Congestion is bad for business

One of the worst parts of Chicago in the winter is not just that it gets cold and snowy, but everyone’s commute tends to take longer. Of course, maybe it’s not that much worse than the summer, when construction slows us down.

We’re back to our two seasons: winter and construction.

Not only is it a frustrating, time-consuming drag on our daily lives, but it’s a drag on business too. If you’re coming from the suburbs and you have a meeting downtown, you could be looking at an hour and a half – maybe even more – in the car.

It hurts our region. You shouldn’t be subject to a life-changing commuting challenge just because you want to go from the suburbs to the city, or vice versa. It’s a cramp on both your working and personal life. It’s also a burden for companies trying to recruit the best people.

One recent study by the Texas Transportation Institute ranked Chicago as the worst in the nation when it comes to traffic congestion. Of course, you don’t need a study to tell you about the palpable frustration you feel when you’re trying to get to work, a cultural or sporting event, or a conference, and you’re sitting on the Kennedy going nowhere.

We’ve talked about the Chicago Broadband Challenge as a way to improve the infrastructure of our Internet. But what about the infrastructure of our roads and highways? Have we thought about how much that could improve our business environment?

It’s time we think about car pool lanes, expanding our roads and building out our infrastructure to alleviate the gridlock. It should be part of our overall plan to make Chicago one of the most business friendly cities in the nation.

We were willing to make major infrastructure investments to host the Olympics. Why not do it for our everyday residents and visitors in the Chicago area? Boston did it with its Big Dig project, a major overhaul of its notoriously stuffy highways.

We know this is a great place to live and work. We should work toward making it a great place to get around in. It will make our position as a great business hub that much stronger.

Michael Alter is president and CEO of SurePayroll, a small-business payroll services company based in Glenview.

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Let’s lead the way to prosperity

It’s been both a frustrating and promising year for the Chicago area economy. We’ve managed to do a little better than the rest of the country, with the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard showing year-over-year hiring down 0.9 percent in Chicago compared to -1.4 percent nationwide.

Want more to hang your hat on? We have fared better than other big cities over the last year. New York’s hiring is down 1.7 percent; Los Angeles 5.9 percent; San Francisco 3.9 percent; and Boston 3.0 percent.

Still, we’re a world class city. We want to do better. We want to be known as a place to go when you want to start a company or move your business.

We’ve made positive steps. The mayor has moved to cut red tape for businesses and wants to appoint a small business czar for the first time. The Chicago Broadband Challenge aims to up Internet speeds for startups, schools, libraries and neighborhoods. We have great organizations like 1871, Built in Chicago and World Business Chicago that promote our businesses.

Yet we haven’t seen much in the way of results. Chicago seems to go as the economy goes and our Scorecard survey this month tells us there’s still concern and uncertainty. Only 60 percent of small business owners said they were optimistic about the small business economy in November, down eight points from October. Remember, during good times, optimism is usually up around 80 percent.

It’s been a year filled with uncertainty, much of it surrounding the presidential election, but even with that settled, 61 percent of small business owners tell us they’re not feeling any more confident the government will avoid the fiscal cliff.

Many are still being cautious, with 47 percent saying they’re taking a defensive approach on spending and will not give year-end bonuses. Another 14 percent say they will wait for these macro events (fiscal cliff, tax policy, Euro crisis, Iran, etc.) to play out.

My hope is that, having taken many of the right steps as a business community, Chicago will begin to move forward on hiring and growth in spite of what may or may not be happening with the rest of the country. Chicago should take this opportunity to grab the reins and lead the charge back to prosperity.

Michael Alter is president and CEO of SurePayroll, a small-business payroll services company based in Glenview. The company collects information on small-business hiring based on its nationwide database of SurePayroll software users; Mr. Alter comments on trendlines in the data each month here on Crain’s blog for Chicago entrepreneurs.

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Chicago is a great product — it needs a great marketing campaign

By Michael Alter

As the country goes, so goes Chicago. That’s what the general economic picture for small businesses has looked like this year. We’ve had some promising signs and are starting to make some crucial steps, but essentially our hiring numbers have been right in line with the rest of the nation. The mayor has moved jobs into the city, which is great, but many of them have come from the surrounding suburbs that are already part of the Chicago metro area.

