HCC to Offer Entrepreneur Essentials this Fall

Those who have toyed with the idea of opening their own business may find the motivation they need to get started with the help of Heartland Community College's Entrepreneur Essentials program.

Entrepreneur Essentials at Heartland Community College is a vocational training program that focuses on a person's dreams, interests and abilities. Through experiential classroom learning and the development of a targeted support structure, students in Entrepreneur Essentials will prepare for the expectations, issues and responsibilities associated with organizational management and business ownership. The program concentrates on market research and projections, money management and financial planning, business and tax structures, insurance, marketing and mentoring. Students who complete the course will have created a business plan that they are able to take to banks or loan institutions in order to make owning their own business a reality. In addition, students will benefit from small class sizes, individual attention, professional networking, laptop loans, and HCC and local support during and after program.

Entrepreneur Essentials meets from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays for 16 weeks beginning August 20. Classes will be held at Heartland's Normal campus, located at 1500 W. Raab Rd. The fee for the course is $425, and scholarships are available for eligible individuals.

Enrollment is limited, so interested individuals are encouraged to call (309) 268-8048 right away to apply.

For more information about Heartland Community College, visit www.heartland.edu.

GLCEDC Hosts Unemployment Insurance Workshop

In conjunction with the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES), the GLCEDC is hosting a Unemployment Insurance Workshop to assist local businesses with employment programs and so much more including: 

• ”How To” Guide to completing the UI Protest Form with a subject matter expert
• Work Opportunity Tax Credits From $2,400 up to $9,000 for each individual new hire
• Illinois Labor Market Information
•  Role Plays of Actual Cases of unemployment hearings and provides an awareness of the hearing process
• Illinois Job Link Labor Exchange System is an internet database designed for both the employers and employees to find jobs/candidates that meet their criteria for employment
• Benefits of Employing Illinois Veterans
• New Employee Fidelity Bonding Program
• Re-Entry Employment Services Program and Reducing Recidivism in Illinois

It will be held at the Elks Club Conference Room in Pontiac on Wednesday, May 16th.  Registration begins at 8:00am, and the program itself is from 8:30am - 11:30am.  Continental breakfast will be served.  The cost is $10, and you can RSVP at 815-842-2900 before May 7th.

Free Webinar this Friday

FRIDAY: Webinar Promotes Rural Small Business Development
White House Rural Council Members Delta Regional Authority & Appalachian Regional Commission Highlight Efforts to Promote Job and Economic Growth in Rural America

REGISTER NOW Webinar on Rural Small Business Development Friday, August 26, 2011 2:00 PM - 2:45 PM EDT John Fernandez, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, U.S. Economic Development Administration Chris Masingill, Federal Co-Chairman, Delta Regional Authority Earl Gohl, Federal Co-Chairman, Appalachian Regional Commission

On Friday, August 26, 2011, White House Rural Council members, Delta Regional Authority and Appalachian Regional Commission, will join U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fernandez for a webinar to discuss strategic efforts to promote rural small business development. President Obama signed an Executive Order in June establishing the first White House Rural Council to ensure Federal resources are being coordinated across the government to strengthen rural communities and accelerate growth. Last week, the President announced a series of initiatives that leverage existing programs and funding to help small businesses and to meet other critical needs in rural communities.

The GLCEDC will host a viewing of this webinar. All are welcome to watch it at our new office located at 210 W. Water St. in Pontiac. Please email larry@glcedc.org to RSVP.

Business a Little Slow Today? Offer an Instant Coupon!

Many businesses have now realized that email is an old and unreliable way of generating sales. In our world of instant communication and gratification, we need to reach our customers where they live - next to their cell phones. Here is a link to a service that offers you the ability to put coupons in your customers' pockets instantly via text messages. Check it out.

http://coupontext.com/

Coupon Text |

coupontext.com

Coupon Text delivers highly targeted text message marketing to small businesses. Our mobile marketing campaigns draw better results than other forms of advertising.

