News, Events & Blog

Want your article posted here? Email submission to: info@mybatesville.org

Newsletter 3-19-2009

19-Mar-09 15:34

Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce Weekly Update: March 19 - March 25, 2009

Don't miss Business After Hours at White River Veterinary Clinic March 19th at 5pm

White River Veterinary Clinic will be hosting a Business after Hours on Thursday, March 19th, from 5pm-6:30pm at 105 Eagle Mountain Blvd. Refreshments, Door Prizes and networking with other professionals in Batesville are just a few things you will enjoy. Come out, meet other members, and catch up with others you have not talked to in a while!

Membership Event of 2009

The Membership Event was AWESOME to say the least, we had so many people get involve and volunteer there own time to make this event such a SUCCESS! So from The Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce to all of our Chairpersons, Team Captains, Team Members, and Runners and to each and everyone that had a hand in making this event what it was THANK YOU! We want to WELCOME all our New Members and THANK YOU for joining your Chamber of Commerce.

United Way Youth Board ART FAIR

Registration for the Art Fair will be from March 18-April 10. To register, please stop by the United Way office at the First Community Bank building. (Please do not bring your artwork to registration. You will receive information after you register concerning submitting your art.) Entry fees are $10 for all categories except youth. The youth entry fee is $5. Adult: Ages 23+; Sr. High: Grades 10-12; College: Ages 19-22; Jr. High: Grades 7-9; Youth: Grades K-6. Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place will be awarded in each division. Questions? Contact Kelly at 834-2100 or the United Way office at 793-5991.

Ozark Foothills FilmFest Announces 2009 Line-Up

Premiere of The River Within, Filmed Near Hardy, Among Highlights.

The 8th annual Ozark Foothills FilmFest will be held March 25-29 at a number of venues in Batesville. The festival celebrates the variety, creativity, and artistry of the independent cinema. Screenings will take place at Old Independence Regional Museum and on the campuses of the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville and Lyon College. For more information and a complete festival line-up and other relevant information you may visit www.ozarkfoothillsfilmfest.org or call 870-251-1189.

Membership e-Blast Service

Do you have something that you want to send out that is irregular or not something we include on our weekly updates? Send us an email of what you would like to notify the membership about and we will do our Membership Blast. The goal of the membership blast is to promote any job openings you may have, special promotions that you are running, or as emergencies dictate, information about lodging, or other pertinent info. This is a free service to you and we hope to promote more of what you are doing to others in an effort to keep our local economy moving!

5th Annual Mark Martin Fan Appreciation Days Thursday, April 9th & Friday, April 10th

April 9th Sprint Cup Champion TONY STEWART 3pm!

April 10th Championship Car owner RICK HENDRICK 10am!

April 10th NASCAR'S most popular driver DALE EARNHARDT JR. 2pm!

MARK MARTIN will be on site both days!

New this year Big Stage area for question & answer sessions with our guests each day also Sirius Radio, Nascar Now, Show Cars, Race Cars, Souvenir Rig's, & Tour Mark Martin Museum. For more information you can visit www.markmartinfordmercury.com or call 800-566-4461.

Liberty Tax Service supports the March of Dimes

On Friday, March 27th Liberty Tax at 2275 Harrison Street will be holding a special day for the March of Dimes. Make a donation of $50 or more to the March of Dimes and they will prepare and electronically file your personal/individual taxes for FREE...Yes I said FREE...they are accepting donations everyday by selling Liberty Tax Beanie Babies and asking everyone who has their taxes prepared if they would like to make a $1.00 donations. Liberty Tax knows that every dollar counts and when we put all those dollars together we can make a difference for babies.

