Success story: Xtreme Stereo LLC
Auto-body background and determination lead to trio of Bootheel business ventures
"You don't get anything unless you take a little risk."
So says entrepreneur Garry Beckett of Campbell, Mo. He ought to know. He owns Xtreme Stereo LLC, the parent company of ... not one ... not two ... but three money-making enterprises in the Bootheel.
Through Dent Pro, Garry offers auto-body repair services. With XtremeStereo he provides equipment and installation of customized automobile stereo systems. And as a RadioShack franchisee, Garry has established retail electronics gear locations in Kennett and Dexter.
Garry's entrepreneurial adventure took shape in 2006. He and his wife Kim, an elementary school teacher and reading specialist, had been thinking about starting a business for several years.
A veteran of three decades in the auto body field, Garry was tired of the heat, paint and fumes of his trade. He worked with fellow auto-body technicians who were old before their time from years of breathing paint fumes in enclosed garages.
In addition Garry had always been working for someone else. The lure of a simple paycheck had lost its luster, especially when he knew how much his employers had been making from the services rendered by Garry. He figured the real money was in the owning of the business.
So, Garry decided he would start a franchise business. He just didn't know which one. He first considered opening a Subway restaurant. Kim frowned on that idea, having worked in the food service industry as a teenager and knowing many of the field's pitfalls.
The would-be businessman finally hit on the idea of starting a RadioShack outlet. He decided he would combine it with a car stereo installation service, and also establish an auto-dent removal service. No paint, no fumes, just smoothing out dings.
Garry took his idea to a banker in Poplar Bluff. The banker liked the concept, but he wanted to see a real business plan with data and financial projections.
The request caught Garry flat-footed. He wasn't sure what to do, so he called his sister who worked as an assistant vice president and branch manager at a Montgomery City bank in east central Missouri. She recommended Garry contact a Southeast Missouri business development specialist.
"Richard Proffer at the MU Extension center in Jackson was the man for the job," says Garry.
Read this complete success story with additional photos.
Missouri Technology Corp. announces additional funding to support high-tech company growth
JEFFERSON CITY - The Missouri Technology Corp. recently announced it has renewed funding for its highly successful Missouri Technology Incentive Program. MoTIP assists small, high-tech businesses. The MTC is housed within the Missouri Department of Economic Development.
"Making tools available to Missouri entrepreneurs who are creating new, exciting high-tech companies in Missouri is a critical component of our overall strategy to create jobs and grow our economy," said Jason Hall, executive director for MTC. "Our goal with this funding is to make sure that small businesses have access to economic development tools tailored to help them overcome the unique challenges they face in this economy."
MoTIP broadens the participation of Missouri small business in the federal Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer awards and other highly competitive small business finance programs. Approximately $2 billion is awarded annually for the SBIR/STTR programs alone through federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Defense.
Read the complete article on MoTIP.
Business going green
Ripple Glass: Bringing recycling solutions to Kansas City
What happens when one company's waste is actually a valuable product for another company?
Too often such resources end up in a landfill. However, Kansas City's Boulevard Brewery has found a way to make use of its waste by creating Ripple Glass, the area's new glass recycling company.
"Ripple Glass is great product stewardship on the part of Boulevard Brewery, who started it because they were tired of seeing the 10 million bottles they put into the community every year being taken to landfills," says Stacia Stelk, executive director of Ripple Glass. "They found a solution for themselves and for the broader community as well."
Although lots of businesses in Kansas City use recycled glass, Ripple Glass, which rolled out its collection program last November, is the first widely accessible glass recycling program the city has ever seen.
Read the rest of this story on glass recycling.
Correction: Last month's Going Green article about greening hotel operations contained an error. We incorrectly stated that Missouri's Green Lodging Certification Program is a pilot project with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. It is not. The coordinator, Ramona Mormann, said the program uses a combination of self-reporting by member hotels and random third party inspections to ensure that members are adhering to written commitments to implement strategies to reduce environmental impacts.
Certifications required for businesses to sell to the federal government
In the government contracting world, the term "certification" has several meanings. A firm may get certified as a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) or Woman Business Enterprise (WBE) at the state or local level; or under the 8(a) Business Development Program with the federal government.
Such certifications as MBE, WBE or 8(a) may be an effective part of a marketing strategy for selling to government, but they are not mandatory.
However, any business seeking to do business with the federal government must "represent and certify" that it complies with various laws and regulations that apply to government contractors and to their subcontractors. This is called "rep's and cert's."
Read the rest of this story on certifications.
IRS roundup:
Special payroll tax exemption form now available from IRS
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Internal Revenue Service recently released a new form that will help employers claim the special payroll tax exemption that applies to many newly-hired workers during 2010, created by the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act signed March 18 by President Obama.
