We heard from Patric Sazama and Michael Schneider from Impact Washington regarding the results of a recent statewide survey of manufacturers. Impact Washington is a non-profit consulting organization that we partner with to help our local companies.  This is the second year that Impact Washington has commissioned the survey and the survey and ensuing discussion was very informative.  The bottom line is that business owners and CEO’s surveyed feel the state business climate and regulations are still headed in the wrong direction, however companies remain cautiously optimistic, many are confident going forward and some even are planning on hiring in 2012.

Our roundtable discussion got especially heated when the group  reviewed a list of the top concerns among manufacturing executives.  Not surprisingly, rising health care costs, taxes and regulations were all the top concerns of those surveyed, and our group of executives agreed.  Health care also came out as the top incentive as a means for attracting and retaining employees, even above wages.

The health care discussion continued with Sazama pointing out that even in light of this, according to the survey, only 58% of firms offer a health care plan to their employees.

Of other interest to the attendees was the increase in trade and export opportunity. Washington State Department of Commerce has some funding available to companies that want to enter new markets or develop an export plan.  We continue to keep tabs on these type of programs and will make sure to keep our manufacturers informed.

We are very pleased with our first Industry Roundtable for 2012 and look forward to the ongoing networking and interaction with our industry leaders.  If you would like more information on the Industry Roundtable events or local training opportunities, please contact us at 575.1140 or via email, newvision@ycda.com.

Read the full report here. PDF

Industry leaders gather to discuss common issues

Downtown Workshop

George started with an overview of what makes a successful redevelopment project and really emphasized seeing the community through a visitor’s eyes; and even recommends doing a little ‘secret shopping’ to gauge visual appeal, and customer service.  He stressed the importance of having strong partnerships with local agencies and the business community and celebrating small successes.

Granger Dinosaur

Sharp also mentioned the importance of communication, especially taking advantage of the internet and technology.  He used the example of the dinosaurs throughout Granger, commenting, “How neat would it be to have a kiosk at each one that was set up with a QR code so visitors can use a smart phone to learn more about the community or find out more about each dinosaur?”.

Ms. Hansen told us a little bit about the Main Street program – there are programs in 44 states and over 2,000 designated Main Street Communities throughout the United States.  “Communities have not only put a huge financial investment into their downtowns”, she says, “But downtowns are the heart and soul of a community.  They are worth saving.”  In her work with other communities working to re-energize, redevelop or just retain a core downtown, she noted four essential things to a successful downtown program:

Grandview Alive Plan

 1.  Organization:  As both George and Sarah mentioned, coordinating all parties and having a sense of organization is essential to drive a revitalization effort.  Determining who is doing what, playing upon each groups strengths and getting everyone on the ‘same page’ is important – if one group wants parking and another doesn’t, this could be a problem.  Coming to a consensus and arriving at a compromise may be necessary to move forward.

2.  Promotion:  Both speakers also spoke of the importance of promotion, both within the community and to visitors.  Whether it is having a user-friendly, up-to-date website, common signage, a business directory or something unique to the community, promoting events, the downtown and the community as a whole can have positive results as well. Having a common brochure or map of shops and restaurants can invite visitors to stay longer and enjoy lunch at a local cafe, or visit with a specialty shop owner that they might not have otherwise known about.  Hansen commented that, “It takes 15 seconds for a customer to see what is in your store”, not a lot of time to make a positive first impression.

3.  Design:  The element of design can involve many factors such as:

• Maintenance; (Are garbage cans overflowing? Do shopkeepers keep the sidewalk neat and tidy?)
• Signage; (Is there a common theme for signs?  Are signs visible and inviting?)
• Window Display; (Do shops have eye-catching and inviting?  Are windows clean or cluttered with graffiti or outdated posters?)
• Public Improvements; (Has the community invested in roads, infrastructure, sidewalks, etc.?)
• Building Improvements.  (Are owners encouraged to invest in their property, i.e., painting, awnings, etc.?)

4.  Economic Restructuring:  Many communities struggle to make improvements to downtown infrastructure or signage, and business owners face the same challenges – they would have more customers if they could make investments in their business, but they need more customers (and income) before they can invest in improvements.  Sarah talked about some options and incentive programs that downtown programs can take advantage of.  For example, the Main Street Program has different tiers of membership and participation levels that offer various levels of non-financial support; cities that are designated Main Street Programs can take advantage of a tax incentive; some cities have received Federal block grant funding to offer building improvement programs; and finally, some cities pursue grants for infrastructure improvements to help offset planned costs.

