Volume 1, Issue 1
Table of Contents

Miscellaneous
• From The Publishers
• Last Look: Syd Farber

Cover Story:
Where’s Everybody Going?
What’s causing some small businesses to pack up and leave? And what should we
be doing to stop them?

Feature Story:
The Excessive Costs of Doing Business in New York
A productive Small Business Day in Albany, but worries still exist for Rockland-ites and other New York based businesses.

Feature Story:
How’d They Do That?
Follow Provident Bank CEO George Strayton’s strategies for success.

DEPARTMENTS:

Economics Roundup
• The Smart Investor
• Money Talk

Business Roundup
• Unlock Your Potential
• Marketing By Design

Retail Round-Up
• Talking Shop
• Odds & Ends

Ask the Expert
• Estate Planning
• Mortgage Advice

Invest in Your Community
• The Bottom Line
• First Annual Non-profit Leadership Summit

Dedicated Section:
Rockland Business Association:

The President’s Desk
A new voice for Rockland County and a new advocate for its hottest issues and concerns.

Pinnacles of Success
RBA’s best honored at the
Third Annual Pinnacle Awards.

RBA Happenings
• Committee and Council Info
• Calendar of Events
• New Members

Create visibility, find marketing opportunities, leverage your contacts and build your referral network! Find the group that’s right for you.

CEO Forum
RBA's CEO Forum provides a vehicle by which senior executives can address the challenges inherent in operating a sizable business within the county.

RBA’s Consultant’s Council
The RBA Consultants Council (RBACC), is a member-driven committee of the RBA. It is a peer network of business owners and consultants serving the NY-NJ-CT region, dedicated to professional education, skill development and consulting excellence. Membership consists of consultants from all avenues of business who believe in an ethical business culture and a free exchange of ideas for improvement. Members are committed to developing successful consulting practices that support the needs of the local business community. Council meetings are open to all RBA Members and visitors. Regular visitors can sign up to receive emails of meeting announcements and discussions of council topics.

The Women’s Forum:
The Women’s Forum of the RBA is “by professional women, for professional women.” It conducts an interactive monthly meeting structured around high-impact business issues. Sometimes a unique “Facilitated Brainstorming” approach is used; sometimes there is a keynote speaker (from inside the group or an outside professional); other times a small group analysis is employed to come up with solutions to pressing business problems. The group is co-chaired by Fran Reinstein of Mortgage World and Ellen Bernstein of Accent on Promotions, Inc. It is an informal gathering with huge energy and synergy, stemming form the diverse and talented group in attendance.

Small Business Council
The council was begun as a place where small business owners could meet and discuss strategies for improving their companies and overcoming potential obstacles to success. The Small Business Council also offers informative guest speakers on a wide range of business issues, from insurance to marketing, to worker’s compensation, and more. Meetings are the last Thursday of the month at the Iona College campus at Blue Hill Plaza in Pearl River.

Home Improvement Alliance
Alliance members, for instance, look for ways to help each other understand different permit regulations of the various municipalities in Rockland. Small differences from village to village and town to town can cause a lot of confusion. The Alliance is also interested in advocacy, working toward ways to improve insurance requirements for contractors, which can be unfair in New York. Reforming the infamous “ladder law” — if an employee gets drunk on his lunch break, for instance, and then falls off a ladder and breaks his leg, the business is liable for his injury, and other issues are on the Alliance’s agenda.

Government Affairs
As an advocate for small business on not only the county level, but on the state and federal level, the Government Affairs Council provides critical information to members of the RBA and Rockland’s small business community, and responds on their behalf to the appropriate government officials. This council makes annual trips to Albany and Washington to lobby for changes to laws that affect small business, such as the Wick’s Law, workers’ compensation, and more.

Introducing:
The RBA Small Business Committee
Burt Steinberg of Dress Barn, and Sheldon Horowitz of Safe Harbour Group, are co-chairing a new endeavor from the RBA Board of Directors called the Small Business Committee. Recently formed to help meet the needs of RBA members with nine or less employees, their goal is to help small businesses succeed and assist new businesses by helping them create their own opportunities.

By offering the following, the Committee envisions assisting small businesses:

• Overview of starting and growing a business
• Educate on what starting a new business entails
• Training on simple issues such as networking and presenting oneself to target audiences
• Input from other RBA groups (i.e. Consultants Council, Women’s Forum, Small Business Council, Home Improvement Council, etc)
• Evaluation process

The goal of the committee is to bring resources together and identify markets and business plans. RBD