Happy SBDC Day! March 16, 2022 |
|
Today's message includes the following news, best practices, and online courses:
- What Russia’s Attack on Ukraine Could Mean for Your Small Business
-
Know Your Fiduciary Responsibilities: Three-Part Webcast Series for Retirement and Health Plan Sponsors
-
Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin Grants for agricultural and food industries
- SHRM State of the Workplace Report
Client Success Story: Wildewood Plant Shop
Upcoming SBDC Learning Opportunities
- HR Basics for Non-HR Professionals
- Fearless Performance Management
- From Side Hustle to Small Business
- Buy, Build or Sell: Deciding the Next Steps for Your Business
|
|
Business News, Updates, and Best Practices |
|
Know Your Fiduciary Responsibilities
Three-Part Webcast Series for Retirement and Health Plan Sponsors
|
Operating an employee benefit plan can be challenging for small businesses who have limited time, resources, and access to professional help with benefit programs. The Department of Labor is presenting the three-part Getting It Right webcast series to help employers and service providers understand how the fiduciary responsibility provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) apply to employer-sponsored retirement and health plans and provide information on how to avoid common problems in managing a plan.
|
|
What Russia’s Attack on Ukraine Could Mean for Your Small Business
|
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been met with a swift reaction by many governments, including the U.S. The U.S. and other governments have export compliance regulations and laws that apply to their citizens, entities incorporated within their jurisdictions and, in most cases, products created with the technology born within their jurisdiction.
You may be wondering how these events affect you or your business. I’ve put together below a short list of your responsibilities under U.S. laws, for those of you who have facilities abroad or are owned by a foreign entity. Keep in mind that the situation is fluid and sanctions are imminent.
Here is what you are responsible for:
- You must prove that any person on a denied party list doesn’t also own or control the entity you are shipping to or doing business with.
- Comprehensive sanctions (embargoes) have been placed on the Crimean region of the Ukraine in 2014. What this means is that you will have to prove that your products will not end up in these regions.
Future sanctions could include the entirety of the Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
Additional resources:
|
|
Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin Grants
for agricultural and food industries in Wisconsin, apply by April 2
|
The Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin (BLBW) competitive grant program is designed to strengthen Wisconsin’s agricultural and food industries by working to reduce the marketing, distribution, and processing hurdles that impede the expansion of sales of Wisconsin’s food products to local purchasers.
A total of $300,000 is available in grant funding through the program; the maximum award for each project is $50,000, and grant applicants must provide a cash or in-kind match of at least 50 percent of the total project budget. Generally, qualified applicants include individuals, groups or businesses involved in Wisconsin production agriculture, food processing, food distribution, food warehousing, retail food establishments or agricultural tourism operations. Proposals can include individual projects, collaborations or partnerships.
|
|
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) State of the Workplace Report |
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recently released the State of the Workplace report. For 2021, organizations were able to effectively manage the various issues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, talent issues were their greatest struggles, although primarily remote organizations were more effective than in-person organizations when it came to both retaining their current employees and recruiting skilled applicants. Read the full report below.
Resources
|
|
Wildewood is in Full Bloom
SBDC client pursues life-long passion for nature
|
|
Kate Holl began her co-founding her first plant shop in 2016 after moving away from a digital-heavy photo-editing career to engage in a more hands-on, nature based passion.
The mission of Wildewood has always been to provide the community with high quality houseplants along with the expertise on how to care for them and education on their many benefits. By creating the best work environment possible for her employees, having a positive influence in the community, and making regular contributions to the community, Holl is able to be the successful business owner she’d always dreamed of becoming.
“Something that keeps me motivated in my business during difficult times is revisiting our mission and why I do what I do,” Holl reflects.
|
|
Upcoming SBDC Learning Opportunities |
|
Buy, Build or Sell: Deciding the Next Steps for Your Business
April 6, 2022 (in person)
|
|
It takes a lot of sweat equity to build up a successful business, and most business owners will eventually want to retire. For many, retirement may translate into selling your business – and it is crucial to prepare for a big exit, right from the start.
While there is no crystal ball that can tell you whether it’s time to buy a business, build your business or sell/close your business, there are ways to monitor the financial performance of your company that can help guide your decisions. This class will help you understand how to analyze your business’ financial performance as well as some qualitative factors to consider when making decisions regarding your investment in your business.
|
|
From Side Hustle to Small Business
April 8, 2022 (online, no cost)
|
- Have you been thinking about turning your hobby into a business, but aren’t sure where to start?
- Do you have a side hustle that’s grown and you want to explore next steps?
- Are you interested in learning more about how to explore a business idea you have?
This session will teach you have to use a visual business planning tool call the Business Model Canvas. This tool will help you understand how 9 functional areas of business work together to create a model of operation. The class will also give you information about resources and next steps.
Brought to you by the Innovation Champions Group
|
|
Fearless Performance Management
April 12, 2022 (in person)
|
The performance management – or employee feedback – process is one that can fill many managers and employees alike a sense of dread. However, with the right skills and mindset, this process can become a collaborative form of two-way communication that reduces anxiety and sets everyone up for success.
This class presents a model for managing employee performance and provides you with specific tools you can use to set performance goals, document and manage performance, maintain ongoing communication, conduct performance reviews, and develop performance improvement plans.
|
|
HR Basics for Non-HR Professionals
April 14, 2022 (in person)
|
If you are a business owner or manager of a small business without a dedicated HR expert on your staff, this is the program for your organization. If you have administrative staff that are performing HR duties as part of their responsibilities that are not HR experts they too will benefit. This course is directed toward common small business HR issues, including the laws most often violated (unknowingly) by small businesses (according to the Small Business Administration), information on how to prevent these violations, and common issues encountered when dealing with employees. |
|
Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact the UW-Madison SBDC office at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu or 608-263-2221 to request accommodations.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
