Month: July 2020

July 17, 2020

What do business tax incentives buy? The State of Florida let the Qualified Target Industry tax refund program expire at the end of June. I’m not a big fan of incentives anyway, especially this type of incentive that is often more of a bidding war between locations. I prefer incentives that are focused on actually changing market conditions to improve investment, such as occurs in CRAs. Incentives should be a last resort, with more focus on doing what can be done to improve market position to attract businesses through placemaking, infrastructure, and quality of life improvements. That’s why I especially like working on consumer-based industries such as retail, restaurants, live music, craft breweries, entertainment, etc. If you don’t have the customers, no amount of incentive is going to help a business. After all, the most important incentive is the market, and there are better, more sustainable and resilient ways for locations to compete for investment and business.

A bittersweet ending for the Maker Community’s Biggest Supporters. Jules Pieri and Joanne Domeniconi helped more than 3,000 entrepreneurs launch their businesses, and now have been ejected from their own.

Three traditionally offline industries that are going online. This list features some all-star companies that did a brilliant job at digitizing on the fly.

The Restaurant recovery is back on the rocks.

Major museums are reopening with restrictions, limited admissions, and extra safety measures.

COVID-19 Small Business

July 16, 2020

In great news for the economy, June Retail Sales results would be a good report without the virus, with year over year sales up compared to June 2019, and a 7.5% increase from May 2020. Although the spending is in different categories from the norm, it is a good sign for overall consumer spending patterns since this will be a consumer-driven recovery. New unemployment claim trends continue their gradual decline, with 1.3 million for the week ended July 11 compared to the late March peak of 6.9 million.

New legislation would grant automatic forgiveness of PPP Loans under $150,000. The smallest of small businesses may be able to avoide hassling with additional documents, worksheets and payroll/tax forms. This will be important for the vast majority of the 65,000 businesses in Greater Miami that received PPP loans, where the average loan amount was $29,000.

Eviction looms for millions who can’t afford rent. The federal eviction moratorium expires in July along with enhanced jobless benefits.

Despite calls to defund the police, some cities are spending more. San Diego is increasing its police department budget by 5%, the largest boost by a major city this year.

America’s auto sector is back, but not really the rest of manufacturing.

How small businesses can leverage AI to battle bigger competitors. Increased productivity and better data collection are some of the key tools.

ew legislation would grant automatic forgiveness of PPP Loans under $150,000. The smallest of small businesses may be able to avoide hassling with additional documents, worksheets and payroll/tax forms. This will be important for the vast majority of the 65,000 businesses in Greater Miami that received PPP loans, where the average loan amount was $29,000.

COVID-19 Entrepreneurship Small Business

July 14, 2020

Businesses face existential threats, made worse by politicians. What happens when a second round of business closures hits on top of months of low to no revenue? It isn’t good. This is probably the most important article today.

This startup is taking on Amazon to help independent bookstores. Digital sales and affiliate payouts from the nonprofit platform Bookshop are helping some small booksellers survive during the pandemic. Unfortunately and fortunately, Amazon has transformed the written word. It has hurt local booksellers, so kudos to Bookshop for working to keep them alive, but Amazon also made it SO much easier to launch the BusinessFlare Publishing Group and publish our first book, Governing for Economic Development, in English and Spanish as paperback and eBook. The English version can be downloaded for free today, July 14, 2020.

Speaking of independents, did you see this CNBC interview a couple of weeks ago with our favorite bookseller, Mitchell Kaplan?

Six theories on why fast growing startups seem to be disappearing. One possibility is that people are more motivated by the idea of beinig an entrepreneur than by having a great business concept.

Biotech properties draw billions of dollars as other real estate languishes. As we work on an exciting initiative to attract additional federal investment into biotech research, this article helps bolster our position that the investment is justified and that there will be a significant economic benefit.

With play on pause, sports teams forge ahead with real estate projects. Amid lack of ticket sales due to coronavirus, alternative revenue streams could become increasingly important for sports teams.

And finally from Entrepreneur, how to craft an elevator pitch that gives people chills in under 20 seconds.