[0:01] [Music]
[0:08] uh and we're going to now ask uh Mr Tim
cop who is the executive director of the
[0:14] Texas City Lamar Chamber of Commerce uh
to come forward and lead us in this
[0:18] discussion M Mr Co thank you mayor Bell
appreciate it y'all can give the mayor a
[0:23] big round of applause because he's doing
a pretty good job I'm going to tell you
[0:26] that Mandy I'm going to sit this up here
am I doing a good job putting there CU
[0:30] are you hearing me hearing us now I can
hear awesome
[0:34] awesome well again we're glad to have
each and every one of you here I I was
[0:38] visiting with many of you as you came in
the room uh and talking to you about
[0:42] your individual businesses and your and
your goal some of your goals and
[0:45] objectives uh uh for your own
entrepreneurship and and I can tell you
[0:50] that it's exciting uh this is what I
enjoy most about my job uh you as small
[0:57] business owners looking to either maybe
you've been in business for 6 months
[1:02] maybe a year maybe you've got a
brainstorming an idea and I know there's
[1:05] some of you in this room that just got
you've got that idea in the back of your
[1:08] mind that you feel like you may have
something that that the community can
[1:12] use as a whole how do you grow that how
do you how does that Blossom how does
[1:17] that develop and so that's what we're
here to to do tonight and I am very
[1:21] excited about it I've been doing Chamber
of Commerce work for a little over 30
[1:24] years uh but prior to getting into the
chamber I was just like you I was a
[1:29] small business owner uh I started out as
a oneman shop uh doing medical equipment
[1:36] we provided durable medical equipment to
about a 250 M radius around my hometown
[1:42] I know what it feels like to be sitting
in a room like this wondering what in
[1:46] the world am I going to do is this idea
even going to possibly work uh and we
[1:51] grew that from I I tell people this
story I had
[1:55] $1,000 I had two two wheelchairs three
hospital beds heads and an oxygen
[2:01] machine that's what I started uh I won't
divulge all the information but uh I can
[2:07] tell you this when we sold that business
15 years later uh that was we had 10
[2:12] employees that were working for us uh
and we uh we were able to make a nice
[2:16] sale on that building and that business
when we grew that and we did that over
[2:20] about a 15-year period uh and actually I
was in that's how I got involved in
[2:25] chamber work uh is I was part of the
Chamber of Commerce I got involved I got
[2:31] dedicated and what does that mean uh
what is a chamber of commerce quite
[2:36] frankly we are the one organization that
works daily on the behalf of our members
[2:43] we like to consider
ourselves your least paid but yet most
[2:48] productive employee we are a membership
organization I'll tell you that straight
[2:53] up we are a membership organization that
pays due you pay du membership dues uh
[2:58] but it's also ran by volunteers years
our entire board of directors here at
[3:02] the Texas City Lamar Chamber of Commerce
is made up of 30 individuals that
[3:07] represent their own individual
businesses uh I was visiting earlier uh
[3:12] and we were talking one of the business
ideas was they needed to have contact
[3:17] with the port of Texas City uh they
wanted to do some business with them uh
[3:22] our chairman next year will be Romero
Barbara who is the president of the port
[3:27] of Texas city so to give you an example
I can't think of a better example to
[3:31] give than the one that was just brought
up earlier is we're going to be able to
[3:35] make that connection that otherwise you
as an individual may not be able to make
[3:40] uh on your own uh you just may not know
the person to talk to but what you can
[3:44] do is you can come to our chamber
meetings and the events that we have I
[3:48] think the last number that I heard was
something around 65 events that we host
[3:53] throughout the year uh of different
types it may be a luncheon uh it may be
[3:57] a golf tournament uh there's there's an
array of different events that we do but
[4:02] it gives us the opportunity to connect
you with someone that otherwise you may
[4:06] not have that opportunity to do or have
that opportunity to connect with uh the
[4:11] resources that you're going to find here
today and the and the wonderful speakers
[4:15] and the information that you're going to
find out that's that's a part of our
[4:18] connecting the puzzle pieces I like to
say that we just have a great big puzzle
[4:22] and we never get it put together we're
always re we're always moving the pieces
[4:26] around to make that connection chambers
of commment have been around since the
[4:31] the the late 1700s uh they started
actually over in England and and then
[4:35] they moved over here uh in the United
States uh the first Chamber of Commerce
[4:40] as you might imagine was actually formed
in New York City uh and so again the
[4:44] idea behind us is we want to advance the
uh economic prosperity of our local
[4:51] community we like to consider ourselves
a problem solver uh if there's a a
[4:56] problem going on within our communities
we want to try to help solve that
[5:00] initiative and solve that problem and
there's no better way to do that than
[5:04] with the business men and women of that
Community because you're the one that's
[5:09] putting back into the Blood Sweat and
Tears the dollars back into that
[5:14] Community you're hiring them individuals
to come and to work for you to help you
[5:18] grow your business and to help you be
successful we want to help you make
[5:22] those connections uh within the chamber
is how we is how we do that there's you
[5:27] should have all received if you didn't
please make sure that you pick up uh one
[5:32] of these packets uh out in the front on
the front forer if you didn't get one
[5:36] there's a lot of information in here I'm
not going to go through all of every bit
[5:40] of this uh we do have everybody on a
Time clock and they those folks in the
[5:44] back know that if I get a microphone I
could talk all night long and eat up all
[5:48] this time and they're like nope we're
not going to let him do that so they did
[5:51] put me on a clock but uh just to kind of
give you some examples a lot of the
[5:55] stuff that you can get when you when
you're become a member or a part of the
[6:00] Chamber of Commerce is there's some free
marketing opportunities for you uh a lot
[6:05] of those you'll find in that packet uh
that we have there the other piece is is
[6:09] that we're we're constantly working to
promote your business so again
[6:14] especially as a startup we can help
connect you and do some marketing pieces
[6:19] for you that will be either in some
cases no charge or a very minimal charge
[6:25] to be able to advertise and tell people
about your business the other thing that
[6:30] we do and that and again it's the the
fun part of my business and I mentioned
[6:34] to some of you earlier is you've got an
idea you you you think you know uh
[6:40] something that you want to start a
business venture that you would like to
[6:43] get into what we like to do is we like
to just be a sounding board so schedule
[6:47] of time come in sit down visit with us
talk to us uh and let's just be a
[6:52] sounding board and let's you know we'll
we're very transparent here uh and we're
[6:57] going to push back a little and make you
think about about the decisions and the
[7:00] and the thought processes that you're
having and then we're going to encourage
[7:03] you once you make that decision that you
want to move forward with that
[7:06] particular business venture we're going
to encourage you and try to help again
[7:10] be those be that connector of those
those puzzle pieces uh that we talked
[7:14] about uh marketing piece is a big part
of what we do uh networking is a huge
[7:21] piece uh we've got different programs
from our ambassador program which we
[7:25] call the Chamber Champs uh to just our
regular monthly lunches
[7:29] again those opportunities you get to
network with folks the other thing that
[7:33] we do a lot of is advocacy we Advocate
on your behalf as a small business owner
[7:38] what does that mean what that means is
is that we're looking at legislation
[7:42] that might be taking place uh on the
local level at the county level at the
[7:47] state level and at the federal level uh
and and we're monitoring those decisions
[7:52] that those lawmakers are making and how
is it going to impact and how is it
[7:56] going to affect business uh if it's
going to affect business in a positive
[8:00] way then we're going to get behind it
we're going to endorse that situation or
[8:03] that that piece of legislation or that
idea that that maybe even council is is
[8:09] considering uh but if it's going to
adversely affect business then we're
[8:13] going to be opposed to that and we're
going to and we're going to voice that
[8:17] opinion based on what our members tell
us okay and so again we represent you uh
[8:25] as as an organization and so again we're
going to Advocate on on your behalf and
[8:31] so I'm excited about today uh again I
could go through every little bitty
[8:35] piece of of of of the information that
we have here but the the charge today
[8:40] was was to inform you and maybe give you
just a little bit of information of why
[8:46] you should be a part of our organization
you've got right now you see our website
[8:50] I'm not going to go through all of this
pieces because we would be here again
[8:54] all night long but you can see the
different pieces that we go through
[8:58] membership events resources visiting our
communities if you've got people that
[9:03] are we like to attract those visitors
because we know when people come to our
[9:06] community and they eat in our
restaurants and they sleep in our hotels
[9:10] and they fill up with gas what's that
doing I like to call it and I think the
[9:14] mayor would agree with me that's free
money that's free money that we get into
[9:18] our community when people come and do
that and they spend those dollars here
[9:22] those are the kinds of things that we
will help with as we go along so I'm not
[9:26] going to open it up for too many
questions are we going to do questions
[9:29] answer do we talk we're going to do
questions now or we're going to do it at
[9:31] the end we decided to do it at the end
okay I couldn't remember so we'll do
[9:34] questions Q&A at the end but uh thank
you for being here thank you for being a
[9:38] part we're excited uh I hope to uh sit
down and get an opportunity to visit
[9:43] with each and every one of you uh and
talk to you about your own individual
[9:47] business as we go along so I'm going to
move on down our list here I think I
[9:53] have uh I was volen told that I was
going to get to be the uh MC for this
[9:58] event if you will and so but that's fine
I I like doing this Kathleen van Starvin
[10:03] the director of development services for
the city of Lamar is going to come up to
[10:08] us and talk about those those benefits
so
[10:12] Kathleen how's
[Applause]
[10:18] everyone first I want to thank you all
for being here we appreciate it my
[10:23] name's Kathleen van stav as you said I
am the director of development services
[10:27] for the city of Lamar I'm not sure what
if people understand what development
[10:31] services is but actually what we are is
we're a department in the city that you
[10:36] come to if you have a dream of a
business if you have an idea if you just
[10:41] had someone tell you hey you ought to do
this come see us come talk to us we'll
[10:45] help walk you through it my department
consists of the development and
[10:50] permitting so it's kind of a One-Stop
shop you come in we'll talk to you we'll
[10:55] meet with you we'll we'll help guide you
through the process proces of Permitting
[11:00] or platting or zoning or whatever it is
you happen to want to do and guide you
[11:05] through it to make it as simple and as
quick as it possibly
[11:09] can um one of the
biggest things we do is we have
[11:14] pre-development meetings those meetings
are where we have City staff we have our
[11:19] city engineer we have our fire marshal
we have myself we have the EDC
[11:24] director and our and we're all we all
meet with you we go through the Z we go
[11:29] through everything you tell us what you
want to do and we help walk you through
[11:33] what you'll need to get there we're the
beginning if if you think I just don't
[11:39] think I can do that there I think it's
too complicated give me a call or give