According to our SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard, year-over-year hiring is down 1.5 percent nationally, and Chicago’s hiring is down 1.3 percent. October told a similar story, with the nation’s small-business hiring down 0.1 percent and Chicago’s being flat.

We need to do better, and we’ve shown our intentions to do so with the mayor’s latest budget, which would greatly reduce the red tape small businesses have to cut through. Another plus: innovative organizations like 1871 acting as a bastion for startups.

Not to mention that we’re a world-class city to begin with.

So why aren’t we outpacing the rest of the country? Part of the reason is that a great product can’t really flourish unless it has great marketing behind it. You have to get your message out there. Apple’s products are innovative and unique, but their advertising and marketing are just as good.

This will take time, no doubt, but Chicago needs to ask itself, what is our marketing plan? How are we going to tell entrepreneurs in New York and California that this is the best city for your business?

Just bringing people from the suburbs to the city is a zero-sum game. You’re just rearranging the furniture. I’d call for an aggressive plan that aims to attract people from out of state and even from around the globe.

World Business Chicago is one such organization that aims to connect us with the rest of the world. Let’s turbocharge its efforts with funding to show that we’re different than we were a few years ago, and perhaps better in some ways than other business hubs.

Sure, New York is known as the center of the financial world and Silicon Valley is the home base of the technology field. But they’re also places where living and real estate expenses are through the roof.

The Chicago area is a place where you can raise a family, have a home and run a successful business. We know this. But we have to make sure the rest of the world does, too.

Michael Alter is president and CEO of SurePayroll, a small-business payroll-services company based in Glenview. The company collects information on small-business hiring based on its nationwide database of SurePayroll software users; Mr. Alter comments on trendlines in the data each month here on Crain’s blog for Chicago entrepreneurs.

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Mayor’s blueprint to cut red tape is good for business

By Michael Alter

The mayor’s proposal earlier this year to cut down on the red tape that prevents small businesses from getting licenses and finding financial assistance is reason to rejoice. Now let’s get it done so we really have something to celebrate.

Under the proposal, the mayor would create a Small Business Center to act as a full-service, one-stop shop for small-business owners. The mayor also would appoint the city’s first chief small-business officer to advocate for small businesses in City Hall.

There are lots of different viewpoints on how we can get this economy going, but I couldn’t be more excited about the idea of green-lighting small businesses so they can more quickly and efficiently get to work and start hiring people. How great would it be for them to have one place, rather than 10, to go to get all the proper licensing requirements handled?

Back in August, we talked about the improvements the city made in going to 49 from 117 license types. Still, we were well behind other big cities like Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Atlanta that had an average of less than 30.

A study done earlier this year of more than 6,000 small-business owners nationwide by Thumbtack.com found that licensing requirements were nearly twice as important as tax-related regulations in determining their state or city government’s overall business-friendliness. Illinois received a D+ overall, with licensing being rated as the worst aspect of the business environment. Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia all got As.

Interestingly, our SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard has shown the South as the only region in the country to grow hiring over the last year. Coincidence?

The mayor’s proposal is a great way to start endearing ourselves to small-business owners. It’s not just an attempt to make us better than average, it’s a way to really become an innovator.

And it’s just smart business. Hurray for that. I realize that a proposal in a budget is not an executed plan, but it’s clearly a move in the right direction. I’m hoping the City Council will approve this and we can appoint the small business chief, so that small business entrepreneurs know Chicago is a place where they can realize their vision.

Michael Alter is president and CEO of SurePayroll, a small-business payroll services company based in Glenview.

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Partly cloudy with a chance of jobs

By Michael Alter

This may be one of those times when the forecast in Chicago is actually looking better than the rest of the country. While we’re used to extreme heat, freezing rain, snow and bone-chilling winds, right now things are relatively calm. Of course, we’re not talking about the weather.

The SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard for the month of September shows hiring down 0.2 percent, paychecks flat and owners’ optimism about the small business economy at only 45 percent, off 15 points from August when it was 60 percent. The optimism survey also found that for 77 percent of small-business owners, the upcoming election is having an impact on their optimism, with 61 percent saying they plan to vote for Mitt Romney and 33 percent for Barack Obama.

Here in the Chicago area, the story is somewhat different. It’s still not a fairy tale, but hiring remained flat month over month in September, and it marks the third straight month where hiring has either stayed flat or gone up. The average paycheck has gone up 0.3 percent month over month in September.

Couple that with the recent news that 20 local technology companies have committed to creating more than 2,000 jobs by 2015 and there is reason to be optimistic for the city and its surrounding suburbs.

The mayor’s launching of the Chicago Broadband Challenge is also a step in the right direction. The program aims to attract more startups with affordable gigabit speed broadband Internet, to expand access to high-speed Internet service in the neighborhoods that need it, and to increase Internet access and speeds at places like schools, libraries and parks.

These are steps that can help people learn and gain new skills, as well as attract new companies that can create jobs. All good things for our economy.

Still, while our concerns locally may not be as great as they are nationally, we can’t succeed as an island. The whole country has to get going.

What our survey tells us is that the outlook for growth through the election is not good. If small-business owners aren’t optimistic, why would they start hiring and expanding their businesses? Regardless of the election’s outcome or what side of the aisle you’re on, we all need a clearer — and, we hope, brighter — picture of our economic future.

Michael Alter is president and CEO of SurePayroll, a small-business payroll services company based in Glenview. The company collects information on small-business hiring based on its nationwide database of SurePayroll software users; Mr. Alter comments on trendlines in the data each month here on Crain’s blog for Chicago entrepreneurs.

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Chicago’s small-business economy perks up: SurePayroll data

By Michael Alter

As we’ve struggled for answers to this ongoing economic slowdown, many have laid blame at the feet of the banks for not providing enough lending to small businesses. However, results from our SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard suggest otherwise. Nationwide, it appears most small-business owners simply aren’t looking to borrow. And most of those that have sought lending haven’t had a problem getting it — a trend we’re seeing play out locally. The lack of growth we’ve seen overall seems to be more due to the lack of demand in the economy rather than the banks.

Our Scorecard survey found four out of five small-business owners nationwide have not sought lending in 2012. Of those that did, two-thirds did not have trouble securing loans.

Locally based BMO Harris Bank recently posted its third straight quarter of growth in business loans, a sharp contrast to what’s going on across the country.

We also saw the S&P/Case-Shiller index of Chicago-area single-family home prices rise 4.6 percent from May to June.

These are hopeful signs.

The small-business economy in the Chicago area managed to do better than the nation as a whole during August, according to the SurePayroll Scorecard, giving us some hope that our local economy is turning around.

Month-over-month Scorecard results for August showed Chicago’s hiring flat and average paychecks up a significant 0.5 percent, indicating that employers are bringing workers to full employment or paying them overtime.

Nationally, hiring was down 0.1 percent and average paychecks were down 0.2 percent. Our Scorecard survey found 60 percent of small-business owners nationwide optimistic about the small-business economy, which has slipped from as high as 65 percent in April.

My fear on the local level is that while we may be bouncing off the bottom, we could end up sitting at this level for some time. From my days in consulting, I know that one data point or one month doesn’t make a trend. We have to see this continue into September, October and beyond.

With the uncertainty of an upcoming presidential election, this slight tick up could easily flatten out.

We have to ask ourselves, as a city, what we can do to continue to differentiate ourselves from everybody else? Obviously most of us aren’t in a position to control things like taxes, but I’d love to hear your ideas on ways to pick up our momentum and start sprinting to the finish line of 2012.

Michael Alter is president and CEO of SurePayroll, a small-business payroll services company based in Glenview. The company collects information on small-business hiring based on its nationwide database of SurePayroll software users; Mr. Alter comments on trendlines in the data each month here on Crain’s blog for Chicago entrepreneurs.

