The Black Business Association of Memphis has announced that Don Hutson, the chief executive officer of U.S. Learning, will deliver the keynote address at the organization’s 24th annual BENNY Awards Dinner & Gala. The theme for this year’s BENNY (Black Entrepreneurship and Networking Needs You) Awards is “Entrepreneurial Essentials for 2010.”
The gala will be held Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Holiday Inn-University of Memphis, 3700 Central Ave.
A member of the International Speakers Hall of Fame, Hutson is past president of the National Speakers Association. He also is the co-author of “The One-Minute Entrepreneur.”
SCORE, America’s premier organization providing FREE counselors to growing businesses offered 10 practical tips to help you grow your business.
1. Grow your customer base. Understand your customer demographics and why they buy your products and services. Win clients over with new and diversified products. Offer multiple price points and create packages or customizable plans, which give your customers greater freedom and flexibility.
2. Expand low budget marketing. Promote your business for free on Twitter, and set up a Facebook fan page. Start a blog and comment on other blogs. Take this opportunity to communicate with customers about your business. Go viral.
3. Surround yourself with experts. Get feedback from advisors you trust. Entrepreneurs count on SCORE for free and confidential business mentoring. Use a mentor to test ideas, map a sales plan and focus on success. Ask SCORE for advice and meet with a SCORE mentor.
4. Add ecommerce through a web site. Your business needs a web site to stay competitive. Secure all variations on your company’s domain name. Use online forms to encourage interaction. Add a shopping cart to sell your products, not just promote the brand.
5. Free up time to sharpen your focus. Organize for success. Set a time each week to handle routine tasks. Use a PDA to keep track of phone numbers, dates, appointments and meetings. Take short breaks to refresh and recharge.
6. Create experience events to draw in customers. Host special events like demonstrations, trunk shows and classes. Offer rebate programs to encourage repeat purchases. Rearrange merchandise to make it appear fresh and provide a fresh customer experience.
7. Network to build buzz and referrals. Join groups that represent your clients. If you don’t have the money to join an association, offer to donate your services. Take advantage of social gatherings, committee appointments, membership meetings and networking events. Each meeting is an opportunity for referrals.
8. Track your cash flow. The one thing all businesses need is cash. Ensure that you collect receivables within 30 days. Monitor invoices. Pay early when you get a discount. Always keep an eye on your cash. Prepare cash flow reports so you understand your cash needs.
9. Plan for financing success. Even if you’re in business, you should have a business plan ready to submit to potential lenders. Know how additional funding will help you grow your business, and demonstrate your ability to re-pay the loan.
10. Consider an LLC. As a sole proprietor, you are personally liable for the debts and liabilities of your business. A corporation or limited liability corporation (LLC) protects your personal assets and property. You can register your business as a separate legal entity.
I thought I would share this business idea even while considering to start this business myself. I personally could have benefited from this type of service as I was needing a family member to be transported to and from dialysis throughout the week. Many businesses got their start from needing a particular type service and could not find or knew they could perform better than the operators already in existence.
Non-emergency medical transportation - A non-emergency medical transportation company primarily deals with transportation of the elderly and disabled.
While I was researching this business idea, I came across Joel Davis author of How To Start A Million Dollar Medical Transportation Company and operator of his own medical transportation company. Joel has an e-book were he gives and informational tips about how to start a non-emergency medical transportation business. He discusses getting started, researching the local market, choosing the right wheelchair van equipment, marketing, and more.
To learn more about his medical transportation business course, click here.
Joel has videos of were he actually does a surprise visit to people whom have started a medical transportation business using his e-book course. Watch as business owners discuss how they got started and being profitable using his course.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – (Business Wire) BillShrink (www.billshrink.com), the independent free online service that gives personalized money-saving recommendations on household bills, now expands its savings advice to businesses looking for the right credit cards to meet their spending needs. BillShrink for Business’ new business credit card feature is designed to help small businesses navigate the current economic climate. Acknowledging that businesses often have different cash-flow and credit needs from individuals, the new product is a tool that guides business owners towards credit and charge cards offering the best terms to fit their specific business needs, thereby lowering the cost and increasing the benefits of using cards as effective financial tools.
