Contractors need be aware of new law in Arkansas

According to Gwen Green, Communication Coordinator, UALR Lead Center, a new law in Arkansas requires home improvement contractors to be licensed.


Under a new state law, contractors doing home improvement or remodeling in Arkansas must have a license for jobs over $2,000, starting in 2012. According to the Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board, effective Jan. 1, 2012, "Act 1208 of 2011 requires almost anyone doing work at a residence, when the project is $2,000 or more, labor and material, to have a license from the Contractors Licensing Board." The measure applies to almost all construction trades.

A "grandfathering" period began July 27 and will run through Dec. 31, 2011. During the grandfathering period, contractors can obtain a license without a test by submitting proof of construction experience. Click here for the grandfathering application. Starting Jan. 1, a license will be required, and contractors will have to complete a test to get a license. The penalty for performing work at a residence without a license can be up to $400 per day. There are exemptions to the law; for example, subcontractors working for properly licensed contractors are exempt.

For more information, contact the Contractors Licensing Board  in  North Little Rock at (501) 372-4661.

NWAB2B in the news

Can't help but share the  publicity. We're usually the ones doling it out, so it feels good to see it come back. Thanks, Mark Carter, for taking up our song!


NWA Startup Growing Business-to-Business
By Mark Carter
8/4/2011 11:08:52 AM

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One Bentonville startup is providing a valuable resource for businesses across Northwest Arkansas.
NWAB2B.com started as a franchised print magazine in 2009 and has evolved into a one-stop online business-to-business resource.
"We call it the knowledge shop because our goal is to give business owners and their teams a place to come for locally relevant information, articles and tips that can help them boost their brand and their bottom line," said Janie Clark, founder, owner and operator.

Read on >

Smart Moves: Local barter organization lands a healthy solution for small business health care reform

According to barter broker, Rich Creyer, with Fayetteville-based Local Trade Partners (www.localtradepartners.com), his organization is a first in the nation to open dollar for dollar trade with a hospital.  With the recent addition of Physicians' Specialty Hospital in Fayetteville, Ark., Creyer said his community-based local currency program has broken ground on what could be a major impact on the health care crisis for small business owners and entrepreneurs in Northwest Arkansas. 

Creyer believes this could be a model for communities nationwide.

"It's not uncommon for a local barter organization to have a few doctors, dentists, and chiropractors among their member businesses," Creyer said. "There are a few hospitals around the country who will let people pay off debt for services rendered when cash and insurance are not options. That kind of barter is usually much like community service -- working hours in trade for the debt doing clerical, janitorial or kitchen work."

What Local Trade Partners (LTP) has done is create a dollar for dollar credit line where any one of the 400-plus trade members can walk in for immediate or scheduled care and services.

"As far as I know that hasn't happened anywhere else yet," Creyer said. "I can't find any other local currency group in the nation that has successfully launched such a program." 

What makes this development such a powerhouse play is that many small business owners struggle to sponsor their own health care plans. In fact, some say one of the biggest issues among small business owners is their lack of affordable health care coverage options. Often they go uninsured or under insured and hope for the best. 

According to the National Coalition on Health Care, health care premiums have risen some 131 percent since 1999. The Kaiser Family Foundation states that in 2009, the cost of covering a family of four rose to almost $13,400 per year. Kaiser is a non-profit leader in health policy that focuses on major health care issues in the US.

"I believe there are hundreds of thousands of small and solo-preneur businesses in America that find it impossible to cover that premium," said Creyer. "That's certainly what motivated us to seek these health care options."

The Physicians' Specialty Hospital (http://www.pshfay.com/) is revered as the official healthcare provider of the Arkansas Razorbacks, the sports arm of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The facility offers in-patient care along with specialties in advanced spine surgery, urology, podiatry, general surgery, orthopedics and sports medicine, gynecological surgery, weight loss surgery, pain management and plastic reconstructive surgery.

Walter Beadle is the business development officer at Physicians' Specialty Hospital (PSH), and the person who had to sell the idea to decision makers in his organization. "The concept was difficult to convey," Beadle admits, "but once there was understanding, inertia took over."

The idea that PSH would have immediate and exclusive exposure to more than 400 local business owners was a draw, he said. In a competitive market with less than 350,000 people and around 6,000 small businesses, the move could have a significant marketing impact.

"The synergy will allow Local Trade Partners and their families to receive hospital services they otherwise might be delaying due to their own financial issues."

On the flip side, "The virtual currency allows the hospital to obtain goods and services more efficiently than the traditional purchase order/invoice system." Items such as internal signage, catering events and meetings, and vehicle maintenance are on the top of the list, he said.

