So You Want to Start a Small Business in Jefferson County?

Starting a small business is increasingly becoming an attractive alternative for people who no longer want to work for someone else or are having difficulty finding employment in today's sluggish job market. But starting a small business is not for the faint of heart - according to a study by the U.S. Small Business Association, only 2/3 of all small business startups survive the first two years and less than half make it to four years. One of the keys to small business success is to take advantage of all the resources available to you in your community.

Here in Jefferson County there are several agencies dedicated to making sure that your small business becomes a success. Not suprisingly, many of them are government entities - county and municipal government lives and dies off of sales tax revenues. More business equals more tax revenue so everybody wins!

• Jefferson County Growth and Development Association - http://www.jcgda.org/
  
• Economic Development Corporation of Jefferson County - http://www.jeffcountymo.org/
  - Administers the SBA 504 loans for small businesses
  
• Your local Chamber of Commerce - http://jeffersoncountyonline.org/business/businessresources.shtml
  
• The Community Development department of your local municipality - http://jeffersoncountyonline.org/communities/cities.shtml

It is also important to remember that when starting a small business you are walking in the footsteps of many who have gone before. Learn what worked and what didn't work in resources from the library such as:

• Sweet and Low: a family history by Rich Cohen
  
• Authenticity: what consumers really want by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II
  
• The Old Girls Network: insider advice for women building businesses in a man's world by Sharon Whitely, Kathy Elliott and Connie Duckworth
  
• Satisfaction: how every great company listens to the voice of the customer by Chris Denove and James D. Power IV.

ReferenceUSA - You are paying for it, are you using it?

Library service is primarily funded through property tax in Missouri. So we are another one of those wonderful institutions like the public schools that you pay for whether you use it or not. In these tight economic times, we all like to get our money's worth so I am taking this opportunity to tell you about one of the library's resources you might not be aware of that can potentially be of great help to your business.

Have you found yourself wishing for a criss / cross directory at your fingertips so you can generate sales leads in a particular area? Have you made one of those unsuccessful dives into the rolodex / contacts file to try and pull up the number of that one elusive person that you needed to get in touch with yesterday? Are you looking to develop a new business and need to locate potential competitors in the area? All of these questions and more can be answered through the library's access to the residential and business sections of ReferenceUSA.

ReferenceUSA's database of 14 million U.S. Businesses contains verified, accurate data and is updated monthly. Plus this is the only business database enhanced with more than 20 million phone calls per year.

Selection criteria include:

• Business name
• Executive title
• Business type
• Sales volume
• Employee size
• Year established
• And more...

Use Quick Search to find what you need with a few clicks or use the powerful Custom Search to fine tune your search.

The residential component includes contact information for over 135 million US households. If they have a listed phone number, they are included. You can search by name, by phone number and even generate lists of residences within a certain geographical area such as a street or zip code.

This all sounds great but you might be wondering about how to gain access to ReferenceUSA. With a valid Jefferson County Library card you can access it through following the online resources link on the library's website www.jeffersoncountylibrary.org. Click on reference in the topic table, scroll down to ReferenceUSA and click on the bright green link. You'll be prompted to enter your library card number and redirected to the database list. If you do not have access to the internet on your own, visit your local JCL branch and ask at the Information Desk to be shown how to access ReferenceUSA.

If you have questions, don't hesitate to call me (Meredith) at 636-296-5171!

Making Sense of Investing

Our current troubled economic times have brought to the forefront the importance of planning for the future through smart investing. This website details some sobering statistics on savings, retirement and investment issues: http://www.mdmproofing.com/iym/hfstats.shtml

• The American Savings Education Council's 2004 report, Saving and Retirement in America, states that among all workers, 45 percent have less than $25,000 in savings and investments (aside from equity in primary residences). In the age group 25-34, 64 percent have less than $25k in savings; in the age group 35-44, 48 percent have less than $25k; in the age group 45-54, 30 percent have less than $25k. According to a 2002 survey by the Consumer Federation of America, 25 percent of U.S. households have net assets of less than $10,000.

• In his book The Total Money Makeover, Dave Ramsey cites the Wall Street Journal as reporting that 70 percent of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck. He also cites a poll from Parenting magazine which found that 49 percent of Americans could cover less than one month's expenses if they lost their income. The 2003 MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends bears this out, reporting that 52 percent of employees live paycheck-to-paycheck. The surprise? Among high-earners ($75,000 or more), an alarming 34 percent claim this distinction. The survey found that 87 percent of low earners ($30,000 or less) do so.
  