Newsletter 3-12-2009

11-Mar-09 17:36

Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce Weekly Update: March 12 - March 18, 2009

The Chamber Wants Your Input

The Chamber of Commerce, in working to provide quality services to our Members, wants your input on the following services and your level of interest in them. As we work continuously to provide value to our Members for their investment, we want to be responsive to your needs and what you would like to see from us. The offerings are as follows:

Monthly e-Newsletter that would be viewable online and where you can print it off as well
Batesville Area Job Listing Members could post for a nominal fee jobs and job openings as they come available while also being able to view resumes.
Small Business Services Seminars, led by leading Chamber Members in various fields, to help our small businesses with various issues. (Please include what you would like to attend)
Other Anything not listed here that you would like us to provide.

Please email your feedback to Jonah Shumate, jonah.shumate@mybatesville.org, and let us know what you would like to see. We want to custom fit our Chamber to our Members, and want your input!

Don't miss Business After Hours at White River Veterinary Clinic March 19th at 5pm

Ozark Foothills FilmFest Announces 2009 Line-Up

Membership e-Blast Service

5th Annual Mark Martin Fan Appreciation Days Thursday, April 9th & Friday, April 10th

409 Vine - Letter From Jonah

03-Mar-09 16:59

The Chamber of Commerce hosted its 90th installment of our annual awards and membership luncheon on Monday and we heard a great presentation by a very talented economist, Jeff Collins. Jeff covered quite a bit of material and in all that he covered the one thing that stuck out to me is his hope that we are building back an economy that is not just going to perform over the next few years but that will be one that will perform for many, many years to come.

There are so many things going on right now that we keep hearing and watching that leave most of us scratching our heads. I think collectively we have some answers to the ills that face our country than we do not knowing what to do. We all know that what we need are jobs. Not just jobs with governmental agencies or construction jobs. While construction jobs are good, and this writer believes every job out there is honorable and needed, we need greater expansion of jobs and job creation in our country. That comes from small businesses, large businesses, and everyone in between. Our local economy in December saw higher than normal, in fact, some of the highest sales tax collections, in a very long time.

I believe this is something to take a hold of, to embrace, and to build on going for ward. What is also wonderful about our country is that not everything is dictated by Washington DC or even Little Rock. Our local economy can in many ways take care of itself, and should. I want to encourage each and every one of our valued Chamber Members to be Ambassadors to our own community, and to communities outside of here, and promote all that we have going on and going for us. Jeff talked in his presentation about how some of the diversity of Batesville has left us somewhat immune to the overall loses the country has seen. While that is the case, and while we still have those unemployed, we can spread that very same message in and around our community, and in other areas of the state.

As our positive attitudes return and the belief that I believe is here takes hold that locally we can work hard to stimulate our economy, I believe we can be ahead of the recovery curve. But now is a time for us all to come together as friends and neighbors, citizens and coworkers, and especially Arkansans to do all that we can to repair this economy we are in. Our individual efforts can collectively make a difference and I believe they will. Together our region will recover. Together we will get our economy back on track.

Sincerely,

Jonah Shumate
President & CEO
Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce

409 Vine - Small Business Scams

03-Mar-09 16:57

The Staff @ 409 Vine recieved the following dispatch about some troubling things coming out of the recent stimulus bill passed by Congress:

The ASU Small Business and Technology Development Center just received an e-mail from our Small Business Development Center National Information Clearinghouse (SBDCNet) concerning a new scam that has hit the Internet promising small businesses and individuals Obama Stimulus Checks AND Grants as part of the Federal Stimulus Package.

For $95 for the first month and $73 per month thereafter you can purchase "FREE" GRANT SOFTWARE" to get your share of the action. If you follow the ads you find pages with questionable advertising practices like fake blogs with fake comments and a fake "ads by google" all of these are attempts to relieve you of your money but you will never see any grant money or stimulus check. The economy has been hard on many small businesses in our area without being taken advantage of through this scam.

I am attaching a link to our SBDCNet website that provides the details about the scam at Scam Alert! There are No Obama Stimulus Checks or Grants that will provide you with more information.