Get "Back to Business" School with GLCEDC

Get in the "back to school" spirit this August by participating in the Annual "Biz Ed" Series sponsored by the GLCEDC. Hosted every Tuesday in August at 4pm in the Farm Bureau offices (901 W. Howard Street, Pontiac), this seminar series covers all the business basics and more.

This year's line-up includes:

• Business Planning: Creating a Business Plan That Gets Financed (August 2nd)


• HR 101: Small Business Basics (August 9th)


• Building an Online Presence: Simple Website Development & Marketing (August 16th)


• Fast Financials: Finance Tools to Grow Your Business (August 23rd)


• Patent Pending: Protecting Your Work with a Patent (August 30th)

Available at No Charge to Livingston County residents, the "Biz Ed" Series features key speakers from the local business community and engaging learning opportunities for entrepreneurs and current business owners. Join the GLCEDC and other sponsoring members like SCORE, Caterpillar Inc, Creative Ag Solutions, Champion Fitness and EVT Global for free educational seminars focusing on the fundamentals of building a better business.

RSVP to attend by contacting Colleen O'Toole, Economic Development Specialist, at (815)842.2900 or email colleen@glcedc.org. Look for updates on the "Biz Ed" Series and other educational opportunities by visiting our Facebook page!

Free Business Counseling

The GLCEDC has partnered with the Small Business Administration's SCORE program to offer free business planning and counseling to local entrepreneurs. Currently, our area is being served by the McLean County Office. A counselor works out of our office in Pontiac every 3rd Wednesday of the month from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Feel free to stop in or call 815-842-2900 to schedule an appointment. You can find more information about SCORE by visiting their website.

Eventually, we would like to have our own SCORE program for Livingston County. If you have an interest in assisting local entrepreneurs succeed, please consider volunteering with SCORE. SCORE needs individuals to assist in all facets of business including accounting, human resources, planning, sales, and marketing. Please contact us if you would like to discuss this opportunity further.

Now Available - Illinois Small Business Tax Credit

Small Business Tax Credit now available

Small businesses that grow by creating a new position now through June 30, 2011, are likely to be eligible for the Small Business Job Creation Tax Credit. The web site at http://JobsTaxCredit.illinois.gov is an easy-to-use site for small businesses to register and apply for the tax credit without leaving the office - it also contains the statute, an FAQ and has contact information for further questions.

Free Business Advising with SCORE

The GLCEDC will be hosting office hours with SCORE on Wednesday, June 23 from 9am - noon. Central Illinois SCORE is part of SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business," a national nonprofit association dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth and success of the nation's small businesses.

Central Illinois SCORE provides free and confidential business advice and counseling tailored to meet the needs of your small business and your personal objectives. SCORE volunteers are real-world professionals with time-tested knowledge who donate thousands of hours to help small businesses succeed. Counselors are experts in such areas as accounting, finance, marketing, management and business plan preparation.

If you are a small business owner or thinking about starting a business in Livingston County and are interested in SCORE advising, please call our office 815-842-2900 or email amy@glcedc.org to set up an appointment for June 23. If you cannot make the June 23 date please let us know that you are interested and we'll work out additional dates. Also, please review the information entitled "Planning Your Session" on the SCORE website before your advising appointment.

Small Business Tax News and Training Opportunities

The Illinois legislature recently passed and signed into law the Small Business Job Creation Tax Credit. This tax credit applies to businesses that employ 50 or less full-time employees as of June 30, 2010. If your business meets that qualification and creates a new, full-time position after July 1, 2010, which pays at least $25,000 annually, you business can receive a $2500 tax credit against withholding taxes beginning July 1, 2011. The credit is available on a first-come, first-serve basis through an online application that will launch July 1. Please follow this link for more information.


Also, the Illinois Department of Employment Security is offering workshops throughout the state in June, and August regarding Unemployment Insurance and the Work Opportunity Tax Credit. Please take advantage of these workshops if they apply to you.

The Healthcare Bill and Small Businesses

I recently ran across several articles that may help small business owners better understand how the Healthcare bill may affect their businesses.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) Implementation Timeline - The Healthcare bill involves taxes and obligations that will come in to effect over the next several years. This article provides a concise timeline of events. It is important to remember that the provisions passed on March 23, 2010 could change based on the Reconciliation Bill that is currently being considered by Congress.

