“The U.S. Small Business Administration is reminding small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and most private non-profit organizations of all sizes that May 21 is the filing deadline for federal economic injury disaster loans available in Gibson, Knox, Posey and Sullivan counties in Indiana as a result of excessive rain, flooding and flash flooding that occurred from  April 1 through July 31, 2011,” according to today’s press release.

The SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program will make funds available to eligible farm-related and nonfarm-related entities that were hit financially as a direct  result of the floods.

According to the Economic Injury Disaster Loans page on SBA.Gov, “The SBA can provide up to $2 million to help meet financial obligations and operating expenses which could have been met had the disaster not occurred. Your loan amount will be based on your actual economic injury and your company’s financial needs, regardless of whether the business suffered any property damage.” Interest rates will be at 4 percent for small businesses and 3 percent for nonprofits.

If your business has been affected and is within the listed counties, apply for the EIDL via the online disaster loan application site. The SBA will review your filing and then send an inspector out to assess damage and compensation.

The working capital loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other bills that could have been paid had the disaster not occurred, but are not intended to replace lost sales or profits.

The talk, which will be given on Thursday, April 26 by Octavia Kuransky, program development manager for SBA’s Central Alabama Women’s Business Center, is called “Small Business Spring Clean: How to Keep Your Business Ideas Fresh.”

Kuransky is the founder of Psychology for the Real World, a research group “concerned with the study of changing cultural and economic effects on human attitudes and behavior.” In addition, she recently launched Guerrilla Businessing, described as “a new business model for highlighting opportunistic, short-term business ventures.” Her talk on Thursday will answer questions from entrepreneurs on how to keep a fresh business outlook for 2012.

This is the latest installment of the SBA’s web chat series. The series provides small business owners the opportunity to talk about business issues and ideas online with experts, industry leaders, and successful entrepreneurs.

“Chat participants have direct, real-time access to the web chats via questions they submit online in advance, and during the live session,” according to the press release. “Participants will gain valuable information on how to start a new small business.”

To view an archive of the monthly chat series, check out this link. Past talks include Tax Essentials for Small Business Owners, by Edward S. Karl, VP of Taxation for the AICPA; Small Business Opportunities for Native Americans, by Chris James, Assistant Administrator U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Native American Affiairs; and Growing a Home-Based Business: What You Need to Know, by Boyd Wright, founder of Wright Made Products.

To join the web chat click here and submit a question during the time of the event.

The contest calls for small businesses to submit videos about their achievements and explaining how the SBA helped them reach their goals. Three winners will be showcased on the Google+ Hangout put on by the SBA and the White House on May 23. They will also be featured during the National Small Business Week, which kicks off on May 20.

The National Small Business Week is a conference in Washington D.C. that focuses on small business accomplishments, like disaster recovery and entrepreneurial success. It runs from May 20-26 and provides seminars and networking opportunities for current and potential entrepreneurs.

The video contest is a chance to get your small business’s story in front of large audiences, both in-person and online, according to Karen Mills, the administrator of the SBA. Winners can also participate in the event, helping Mills answer questions from the audience.

“Each week I travel around the country and hear from business owners about how SBA has helped them start, grow and succeed,” she wrote in the blog announcement. “I’m often inspired by each business’ ingenuity, and it’s the small business owners I meet each week that are making communities strong and keeping America competitive…I want to share these stories, and so many more, with everyone.”

Submission Guidelines:

• Submit your video through Challenge.gov from 12 PM April 16 through 5pm May 11
• Videos should be between 1 and 2 minutes long
• They will be judged by SBA senior officials based on the inspirational nature of the message, creativity, and uniqueness of the video concept
• For a detailed list of contest rules, see here.

For those who don’t win, the SBA will still showcase your video on its YouTube page.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency may have denied Indiana disaster aid, but the SBA will lend a helping hand by, well, lending to flood victims, both business and homeowners.

