Work Force & Career Development

NEWS - Work Force & Career Development

SBJ Staff Report

Oct 3, 2011 - The Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce Business Conference & Expo has been announced for Nov. 4 - 5 at the Sea Island Technical College of the Lowcountry in Beaufort. Worskhops are scheduled, and registration is open to the public.

The event will open on Friday, Nov. 4 with exhibits at 5 p.m. and a networking reception beginning at 6 p.m.

Exhibits, educational workshops and a guest speaker will be featured on Sat., Nov. 5 from 8:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Workshops are designed especially for small businesses. Gary Littlejohn will present ‘Business Taxes’. He is the owner of Jackson Hewitt tax preparation company with several locations in the Beaufort area.

Bernard McIntyre, a Beaufort attorney for more than 30 years, will present ‘Business Structure’, explaining the basics and benefits of different types of incorporating or setting up a small business.

Edra Stephens, director of the Beaufort County Business License Department, will discuss ‘Working with Local Government.’

Additional workshops are Social Media, Basics of Bidding and Contracting, Marketing on a Shoestring, Bonding and Licensing, Developing a Business Plan and Certifications through Education.

Conference registration is $39 for members of the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce and $59 for non-members which includes a choice of two workshops, gift bag and attendance at the expo, the reception, continental breakfast, coffee break and luncheon featuring special guest speaker.

Exhibitor opportunities are available with fees at $50 for chamber members and $75 for non-members. Sponsor packages range from $250.

For additional information or to download registration forms visit www.bcbcc.org or follow and connect on Twitter @BeaufortBlack and the Facebook page Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce. Contact Liz at 843.902.4799 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to discuss sponsor opportunities and benefits or for registration assistance.

 

Published by Savannah Business Journal.®All Copyrights Reserved ©2011. www.savannahbusinessjournal.com®

 

NEWS - Work Force & Career Development

SBJ Staff Report

Oct 3, 2011 – The National Bank MBA Association’s annual meeting is in Atlanta this year ; the event is expected to draw a record-breaking 12,000 attendees. One reason may be that more than 350 corporations are expected to attend to interview qualified candidates for a variety of postions around the U.S.

And there will be a distinguished group of speakers, including best selling Wall Street Journal and New York Times writer and author Stephen M.R. Covey. Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, Spelman College president, will also speak, as well as Marilyn Johnson, vice president, Market Development, IBM.

The NBMBAA® 33rd Annual Conference & Exposition will draws business executives, entrepreneurs and students who are looking to develop professional skills, learn career advancement strategies and network with top industry leaders. The expo is designed to promote education, leadership and economic growth among its membership during the four-day conference that includes one of the nation’s largest professional career fairs with more than 350 corporations and public sector organizations looking to interview qualified candidates to place in available positions throughout the country. The event runs through Saturday, Oct. 8.

Established in 1970, the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) is dedicated to developing partnerships that result in the creation of intellectual and economic wealth in the black community through its five channels of engagement; education, career, leadership, entrepreneurship, and lifestyle. With 40-plus chapters, a membership base of more than 8,000 and more than 450 corporate partners, the NBMBAA provides access to its constituents through services such as the Annual NBMBAA Conference; Local Empowerment Initiatives; and other programs. To learn more about the NBMBAA or to become a member, visit www.nbmbaa.org.

Published by Savannah Business Journal.®All Copyrights Reserved ©2011. www.savannahbusinessjournal.com®

NEWS - Work Force & Career Development

By Lou Phelps

Sept 12, 2011 – She’s an author and well-known public speaker across the Southeast in the fine art of business etiquette.  And now, Savannahian Lydia Ramsey has added instructive tips on social media networking used by business executives to build their careers, promote their business and grow their reputations. 

The use of various social media options such as Linked-In and Facebook, may be doing more harm than good if they violate the etiquette of social networking, Ramsey warms.

"As with e-mail, cell phones, and other technological devices, we got the technology first and we have backed into the rules for using it with courtesy and consideration," says Ramsey, a Savannah, Georgia-based social media etiquette expert and president of Manners That Sell (http://www.MannersThatSell.com).

"The world of online networking is new to most of us, but there is little difference in connecting with people online and offline. The same basic tenets hold true. Trust and authenticity remain high on the list," says Ramsey, who conducts seminars on business etiquette to corporations throughout the Southeastern U.S. as well as around the world.

Here are Lydia's 12 tips on the etiquette of social networking for becoming a polished professional.

Fill out your online profiles completely with information about you and your business. Use your real name and your own photo. Your cat may be adorable, but unless you are a veterinarian specializing in the care of felines, don't get cute.

Use a different profile or account for your personal connections. Business and pleasure do not mix in this medium.

