President Obama proposes providing $30 billion to small US banks to lend to small businesses.

The president wants to give $30 billion from the TARP bank support program to small banks on terms that would make it very attractive for them to lend to small firms. The banks involved would be those with $10 billion or less in assets.

The objective is to reduce the 10% unemployment rate by increasing the level of loans to small businesses who have good credit credentials, but who have had difficulty borrowing due to the depressed economic conditions.

The suggestion is that banks would be provided capital at a 5% cost of funds but the cost would drop to 1% provide the banks increased the lending to small businesses by 10%.

The plan would operate outside the TARP provisions, so those restrictions would not apply.

There are 8,000 US banks with under $10 billion in assets that would qualify.

The plan requires congressional approval, and while the initial indications have been positive, Republicans may not cooperate since they want the TARP funds repaid to the US Treasury.

This is a creative idea which would assist in getting better access to loan funds for small firms who currently are not getting much satisfaction form the banks.

We help by providing prospects for small businesses at no cost to them, from our Local Search facility in our US Business Directory, which has 10 million businesses listed, most of which are small firms.

Monte Huebsch, CEO

19% of US consumers will use their mobile phones for shopping this Christmas.

A Deloitte survey reports that 19% of US shoppers will use their mobile device over the holiday season to help find what they want. Younger people feature in this use. 39% of consumers aged 18 to 29 will use their mobile phones to check products, prices, find store locations and get directions.

25% of those who use their mobile phone to help with their shopping say they will buy the product on their phone.

While the sales figures are still small for purchases on mobile devices, currently $750 million, less than 1% of online sales, retailers are moving to provide mobile shopping sites to cater for the expected growth in this area.

Internet Retailer reports that 112 retailers now have either mobile commerce sites, or applications, or both. Many large companies are making mobile purchases available, including Toys R Us, Sears and Victoria’s Secret.

Mobile phones are being used to compare prices, and check whether goods are available. Smartphone applications are helping drive the trend of shopping on mobile devices.

Normal websites are not very successful to view from a mobile phone, and in most cases, they just don’t function.

EBay’s mobile website has over 1 million consumers visit a day and will make $500 million this year in sales, which is currently 66% of all mobile sales.

While shoppers are not yet as comfortable about buying on their mobile phone as they are on their desktop computer, the number of people doing this is increasing at a high rate. This will continue as consumers become more relaxed about mobile shopping after having used the facility.

We are assisting by providing an iPhone version of our Local Search Facility in our US Business Directory. We have over 10 million business listed and we provide the prospects to them without cost.


Monte Huebsch, CEO

Small US firm’s sales are down 3.8% in 2009.

Sageworks, in a survey of 10,000 banks and small business CPAs, reports that small company’s sales reduced by 3.8% for this year to the end of October. They had a sales increase of 2.4% in 2008.

Large firms were better off with an average fall in sales of only 1.8% for the same period this year.

Certain small business sectors fared worse than others in sales reductions, transport and storage fell 16.7%, manufacturing fell 13.8%, wholesalers fell 10.4% and retailers fell 6.7%.

The National Federation of Independent Businesses reports that 86% of small businesses had flat or reduced earnings over the last three months and 82% had level or lower sales in that period. In the next three months, 21% plan to reduce staff and 32% will reduce stock levels.

From 1993 to 2008, US small businesses provided 65% of job growth and they account for approximately 50% of non government employment, so their recovery will determine the improvement in the current high unemployment rate.

The weak US dollar has hurt small firms who import raw materials and there is little upside in this for them since most do not export. The housing crisis has also created problems for building contractors which are mostly small companies.

Tight credit has meant that many small business owners have used credit cards to finance their operations and many lenders are now reducing credit limits.

So small firms are still having difficulties which have been produced by the economic downturn and Government assistance doesn’t seem to be getting to them.

We help by providing prospects to them at no cost from our Local Search facility in our US Business Directory. The majority of the 10 million firms listed in our directory are small businesses.

Monte Huebsch, CEO

US small businesses are struggling to move out of the recession and to hire additional employees.

The US unemployment rate increased from 9.8% in September to 10.2% in October. Small businesses have led the turnaround in employment after economic downturns in the past, but that has not happened yet.

A survey by the National Federation of Independent Businesses reports that 19% of small firms, on a seasonally adjusted basis, reduced worker numbers by an average of 4.2 workers in the July, August, September period. Only 8% increased staff in that period, by an average of 3.5 for each business.

The Small Business Administration says that small firms, defined as under 20 staff, provide 25% of all jobs and contributed 40% of employment growth after the last recession.

The reasons that small businesses are not hiring aggressively are:

Credit restrictions - most do not have property to offer as security, which is generally required, with tightened borrowing conditions being applied by lenders.

Few small firms export – so the economic upturn internationally is not helping them.