By applying to the SBA, victims of the August 4th flood can get low-interest SBA loans to rebuild their homes and businesses. Homeowners can borrow up to $200,000, and the limit for business owners is $2 million. Even renters can obtain loans up to $40,000 to replace personal property.

Interest rates for the loans can be as low as 2.75 percent for homeowners and renters, and 4 percent for businesses, with the duration of the loans lasting up to 30 years. How much received and for how long is determined by the SBA on a case by case basis.

“The SBA is strongly committed to providing the people of Indiana with the most effective and customer-focused response possible to assist homeowners, renters and businesses of all sizes with federal disaster loans,” SBA Administrator Karen Mills said.

You can receive an application by calling SBA at 1-800-659-2955, or by email at disastercustomerservice@sba.gov. The filing deadline for SBA disaster relief applications is Jan 5, 2010.

Borrowers will have five years to repay, and the SBA will pick up the interest payments. Question you will be asked when applying for ARC can be found here and you can see if you’reeligibility. Contact your lender and they can help you determine if you’re a candidate for the ARC Loan.

Caveat: By mentioning these resources, we are not necessarily endorsing them or assuming any responsibility for how they deliver their services, or how well they work for you. Rather, we hope that these resources will be valuable, and that they will point you in the right direction, and stimulate new thinking. .

Have you visited Office Depot lately? Through a partnership with UPS, you can ship UPS right from the store. It may save you a special trip. Supposedly the rates are the same as UPS store.

Check out www.officedepot.com too. They really are trying to make things easy for business. You can order printing and copying services.  Don’t overlook the wonderful online Business Center resource that provides you with business form templates and advice for starting and running your business. Click on the first 2 sections on this page. http://www.officedepot.com/businesscenter.do  There are forms to protect your physical and employee assets, financial planning and valuation, marketing and business advice, taxes and much more. 

You can simply download the forms, and you’re ready to go. It’s a great starting point, if you want to customize them. The Small Business Handbook is invaluable for any business to have on hand. It covers everything you were afraid to ask, and more. It is a great starting point for raising issues.

Here are some other avenues you can try. Your industry trade association may have an online job board or an email newsletter where you can post your job opening, for little or no cost. This ensures that you get the best qualified people, without having to sift through tons of irrelevant resumes. You may even be able to post the job listing anonymously.

Depending on the nature of the job, you may also find Craig’s List (www.craigslist.com) to be a great resource, especially for entry level jobs or to attract a younger workforce, or even for temp positions. Certainly you can also place a help wanted ad in your local newspaper or community weekly, for a small fee, which is usually much less than the major daily papers.

There are many online job boards, like www.monster.com, www.hotjobs.com, www.dice.com (for tech jobs), www.hirestrategy.com,  www.asae.org and www.idealist.com (for association or non-profit jobs). There is usually a nominal fee for posting jobs to these websites. You can also add a careers or jobs section to your website. 

The trick about hiring is starting with the right job description. Be specific about the skills you are looking for. Don’t put all your wish list items in there. If you have budget constraints, put the salary in the ad. It will save a lot of guesswork and allow candidates to self select. You will negotiate salary based on skillsets.  

Microsoft Word and desktop publishing software like Publisher, InDesign, and Pagemaker all have built-in templates for everything from business cards to brochures.

PowerPoint, a great tool for presentations and teleconferences, also has stored templates, and allows you to import design elements and backgrounds.

Microsoft provides free, fun downloadable templates for parties, dinners, and holiday themes at office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx

Here is a Microsoft link for a business plan template:

www.microsoft.com/mac/resources/templates.aspx?pid=templates

Here is a Microsoft link for great resumes:

office.microsoft.com/en-ca/templates/default.aspx

Another resource you can use is on Office Depot’s online Business Center.

http://www.officedepot.com/promo.do?file=/guides/papertemplates/papertemplates_od.jsp

There you will even find templates for balloons, bumper stickers, index dividers, media, post cards, tent cards, binders, greeting cards, tickets, and tri-fold brochures. These are a great place to start, allowing you to customize the design with your stored logo.

