Most small-business owners
Feels credit relief is critical to their survival, but 60.2 percent don’t think it will come in time. The management consulting firm George S. May International poll of 750 small business owners across the U.S. showed the top three expectations from the new administration as being credit relief (35.1 percent), affordable health care for employees (32.6 percent) and tax rebates or incentive (32.3 percent). In addition to late credit relief, 53.7 percent of respondents believe health care costs will rise in 2009, while 29.6 percent said health care costs will stay the same, and 16.7 percent believe costs will decrease.

Despite the slowing economy, U.S. Internet advertising revenue rose in the third quarter, according to an analysis released Thursday. The report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said that online advertising revenue totaled almost $5.9 billion in the third quarter, up 11 percent from the same period last year. It marked a 2 percent rise from the second quarter.

New claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to a 16-year high, providing more evidence of a rapidly weakening job market expected to get even worse next year. The government said new applications for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 542,000 from a downwardly revised figure of 515,000 in the previous week, the highest level of claim since July 1992. The four-week average of claims, which smoothes out fluctuation, was even worse; it rose to 506,500, the highest in more than 25 years.

The economy’s health worsened in October as stocks, building permits and consumer expectations all fell. The New York based Conference Board said its monthly forecast of economic activity declined 0.8 percent in October. Over the last seven months, the index declined at a 4.7 percent annual rate, faster than any decline since 2001.

Small and Mid-sized Manufacturers: Flexible and Focused

Saturday, November 01, 2008
By Jonathan Katz

By targeting niche products and staying nimble, small and mid-sized manufacturers prove they can play with the big boys.

One area where many small and mid-sized manufacturers often find themselves lacking is in the process of cost accounting, says Joe Vogel, senior staff executive at small and mid-sized business consulting firm George S May International Co. In some cases, small companies haven’t invested in reporting systems that gather enough data from the shop floor to measure productivity, Vogel says. "When an operator is not doing something that’s directly making parts, you need to know what that is, and not only measure what that is but monitor and manage that cost," he says. When Vogel enters small manufacturing operations he often finds them using low-level accounting software such as QuickBooks to manage their costs. His firm helps clients establish accounting systems that can categorize direct and indirect costs.

Another area that all manufacturers are struggling with is skilled labor. This means small and mid-sized manufacturers will need to be equally innovative with their job recruitment strategies as they are with their marketing tactics. Marlin Steel Wire tries to woo workers with four-day workweeks of 10-hour days, a family-friendly atmosphere — the company bookkeeper is permitted to bring her one-year-old daughter into the office — and bonus programs for plant-floor workers who meet their targets, which have been particularly successful, according to Greenblatt. "I’ve created 20-something entrepreneurs here, and they’re all extremely focused on enriching themselves, and because of that, they’re pumping out a lot of stuff, and we’re extremely productive."

Small businesses reduced to survival mode

By Jeff Harrington, Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, December 14, 2008

TAMPA — Like many of the small-business owners crammed into the classroom-sized seminar, Judi Belanger had a problem.

Her Ruskin-based pet-sitting business, This Little One Stayed Home, was handling up to 15 customers a day until business dramatically fell off in September. She’s lucky to pull in one or two new customers a month.

"Money is tight and people aren’t traveling and leaving their pets," Belanger told fellow entrepreneurs during a Small Business Survival Expo last week. Organizers for Hillsborough County’s Small Business Information Center pulled together the expo in less than three weeks and were part-encouraged/part-dismayed when almost 400 people showed up.

"We’ve never done something like this before," Beth Calhoun, an expo coordinator, said before adding in a half-whisper, "Things have never been so bad before."

(more…)

Small businesses reduced to survival mode

By Jeff Harrington, Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, December 14, 2008

TAMPA — Like many of the small-business owners crammed into the classroom-sized seminar, Judi Belanger had a problem.

Her Ruskin-based pet-sitting business, This Little One Stayed Home, was handling up to 15 customers a day until business dramatically fell off in September. She’s lucky to pull in one or two new customers a month.

"Money is tight and people aren’t traveling and leaving their pets," Belanger told fellow entrepreneurs during a Small Business Survival Expo last week. Organizers for Hillsborough County’s Small Business Information Center pulled together the expo in less than three weeks and were part-encouraged/part-dismayed when almost 400 people showed up.

"We’ve never done something like this before," Beth Calhoun, an expo coordinator, said before adding in a half-whisper, "Things have never been so bad before."

Amid all the bailout talk for financial and auto giants, the country’s vast and varied pool of small businesses, the proverbial backbone of the economy, is taking it on the chin.

Depressing data abounds: Small-business loans taken out have fallen 38 percent from a year ago; two-thirds of senior loan officers report tighter credit standards on loans to small companies. Small business makes up 90 percent of the retail and restaurant trade, one of the sectors suffering most in the recession.

