SBA seeks applicants for next class in its Emerging Leaders initiative

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SYRACUSE — More than 75 Central New York entrepreneurs have participated in and completed the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Emerging Leaders initiative. And the SBA is now looking for new participants. The agency’s Syracuse district office is recruiting for this year’s training program under its Emerging Leaders initiative for Syracuse–area small businesses. The business-training […]

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SYRACUSE — More than 75 Central New York entrepreneurs have participated in and completed the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Emerging Leaders initiative.

And the SBA is now looking for new participants.

The agency’s Syracuse district office is recruiting for this year’s training program under its Emerging Leaders initiative for Syracuse–area small businesses. The business-training program is free.

The Emerging Leaders initiative targets small companies that have the “potential” for rapid expansion and job creation, the SBA said in a news release. Firms need an operational track record of three years or more.

U.S. Representative John Katko (R–Camillus) joined the SBA on Feb. 19 at the Liehs & Steigerwald store at 117 E. Fayette St. in Syracuse to launch the recruitment effort.

Jeffrey Steigerwald, president of Liehs & Steigerwald, graduated from the Emerging Leaders program in 2011, the SBA said.

The seven-month, executive-entrepreneurship education series, which the SBA describes as “intensive,” includes about 100 hours of classroom time per participant.

It also provides small-business owners the chance to work with experienced mentors, attend workshops, and develop connections with their peers, city leaders, and financial communities.

Interested small-business owners can contact Dan Rickman at (315) 471-9393 ext. 250 or email: daniel.rickman@sba.gov.

Eligibility criteria and application information are available at www.sba.gov/ny/syracuse.

The program provides more than 40 hours of advanced-management training. It is a collaboration of the SBA Syracuse District Office with CenterState CEO, CNY TDO, City of Syracuse Office of Neighborhood and Business Development, Onondaga County Office of Economic Development, Downtown Committee of Syracuse, Inc., MACNY, Onondaga SBDC, SUNY ESF, Syracuse SCORE, the Falcone Center, Tech Garden, and the WISE Women’s Business Center.

Since 2008, the SBA Emerging Leaders program has helped more than 3,000 small-business owners in 51 cities nationwide grow their businesses with support, resources, and “skills to succeed,” the agency said.

As of the 2015 class, 78 Central New York entrepreneurs have completed the program since it launched in Syracuse, according to the SBA.

Once upon a time … there was good audit prep

Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

“This year will be better,” you swear to it. If only doing were as simple as thinking. Oh, but it can be that way. Let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time there was a client who had a messy office and a messier string of bookkeepers. After several years of prolonged

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“This year will be better,” you swear to it. If only doing were as simple as thinking. Oh, but it can be that way. Let me tell you a little story.

Once upon a time there was a client who had a messy office and a messier string of bookkeepers. After several years of prolonged and painful year-end closings, the business leader threw his hands in the air and cried. “Enough!” After interviewing many a potential replacement, he sighed and said, “This one has experience that is too small”; “This one has experience that is too big”; “We need one that is just right.” After a diligent search, the business was rewarded with the right person with the right skills, and they all lived happily through year-end. The end.

Sounds great, right? The happily-ever-after part, that is. We have all lived the too big/too small journey as well as the year-end hike that seemed never ending. You too can have a happy ending with a bit of effort and planning. The first step, of course, is having the right personnel on your team, but that’s a story for another day. For this moment, let’s assume you have that one checked off the list and instead talk about the nitty gritty of getting ready.

Being well prepared for your external audit team is the key to an efficient audit (note: this also applies to other services including review, tax return, or valuation). Beyond providing adequate workspace and access to information and personnel, there is advance ground work to consider. While this may seem like much ado about nothing, the truth of the matter is that planning counts.

Before the audit process even begins, the first concern to be addressed is identifying — and communicating to the audit team — exactly who will be relying on the financial statements and for what purpose. Is a sale being contemplated? Will the financial statements be utilized in a valuation of the business? Perhaps regulatory or credit requirements exist.

