Business News for December 7, 2021 |
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Today's message includes the following news, best practices, and online courses:
- Health Insurance for Your Small Business
- Determining Your Market Size
- SBA Webinar on Government Contracting and Procurement
- 5 Reasons You Might be Rejected for Financing
Upcoming SBDC Learning Opportunities - Spring Catalog Coming Soon!
- Positive Power Plays
- Fearless Performance Management
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Business News, Updates, and Best Practices |
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Trying to Figure Out Insurance as a Small Business Owner?
Covering Wisconsin can help!
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Right now, thanks to COVID relief, health insurance prices are lower than ever before—and there is no cap on who can get help paying for a plan. No one will pay more than 8.5% of their income. This means that you may now find an affordable plan, even if you did not in the past.
Enroll by December 15th for coverage to start January 1st, 2022.
If you have questions, Covering Wisconsin can help. Covering Wisconsin is a nonprofit that helps people in Wisconsin find and use health insurance. Their free Health Insurance Navigators can help you:
- Find plans and best prices.
- Sign up for HealthCare.gov, BadgerCare Plus or Medicaid.
- Get answers to your health insurance questions, big or small.
- Solve billing or coverage problems.
There are two ways to make an appointment:
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Determining Your Market Size
an overview from The Center for Technology Commercialization
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Market sizing can be determined by a variety of methods, including top-down and bottom-up. In the video above, Brian Walsh from the Center for Technology Commercialization (CTC) walks you through the process of top-down analysis, the pitfalls, and why you should be making sure your analysis is complete if you want to attract investors.
Want to learn more about market sizing - and many other building blocks for starting a business? Join our spring Entrepreneurial Training Program - enrollment coming soon! We often refer to the top-down model as applying filters - something you can do by doing market research.
Did you know the SBDC and the CTC are both part of the Institute for Business & Entrepreneurship? This video is presented by Brian Walsh, Commercialization Consultant. At the CTC, Brian provides counseling on business model optimization to prepare entrepreneurs for federal funding through SBIR/STTR programs and other funding mechanisms.
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SBA Webinar on Government Contracting and Procurement
December 8 at 1pm CST
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SBA and Public Private Strategies Institute have teamed up for a series of webinars that highlight programs and services to help small businesses grow and thrive.
During this webinar, you will:
- Learn more about COVID EIDL and how you can take advantage before December 31, 2021
- Discover tools and resources you can use to start and grow your business
- Have your questions answered by SBA leadership and small business experts
- Learn how you can become a vaccine leader in your community
- Get an update regarding programs and recent policy announcements made by the Biden-Harris Administration
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5 Reasons You Might be Rejected for Financing
from the ASBDC blog
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By: Matthew Gillman
Small business owners are not always seen as the most desirable loan candidates in the eyes of lenders. In fact, the latest Small Business Credit Survey published by the Federal Reserve Banks revealed that the approval rates for small business loans, credit lines, and merchant cash advances all declined after the onset of the pandemic.
Prior to March 2020, 61% of loan applicants were fully approved of the loan they were applying for, 20% were partially approved, and 19% were denied. When the pandemic started, only 44% of applicants were fully approved, while 26% were partially approved. The remaining 30% of borrowers got rejected.
One of the most common reasons for denials of small business financing: not having a solid business plan.
A solid business plan can help you to assure your lender you are able to repay your loan until its maturity date. You can also show that your business has a clear growth direction, giving lenders the confidence that you won’t go bankrupt before you’ve completed your loan payments.
You’ll also need to present your cash flow statement to show lenders how much money is flowing through your operations. Some small companies struggle to balance their money even though they’re profitable because they have been paying their suppliers upfront, even before they receive their customers’ payments.
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Upcoming SBDC Learning Opportunities |
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We are hard at work putting together our Spring 2022 class calendar, which will be available in mid-January. In the meantime, we will continue to add classes to our calendar as they are finalized. Here are just a few coming up!
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Positive Power Plays: Skills for Conflict & Negotiation
February 16
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All leaders experience conflict in one form or another, but viewing that experience from a different lens can help you turn conflict into collaborations and reach win-win resolutions. In this course, you will learn conflict styles, strategies for building trust, stages of conflict resolution and how to use them in any situation, emotion management, and more. |
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Fearless Performance Management
April 12
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For new and continuing managers alike, the performance management process can be an intimidating one. Yet this opportunity for two-way feedback can become one of your greatest assets as you and your team members work together collaboratively.
This class provides you with specific tools you can use to set performance goals, document and manage performance, maintain ongoing communication, and develop performance improvement plans.
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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.
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