startupnation

On today's special edition of StartupNation Radio, we're talking to several local Main Street merchants about the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the opportunities ahead.

Joining StartupNation's Jeff Sloan in the co-host seat is Julie Sloan of MainStreet Nation (a subset of StartupNation), who is a subject matter expert on the business of Main Street. Jeff and Julie kick off the show with Julie's observations of the current state of Main Street, including the passion small business owners possess for not only their businesses, but their communities, as well.

John Bry, Supervisor of Local Business Development of Oakland County, joins the discussion to talk about what he's observed of Main Street businesses during the pandemic. He also offers his expertise on best practices that merchants can implement to continue to sustain their small businesses moving forward. 

Then, Jeff and Julie talk with three local Main Street merchants about what they're doing to position themselves for success coming out of the pandemic.

Featured guests include:

• Holly Anselmi, owner of The Italian Dish
• Marlene Mansour, owner of Urban Wick Candle Bar
• Sommer Poquette, founder and CEO of Keep it Real Social

Resources mentioned during the show:

• National Main Street Center
• National Chamber of Commerce
• U.S. Small Business Administration
• Oakland County Main Street Program
• MainStreet Nation
• ShopLoyal
• ShopMainstreet

We’ll be back next weekend with another exciting episode of StartupNation Radio! Stay tuned.

One of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face is how to market their products or services. On today's Business Beat, Jeff welcomes Ignite Social Media president, Deidre Lambert-Bounds, who shares her expertise about making social media marketing work for your small business.

Tune in to the Business Beat to hear Deidre's tips on social media marketing.

As we move further and further away from the epicenter of the pandemic of 2020, it's becoming clearer which changes the pandemic caused that will be here to stay long into the future. On this morning's Business Beat, Jeff discusses click and collect, a distinct consumer behavior in which customers make their purchases online and go to the store to pick them up.

As U.S. click and collect sales nearly doubled in 2020, this business trend is here to stay.

Listen to the Business Beat to learn more about the staying power of click and collect.

More businesses are being started up online than ever before, and with that, a new study conducted by the American Express Company, Accertify, indicates that these businesses face an ever-growing threat of payment fraud.

A certified survey to 105 respondents from merchant companies in December 2020 found that 38% of merchants saw an increase in online payment fraud last year, and 25% suffered from an increase in identity theft.

Tune in to the Business Beat to learn what online merchants can do to protect their businesses from these threats.

Are you looking to start a business with a social mission? If so, creating a B corp might be the right fit! By harnessing the power of business, B corporations use profits and growth as a means to a greater positive impact for their employees, communities and the environment.

Tune in to the Business Beat to learn what exactly a B corp is and how it's different from a nonprofit business.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced it will defer the time period in which small businesses need to start repaying Economy Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) in principle and interest.

The COVID-19 EIDL program has assisted over 3.7 million small businesses in this country, including nonprofit organizations, sole proprietors and independent contractors from a wide array of industries and business sectors.

Tune in to the Business Beat to get the full scoop!

On today’s episode of StartupNation Radio, Jeff chats with three entrepreneurs working to make a huge difference in the business of music.

First up, Jeff chats with Jonathan Hayman and Cassie Alexe, co-founders of the Michigan Music Business Club. Hayman and Alexe are both are juniors in college at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

When they noticed a gap in student organizations, they created the Michigan Music Business Club to give members an exclusive, educational experience through hands-on speaking events, social events and internship recruitment events.

During the interview, Hayman and Alexe discuss:

• How and why they created the organization to serve the university’s music business community
• The different types of events Michigan Music Business Club hosts, including some of the biggest names in the music industry virtually and in person throughout its 16-month inception
• The current excitement and disruption of the music industry as it relates to business
• Current trends in music, such as NFTs

For more information, visit the Michigan Music Business Club official website.

Next up, Jeff chats with Erik Nelson, co-owner of FanFlex, a music-tech platform for artists and venues that efficiently and profitably allows for the scheduling and booking of shows, tours and premium fan experiences.

As venues reopen their doors in a post-COVID world, never before has the need been so necessary to maximize a venue’s hours of operation and capacity, and FanFlex’s traction throughout the pandemic is a testament to this need. 

During the interview, Nelson shares:

• How he took his great idea and built it into a business
• How FanFlex works for both independent venues and local, independent artists
• How FanFlex has pivoted its revenue model during the pandemic
• The future of FanFlex

To learn more, visit the FanFlex official website.