Health Reform Bill: Provisions Applicable to Small Business - This article provides information on the Healthcare bill's provisions that will directly affect small businesses. It also includes a lengthy quote from the Chairwoman of the Senate's Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Blogs for Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

The blog world can be daunting. Who really has the time to sift through all of it? But taking a few minutes every couple of days to look through some helpful blogs could be useful for you. I've recently found three blogs that you may find useful if you run (or would like to run) a small business:


Small Business Trends One of the best features of this blog is the daily "Small Business News" article. The folks at Small Business Trends keep an eye on all of the other blogs and websites out there for business owners and summarizes the day's news, tips, and training opportunities. That way you don't have to go out searching for things.


Small Biz Survival This blog is specifically for small business owners in rural areas. The blog is run by a small business owner in Oklahoma. It is especially good for those in the tourism industry.


The Wall Street Journal: Small Business This site provides a lot of good national information for small business owners. It provides practical advice and case studies of small businesses. The current headline is "The Best Tax Breaks for Small Business" so be sure to check it out this month.


Lastly, one way that I keep track of the blogs and websites is to put them in my Google Reader account. All you need to do is set up a free account and google will walk you through the process. Another hint with google reader: you can add Google Alerts with your company's name to your Google Reader account. This will allow you to get all the information about what is being said about your business online.


I hope this was helpful! Please feel free to leave us a comment or send me an email (amy@glcedc.org) about what we could post that would be helpful to you. Also, don't forget to subscribe to this blog and updates will be sent to you directly.

Info for the wanna-be entrepreneur

The University of Nebraska Extension has established a series of video podcasts for entrepreneurs and small business owners. The series is videoed and can be viewed here. Some of the videos are specific to the business environment in Nebraska, but many apply anywhere. Topics include:

• Attracting venture capital
• Making your small company appear big
• Tips for hiring your first employee
• Networking basics
• Ag entrepreneurship

The following video is entitled "How to Become an Entrepreneur" and gives advice for those thinking about starting their own business. Follow the links for more video podcasts.


How To Become An Entrepreneur from NxBizSuccess on Vimeo.

Updates to the GLCEDC Business Assistance Page

I've recently added quite a bit of information to the Business Assistance page of the GLCEDC website. The information on this page is intended to help with the practical side of starting and running your business. Some of the information includes:

• A handbook for starting your business in Illinois
• Links to management guides from the Illinois Entrepreneurship Network and Small Business Development Centers
• Business Planning Assistance
• Information and templates from SCORE
• Links to free Google programs for small businesses

Information regarding financing, training, and additional resources are available on the For Entrepreneurs page of the GLCEDC website.

Educational Opportunities This Winter

The following classes are available for all those running a small business or thinking of starting a small business. Many of these classes are free or charge a small fee.

ISU Small Business Development Center Seminar: Starting Your Business in Illinois

SCORE seminar: Mastering QuickBooks

Bradley University Turner Center for Entrepreneurship: variety of seminars for small
business owners or those thinking of starting a small business

Free Business Tax Seminars through the Illinois Department of Revenue

Please go to the GLCEDC Calendar page for more information and links to registration.

IRS Virtual Workshop: Small Businesses and Self Employed

The IRS has developed a virtual workshop for small business owners and self employed individuals. The virtual workshop includes 9 lessons that will help you navigate your complicated tax forms. Because it is a an virtual workshop, you can skip to the lessons that apply to you.

Follow the link to begin: www.tax.gov/virtualworkshop

Academic Earth

AcademicEarth.org is a great website for viewing lectures given by professors at some of America's top universities. The website includes a wonderful section on Entrepreneurship. The following video is an example of a lecture available on this site. Please go to AcademicEarth.org and view the "Subjects" tab for more lectures on a variety of different subjects that can be viewed for free.

Watch it on Academic Earth

Myths Of Owning A Small Business

In 2007, Anand Sanwal was managing a $50 million innovation fund for American Express. His job: to identify and incubate new business ideas--and that meant doing gobs of market research, much of it on small, closely held companies. One problem: Public information on private companies was scarce, and the data that did exist wasn't in much of a structured, useful format.

