Monday, May 11, 2009
Restaurant Real Estate Opportunities
The current economy is creating a lof of opportunities for restaurant growth for operators that can take advantage of the market . Rather than grow by spending the capital to build a new facility or convert a non foodservice facility into a restaurant, there are many " second generation space " opportunities which are spaces that have already been built out for a restaurant and can be acquired at a much lower investment than a new build out . Restaurant infrastructure is expensive with costs for HVAC , fire protections systems , cooler/freezer systems, etc.. Opportunities exist out there throughout Kentucky and beyond to grow your business at reduced capital investment costs .
Friday, March 27, 2009
Limestone M & A Alliance formation - self starting business stimulus
Two Kentucky business intermediaries , Mr. Jay Knoblett (owner of Arlington Scott, Inc.) and Mr. Mark Sievers (owner of The Sievers Company LLC) , have formed the Limestone M&A Alliance . This alliance, which will operate as a consortium of independent companies , has been created to respond to the challenges of our economy by facilitating more and faster paced information sharing among the business community. This will accelerate main street and mid M&A market deal flow which in turn should play an economic stimulus and development role in the Bluegrass region and beyond.
The Limestone M&A Alliance http://www.limestonealliance.com/ welcomes affiliations with business/professional individuals and organizations . Their database of buyers, sellers, lenders and professional resource providers will initially focus on Kentucky but will be global in scope.
The Limestone M&A Alliance http://www.limestonealliance.com/ welcomes affiliations with business/professional individuals and organizations . Their database of buyers, sellers, lenders and professional resource providers will initially focus on Kentucky but will be global in scope.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Workout plan often a better alternative to bankruptcy
In the current economy there are many good solid businesses that are troubled or may become troubled later this year . This is a link to an article about how developing a workout plan can be a better alternative to filing bankruptcy :
http://www.franchisetimes.com/content/story.php?article=01246
http://www.franchisetimes.com/content/story.php?article=01246
Friday, March 6, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Cap and Trade Makes Industrial Recruitment Even Less Logical
I've long been convinced that industrial recruitment, that is a strategy that tried to grow our economy by convincing a factory to locate in an industrial park, is a losing strategy, generally speaking. There just aren't too many Toyota's lining up to locate here, and the companies within the United States, well, they're already American based and why should we use our tax dollars to steal them from another community? It just makes more sense to try to grow the economy overall than to fight the tide pulling these ventures south and east, to China and Mexico.
Soon, there may be yet another reason why industrial recruitment is a losing strategy: Carbon Cap and Trade. This will be a federally imposed tax on the production of CO2 emissions. Factories utilize large amounts of electricity generated by coal and other fossil fuels. Frequently, they burn their own fuels to make energy. In a day not too far into the future, the costs of doing this will increase. When it does, the costs of manufacturing will go up. Here's how CNBC's Larry Kudlow describes it: "[The coming] cap-and-trade program will be a huge across-the-board tax increase on blue-collar workers, including unionized workers. Industrial production is plunging, but new carbon taxes will prevent production from ever recovering. While the country wants more fuel and power, cap-and-trade will deliver less."
At this point I think it will be impossible to stop the cap and trade steamroller. From my standpoint, as a practitioner of economic development, I have to take the laws as they are, not necessarily as I would want them- and I do have reservations about cap and trade. So too do communities.
This means local communities have one more reason to think beyond their industrial recruitment dogmas and realize that entrepreneurship and improving small business efficiency makes more sense than adding onto your inventory of assets for a future factory that just ain't coming.
Soon, there may be yet another reason why industrial recruitment is a losing strategy: Carbon Cap and Trade. This will be a federally imposed tax on the production of CO2 emissions. Factories utilize large amounts of electricity generated by coal and other fossil fuels. Frequently, they burn their own fuels to make energy. In a day not too far into the future, the costs of doing this will increase. When it does, the costs of manufacturing will go up. Here's how CNBC's Larry Kudlow describes it: "[The coming] cap-and-trade program will be a huge across-the-board tax increase on blue-collar workers, including unionized workers. Industrial production is plunging, but new carbon taxes will prevent production from ever recovering. While the country wants more fuel and power, cap-and-trade will deliver less."
At this point I think it will be impossible to stop the cap and trade steamroller. From my standpoint, as a practitioner of economic development, I have to take the laws as they are, not necessarily as I would want them- and I do have reservations about cap and trade. So too do communities.
This means local communities have one more reason to think beyond their industrial recruitment dogmas and realize that entrepreneurship and improving small business efficiency makes more sense than adding onto your inventory of assets for a future factory that just ain't coming.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Is Entrepreneurship on the Decline in America?
That's what one economist is saying at US News and World Report. Snips:
[T]he population of U.S. firms is not a measure of new business creation. It is a measure of the stock of businesses in existence at any point in time. The population of businesses goes up if the number of new businesses started each year exceeds the number of existing businesses that fail each year. So we need to look at a different set of SBA numbers to figure out what happened to entrepreneurial activity over the 1997-to-2006 period.
The SBA's primary number for estimating business formation is the count of new employer firms founded in a year. The SBA reports that in 1997, 590,644 new employer businesses were started. In 2006, the agency estimates, 640,800 new employer businesses were created. That's a 7.9 percent increase over the decade.
The Census Bureau reports that in 1997, there were 272,912,000 Americans. In 2006, it estimated that the population had increased to 298,363,000 people. That's a 9.3 percent increase. Over the 10 years, the U.S. population increased faster than the rate of new employer firm formation.
Below is a graph I created of the per capita rate of employer firm formation in the United States since 1990. The trend is not good for entrepreneurship in America. Although the rate bounces around from 1990 to 2007, the per capita rate of new employer firm formation was 10 percent lower in 2007 than it was in 1990.
This bleeds over into the Gazelles vs. Mom 'n Pops argument that consumes many in the economic development arena, but it's worth considering.
Full story: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/outside-voices-small-business/2009/02/23/sba-data-show-a-declining-rate-of-entrepreneurship-in-the-us.html
[T]he population of U.S. firms is not a measure of new business creation. It is a measure of the stock of businesses in existence at any point in time. The population of businesses goes up if the number of new businesses started each year exceeds the number of existing businesses that fail each year. So we need to look at a different set of SBA numbers to figure out what happened to entrepreneurial activity over the 1997-to-2006 period.
The SBA's primary number for estimating business formation is the count of new employer firms founded in a year. The SBA reports that in 1997, 590,644 new employer businesses were started. In 2006, the agency estimates, 640,800 new employer businesses were created. That's a 7.9 percent increase over the decade.
The Census Bureau reports that in 1997, there were 272,912,000 Americans. In 2006, it estimated that the population had increased to 298,363,000 people. That's a 9.3 percent increase. Over the 10 years, the U.S. population increased faster than the rate of new employer firm formation.
Below is a graph I created of the per capita rate of employer firm formation in the United States since 1990. The trend is not good for entrepreneurship in America. Although the rate bounces around from 1990 to 2007, the per capita rate of new employer firm formation was 10 percent lower in 2007 than it was in 1990.
This bleeds over into the Gazelles vs. Mom 'n Pops argument that consumes many in the economic development arena, but it's worth considering.
Full story: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/outside-voices-small-business/2009/02/23/sba-data-show-a-declining-rate-of-entrepreneurship-in-the-us.html
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