Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday, an opportunity for small businesses to market their products and services out of the shadows of “big-box” stores and franchises.
The most recent figures from 2021 show Indiana is home to almost 530,000 small businesses statewide; companies with fewer than 20 workers. Small Business Saturday prompts shoppers to support these businesses as they continue to recover from the pandemic.
One Indiana business owner turned her burnout as a mental health caseworker into a career as a licensed massage and skin therapist.
Lanetia Woolridge, owner of Lanetia’s Day Spa, said the business reflects her personality.
“When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to go back to school for, massage therapy just came up,” Woolridge recounted. “I could promote wellness and just make people feel good. And by becoming a massage therapist, I’m still helping people, but in a different capacity.”
Woolridge decided in 2021 it was time to become an entrepreneur, despite the pandemic. She admitted it was difficult to build a clientele, but marketed her business for pain management as well as relaxation. In Indiana, women own more than 42% of businesses, veterans own just over 7%, and Hispanics own almost 4%, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Business News Daily lists some of the biggest challenges for small businesses as disorganization, undervaluing what your business does, not having a business plan and being afraid to fail. Woolridge offered her advice:
“Don’t listen to the naysayers,” Woolridge outlined. “Hang around positive people, like-minded as yourself. It’s going to take a lot of hard work. There’s going to be busy days, slow days, but just continue to work on it and eventually, your business will be successful. So, I would say, go for it.”
Forbes magazine underscored another challenge. It said between February and April 2020, nationally, 41% of Black-owned businesses closed, along with 36% of Hispanic-owned businesses and 25% of women-owned businesses, due to a lack of access to capital.
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While you’re out to find Black Friday and holiday shopping deals today, many “Made in America” items may be on your preferred list.
A new poll by Morning Consult in coordination with the Alliance for American Manufacturing reported 83% of American consumers prefer to buy American-made products.
Awenate Cobbina, CEO of Shinola and Bedrock Manufacturing, said it is important to promote the nation’s economy by boosting jobs and local businesses.
“Manufacturing in the U.S. is at the core of who we are,” Cobbina pointed out. “Our people celebrate that passion and our products reflect this commitment. No one said this journey is an easy one, but we believe it is the only path to take.”
The poll found three in four U.S. adults want companies penalized for falsely marketing their goods as “Made in the USA.” In recent years, the Federal Trade Commission has increasingly pursued financial repercussions for fraudulent Made in USA claims.
Among those polled, 70% supported offering a tax credit to consumers who legitimately purchase American-made goods.
Industry leaders have said it’s an exciting time in U.S. manufacturing. The National Association of Manufacturing reports growth in American manufacturing over the past 10 years, and specifically, large jumps since 2016.
Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, sees semiconductor, construction and clean-energy jobs coming back, and says he is optimistic about what the future holds.
“A lot of people kind of woke up during the pandemic,” Paul noted. “And said, ‘You know what? I don’t like supply-chain disruptions. I don’t like not being able to get things. I don’t like necessarily being dependent on, say, China for medicine if it has to come across the ocean.'”
When shopping online, there is currently no law requiring a manufacturing label. Paul said so many people have turned to online shopping, and added the proposed Country of Origin Online Labeling Act has bipartisan support. The bill would require online retailers to identify the country of manufacturing for their products.
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Major utilities in West Virginia, Mon Power and Potomac Edison, want to reduce the credit their solar customers get for producing power the utilities use. Critics countered the move would dampen the market for solar in the state.
Net metering is a billing mechanism giving credits to residential and small business owners for excess energy produced by their solar panels, which flows back into the grid. Customers are only billed for the difference between what they use and what they generate, and earned credits can be used to lower monthly costs.
Emmett Pepper, policy director for the nonprofit Energy Efficient West Virginia, said current solar customers would not be affected, but the change would affect people who want to take control of their energy bills.
“The reason that most people want to have solar panels is to save money and this will make it harder to do that,” Pepper contended.
More than 3,000 West Virginia homes and businesses participate in rooftop solar net metering programs. Residents can get involved and submit feedback to the state’s Public Service Commission. The commission is expected to make a decision on the case early next year.
Gary Zuckett, executive director of the group West Virginia Citizen Action, pointed out net metering provides energy security and boosts resilience against extreme weather events by decentralizing power production. He said pulling the plug on net metering would stress the power grid and stagnate job growth in the state’s emerging energy sector.
“We really think that it’s a benefit for the power company to have more people net metering,” Zuckett explained. “They should not be penalizing them by trying to lower the credit they get for putting power into the grid.”
In a 2022 Pew Survey, when asked about possible reasons for installing solar panels, more than 90% of homeowners said saving money was a driving factor. Last year, the Biden administration implemented new federal tax credits for installing residential solar.
Disclosure: West Virginians for Energy Freedom contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Energy Policy, and Environmental Justice. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
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Montana has upgraded its outdated online unemployment insurance system, which should allow the state to process unemployment claims more efficiently. The system had not been modernized in more than 20 years.
The last time Montana updated its online unemployment insurance system, people were still using dial-up modems on their home landlines and Windows 95 software to access the internet. The new system was over a year in the making.
Sarah Swanson, commissioner of Labor and Industry, said new features will make it easier for claimants to file for benefits and for employers to pay their unemployment taxes.
“It allows secure messaging,” Swanson pointed out. “Instead of having to communicate via phone or ‘snail mail’ with our staff at Unemployment, claimants can now chat with them, directly and securely, right from that cell phone or that tablet. And it also has secure, electronic fact-finding.”
Swanson noted it can save days or weeks clearing up reporting inconsistencies between a claimant and previous employer. Ironically, Montana’s unemployment rate is historically low at just 2.3%, or about 13,000 people.
But Swanson cautioned numbers this low are not typical for Montana, and expects an uptick based on past data.
“Historically, we’ve only had 27 months — in the history of reporting in Montana — where we’ve had unemployment under 3%,” Swanson emphasized. “Interestingly enough, 25 of those 27 months have been the last 25 months.”
Nearly a quarter-million claimant accounts were migrated into the new system, where Swanson added the average unemployment claim now takes only about 6.5 minutes to file.
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