We hope you are excited about the enhancements to the database and also about the updated Census information used to comprise many of its reports.

New in 2013:

• Executive Report – This report provides an executive summary in paragraph format of key demographic attributes in a trade area in addition to data in tabular form. The report includes current-year estimates, five-year projections, and demographic data from Census 2010.
• Business Locator – Business Locator report provides a list of businesses in the study area and compares daytime population to residential population. The report lists up to 250 businesses in the study area with NAICS code, business name and address, number of employees, and estimated sales. This is a very useful information to someone who wants to know how much business he/she can generate from people who work in the area during the day but do not reside in the study area.
• Business Summary – The Business Summary report provides details on the number of businesses and employees by industry group in the study area.
• Traffic Count Profile – This report provides data about traffic patterns around your site by displaying as many as 25 of the closest available traffic counts. The Traffic Count Profile includes information such as distance to your location, street name and nearest cross street, direction to nearest cross street, traffic count, and year the count was taken. This is critical information for any establishment depending on walk-in or drive-in traffic.
• Traffic Count Map – Visualize the traffic patterns around your site. The Traffic Count Profile Map displays the traffic counts at intersections within and around your market area to help you improve your site selection, understanding of traffic patterns, and ability to identify high-visibility locations. Traffic counts are classified into six volume categories and demarcated by color and size on the map, making it easy to detect traffic patterns.

A large number of reports have been updated to Census 2010 plus Esri’s 2012 current year estimate of population and 2017 population forecast including:

•                Age 50+ Profile

•                Age by Sex by Race Profile

•                Age by Sex Profile

•                Detailed Age Profile

•                Disposable Income Profile

•                Graphic Profile

•                Housing Profile

•                Market Profile

•                Net worth Profile

If you would like to learn more about how the BusinessDecision database can help you better understand your business environment and how you can improve your business, contact Terry Miller, our Business Librarian, at 785-580-4556, or email tmiller@tscpl.org.

BLACK FRIDAY

• The web site blackfriday.com lists ads from dozens of retail stores, including Best Buy, Kohls, Walmart, Sears, Old Navy, Target, and more.
• Click on individual store logos for cashback offers and times that doors open on Black Friday.
• You can also download a “Black Friday” app to your iPhone or iPad.

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY

• Saturday, November 24, 2012 is Small Business Saturday® – a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities.
• You can find small businesses in Topeka to support right here.

CYBER MONDAY

• This site is filled with Cyber Monday online shopping deals and coupon codes all through Thanksgiving weekend and Cyber Monday.
• Sign up for daily e-mail alerts
• The Cyber Monday blog offers sneak peaks, deals, giveaways, and also some important safe online shopping tips:

1. Shop trustworthy websites. If a store sounds shady, it is worth the extra time and effort to check them out. Search for their name on Amazon and see if they have a seller rating.
2. Beware of deals that sound TOO great.
3. Confirm that your purchase is secure. When you start the checkout process, look at the URL. Most trusted sites start with https. This means that the transactions will be secure.
4. Pay with a credit card. Credit card fees can be disputed. If the company you purchased from turns out to be fraudulent, you have the right to dispute the charges.
5. Keep all records and confirmations.  Always print your confirmation numbers and receipts. Or take a screen shot and save it to your computer.

• Business Areas:  Accounting; Buying, Expanding, or Closing a Business; Sales,;Legal Issues; Business on the Internet; Employees; Operations; Going Green; Management and Leadership Topics and  more.
• Industry Information by Business Type
• Business Basics:  Includes valuable information on how to manage your business after it is up and running.
• Start-up Kit and Business Plans

In addition to the above resources, this database also features several full-text PDF versions of business books published by NOLO press.  These books provide legal guidance from starting your business to managing your taxes to negotiating with contractors and consultants.  There is also a guide to effecive fundraising for Non-Profits.

Business videos are available to provide critical information to business owners in a teachable format.  Choose from literally hundreds of videos,  including

• Business tips from the nation’s top CEOs
• “Lessons Learned” features to help avoid the pitfalls of running a business and to let you know you are not alone in facing daily challenges – large or small.
• Lectures from leading business educators
• “How-to” videos

The Small Business Reference Center is a terrific resource  to help foster success in all aspects of starting and growing a business.