[11:43] us a call we'll help you that's what
we're here for we want you we want small
[11:47] businesses large businesses if you just
want to open a coffee shop call
[11:52] us because we we're here to help you
don't look at us as just permitting or
[11:57] somebody that's just you know trying to
drag business into the city because
[12:00] we're not we want you to prosper we want
to get that dream to come true for
[12:04] you um and we have a lot of people that
come and talk to us and they just want
[12:08] to say hey I'm thinking about something
and I said tell us what your idea is let
[12:12] us help you with that we can expand on
it maybe we can help you find property
[12:16] somewhere we can give you all the forms
you need we can explain zoning to you we
[12:20] can explain the building regulations to
you but that's what we're here for if
[12:27] um we we can do it on a oneon-one basis
you can call me my cards are at the
[12:32] front and I'll be happy to talk to you
or you can email me if you want to say
[12:37] Kathleen you know I know it's probably a
stupid idea but I want to I want to open
[12:41] up a hot dog stand okay let's do it just
tell me where you want to do it and and
[12:45] we'll talk about it permitting is all
done in the same office we've
[12:51] streamlined our permitting department
now so that if you submit your plans and
[12:55] reviews and everything everything is
normally turned around within 10 days
[12:59] our inspections are pretty much on a
24hour turnaround on those so we're
[13:04] trying to do everything to help anyone
with a small business or large business
[13:08] to come to Lamar to make it as easy and
as welcoming as we possibly
[13:13] can um you're going to do questions at
the end y I'll be available if you'd
[13:19] like to to ask me any any questions
concerning the development process or if
[13:25] you U have an idea right now tonight
talk to me about
[13:29] it and I'll set you a meeting with the
PDM meeting so you can come and sit and
[13:34] talk with everyone from the
city but that's that's all about all I
[13:39] have thank you so much there's also back
anybody
[13:47] wants I I I don't want watch some of the
stuff that she just said to go go go
[13:52] unnoticed now here here now I'm putting
on my full chamber hat the opportunity I
[13:56] get to to kind of connect those pieces
pces don't miss out on what Kathleen
[14:01] just said about the fact of the
permitting side and the turnaround side
[14:04] those time frames 10 days and 24 hours
inspections those are phenomenal numbers
[14:10] I mean and and so again most of you if
you're a homebased business one of these
[14:14] days you're going to want to get out on
your own in get in your own building if
[14:17] you're looking for a building currently
uh you're going to want to have those
[14:21] convers you're going to have to have
those conversations at some point in
[14:24] time with the city to know that you're
number one you're you're putting the
[14:28] business in the proper location and and
that you're your everything meets to
[14:32] code and that's for safety uh and so
again those turnaround numbers that's
[14:37] phenomenal 10 days and 24 hours uh
there's I can tell you there's lots of
[14:41] cities around us that do not function
that rapidly so that's that's great to
[14:48] have that kind of a turnaround so again
K I appreciate you I appreciate what the
[14:52] work that you guys do that always ends
at the fun place to go because the
[14:57] people have made it out to be but folks
like that make it a good place to go and
[15:01] visit and to be able to share your ideas
so hats off to you with that I'm going
[15:05] to introduce next I'm going to in
introduce to you uh the director of the
[15:09] Lamar Economic Development Corporation
and a good friend Alex Getty Alex also
[15:13] serves on our board of directors here at
the Chamber of the Texas City Lark
[15:17] Chamber of Commerce so Alex let's talk
about EDC all right thank
[15:25] you
where
[15:29] yeah okay thank you appreciate the
introduction thank you mayor um for your
[15:34] support of this and and we uh we're
hopeful that it'll be beneficial uh I'm
[15:39] going to throw a lot of information at
you in about the next 15 minutes or so I
[15:43] have cards back there um and we'll have
a Q&A at the end and I'll I'll try to
[15:48] answer some questions that you do have
as well U my name is Alex Getty I'm the
[15:52] executive director of Lark Economic
Development Corporation I think I had a
[15:55] chance to to meet each one of you on
your way in to and kind of get a feel
[15:59] for uh you know who we have in the
audience and what you're trying to do um
[16:03] so some of these slides I'll kind of
walk through quicker than others because
[16:07] I think you know based upon the audience
of what you what you're wanting to to
[16:10] know we'll try to to do that uh I am
from Lamark uh I've been serving in this
[16:16] position for 14 years now uh it's a it's
a wonderful uh job it's a wonderful City
[16:22] uh and what I like about it is every day
is a little bit different you never know
[16:27] who you're going to connect with who's
going to walk through the door what idea
[16:30] you're going to hear it it's just really
a lot of fun to talk with entrepreneurs
[16:35] about their ideas it excites me because
when you're talking to people who are
[16:39] passionate about something it's just a
lot of fun it's it's
[16:43] contagious so a little bit about the EDC
before I go to the next slide we are a
[16:48] government nonprofit corporation I like
to say that we're first cousins are
[16:52] closer to the city of Lamar what I mean
by that is I work for the corporation I
[16:57] work for a board of five
my board is appointed by city council
[17:01] and we have a city councilman here with
us tonight Mr Ross obviously mayor is
[17:05] here as well and so you know that's kind
of how it works uh in a nutshell U I
[17:10] work for the board the board is
appointed by councel um
[17:15] and our job is to try to create wealth
essentially for the city a little bit of
[17:19] history about economic development in
Lamar uh we originally the Lamar
[17:24] Industrial Development Corporation we
are Incorporated in 1982 uh but not much
[17:29] happened then because there was no
funding mechanism uh it wasn't until a
[17:33] few
legislative sessions later that uh it
[17:38] was approved for municipalities to go to
the tax to the voters and and get a
[17:43] corporation or the the the half cent
sales tax at that time approved and so
[17:49] uh May 7th
1990 uh the voters approved it in Lamar
[17:54] uh we are one of the first
municipalities to approve the half cent
[17:57] sales tax and we've been working on on
that ever since I think year one um we
[18:03] it generated about $300 to
$350,000 um the half cent sales tax
[18:08] did here's our mission statement um it
was originally approved in 2013 I
[18:15] believe it was actually approved again
this morning uh we we were working on
[18:18] some Mission Vision goals statement
stuff and uh I'll just read it for you
[18:23] here the primary goal of Lamar Economic
Development Corporation is to assist in
[18:27] the development of a strong Diversified
economy for the city of Lamar this can
[18:31] be accomplished with a multifaceted
approach that consists of efforts that
[18:35] help promote business retention business
expansion and business recruitment U and
[18:40] so we're firing on some of those
cylinders tonight but what is it Alex I
[18:45] understand it's funded we got a half
cent sales tax and that's great but but
[18:49] what really you know what is it so I
borrowed this quick definition from the
[18:53] Texas Economic Development Council which
we have a slide in in a couple minutes a
[18:57] little bit more about who they are but
it's the intentional practice of
[19:01] improving a community's economic
well-being and quality of life so that
[19:05] it covers a lot of ground you could
spend a few minutes breaking that down
[19:09] um but for the Economic Development
Corporation Lamar we're trying to find
[19:13] projects that are beneficial and
meaningful to our community and um we're
[19:19] really looking at at three things that
are the most important capital
[19:23] investment so let's say you take a piece
of property that doesn't have any
[19:27] infrastructure or a building and so
you're just getting the avalum tax of
[19:30] the property itself you put a new
building on it there's a lift there on
[19:34] the avalum side but also true maybe you
have a dilapidated structure that you
[19:38] want to improve and again lift the tax
uh role so capital investment job
[19:45] creation is Paramount we want to we want
to be able to create jobs we want to tie
[19:49] any sales tax dollars that we provide to
jobs um and last but not least is is
[19:55] sales tax that's how we're funded and
we'll touch on that here in a second it
[20:00] includes a broad range of activities to
retain create and attack attract jobs um
[20:07] it is helping to build new
infrastructure and real estate
[20:10] opportunities to improve a community
couple of examples uh the EDC and Lamar
[20:16] brought Water and Sewer to the west side
of I45 years ago that opened up the west
[20:21] side for development all right uh we
didn't necessarily have a a specific
[20:25] thing that drove that at that time but
it was very necessary and needed and
[20:30] then now you see what all is happening
over there uh we also I like to say that
[20:35] we're good at things that are 6 in tall
and shorter we're able to build
[20:39] infrastructure is what I mean by that so
one project that we did we built fliming
[20:44] extension uh water sewer Paving and
drainage that brought in Mainland
[20:50] Kawasaki U again they fire on all three
cylinders that I just mentioned capital
[20:54] investment job creation sales tax and
out of that we got a Bonus so a few
[20:58] years later we got team manuso Power
Sports located there because the
[21:01] infrastructure was there etc those are
two high sales tax drivers for our
[21:06] community and so those are kind of
projects that that we do and why U but
[21:12] we do much
more some of the core activities and
[21:16] this is not a comprehensive list this is
just a few of the things that we do uh
[21:20] business expansion and uh business
retention and expansion I've touched on
[21:25] that we want businesses that are in
Lamar to stay in Lamar um and if they
[21:29] don't stay in Lamar we certainly want to
stay in our area we want some of these
[21:35] businesses are Regional you know just
because they're not in Lamar doesn't
[21:38] mean they don't impact Lamar in a
positive way uh so we want to try to
[21:42] retain the businesses that we have and
it's a a lot easier to retain a business
[21:48] than it is to recruit a new
one uh marketing and recruitment don't
[21:52] want to steal any of Mandy's Thunder
she's going to have some slides on
[21:55] marketing in a minute we do a lot uh to
try to promote Lamar to let people know
[21:59] what our assets are and what our
opportunities are uh strategic planning
[22:04] not just a strategic plan uh like the
2015 to 2022 plan that the city had and
[22:09] we worked on uh but strategic planning
like we need to look at where we need
[22:17] infrastructure we need to look at
putting these properties together to
[22:21] make them highest best use for our
community so there's a lot of things
[22:24] that we sit back and think about what
are some things that we can do
[22:27] strategically in order to improve our
community to have uh more and better
[22:32] businesses down the road a little bit of
forecasting we look at look at the
[22:36] opportunities in the climate as well
Small Business Development this is one
[22:40] thing um but there are other things that
we do but our job just like many other
[22:44] of the the speakers tonight are try to
connect you to resources whether it's a
[22:49] link or whether it's a connection with a
person because those are important
[22:53] networking is very important uh so
that's that's some of the things that we
[22:57] do uh connect people to jobs and
projects uh in the last year or so we've
[23:03] tried to help existing Lamar businesses
find employees that are qualified what
[23:09] that what they want to to do and that
that helps the business in Lamar it
[23:12] helps that uh that person again just
connecting folks and then last but not
[23:16] least education uh we spent a lot of
time educating um about Lamark and who
[23:22] we are and what we do and here some
resources and things just like this but
[23:26] it's not always in a setting like this
we're always teaching and