  

The following are a sampling of the resources available through your local branch of the Jefferson County Library to help you make sense of it all:

• All About Stocks: the easy way to get started by Esme Faerber
  


• The Everything Personal Finance in Your 20s & 30s Book: erase your debt, personalize your budget, and now plan to secure your future by Debby Fowles
  


• Financial Planning for the Utterly Confused by Joel Lerner
  


• Expecting Money: the essential financial plan for new and growing families by Erica Sandberg
  


• Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: get rich, stay rich (make your kids even richer) by James J. Cramer
  


• Saving For Retirement without Living Like a Pauper or Winning the Lottery: retirement planning made easy by Gail MarksJarvis

Good luck! Remember the only person truly watching out for your future is you. Take advantage of two free upcoming financial workshops at the Arnold Branch. Experts from Edward Jones will discuss "Outlooks and Opportunities: The Answers You Need in Today's Market" on August 13th at 10am. That same evening there will be a workshop entitled "Retirement Reality Check: Now's the Time to Get a Head Start on the Rest of Your Life" at 6:30pm. Registration is requested for both events. Call 636-296-5171 to reserve a spot today!

Hyper what??? Hypermiling and Other Tips to Potentially Cut Costs

The rising costs relating to fuel and food are affecting all of us on both the work and home front. Everyone is looking for ways to make their dollars go a little bit further. Just yesterday a colleague introduced me to the concept of hypermiling. According to a August 2006 story in the Washington Post, it is a method of increasing your car's gas mileage by making skillful changes in the way you drive, allowing you to save gas and thereby have an easier time withstanding the rising oil and gas prices.

Recent news stories have highlighted the cuts being made by businesses being hit hard by rising transportation costs. Many trucking companies have been forced to take vehicles off the road because they were losing money on every mile driven. Even police departments are feeling the crunch. A small department in north St. Louis County is switching some of its officers over to patrolling in golf carts instead of police cruisers which use more gas.

Tips for hypermiling:

• http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/01/Autos/driving_for_mpg/index.htm
  
• http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/120880/article.html

Pine Lawn police department possibly getting golf carts for patrol:

• http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/12ECAB1482DBFC5A8625743E0011352F?OpenDocument

Saving money in your business can be as simple as looking for alternative ways to obtain the products you use every day. Books such as "Homemade : how to make hundreds of everyday products fast, fresh, and more naturally" from the Reader's Digest Association give recipes on how to create low-cost alternatives to store bought products such as cleaning solutions.

A new book entitled "Stirring It Up: how to make money and save the world with coupons" by Gary Hirshberg, founder of Stonyfield Farm, shares the secrets that helped his company skyrocket to success, and argues that traditional business practices are ultimately counterproductive and have helped create many of the problems that threaten to make the world uninhabitable. Hirshberg will explain how Stonyfield's counterintuitive way of doing business demonstrates that companies can be environmentally conscious, and will prove that in doing so, they can make bigger profits than their more conventional counterparts. This book will appeal both to consumers who want quality and a better world, and companies who want steady profits and growth.

Both of the books mentioned above are available through the Jefferson County Library.

Business is Going Green - Go Green! Save Green!

The "Go Green" movement is sweeping the nation as we become more and more frugal in the facing of ever rising energy costs. In the past it was very easy to assume that if we didn't make green choices it was no big deal, the environmental movement was the province of "tree huggers" and the like. Not so now, especially with fuel costs seemingly rising by the hour!



See these links below for tips and resources to help make your business more green to help you save greenbacks!

4 Ways to Green

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/26/magazines/fsb/green.fsb/index.htm

Business of Green: A Special Section of the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/business/businessspecial2/index.html

The Greening of Business? How You Can Join the Hot, Cool Trend
http://www.startupnation.com/articles/3785/1/greening-business-join-trend.asp

Co-op America's Green Business Network
http://www.coopamerica.org/cabn/

Well, it's been a while.....

Let me begin by acknowledging that time management isn't my strongest suit. My goal is to keep this blog as up to date as possible but somehow it kept slipping to the bottom of my "To Do" pile. So as any good librarian does when faced with a problem, I checked to see what resources were available to help me better my time management skills. I figured I was safe to assume I wasn't in the boat alone when it comes to time management issues, so I am sharing what I learned below.

The library has books ranging from "The Frantic Woman's Guide to Life" (sounds right on target for me!) to "The On-Time, On-Target Manager: how a "last minute manager" conquered procrastination" to help improve those lagging time management skills. The first test of what one learns from these resources will be if the books are returned to the library on time!

There are also a wide variety of free web based tools to help improve time management skills:

• http://www.mindtools.com/ - Offers guidance in tracking how you spend your time and how to reprioritize to use your time more efficiently.
• http://www.managementhelp.org/prsn_prd/time_mng.htm - This online management library contains articles covering the time management spectrum from how to handle the email glut to how to get important things done on time.
• http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/12/10/10-tips-for-time-management-in-a-multitasking-world/ - Gives tips for time management in a multi-tasking world.

You'll be able to gauge my success in how well I manage my time in the future by how often I post to the blog so the pressure is on!

State of the County Address - Jefferson County

Greetings from the State of the County address at the Holiday Inn Express in Festus, Mo. We have just completed a tasty breakfast and are eagerly awaiting the address from Presiding Commissioner Mr. Chuck Banks.

Please excuse any typos and grammar mistakes due to the live nature of this blogging experience. This is my first time doing this live so keep your fingers crossed. I will edit for clarity and spelling in post production when I am back at the library later today.