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Sweating it out: Chicago heats up while job market cools

By Michael Alter

It looks like we’re settling into the doldrums of summer a little early this year. Temperatures are reaching into the triple digits. Unfortunately, though the heat is rising in Chicago, the small-business job market isn’t exactly heating up along with it. Our SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard found hiring down 0.2 percent in the Chicago area for the month of June. The average paycheck was flat.

Why aren’t we seeing more jobs? We seem to be following the national trends, which saw hiring down 0.1 percent and paychecks up 0.1 percent in June. Optimism among small business owners is at 60 percent.

In our Scorecard survey, 80 percent of small business owners said they are concerned about turmoil in Europe and slow growth here in the U.S. Our flat paycheck number locally suggests some businesses are becoming more productive with the people we have and others are pulling back.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, we saw the Supreme Court uphold a controversial health care reform law. Only 19 percent of small business owners in our survey said a generally favorable ruling for health care reform would be positive for business. Half said it would have no impact.

None of this seems to suggest a positive swing any time soon. We’re going to have to be patient and push harder. Something has to change. We clearly need a boost. I think the city’s efforts thus far have been good, but they’re more for the long term.

You don’t have to look far to see that we look like the rest of the country. Our college and law school graduates aren’t finding jobs. They’re coming back home to live with us. We’re facing budget crises and we’re stuck in traffic all the time.

We look like the rest of the country, but we should look better. We’re a world class city.

In a season of heat waves and droughts, though, we’re just going to have to sweat it out a little longer.

Michael Alter is president and CEO of SurePayroll, a small-business payroll services company based in Glenview. The company collects information on small-business hiring based on its nationwide database of SurePayroll software users; Mr. Alter comments on trendlines in the data each month here on Crain’s blog for Chicago entrepreneurs.

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Do you have a story? You may need one to succeed

By Michael Alter

One of the great things about being a part of the Chicago business community is that we have access to some of the best business education institutions in the country. I was proud to be able to speak at a class on entrepreneurial selling recently at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The class happened to be discussing a concept that I’m not sure we focus enough on in our work or in promoting Chicago as a business-friendly place.

The idea that Clinical Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship Craig Wortmann was trying to get across is that storytelling is a huge part of being successful. In his book, “What’s Your Story? Using Stories to Ignite Performance and Be More Successful,” he contends that while we’ve made great use of technological tools, the most powerful tool we have is a story.

He talks about the way stories bring life and meaning to three critical aspects of business: leadership, sales and motivation.

It’s a good message for the young entrepreneurs out there. You can have a great business plan or an excellent product, but you have to be able to sell it and get people to believe in it. Whether you’re selling to customers, trying to lure investors or even trying to convince your spouse of the value and uniqueness of your business, it goes a long way to have a story.

And the story doesn’t have to be long. In fact, it’s probably better if it’s nice and crisp. An elevator pitch, if you will. Nowadays, sometimes a sound bite or a slogan is the best way to connect with people. You can’t take 25 minutes to explain your story. Your story has to be something more immediate than that.

I’ll never forget hearing a former CEO of American Airlines speak at a function about the challenges the carrier was facing at Dallas’ Love Field. He spent about 10 minutes explaining all of American’s nuanced positions — and we were all falling asleep — but he said it was hard to beat Southwest’s simple position (he paraphrased as): “We’re for free Love.”

So as you think about your business and how you want to communicate it to customers, employees and investors. Ask yourself, “What’s my story?” Chicago, as a business community, needs to do the same thing.

I applaud some of the measures the mayor has taken to reduce the red tape businesses have to cut through, but what is our story? Are we still “the city that works”? Or do we need to update that somehow? I’m still struggling with what exactly our story is about as a metropolis and a business center.

If you have a great story, I’d love to hear it. Drop us a note in the comments section and tell us how you connect with people. Or how the city should connect with entrepreneurs.

Michael Alter is president and CEO of SurePayroll, a small-business payroll services company based in Glenview.

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Small-biz hiring sags, but there’s a bright spot ahead: construction season

By Michael Alter

For those who’ve lived in Chicago a while, you’re familiar with our two seasons — winter … and construction. This year was an exception, but usually, we get bitter cold followed by a bitter commute on gridlocked, torn-up roads.