Along with potential users come delivery deadlines. It is critical that timelines and expectations be established early and communicated clearly along with the precise nature of the financial statements to be issued. In circumstances where the scope of the audit will be limited in any way, a detailed discussion must take place.

When non-attest, or “other than audit,” work is to be performed, a clear understanding must be developed for those deliverables. Whether the accounting firm will be assisting in the preparation of financial statements, supplementary information, or tax-compliance filings, the nature and responsibility for the work must be established and documented. A recent change in “Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Standards” (SSARS) has added a new level of service that a CPA may perform, so don’t be surprised if this comes up in planning conversation. If you don’t feel like you should know what the impact is, just ask your CPA.

In addition, well in advance of the audit, a comprehensive schedule of all checking, savings, money market, investment, transaction, clearing, and debt accounts should be compiled, including complete contact information. Copies of all new debt agreements and banking resolutions should be gathered for the external auditor to facilitate planning. Closing documents for significant assets purchased or disposed of must also be available.

Have you agreed to buy or sell a significant asset, or perhaps lease a new vehicle or building? Even if you have not purchased, sold, or occupied, the documents are still necessary to support financial-statement disclosures, so be sure to pass along to audit personnel. The issuance or retirement of stock or agreement to pay off retiring owners all come with documents that should be added to the list — as should settlement agreements with taxing authorities, customers, or vendors.

Some of the most-often forgotten documents include up-to-date minutes from board and other governance meetings, including annual meetings and related resolutions. These items must be updated throughout the audit process, so be sure to stay on top of communicating to the auditor.

I would like to tell you that by providing all of this data in advance, there would be no further questions, but that would be leading you down the garden path. I can promise you, however, that a comprehensive package of information will limit the questions, and likely the disruptive aggravation so often associated with year-end.

I will repeat, advance preparation in connection with your annual audit is critical to the process. A well-prepared organization can improve efficiency and avoid hampering progress or completion. There are always plenty of items to chase down during audit fieldwork, so be sure the early gathering is competed well before the audit fieldwork begins.

For quick reference, refer to the following list of documents that should be provided to the audit team as early as possible: loan documents, lease documents, documents relating to the purchase or sale of significant assets, settlement agreements, amortization schedules, cash and investment account statements, factoring agreements, interest-rate swap agreements, stock books, board minutes, conflict of interest policies, whistleblower policies, employee handbooks, employment contracts, policy and procedure manuals, internal-control narratives or flowcharts, benefit-plan documents, regulatory and compliance documents, court decrees, documents regarding pending litigation, commitments or contingencies, IRS, or state taxing-authority correspondence. In short, anything that supports what you own, what you owe, and what is required for inclusion in your financial statements.

Most will agree the annual audit process can be a daunting task. With a bit of organization, forward thought, and communication, the burden can be greatly reduced. The first step is opening a dialogue with your audit firm. Begin the conversation and start writing your own success story.

Gail Kinsella is a partner in the Syracuse office of The Bonadio Group accounting firm. Contact Kinsella at gkinsella@bonadio.com

The Agency announces four new board members

Small Business, Subscriber Only

BINGHAMTON — The board of directors of The Agency, which governs the Broome County Industrial Development Agency and Broome County Local Development Corp., has announced the following four new members for 2016. Richard A. Bucci was appointed to a one-year term on the board that will expire at the end of this year, according to

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Who is this third-party person they keep talking about?

Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

Everywhere you look in the marketing world, people talk about third-party generation or content curation. You may be asking, “Who is this third person at the party anyway?” It’s actually simple: when someone else writes something about you, it has more credibility than when you write something about yourself. Makes total sense. Then why don’t

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As most of us look for that perfect person who is well-known in our industry and has credibility, we may find few or no possibilities. Have no fear, the industry has created something called “Paid Content Generation.” You can pay people to write something great about your company. You can even tell them what to say. How much easier could that be? Well, it is not quite that simple. You need to conduct due diligence to make sure the person writing is credible, and is a great writer. You don’t want this opportunity to backfire on you.