[23:31] educating so I mentioned tedc a little
bit earlier um this is me uh with board
[23:38] member Tracy steens and longtime
president of the tedc uh Carlton Schwab
[23:43] and I put this slide in here to let you
know that that we we practice best
[23:47] practices in Lamar we we do a lot of
things well are we perfect not even
[23:51] close but we try really hard to do well
and we've won a few Awards a few years
[23:56] in a row for that uh we're one of 15 of
about a thousand members that have have
[24:01] received this award the last six years
running and so we're we're proud of that
[24:05] and that's the importance of this slide
to know when you're you're working with
[24:08] us connecting with us we're trying to go
about things uh the right
[24:12] way um I was talking to a couple of you
and and this is this slide um will fit
[24:18] right in with what you were looking for
because you want to know about the
[24:20] growth and what's happening in Lamar and
and this is one of the drivers um you
[24:25] know we've had record sales tax for the
last 6 years in a row
[24:28] uh one of the drivers is for the last
decade Lamar has just been blowing up I
[24:33] mean we are uh the second fastest
growing uh City in the county um we have
[24:39] been for a long time and where it all
started was with painted Meadows there
[24:43] in the middle so we worked with um the
developer we actually owned the real
[24:48] estate at Lamark EDC we sold the real
estate uh to the
[24:53] developer uh the city ultimately ended
up setting up a pit do any anybody know
[24:58] what a pit
is dorine does um so that's a public
[25:02] improvement district and basically what
that is it's a it's a financing tool to
[25:07] help pay for the water sewer Paving and
drainage to help mitigate the risk if
[25:11] you will for a developer so they're
going to get paid back over time you've
[25:15] probably heard mud there's a little
difference in the mid a pit and a mud
[25:20] mud can continue to take on debt once
the debt is paid off from the pit it it
[25:24] goes away and so that's what we had here
and it's kind of like hitting in
[25:28] baseball is contagious so before painted
Meadows came along Lamar was starving
[25:35] for residential development we hadn't
had it we were trying to get it couldn't
[25:39] get it but as soon as the city uh worked
with uh developer of painted Meadows
[25:45] then we saw Delaney Cove come that was a
lenar development largest home builder
[25:50] at the time in America Salt Grass
Crossing came Sunset Grove and now we
[25:54] have trails at Wood Haven lakes that
just kicked off and so when all those
[25:58] are done we'll have roughly 2500 3,000
new homes new new stock uh in Lamar and
[26:05] that is really uh helping to drive and
so this next side really really sums it
[26:11] up we're very proud uh and excited when
this these numbers came out because it
[26:16] was the first time we made the list um
so second quarter of the year we were
[26:20] named one of the 10 hottest communities
in the Houston area and you see on the
[26:23] map there the only one south of
downtown and this is year-over-year I'm
[26:29] surprised we hadn't made it before when
I saw the numbers I'm like I think we've
[26:32] met that before but we're glad to make
it now uh but
[26:36] anyway the result is the Mark is growing
and thriving and and doing really
[26:42] well couple projects uh just got a
couple more slides here then we'll walk
[26:47] through some some websites that I think
might be beneficial for some of the
[26:50] conversations that I heard us have uh
before the meeting uh we're working on a
[26:53] Renaissance District we talked about
strategic planning just a little bit
[26:56] this another example of that well we
worked through the Texas coastal
[27:00] Watershed program through Texas A&M
University a few years ago we had
[27:04] stakeholder meetings we worked with uh
the community and and different uh
[27:09] public meetings to find out what is the
vision for downtown Lamar and so out of
[27:13] that came this plan um and these are
some of the things that we've done this
[27:18] is what the building will look like
right now uh if you go and and drive
[27:22] through downtown Lamark if you haven't
been in a while there's been a lot of
[27:24] improvements uh we'll take a look at
those on the next slide but this will be
[27:28] the EDC office U it looks a little bit
different now it's originally built in
[27:32] 1959 it was uh the flagship bank for GU
guarantee Federal bank and it was very
[27:38] well built we're glad to have it and it
kind of stimulated some of the other
[27:41] things that you see going on now but our
goal is to make it more walkable bikable
[27:45] pedestrian friendly making a greater
economic engine for small businesses in
[27:50] Lamar and that's why it's that's why
it's important but here's some other
[27:53] things we're
doing top left that's another building
[27:56] that we own that we're renovating
concurrently with our building uh it is
[28:00] currently fully occupied we've got uh
Lugar which is an event center and we
[28:05] got Innovation Safety Solutions which is
a uh a support business for industry uh
[28:11] very glad to have both of those top
right is 401 Laurel uh that's where
[28:16] Artic coffee is we do have space on the
incap we got about 2700 sare fet there
[28:21] uh we are looking and actually the board
uh voted this morning to to for me to
[28:25] get some quotes to to build out the
inside make it more of a just a ready to
[28:30] go space it'll still need some some
things but sheet rock lighting flooring
[28:35] those kind of thing so that's that's in
the works um I picked that picture
[28:38] because our our intersection pavers for
those who haven't seen them they' turned
[28:42] out really nice and it's a compass
that's that's oriented to True North and
[28:47] that was I think the last day or very
close to when they were about to finish
[28:50] that turned out good you can see how it
did on the on the bottom left and then
[28:54] the bottom right is just a picture where
you got all fired up the first night the
[28:58] the lights burned and so we went out
there and took a bunch of pictures and
[29:01] all that so anyway it's a kind of a it's
fun to work in your hometown downtown
[29:07] and then and that's that's I'm
passionate about it and I'm excited
[29:10] about it and there's
Mandy I warned her that she was on
[29:15] here so we're always trying to think of
innovative ways that we can help small
[29:19] businesses in Lamar and so for those of
you that I talked to tonight who are
[29:23] ready to open a business once you get
open um this is something that we want
[29:27] to try to do for you uh we created it
just this year in about June uh we
[29:33] didn't know of anyone else that we'd
ever heard of that had done one I think
[29:37] we've had seven recipients now top right
is Evelyn George with uh Evelyn's
[29:42] alterations longtime Lamar downtown
business a great lady bottom right is
[29:47] Kenny Blakey and his business laser
Marine there at I45 and so those are
[29:52] just three that have taken advantage we
actually approved one this morning uh I
[29:55] say we the board approved one this
morning we're excited about that so
[29:59] we're going to continue to push this and
I'll show you how to find it on our
[30:02] website here in a
minute and I would be remiss this really
[30:06] doesn't have anything to do with
anything except for uh I wanted to make
[30:10] sure y'all know about Bayou Fest on
Saturday and um so I apologize for this
[30:15] slide but um so we've got Amanda siss
coming she's uh doing a really great job
[30:21] she's a Texas City native uh I've seen
her twice this year already she puts a
[30:25] high energy show out um she she's a a
Selena tribute artist and she does a lot
[30:30] of good things there Wayne tupes will be
in the second slot he's a Grammy award
[30:34] winner he has a z occasion feel if
you've never seen him it's dance music
[30:38] exciting stuff a lot of a lot of people
love Wayne and then we've got Neil McCoy
[30:42] two-time Entertainer of the Year um he's
really excited to be out there and uh
[30:47] we're looking forward to it it's all
free and so come out uh enjoy yourselves
[30:52] please it's a way particularly when
you're thinking about uh opening a
[30:56] business in Lar Mark uh come come check
us out uh this is a little taste of what
[31:01] Lamar has to offer and uh so we'll do
I'll just leave that real quick while I
[31:07] get my mouse oh yeah she took care of me
and she put it over
[31:13] here so we'll get the the websites up
I've just got four things to show you
[31:17] real quick and then I'll be done so this
this is going to be old hat to some I
[31:22] know Dorene is going to know all about
this but this is a tool that I use every
[31:25] day um this this is the gson Central
Appraisal District website um it's a
[31:31] it's a great source for a lot of
different things uh what I use
[31:36] most is the mapping
capabilities okay the website recently
[31:41] changed but you go here for the
interactive map It'll ask you to say
[31:46] okay and there's all kind of layers on
here uh the world imagery works pretty
[31:51] good but what I primarily use it for is
try to figure out who owns a piece of
[31:56] property or or maybe did it change hands
maybe it did and I can look at the deed
[32:00] records U but once we get into a certain
level here and I'll go to the central
[32:05] fire station on the west side this is
1765 and
[32:10] 2004 um you'll see a number there on the
map but then you'll see it it's here as
[32:14] well tells you who the owner
is the the home address if it's
[32:18] different than the actual physical
location but then on uh the cus
[32:26] here it will show you the the physical
address and that's helpful but you can
[32:31] you can go and use this number the 60143
number go to property
[32:52] search and you can click on that and you
can get some additional information um
[32:56] the taxing
entities uh what what year a building
[33:00] was built might be important for you um
this one doesn't show it but it'll show
[33:06] uh the deed records U so you can see the
last three Deeds typically uh we'll do
[33:12] one more really
quickly so let's look at this one uh
[33:25] 60114
[33:29] tells you who owns
it and I pull this one up because it has
[33:33] the last four Deeds on this one so you
can kind of track and it gives you the
[33:38] the volume and page number if you want
to look at the county clerk's website
[33:42] and that sort of thing uh so that's that
one another one that you may be
[33:46] interested in again dorine's going to
know all about this but this is loot net
[33:50] um I've got Lamark queued in here so you
see the the city limits of Lamar uh you
[33:54] can zoom in and toggle between a bunch
of different things but if you're
[33:58] looking for a a For Lease space you can
do that or a for sale space but you can
[34:03] kind of Click around and then you can
click on the actual deal you can get the
[34:09] the uh the property flyer Etc so that's
always
[34:14] nice and then back to the city website
I'm going to show you a couple of things
[34:18] that that the EDC uh has U so you go to
departments here on the main page
[34:23] Economic
Development
[34:28] um we've got several resources like loot
net we have our own uh database this is
[34:34] new for us this year as well um it's
kind of living and breathing it'll it'll
[34:38] update and change but just like the
other one you can toggle between for
[34:42] sale and for lease and get the the
information of uh the realtor
[34:47] information Etc um so both of those are
good for commercial properties loot net
[34:52] and then now the EDC website and back to
resources uh applications for incentives
[34:59] this is these are our local
incentives and you see there uh we've
[35:03] got four one the bottom one was just
approved this morning uh by The Economic
[35:08] Development Corporation so that's why
you see the coming soon um we're going
[35:12] to we're going to write up and it'll be
there probably by the end of next week
[35:16] and that is for sign Improvement funds
and so we had a a joint meeting with
[35:22] Council on the 25th of September and
that was one of the things that that we
[35:26] talked about out that we thought would
be helpful again for small businesses
[35:29] and so uh I wrote the application uh we
wrote a grant agreement uh it was
[35:34] approved this morning by the board and
so now we're just going to keep fleshing
[35:38] out and start promoting it once we get
it up here um you'll see right above
