(L to R):
Lou Gordon, BALCONY Director.
Mark Jaffe, President of Greater New York Chamber of Commerce
Nick Lugo, President of New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

The Business and Labor Coalition of New York, BALCONY, participated in the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce’s business expo at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, April 23, 2009. Billed as a day of networking and expert panel advice, the business expo featured BALCONY Director Lou Gordon, who received a plaque in BALCONY’s name for embodying the spirit of entrepreneurship. Gordon addressed a lunch gathering of over five hundred business representatives, briefly outlining the constituencies that comprise BALCONY and the issues it cares about.

Gordon went into more detail about one of BALCONY’s signature issues, affordable health care for all New Yorkers. “Health care accounts for about 15% of the Gross National Product, and experts predict this might double by 2020,” Gordon warned. “There are now 48 million Americans who lack health care, including 2.6 million New Yorkers.” Gordon cited poll findings in, “The Health Care Pulse of Small Businesses” that BALCONY had commissioned in partnership with the American Cancer Society, AARP, the Small Business Majority and the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce stating that 44% of those companies surveyed offer their employees health insurance coverage while many felt the high cost of drugs and insurance were cost deterrents to providing insurance to workers. Gordon then straw-polled the audience on how many of the small business owners in attendance provided health coverage for their employees. He received a positive response that more small business owners would provide health care if its cost was not so high.

This point was amplified by Chamber President Mark Jaffe, who reminded the audience that healthy workers are more likely to be productive than those with lingering medical issues. Other speakers at the luncheon were Beatriz Manetta of Argent Associates, Nick Lugo, Founder and CEO of the New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Aziz Ahmad of UTC Associates and Joe Ithier a long time Greater New York Chamber advisory and board member.

The expert panel on entrepreneurial success occurred after lunch, chaired by Christine Serrano-Glassner of the U.S. Small Business Administration. It included Bruce Ventimiglia, co-chairman of BALCONY and President of Saratoga Capital Management, an asset allocation service and investment firm operating out of Garden City, New York. Mr. Ventimiglia had sage advice for those businesses facing a weak market. “Challenge your revenue drivers and cost components. Keep changing strategies to keep up with changes in the marketplace,” he intoned. “Renegotiate contracts to lower costs, and take a look at third party vendors, to see if they can replace functions now performed by staff, at a lower cost. Emphasize your good sellers, and don’t create loss leaders in a recession.” Ventimiglia also emphasized that competitors should not be treated as hated enemies, but as potential partners. “If my competitor and I can achieve greater market penetration or build a larger scale operation by merging, this is a benefit to both of us. The main job of a CEO is to understand assets and deploy them appropriately,” Ventimiglia responded to a question from the audience.

Ventimiglia was joined on the panel by Sheldon Kravitz of Plus Media Buying Services and Ray Mora of Argent Associates. Mr. Kravitz said that media advertising is the least well understood component of most businesses, and opined that 75% of advertisers pay more for media ads than they should. He emphasized that there were two aspects to media – cost efficient media planning and effective advertising buying. While Ventimiglia and Mora agreed that clients and customers were looking to cut back as the recession deepened, Kravitz (who represents a different kind of client) said that his clients were not cutting back, but were increasing their investments, because a financial crisis is the best time to gain market share from struggling competitors. Mr. Mora described how his company had grown over ten years and warned potential business owners and warned that “every company has cash cows, dogs, and stars. You must learn to identify your future stars if you want to build a successful business.”

BALCONY joined more than 50 businesses, associations, government agencies and others by hosting an informational booth at the expo. It was a very positive event and BALCONY will continue to partner with the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce in the future.