We've long been advocating for entrepreneurs to start an online business, and now it's time to take your advertising online, too! On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff discusses trends and predictions in local ad sales for 2021.

Local businesses are estimated to spend $127 billion on advertising with local media in 2021, and that's up 7.3% over last year.

Listen to the WJR Business Beat to learn where you should focus your efforts this year if you're in local ad sales.

According to a provisional GroupM analysis just published by the Wall Street Journal, Google, Facebook and Amazon attracted the majority of all U.S. online ad spend in 2020. On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff breaks down the ad spend and discusses why these top three companies are winning big.

On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff discusses Mindshare’s COVID-19 tracking study, which indicates the sentiment of American consumers, providing interesting and valuable insights.

Tune in to the WJR Business Beat segment to learn more about the study's findings:.

On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff shares results from a new Pew Research survey, which asked tech experts what they believe life will be like in 2025. Many of those surveyed believe that life will even be more tech-connected and dependent.

Tune in to the WJR Business Beat to hear more about this report on predictions for life in 2025.

On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff discusses shifts in the media business as a result of the pandemic. PQ Media’s latest update on consumer spending on media content and technology reports that, of the 28 digital media categories, the fastest growing in 2020 was digital audio subscription services, which rocketed to a 40% growth rate worldwide. 

Tune in to the WJR Business Beat to learn more about these changing media trends.

On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff discusses results from a new Eagle Hill Consulting report, which indicates that 42% of U.S. workers want employers to delay re-opening until vaccines widely available to employees.

Tune in to the Business Beat to learn more about the study's findings.

To kickstart your week on a positive note, Jeff shares uplifting news about the drop in unemployment claims, boost in retail sales and overall optimistic outlook from local entrepreneurs. 

Tune in to this morning's WJR Business Beat to hear more from Jeff!

On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff shares details of the Motown Musician Accelerator Program, an education and grant initiative designed to help local aspiring musicians and music managers break out.  

The program takes in 10 aspiring artists and 10 aspiring managers who will begin a six-week program and work toward earning a slot for the 12-week intensive workshop program. That includes a $5,000 stipend for managers and a $25,000 grant to each of the artists who make their way to the 12-week program.

Tune in to learn more about the Motown Musician Accelerator Program.

This morning, LogMeIn, a provider of software as a service and cloud-based remote work tools for collaboration, IT management and customer engagement, released a study on how to evaluate remote work solutions.

The report, "Ensuring Productivity & Security in the New Remote Work Era," details how businesses have handled the shift to remote work and how they are expecting to move forward.

Joining Jeff on this morning's WJR Business Beat is Marie Ruzzo, Director of Customer Engagement and Support at LogMeIn, who dives into the study's findings on remote work further.

The Small Business Administration's second round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding is open through March 31, 2021, and President Biden just announced a series of program enhancements to ensure that underserved small companies hardest hit by the pandemic have the best opportunity to apply for the PPP funds.

The PPP funding formula is being revised so that self-employed individuals, including sole proprietors and independent contractors, will have much more financial support than they would have received under the old program rules.

Tune in to this morning's Business Beat to learn more about the second round of PPP funding, and how your business can apply.

We've reported previously on the Business Beat that the last quarter of 2020 was a really robust one when it comes to business startups in the U.S. 

In a new report by the Visual Capitalist, new data from the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the United States, and the upward trend continues. In fact, there were 492,133 new business applications filed in January 2021.

Tune in to this morning's WJR Business Beat to learn more about the rapid increase of startups in the U.S. amid the pandemic.

On this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff discusses the inspirational Mars Perseverance mission, and how just like the amazing men and women of NASA, entrepreneurs are similarly pushing the envelope every day.

Tune in to the Business Beat to hear more from Jeff!

The pandemic has created a work from home phenomenon that is here to stay. In fact, 22% of Americans say that they desire to continue remote working as standard procedure going forward, even well beyond the COVID-19 crisis.

For those who have grown accustomed to working from home and want to continue, there’s a new major factor driving relocation choices by many Americans: connectivity.

In this morning's WJR Business Beat, Jeff discusses a newly released study by PC Magazine that dives into the best work from home cities of 2021.

Tune in to the Business Beat to learn which cities topped the remote working list!