Many companies don’t have the resources to create content for all of today’s platforms: social media, blogs, infographics, etc., so this third-party content generation can also help them with their overall content strategy. But not all postings are created equal. For example, a common strategy on Twitter is to create some original content with other people’s content mixed in — a retweet. This combination works, but make sure your original content is sprinkled in as much as possible. You want to be seen as an expert in your industry. Not just someone who re-posts other companies’ stuff — they are then the expert. Always make sure you are building your brand, not someone else’s.

Now, let’s add the third-party content generator into the picture. This adds another voice to your brand. This person (or publication) is seen as unbiased and trustworthy because “what do they have to gain by pushing this brand so heavily?” You know it is because they were paid to do it — no one else needs to know that. A good third-party content writer will make that part of the equation invisible.

Sometimes the idea of it being paid content is unavoidable. For example, most industry publications bank on their unbiased and editorial trust so the idea of getting paid to write content is not acceptable. Therefore, it may state that the content is paid or an “advertorial.” That is OK — don’t shun these opportunities. These publications tend to be the most trusted and well read. Many people won’t notice the subtle paid-content message, and even if they do, you will get the search-engine optimization (SEO) benefit of being mentioned somewhere else other than on your own site.

So, let’s talk SEO and how this content can benefit you there as well. Google has crazy algorithms it creates so no one can figure out the system and win the ranking game. For the past couple of updates, content generation has been the most important element in the rankings. Third-party content is a big part of that. Google sees it as credible, and the companies that have it will rank higher in searches — assuming the rest of their site isn’t a disaster.

The digital world makes the linking from site to site easy, and research has shown that when there is a link present from an outside site, clicks increase by 33 percent, over links posted on your own site. We tend to trust this third-party content much more than self-generated content.

There are many tricks out there to help achieve your sales goals, because let’s face it, ultimately, that is what we want, more sales. Today’s world makes it easier for us to get our company out there in front of lots of new prospects. Embrace it.

Jenn Cline is a sales and marketing consultant for ABC Creative Group and The Business Journal News Network. Contact her at jcline@nordiqueconsulting.com

The Consolidation Contradiction

Opinion, Subscriber Only

New York State has established itself over time as a nationally recognized leader for red tape, overregulation, and its stifling business climate. So why is Gov. Andrew Cuomo aiming to create yet another unnecessary layer of government? The governor’s executive budget proposal looks to form a new agency, the New York State Design and Construction

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The governor’s executive budget proposal looks to form a new agency, the New York State Design and Construction Corp., to review large-scale infrastructure projects costing more than $50 million. As someone who has personally owned and run a business, I know from firsthand experience that increasing the size and involvement of government translates into delays and waste.

A walking contradiction
Gov. Cuomo has repeatedly called for municipal consolidation as a way to lower property taxes. Although ending unfunded mandates is the real answer, “consolidation” has been his response to the property-tax crisis that New Yorkers face.

However, on the state’s biggest, most important infrastructure projects, the consolidation approach apparently does not apply. Creating this agency, which will actually be a subsidiary of the Dormitory Authority run by hand-picked appointees, espouses the exact opposite sentiment that Cuomo has regularly preached.

In addition, this maneuver would likely provide the governor with greater influence over “independent” agencies like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Thruway Authority. His pattern of continually seeking to concentrate power at the expense of sound policy is alarming, especially when it will only create more inefficiency.

State residents’ interests must come first
The governor should, instead, be focused on maximizing the effectiveness of the state agencies and departments that he already oversees. For example, instead of creating a new agency, why has the Thruway Authority not created a spending plan for the $4 billion Tappan Zee Bridge project? Adding more layers of government oversight is not the way to make government better, faster, and more transparent.

