New York to ban trans-fat use
Guardian Unlimited: New York is set to become the first city in the United States to ban all but tiny quantities of trans-fats from being used in its 24,000 restaurants. According to plans agreed this week by the board of health, under the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, all the city’s restaurants, cafes and street stalls will be forced to keep to a limit of half a gram of trans-fats in any item served from their menus.Read more
Popularity: 5% [?]
Credit unions to the rescue
They’re churning out more and more small-business loans—and becoming financial saviors
Joe Bennett was finally ready to buy his own restaurant, an established 100-seat eatery in St. Paul, Minnesota, and he needed a loan. He’d been in the business for 25 years—including stints as VP of operations for Grandma’s Restaurant Co. in Duluth, and director of restaurants for Morrissey Hospitality Co., also in St. Paul—and figured his experience and track record would win him the financing he needed.
But Bennett’s bank passed on a business loan, instead recommending he take out a home equity loan. “That wasn’t going to help me with my credit rating at my new place,” Bennett recalls. “I needed the loan to come through my business.”
At the urging of friends, he contacted a local branch of the Twin City Co-ops Federal Credit Union.
“Right away they got me in touch with the head of business development, and he was very receptive to what I wanted to do,” says Bennett. In early July, he completed his application for a $50,000 down payment, plus another $50,000 for improvements that included painting, new interior artwork, a new sign and awnings.
Three weeks later the money was approved.
Across the country, credit unions are expanding their loan programs as small- to medium-sized businesses seek alternatives to traditional funding sources like larger banks. Last year Minnesota had the highest year-to-year increase in the percentage of credit unions offering business loans—9.1 percent over 2004. That boosted the percentage of credit unions doing business loans in the state to 37.3, according to the Credit Union National Association—but it’s hardly alone. Maine, New Hampshire, Florida, Oklahoma, Kansas and Montana also saw year-to-year increases of up to 8 percent. In Maine, that translated to 43.2 percent of the state’s credit unions engaged in some form of business lending. Nationally, 21.1 percent of credit unions engaged in non-agricultural business lending last year, up from 18.4 percent in 2004.
Experts point to a changing banking landscape as the key reason why more small businesses are looking to credit unions for business loans and working capital. The banking industry has undergone enormous consolidation in recent years as big banks have been acquired by bigger banks, and with that has come the perception—and sometimes the reality—that banks aren’t as responsive to local needs as they once were.
Credit unions, by contrast, are member-owned non-profit organizations—membership can be organized around where you live, where you work, where you go to church and so on—that focus on service rather than profitability. Their non-profit status means they don’t pay federal taxes, which helps them undercut the interest rates offered by banks, and their community orientation helps them remain responsive to the needs of smaller operators. In addition, more credit unions nationally are participating in the Small Business Administration’s loan guarantee programs, further raising credit unions’ profile as a source of small-business capital and expertise.
“We’ll actually go out and visit small business owners, help them structure loans, and help them build their business plans—no large bank is going to take the time to do that,” says Jill Casselman, chief executive of the Business Loan Link, a cooperative of 10 credit unions in Southern California that pool their resources for a wide array of business lending, including restaurants. About two-thirds of the loans made by the Business Loan Link since it launched in October 2005 have been less than $150,000.
While Casselman can’t say how much an operator might save borrowing money from a credit union as opposed to a bank, she points to a credit union’s core mission—returning profit to the community in the form of lower interest rates and fees, as well as an emphasis on member services—as a good place to start. “We also have more freedom to structure deals than banks do,” she says. “We can find strengths in the deal that banks may not be willing to look at.”
Casselman’s Business Loan Link is part of a trend among credit unions to band together to form what’s called credit union service organizations, or CUSOs. About 50 credit union cooperatives exist nationally, she says, and the number is growing rapidly. “CUSOs offer us an opportunity to share the expense of expanding the number of products we offer, and they offer a huge advantage to small business owners in terms of cost and service.”
Bennett is just happy that he had an alternative to the bank he’d done business with for years; he was reluctant to leave, he says, but ultimately the credit union offered him exactly what he needed.
“They were willing to believe in me and my experience and my business plan,” he says. “Now I tell everybody I’m living the American dream by owning my own small business.” —Scott Sutherland
Popularity: 5% [?]
An International Affair!
We have now added coaching clients to the following countries, bringing our total international client list to 37 countries!
Australia, Japan , Canada, Mexico, India, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Algeria, Singapore, New Guinea, Norway, Swededn, Finland and Russia!
Sign up here to start building a better restaurant!
Popularity: 5% [?]
More Bar Promotions!
Gratifying Gossip
Fake tabloids and sensational service have made Tuesday nights the night to gossip and gather at the Ghostbar in Las Vegas.
Gossip Tuesdays take the concept of a tabloid and turn it into a party. Every Tuesday night, the people of the local nightlife industry are the treated like stars, literally. One lucky person who is affiliated with the club is featured on the cover of the Ghostbar’s fake tabloid. And just like a real tabloid, that person is usually the victim of misleading photos and false headlines.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Monkey Business
Several scientists were studying a group of monkeys. Its always the monkeys who get the attention.
In a large room the scientists had hung a climbing rope with a bunch of bananas at the top. When the monkeys were brought in, it was only a short time before one of them figured out that a short climb up the rope produced a great reward: a banana. However, when any of the other monkeys tried to follow his lead, they were sprayed with water. The first monkey up the rope was always allowed to climb to the reward, but others were always hosed down each time they tried to do the same.
Eventually, when the rope-climbing monkey would make a move to go for another banana, the others in the group would physically prevent him from climbing. Eventually he learned not to climb the rope.
The scientists then removed that special monkey and put a new one in the room. The moment the new recruit made a move for the rope, the other monkeys would beat him up. After several attempts, and several beatings, he too learned not to climb the rope.
New monkeys were periodically introduced into the group and each time the other monkeys made certain no one climbed the rope and got a banana.
Recently a friend told me he had left what appeared to be a super job with lots of potential, to be a night manager for Wal*Mart. He agreed the money and hours were better working for a giant in the financial service industry, but he was tired of getting beat up by his fellow employees every time he tried to get things done.
Say what you want about Wal*Mart, he affirmed, but they expect you to perform and don’t stand in your way. I couldn’t handle the stress of being told to produce and being beaten up every time I tried.
That’s what you get in some organizations when you reach for the banana beaten up by the other monkeys!
I see businesses pursuing re-imagined brands and hitting their head on this reality all the time. New brand-critical standards arise as they discover and attempt to deliver on their brand difference. Frequently its been a long time since their team has had to welcome new definitions of success and new performers into their midst. It can get ugly at times; with those who want to live the new brand getting chased away.
Don’t let it happen!
The first requirement for creating a healthy re-imagined brand is a high demand on performance within the organization regardless of what the other monkeys think. This is why brand ownership initiatives call for higher levels of leadership, if they are to succeed. We find commitment to growing a strong brand uncovers under-performing cultures that need to have their cage rattled. Otherwise you chase off the very people you need.
Source: http://www.ownyourbrand.com/2006/09/25/monkey-business/
Popularity: 4% [?]
