Today we talk about something that is plaguing every small business- the credit crunch – you may be facing this credit crunch in this recession by the bank cutting your credit line, or not extending new credit or your customers may be paying later than usual. It is not uncommon during these economic times for customers that have been paying in 30 days to now be paying in 90 days- I have even seen large corporations take a 2% discount now for paying in 30 days and not 60 or 90 days– well if the bank won’t be the bank, then small businesses will have to bear the brunt.
I have a series of guests today who will tell us how to alleviate the pain, and how to get inside the mind of a banker- now that’s a scary thought during this economic meltdown.
Jim Stoynoff is the founder of Synthesis Solutions, a management advisory practice serving a wide range of middle-market enterprises. From 1981-2002, Jim was the founder/president of Damian Services Corporation, providing commercial credit to hundreds of businesses nationwide. We talked about:
1. The specific challenges small business owners tell us they are facing in today’s tight credit market.
2. What’s affecting banks’ ability, willingness to lend.
3. What bankers have told us they are looking for from borrowers/ tough new rules.
4. Actions which you should take ASAP to meet today’s credit challenges.
Many business owners now are getting so frustrated with the current state of the economy that they are looking to sell their businesses. I have been involved in many of these deals in the past year and the current economic climate makes it maddening.
Domenic Rinaldi is president and managing partner of Chicagoland Sunbelt. Domenic holds the professional designation of Certified Business Intermediary (CBI) from the International Business Brokers Association and is an expert in the business brokerage field. We talked about:
1. Given the current state of the economy, is now really a good time to sell?
2. Where are the buyers coming from?
3. How are deals getting financed?
4. What advice would you give buyers?
5. What advice would you give sellers?
Paul Rauseo joined George S. May International in April 1995. In his 14 years with the Company, Mr. Rauseo has served in every position in the consulting He has held the position of Managing Director, the number two executive position at the firm, since January 2005. We talked about:
1. How to climb out of the cellar of economic despair and identify wasted assets, wasted profits, and wasted effort and fire your board of directors Mr. Complacency and Mr. Procrastination.
2. Using a Planned Profit Model.
In my next book about customer service that comes out in October, I talk about how companies have to be concerned about what people say about them online. Neal Creighton, CEO and co-founder of RatePoint.
He has more than a decade of experience in Web-business applications including marketing, information security, identity verification and web authentication. Prior to RatePoint, Neal co-founded GeoTrust and served as president and CEO until the company was sold to VeriSign for $125 million in September 2006. We talked about:
1. What is an online reputation and why is it important to small business? How does a small business know what its reputation is online?
2. What are some ways for small businesses to better build their reputation online? How can a positive reputation online affect the bottom line? What tools are available at their disposal?
3. Proactive reputation management – What are small businesses doing about negative feedback? How do small businesses get ahead of having a negative.
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