If the governor was serious about improving New York’s infrastructure, he would be focused on funding much-needed road and bridge repairs, especially Upstate. In addition, the taxpayers who fund these projects would not have to search for answers on how their money is being spent.

A recent story in the Wall Street Journal enumerated the concerns of those on both sides of the aisle. Concerns were raised by people of varying backgrounds and expertise — from government officials to private entities that follow state policies. New York State does not need another agency. At a time when infrastructure repairs, improvement, and growth are vital to the sustained economic success of New York, I have grave concerns that the governor has again put politics above policy. That is an all-too-familiar theme of his administration.

Brian M. Kolb (R,I,C–Canandaigua) is the New York Assembly Minority Leader and represents the 131st Assembly District, which encompasses all of Ontario County and parts of Seneca County. Contact him at kolbb@assembly.state.ny.us

Updating New York’s water infrastructure must be a priority

Opinion, Subscriber Only

New York state is facing one of its greatest challenges yet — our drinking and waste-water infrastructure is in critical need of updates and repairs. Concerns are growing over drinking-water systems throughout the state, some that include possible carcinogens. These serve as sobering reminders of how important safe drinking and waste- water systems are to

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Nearly 95 percent of New York state residents rely on the public water supply. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) 2015 report, New York received a C grade for its drinking-water infrastructure and a D for its sewer and waste water systems. Our upstate water infrastructure faces similar challenges to our roadways and bridges — extreme Northeast winters, frost, flooding from heavy rain, and age take their toll. New York’s communities are in need of updated water infrastructure.

The ASCE estimates it would cost more than $38.7 billion over the next 20 years to properly update, repair, and replace current drinking-water infrastructure. Additionally, a significant portion of waste-water treatment and sewer pipes throughout New York is aged well past “useful life expectancy.” The ASCE projects that it would cost $36.2 billion over the next 20 years to update the system fully.

As a local example, we can look at the Mohawk Valley Water Authority (MVWA), which serves Utica and its surrounding suburbs. Of its 700 miles of pipes, about one-third were laid more than a century ago. Interestingly, a recent audit revealed that the MVWA’s system faced about 43 percent water loss.

New York needs to take these matters seriously and assist our local governments in updating critical systems. This year, Gov. Cuomo’s budget would expand the New York State Water Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2015 by $100 million, bringing it to a total of $300 million. This is something I support along with many of my other legislative colleagues. However, our work is not done there.

I continually look for more ways to support our local communities, which is why I am proud to join my Assembly Republican colleague, Jim Tedisco (R,C,I–Glenville), in sponsoring legislation that would create a program known as the Safe Water Action Program (or SWAP). The program would be modeled after the already popular Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (or CHIPs), which helps local highway departments pay for roadway improvements. We are aiming to have the program included in the 2016-17 state budget, and we have sent letters to the governor, Assembly speaker, and Senate majority leader to gain their support.

New York needs to invest public dollars carefully to ensure that our roads, bridges, and water systems are safe for residents.

Marc W. Butler (R,C,I–Newport) is a New York State Assemblyman for the 118th District, which encompasses parts of Oneida, Herkimer, and St. Lawrence counties, as well as all of Hamilton and Fulton counties. Contact him at butlerm@assembly.state.ny.us

2016 CNY Construction Projects Special Report

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Subscriber Only

Click Here to View the 2016 CNY Construction Projects Special Report

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Syracuse University appoints Wheatly as new provost

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Health Care, Nonprofits, People on the Move

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse University has named Michele Wheatly as vice chancellor and provost, effective May 16, according to a university news release. She will

Labor Department: CNY regions gained jobs in the past 12 months

New York News, Regional News

The Syracuse, Utica–Rome, Binghamton, Ithaca, and Watertown–Fort Drum regions all added jobs in the past year. That’s according to the latest monthly employment report that

Carrols posts 4th quarter profit

Insurance & Financial Services, Law, Accounting & Taxes, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TAST), the world’s largest Burger King franchisee, earned $7 million, or 16 cents a share, in the

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