NEW YORK (AP) — Ryan Lemire‘s company isn’t waiting to see if federal budget cuts are going to hurt the software and high-tech consulting business. It’s finding new customers.

Geocent gets 85 percent of its business from contracts with the Navy, Air Force and Department of Veteran Affairs. The company always has done business with non-government clients, but the possibility that its revenue could be cut if automatic federal spending cuts take effect on Friday, made it work on diversifying its customer base even more. The company stepped up its sales efforts to companies and has won new accounts with health care, financial and insurance companies. Among the products Geocent is selling to companies is software to manage employee benefits.

“We’ve just put a little more emphasis on it in the face of the uncertainty,” says Lemire, executive director of the Charleston, S.C. operations for Geocent, which is based in Metairie, La.

Many small businesses that have contracts with the government are looking for new business elsewhere to blunt the impact of $85 billion in federal budget cuts slated to begin March 1. Researchers at George Mason University, which is located in Northern Virginia, the home of many government contractors, released a forecast of the possible nationwide impact of the cuts and warned that more than 157,000 jobs could be lost at small business contractors.

Many contractors have already been feeling the pain. The cuts are the result of a bill that Congress passed in August 2011, mandating the cuts if lawmakers couldn’t agree to reduce the budget. Federal agencies already have cut back their spending in anticipation of the cuts.

For defense contractors, the impending cuts are particularly troubling because they’re coming on top of an expected drop in defense spending as the U.S. withdraws troops from Afghanistan. Companies with Pentagon contracts began feeling the pinch of impending budget cuts late last year. The Department of Defense cut its spending more than 22 percent during the fourth quarter. While part of that drop was due to troop withdrawals, Small Business Administration head Karen Mills told reporters last week that in December, contracts were put on hold because of the expected budget cuts.

“Small businesses suffered a large part of that,” she said.

While Martha Lou “ML” Mackey’s company waits to see if her federal contracts are slashed starting Friday, she’s seeking new customers to make up for the revenue Beacon Interactive Systems stands to lose.

Beacon, which gets 90 percent of its revenue from the federal government supplying information management software to the Navy that helps keep ships ready for their missions, decided before the current budget impasse to take the software it developed for the Navy and sell it to manufacturers and other companies.

“We were already on that path, and I can assure you we are heartily embracing that path,” Mackey says. Beacon, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., is early in the process of seeking new customers. Selling to a company requires a marketing plan that’s different from the government.

“Everything is different: How you record sales, how you price things,” Mackey says.

Budget cuts are expected to have a huge impact on small business, with 956,000 jobs lost at companies across the country, according to the study last year by George Mason University and the economic forecasting firm Chmura Economics and Analytics. That includes contractors and subcontractors, their suppliers and companies like retailers that cater to their employees. The study did not estimate how much revenue small businesses might lose due to the cuts.

It’s not known how many small businesses are federal contractors. The SBA roughly estimates there are more than 130,000. The George Mason researchers forecast that more than 81,000 jobs could be lost at small businesses that contract with the Pentagon, and another 76,000 could be lost at companies with contracts at other federal agencies.

Laurie Moncrieff has been developing products at her company, Adaptive Manufacturing Solutions, to increase her sales outside of the government. The company, based in Burton, Mich. manufactures a variety of industrial products including fuel cells, alternative energy devices that use hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity. It also manufactures medical equipment and has created a product to help maintain skating surfaces for ice rinks — a competitor to the Zamboni machines that are used at hockey games.

Moncrieff is less dependent than many other small business owners on the government, since 30 percent of her revenue comes from contracts, primarily from the Pentagon and the Department of Energy. Her business from government contracts fluctuates — last year, it was 20 percent of her revenue. But she’s still worried that it might plunge with the impending cuts.

“It could drop down to 2 percent after this contract is up if I don’t win another,” Moncrieff says. “I have several that are up in the air that we thought would be awarded no later than February, but we know nothing.”

Prospecting for business with private companies can potentially replace revenue lost from the government, but there are challenges.