The Local Trade Partner organization was developed by Rolf Wilkin, a long-time Northwest Arkansas resident and pizza entrepreneur, with 13 Eureka Pizza locations throughout the area. He tells the story of wanting to trade pizza for tires for his delivery vans early on. "My tire dealer said he just couldn't use that many pizzas!"

Now an organized, sophisticated membership bank of local, family-owned businesses, members earn trade credits they can spend at any of the 400-plus member businesses. By partnering with a national trade center, they open the doors worldwide. LTP is a member of International Reciprocal Trade Association (http://www.irta.com) and follows its Code of Ethics for Professional Trade Exchanges.

"I believe we're offering our participating businesses something few other barter organizations can," Wilkin said.  Members can do business on trade with private practice physicians, optometrists, dentist, oral surgeons, orthodontists, plastic surgeons, audiologists, podiatrists, psycho-therapists, chiropractic, acupuncture, even hospital care and emergency services-- all accepting Local Trade Dollars as payment.

"It's the LTP PPO, so to speak," he said. 

"Not only is this a tremendous advancement for businesses in our group, it's a novel, eye-opening solution to the health care cost problem," Creyer said.

Using excess inventory that would normally be discounted below acquisition costs, LTP enrolled businesses can sell retail to retail to other participating businesses.

Aspiring Entrepreneur? Start with an inspiring elevator pitch

From our friends at Innovate Arkansas we learned that there's a competition a foot. Designed to help aspiring entrepreneurs hone the art of the "elevator pitch," winners of this competition might just haul away some investor loot. 

Participants will have 60 seconds to pitch their venture, and winners will be determined by the audience, which will include many members of the local entrepreneurial community and investors.

To register or for more information, visit NWAEA.net/Blog, or check out Amerine's Innovate Arkansas blog at Blog.InnovateArkansas.org. The competition is Aug. 4 at 6 p.m. at Fayetteville's new Buck Nekkid BBQ.  The competition is open to any Arkansas entrepreneurs, aspiring or otherwise, and is modeled after the elevator pitch competition held at the annual Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup. 

Here's the rest of the story By Mark Carter

"Gone in 60 Seconds" is the brainchild of Innovate Arkansas advisor and University of Arkansas entrepreneurship instructor Jeff Amerine.

The Northwest Arkansas Entrepreneurship Alliance, Northwest Arkansas Young Professionals, 101-Ventures, and Innovate Arkansas are sponsors, and several other NWA entrepreneurship-related firms are expected to be involved.

Amerine said the inaugural event will serve as a pilot to see what works and what doesn't, but the idea is to make the contest a monthly event. Winners will receive cash prizes, and ideally, the attention of potential investors. 

"The elevator pitch can make all the difference in the world to an early-stage startup," Amerine said. "You have to be able to sell your idea in a way that's enticing yet concise." 

Amerine said the competition itself will last no longer than an hour, and hopes entrepreneurs and investors will be encouraged to stick around afterwards and mingle. 

"The primary objective is to use the contest to drive networking and interaction between entrepreneurs, angels, and service providers," he said.

Buck Nekkid, building a reputation for its dry-rub ribs, is a UA startup venture that was a finalist in the 2011 Governor's Cup competition held this past spring in Little Rock. 

To register or for more information, visit NWAEA.net/Blog, or check out Amerine's Innovate Arkansas blog at Blog.InnovateArkansas.org.

Reposted by NWAB2B.com

You can't play in the social media sandbox alone

I could also call this post "what I learned at the Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged retreat that will make me a better business woman."

Actually, what I learned will have to span several blog posts and a few articles in upcoming issues of NWAB2B. The experience was incredible.

This post is about the sandbox. When we were kids the sandbox was a big outside place where everyone was welcome to dig sand and pile up sand and earth-move sand as long you played nice. The sandbox police were never far away-- playground moms on the bench who kept one eye on your gingham-checked back.

Now we've all grown up to be writers and lawyers and business owners with our namesake shingles hung out on the eaves. (Some, I must say, are still moving dirt.)

It dawned on me after this conference that social media is our grown up sandbox. And while we are plinking away at our posts and tweets and such, we are alone at the keyboard.

And that brings me to B2B Bingo. Business ownership can be a very solitary endeavor. As a writer, I spend hours and hours alone, away from the crowds, writing, editing, designing... thinking about what to write, edit and design. As a business owner, you probably spend hours and hours away from the crowds doing what you do, too.

Since more small business owners are gravitating to social media as an integral part of marketing their business, it also hit me like a Tonka truck that business owners need to get out there and BE social to really be social. To make your business experience relevant to your customers, you need to widen your perspectives. 

If you're still with me, here are the four trinkets I dug up about that.

