BALCONY REPORTS ON HEALTH CARE REFORM TO GREATER NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

(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.

GOVERNOR PATERSON ANNOUNCES ENHANCEMENTS TO NEW YORK’S SMALL BUSINESS LENDING PROGRAMS

Governor David A. Paterson today announced the expansion of funding a critical economic development lending program aimed at the Small Business community. In response to the current economic climate and in support of the integral role that small business plays in the continuity and strength of our State’s economy, Governor Paterson directed Empire State Development (ESD) to increase funding to the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) program by $2.5 million and authorized an $80,000 grant to the Regional Alliance of Small Contractors. Today’s announcement follows President Obama’s vow earlier this week to ease the financial burden of the nation’s small businesses through immediate action to revive frozen credit markets.

Small Businesses Feeling the Chill

by Louis Uchitelle

Some small companies say they are no longer able to get loans from newly cautious banks as credit tightens across the country, and even those who do qualify are increasingly reluctant to borrow and expand, fearful of overextending themselves in the midst of the financial crisis.

Alan Petrucci, whose small factory near Chicago makes metal molds that other manufacturers buy to form plastic parts, says his bank recently offered him an additional loan. Though orders for his molds are still plentiful, Mr. Petrucci says he will borrow only to upgrade existing machinery, not to expand.

Small Business Is Latest Focus in Health Fight

By REED ABELSON

As the number of people without health insurance continues to rise, many states and Congress have begun to focus on one of the biggest causes: the growing number of small business owners and their workers who are unable to afford coverage.

The states are taking a variety of approaches. To help ease the burden of insurance premiums that have roughly doubled since 2000, some, like Arizona, are extending tax credits to small employers that provide medical coverage.

Geyerhah and Delimpaltadaki Speak on “Health Action” (WBAI FM)

Ben Geyerhah of the Small Business Majority and Eleni Delimpaltadaki of BALCONY spoke on Monday, June 30, at the “Health Action” WBAI FM radio show about the new survey “Health Care Pulse of New York Small Businesses”. To listen to the show, click the link below and scroll down to 32nd minute of the recording: Listen

Survey: Small businesses favor partnership for health insurance

By Eric Reinhardt, Journal Staff

Eight of 10 New York small businesses that were surveyed believe a public-private partnership is the best way to provide health insurance for their employees.

That’s according to a report from the Business and Labor Coalition of New York (BALCONY), the American Cancer Society, AARP, and Sausalito, Calif.–based Small Business Majority.

The survey report, called “The Health Care Pulse of New York Small Business,” indicates about 80 percent of respondents favor a system jointly financed by business, employees, and government.

Health Care Pulse of NY SMALL BUSINESSES

They are PART OF THE SOLUTION

Read the complete Survey Report: Report

ALBANY, N.Y. (June 4, 2008) – A healthy majority of small businesses in New York believe that a public-private partnership is the best way to provide health insurance to their workers, according, to a new survey The Health Care Pulse of New York Small Business issued today (Wednesday) by BALCONY – The Business and Labor Coalition of New York, the American Cancer Society, AARP and the Small Business Majority.

At the same time, fully half of New York small businesses do not provide health insurance, and of those that do, a large number are cutting benefits or raising costs to employees to maintain some coverage.

Health Care Pulse of Small Businesses

Health Care Pulse of Small Businesses

released in Albany on June 4th at News Conference

(left to right)

Bill Ferris, AARP; Ron Deutsch, Microbiz NY; Lou Gordon, BALCONY; Bruce Ventimiglia, Co-Chair BALCONY;
Troy Oechsner, NYS Insurance Dept; Joseph Sano, OMCE; Eleni Delimpaltadaki, BALCONY;
and Peter Slocum, American Cancer Society.

2006 Small Business Survival Index & New York State

For over a decade, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council has ranked all the states on how friendly their regulatory and tax environments are to the community of nearly 26 million small businesses that provide the lifeblood for American productivity and innovation. New York State has consistently ranked in the bottom fifth on these rankings, and it is one of BALCONY’s most cherished goals to identify impediments to small business growth in New York and ease them. What follows is the Small Business Survival Index for 2006, the detailed basis for the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council’s annual rankings.

Read the article: SBS Index 2006