Sanwal knew he wasn't the only one looking for that kind of information. So he and some partners launched Manhattan-based CB Information Systems to do just that. The company's Web-based software, marketed under the name ChubbyBrain (www.chubbybrain.com), trolls the Web for data on private companies--what they do, who is buying and selling them and for how much. "We are all engineers who went to business school, so we thought we had what was an elegant, logical and robust plan," says Sanwal, 35. "We were pretty happy with ourselves."

But no matter what the textbooks say, having a great idea and a solid business plan often aren't enough. To fund the software development, Sanwal was banking on income from a few consulting gigs inspired by a book he had written on corporate-resource allocation. Sanwal had gotten roughly $2 million in verbal agreements from CEOs or CFOs at three large financial-service companies. Then the stock market tanked and the deals were put on hold.

With no backup plan, Sanwal dipped into his savings and cobbled a bunch of smaller consulting engagements to keep his dream alive. Larger deals (the paying kind) followed. Now ChubbyBrain competes with Dow Jones and Thomson in tracking venture activity, and plans to roll out a line of new private-company data products in 2010. While stronger for the experience, Sanwal says the hard lesson still lingers: "A deal is not closed until the ink dries, no matter how many assurances you have from the other party."

For the 11 Myths, follow the link.

(Source: Forbes.com)

New Small Business Planning Tool from IRS

Retirement Plan Navigator

The Internal Review Service has created a new web-based tool, the "Retirement Plan Navigator," to help small business owners. You can find it at http://www.retirementplans.irs.gov/.

The navigator guides small business owners in three areas: choosing a plan, maintaining a plan, and correcting a plan. The navigator includes a side-by-side comparison of pension plans and their requirements to help small business owners choose the one that best fits their situation. The navigator also provides a checklist and suggested resources to help employers keep their retirement plans in compliance with the law.

The IRS will update the navigator as pension laws and regulations change.

(Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy)

Small Business Advice from Investors

Bob Jacoby is a business startup investor in Texas. He offers some advice to entrepreneurs:

Make your idea work on the small scale first, then you can grow from there.



(Source: Small Biz Survival 10/23/09)

Website Tools

Increasingly the best and easiest way to get information about your business or organization to Livingston County residents is through the internet. I recently ran across a very helpful website that gives information and advice for economic development websites, but I think the information can be useful for businesses and organizations in Livingston County as well. Here are some of the main points:

1. Content Architecture
Whoever is in charge of website content needs to start out with a content plan. The contents of the website should be organized into logical and practical sections. It is important to organize information that will best serve your customers and community members. A disorganized website with broken links is one good way to scare off visitors to your website.

2. Searches
More than half of all internet users use search engines (google, yahoo, etc.) to find information on the internet. There are a few things you can do to make sure that your business or organization is first on the search lists. Most searches consist of one or two words, so it is important to anticipate what words your visitors will use to search for your website. Make sure that you use those words often throughout your website. For example, if you are an insurance company, you need to have a high density of the word "insurance" throughout your website. If you think visitors will search by location and you are located in Flanagan, for example, you should have the word "Flanagan" or "Flanagan, IL" in various places throughout your website. Another factor can be the number of links between your website and other relevant websites. To illustrate, main street organizations in the county will have a higher search engine ranking if they are linked with other main street organizations in the area.

3. Make it easy and quick
The average time that someone spends on the GLCEDC website is 2 minutes and 53 seconds. We have that much time to get visitors the information we want them to have. The easiest way to direct visitors to important information is through navigation menus. Menus should be visible and uncluttered. Fold-out menus that allow customers to scan through page options is a good, time saving idea. Menu titles should be short, clear, and describe exactly what information the visitor will find by clicking on it.

Lastly, remember to update your content frequently. New, interesting content will keep you on the minds of customers and community members. You can make simple changes like updating pictures or news articles once a week to keep your website looking fresh and up to date.

For more information about building and maintaining a dynamic website follow this link.