Create a section on your main profile detailing who you are seeking to befriend. Everyone need not apply.

Offer information of value. Don't talk just about yourself and your company.

Don't approach strangers and ask them to be friends just so you can try to sell them on your products or services. You will quickly lose credibility and friends.

Pick a screen name that represents you and your company well. Don't call yourself "Loser1" unless you want to be known by that.

Don't send out invitations to play games or other timewasters for those using the site.

Don't put anything on the Internet that you don't want your future boss, current or potential clients to read.

Check out the people who want to follow you or be your friend. Your mother was right when she said that people will judge you by the company you keep.

If someone does not want to be your friend, accept their decision gracefully.

Never post when you're overly tired, jet lagged, intoxicated, angry or upset.

Compose your posts, updates or tweets in a word processing document so you can check grammar and spelling before you send.

"People are connecting with, listening to, following and collaborating with each other online at a rapidly increasing rate," says Ramsey as she consults on business etiquette. "By following my 12 rules for social media etiquette, business people will position themselves for much better results in the marketplace."

Ramsey began her career as an etiquette consultant over three decades ago, and is the author of several books including "Manners That Sell - Adding the Polish That Builds Profits," and "Lydia Ramsey's Little Book of Table Manners" as well as the co-author of "Success Tweets for Creating Positive Personal Impact."

She has produced four training videos, including "Dining for Profit," which was featured in the Wall Street Journal as one of the top four training videos on business dining. She served for over seven years as the business etiquette columnist for The Savannah Morning and was hired by The Voice of America China Department to write scripts on business etiquette which are broadcast to China, Thailand and other countries in the Far East. Her business travels have taken her as far as India and the Middle East. She brings a global perspective to business etiquette while preserving Southern traditions.

Published by Savannah Business Journal.®All Copyrights Reserved ©2011. www.savannahbusinessjournal.com®

NEWS - Work Force & Career Development

SBJ Staff Report

June 13, 2011 – President Barack Obama announced support last week for the goal to credential a half million community college students over the next five years with skills certifications designed to help build the educated and skilled workforce U.S. manufacturers need to successfully compete in the 21st century economy.

He cited the Manufacturing Institute’s National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)-endorsed Skills Certification System as a national solution. At the foundation of this system is ACT’s National Career Readiness Certificate, a gateway credential to the overall Skills Certification System.

The National Career Readiness Certificate is a widely recognized credential designed to validate the skills needed to succeed in all sectors of the manufacturing industry with the process managed by a the nonprofit arm of the NAM.

Obama traveled to Northern Virginia Community College with manufacturing leaders to explain the initiative. In many industrialized countries, students train for a specific industry versus a general, liberal arts education, with a focus on technical educations.

The concept is to build a career pathway for a student toward an occupation-specific certifications.

“The growth of our economy can happen only if the education and skills of our workforce also grow,” said leaders from the manufacturing sector traveling with the president.

In 2010, more than 457,000 individuals earned a registered National Career Readiness Certificate and many thousands more earned a Career Readiness Certificate from a state or regional program using the same ACT assessments and based on the same standards as the National Career Readiness Certificate.

More than 1,200 community and technical colleges across the nation are already equipped to administer the three WorkKeys® assessments that power the National Career Readiness Certificate. Many of these institutions also offer ACT’s KeyTrain® curriculum of online tutorials and skill-building software. In total, there are more than 5,000 locations where the proctored assessments can be administered to those seeking documentation of their essential workplace skills.

In January 2011, ACT released a report proposing that the U.S. needed to intensify national efforts to improve and validate the skills of the current and prospective workforce in order to correct the mismatch between skill demand and supply.

Entitled “Breaking New Ground: Building a National Workforce Skills Credentialing System,” the report provides a framework for discussion among educators, employers, workforce development officials and other key stakeholders. In the report, ACT states that community colleges are uniquely positioned to play a central role in fulfilling the training, education, guidance, assessment and certification functions required to sustain a national workforce credentialing system. Community colleges in particular touch many of the individuals who are restarting their educational journey in search of a degree or certificate; as such, community colleges will be the linchpins of the national workforce credentialing system.

NEWS - Work Force & Career Development

Will it Lead to the Next Large Wave of Job Losses in Georgia?

By Lou Phelps,

SBJ Staff

Many small business owners have stopped paying themselves a living wage – or any wages at all – as they struggle to keep their companies alive, continue to pay their employees and independent contractors, and pay the rent, light and telephone bills at the office.

But many in Savannah are at the end of their rope and are finding that their personal options are limited as they look at sources of money for their own needs of food and mortgage payments. The fact is that they have fewer options than their employees.

Even though a small business owner currently has no personal income, they are not “unemployed” and cannot collect unemployment benefits. They are “working,” even if they are not “earning,” according to the Georgia Department of Labor.