[35:42] that is the texc Lamar chamber
membership grant that we had a slide
[35:46] about so you can click on that and and
get that application above that is a
[35:50] business Improvement fund Grant um it's
really designed for for major thorough
[35:54] fares but it could be like Cedar Bayou
Etc ET um and it's really just a
[35:59] matching Grant uh for materials to in
improve your your curb appeal uh that's
[36:04] something that I wrote probably a decade
ago uh probably need to revisit that at
[36:08] some point and make sure the pricing
still makes sense but it's there and
[36:11] it's a it's an opportunity and then the
first one the application for incentives
[36:16] it's a little bit more in depth uh it's
a pretty straightforward but it is a
[36:19] seven-page application uh it asks for
finance information Etc but look through
[36:26] them on your own time if you have
questions about them by all means call
[36:30] me again I've got cards in the back grab
one uh we're here to help and here to
[36:34] serve just like Kathleen uh we work very
closely together we communicate very
[36:39] well together um and it's because we
want to benefit businesses in Lamar so
[36:44] uh that's all I have for now I really
appreciate your attention and time and
[36:47] and thank youall again for being here
[36:52] [Applause]
tonight
[36:58] so again looking at those takeaways from
that I get I'll go back to how do we all
[37:02] connect uh you between never speaker I'm
going to do this so y'all just get used
[37:06] to it but but how do you connect the I
can tell you this you heard Alex say in
[37:11] the very beginning of his presentation
uh talking about how the half cent sales
[37:15] tax uh was created that it was passed by
the Texas legislature that was an
[37:20] initiative that Chambers of Commerce
across the state started pushing that
[37:24] initi because they knew that we needed
to be be able to fund these
[37:27] organizations those Economic Development
corporations to be able to find to
[37:31] provide those incentives to businesses
and so we helped push that legislation
[37:37] we advocated on its behalf and then it
came to it came to into existence as
[37:41] Alex was pointing out uh and so again
the the benefits that you can receive
[37:46] there and you say wait a minute all of
these things are available to you as a
[37:50] business owner uh you're not going to
you know we're not going to get down I
[37:53] told somebody earlier we're we're going
to be at we're going to be at about
[37:55] 30,000 ft tonight okay we're not going
to get down in the weeds but we're going
[37:59] to be here to give you the resources
that are available to you so uh are and
[38:04] make sure I'm looking here right I've
got uh Mandy and Marielle are y'all up
[38:09] next are y'all ready so this is Alex and
I will both tell you the same thing
[38:15] these are the two ladies that make both
of us look really good because they're
[38:19] the ones that put these websites and and
marketing pieces together respectively
[38:23] for our uh for our organization so I'm
going to turn it over to them and let
[38:26] talk about our
[38:30] website uh my name is Mandy I'm the
public relations specialist for the
[38:34] Lamar Economic Development Corporation
oh and I'm Mariel mcor I'm with the
[38:38] director of communications with the the
chamber so awesome all right so we're
[38:43] going to talk to you a little bit about
marketing for your business uh I can
[38:47] tell you right now I already see a
couple of you in here that do a really
[38:50] good job at marketing on your Facebook
pages and any other business profile
[38:55] that you have the the best advice I can
give for starting businesses is that
[39:01] social media is free most of the time uh
creating a business profile on any of
[39:07] these is
free uh Facebook's a good one you can
[39:11] create a business profile a lot of
people are on Facebook especially older
[39:15] people are on Facebook you could try Tik
Tok I'm not even on on the Tik Tok too
[39:20] much so uh but Instagram and Linkedin
that's a good one um and if you don't
[39:27] have social media I do recommend at
least doing two and that's Facebook and
[39:32] Instagram because those are my I think
the most important cuz if you're a a
[39:37] boutique or a store Instagram's really
great cuz you can connect it to your
[39:43] website um same with Facebook everything
can connect to your website and bring
[39:47] you um more of a following per se cuz
that's the new thing to get new
[39:54] customers is to get a following on
online
[39:57] yeah um definitely yeah as as much as as
much as we like it or hate it social
[40:03] media is a thing now and we got to get
on it so uh just a couple little notes
[40:09] for this one um am I on slide too yeah
so it's cost-effective marketing we I
[40:14] went over that a little bit you can
reach a very broad audience think about
[40:18] how many people are on social media
billions and if you get you know a
[40:23] really good following that's just more
eyes on your page
[40:26] those eyes and those people can share
your page to get you more eyes on that
[40:31] page um Community Building small
businesses can use social media to build
[40:35] and engage with your community so it
just shows that you have a presence in
[40:39] the community as well uh you can drive
to your website like what Marielle said
[40:45] uh you can get feedback and marketing
research small businesses can use
[40:49] surveys and polls and uh comments from
customers to understand what they're
[40:54] what they're wanting what they want to
see what they like um and uh keeping
[41:00] your social media up to date that's very
important updating your hours if you've
[41:05] got a close for a day social media is a
good way to tell them hey on Tuesday
[41:09] this day we're going to be closed for
renovations or hey we're changing our
[41:13] hours as of next month you know we're
we're Clos Mondays and Tuesdays instead
[41:18] of Wednesdays now uh and then uh on that
changing if you change your website and
[41:24] you don't tell anyone that you change
your website
[41:27] people could still have your website
saved somewhere but you know just have
[41:31] be can still change it on the your link
and stuff but just promote hey we've
[41:36] changed this check it out now like our
new site and Google too right you talked
[41:40] about Google and then if you um sign up
with Google that way you can get like
[41:44] your Google Business Suite um and then
you'll you'll show up when you someone I
[41:50] going to pick on you again Mandy Mandy's
closet if I Google Mandy's closet and
[41:54] you have a Google Business it'll pop up
with your map your logo photos of your
[41:59] business your location of your business
phone number hours everything on Google
[42:04] so Google's really important because
that's people Google everything so I
[42:09] know really important and I try to put a
list together of all the business and
[42:12] businesses in Lamar it's it's hard
sometimes because a lot of these
[42:16] businesses don't update their Google and
so their phone numbers aren't up to date
[42:20] you go to their Facebook nobody has
posted since 2019 and you're like well
[42:25] they still in business so you don't know
so keeping all that up to date is very
[42:29] very important the next
one so a couple social media tips and
[42:35] tricks this is mainly social media is
what we're going to be talking about
[42:38] with marketing since it is kind
of a a big thing with what we do as well
[42:44] uh just real quick grammar grammar is a
very very important thing on social
[42:49] media I see a
couple um posts sometimes that are
[42:54] misspelled there's no punctuation
there's no
[42:57] capitalization and are you taking those
people seriously like you're like I
[43:01] can't even read that so uh a good tool
to use is grammarly I don't know if
[43:06] anybody has grammarly but there is a
free version of it and you can it's so
[43:11] easy to copy and paste what you're
putting in there and paste it in
[43:14] grammarly it'll come up with hey you
missed a punctuation here maybe change
[43:19] this to this here's a suggestion just
copy and paste that to your post L bam
[43:24] yeah um you want to go over consistency
yeah so consistency is you know maintain
[43:31] a posting schedule um Regular and
predictable content keeps your audience
[43:36] engaged so basically I mean don't post a
few times and then go completely dead on
[43:43] social media because then people will
think your business is no no more uh it
[43:48] doesn't have to be every day if you do
once a week twice a week um keep it just
[43:53] keep it up um and then I know
I I'm going to talk about that in a
[43:57] little bit but um just be consistent
because typically if you just you stop
[44:04] people will think your business is
stopped yeah and then you can I mean
[44:08] more eyes think about it the more
repetitive you are on posting the more
[44:12] eyes are going to see your post they're
going to be like oh Andy's closet I'm
[44:15] just going to keep picking on you yeah
you're a great example on how well you
[44:19] do your social media um if anybody needs
a good example go go to Mandy's closet
[44:25] on on Facebook uh she posts regularly
she posts her inventory fun little
[44:30] videos I mean and I always see it so
it's like and once you click on it and
[44:35] once you see it and get those
Impressions on your say Facebook page
[44:39] it'll see that you spend more time
Facebook is so funky I'm not going to
[44:43] lie it it shows that you're spending
more time on this post it'll keep
[44:49] posting that it'll keep coming up on
your timeline so just think about that
[44:53] with your
business and then and um let's see and
[44:57] that's going over to visuals
um
[45:01] photos uh video is King if you've seen
any of the shineon videos you look at
[45:06] those uh they we do that for the Lamar
Facebook page um and those do really
[45:12] well I mean just grabbing even if it's
just
[45:17] like a a slide that says visuals you
know like you're still going to see it
[45:22] because it's colorful it's not just
words yes and and then also on social
[45:27] media it's a new thing it's reals and
videos like your algorithms nowadays
[45:33] that's basically where your post shows
up on anyone's Instagram or Facebook uh
[45:39] right now it's based on reals and a real
will go higher than a a photo photo post
[45:46] um they are a little harder to do but
they are probably worth doing especially
[45:52] for small businesses cuz it'll put you
further up and it it can be a real of
[45:58] photos I've seen people do still photos
and then they just kind of slide like a
[46:02] photo slider but it it's important yep
and we'll go over we'll go over some
[46:07] things too on how to create those as
well uh just easy tools you can use that
[46:12] are free and then again just telling
stories connecting with your audience on
[46:16] a personal and emotional level uh post
reviews if you get a good review post it
[46:23] I mean be like look this person had a
great experience
[46:26] and they found the dress they were
looking for for prom here here's a
[46:29] picture of them I mean it's just showing
showing people they may know in the
[46:34] community yeah testimonials are a great
thing if you ever get one um there's
[46:38] this a new thing I know it's called
broadcast channel um on Instagram we
[46:44] create a broadcast channel you can
literally connect to your people just
[46:47] one on not they can't respond but you
can literally be very personal in there
[46:52] and just be like hey we got a new item
in store hey we running a new promotion
[46:57] you know but it goes direct and the
people can follow that and they can stay
[47:00] up to date
constantly much
[47:04] you one okay a couple more uh engaging
with your audience you want to respond
[47:10] to comments and messages promptly uh
Foster a sense of community by
[47:14] interacting with followers so if they
comment and
[47:17] say when when do you open on Sunday you
know if you don't respawn back they're
[47:22] not going to know that you're open from
10 to two on Sunday you know so just
[47:28] responding back liking somebody's
comment it shows that you care um you
[47:34] want promotions and contests yeah so
promotions and contests um basically
[47:39] promotions but that's what you can um
run giveaways contests any promotional
[47:44] campaigns that you have going on um and
this doing that encourages engagement um
[47:50] it kind of goes along with our call to
action kind of cuz you can do them both
[47:54] together um if you make a post and you