To date the new stimulus bill DOES NOT include any tax refunds like we saw last spring/summer. What the new stimulus bill WILL DO IS put more money into existing programs to build infrastructure. Yes there will be some new grant money in the package BUT most of it is going to existing programs and to state or local organizations that already have grants or grant programs. Bottom line is that there NO GRANTS for small business start up or bail out.

The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center Network is in the process of developing seminars around the state for small businesses to learn about legitimate opportunities for small businesses under the stimulus package. We anticipate rolling these seminars out in the next four to six weeks once the details of how the stimulus package monies will be allocated has been determined. Unlike the SCAMS these informational seminars WILL BE free of charge.

If you would like more information about these seminars as they are developed subscribe to our newsletter or send me an e-mail and we will make sure you are informed about these as they come out.

Please feel free to forward this to any other small businesses you may know and invite them to sign up to our newsletter to receive updates on assistance and other small business news at it comes out.

Sincerely,

Herb Lawrence ASU SBTDC Center Director

If you have any questions, call Herb, he is the man who can help!

409 Vine - 2009 Banquet Presentation

23-Feb-09 16:44

We have had several requests for the presentation that was made today by Jeff Collins from StreetSmart. We have uploaded his presentation to our website and it is available by clicking here. If you have any problems downloading it, contact the Chamber and we will shoot you an email with it.

We would like to thank Jeffery Collins and the folks at StreetSmart Data Services for their work on this great presentation. His hard work paid off in some very good info shared today with us!

We would like to thank again these great sponsors who made this years banquet one of the best yet!

Stay tuned as we get pictures up from the Banquet, including pictures of our winners!

The Staff @ 409 Vine

409 Vine - FilmFest Schedule Announced

20-Feb-09 16:09

FilmFest Announces 2009 Line-Up

Premiere of The River Within, Filmed Near Hardy, Among Highlights

The 8^th annual Ozark Foothills FilmFest will be held March 25-29 at a number of venues in Batesville. The festival celebrates the variety, creativity, and artistry of the independent cinema. Screenings will take place at Old Independence Regional Museum and on the campuses of the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville and Lyon College

This year's festival will host the premiere of The River Within, a thoughtful and deeply moving drama shot along the Spring River with a largely Arkansas cast and crew. Director Zac Heath, an Arkansas native who now resides in Malibu, will be returning home to join members of the cast and crew for the screening. A number of other Arkansas filmmakers will be attending the festival to screen and discuss their work. Margaret LeJeune, a Lyon College art teacher, will present Bottle of Wine, a whimsical short comedy about a dinner invitation that leads to a wine shopping nightmare. Other Arkansas filmmakers attending include University of Central Arkansas film teacher Mike Gunter (Memories of Viola) and Jacksonville filmmaker Levi Agee (What Happened to My Brother). Woodpecker, a narrative feature inspired by the search for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, was filmed in and around Brinkley. The film raises questions about the blurring of fact and fiction as it examines the consequences of obsession and the need to believe.

Johnny Cash's America, by distinguished music historian Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, headlines an impressive line-up of music documentaries. At the time of his death in 2003, no entertainer in history had brought together people of such diverse creeds, politics, and persuasions as Johnny Cash. The documentary explores the prominent themes of Cash's life including love of the land, freedom, justice, family, faith, and redemption through exclusive interviews, photos, and previously unreleased music and footage. Throw Down Your Heart follows banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck on a boundary-breaking musical odyssey to Africa in search of the little known African roots of the banjo. Traveling to various countries, Fleck encounters and collaborates with singers and instrumentalists on percussion and string instruments; the result is a mesmerizing collection of music.

Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans takes viewers on a tour of the neighborhood where jazz was born and asserts the enduring importance of the Crescent City to our national identity. The film's narrator and co-director, Lolis Eric Elie, will attend the screening. Elie, a columnist for the Times Picayune, will be joined by singer/songwriter John Boutte, whose "Tremé Song" closes the film. A seventh-generation Creole and a New Orleans musical icon, Boutté will also perform in concert at Independence Hall on Saturday evening, March 28. He was recently honored as offBEAT Magazine's 2009 Best Male Vocalist, as well as receiving Best Traditional Jazz Album honors for Good Neighbor.

Israeli filmmaker Pola Zen will attend to present her short family drama, Dolls and Houses. The film has played to considerable acclaim at festivals in Hamburg, Seoul, Haifa, New York, and Nashville. Zen studied directing at Tel Aviv University.

The festival line-up also includes two new documentaries about the "Farm to Table" food movement, Organic Frederick and Fridays at the Farm; the second annual Screenwriting Competition awards; a panel on the future of newspaper film critics with Philip Martin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Noel Murray of the online Onion A-V Club, and Rob Grace of Arkansas Weekly; and a number of receptions and social gatherings. The complete festival line-up and other relevant information are available at www.ozarkfoothillsfilmfest.org or by calling 870-251-1189.

409 Vine - Recession Proofing

16-Feb-09 12:29

Reconnecting With Your Customers to Beat the Recession

As small business owners throughout Northeast and North Central Arkansas continue to deal with the ongoing recession, many are asking "Where did my customers go?" Plummeting 4^th quarter sales will continue into 2009. Don't expect to see any relief until possibly the 4^th quarter of 2009. So what are small businesses to do? Sitting back is not an option, most of them don't have enough cash to "turtle down" until the recession peters out so it means either go ahead and close the doors now or learn how to reconnect with your customers and keeps your business growing despite the economy.

The other day I received an excellent 4 page report entitled, "Cash-Strapped Customers Are Cutting Back on (Almost) Everything" by Susan Reda, Executive Editor for NFR's Stores an on-line marketing news service. The study, conducted by BIGresearch and Stores is a must read for every small business owner shedding light on what your customers are thinking about. Great information about what consumers consider "must keep" and what "I can live without". If your holiday sales were less than hoped for, this report will not only tell you why customers stayed away and why they will not be rushing back anytime soon. To read this article go to http://www.stores.org.

Obviously there is a lot of powerful information in the report and I will be sharing it with my small business clients at the Small Business and Technology Development Center. But in addition to the nuts and bolts of what they are buying and what they are leaving on the shelf, the article brings out three very specific concepts I feel are just as important. These three "nuggets" go way beyond the statistics in the report.

First: Consumer attitudes and spending behaviors are not static or chiseled on stone tablets. Goods and services that were considered "must have" two or three years ago when the economy was rocking along are suddenly on the chopping block.

Median income households then thought the only way to keep in shape was to buy membership at state-of-the art fitness centers.
Middle income women thought nothing of adding upscale handbags to their accessory collections on a regular basis, and
Eating out at nice restaurants with $30-50 entrees was given at least once a week.

So owners of fitness centers, boutiques and good restaurants built their business models around these consumer attitudes, and three years ago these were valid assumptions. But as this study points out, guess what consumers have decided isn't as important anymore? You got it...they can save money by:

not renewing their membership to the fitness center and just work out at home,
while they still buy apparel they are hitting the local discount stores instead of the boutiques, and,
Many consumers are renewing their love affair with the drive thru window at local fast food places instead of the full service restaurant.

Bottom line, what was a valid assumption three years ago is no longer correct in today's economy. Consumer behavior is NOT static, it changes based on outside factors and the small business owner must be able to read these changes and adjust to meet these new realities.

Second: Because consumer behavior is not static, small business owners must learn to continually be scanning their environment for changes. Before launching your new venture you spent hours, days or even months studying the feasibility of your project to ensure the best probability of success. You studied consumer attitudes about your product or service, you analyzed the market and your competitors to learn all you could before launching that fitness center.