As they keep others off of the unemployment and welfare rolls, they don’t qualify for welfare or food stamps themselves because they have assets that are impossible for government agencies to calculate.

Making the Decision to Close a Company

Understanding the Georgia Unemployment Laws enforced by the Georgia Department of Labor is imperative as a small business owner considers their options. A review of the Georgia laws shows that owners only have a small window in which to decide to close their business if they want to be eligible to file for unemployment benefits in the future. If a critical deadline is passed, they will lose the option of receiving an unemployment check, even if they have paid into the unemployment tax system for years.

To file for unemployment, a person must have earned wages recently – must have earning wages within the first four of the last five calendar quarters - and unemployment taxes must have been paid for two of those quarters. They must also meet standard requirements to qualify for unemployment – be able to work and be actively seeking re-employment. Each week, all recipients of an unemployment check must certify that they are still out of work and are a seeking reemployment by going to their local Career Office of the GADOL. In Savannah, the office is on White Bluff Road. The minimum payment is $44 a week and the maximum is $330 per week for 26 weeks of state benefits, depending on the wages they had claimed over the past year.

According to Brenda Brown, Assistant Commissioner for Unemployment Insurance with the Georgia Department of Labor, each claim is reviewed individually to determine if a person is entitled to unemployment benefits. In the scenario of a small business owner whose company is still open, but they are unable to pay themselves, Brown explains that, “You are attached to the workforce; you’re working as designed, so you’re not entitled to benefits. Unemployment insurance is designed for those that have lost their job due to no fault of their own.”

Defining “No Fault of Their Own”

If a business owner has to close their company due to no fault of their own, such as a general decline in the economy, “the general answer is that ‘Yes,’ they would qualify for unemployment compensation. But each case is decided on its merits,” according to the GADOL’s spokesperson. But that is IF they have been recently taking a paycheck.

Making the Decision to Close Your Company

A small business owner must meet important criteria of reporting wages in the first four of the last five calendar quarters reported on their 940s, leaving little time to make a decision to close their company once they stop paying themselves.

For example, it’s now mid-July 2011. If a business owner stopped paying themselves after March 31, 2011, they would have had no income reported in the calendar quarter that ended June 30, 2011. That would become the “fifth calendar quarter.” Therefore, they only have until Sept. 30, 2011 to close their company and file for unemployment. They have to do so before they cross into a sixth quarter to meet the criteria of eligibility.

Turning Around Georgia’s and the U.S. Economy

Small business owners are credited with creating more than 80 percent of the jobs in the U.S. – as high as 85 percent in the Savannah area - and most agree that the U.S. economy will not rebound and create new jobs if small business owners are not the driving force. Is their eminent collapse the next major wave of job losses in Georgia and the U.S.?

It's impossible to know how many small business owners in our area are near collapse, according to Tony O’Reilly, president of the Small Business Assistance Corporation, “but you’re spot on,” he says about the crisis that small business owners are facing.

If the U.S. economy takes an upturn and small businesses start to do a little better, the first incremental dollars that will be spent will be paying the boss, many owners surveyed agree, not hiring new employees or buying products from vendors. Small business owners will go back to paying themselves a living wage.

The Wall Street Journal published story on April 24, 2009 entitled, “Entrepreneurs Cut Own Pay to Stay Alive,” reporting on this problem. That was two years ago. “Thirty percent of 727 small-business owners and managers surveyed by American Express Co.'s small-business services division…said that they were no longer taking a salary. That's a troubling sign for small businesses, which have created a significant share of the new U.S. jobs in recent years,” the WSJ wrote.

“During past downturns, business owners might have turned to a home-equity line of credit, a personal loan or credit cards to shore up finances. But this time, real-estate values have plummeted, leaving many with less equity to tap, and bank credit is virtually nonexistent,” the story states. In other words, the capitalization for start-ups or operating cash needs came out of small business owners’ savings or equity in their homes. Those second mortgages – some of which have led to the collapse of the home mortgage industry – artificially fueled small business growth.

It's not uncommon for owners to give up salaries from time to time to give their companies a temporary lifeline, but business advisers and owners say the prevalence of salary cuts now is unusual even for a recession, added the WSJ.

There is no question that some business owners have stopped paying themselves in order to invest in their companies – positioning themselves for better times ahead – in effect, betting on the future. But a number of small business owners interviewed say that time is running out for them and their friends in the same ownership situation.

Scott West, president of the public relations firm Sea Witch Marketing in Savannah, has his ear to the ground in the small business community as an active member of the Small Business Chamber.. “There are many people I know in this situation. Some started companies and didn’t realize it would take so long to turn a profit and be able to take a salary. They’re not losing money – they’re paying the bills and not going into debt – but they can’t pay themselves. And it just can’t go on,” he relates that he is told. He knows of a great start-up company with two partners and a long-time painting contractor company in Savannah that are both in this situation.