say like our post give us a follow tag a
[48:01] friend it'll gain more people to you and
then also if you're running that
[48:07] promotion you know everyone can see it
all your friends yeah giveaways uh you
[48:11] know
uh um Wednesday is Military Appreciation
[48:16] so military people get 10% off that kind
of thing um and that goes yeah like you
[48:21] said into call to action which is if
anybody know what a call to action is
[48:25] it's asking the person that's reading
your post to do something uh like follow
[48:30] or share this this post you'll get more
engagement on it which will boost your
[48:34] post which will get more eyes on it uh
tell them to visit your website and
[48:39] leave a link so always give them
something to do um yeah cuz those two go
[48:45] really hand in hand I know people always
say um we're giving this away like
[48:50] follow and then we'll we'll they do a
little drawing and that person gets
[48:54] picked and then you tell them to share
about it and you know it gets more
[48:58] people to your page exactly and like I
said the more people like your page and
[49:04] uh like that post it's going to go to
the top of other people's timelines so
[49:09] they will see it more uh quality over
quantity focus on creating a high
[49:15] quality content rather than turning out
post value and relevance matter so don't
[49:20] just post hey guys and then that's it
you know and then post it again in an
[49:25] hour you know or post the same thing 2
hours from then post good things on a
[49:29] consistent basis not a lot not you don't
want to overpower people are going to
[49:33] get sick of it and they're going to
unfollow you so anything you want to add
[49:36] to that one Prett self-explain for me I
I post once a day on our social medias
[49:41] um sometimes a few more if I have
something important I need to get out
[49:44] but typically I try to say at least once
a day something people are hearing from
[49:50] us once a day at least so you know I can
give an example I used to work at San
[49:54] Antonio Zoo and I worked on their uh in
their marketing department and we had a
[49:59] social media person and they posted at
least I think their quota was supposed
[50:05] to be quot like per our vice president
was five or six times a day to post
[50:10] that's different it's a big company it's
a big it's a big organization but we saw
[50:15] that you only got like one or two likes
per post you know if you post really
[50:20] good things this what we started doing
is we posted really funny videos or
[50:24] really funny picture or something to get
people talking and that post got 50 100
[50:31] and then we went up to a million views
on on videos and it just boosted and
[50:35] boosted so as soon as we changed what we
were posting rather than promotions all
[50:40] the time uh you know $8 local day over
and over and over again three times in
[50:46] one day we didn't get any followers and
then all of a sudden it it skyrocketed
[50:51] when we started posting better stuff
MH
[50:57] yes all right you want to go over some
canva stuff so canva this is a program
[51:03] that anyone can use um you can either
use it for free or you can pay for the
[51:07] premium which is highly recommended
because you get a lot of Cool Tools in
[51:12] it um I believe it's $120 a year which
to be honest it's way worth it and it's
[51:19] pretty cheap compared to a lot of other
programs out there um it's very user
[51:23] friendly um
I use it on a daily basis I know she
[51:28] uses it on a daily basis I made this
slideshow with canva yes like it's
[51:33] they're templates I mean they have
templates like all I had to do is change
[51:37] the words and also The Branding
consistency on here canva is a really
[51:43] great tool because you can save your
brand basically you can save your logos
[51:47] your colors your fonts your Siz of fonts
your types of fonts all on there and it
[51:53] knows you can use those tools and you
won't look like your business is all
[51:58] over the place and you have like a one
consistent brand it it looks clean to
[52:03] the you like to the other eye I don't
yeah yeah and then I don't know canvas
[52:09] super easy and I know I've I've
recommended it to a few people that have
[52:13] just started out and they've tried it
out and they absolutely loved it and he
[52:16] used like the free version of it and he
used a template but I mean he had really
[52:23] fun with it cuz a lot of people they say
that they're not good at making ads but
[52:27] canva will help you make those ads yeah
and they they look good definitely and
[52:32] I've known of several people that have
created their logos on canva I mean they
[52:37] have you put in Bookshop and it comes up
with logos for you and all you do is
[52:44] change you can change the colors you can
change the font and you've got a logo
[52:47] it's got a cute little dog on it with a
book in its hands you know like it's
[52:52] it's super easy it's it's probably the
thing that I recommend the most for
[52:55] people to use if they're trying to
create their own brand
[53:00] create social media post I mean you can
create it has a thing in there for
[53:04] Facebook post it has a thing for
Facebook reals it has uh a template
[53:09] templates for videos so you can put your
videos in there and it'll put it in for
[53:14] you and it'll just create this video
kind of like what Tik Tok does um which
[53:18] I know canva way better than I know Tik
Tok cuz I'm old now but and canva you
[53:24] can use it also in con function with a
lot of other programs I know uh there's
[53:29] a whole bunch of things of say connect
to canva and you can connect to canva
[53:33] and you can drag your stuff over to
another program if you're using any sort
[53:37] of email list sort of thing a lot of
them use it um the QR codes and they use
[53:43] uh canva uses QR codes and um there's a
whole bunch of different little apps
[53:48] within canva that you can use another
thing too is really cool if y'all have
[53:53] hand handheld leaflets that y'all need
to give out you can create your flyer on
[53:58] canva and order them straight through
canva and they're really high quality I
[54:01] know I've done it before um but it's all
really good yeah it is we're we're not
[54:08] we're not we're not getting paid by
canvas or anything but it honestly it's
[54:12] a helpful tool for all of us and I think
a really helpful tool for any of y'all
[54:16] to use there's free options for it it's
highly recommended and it'll make your
[54:20] brand look really good yeah it's very
user friendly it's for the non techsavvy
[54:27] person who I may seem like I'm techsavvy
but I'm a little bit Tex savy but I mean
[54:35] this it makes you look like you know
what you're doing and that's what people
[54:39] want to see on on your social media yes
um and then I think we're doing
[54:43] questions at the end oh we'll doing
questions at the end yeah we'll come
[54:45] back to that we had a question slide but
we'll come back to that without
[54:48] have right thank you L appreciate you
very
[54:54] much take advantage of that information
they're giving you they're giving you a
[54:58] great a great tool there and uh and I do
know that uh Marielle does for for our
[55:04] office I know Mandy does as well uh
she's on Cana all the time and and
[55:08] constantly creating stuff and I can just
about throw anything at her and she's
[55:11] she's creating it so uh using that so uh
everybody doing okay do we need to take
[55:16] a a quick five minute break or we we
going to keep rolling everybody good all
[55:21] right just wanted to make that offer
next is uh I I'm excited about this next
[55:26] presenter as well Amy Reid uh is with
the uh is the director of the Galveston
[55:31] County Small Business Development Center
uh Amy actually is in our office here
[55:36] every Tuesday uh every every every
Tuesday uh one time a week she's here
[55:42] she sets up in the front she sets her
appointments uh this is where the rubber
[55:48] meets the road is is the way I can put
it uh the resources that she's going to
[55:52] talk to you about what she has available
is phenomenal and and it's it's it helps
[55:58] going through her and the next program
we're going to hear in just a second
[56:00] about SBA it helps us help you and so uh
I'm excited for you to hear from Amy and
[56:07] hear what she's got to talk about so
[56:12] Amy evening everyone um thank you to the
Texas City Lamar Chamber of Commerce and
[56:17] to the city of Lamar for including me in
this today I'm sorry guess I need to get
[56:21] closer to the microphone I'm used to
standing in front of a podium okay um so
[56:27] as I said I'm the director of the Small
Business Development Center how many of
[56:30] you have heard of the
sbdc oh that's quite a few great so all
[56:34] of you know that all of the services
that we offer are at no cost right so
[56:39] whether you are a startup or you're
trying to grow your business you can
[56:43] work with us once you can work with us a
hundred times and there never cost you a
[56:47] penny so how many of you are
startups how many of you haven't quite
[56:53] started yet
how many of you have been in business
[56:57] for more than two years generally
anything less than two years is
[57:00] considered a startup so more than two
years okay so some of the things that
[57:07] come in when you want to work with us is
strategic planning how do I get from
[57:11] point A to point B and this goes for
whether you're a startup or if you're an
[57:15] existing business sometimes you have to
start small you start out of your house
[57:19] and then you scale up how do you get
there we can sit down with you and help
[57:23] you through that process so that you
have a plan for your business access to
[57:27] Capital you're going to hear from the
SBA here in a little while that's one of
[57:30] the ways that we help connect you with
funding for your business another is
[57:34] being in the community so I regularly am
networking through the Chambers of
[57:39] Commerce and other ways to talk to
lenders to find out what kind of person
[57:44] they want to work with what kind of
loans are they giving where are we on
[57:47] our interest rates those types of things
so when you come to me you say okayy I'm
[57:52] ready to scale up my business but I need
money to do that I can step you through
[57:55] that process better because I have those
connections and I can inform you before
[58:00] you start sales and marketing you just
heard from our Dynamic Doo back there
[58:04] about sales and marketing we also help
with that one of the big things that I'm
[58:08] helping people with right now is AI how
can you use AI to help you with your
[58:12] marketing how many of you when you do
your social media I hope everybody in
[58:16] the room is doing social media for your
business how many of you don't know what
[58:19] to
post how many of you look at it and
[58:22] you're like I know I need to post on
Facebook today but I don't know what I
[58:25] should post
anybody if you're like most people
[58:29] knowing what to post on social media is
one of the hardest things how many of
[58:33] you know that you can use AI to help you
with content for your social media did
[58:38] you know that you can go to chat GPT and
you can put a question in like give me
[58:45] five social media posts that I can use
on Facebook that talk about my Plumbing
[58:50] business make them
content-based
[58:55] and make them fun and within about 30
seconds chat GPT will print out or or
[59:02] not print out but it will put out that
content that you can use and then you
[59:07] can add on to your question and say this
is great can you also give me some
[59:11] hashtags I can use and then within a
couple seconds it spits those out and
[59:15] then you can say oh and by the way which
emojis would be best for these posts and
[59:20] it'll spit that out and you can use that
for all different types of content posts
[59:25] so if you are trying to do engagement
like maybe you're wanting to um talk
[59:31] about DIY in a plumbing business what
are some things that you should do in
[59:35] the summertime for your plumbing what
are some things that you can do to
[59:38] winterize um your plumbing those types
of things and these are things that chat
[59:44] GPT if you give it just a little bit of
the information can give you a lot of
[59:49] content and then you can simply humanize
it a little bit um it's never perfect
[59:54] perfect so you have to take that into
consideration but you can take that
[59:57] content and then you can put that into
your social media and did you know that