But then you stopped doing your homework, became complacent and your consumers have switched gears on you. The lesson here is that a small business owner can never stop getting updated information necessary to make changes to his business model as his environment changes. I received this Stores report the other day in my in box from my e-mail. It is just one of a dozen daily e-newsletters I receive electronically on a variety of topics that are important to my clients. I dedicate a minimum of one hour a day just reading these articles to find items that are relevant and then pass them on to my clients or filing away for a future article or seminar and to ensure I am up to date on latest trends.

A small business owner needs to do the same. You don't have to get dozens of reports daily like I do, but you need to find one or two that are relevant to your industry or your market, subscribe to them (most are free) and discipline yourself to read, think, and act on the information that will affect your business. This is one area that many of my small business clients do not do as good a job at as they should. They are so busy with the day-to-day operations that they don't take the extra hour in the day to gather intelligence to help them plan for what will be happening next month or next year.

Of course thanks to the Internet (more on that further on) you can easily be completely overwhelmed by the volume of information that is available, so it is important to decide what sources you need to have and what you do not. If you are a small retailer or service business I would strongly suggest that you start with your trade publications or association e-newsletters. Another excellent source that we use at the ASU SBTDC comes from an on-line e-news service called SmartBrief. The service provides free, e-mail based news summaries and other content for industry associations, professional organizations, advocacy groups and their constituents. You can chose to subscribe to any of dozens of special e-newsletters in that impact your industry at no charge. To search for free subscriptions relevant to your business, go to www.smartbrief.com and sign up. But as with any information it is only valuable if you actually use it. That means subscribe, discipline yourself to read regularly, consider the information and then act on the data.

Finally something that may be a shock to many small businesses was that the vast majority of the consumers surveyed in the Stores study said that Their Internet service was an absolute necessity regardless of other cutting back on other expenses. 86% of the consumers (regardless of age) polled said that they would continue to pay to stay connected to the web. Of course if you are an internet service provider or sell computer hardware or software this is good news, but it has a much more far reaching implication to virtually every business owner who is reading this article regardless of the business you are in. Because the internet is where your customers live and it is the new medium that you must use to communicate with them.

It's not just where your teenagers talk to their BFFs on MySpace, not just where grandma goes to do her genealogy. Or those sites dad surfs at night when he thinks everyone is in bed. Across the board in virtually all age categories the Internet is where they seek to do business with you.

Although some consumers prefer to make their actual purchase inside a store, a majority do their "window shopping" on-line first. Your customers were spending their time on-line searching for information about products or services that they want to buy, looking for the right features, prices and discounts. Once they found what they wanted, they then search on-line for the stores in their area that carried it before they set out to make the actual purchase. That means if you don't have a website for your business, you were virtually invisible to these potential customers. It is no longer a question of "should I have a website? In the 21^st Century marketplace it is an absolute necessity even if you don't actually sell your product or service on-line.

Internet marketing can take on any number of unique opportunities for you to connect and build relationships with the consumers you want to attract by sending e-mail messages, using e-coupons, providing them with information, and more. At the ASU SBDTC we have virtually abandoned newspaper advertisement for workshops and drastically cut back on the number of training calendars we print and mail through the post office. Instead personalized messages are sent out to our clients by e-mail about specific workshops that we think would be of interest to them. Our training calendars are e-mailed on a quarterly basis with updates and the cost of e-mail postage is...zero.

In addition to expanded use of e-mail we are exploring internet marketing through social media networking. I write articles for blogs like this one that not only provide information of value to the reader but also markets our services and training because every article includes information about the ASBTDC and how to contact us electronically. I also maintain profiles on several social media networks such as FaceBook, Plaxo, LinkedIn, and Twitter as ways to connect and communicate with potential customers. These are just a few examples of internet marketing opportunities that more and more small businesses are learning to take advantage of to grow their businesses.