Avery labels (www.avery.com) also provides printable templates and downloadable easy-to-use Design Pro software.  You can access all sorts of clipart images. There is also a tool for curved text. There is easy photo editing software. And something that you rarely find without special software, the ability to serial numbering and create bar coding. There is also a feature that makes mail merge easy.

There is no time like the present to get started with these projects. Search online for templates before you begin. It will help guide you, ensure there are no key omissions, save you time, and ensure a professional looking piece.

First, what exactly do we mean by having your business go “green”? When we talk about “green”, we mean making a concerted effort to save our natural resources concerted action. Actions such as:

• Saving on paper supplies – consider going digital for all of your internal office correspondence thereby saving on office supply costs and saving trees at the same time.
• Lowing office energy consumption – lower your thermostat in the winter and raise it in the summer.  Consider using an electronic programmable thermostat to lower your energy consumption when people are not in your office in the evenings and weekends.
• Recycling drink bottles – get your employees to sort their lunch trash and recycle bottles and cans. Encourage the use of environmentally friendly alternatives to Styrofoam cups.
• Using recycled paper – whenever possible use recycled paper in your print marketing materials saving trees and forests.
• Using biodegradable alternatives – replace plastic packaging and plastic shipping materials with new biodegradable “plastic-like” alternatives. Many of these new alternatives do not cost more and warrant your consideration.
• Driving less – drive less by consolidating the trips that you do need to make in your car saving fuel, mileage expenses, and decreasing air pollution in your city.
• Using mass transit or considering car pooling – save money, conserve our natural resources, and lower air pollution all at the same time.
• Buying Energy Star products – when you need new appliances or heating and cooling systems purchase those with the Energy Star label for increased efficiency and lower energy consumption.  You’ll recover your initial investment and then start saving money in just a few years.
• Stopping the Use Aerosols – use office and beauty products that are aerosol free. Consider letting your cleaning staff know to limit the use of aerosol based cleaning products in your office as well.
• Limiting your travel by teleconferencing – not only will you minimize the pollution you would normally create in traveling but will make a significant savings on travel expenses improving your bottom-line significantly. 

However, there is one more component of an effective global brand: leadership. It might be the most important component. Leadership with vision can turn a middling global company into a powerhouse.

Many very powerful global brands have legendary leaders; those leaders that frequently change up the status quo and push through barriers in order to get to the next level. In other words, those CEOs have vision.

Vision requires that CEOs lead effectively, represent the brand to everyone they influence, understand branding, and are able to nurture the company (and brand) in order to get the best results. Becoming this sort of CEO will not happen overnight, however, CEOs can get on the fast track by paying special attention to the vision or branding they develop for their company.

Over 70 percent of the market “capitalization” of companies on the Nasdaq “is contributed by the intangibles, of which brand equity is the important element.” However, in order for companies to continue to utilize this “equity,” branding or vision must become more mainstream and must be an activity practiced by all parts of a company. Branding must use internal corporate communications. What better use for a CEO’s vision than internal communication practices? A CEO that can communicate their vision and their ideas on branding should do so, not for the customer base, but for the employees. How else are they to understand what the company is attempting to do?

1. A CEO’s vision of the brand (or the CEO’s ideas for brand) must be stated upfront. This is not something to be kept a secret.
2. This vision and branding must have strong support not just from the CEO, but from all of corporate management. Everyone needs to be on the same team.
3. The corporate strategies must align with the branding strategies and vision of the company. Or the branding will fail.
4. Branding must be allowed to support “organization-wide cross-functional training, which nurtures the right mindset, skills and resources.” Why else would you train employees except to further the brand?

Moreover, “when the CEO and the corporate management team actively involve themselves in and nurture branding, the above roles of branding can be effectively utilized. By being a strong brand evangelist, a CEO can define and defend the actions of a brand.”

This is the CEO’s vision.  This is why companies go global and become larger than life. They benefit from a leader with a vision on how to go about developing the brand.

Do you have a vision? Now might be a great time to start thinking seriously about just what that is.