1. Get out of your comfort zone. You'll understand the diverse worlds of your customers better if you'll take the time to step out of your own sandbox and into another's. Step out of your own networking mud rut to network elsewhere -- in another city, at another Chamber of Commerce, with another industry you know nothing about. Go to an event you wouldn't normally attend: a NASCAR race, a community play, a fundraiser at an event you've never heard of, a church you pass on the way to the office every day.

2.  Make time to connect.  Now that you are a stranger in a strange land, introduce yourself to the people you don't know. Connecting is about turning strangers into acquaintances and then into friends. Conversations are about listening without bias, about letting the words sink in and take root. It's not about rehearsing your elevator speech in your head while you are waiting your turn.

3.  Take notes. You can't rely on your memory to keep it all straight. Take field notes. Carry a pocket pad so you can jot down the things people say or do that strike you. Let the experience have your full attention, with imagery and meaning.

4. Follow up. It might be a Tweet or a mention in blog post. It may be an invitation to lunch or a hand-written note. It could be a picture you post at the office or a story you share with your peers. Whatever form your follow up takes, take time to let that someone know they touched you.

The players in the social sandbox of life are deep and diverse. Get out and dig.

Hey. Who are you talking to?

The advance of social media has many of us scrambling to teach an old(er) dog new tricks. We're thinking that Tweeting and Liking in 140 characters or less -- in tweet-speak-- is the only new wave of customer service and marketing.

But whoa, big fella. The tried and true adage of marketing insists you talk directly to and in the language of the party to whom you are speaking -- as Ernestine was so fond of saying. If you know the character of Lily Tomlin's telephone company, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, well, then you are indeed the party we address.

The average Boomer is now 54.

And there are now more Americans aged 51 than any other age.

If your business is trying to appeal to business owners and decision makers, you have to recognize that a giant number of these potential customers are in their 50s and 60s. Not just some of them, but most of them. They also have more money as personal consumers.

Maybe that's why marketers at the likes of Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Clorox, Procter & Gamble, and General Mills are researching and targeting Baby Boomers (now aged 47-65).  Even Google is adopting ways to reach midlife consumers through search. 

So what are the marketers at your company doing?

That is to say, be true to your brand and even truer to your customer. Just because you can mimic your 15-year old on Facebook, doesn't mean you should.

Should you be fired?

The one thing about working for yourself is that you can't be fired. Even, perhaps, when you should be.

As a business owner wearing many hats, you may be failing your company at any one of your roles. Unfortunately for you, all those hats are essential to the success of your entreprise.

If you were employed and you were failing in your job, your boss would have three options.

Option One: Ignore your inadequacies, hoping for a better outcome next month (next year?) but all the while knowing your performance could adversely affect the company's success. And, knowing that somewhere down the line it will have to be addressed.

Option Two: Fire you and put someone competent in your job.

Option Three:  Look for ways to help you improve. Could you use training, coursework, mentors, or an advisory team that helps you transition from sorry to super in your role?

The answer is probably obvious. The last option is probably the best option. Unfortunately, for many self employed professionals, we opt out for solution number one.

Part of being your own boss means making yourself accountable for all the roles you must tackle in the day to day grind.  If you don't do it well, it's unproductive to stick your head in the sand and hope for a better tomorrow. Take an active role in making yourself a better "employee" of your own company.

How would accomplish such an exercise?  Here's a step by step plan.

1. Make a list. Start by making a list of all the tasks and responsibilties that fall to your plate. Be as detailed as possibile. You may want to have several tiers:  the first one addressing executive tasks, the second one managerial, the third tier support, and so on as it relates to your business. Pull from your business plan to include your entire scope of operations.


2. Evaluate performance.  Create an evaluation grid that looks at the tasks, the skills needed to perform the tasks, and how well you perform them. Be honest. Rather than using pass or fail – good or bad verbiage, consider using detailed critiques, such as skills demonstrated, technical accuracy, initiative, follow-through, subject expertise, and the like.

3.  Do your homework. Explore the different job titles associated with your performance grid. What types of experience, education, or training would a person need to be hired for the position? What associations serve those roles in your industry? What types of continuing education and training are available? What contacts and colleagues could you call on for help?

 4. Draft a plan. You can really see the big picture by now. Identify what areas are a top priority for you to work on and what resources you can use to improve. Whether you enroll in an actual class or take a more informal approach, set a course schedule for each area you want to improve. Establish a timeline, deadlines, and a way to hold yourself accountable as well as celebrate your achievements.

5. Give yourself a raise. Now that you've improved your skill set, you are even more valuable to your company. Reward yourself for the effort. You may want to choose something personal like a vacation or an increase in draw. Or you might purchase an item for the company, like that iPad or business card scanner you've been dreaming of. 

Be sure to keep track of the process so you can look back on accomplishments with a sense of  empowerment and progress. You will find that as you improve, your company's bottom line improves. And that's the best measure of a job well done.