If words like viral marketing, twitter, search engine optimization, and social media networks sound like Greek to you, don't despair there is plenty of help available to bring your business on-line in nice easy baby steps. But the most important concept here is that it is absolutely vital that your small business start to develop an effective web presence and to start to take advantage of the tremendous marketing opportunities available through the Internet. I guarantee your competitors are already there.

I try to keep my articles to a maximum of three topics to ensure they are easily digestible by readers so it is time to bring this to a close. The most important idea that I hope any small business owner takes away from this is that it is not enough just to unlock the front door of your store, flip on the "Open" sign, throw some advertisements at the local newspaper and then sit back for customers to beat a path to your door. To remain competitive in these difficult economic times small business owners must:

Understand and adjust their business to the new economic realities of consumer spending. What worked last year is not going to work now.
Commit to continual education and research of news affecting your business is vital to adjusting your business model and developing effective product or service mixes that will appeal to your customers
Embrace the new realities of the electronic age where every business owner must not just accept the Internet but learn to take advantage of the tremendous marketing potential it provides to them to communicate with customers on a personal level never before possible.

For many small business owners these may seem daunting tasks but survival in this new economic landscape will not come from "business as usual". Your Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the ASU Small Business and Technology Development Center to provide its membership with free and confidential consulting assistance from marketing, market research, cash flow planning to e-commerce. The Chamber and the ASU SBTDC are offering a variety of short 3 hour seminars in the Batesville area over the next three months covering topics vital to your business success such as Simple Market Research Tools, Recession Proofing Your Business, E-Commerce and Web Design, Guerrilla Marketing and much more. Thanks to a partnership with Citizens Bank, First Community Bank, First National Banking Company (FNBC), First Southern Bank, Liberty Bank of Arkansas and the Main Street Batesville program your chamber is able to offer these invaluable seminars at significantly reduced rates and even better discounts for its membership. For more information about the Chamber-ASU SBTDC consulting services and workshops call the Batesville Chamber or the ASU SBTDC at (870) 972-3517 or e-mail Jonah.Shumate@mybatesville.org or hlawrenc@astate.edu to give your business the edge it needs.

Coming Recession Proofing Your Business Seminars:

Mountain Home - Tuesday, February 17^th 6-9 pm Baxter County Library 424 West 7^th Avenue

Batesville - Thursday, February 19^th 6-9 pm UACCB Independence Hall Room 104

Call the ASU SBTDC (870) 972-3517 or e-mail sglasgow@astate.edu to register for any of these. Batesville and Mountain Home attendees ask about Chamber membership discounts.

409 Vine - Recession Cash Flow

16-Feb-09 12:26

Keeping Cash Flowing in a Recession

By Herb Lawrence, Center Director, ASU Small Business and Technology Development Center hlawrenc@astate.edu.

2009 is starting off as a tough year especially for small businesses as they deal with a recession, a credit crisis, and the fallout from the banking meltdowns. Add to the mix reduced consumer spending and it is spelling a real challenge as they try ride out the current economic downturn. No one knows exactly how long this recession will last; some economists expect it to go into late 2009 or even 2010. Cash flow management does not happen by accident, it takes careful planning and knowing all of your options. At the Arkansas State University Small Business and Technology Development Center some areas that we suggest clients consider include:

Talk to your banker NOW; discuss how they may be able to assist you with possible cash flow issues. If they can't be there for you, consider alternative lenders.

Get monthly cash flow projections prepared now. Micro managing cash is critical to long term survival. Tighten your belt in ways that don't show. Make internet calls instead of using phone carriers and e-mail documents instead of printing and mailing. Look at energy saving programs. But if you are already running out of cash then slash expenses as if your life depended on it. Reduce salaries temporarily, making sure you take the biggest cut. Get rid of every ounce of fat on your income statement, but keep muscle. Forgo raises and cash bonuses instead offer days off, early Fridays, flextime or other options.