[1:00:02] you can schedule your social media post
did you know that you can use meta and
[1:00:07] you can sit down this is what I tell my
clients I tell them give social media
[1:00:13] two to four hours a week sit down on a
Sunday or a Monday or whatever your your
[1:00:18] slow day is where you have a little more
time than other days schedule all of
[1:00:22] your posts in meta and instead of when
you do the post instead of posting right
[1:00:27] then schedule it but you need to know
who your target audience is when are
[1:00:32] they on meta when are they on Facebook
and Instagram um what do they like to
[1:00:37] see uh not everybody if you know if you
post at midnight most people aren't on
[1:00:43] Facebook at that time most people um
depending on who your client base or who
[1:00:47] your Target demographic is of course but
maybe there's someone um in that that AG
[1:00:53] age range
that when they first get to work they
[1:00:56] look at it or first thing in the morning
they look at it so what I tell people is
[1:01:00] try a few different scheduling times and
um try each one for a month like post
[1:01:06] every Monday Wednesday and Saturday at a
specific time see how that works look at
[1:01:11] your insights and if you're not getting
a lot of Engagement but you know you
[1:01:15] have really good content and images with
that content then maybe you should try a
[1:01:20] different time a day or a different day
of the week that type of thing so a lot
[1:01:24] of marketing is trial and error and you
can't say oh I've tried it but you've
[1:01:28] only tried it for like three days you
have to try it for about three months to
[1:01:33] really get some good insights in
addition to that if you do schedule out
[1:01:37] your posts the algorithms that are out
there um they also want you to have
[1:01:41] organic post so if you are at a chamber
event take a selfie and post it and say
[1:01:47] love being out in our community hashtag
Texas City Lamar Chamber of Commerce
[1:01:51] hashtag Community First those types of
of things um because those organic posts
[1:01:57] will also boost your your algorithm and
your Reach For Those social medias so
[1:02:01] those are the types of things that we
can help with in regards to social media
[1:02:05] and then we also help with access to
Capital so if you are at the stage of
[1:02:09] your business where it's time to apply
for a loan we can help you you through
[1:02:13] that process so it it can be very
overwhelming to small business owners
[1:02:17] when they go to a bank and the bank
gives them a lot of paperwork or a
[1:02:20] checklist and they don't understand
everything maybe they're they're the
[1:02:24] best Chef that's out there but they
don't understand all the business side
[1:02:28] yet um so let us help you through that
process and we also know which lenders
[1:02:33] in the area like which types of
Industries what they're looking for as
[1:02:37] far as credit scores collateral um debt
ratios that type of thing because not
[1:02:42] all lenders are the same so you want to
make sure that when you put yourself
[1:02:46] forward into that situation that you're
with you're not only putting your best
[1:02:50] foot forward but you're with the lender
that is going to be maybe the best fit
[1:02:55] for you at that particular time in
addition to this one of the things that
[1:03:00] um we have is market research so if you
have tried to research the competition
[1:03:04] for your business or maybe you want to
know what the industry looks like for
[1:03:08] your business it's really hard to get a
good report on that um on the internet
[1:03:13] without paying a lot of money or without
doing a lot of digging a lot of
[1:03:16] different sites and that sort of thing
so we have access to a lot of different
[1:03:20] databases where we can give you these
reports and again it costs nothing to
[1:03:25] you all of this is provided to you at no
cost so accounting assistance is another
[1:03:31] thing that we offer as far as if you um
are using QuickBooks or maybe you're
[1:03:36] using Wave apps which is a great app
that's out there for small business
[1:03:40] owners who um are on a budget wave apps
is is free unless you have payroll or a
[1:03:46] few other add-ons so you can keep your
books like any other business and have
[1:03:51] financial reporting which is something
we definitely recommend for your
[1:03:55] business and we can help you um set up
your chart of accounts we can help you
[1:03:59] to reconcile how to send invoices um how
to look like a big company on a small
[1:04:04] budget and then when it comes to um take
if you've created a product and you try
[1:04:10] to take that to Market we can help you
through through that process sometimes
[1:04:13] SBI are um some of the government
programs are involved in that one thing
[1:04:20] that's really important is a Financial
Health checkup so for those of you who
[1:04:24] have been in business for a few years
when's the last time you had someone
[1:04:27] look at your books I'm not talking about
you gave your books to your accountant
[1:04:30] for them to prepare your taxes when is
the last time that you had someone
[1:04:34] actually look at your books and look at
your profit margin how much profit are
[1:04:39] you making are you making a profit could
you be making more profit what's your
[1:04:43] overhead look like where's the money
that you're leaving on the table um if
[1:04:48] you're running a restaurant it could be
your waste um it could be that alcohol
[1:04:52] is um walking out the door and you you
don't realize it because you're so busy
[1:04:56] running the business that you're not
looking within the business um it could
[1:05:00] be that you're paying too much for um a
supplier and maybe you haven't shopped
[1:05:07] suppliers in 5 years and they keep
raising their rates and you had no idea
[1:05:10] that there were other suppliers that you
could look at by the way if you are in
[1:05:15] any kind of industry where you use
suppliers you should always have three
[1:05:18] suppliers that you regularly get quotes
from at least annually if not
[1:05:23] semiannually
just keeps um everything in line and
[1:05:27] helps things to um helps you to make
sure that you're staying on top of those
[1:05:32] costs International Trade exporting and
importing is a really um important thing
[1:05:38] to our economy especially the exporting
you know um I bet a lot of y'all didn't
[1:05:43] know that farmers export our excess
vegetables um like our corn and even our
[1:05:49] cotton and those sort of things are
exported to other countries and that
[1:05:51] brings a lot of income into our country
in addition to that you can have
[1:05:57] products that that you export and if you
import that's fine too um exporting is
[1:06:02] just a way for us to bring a lot of
Revenue into our
[1:06:05] country and lastly Apex accelerator is
something I want to touch on so for any
[1:06:10] of you who have ever considered doing
business with the government Apex
[1:06:14] accelerator is a great option for you to
work with so they're just like us as far
[1:06:18] as they don't charge anything a lot of
what they do is is a lot like what we do
[1:06:24] only they take you through that process
um of of working with the government so
[1:06:29] there's certain certifications you may
want or need um to have a leg up in
[1:06:33] Government Contracting you need to have
um registration in Sam and not a lot of
[1:06:38] people know how to do that you need to
know what your next code is and cage
[1:06:41] code is and I'm probably saying things
that are totally foreign to you because
[1:06:46] you haven't been through this process
but just know that if you get to the
[1:06:49] point that you have something you want
to sell to the government and when I say
[1:06:52] the government I'm talking about
Municipal State um uh Federal so it it
[1:06:58] could also be school districts a lot of
those also are looking for people from
[1:07:02] the Sam or they have to do business with
those who are um minority veteran uh um
[1:07:09] service disabled veteran those women
owned those types of businesses they
[1:07:14] they're required to get quotes from
vendors who have that certification so
[1:07:19] Apex accelerator um is located in
Houston and they are a great group to
[1:07:24] work with um just so you know we have 13
centers um anywhere from College Station
[1:07:29] all the way down here to Boliver and
then over to as far as um Lake Jackson
[1:07:35] Fort Bend and then out to
um almost almost to the Louisiana border
[1:07:43] so um not only that the sbdc is
Nationwide so if you start a business
[1:07:48] here and you moved to Utah why would you
want to do that but if you did um if you
[1:07:52] move to somewhere else in the the
country you can just pick up with
[1:07:55] another sbdc and like I said we all
offer our services at no cost we do have
[1:08:00] a lot of online webinars and a lot of
in-person classes that we offer some of
[1:08:05] those inperson classes do have a a small
nominal fee um but we offer all of our
[1:08:11] on demand um through our website is at
no charge to you and you can learn
[1:08:14] anything from marketing tips to
bookkeeping um Human Resources um how to
[1:08:20] do business with the government um how
to export
[1:08:24] commercialization just about anything is
available on our on
[1:08:28] demand and in our mission um like I said
our mission is to help grow the economy
[1:08:34] through small business so one small
business at a time if you hire someone
[1:08:39] and that's one job then you're helping
to grow the economy um if you get a loan
[1:08:46] you're helping to put money into the
economy so that's what we are here to do
[1:08:50] um how do we do this at no cost um we
are federal funded um through the
[1:08:55] support of the small business
administration also known as the SBA
[1:08:58] we're also a resource partner of the SBA
um and then also my particular Center is
[1:09:05] supported through um State funds from
the University of Houston most sdc's are
[1:09:11] connected to um a higher ed and that
moves us into just five quick things
[1:09:16] about business plans so a business plan
how many of you have a business
[1:09:22] plan so every one who is in business or
about to start a business should have a
[1:09:27] business plan because anytime you put
something in writing you're more likely
[1:09:30] to succeed and this is It's a map it's a
map for your business right it it talks
[1:09:36] about your goals it talks about where
you are now it talks about where you
[1:09:39] want to be where where you want to go
who are the people that are going to go
[1:09:42] with you so business plan is extremely
important so if you're get if you're
[1:09:48] having a business plan um because it's
time to apply for a loan you have to
[1:09:52] have a business plan when you apply for
for a business loan so one of the the
[1:09:56] most important parts there um is the
executive summary so the executive
[1:10:00] summary is the hook this is what makes
that lender want to to dig in to your
[1:10:07] business plan to read more does anyone
know how many seconds you have to make
[1:10:11] an impression on
someone three you have three seconds to
[1:10:16] make an impression think about the
executive summary as that 3 seconds to
[1:10:20] hook that lender or an investor to read
more of your business plan also really
[1:10:26] important in the business plan is your
market research so what I was talking
[1:10:30] about early those competitive reports
those industry reports you have to show
[1:10:34] why is this a good time for me to start
this business why am I at good risk and
[1:10:38] then who's your Target demographic so if
I um first time I meet with someone and
[1:10:43] we start talking about their business
one of the things I always ask is you
[1:10:47] know who's your Target customer and does
anybody know what people generally say
[1:10:53] um is their Target
customer they usually say everybody but
[1:10:58] that's not really it you'll sell to
everybody you're you're you'll do
[1:11:03] business with everybody but your target
you have to dig a Little Deeper what do
[1:11:07] they look like what's that Persona are
they a male or they female are they 20
[1:11:12] 30 40 50 do they rent or do they own are
they educated what do they like to do um
[1:11:18] where do they work where do they live do
um there's all these things are they
[1:11:22] married do they have kids right so the
more you know about your target when
[1:11:27] we're talking about marketing and
marketing budgets and that sort of thing
[1:11:30] your marketing budget is only so big so