State Rep. Ron Stephens is one of the most powerful Republicans in Georgia, chair of the House Ways & Means committee. But he is also owner of QuickRX Drugs, a small business with less than 15 employees. He agrees that many small business owners do not understand some of their options.

“We need to educate small business owners about the liabilities they are taking on – that they are not on an equal playing field with their employees.” But he also says that “it’s a gamble you take. It’s the American way,” and he believes that most small business owners “understand the risk when they get into it.”

In June, The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute released a report that the company was observing shifting small business owners’ views on retirement. Many expected they would need to continue to work until age 70 or never retire. Others were still counting on the somewhat mythical dream that they would sell their business to fund their retirement. And, their survey was conducted in December 2010, seven months ago as the economy has continued to decline.

The results showed then that small business owners who operated companies with from two to 99 employees expected that to live well in their retirement years they expected to have to work well past 70 years of age. Their biggest fear was outliving the money they needed to retire, “a concern expressed by nearly two-thirds of small business owners,” according to the company.

This aging of the work force compounds the problems; it means fewer job openings through natural attrition of the employment base as people decline to retire in their mid-60s.

NEWS - Work Force & Career Development

Applications being accepted for next class

May 11, 2011 - Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation will host the May Leadership Savannah Graduate Program, offering a brief executive overview of its worldwide operations and a tour of the G650 manufacturing building. The program will take place on Wednesday, May 18 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Nicholas D. Chabraja Manufacturing Center at 295 Robert B. Miller Road. Cost for the event is $25. Dress is business casual, and closed-toe shoes are required. Photographic equipment, cell phones and cameras are prohibited.

If you are a Graduate of Leadership Savannah and would like to attend this program, please R.S.V.P. to Margaret Mary Russell at <a href="mailto: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it "> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by Tuesday, May 10.

Applications for the 2011-2012 Leadership Savannah Class will be online on May 16, 2011. This will be a one-year class limited to 42 people. The Selections Committee is seeking representation from a cross-section of the community. These leaders and potential leaders should be active in business, education, the arts, religion, government, community-based organizations and ethnic and minority groups and will reflect the diversity of the community. Applicants must have the full support of the organization or corporation they represent.

The programs are being finalized but are planned to consist of monthly interactive sessions led by top community experts within their fields. Sessions are expected to begin in September 2011 and conclude in June of 2012. Applicants will be expected to attend all of the sessions in order to graduate. All applicants must go through selections, and full program fees will be $2,500 with a limited number of $1,000 scholarships available based on need. To apply to be a part of the 2011-2012 Leadership Savannah class, visit <a href="/www.LeadershipSavannah.org"> www.LeadershipSavannah.org and click on the “Apply” button. Applications will be accepted through June 13, 2011.

NEWS - Work Force & Career Development

SBJ Staff Report

May 9, 2011 – Nationally, May is Small Business Month, and local business groups and chambers of commerce in the area have traditionally held events to recognize small business leaders. (See story about Savannah Small Business Chamber’s event last week.)

The Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce’s event this year has moved to June 28 at the Savannah Marriott Riverfront Ballroom, 1 General McIntosh Blvd, in Savannah. The event, called the “Business Networking Expo and Awards Banquet," will showcase Savannah’s premier small businesses, according to the chamber.

 

Nominations for outstanding small businesses open this week, and information about how to nominate a company can be found on the chamber’s Web site. (Download the form to nominate here.)

 

The evening will begin with a Vendor to Vendor Social from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. with a trade show open to the public from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m, followed by the awards banquet.

 

Trade show booths are still available for $150 which includes a banquet ticket. Additional banquet tickets are available for $40 each or $400 per table.

 

Information on the Expo and banquet can be found at www.SavannahChamber.com or by contacting Susan Smith at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by phone at 912-644-6434.

NEWS - Work Force & Career Development

Small businesses in Georgia will soon have greater access to critical resources  to help them start or grow their businesses and create jobs, thanks to a $1.3 million SBA grant to the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

The funding was provided under a key provision of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 signed by the President last September, which provided $50 million in grants to SBA’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) across the country to support job creation and retention within the small business community by providing in-depth business counseling and advice to entrepreneurs and small business owners.

The Jobs Act grants are a one-time funding intended to meet the critical need for business expansion and job creation, and are not intended to replace the core funding or the matching funds that the SBDCs require to sustain the program annually.

This one-time only grant to the Georgia SBDC, headquarters in Athens, allows it to enhance its current capability in collaboration with a variety of public and private sector partners.