According to a 2005 report authored by Harold Damelin, then SBA Inspector General, said, “The Small Business Act establishes a Government wide procurement goal that 23% of the total value of all prime contract awards for each fiscal year [should] be awarded to small business. As the advocate for small business, the SBA should strive to ensure that only small firms obtain small business awards and agencies only receive small business credit for awards to small firms.”
Essentially, small businesses are to get 23% of government awarded contracts per fiscal year. Further, the departments or agencies that solicit the bids must be accountable by awarding 23% to small businesses, and then accurately reporting the actual percentages awarded to the small business sector. Sadly, this is not the case.
The 2005 report states that the Government Accounting Office (GAO), the SBA’s Inspector General, and the SBA’s Office of Advocacy, have found in repeated studies that agencies are counting awards made to large firms toward the 23% required for small companies. A primary reason is due to company. At the initial awarding of the contract, the successful bidder may be a legitimate small business. During subsequent contract renewals, the once small business has grown into a large business. Since the SBA has no rules in place requiring the original small business to re-certify its current size, it can go unquestioned for the life of the contract. Two other reasons include human error by the contracting officials, and more egregiously, an unwillingness to enforce existing rules and policies about how to award contracts. The result is to award government contracts to undeserving big business at the expense of the small business sector.
A Department of Interior July 2008 report written by Inspector General Earl Devaney found similar results. During fiscal year 2006, $5.7 million in awards were issued to Home Depot, John Deere, Dell Computer, Sherwin Williams Paint, Starwood Hotels, and Waste Management; huge companies classified as awarded to small business. This report blames the false classification on data entry mistakes, reliance on incorrect data, and failure to verify the applicant’s size.
The GAO issued a report in October, 2009 on fraud in the Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business Program (SDVOSB); again, finding poor results. In fiscal year 2007, the SBA reported that SDVOSB had $4 billion in government contracts earmarked for them. GAO was asked to investigate the awarding of contracts. GAO randomly picked ten contracts, totaling about $100 million. They found three of the ten contracts had ineligible recipients, totaling about $12.7 million. Obviously the SDVOSB program does not have adequate fraud prevention in place and allegedly a database to list disabled veterans does not exist.
Finally, an investigative report by Lloyd Chapman was released on December 9, 2009. The report states that General Dynamics was just awarded a small business contract of $28.5 million. In 2008, General Dynamics had sales of $29.3 billion and 92,000 employees. The prominent construction company Bechtel, and Xerox were also listed as small businesses. In 2008, Bechtel’s sales were $34.1 billion with 44,000 employees, while Xerox sales were $15.7 billion with 55200 employees. Even so, Bechtel was awarded a $128 million contract and Xerox was awarded a $13 million contract.
In all instances, the only way to discover fraud is for a bid-protest to be issued by a losing bidder. Incredibly, when fraud has been discovered, there are no consequences for the fraudulent bid winner. They are allowed to complete for the contract and are not suspended or disbarred from the government contractor list.
Since 2003, 25 known government investigations have uncovered billions of dollars monthly being diverted away from small business to huge companies. The American Small Business League estimates there are $100 billion per year diverted away from small business to corporate America. During Obama’s campaign he said, “Small businesses are the backbone of the nation’s economy and we must protect this great resource. It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants.” Yet, nothing has been done.
In May of 2009, Congressman Hank Johnson, D-GA., introduced a bill to cure this problem (HB 2568, The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act). The bill enjoys bipartisan support, but President Obama has refused to endorse it.
The thought of widespread incompetence continues to take center stage. The mere fact that data entry errors, failure to verify business sizes, and in some cases, an intentional disregard of policies and procedures has been allowed to continue for years, begs for an explanation; why?
author of How To Start A Million Dollar Medical Transportation Company and operator of his own medical transportation company. Joel has an 