the more you know about your target the
[1:11:35] farther that marketing budget will reach
so instead of throwing out a net to just
[1:11:40] anybody to buy from you you actually end
up creating a sales funnel so it's
[1:11:45] really important to be able to dig into
that Persona and that is part of your
[1:11:50] business plan as well and then your
management profile is extremely
[1:11:54] important so why you why are you a good
risk or why is your CEO a good risk or
[1:11:58] why is your wife who's going to be doing
the bookkeeping a good risk this is
[1:12:02] where the one time that it's really good
to talk yourself up so you would um you
[1:12:08] would basically just take some things
off your resume and apply it to this
[1:12:12] business so like say you were in sales
forever right retail or something and
[1:12:18] number one thing when you're in retail
sales we all know the number one trait
[1:12:22] and skill that you need for that is
customer service right so how would that
[1:12:26] customer service that you had years
developing and that you perfected
[1:12:31] pertain to say a food truck right we all
have eaten a food truck so we know how
[1:12:37] important customer service is right you
know even if it's going to take a minute
[1:12:40] for my food to come out give me a big
smile you know make me feel good about
[1:12:43] it and that is important so those are
some really important things that go
[1:12:48] into a business plan you have to have a
marketing plan you have to have a
[1:12:52] marketing budget
without those it's just not as effective
[1:12:57] and just some common mistakes um with a
business plan is basically not having
[1:13:01] one if you don't have a written goal for
your business the chance of your
[1:13:04] business being successful goes down
dramatically so just have a plan even if
[1:13:09] it's a onepage business plan called a
lean plan or if you're a visual person
[1:13:13] there's something called business model
canvas so just to recap that you can do
[1:13:18] a lean plan that's one page you can do
business model canvas that is um
[1:13:24] basically two pages in it it visually
has step by steps that are written out
[1:13:28] you can find all this on Google if you
want to look it up or you can become a
[1:13:31] client of sbdc and I can help you
through that or you can do a full-blown
[1:13:35] business plan that's no more than 10
pages so have have that plan it's it's
[1:13:41] uh it's definitely a good tool for your
business and then being unrealistic so
[1:13:46] one thing that's my job is to always
tell the truth so even if it's not
[1:13:51] something you want to hear I try to find
a way way to say it I don't want to
[1:13:54] crush anyone's dreams but if you come to
me and and you tell me um this grand
[1:14:02] grand plan and I just I just can't see
it I'm going to tell you I just can't
[1:14:06] see it and I'm going to tell you why I
can't see it and then maybe you can turn
[1:14:10] me around or I'm going to say okay let's
let's see where we can work with this
[1:14:15] and let's see how this turns out but I'm
not going to tell you to invest a bunch
[1:14:20] of money um into something that I I'm
worried that you're going to lose your
[1:14:25] money that sort of thing so um being
unrealistic in your business plan can
[1:14:29] actually hurt you so I will always tell
you that um poor executive summary if
[1:14:34] you don't have that hook if you don't if
you don't get them to read more that's a
[1:14:38] definitely a mistake having it too long
you don't want to go past 10 pages
[1:14:41] remember that three seconds that we
talked about earlier nobody wants to
[1:14:45] read more than 10 pages the lenders you
need to get to the meet you need to get
[1:14:48] your point across um and and say what
needs to be said and then not talking
[1:14:54] about your team and your role how you
are going to be a part of exra remember
[1:14:57] we have to alleviate that risk in a
business plan and then um not including
[1:15:02] that marketing research so for those of
you um who want a copy of this
[1:15:06] presentation you can scan this QR code
and then also if you'd like to become a
[1:15:11] client of the galeston county sbdc we
have a QR code for that we also have a
[1:15:17] QR codes for our region um for our
workshops and those types of things
[1:15:23] things um and just as a reminder I
office at the marmo in Galveston on
[1:15:28] Mondays the Texas City Lamar chamber on
Tuesdays and in League City um the rest
[1:15:34] of the week we are by appointment only
so if you would um like to meet with me
[1:15:39] you just have to become a client and
then schedule a time thank you so
[1:15:44] much uh I've had the opportunity to work
with s spdc i told yall about my medical
[1:15:48] equipment business that I started years
ago one of the first conversations I had
[1:15:52] was with at BDC counselor and and and it
it saved me a lot of time a lot of
[1:15:57] headache a lot of money it saved me a
lot of waste of money what I love about
[1:16:02] Amy is she said it she's going to be
truthful with you sometimes you may not
[1:16:07] really like what she says when she says
it but after you go home and you think
[1:16:11] about it you're going to be wow I'm
really glad she told me that so uh great
[1:16:16] resource take advantage of of of Amy and
now we're going to uh before we get to
[1:16:22] the Q&A we got a another really good
presentation and and someone that knows
[1:16:26] a lot about business uh it's Mark
Winchester who is the Deputy uh District
[1:16:30] director for the Houston district office
of the US small business administration
[1:16:35] everybody knows it as SBA mark thank
[1:16:40] [Applause]
you thank
[1:16:52] you
[1:16:55] [Music]
you know before I get started here just
[1:17:00] want to um well I want to thank uh Mr
Tim cul thank you for inviting SBA and
[1:17:08] also um Alex Mr Alex Getty thank you so
much Alex and uh I also have to thank
[1:17:14] Amy Reid where are you
Amy back there with the uh the phone so
[1:17:20] Amy thank you so much for invi in me my
name is Mark Winchester I'm the deputy
[1:17:25] director of the United States small
business
[1:17:29] administration and uh just a little bit
about me I have uh 20 years of federal
[1:17:35] service 20 years of Economic Development
um I am a Gulf War veteran I really
[1:17:42] appreciated uh the flag up here and then
also uh this frame with the flag of the
[1:17:47] United States so do we have any other
veterans uh besides myself uh um thank
[1:17:54] you so much really appreciate your
service and uh uh I'd be remissed if I
[1:17:58] didn't also recognize the mayor uh Bell
thank you for being here uh tonight um
[1:18:05] so I'm here to talk about SBA and uh uh
next slide
[1:18:10] please yeah if you could control yeah
that that that would be great and you
[1:18:15] know what you know before I get started
before I get started I just want to uh
[1:18:20] share one thing well actually maybe two
things but
[1:18:23] um I wanted to comment on uh Mandy and
Marielle Mandy and Marielle talked about
[1:18:30] social media I want you to write this
down there's um and and they're so right
[1:18:36] there is a gentleman his name is uh Shan
Warner so what it was was uh there was
[1:18:43] this uh this writer he wrote his first
book ever and it was in Arlington did
[1:18:50] anybody else hear that story besides me
okay so anyways this fictional writer
[1:18:57] wrote a book he was in a book story he
he had all these books behind him and
[1:19:03] there was no one there was no one there
at the book signing and so there there's
[1:19:08] gentleman his con there was a gentleman
content creator his name was red and uh
[1:19:15] he felt so bad for Mr Shawn Warner that
he put the story of Shawn Warner on Tik
[1:19:21] Tok and overnight he became an Amazon
writer sensation and over 17 million
[1:19:29] people have viewed his story so this
gentleman was in a store there was
[1:19:33] clothing behind him he had a stack of
books no one was in line and uh this red
[1:19:39] felt so much compassion for this
gentleman that he posted a video it went
[1:19:45] viral on Tik Tok 7 17 million views and
uh became an Amazon Rider sensation so I
[1:19:52] really just appreciated what Mandy and
Marielle talked about social media and
[1:19:59] what the impact it is so now I'll I'll
go to SBA but I just had to tell that
[1:20:03] story because it can make a difference
uh for your business so SBA SBA is a
[1:20:11] federal agency and it was created in
1953 sba's mission is to make the
[1:20:17] American dream of business o ownership a
reality and they do that by helping
[1:20:22] small businesses start grow expand and
recover next slide
[1:20:28] please so want to let you know there are
68 district offices across the country
[1:20:33] there are six district offices in Texas
you have the Houston district office and
[1:20:38] we cover 32 counties next slide
please you know uh to to utilize SBA
[1:20:46] Services you need to be a small business
99% of all businesses are small and
[1:20:53] there's really two measurements to
determine whether a small business is
[1:20:57] small either you have 1500 employees or
47 million in sales and as long as
[1:21:03] you're below that number you're
considered small now I I I liked I liked
[1:21:08] Amy uh she she took several polls there
she talked about business plans let me
[1:21:14] ask you how many of you know your NES
code raise your hand if you know your
[1:21:19] nakes code we have one in individual so
uh you need to get with Amy to get to
[1:21:26] know your next code for your businesses
number one to make sure you're small and
[1:21:31] number two you need to utilize that next
code to Benchmark who can tell me what
[1:21:36] Benchmark
means
[1:21:40] anyone so Benchmark is comparing
yourself to the rest of the industry how
[1:21:45] can you measure how you're Pro
progressing if you don't know where you
[1:21:49] are or where you need to go so you need
to know your ni code so you can know
[1:21:54] where you stand compared to similar
businesses in your industry naics it's a
[1:22:00] six-digit code and Amy can assist with
that next slide
[1:22:04] please so now you know everything about
SBA there are four components counseling
[1:22:11] Capital Contracting and Crisis crisis
and I'm going to briefly cover each next
[1:22:16] slide please so Amy did an outstanding
job the bottom line here is you you
[1:22:22] don't have to go It Alone there were
several of you that raised your hand
[1:22:26] that you're a starting business you're a
nent business you're thinking about
[1:22:30] starting a business you don't have to go
It Alone there are over 1,400 Partners
[1:22:37] Nationwide right here in Houston there
are over 200
[1:22:41] advisors 200 advisors that can work with
you on your business either mentoring
[1:22:46] your business or provide business
counseling and if you want to know where
[1:22:51] those 200 advisers are are just visit
sba.gov
[1:22:55] looc assistance next slide
please score I just want to Bri briefly
[1:23:01] talk about score how many of you there
there was like three or four of you that
[1:23:06] are business owners those of you who are
business owners how many have a mentor
[1:23:11] raise your hand if you have a mentor oh
that's
[1:23:14] outstanding that is outstanding so what
it is is whether you're startup business
[1:23:20] or an existing business you need to have
have a mentor in the first place to look
[1:23:24] I would say is your family and friends
those in the in your industry but you if
[1:23:30] you don't have a family or friend or
those in the industry that can mentor
[1:23:34] you the score is a great place uh great
resource for mentors they here in
[1:23:40] Houston they have a uh I need to be
precise here they have 160 mentors uh
[1:23:45] they have 130 advisers they have
expertise in 63 Industries and as Amy
[1:23:52] shared it's at no cost and it's
confidential and it's like having an
[1:23:57] exop ficial board exofficio is just a
fancy term is it's they're they're
[1:24:03] volunteers and they and they can advise
you it's like having your own board you
[1:24:08] need to have a mentor I thought uh Amy
did an outstanding job on sbdc just
[1:24:15] outstanding everything she talked about
from strategic planning to business
[1:24:20] planning to financial ratios I'd like to
who I'd like to ask how many of you had
[1:24:25] a financial tuneup raise your hand if
you've had you you get your card tuned
[1:24:30] up have you ever had a financial tuneup
raise your hand there's one one you need
[1:24:36] to get connected with Amy and do a
financial tune tuneup you uh Amy will