Speed up collections from customers - Ask customers to pay in 10 days rather than 30 in return for a discount. If you can afford it consider offering 5% discount for payment within 5 days instead of the usual 2/10 net 30. Speed up cash inflow by asking for payment by credit card.

Renegotiate vendor relationships - Shop with other suppliers. See if your current vendors will provide a discount for early payment or by credit card. Your vendors are in this recession as well and may prefer some money to no money for their cash flow. If you are already in trouble, tell your suppliers and work out extended payments over a six to nine month period.

Liquidate inventory - Call it a "The Economy Stinks Sale" excess inventory that is not being sold does not bring in cash.

Sell off unneeded assets - look at any equipment, furniture or fixtures or other fixed assets that your business has that is not being used and sell those off if possible, even look at your personal assets.

How long the current recession will last is anybody's guess, but careful cash flow planning to retain liquidity will be a must for most small businesses. The ASU SBTDC provides free consulting assistance to small businesses in Northeast and North-Central Arkansas. For more information about how the ASU SBTDC can help your business maintain liquidity call Herb Lawrence, Center Director or Laura Miller, Business Consultant at (870) 972-3517 or e-mail hlawrenc@astate.edu.

Want to learn more about how you can prepare your business to weather the current recession? The ASU Small Business and Technology Development Center in conjunction with area Chambers of Commerce and other economic development groups will be offering seminars on Recession Proofing Your Business in your area over the coming month. Times and locations will include:

Mountain Home - Tuesday, February 17^th 6-9 pm Baxter County Library 424 West 7^th Avenue Co-sponsored by Community First National Bank, First National Banking Company (FNBC), Liberty Bank of Arkansas, the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce and Baxter County Library - Chamber members ask about member discount

Batesville - Thursday, February 19^th, 6-9 pm UACCB Independence Hall Room 104 - co-sponsored by Citizens Bank, First Community Bank, First National Banking Company (FNBC), First Southern Bank, Liberty Bank of Arkansas, Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Batesville Project - Chamber members and Main Street members ask about member discount.

For more information or to register for any of these workshops call the ASU SBTDC at (870) 972-3517 or e-mail sglasgow@astate.edu.

409 Vine - Small Biz Stuff

16-Feb-09 12:23

Competitive Advantages for Small Businesses Even in a Down Economy

By Herb Lawrence, center Director, Arkansas State University, Small Business and Technology Development Center, hlawrenc@astate.edu.

I know the economy is tough, and many small business owners are concerned about keeping afloat during this recession. But savvy entrepreneurs have some competitive advantages over larger businesses that they can use if they will just start thinking outside the box especially in the area of marketing. As larger businesses downsize and start to "turtle up" there are opportunities for entrepreneurs to exploit their natural competitive advantages to connect with customers in new and innovative ways. Here is a short list of what I consider to be perfect advantages of small businesses if they will just put them to work.

First - successful entrepreneurs have always known that they can't be all things to all people instead they adopt a narrow market focus. By finding a small segment of customer they can create a strong reputation for serving a narrow market by finding a lucrative niche.

Second- Small businesses are much closer to their actual customers. They know the issues affecting their customers because it is affecting them as well and can alter their product or service to give customers what they need. By being closer to their customers they can easily create new products or services or change their offering bundles to help their customers.

Third they have better opportunities to partner with other businesses to create networks of strategic partnerships to help each other meet customer needs.

Fourth - without a large marketing budget, small business owners have an opportunity to use Guerrilla Marketing tactics, low cost even no cost innovative ways to establish real relationships and communications to their customers. Real marketing after all is nothing more than developing trust and confidence between the business and the customer to be mutually beneficial to one another.

Fifth - building on number 4, small business is personal. Customers and markets are hungry for businesses that allow them to connect to something beyond the product or service. Entrepreneurs who understand that first and foremost they are selling relationships can deliver a value story that has meaning to customers.