Enrollment is required. You may register through HCCI by calling  Megan Stanek  at 785-234-0217 x 319 or e-mailing her at mstanek@hcci-ks.org. You may also register online at www.hcci-ks.org.

The Women & Money Series is a seven-week series of classes, developed by women for women of all ages, income, and education levels. The classes will help develop confidence in your financial decision-making ability and to gain control of your life through informed money management.

The Women & Money Series curriculum has been developed by a coalition of women led by HCCI who work in education, financial institutions, non-profit organizations, and other professionals in the community.  We look forward to a great series of programs and hope to see you there.

Pink shows that there has always been monetary motivation, but it has lost its attractiveness as we’ve moved from the “top-down” management system to the more heuristic style (workers being free to decide how to do their jobs). He points out that repetitive jobs lend themselves more to traditional rewards, whereas money doesn’t seem to motivate innovation.  In fact, the old “carrot-and-stick” approach can actually squelch motivation as follows:

• Extinguish intrinsic motivation
• Diminish performance
• Crush creativity
• Encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior
• Foster short-term thinking

Instead, Pink examines the three elements of true motivation: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.

Autonomy. A sense of autonomy has a powerful effect on individual performance and attitude.  The employee who is well-trained and then left to do his/her job is much more effective than the one who is micro-managed and working in a control-oriented company.  Control leads to compliance; Autonomy leads to engagement.

Mastery.  We are wired to want to be better at what we do. The mastery of something is its own reward. It may be the most powerful thing driving us.  In Pink’s theory, Mastery is the urge to get better and better at something that matters.

Purpose.  People want to believe that what they are engaged in matters and there should be a good reason they are doing the work they are doing. When people “buy in” to a task, they will be more highly motivated and productive.  This is also true with sports teams – the ones where the players buy in to what the coach is telling them to do will perform at a higher level.

The author shows us companies that are enlisting new approaches to motivation and introduces the reader to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are using new motivational models to transform what we know about what motivates us. It is a very compelling read.

How much debt you have; your payment history; your debt utilization ratio; how far back your credit history goes; your mix of various types of credit.

Here are five things that can kill your credit score and lessen your chances of getting an affordable loan:

1.  Making late payments.  Payment history counts for 35% of your total score, so it’s very important to pay on time. Furthermore, if you’re late on a payment, it stays on your credit report for about 7 years.  A single late payment can lower your score by as much as 80-110 points.

2. Carrying a big balance.  30% of your credit score is based on a debt utilization ratio - i.e., how much you owe in relation to your credit limits.  So, carrying a balance of a high percentage of your available credit can adversely affect your score.

3. Closing a credit account.  This goes along with #2.  If you close one of your accounts because of security concerns or just because you don’t want any more credit, you might actually be hurting your credit score by raising your debt utilization ratio.  As a very simple example, if you have two credit cards with $1000 limit each and have a $500 balance on one, you have a  500/2000 - or 25% – ratio.  Closing one of your accounts doubles your ratio to 500/1000 – or 50%.

4. Opening an additional credit account.  This is not really a killer, but just be careful not to open too many accounts at once.  People who open new accounts are considered a higher risk immediately after opening an account.  Also,  when you apply for a new account, the credit card company needs to check your credit.  This automatically dings your score 5-15 points. Any negative effect of opening a new account usually lasts only about 6 months.

5. Defaulting.  This (foreclosure; credit card chargeoff; bankruptcy) is the single worst thing you can do to kill your credit.  Any of these actions can knock your score down 200-250 points.  But, if it happens, you can start building back by making on-time payments, keeping a low balance, and possibly taking out a small loan and paying it off.

As with any issue regarding money, credit, or identification, there are people out there ready to scam you and take your money for little or no service. Often,  doing it yourself is the best way to repair your credit. The Federal Trade Commission’s “Credit Repair: How to Help Yourself” explains how you can improve your creditworthiness and lists legitimate resources for low-cost or no-cost help.