[1:24:43] look at your financial statements your
income uh sheet your balance sheet your
[1:24:48] cash flow sheet she will look at your
next code she will look at your
[1:24:52] financial ratios you need a financial
tuneup um another thing that I like
[1:24:59] about the spdc is the vast array of
information you can get from the spdc on
[1:25:06] Market Research they have a clearing
house sptc.net sptc.net you can get
[1:25:12] customized uh business plans you can get
demographic information you can get just
[1:25:18] a SWAT analysis who can tell me what SW
SWAT stands for
[1:25:24] anyone yeah the gentleman with a a
jacket and tie like myself your first
[1:25:29] name Caesar strengths weaknesses
opportunities and threats yes you need
[1:25:35] to know your strengths weaknesses
opportunities and threat and uh Amy and
[1:25:40] the spdc N you can get customized market
research including SWAT analysis uh
[1:25:47] women business centers ladies there are
there are 137 women business centers
[1:25:53] across the country and Houston has two
the wbea Women's Business Center and the
[1:25:58] Greater Houston Women's Chamber Women's
Business Center and obviously ladies for
[1:26:04] the WBC they primarily Council ladies
and uh the wbea 750 women-owned
[1:26:11] businesses who do business with
corporations the uh women the Greater
[1:26:15] Houston Women's Chamber they have an an
event monthly called Golden seeds if you
[1:26:20] want Equity investment into your
business the Greater Houston Women's
[1:26:25] Chamber Women's Business Center that you
it's ladies investing in women own
[1:26:30] businesses so ladies investing in ladies
and that's with the Women's Business
[1:26:34] Center next slide
please thank you Marielle so much the
[1:26:39] impact right here in Houston Amy Reid
and the sbdc score and Women's Business
[1:26:44] Center 29,000 assisted there's no reason
no reason that one of you should not be
[1:26:51] leveraging the S SP PDC and the
resources and that lady right back there
[1:26:55] Amy Reid next slide
please and if you can't tell I get a
[1:27:00] little excited about this cap capital
capital um I there's a saying that score
[1:27:07] shares we are with you for the life of
your business well with SBA we are with
[1:27:12] you regarding capital for the life of
your business uh I was just at a I was
[1:27:17] sharing with Amy I was at a micr loan
fair and so these were micr lenders who
[1:27:24] offer um Tim uh they offer from $100 to
$500 ,000
[1:27:31] $10,000
$115,000 um all the way up to $50,000 I
[1:27:37] bet you didn't know that the buay you
micr fund offers micro loans at 0%
[1:27:44] interest did you know that zero who who
in the world offers a 0% interest rate
[1:27:49] the Bayou micr fund has $50,000
to lend in micr lending for small
[1:27:54] businesses at a 0% interest rate so my
point is no matter where you are whether
[1:28:01] you're a
microenterprise whether you're uh like
[1:28:04] Mandy uh with the uh clothing store or
no matter where you are there's capital
[1:28:11] for you from $100 we go all the way up
to
[1:28:14] 13,750 th000 Alex was talking about
properties on Loop net and identifying
[1:28:21] uh uh acquir ing property well we have
Capital to assist Alex clients to either
[1:28:27] retain or uh grow or yeah so we can help
you next slide
[1:28:34] please um I I like I I want you to write
this down sba's Main program is the 7A
[1:28:41] program I got put this bottle down or
I'm going
[1:28:46] to spill
it SBA sba's main program is the 7A
[1:28:52] program and the 7A program I call it the
Swiss Army knce because you can use it
[1:28:58] to start lease hold improvements working
capital purchase and renovate your
[1:29:03] facility uh Alex was talking about
renovation uh sheetrock lighting we we
[1:29:10] have funds for that inventory land and
building and even exporting did you know
[1:29:16] did you know that 96% of the purchase
power is outside of the United States do
[1:29:21] you know that you have opportunity not
only here but abroad and we can help you
[1:29:26] with that next slide
please the right here uh FY
[1:29:32] 2022 uh we had I think it was around
there it is 1.1 billion and and this
[1:29:39] year $1.2 billion $1.2 billion and a lot
of that is due to folks like Amy Reid
[1:29:46] who work with you that work with you a
business plan do you have I call it the
[1:29:51] go or noo is your business viable is it
going to be sustainable and if it is how
[1:29:57] can you grow that business and if you're
going to grow it you're going to need
[1:30:01] capital and am is the person to see next
slide
[1:30:06] please Federal Contracting the federal
government spends 700 not
[1:30:12] million I got to get this right $700
billion of federal government um federal
[1:30:19] agencies are required by law to provide
contract opportunities for small
[1:30:24] business if you want to learn more about
Contracting go to sba.gov
[1:30:29] uh Contracting next slide
please so SBA we have programs including
[1:30:36] 8A hubzone women owned and uh veteran
the veterans in the room we have a
[1:30:42] certification just for veteran owned
small businesses uh to to do business
[1:30:48] with the federal government and I want
you to write these down there uh I call
[1:30:52] it the 8020 rule the uh it's the 20%
that are really taking the notes here
[1:30:57] and those of you who are the 20 that uh
that are initiative they're showing
[1:31:02] initiative and taking notes you're going
to write down their their are soul
[1:31:07] source and set asides Soul source and
set asides Soul source is
[1:31:12] non-competitive contracts SBA has
non-competitive contracts right here in
[1:31:18] Houston uh Tim 66 million dollars in
Soul Source contracts it' be Tim let's
[1:31:25] say you're a business owner you're an
adaa firm and let's say I don't know uh
[1:31:30] USDA USDA Tim will call SBA and say um
Mark we know that Tim is an ADA firm and
[1:31:38] we know that Tim uh has uh Logistics he
provides Logistics we need help with
[1:31:44] Logistics we want to do business with
Tim and it's nobody else it's sole
[1:31:50] source and then I contact Tim Tim USDA
just contacted us you're an adaa firm
[1:31:55] they'd like to do business with you do
you think you have the resources to do
[1:31:58] this project if so you'll get awarded
that Soul Source contracts and that's
[1:32:03] what SBA has Soul Source contracts we
also have stide contracts ladies
[1:32:09] women-owned businesses I like to get
this straight over $200 million in
[1:32:15] contracts to women owned small
businesses and there are opportunities
[1:32:18] for soul source and set aside contracts
okay
[1:32:23] slide and Amy already talked about it
the sbdc is the host for the Apex
[1:32:29] accelerator I call it the three Rs
research register respond research
[1:32:35] register and respond and the Apex can
help you whether it's federal state
[1:32:41] local or corporate um uh Contracting the
Apex can help you next slide please yeah
[1:32:48] these are the numbers right here you
well I can see get from up here but 200
[1:32:53] million for women own uh you for those
of you that are in business you may be
[1:32:58] sitting in a hub zone right now and
there are opportunities for set aside
[1:33:03] contracts as a hub Zone firm uh sdb
small disadvantaged business nearly 400
[1:33:09] million and for the veterans uh veteran
and vet and service disabled veteran 200
[1:33:14] million in contracts next slide
please thank you so we're on the final C
[1:33:20] here we I we've talked about uh Capital
uh Contracting uh counseling and the
[1:33:26] fourth one is Crisis and Amy did a good
job the bottom line here Tim every time
[1:33:32] I speak I share this is an important
statistic 40% 40% of all businesses that
[1:33:39] close after a disaster never reopen you
do not want to be one of the four out of
[1:33:45] 10 that do not reopen and so you need we
talked about a business plan you need to
[1:33:51] have a coup plan and Amy can help you
with that continuity of operations plan
[1:33:55] and if you want more information you can
go to sba.gov SL prepare next slide
[1:34:02] please but if you don't prepare if you
don't prepare if you don't have a coupe
[1:34:07] Coupe plan we do have disaster loans we
have a personal property Tim just went
[1:34:13] up to 100,000 previously we had a a
disaster loan for personal property for
[1:34:19] 40,000 it's now up to 100,000 uh if you
own your own home if you own your own
[1:34:25] home um SBA has a disas these aren't
grants I need to clarify these are not
[1:34:31] grants these are loans we have up to a
half a million now it used to be 200,000
[1:34:37] Alex but it's now 500,000 for homeowners
for the residents in a disaster loan and
[1:34:43] business owners we do have up to $2
million in in loan assistance either
[1:34:50] property damage or working capital next
slide please you know uh U Amy I was
[1:34:57] reviewing this reviewing my slides um
before coming up here um Texas City
[1:35:03] Lamar Chamber of Commerce you you could
be in National Small Business Week every
[1:35:10] year since 1963 SBA has celebrated small
business success mayor Bell talked about
[1:35:17] the importance and significance of small
business and we celebrate that every
[1:35:22] year first week in May and um we would
like for Texas City Lamar nominate some
[1:35:29] businesses for national uh Small
Business Week in May and so we're right
[1:35:34] now Alex and Tim we're accepting
nominations for small business person of
[1:35:39] the year small business exporter
minority owned business veteran owned
[1:35:43] business women owned business rule small
business Innovation and uh Alex and Tim
[1:35:50] we also have small small business
Community partner of the year or small
[1:35:54] business um Marielle and uh Mandy we
also have small Business Media advocate
[1:36:01] of the year as well and um uh Texas City
Lamar chamber we every week we're giving
[1:36:08] a presentation on how you can nominate
your business to celebrate the national
[1:36:14] celebration for small businesses next
slide please this is our contact
[1:36:20] information every resource that we
talked talked about uh it's right there
[1:36:25] one more slide uh uh like like Amy we've
gone to these QRC codes and you can uh
[1:36:33] just use your smartphone and get the
information and uh this concludes my uh
[1:36:38] slides and presentation thank you very
[1:36:43] [Applause]
much well thank you Mark that was uh
[1:36:49] that was exciting I thought I had a lot
of energy and typically I'm told that
[1:36:52] I'm the one Mark just Trump me that's
that's impressive so uh uh well we are
[1:36:58] kind of in that Q&A point and we're
actually right on time uh uh clockwise
[1:37:01] looking at the clock so we're doing well
there uh I just want to start off and
[1:37:05] say this I mentioned earlier uh when I
started my conversation the fact that I
[1:37:10] uh was in business myself I was much
like each and every one of you in this
[1:37:13] room what I can tell you is
is I took advantage at that point in
[1:37:20] time at some point in time with my small
business I took advantage of a lot of
[1:37:24] the programs that have been talked about
tonight the 7A program that Mark
[1:37:29] mentioned earlier visiting with my sbdc
advisor uh I was one of the first 7A
[1:37:36] programs that ever took place in Houston
County uh back where I used to live took
[1:37:40] advantage of that it was a great
resource for me to be able to have
[1:37:45] access to those funds at a low interest
rate uh to be able to sit down again
[1:37:50] with my PDC advisor and go over that
business plan um it sounds harsh
[1:37:57] sometimes when we say that but you we
want you to understand the importance of
[1:38:01] having that information that's what's
going to make you successful and then
[1:38:06] you're just able to move up the chain
you you you're able to sit down with
[1:38:10] with Alex and you're able to sit down
with his group and visit about you know
[1:38:14] the potential of growing your business
within Lamar then you're able to come
[1:38:17] and visit with the chamber and
participate with us and let us help you
[1:38:20] make those connections to the people
that you need we've just again we've
[1:38:25] been at that 30,000 ft view right now
there's a lot of detail of getting into
[1:38:30] the weeds that we want to help you do I
just want to say again before we get the
[1:38:35] Q&A thank you again mayor Bell for this
initiative and your desire to have this
[1:38:39] and put this together and making sure
that we all as a group came together and
[1:38:43] formed this uh we hope that it's been
beneficial to
[1:38:50] you