Open for Business

We were thrilled to be able to offer this high quality and interactive workshop as part of our Entrepreneurial Friendly Cities Program.  Both speakers presented some excellent tips for our community leaders.  It’s important for communities to work together, find out what makes their city special and work on ways that they can revitalize and retain a vibrant, thriving downtown core, which in many of Yakima County’s smaller cities, is the lifeline to the community.

Owners and CEO’s of some of Yakima County’s largest employers are supportive of the new layout and like the year-long calendar.  A letter went out this week from the leaders of Tree Top, Shields, Amtech, GE Aviation, AB Foods and Magic Metals inviting their peers to attend the kickoff event and participate in the roundtable on a regular basis. Local industry outreach is an essential component to New Vision and this enhances efforts to connect with all our manufacturers every couple of years.

The first meeting kicks off in January with a report and discussion on the results of the 2011 statewide manufacturer’s survey. Coffee & networking begins at 7:00 a.m., and the program starts at 7:30; the meeting will be held at New Vision offices, 10 North 9th Street, Yakima.

We will organize meetings every other month to focus on issues of importance to local industry, such as regulatory affairs, conserving resources and workforce training needs .  There will be a half hour at the start of these meeting devoted to networking so company leaders can learn from one another and share their business experience.

Roundtable meetings will be complemented by plant tours.  We plan to visit a number of interesting facilities to see and learn more about local companies.  New Vision plans to invite local education leaders on these tours so that we can continue to work together to develop (or maintain) training programs that meet local business needs.  New Vision will also offer periodic training seminars to accompany roundtable activities. Whether it’s training for supervisors, an introduction to exporting, or a lean manufacturing seminar, we are committed to organizing professional education opportunities for manufacturers and their employees.

Check out the full 2012 calendar of events.  If you have any questions or would like more information about New Vision’s business and industry roundtable, please contact us at 509-575-1140 (or tammy@ycda.com).

We are pleased to announce that three emerging businesses were selected as winners of our second annual business plan contest.  These entrepreneurs were selected by seven judges that met with business plan contestants yesterday.

Washington Vision Therapy Center won New Vision’s Enterprise Challenge and received a check for $10,000.  The specialized eye clinic is located in Yakima.  Dr. Ben Winters is a developmental optometrist who specializes in providing vision therapy to clients with a particular focus on helping kids.  Winters and his staff help patients correct vision problems that cannot be corrected with glasses or contact lens alone.  As the business grows, Winters plans to open more local clinics and eventually expand to other areas as well.

Hop Central Brewing Company placed second in the contest and received a check for $5,000.  Hop Central will be a new microbrewery in downtown Yakima.  The company plans to handcraft uniquely hop centered beers which choice hops for the Yakima Valley.

Milt’s Original Gourmet BBQ Pellets took third place in the contest and won $2500.  The Grandview-based company manufacturers flavor enhanced barbeque pellets made from tree fruit wood and food processing wastes.  The company sells one and twenty pound bags of pellets through farm stores, barbeque dealers and other outlets.

The other five final contestants received consolation prizes that can be redeemed for legal or accounting support from local businesses.  “We are thrilled with the results of our business plan contest”, said New Vision’s Tammy Everts.  “All our contestants have enormous potential in terms of launching or running successful local businesses.  If these emerging companies get off the ground according to their plans we should see them add opening or expanding facility and adding a significant number of jobs.”

Dr. Ben Winters, owner of Washington Vision Therapy, was excited to win the contest:  “We benefited tremendously from participating in the business plan contest.  Having over 40 business leaders review our plan and evaluate our business was invaluable.  We learned a lot and the contest gave us very favorable exposure within our community.  The funds we won will be plowed into our business and support our growth over the next year.”

New Vision’s Enterprise Challenge started in September and featured several educational events where contestants could learn more about managing a business.  There was also a coaching round for final contestants where they could get advice from local experts.  The development association is planning to run the contest again next year.  The contest helps anchor our initiative to support local entrepreneurs and we are confident our 2012 contest will be even better.

Posted by David McFadden, YCDA.com

DATE:  Friday, December 9

Who will win???

TIME:  12 noon to 1:00 p.m., registration and networking begins at 1130

PLACE:  Yakima Red Lion Hotel, 607 East Yakima Avenue, Yakima

COST:  $20, includes lunch

Call 575.1140 for more details.  Early registration fee is $20.0.