Whatever you do, don’t give up.  Even if you’ve done some of these no-nos in the past, present good behavior can make up for a lot, and usually within about 2 years of consistently paying attention to your accounts, you can raise your score back to an attractive level.

President Obama has issued a Presidential Proclamation calling for this week to be National Small Busines Week.  Here is an excerpt: You can read the entire Proclamation here:

Our Nation has always believed that anyone with a solid plan and a willingness to work hard can turn even an improbable idea into a successful business. For generations, that powerful notion has been at the heart of the American promise, forging a legacy of bold entrepreneurship that lives on today and lights the path to a brighter tomorrow. During National Small Business Week, let us reflect on that proud history and resolve to carry it forward in the years to come.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 20 through May 26, 2012, as National Small Business Week. I call upon all Americans to recognize the contributions of small businesses to the competitiveness of the American economy with appropriate programs and activities.

So If you get a chance, patronize a small business this week. They deserve your support.

Whereas Collins’ focus in Good to Great was on company performance, this time he conducted a much more scientific study. With a team of twenty researchers, he targeted companies whose performance beat their industry index by a minimum of ten times over fifteen years in environments characterized by big forces and rapid shifts that company leaders could not have predicted or controlled. These companies were designated as “10X companies.” They were then compared to similar companies that failed to thrive in similarly extreme environments.

Only 7 companies were chosen as 10X-ers out of over 20,000 samples. They are Amgen, Biomet, Intel, Microsoft, Progressive Insurance, Southwest Airlines and Stryker.

Here are 5 entrenched business myths that were undermined by the authors’ research:

• Successful leaders in a turbulent world are bold, risk-seeking visionaries. Quite to the contrary, the best leaders observe what works, figure out why it is working, and build upon proven foundations. They are more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid.
• Innovation distinguishes 10X companies in a fast-moving, uncertain, and chaotic world.  Surprisingly, no. Evidence supported that innovation itself did not affect success. More important was the ability to scale innovation – to blend creativity with discipline.
• A threat-filled world favors the speedy; you’re either the quick or the dead. 10X leaders figure out when to go fast and when not to.
• Radical change on the outside requires radical change on the inside. The 10Xers changed less in reaction to their changing world than the comparison cases.
• Great enterprises have a lot more good luck. Both sets of companies had luck and lots of it, both good and bad. The critical issue is what you do with the luck you get.

If I gain only one insight from this book it is this, “…yet the question of what it takes to achieve superior performance amidst unrelenting uncertainty faces them all [public schools, sports teams, churches, military units, businesses, hospitals, orchestras, etc]: Greatness is not just a business quest; it’s a human quest.” (p.12)

*Morten Hansen is a management professor at UC Berkeley and a former professor at Harvard Business School. Currently he consults and gives talks for companies worldwide – when he isn’t helping colleagues write groundbreaking bestsellers.

Sims convincingly argues that we need a new model of creativity, focused around gradual improvement and constant innovation. He profiles diverse creative thinkers and doers from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, comedian Chris Rock, Thomas Edison, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, architect Frank Gehry, and the story developers at Pixar Films. These guys have all used methods that unshackle them from the constraints of conventional planning, analytical thinking, and linear problem-solving that our educational system overemphasizes at the expense of creativity.

The author offers 4 tips for entrepreneurs trying to get a business off the ground:

1. Think about what you can afford to lose, rather what you can expect to gain.
2. Be curious. Learn a little bit from a lot of people. I don’t care if it’s a cab driver or janitor, everyone you meet knows or does something much better than you do. You can find new lessons and opportunities everywhere if you’re open to it. Curiosity is one of the most distinctive qualities of a great entrepreneur.
3. Learn a lot from a little. For example, Pixar shows its work-in-progress films to its employees and their kids. Seeking out a small group of these active users of ideas with little bets is a proven way to discover unique insights and desires.
4. Improvise, test, iterate, and repeat.  Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com often compares Amazon’s strategy of developing opportunities in new markets to “planting seeds” or “going down blind alleys.” ‘Many efforts turn out to be dead ends,’ Bezos says. ‘But every once in a while, you go down an alley and it opens up into this huge, broad avenue.’”