Applied Radar, a manufacturer of radar and sensing equipment, is trying to increase its sales to companies, but many of them are government contractors too, owner Bill Weedon says. Another problem is that selling to private companies tends to be less lucrative. They often buy older and cheaper components while the government has been purchasing brand new technology.

Applied Radar currently gets half its business from government agencies including the Army Research Laboratory. The North Kingstown, R.I.-based company has already been hit hard by federal budget cuts. Its revenue is half of what it was two years ago, and Weedon doesn’t know what impact the impending cuts will have on his company.

“What we’ve been told is to just buckle down, there’s no easy solution, nothing’s going to happen very quick,” Weedon says.

The End of the “Made-In-China” Era

The 21st century industrial revolution has already begun. All because of an incredible invention that’s made in America.

Business Insider calls it “the next trillion dollar industry.” The Economist compares its impact to the steam engine and the printing press. And technology experts — like the guys who brought you the BMW 3-series, the F-35 fighter jet, and Amazon.com — think it could be “bigger than the internet.”

A new investment video reveals the impossible (but real) technology that could make you impossibly rich. Watch it now, before the skeptics on Wall Street wise up and start looking for their piece of the action.

Click here to read the original article!

Source: Copyright PRNewswire-USNewswire 2012

Click here to read the original article

Local entrepreneurs didn’t let a little thing like the toughest economic recovery since World War II stand in the way of starting new businesses.

Despite the uncertainty in the economy, the owners of restaurants, coffee shops, and service firms that opened here over the past few years found myriad ways to finance their dreams.

They’ve had to be creative though, as banks pulled back on lending after real estate loan defaults led to losses on many banks’ balance sheets. Loans of less than $1 million from locally chartered banks, which primarily went to small businesses, fell each quarter in 2010 and so far this year. And only a very slim margin of those loans went to startups, according to Julie Stackhouse, senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Read the entire article here: http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/entrepreneurs-use-variety-of-financing-to-open-small-businesses/article_2eb2e3e0-1463-11e1-b0cc-0019bb30f31a.html#ixzz1g3XDt3hF

The Georgia Tech-based MBDA Business Center (MBC) received two awards from the Department of Commerce MBDA Atlanta National Enterprise Center at the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Southeast Regional Conference in Columbia, S.C. on July 12: one for a successful year of performance and another for being one of the top-performing centers that helped its client secure an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract during 2010.  With the assistance of the MBC, DoverStaffing, Inc., a 15-year-old firm specializing in project management, staffing and training for the public and private sectors, was selected for the SeaPort-e IDIQ with the U.S. Navy.  Worth more than $31 billion, this IDIQ provides a major growth strategy for DoverStaffing in the next five years.

Led by president and CEO Sanquinetta Dover, DoverStaffing has nine full-time internal employees and more than 200 full-time staff on contract nationwide.  In addition to receiving the IDIQ, DoverStaffing became one of only six firms to be awarded the Georgia Statewide Contract for Temporary Employees.  In 2010, this contract created 283 jobs in Georgia.

DoverStaffing is experiencing other successes, too.  In 2010, the company was second on the list of Atlanta’s fastest growing women-owned companies by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, received the 50 Powerful Minority Women in Business award and was featured by the U.S. Small Business Administration for its success as an 8(a) firm.  DoverStaffing is also highlighted in the spring 2011 edition of Professional Woman’s Multicultural Magazine. The MBDA Business Center continues to assist DoverStaffing in rebranding the company, building infrastructure capacity, executing projects, and securing opportunities and finance.

The annual MBDA Southeast Regional Conference provides an opportunity for agency and MBC staff to come together to network, receive training and celebrate their accomplishments.  Staff members from the MBDA Business Centers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and North Carolina attended the July conference.

Archie W. Ervin, Georgia Tech’s vice president for institute diversity, was the keynote speaker. Appointed to this role in January 2011, Dr. Ervin is charged with providing leadership to the diversity mission and functions of Georgia Tech and ensuring that the diversity goals and priorities of the institution are met at all levels. Other speakers included Patricia Hanes, regional director of the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Atlanta National Enterprise Center, who brought greetings from the MBDA and the Department of Commerce.