Register now in three easy ways:

1. By check:  Call 575.1140 OR email newvision@ycda.com and mail in payment;

2. In person:  Stop by our office to register and pay by check or cash; or

3. Online:  Register here and pay by credit card using secure link with PayPal.  Includes $2.00 per person PayPal processing fee, PayPal account is not required.

Awards Banquet Generously Sponsored by Moss Adams.  Thank you!

Investment Round

The competition started with 26 contestants; last week our contestants participated in an afternoon trade show meeting with a group of approximately 30 judges who evaluated each business and its chances for success.  After providing us their scores and evaluations, the judges ultimately picked the following companies to move on in our contest:

• Hop Central Brewing Company – planning to open a production brewery in downtown Yakima;
• Resource Recovery Group, aka Milt’s Original Gourmet BBQ Pellets – manufactures flavor laden BBQ pellets made from local fruit wood;
• IQ Tax Center – providing full service tax, bookkeeping, and financial support to consumers and small businesses;
• Yakima Food Cooperative – working to establish a cooperatively owned and managed healthy foods store in Yakima;
• Creme – planning to start a dessert cafe and coffee bar in downtown Yakima;
• Washington Vision Therapy Center helps patients address vision problems that cannot be corrected with glasses or contact lens;
• Serenity Falls & Watergardens– providing general landscaping and specialized waterfall landscaping services; and
• K5 Contracting – a specialty contractor that sells and installs various home and commercial insulation products.

It was very difficult to cut our field down to the eight finalists.  We had a stellar group of entrepreneurs involved in the Enterprise Challenge this year and we know that several contestants who did not make our cut will nonetheless launch very successful enterprises.

Next week our finalists travel to Seattle to participate in Entrepreneur University.  This daylong workshop is a great experience for small businesses and our contestants will bring home lots of valuable advice and information.  After the Seattle road trip our entrepreneurs will have about three weeks to finalize their plans.

Our office is working to pair each contestant up with a coach or coaches that can advise them in areas where they need additional help.  These coaching activities will unfold between now and early December.

Final judges will meet the contestants on December 8th and help us select our contest winners.  We will announce our prize winning entrepreneurs at our awards luncheon on December 9th.

The contestants have had their business plan summaries scored by the first round of judges. and now have a week to make any revisions to prepare for the Investment Round Trade Show.  The Investment Round will be set up as a trade show event, with approximately 30 judges that have $1,000 ‘Investment (play) Bucks’ to invest in a minimum of five companies; the top eight ‘money’ winners will move on to the next round of the competition.  This event is not open to the public.

Here’s a snapshot of the participants that have advanced to the next round. Some businesses are still in the planning stages, so they may not be ready to launch their official name yet, and others have websites and storefronts that you can visit for more information!

1.  K-5 Contracting, General Contractor.

2.  Bristol Media, BusyBee Magazine.  Niche Publishing.

3.  Creme’.  French inspired patisserie.

4.  Magic & Mind Games, Performance Magician.

5.  IQ Tax Center.  Tax services, IRS Audit solutions, bookkeeping services.

6. Lower Valley Therapeutic Massage & Spa.  Massage and other spa services in Grandview.

7. Don Mills. Algae International.

8. PartyNPlay.  Family friendly coffee shop and bakery.

9. Resource Recovery Group, Milt’s BBQ Gourmet Pellets. Flavored BBQ Pellets.

10. Serenity Falls Landscaping and water features.

11. Surya Yoga.  Yoga for All.

12. TBA Brewing Company.  Craft Brewing company in downtown Yakima.

13. VanKommer Industrial Design.  Engineering and design services.

14. Washington Vision Therapy Services.

15. Yakima Food Cooperative.

16. Yakima Press Company.  Vintage wine and cider press manufacturing.

We were fortunate to have Dustin Yeager and Sean Griffee from Stokes Lawrence Velikanje Moore & Shore provide a fast-paced workshop on basic legal issues that entrepreneurs commonly encounter when starting a business.  Dustin and Sean covered a lot of essentials from business structure to corporate governance and real estate options to copyrights.  Many of the things they discussed emphasized doing your homework BEFORE you dive into something unprepared, which is one of the key reasons we encourage entrepreneurs to prepare a business plan.