But the good news during this construction season is that it’s also typically one of our No. 1 job growth areas, and we very much need more jobs.

According to May’s SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard, small-business hiring in the Chicago metropolitan area is down 0.1 percent this month. We’re down 0.5 percent year over year in hiring and 2.5 percent in paychecks. The positive news is that we’re doing better than the national year-over-year hiring number, which is down 1.5 percent.

Still, we’re essentially just struggling to maintain, and that’s frustrating. That’s why when you’re sitting in traffic because they’re ripping apart I-294, or whatever route you take to and from your destination, take some solace in the fact that construction means more jobs. More jobs mean more people with money who can frequent our shops and contract our services, eventually helping our economy.

The gridlock that’s really more concerning is what we’ve seen in Springfield and Washington, where inaction and uncertainty has left small business owners without answers as to where we’re going economically.

Until we see more movement from our leaders, it’s hard to move forward. However, our Scorecard survey did find that small businesses nationwide are making the most of this recovery with increased productivity. Nine out of 10 small business owners in our survey said they are seeing growth in their revenues, but 50 percent said their productivity is outpacing their growth.

This is not necessarily a bad problem for small business owners to have, because it demonstrates how you can do more while spending less.

However, we want to see more hiring in the economy, and small business owners need to see some clarity coming from the government. They will make do with whatever they’re given, but they need some certainty about the direction in which we’re heading so they can put some of the resources they’ve been saving to work.

Until then, we may have to just be a little more forgiving of the construction on our roadways this summer. At least this kind of gridlock has us slowly moving forward.

Michael Alter is president and CEO of SurePayroll, a small-business payroll services company based in Glenview. The company collects information on small-business hiring based on its nationwide database of SurePayroll software users; Mr. Alter comments on trendlines in the data each month here on Crain’s blog for Chicago entrepreneurs.

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How to deal with or, better yet, avoid an Ozzie Moment

By Michael Alter Having watched Ozzie Guillen manage the White Sox from across town (as a Cubs fan) for seven years, I was hardly surprised to find out he had landed himself in hot water with offensive comments about his affection for Fidel Castro early on in his Miami Marlins tenure. If you’re hiring someone to act as a spokesperson for your organization, you have to be aware of what they might say to the public. The Marlins certainly knew they were getting a loose cannon with Ozzie.

Nonetheless, as Ozzie returns to the job after a five-game suspension, it’s a good time to think about crisis management for your business.

The Marlins went after their Ozzie problem very directly. They quickly denounced his comments, then suspended him while he issued a public apology.

The team plans to donate the salary Ozzie will forfeit during the suspension to charity and try to garner some good will out of the ordeal.

As a small business owner, you don’t have the resources for a major PR offensive should you have a crisis, and you may not have the exposure to controversy either, but in today’s digital age, something as innocent as an accidental “reply all” could create a crisis.

To be prepared should you or someone in your organization do or say something that causes an outcry, there are some simple ways for you to make sure you’re prepared.

• Ask yourself what can go wrong. You’ll be a lot better off if you calmly think about how you would handle a crisis rather than trying to react in the heat of the battle.

• Figure out when you can let sleeping dogs lie. This may be the biggest challenge in crisis management—figuring out when it’s better to simply not respond versus when you need to step in and take control. More often than not, it’s to your advantage to react quickly and try to plan how you want things to play out, but occasionally you can do more harm than good.

• Have the tools in place to respond. Social media has made it very easy to connect with lots of people very quickly. If there is an interruption or error in your service, it’s very easy to update people via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn about what’s going on. In fact, social media is being used more for reputation management by companies than it is for revenue generation.

Of course, the best way to head off a crisis is to stop it before it happens. Especially if you’re running a small company, you know your employees pretty well—certain people aren’t as careful with their words as others. They’re probably the ones who shouldn’t be talking to the media or sending emails to your entire client base. Being aware of these tendencies can help you avoid your own “Ozzie Moment.”

Michael Alter is president and CEO of SurePayroll, a small-business payroll services company based in Glenview.

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