CDA's Business Survival workshops held recently on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota were well attended by a diverse group of businessmen/businesswomen and individuals looking to soon open a business.
Eric Plinske, director of the Northern Marianas College Small Business Development Center, presented strategies focused on turning a small business around in a down economy. He first identified several trouble signs that can indicate a business may be headed for trouble to include:
1) long-time employees leaving the company;
2) customers leaving for reasons within the ownership's control; and
3) increasing employee conflicts.
Plinkse discussed steps that can be taken to solve the cash crisis. Going after receivables topped the list, followed by attempting to extend accounts payable with vendors.
Plinske emphasized that it is critical for a small business owner to avoid the “credit crunch,” where payables are shorter than receivables. Plinske stated that an ideal scenario is where customers pay cash for merchandise while the business owner receives credit from vendors to pay for the products that are being resold. When the contrary is true, the business owner has to pay vendors with cash and customers pay on credit, the business is usually doomed for failure because there is no cash, other than from the owner's pockets, to pay for the replacement merchandise for inventory.
Plinske then went on to explain how to manage debt and get control of finances. The main point he made in this section is that every business must set up a checking account that is only used for business purposes, and every expense must be paid with a check to create an accurate paper trail for accounting.
Finally, Plinske explained how to effectively refocus marketing efforts to maximize sales and track advertising methods that work.
In the energy segment of the program, Thelma Inos, Director of the Division of Energy, introduced the Energy Star label program, a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy designed to identify and promote energy-efficient products. She urged participants to practice energy conservation and provided easy, low-cost and no-cost ways to save energy at home and at the business site.
Some of the simple energy saving tips she offered were:
1) turn off lights when not in use;
2) turn off computer monitors when not in use;
3) setting thermostats at more economical cooling levels;
4) turn off water heaters when not in use; and
5) cleaning/changing air conditioning unit filters at least once a month.
Inos suggested some mini-retrofitting projects including switching regular incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs; insulating doors/windows, installing white window shades, drapes, or blinds to reflect heat away from the building; tinting windows with energy star labeled film; insulating roofs with elastomeric roof coating; and purchasing and using energy star equipments and products.
John Camacho of the Summer Holiday Hotel offered additional energy-saving tips related to building design/orientation, landscape design, and selection of building materials, fixtures and appliances. He stressed the importance of consulting architects and engineers in the design of new buildings to ensure proper air circulation and insulation. He indicated that proper landscaping can make a significant difference in the amount of energy required to maintain a comfortable home or building. Lastly, Camacho touched on how proper selection of building materials, fixtures and appliances can help reduce energy bills. He recommended the use of glass blocks and plexiglass for their illuminating advantages; tinting, thermal structural panels and elastomeric roof coating for their cooling effects; and solar heaters, tankless water heaters and other cost-effective, energy efficient appliances.
Kraig Church, a Saipan resident, wrapped up the energy segment of the program by sharing his experience being off the electrical power grid and his complete reliance on solar technology. Church explained that he and his family recently completed the construction of their new home on their dream property in Laulau. The remoteness of his new home made quite costly the cost to connect to the local power grid. Church, thus, had no choice but to look into alternative energy technology. He invested in a complete solar energy system comprised of solar panels, battery bank, charge controller, inverter and a solar water heater. He described and shared pictures of each of these components and explained that on cloudy days, he resorts to using a back-up generator to produce electricity. Church then described his maintenance routine and provided some online resources.
Church's presentation was followed by a segment on labor. Lucy Sablan, lead case manager of the Workforce Investment Agency, discussed various training and internship opportunities with WIA and touched on the value of such programs for businesses as, she explained, many businesses are not aware that WIA's programs are partially or fully subsidized by the federal government. She expressed the importance of having established training plans, given WIA's objective of providing career training and advancement opportunities for its client base. She ended by sharing some client success stories.
Alfred Pangelinan spent the next half of the segment on labor discussing requirements for hiring nonresident workers, the Department of Labor's recent efforts to streamline the application process for the hiring of nonresident workers, requirements for modifying labor contracts should the need for a reduction in force or work hours arise and ways in which businesses can share labor costs with recent provisions in CNMI labor regulations allowing for multiple employers. He also shared the Fitial administration's efforts and directives to focus more on the hiring of resident workers; he thus emphasized on the role of the Division of Employment Services and Training, coordination between the WIA and DEST, and the directive for no waivers on the 20 percent resident hire requirement.
Oscar C. Camacho, acting chief executive officer of the CDA, closed the program with a presentation on CDA's recently formulated strategic plan and debt relief program. Camacho explained that the CDA Strategic Plan was a product of CDA's strategic planning session conducted in October of 2006. The plan, according to Camacho, serves as workable guidelines for actions and sets three immediate goals for the agency:
1) Bring existing loan portfolios into order;
2) Revitalize and reposition CDA to perform its mission and achieve an overall vision of economic development for the Commonwealth; and
3) Improve internal processes and system for handling loans from start to finish.
Camacho then provided details of the recently established debt relief program and ended with a scenario demonstrating the impact of such debt relief program.
This is the first of a series of technical assistance workshops CDA has lined up for the year.
The workshops, held April 26 on Tinian, May 1 on Saipan, and May 8 on Rota, were a partnership effort with the NMC SBDC, the Energy Division of the DPW, WIA and the CNMI Department of Labor. (PR)
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