(more…)

Plating is Golden

Sales shine as chief named Entrepreneur of Year

Columbia City- C&R Barrel Plating had two customers when Daryl Lambert bought the corrosion- protection business in 1968. Lambert quickly made changes. In order for pieces to be coated individually as well as in groups tumbling in barrels, Lambert added rack plating to the business, although he didn’t drop “Barrel from the company’s name years. “I had four-man operation there at the end of the first week,” Lambert said.

Lambert expanded the mental plating business four times over the years, including moving from original site, which formerly housed a dry cleaner. The company now has 202 customers, two nearly identical plants across the street form its first digs and 120 employees working weekends to keep up. “We need about 130, but we can’t get them,” Lambert said, citing Whitley Country’s low unemployment rate, which was 2.4 percent in June and 2.8 percent in July.

“We turning down business all the time,” he added.

Last month, Lambert was named “Entrepreneur of Year” by management consultant George S. May International Co., which chose his from more than 10,000 companies it counseled in 1996. George S. May International Co. was called in to prepare C&R Plating for QS 9000 certification and improve management as 65-year-old Lambert slows down Lambert remains chief executive of the company, but Dennis Blaugh was named president a year ago. Blaugh started at C&R as a high school senior a few months after Lambert purchased the business. C&R Plating, owned by Lambert and his wife, Eloise, also was named the top Hoosier pollution-prevention company by the Indiana Industrial Operator Association earlier this year.

(more…)

SH Firm implements standards of quality management system
By Mary Wright

South Haven- A quality management system that was implemented at a city business this summer has already produced what one company official describes as “remarkable strides” in implementing the system’s standards and guidelines. Double J Molding, a second-tier (sells to an auto industry supplier, which in turn sells their products to companies like Ford, GM and Chrysler) company that makes injection-molded plastics parts for the automotive and other industries, initiated its QS 9000 quality management system in July of this year, with the assistance of consultants from the George S. May International Company of Park Ridge, Illinois.

QS 9000 is an expanded version of a quality management system developed in Europe called ISO 9000, which the American auto industry began using in 1987. under the QS 9000 system, companies adopting its 84 business standards, or sub- elements, can apply for certification by a third- party registrar. Once a company’s policies and procedures meet the system’s requirements and it is certified by a registrar, the QS 9000 certification can be placed on company’s letterhead and building to indicate that it is a business that adheres to a rigorous quality standard.

(more…)

Our Mission

To become the leading provider of quality contract services for the State of Alaska

Our History

M. C. Corporation (Morning Calm Corporation) focuses on the enhancement of small
businesses in the State of Alaska. Its mission is to provide “Quality Services through
Excellence”. MCC’s business strategy is to identify niche business opportunities and
embellish its market potential through methodical innovations in its processes. During
the last eight years, MCC has developed businesses in contract and retail services.
MC Corporation was formed on December 9th, 1991 by a group of minority residents in
Anchorage, Alaska. At the time of incorporation, MC Corporation (MCC) provided
cleaning services on-post for the quarters at Ft. Richardson, the local US Army base,
and professional office buildings in Anchorage. Upon receiving 8(a) status in February
1994, MC pursued various 8(a) set-aside contracts with the Federal Government in its
respective fields.

(more…)

Bob Fram

President, Garden & Valley Isle Seafood

Bob Fram began distributing seafood out of the trunk of his car in the early ’80 to any restaurant in Hawaii that would open its kitchen door from him. It helped that he had farm-raised Kauai blue prawns in his trunk. The oversized bright-blue shellfish opened a lot of doors early on, says Fram. As business picked up, he eventually persuaded his childhood friend, Dave Marabella, to join him in Honolulu, and the duo founded Garden & Valley Isle Seafood in 1984 as a seafood distributor. Fram is president/ secretary and Marabella is vice president/ treasurer.

The company has since grown to shipping fresh seafood to restaurants and wholesaler worldwide and boasts sales in excess of $15 million. Seafood is processed and shipped a 10,000-square-foot plant in Honolulu and a 7,000-square-foot facility on Maui, both of which have state-of-the-art food-production equipment. The distributor employs 45 and offers product from Hawaii, Japan, Tahiti, Fiji, Costa Rica, Chile, the Pacific Rim and Canada.

(more…)

East Penn Canada

News Surge – Message from the President

I am very excited about our prospects for a new fiscal year. We anticipate our rapid growth to continue and as a result we have hired George S. May, an international consulting firm, to review our corporate structure and recommend changes we should make in order to position ourselves to strategically handle future growth. Some of you may remember that we engaged this same consulting firm about 10 years ago and that their recommendations were instrumental in taking us from a $20 million company to a $75 million company. Their objective this time is to help us organize ourselves so that we can quickly, efficiently and profitably grow into a $120 million dollar company.

I would like to emphasize that our company right now is very profitable and that we are not experiencing any significant problems at this time, financial or otherwise. It’s because we are doing so well that we can afford to hire George S. May and be proactive about ensuring a bright and positive future for the company and all its employees.

The entire management team at head office is very excited at this timely opportunity to turn East Penn Canada from a good company into a great company. Our goal is to make East Penn Canada one of the best companies to work for in all of Canada.

I will keep you posted as this project moves forward.