Cost of health care – the cost for small businesses is substantially higher than for large firms. The healthcare bill which was passed by the House of Representatives provides a cap on costs and wider coverage, and if passed by the Senate will help with this problem for small US companies.

So although the recession is technically over, with the US economy returning to growth, the state of business for small firms is still difficult and they are not yet hiring in sufficient numbers to lower the unemployment rate.

We contribute to the success of small businesses by sending them qualified prospects from our Local Search facility in our US Business Directory with no cost to them. Most of the 10 million business listed in our directory are small businesses.

Monte Huebsch, CEO

The US newspapers decline in circulation continues at an increasing rate.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations reports that the average weekday circulation of 400 daily papers reduced by over 10% to 30.4 million for the 6 months to the end of September. This was more than the 7% reduction in the previous 6 months.

Readers are moving from print to online to access news and the online versions of the newspapers are not producing sufficient advertising income to replace the loss of revenue from their print products.

While some newspapers are now trying various methods to get web users to pay for their information, this is generally not succeeding.

The consulting firm Outsell Inc. reports that the reduction of content and the increasing of price for both single papers and home delivery have contributed to the decline in readers. They also say that 90 papers have stopped publishing at least one day a week and many have reduced delivery to subscribers in small, remote communities.

The Wall Street Journal, with 2 million subscribers, is now the largest selling daily paper, replacing USA Today, which fell 17% to 1.9 million.

The New York Times was number three, having fallen 7% in the six monthly period, the Los Angeles Times was fourth, down 11%. and the Washington Post was number five, having fallen 6%.

Smaller local newspapers are doing better because the local events they report are usually not available online.

The movement from print to online seems to be a permanent trend, making it very difficult for many well established newspapers to continue to trade profitably.

The switch to online also applies to finding businesses and our Local Search facility in our US Local Directory helps in that regard. We send prospects to the 10 million businesses listed in our directory with no cost to them.

Monte Huebsch, CEO

More employees of US small businesses are losing their health insurance.

The Small Business Administration reports that health insurance premiums continue to increase and the projection is that by 2025 a quarter of the US economy will be spent on health care. 

As premiums have increased, the number of businesses offering health insurance to employees is falling, reducing from 63% to 60% in the last year.

This is accentuated in small firms, those with less than 10 employees, where firms offering coverage reduced from 57% in 2000 to 46% in 2009. 

The reason small businesses are having such difficulty maintaining employee health cover is the higher premiums they are asked to pay, 18% higher than large firms, and administration costs which are four times higher than for large companies. 

Almost 3 million employees, who are uninsured, work for firms with less than 25 staff. Over the last two years, 25% of employees of small businesses lost their health cover. 

Half of the individuals working for businesses who don’t offer health insurance have no private cover. The option of private cover is not viable for most due to the high cost, with no premium limits being applicable in 33 states, and broad exclusions which can be applied by insurance companies in effect in 45 states. 

Reforms currently being discussed would give small businesses tax credits to assist with employee health care costs and allow people to switch jobs without loss of cover. The changes would also not allow insurers to discriminate based on age, gender or prior conditions. 

With the unemployment rate increasing from 5.8% in 2008 to 8.9% in 2009, 4 million workers lost their health cover, increasing the number uninsured to over 50 million. 

The reform of health care is critically important and very difficult to enact due to the power of the vested interests involved. Small firms are the most vulnerable and urgently in need of assistance to provide or retain health cover for employees. 

We assist US small businesses with our Local Search facility on our US Business Directory which delivers qualified prospects to them without cost.

Most of the 10 million firms listed on our directory are small businesses. 

Monte Huebsch, CEO

Small U.S. businesses are not using social networking sites for business purposes.

A survey for Citibank Small Business by GFK Roper of 500 small U.S. firms reports that 75% of them do not use Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to find prospects for their businesses.

86% do not use social networking sites to get business information and only 10% have used them to find business advice.

42% have used their websites substantially to get business prospects and new business.

19% of the small firms said they were advertising more due to the economic slowdown, 41% were doing the same level of advertising, and 38% were doing less.

28% said they were using email and 25% were advertising online to attract new sales.

Hitwise reports that Facebook has 56% of social network traffic, MySpace has 30% and the next best has less than 3%. Facebook had a 200% increase in user numbers compared to a year ago.

However, U.S. users spend an average visit of 26 minutes on MySpace and slightly less, 23 minutes, on Facebook.

In the search field, Google still dominates with 64% of U.S. searches, with Yahoo having 19% and Microsoft having 9%.

As more business searches are done online, at the expense of old media, particularly the print phone books, we help small U.S. firms by delivering qualified prospects to them from our Local Search facility in our U.S. Business Directory with no cost to them. We have over 10 million firms listed in our directory and most are small businesses.

Monte Huebsch, CEO