The following companies won awards for their accomplishments as minority business enterprises (MBEs) and the following individuals won awards for their contribution to the minority business community:

• Minority Manufacturer of the Year Award to Homestead Packaging Solutions for success in employing new and innovative techniques leading to increases in market share, job growth and customer satisfaction;
• Minority Global Technology Firm of the Year Award to Global Resource Management, Inc. for success in bringing new technologies to the global market to increase efficiencies and jobs;
• Minority Global Supplier Distributor of the Year Award to Carter Brothers for success in penetrating domestic and global markets;
• Distinguished Supplier Diversity Award to Kenneth L. Huff, Georgia Power Company, for successful business practices that significantly impact the growth and development of MBEs;
• Media Award to Pat Lottier, Atlanta Tribune, for notable success in advancing public awareness of the positive impact of MBEs on the global economy;
• Advocate of the Year Award to Gwendolyn Miles for accomplishments in advocating for MBEs as an economic force in the global economy.

The group also recognized Maria Mar Hill, an MBC business advisor, for her dedication to helping MBEs succeed. Hill has been with the Center since its inception in 2004 and is an integral part of the team.

Donna Ennis, MBC project director, announced the launch of MBC’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program (EIR), a new initiative that will allow MBC clients access to a successful entrepreneur on a regular basis. Mark Wilson, founder and former CEO of Ryla, Inc., was introduced as the first EIR. Wilson will serve as a high-level resource for MBC clients interested in improving access to capital, making their businesses more profitable, creating jobs and improving sustainability.

Formerly the Georgia Minority Business Enterprise Center (GMBEC), MBC began on April 1 as a cooperative agreement won by Georgia Tech for the third consecutive funding cycle. The Center is funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency and operated by Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute.

Final Regulations Will Strengthen 8(a) Business Development Program for Small Businesses

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration has published a package of final rules that will revise regulations to strengthen its 8(a) Business Development program to better ensure that the benefits flow to the intended recipients and help prevent waste, fraud and abuse.

The rules were published in The Federal Register and will become effective in 30 days on March 14, 2011.

The revisions are the first comprehensive overhaul of the 8(a) program in more than 10 years.  The regulations incorporate technical changes and substantive changes that mirror existing or new legislation enacted since the last revision in June 1998. 

 “The 8(a) Business Development Program is an effective tool for providing small businesses with support to help them compete for and win federal government contracts, and in turn put them in the best possible position to drive economic growth and create jobs,” SBA Administrator Karen Mills said. “Through public meetings held in cities throughout the country, SBA gained valuable input from members of the small business community on ways to strengthen the program to provide the best opportunities for eligible firms, while also stepping up efforts to combat waste, fraud and abuse.”

The rules cover a variety of areas of the program, ranging from clarifications on determining economic disadvantage to requirements on Joint Ventures and the Mentor-Protégé program. Some of the components of the 8(a) program that the revised regulations will affect include:

• Joint Ventures – requiring that the 8(a) firm must perform 40 percent of the work of each 8(a) joint venture contract that is awarded, including those awarded under  a Mentor/Protégé agreement, to ensure that these companies are able to build capacity;  
• Economic Disadvantage – providing more clarification on factors that determine economic disadvantage as it relates to total assets, gross income, retirement accounts and a spouse of an 8(a) company owner when determining the owner’s ability to access capital and credit;
• Mentor-Protégé Program – adding consequences for a mentor who does not provide assistance to their protégé, ranging from stop-work orders to debarment  
• Ownership and Control Requirements – providing flexibility on whether to admit 8(a) program companies owned by individuals with immediate family members who are owners of current and former 8(a) participants;
• Tribally-Owned Firms – requiring firms owned by tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, Native Hawaiian Organizations and Community Development Corporations to report benefits flowing back to their respective communities;
• Excessive Withdrawals – amending regulations on what amount is considered excessive as a basis for termination or early graduation from the 8(a) program; and
• Business Size for Primary Industry – requiring that a firm’s size status remain small for its primary industry code during its participation in the 8(a) program. 