New Form W-11, Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act Employee Affidavit, is now posted on IRS.gov, along with answers to frequently-asked questions about the payroll tax exemption and the related new hire retention credit. The new law requires that employers get a statement from each eligible new hire, certifying under penalties of perjury, that he or she was unemployed during the 60 days before beginning work or, alternatively, worked fewer than a total of 40 hours for anyone during the 60-day period. Employers can use Form W-11 to meet this requirement.
Most eligible employers then use Form 941, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return, to claim the payroll tax exemption for eligible new hires. This form, revised for use beginning with the second calendar quarter of 2010, is currently posted as a draft form on IRS.gov and will be released next month as a final along with the form's instructions.
Though employers need this certification to claim both the payroll tax exemption and the new hire retention credit, they do not file these statements with the IRS. Instead, they must retain them along with other payroll and income tax records.
The HIRE Act created two new tax benefits designed to encourage employers to hire and retain new workers. As a result, employers who hire unemployed workers this year (after Feb. 3, 2010, and before Jan. 1, 2011) may qualify for a 6.2 percent payroll tax incentive, in effect exempting them from the employer's share of social security tax on wages paid to these workers after March 18. This reduction will have no effect on the employee's future Social Security benefits, and employers would still need to withhold the employee's 6.2 percent share of Social Security taxes, as well as income taxes. In addition, for each unemployed worker retained for at least a year, businesses may claim a new hire retention credit of up to $1,000 per worker when they file their 2011 income tax returns.
These two tax benefits are especially helpful to employers who are adding positions to their payrolls. New hires filling existing positions also qualify but only if the workers they are replacing left voluntarily or for cause. Family members and other relatives do not qualify for either of these tax incentives.
Businesses, agricultural employers, tax-exempt organizations, tribal governments and public colleges and universities all qualify to claim the payroll tax exemption for eligible newly-hired employees. Household employers and federal, state and local government employers, other than public colleges and universities, are not eligible. IRS.gov has more details.
Conference for entrepreneurial women set for June 1-2 in Columbia
In Good Company, the 2010 Missouri Women's Business Conference, is set for June 2 at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Columbia, according to Virginia Wilson, director of the Missouri Small Business and Technology Development Center on the MU campus. The day-long event runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The conference provides an excellent opportunity for participants to promote products and services and to gain information of interest to entrepreneurial women. Speakers will include Dennis Melton, SBA St. Louis district director; and Mary Beth Izard, author of BoomerPreneurs: How Baby Boomers Can Start Their Own Business, Make Money and Enjoy Life.
Topics to be covered during the conference include: contracting with the government; improving credit for financing; social networking; time management; and foundations for better communication.
A complimentary networking event "Business One-on-One," from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. June 1, is designed to provide a one-stop informational venue for women business owners to meet with other business professionals and local, state and federal government agency representatives.
Cost for the conference is $89 for early registration. Registration after May 3 is $125. (The fee includes continental breakfast, lunch and conference materials.) For more information or to register call the MU SBTDC in Columbia at 573-882-7096 or go to www.missouribusiness.net/ucie/training.asp.
SBA News
Business-owning households more likely than others to have higher income, wealth
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Does small business ownership help increase a household's overall well-being? One way to look at this is to examine how the income and wealth of households owning small businesses changed in the most recent economic expansion and recovery period — the subject of a recently completed study by the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy.
The report finds that households owning small firms in the 1998-2007 period were more likely than other households to be in the top 50 percent in income and wealth, according to Susan M. Walthall, acting chief counsel for advocacy.
"It will be important to continue to examine this data series to assess the well-being of small businesses in the current economic environment," said Walthall.
Income and Wealth: How Did Households Owning Small Businesses Fare from 1998 to 2007? by George W. Haynes, updates previous advocacy office-sponsored studies and is based on additional data from the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances. Household income is the sum of wages, salaries, interest, dividends, asset sales, rents, and other income sources. Household wealth is estimated by generating a balance sheet subtracting total liabilities from total assets. Findings include the following:
- Households owning any business were significantly more likely to be high income earners in 2007 than in 1998; the largest percentage gain was among owners with more than one business.
- In the latter part of the period — between 2004 and 2007 — the likelihood that households owning a small business had a high income increased by 4.2 percent and the likelihood that they had a high level of wealth increased by more than 20 percent, compared with increases of 2.1 and 5.2 percent, respectively, in households not owning businesses.
- The characteristics of households and businesses were somewhat different in 1998 than in 2007. By 2007, high-income households were headed by younger people, while higher-wealth households were headed by older people.
- From 1998 to 2007, households not owning a business increased real mean wealth by just less than 40 percent; the comparable increase for those owning a small business was 63.4 percent.
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