Table of Contents
Cover Story:
For RBD, It Was
a Very Good Year
Feature Stories:
Lessons Learned
Starting a small business can be a daunting proposition
Web Masters
RBD's online presence is a natural progression
RBD Round-Up:
How's Business?
The results are in from our
first survey
RBD Business Survey
What's your take on the rising cost of healthcare?
DEPARTMENTS:
Economic Round-Up
• The Smart Investor
How to minimize the affect of the Alternative Minimum Tax
• Economic Viewpoint
Interpreting the Inverted
Yield Curve
• Visitor's Guide
Tour busses in Rockland?
Retail Round-Up
• Where the Jobs Are
Tips for students looking
for work
Business Round-Up
• PSI Health Plans
Offer flexibility and
cost savings
• Marketing By Design
The top 15 campaigns of the last 100 years - Part 2
Ask The Expert
• The Human Factor in
Human Resources
Invest in Your Community
• Looking For a Better Way
Tomorrow's Workplace
offers help
• Leadership Rockland
Graduates class of 2007
• Youth Forum & Awards
Rockland Youth Volunteers Honored
Odds & Ends
• Letters to the Editor
• Rockland Newsmakers
Dedicated Section:
Rockland Business Association:
The President’s Desk
Heart-felt Congratulations
to Rockland's only B2B resource
RBA/United Way Golf Outing
A beautiful day for all
RBA Happenings
• Committee and Council Info
• Calendar of Events
• New Members
Lesson Learned
Starting a small business can be a daunting
proposition, just ask RBD's founders
By Adrian Burke
According to an OPEN from American ExpressSM Small Business Monitor survey, 43% of small business owners say they relish the freedom that comes with being the boss. Nearly one-quarter (23%) says that every day is “like a box of chocolates”—they never know what will happen next. Others enjoy running a profitable business (15%), learning new things about themselves as a person and as a business owner (10%) and “living on the edge” through their business (4%).
Ken Mahoney and Steven Powell
Co-publishers, RBD
Still others are wise enough to know how to capitalize on a good opportunity when they see one, which is one of the key elements of success. Although they are both better known for their “day jobs,” Ken Mahoney and Steve Powell are learning just what it takes to start a second successful business—one not all that similar to their current firms.
As co-publishers of this magazine, Rockland Business Digest, Mahoney and Powell have faced some of the same hurdles as others just starting out in business.
“Like any other business, we have had our fair share of ‘fits and starts’. Many of the issues businesses tell us that are challenging, are challenging for us as well.”
Mahoney, of Mahoney Asset Management, knows business and he saw a void in the business-to-business market here in Rockland County—there was a lack of publications dedicated just to the county business community. “The magazine was born out of a need,” says Mahoney. “Like many businesses, they are opened to provide a need of a product or service. Steve and I did not go out and say ‘Hey lets start a magazine.’ It was that business leaders came to us and said, ‘we need this!’”
Steve Powell, president of Co-Oper8 Marketing Group and co-publisher of RBD agrees saying, “There’s so little media that pays anything more than lip service to truly local Rockland County small business, that I felt we had virtually no competition to hamper us. There are newspapers—both daily and weekly—that cover the “Greater Hudson Valley” but no true news magazines dedicated exclusively to one county.”
The first lesson then is have a passion for what you’re doing—and then do it better than anyone else. In a short year, RBD has expanded from print to the Internet and the radio, as well, offering advertisers a spectrum of products.
The second lesson is learning that running a small business requires entrepreneurs to wear many hats –you’re the boss, often the only employee and you may be in charge of finance, marketing and advertising. Yet this is a challenge that most business owners embrace. In fact, more than two-thirds of business owners would recommend that a friend or family member go into business for himself or herself, according to The OPEN from American ExpressSM Small Business Monitor.
“Like any other business, we have had our fair share of ‘fits and starts’,” Mahoney says. “Many of the issues businesses tell us that are challenging, are challenging for us as well.”
Take issues such as dealing with receivables, financing and access to capital. These are the biggest challenges for any business; and not surprisingly finances are the number one reason many new businesses fail within a year.
“Community leaders like C. Scott Vanderhoef have given us a thumbs up and several business leaders in the area have really stepped up and showed their true commitment to this county.”
One in five small business owners who responded to the American Express survey said the size of their business is the greatest barrier to securing financing, followed by overwhelming paperwork requirements (12%), a low credit score (11%), limited knowledge of financing resources (8%) and lack of documentation to support their loan application (6%). Sixteen percent of small businesses report having been denied a loan or line of credit.
The sheer amount of time devoted to running a small business, especially when it’s a second business, can be daunting, as well. “The publishing industry has always been a bear when it comes to balancing profit margins with advertising rates and, as a startup, we’ve been looking at scores of late nights and weekends,” says Steve Powell, who believes the toughest part of the business is “...the time taken away from my core business. Co-oper8 Marketing Group is a small graphic design and marketing practice that’s been doing business in Rockland County for over six years. We’ve won several awards in the last few years, but so much of my time has been spent promoting RBD that nobody even knows c8 won three awards for clients last year.”
There has been much research exploring the reasons for a new business’s survivability. Major factors in a firm’s remaining open include an ample supply of capital, being large enough to have employees, the owner’s education level, and the owner’s reason for starting the firm in the first place, such as freedom for family life or wanting to be one’s own boss.
As for Rockland Business Digest, success can come in many forms. Ad revenue is always a bonus, but feedback from your constituency is also a benefit. “We get e-mails from readers of both the magazine and the web site on a constant basis. They all say they love the product and look forward to reading it,” says Mahoney. “Community leaders like C. Scott Vanderhoef have given us a thumbs up and several business leaders in the area have really stepped up and showed their true commitment to this county.”
There are many, many reasons for starting your own business, but the bottom line is do it for the right reason. Don’t start a business if your only goal is only to make a lot of money. That’s where people get off track. If you do something well, the success will follow.
Stay tuned for RBD. According to Steve Powell, the magazine plans to expand. “Eventually, we would love to have the magazine begin to present business seminars given by people with real-world experience on a wide variety of topics. We’d also like to expand to Orange County and, eventually, others in the area.” RBD