 The SBA initially published the proposed rule on Oct. 28, 2009 and provided a 60-day comment period for the public to submit their comments.  Many businesses requested more time, so the SBA extended the comment period an additional 30 days, allowing the public to submit their comments by Jan. 28, 2010.  In addition to requesting written comments from the public, the SBA also embarked on a “Listening Tour” and hosted public meetings between December 2009 and January 2010 in 10 cities around the country: Albuquerque, N.M., Atlanta, Ga., Boston, Mass., Chicago, Ill., Dallas, Texas, Los Angeles, Calif., Miami, Fla., New York, N.Y., Seattle, Wash. and Washington, D.C.

 The SBA also conducted tribal consultations to gain further public input to the revisions in Albuquerque, Fairbanks and Anchorage, Alaska, and Seattle.  In total, the SBA received more than 2,500 individual comments from the public.

 The 8(a) program is a nine-year business development program for small businesses where the owner(s) fits the SBA’s criteria of being socially and economically disadvantaged and the same owners control the firm.  The 8(a) program helps these firms develop their business and provides them with access to government contracting opportunities, allowing them to become solid competitors in the federal marketplace.  It also provides specialized business training, counseling, marketing assistance and high-level executive development to its participants.  In FY09, small businesses received $18.6 billion in 8(a) contract dollars. 

 For more information about the revised 8(a) regulations, a compliance guide, and the 8(a) program, visit http://www.sba.gov/content/revised-8a-regulations or e-mail questions to:  vog.absnull@2DBa8.

Last week, Sens. Scott Brown, R-Mass.; Olympia Snowe, R-Maine; and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., unveiled a bill to repeal a mandate that federal, state and local governments with expenditures of more than $100 million withhold 3 percent of payments for products and services worth more than $10,000, including nonconfidential or classified contracts, grants to for-profit companies, and farm and Medicare payments. The requirement is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2012.

Sens. David Vitter, R-La.; Richard Burr, R-N.C.; James Inhofe, R-Okla.; Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.; and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., have introduced similar legislation.

Read entire story here.

In SBA Information Notice 5000-1188 (effective date December 9, 2010), SBA announced deadlines for submitting Small Business Jobs Act loan applications of December 15, 2010 (for loans submitted under non-delegated authority) and December 31, 2010 (for loans submitted under delegated authority). These deadlines were set assuming that SBA’s authority to make Small Business Jobs Act loans would expire, as scheduled, on December 31, 2010.

Since that announcement, SBA has seen an unprecedented increase in loan applications and approvals. During the week of December 12, SBA approved almost $1.5 billion in Small Business Jobs Act loans—the highest weekly volume since the agency began tracking weekly loan data, representing more loans approved in a single week than in an average month under the previously implemented Jobs Act loan enhancements.

As a result, the Transition Phase Indicator is now Yellow indicating the shrinking availability of funds and that the loan queue will be operational when funding runs out . Soon after the current funds are exhausted, the Transition Phase Indicator will be switched to Red indicating that no new applications are being accepted in the Loan Queues and loans already in the Loan Queues will be funded (as evidenced by receipt of an SBA loan number) as funds become available through cancellations of previously approved Small Business Jobs Act loans as long as authority remains to do so. The queue will change to Red when no new applications are being accepted under the Small Business Jobs Act.

The information on this web page and the links it contains will provide you with the information you will need to make an informed decision as to whether you want your loan application to remain in the SBA Loan Queue awaiting the possibility of funds becoming available as a result funding or you want to withdraw your application and re-submit it as a non- Small Business Jobs Act loan with all applicable fees and lower guaranty levels.

Read the entire article here: http://www.sba.gov/queue

http://www.sbconference.org

SOURCE U.S. Navy Program Executive Officers for Submarines, Aircraft Carriers, Integrated Warfare Systems, Ships, and Littoral and Mine Warfare

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/03/1955196/us-navy-hosts-small-business-conference.html#ixzz17zvuQSkQ