Finally - technology, especially using e-commerce and social media options can dramatically improve a small business's ability to communicate with customers at very reduced costs in ways never before available. Even if your small business does not sell product or service over the internet, having a web presence is vital and using e-business tools to connect with possible customers has never been greater.

Yes, the economy is rough right now but instead of wringing your hands and hoping it will go away; savvy entrepreneurs are surviving, even thriving by capitalizing on their natural competitive advantages especially in developing innovative marketing opportunities. For more information about how your small business can improve its marketing activities, contact the ASU Small Business and Technology Development Center (870) 972-3517 or send an e-mail hlawrenc@astate.edu.

Newsletter 2-12-2009

11-Feb-09 12:52

Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce Weekly Update: February 12 - February 18, 2009

90th Annual Banquet & Awards Dinner Call for Nominations

Call for Nominations!

The Chamber would like your help in identifying people and businesses for our awards. The categories are as follows:

Small Business of the Year
Business Person of the Year
Business of the Year
Volunteer of the Year

The criteria for nominations is that they must be a Chamber member in good standing. Also, you must submit with your nomination the qualifications you believe make this person, company, or organization, qualify for the respective category. Nominations will be accepted through Monday, February 9th.

Reserve your seats and/or table for the Annual Banquet seats $25; table for 8 $250; seats purchased at the banquet will be $35. To get your reserve seats now you may contact The Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce at 870-793-2378 or via email lacy.tilley@mybatesville.org.

Don't miss the first Business After Hours for 2009 at The Citizens Bank, on February 19th

The Citizens Bank will be hosting a Business after Hours on Thursday, February 19th, from 5pm-6:30pm at the Main Branch, 200 South 3rd Street in Batesville. Refreshments, a chance to win a $50 gift card and networking with other professionals in Batesville are just a few things you will enjoy. Come out, meet other members, and catch up with others you have not talked to in a while!

Check out our new blog, 409 Vine

The Chamber has launched a new blog entitled 409 Vine that you can find on our website at mybatesville.org. This blog is another way for us to keep our Chamber members, as well as the outside public, updated on issues and the goings on in our community! Also, we will utilize this blog to promote our members, your updates, things that you want people to know, etc. If you have something that you want people to know about, we will publish that on our blog! Send all inquiries to jonah.shumate@mybatesville.org and learn what we want to do for you! The first person that goes to our blog and checks out a special story we have posted will win a great prize! But hurry, there is only one available! You can also follow our blog on twitter by finding us at batesvillechamb!

“His Arkansas Land” Sunday, February 15th at 2pm

Old Independence Regional Museum will present the popular documentary “His Arkansas Land” on Sunday, February 15 at 2 p.m. This 60 minute video portrays the development of Arkansas through the people whose livelihood depended on the land. “It goes back some 200 years tracing the settlement of Arkansas, the Civil War, Reconstruction, King Cotton, the boll weevil, the Great Depression, and World War II. Interviews with old farmers rekindle the warmth and wholeness of a life on the land that few experience today,” according to the description from the Arkansas Humanities Council. For more information you may call 870-793-2121 or email Amanda@oirm.org

Ozark Foothills FilmFest Poster Unveiling Friday February 20th

Ozark Foothills FilmFest will have the poster unveiling for the upcoming event on Friday, February 20th, at 11am. It will be in the home of the Batesville Area Arts Council. For more information, contact Ozark Foothills FilmFest at 251-1189.

8th Annual Polar Bear Plunge, February 28th at 1pm

8th Annual Polar Bear Plunge, February 28th at 1pm at White River Sandbar, registration will start at noon. Registration forms are available at any of the following locations: Bishop's Body Shop; Citizens Bank; Chamber of Commerce; First Community Bank; Employers Staffing and the Property Shoppe. Post plunge party at Batesville High School Cafeteria. All proceeds to benefit Special Olympics. For more information call (870)698-0800.

Showing 51 - 60 of 124 Articles

< Previous 1 2 3 4 567 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next >