and research the market and the
investor. Include four or five longshots in the list of potential investors.
Learn from the rejections and use it to strengthen your business plan and
improve your presentation.
(Inc., October 1998)