The media is out in force for the address. It is being broadcast on KJFF and also being filmed for television for JCTV .

Troy Hardin, past president of JCGDA has begun his introductions and thanking of sponsors.

The Mayor of Festus, thanked the attendees for visiting his town and then introduced Banks.

Commissioner Banks began his address by thanking Mayor Doyle. He also thanked the sponsors and acknoweldged the media present.

• JCGDA is the voice for business in the county. If you are not a member, you should be. Officers of the JCGDA were acknowledged.
  
• Elected officials present in the room were acknowledged. (It is very nice to see the wide variety of officials present from both the state, county and local level.)

Update on Goals

• 2007 budget projections were based on a growth rate that did not materialize. But we did finish in the black because we tightened our belt.
  
• 2008 budget was met by making hard choices. Wage increases have been forgone and open positions will not be filled unless absolute need can be demonstrated.
  
• Early signs are that 2o08 will meet expectations.
  
• Promised to deliver on planning documents to maintain effective growth in the county. That document is in the final stages of approval.
  
• Received a grant for a corridor management plan for scenic byway designation for 21 and M. This scenic byway plan will not impose land use restrictions or it will not be sent to MODOT.
  
• Goal was to create a one stop shop for permits. Many districts have signed on to the document. Banks asked the commission to approve it so he can then sign it.
  
• The Park and Recreation master plan goal was also met. New lighting was made available at important facilities. Offerings will be expanded. Access to the outdoors, skateboarding, golfing just to name a few. Stone Bridge in the R7 school district is a unique geologic formation. Developers Price made a gift of that land to the county. We must make the effort to develop this area.

One of the biggest problems facing the county is pollution from failing septic systems due to lack of overall sewer districts. Raintree is now the first customer of the Jefferson County Sewer District. The district has been expanded to cover all previously uncovered areas of the county. Many of the privately owned sewer facilities are polluting. Banks called on local sewer districts to take over the private ones to make sure that all are run effectively.

The EDC administers the HUD entitlement program along with other valuable tools. We are just getting many of these programs off the ground. These programs offer funds to help individuals and small businesses stop polluting and grow in other ways. EDC has administered federal dollars to redo two of the senior centers and used other federal money for important projects. When Banks took office there was no EDC director. We are pleased to have Sam Rauls as the new director and he has made a big difference. (Rauls acknowledged with applause.) The economic development team is here to serve you.

Susan Green, new emergency management director, was also acknowledged. Green formerly worked in Cole County. She plans to fully utilize the assets provided by Homeland Security to keep the county safe and on the right track.

The Sheriff's Department is building a new building which is great. However, if there wasn't special grant money we would be laying off deputies. JCSD is underfunded. Banks encouraged everyone to shop Jefferson County. You fund your local services by shopping in Jefferson County. If you cross the Meramec then you are subsidizing the St. Louis County services and developers. There are many new developments throughout the county. No longer will shopping Jefferson County require sacrifice. Soon we will see St. Louis County people coming here to shop.

The municipal court was a bright star in 2007. Backlog has been lessened and revenues are up. It is not the goal of the court to make money, but being more efficient helps free up law enforcement to be out helping people.

Roads - we are going to be working on many county roads and bridges with local money. We need to continue to fight for federal money for our major highway corridors. 13 million dollars will be spent on safety improvements for Old MM. Most of the improvements on HWY 55 will be funded through developer interest - there is no government funding for them.

Banks is one vote out of 24 on the East West Gateway Board. It is difficult to advance the causes of Jefferson County in that situation. East West is focusing on preservation of highways which is poor policy. We must expand our transportation capacity in order to grow effectively.

The Hwy 21 committee meets last Monday of the month at VFW in DeSoto. They have been fighting for 16 years to expand 21 to Desoto. The committee members and their sacrifices were acknowledged and thanked.

Hwy MM taskforce has met for 8 years to focus on safety improvements on that corridor. This advocacy group is directly responsible for getting things done.

Citizen groups are the backbone of transportation improvements. This is the only way that we will get East West Gateway to acknowledge Jefferson County needs.

It is a tight budget year. No elected officials have balked at the sacrifices needed to keep things going. The County Clerks office was congratulated for continuing to offer a high level of service in trying times.

Charter Commission = Banks was skeptical at first. However, after meeting with the committee members he is more hopeful. The members selected are a good group. Banks is withholding judgement until the document is complete. He warned that county residents are resistant to big government and not to be disappointed if it doesn't pass.

Did you know that JC is home to the nations largest science fair? The Mastodon Fair is held at Jefferson College.

Jefferson College is a very effective community college doing a fantastic job. New branches have opened in High Ridge and Arnold. The director was acknowledged.

JC has great assets with great schools, great people and great amenities. We have low crime because we respect others. Schools succeed because we care. The county is beautiful because we want it that way. As long as the rest of the region continues to fail, we will continue to see people wanting to move to Jefferson County.

All were thanked and Banks concluded with God Bless Jefferson County.

Thanks for joining me in this new experience of blogging a live event. Keep an eye on this blog for future events!