It doesn’t take an attorney to tell you that if you do set your business up correctly in the first place or do things right the first time, it can save you a lot of time and money.  Here are some top takeaways from their presentation that new all business owners should consider:

1.  Legal Structure

Choosing a business structure is one of the first tasks a new business owner is faced with.  It is very important to look at not only how the various legal structures can affect your business, but the tax implications as well.  Keep in mind that just because you set up a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) it does not mean you are immune from being liable or being sued. Washington State’s Department of Revenue has a very informative handbook on this to learn more.

2.  Licensing and Zoning

This seems like common sense, but before you decide to hang out your shingle, you should make sure that the location allows the type of business that you want to do.  For example, if you want to start a manufacturing company in downtown because you want the visibility, you might want to check to see if it is allowed before you sign a lease on the building.  Many cities and counties also regulate home occupation businesses and in some cities you have to go through a public hearing process to receive a city license to operate out of your home.  If you have questions, you should check with the City Clerk’soffice or Planning departments.

Licensing is another big piece of the business equation.  You can complete a Master Business License online but keep in mind you also need to check with whatever city you plan on doing business in AND check to make sure your chosen field does not require additional licensing.  In some cases, the State license qualifies as the city license, but in Yakima County, it doesn’t cover all the cities in the county.  One handy tool on the state Department of Licensing website is to do a ‘trade name search’ so before you launch your business, you can verify to see if someone else is using the business name you would like to operate under.  It’s also a good idea to Google your potential business name.

3.  Employment Basics

If you will be hiring employees, there are some basic guidelines to follow. You want to protect your business and part of that is to have clear employment policies and procedures in place that can help protect your business when terminating employment relationships.  Common mistakes many business owners make are to depart from company rules, failure to address harassment and/or discrimination and/or fail to document!

4.  Intellectual Property

The most common types of intellectual property are copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and patents.  According to the speakers, “Secrecy is KEY to trade secret protection”, for example, if you have a secret family recipe, one way to protect that is to limit employee access to those who need to know.  You can also have employees sign confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements and be sure to tell people that the information is confidential.  If you have questions about patents or if your idea/invention is patent-worthy, it is a good idea to consult with a patent attorney.

5.   Taxes

Last but definitely not least is taxes.  Part of running a business is paying taxes.  Sales tax, B&O Tax, Use Taxes, Property Taxes, Income Taxes…Tax, tax, tax.  Yes, you need to make sure to pay your taxes.  Not knowing you owe taxes doesn’t help you with the IRS or state.  It is a good idea to consult a CPA or tax advisor that has experience with small businesses.

To summarize, covering your legal bases has a lot to do with risk management.  If you take steps to properly set up your business, be legally licensed and responsible when it comes to licensing, business practices,  paying your taxes,  and protecting your intellectual property, you can help minimize potential problems you may encounter.

If you are just starting out on developing a business plan, here are a few resources to help:

2011 Contestant Only Workshop

• This  template is similar to what the Small Business Development Center hands out to clients;
• SCORE .org has a full page of templates in its Template Gallery, including some very user-friendly Excel spreadsheets for the financial worksheets;
• SBA.gov has a very nice interactive business plan tool.

It's what's inside that counts!

You can usually find a sample business plan online for almost any type of business.  Many of these free samples are provided by the makers of business plan software, so they are of course, trying to entice you to purchase their product.  One word of caution, business plan software programs can be a lot of work and a lot of the information is repeated throughout, which can turn your readers off.

We recommend starting with an outline of your business plan so you identify what kind of research you’ll need to do, whether it’s market research on number of customers, pricing of products or services, demographics, competition or the industry, just to name a few topics.  Visit our business plan assistance page for help getting started!

Each contestant will go through four seminars over the next few weeks to get oriented on business planning, marketing, financing, and legal issues.  Participants are then expected to submit a business plan summary that will be reviewed by first round judges.  This review team will cut the field down from 24 to 16.

After the initial cut, remaining contestants gear up for a trade show in early November where they will interact with and pitch thirty new judges about their ventures.  This group of judges will evaluate these businesses and help us further reduce our contestant field to eight finalists.  The entrepreneurs still standing will then refine and finish their business plans by early December and gear up for final oral presentations.  Our final judges hear these presentations, review each contestant’s plans and ultimately pick our contest winners.

We are very pleased with the turnout for the contest and have designed the event so it benefits all participants even if they don’t advance through the contest.  By offering in-depth business seminars and offering hands on counseling to all contestants, our team is confident that our participants can gain traction with their business and learn what it takes to launch a successful enterprise.